AP U S History Document Based Question
The years after the American Civil War have been characterized by Mark
Twain and others as “The Gilded Age.” Generally, historians have emphasized the
decline of human values, the low state of public morality, greed, corruption and
crass materialism. Do you feel this characterization presents an accurate overall
picture of the years 1865-1890? If so, what caused this marked departure from the
past in a nation with such strong religious and moral cultural traditions? Use the
documents and your knowledge of U S History to answer the question.
Document A
“Our agricultural products have been abundant for the last few years. The crops
of cotton, four-fifths of which have been raised by the colored people since the close of
the Rebellion, have been increasing annually in quantity, till that of 1880 was the largest
ever made. Our exports to Europe have taken an annually wide range. . . . . So great have
these exports been for the last few years that the balance of trade has been in our favor on
an average of 150,000,000 dollars a year. For many years the value of our exports has
been many millions in excess of our imports.” Harper’s Weekly, 1881.
Document B
“As an evidence of the increasing interest in material progress in the southern
section of the country, may be cited two Expositions: one held in Atlanta, Georgia, in
which were exhibited remarkably fine specimens of productions of that section,
agricultural and otherwise. The Exposition partook almost of a national character, as so
many of the products of mechanical industries were sent from the manufacturing centers
of the northern section to be placed on exhibition. The other and similar Exposition was
held in New Orleans in the winter (1884-85); the latter in its design was more
comprehensive than the former. One object was to demonstrate the importance to the
foreign trade of the Great Valley, in having a port so accessible as that of New Orleans;
another to encourage the development of the peculiar agricultural resources around the
Gulf, and also to stimulate the enterprise of our neighbors, the inhabitants of the sister
republics south of the Rio Grande.” The American Pageant.
Document C
“Congress. . . . .passed a revised tariff to take effect on July 1, 1883. The main
features may be summed up: in respect to imported articles of luxury and of great value
the tariff was not diminished, but sometimes increased; on many articles of general use it
was reduced. . . . The prosperity of the country had been so great that the people were
able to purchase more than usual of high-priced foreign articles, while their industrial
energy produced more than usual of home manufactures, the lower tariff on the cheaper
grades not having been changed enough to make any difference either in volume of
importations or in home prices; in consequence, the revenue from both sources was
diminished only forty-two million instead of the seventy anticipated.” Harper’s Weekly,
1885.
Document D
". . . . . A due regard for the interests and prosperity of all the people demands that
. . . our system of revenue shall be so adjusted as to relieve she people of unnecessary
taxation, . . . . .and preventing the accumulation of a surplus in the Treasury to tempt
extravagance and waste. . . . The people demand reform in the administration of the
Government, and the application of business principles to public affairs. As a means to
this end Civil Service reform should be in good faith enforced. . . . In the administration
of a government pledged to do equal and exact justice to all men, there should be no
pretext for anxiety touching the protection of the freedmen in their rights or their security
in the enjoyment of their privileges under the Constitution and its Amendments. . . . The
fact that they are citizens entitles them to all the rights due to that relation, and charges
them with all its duties, obligations and responsibilities." President Grover Cleveland in
his Inaugural Address [that of the first Democratic President since 1860] 1885.
Document E
President Chester Arthur issued these rules [1881]: "First: No person in civil
service shall use his office, his official authority or influence, either to coerce the political
action of any person or body to interfere with any election. Second: No person in the
public service shall for that reason be under any obligation to contribute to any political
fund or render any political service, and he will not be removed or otherwise prejudiced
for refusing to do so."
Document F
“. . . . .Many of the calamitous efforts of the tremendous revolution which has
passed over the southern States still remain. The immeasurable benefits which will surely
follow, sooner or later, the hearty and generous acceptance of the legitimate results of
that revolution have not yet been realized. . . . . The people of those States are still
impoverished, and the inestimable blessing of wise, honest, and peaceful local selfgovernment is not fully enjoyed. But it must not be forgotten that only a local
government which recognizes and maintains inviolate the rights of all is a true selfgovernment. . . . .With respect to the two distinct races whose peculiar relations to each
other have brought upon us the deplorable complications and perplexities which exist in
those States, it must be a government which guards the interests of both races carefully
and equally. . . . .” Rutherford B. Hayes, Inaugural Address, March 5, 1877.
Document G
“Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the
foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in
all the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given
new hope to their descendants. . . . . The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel
in our history. Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done all.
The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie payments, so
successfully attained by the Administration of my predecessors, have enabled our people
to secure the blessings which the seasons brought.” James A. Garfield, Inaugural
Address, March 4, 1881.
Document H
“It is very gratifying to observe the general interest now being manifested in the
reform of our election laws. Those who have been for years calling attention to the
pressing necessity of throwing about the ballot box and about the elector further
safeguards, in order that our elections might not only be free and pure, but might clearly
appear to be so, will welcome the accession of any who did not so soon discover the need
of reform. The National Congress has not as yet taken control of elections in that case
over which the Constitution gives it jurisdiction, but has accepted and adopted the
election laws of the several States, provided penalties for their violation and a method of
supervision. . . . . Our pension laws should give more adequate and discriminating relief
to the Union soldiers and sailors and to their widows and orphans. Such occasions as this
should remind us that we owe everything to their valor and sacrifice.” Benjamin
Harrison, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1889.
Document I
“At length it was brought to the surface. All who were allowed to approach
crowded forward to see it. It was only when the cable was brought over the bow and on
to the deck that men dared to breathe. Even then they hardly believed their eyes. Some
crept toward it to feel of it, to be sure it was there. Then we carried it along to the
electricians' room, to see if our long-sought-for treasure was alive or dead. Yet in the very
height and fury of the gale, as I sat in the electricians' room, a flash of light came up from
the deep, which, having crossed to Ireland, came back to me in mid-ocean, telling that
those so dear to me, whom I had left on the bank of the Hudson, were well and following
us with their wishes and their prayers. This was like a whisper of God from the sea,
bidding me keep heart and hope. The Great Eastern bore herself proudly through the
storm, as if she knew that the vital cord, which was to join two hemispheres, hung at her
stern; and so, on Saturday, September 7th, we brought our second cable safely to the
shore.” Cyrus W. Field, First Successful Atlantic Cable, Pg.30
Document J
"The multitudinous officials of the city were the Tweed Ring's slaves. At one time
eight hundred policemen stood guard to prevent a hostile majority in Tammany Hall itself
from meeting. The thugs of the city, nicknamed "Tweed's lambs," rendered invaluable
services at caucus and convention. Two days before election these venal cohorts would
assemble in the 340 election districts, each man of them being listed and registered under
several assumed names and addresses. From Tweed's house in 1868 six registered, from
Justice Shandley's nine, from the Coroner's thirteen. A State Senator's house was put
down as the home of thirty voters. One Alderman's residence nominally housed twenty,
another's twenty-five, an Assemblyman's fifteen. And so it went. Bales of fictitious
naturalization papers were secured. One year 105,000 blank applications and 69,000
certificates were ordered printed. The new citizens "put in" election day following their
leaders from polling-place to polling-place as needed. . . .”
Document K
“The panic of 1873, so far as it resulted from contraction, had its main origin
abroad, not in America, so that its subordinate causes were generally looked upon as its
sole occasion; yet these bye causes were important. The shocking destruction of wealth
by fires and by reckless speculation, of course, had a baneful effect. During 1872 the
balance of trade was strongly against the United States. The circulation of depreciated
paper money had brought to many an apparent prosperity which was not real, leading to
the free creation of debts by individuals, corporations, towns, cities and States. An
unprecedented mileage of railways had been constructed. Thus the entire business of the
country was on a basis of inflation, and when contraction came disaster was inevitable. . .
. . In September panic came, with suspension of several large banking houses in New
York. Jay Cooke & CO., who had invested heavily in the construction of the Northern
Pacific Railway, suspended on September 18th.” E. Benjamin Andrews, Panic Of 1873,
Pg.160.
Document L
“I am to speak to you of the birth and babyhood of the telephone, and something
of the events which preceded that important occasion. . . . . I realize now what a lucky
boy I was, when at 13 years of age I had to leave school and go to work for my living,
although I didn't think so at that time. . . . . for after trying several vocations -- clerking,
bookkeeping, carpentering, etc. -- and finding them all unattractive, I had at last found
just the job that suited me in the electrical workshop of Charles Williams. Better luck
couldn't befall a boy than to be brought so early in life under the influence of such a highminded gentleman as Charles Williams. . . . .This was the year of the Centennial
Exposition at Philadelphia, and Bell decided to make an exhibit there, and one of the jobs
I did for Bell was to construct a telephone of each form that had been devised up to that
time. . . . .” Thomas A. Watson, Coming Of The Telephone, Pg.207.
Document M
“This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: first, to set an example of
modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately
for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all
surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to
administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in
his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community-the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren,
bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing
for them better than they would or could do for themselves. . . .” Andrew Carnegie,
Gospel of Wealth.
Document N
“The storm centers of labor agitation were in St. Louis and Chicago. In St. Louis a
demand was made by the employees of the Texas Pacific Railway for the reinstatement
of a foreman who had been discharged. The receiver refused the demand, and a strike
took place which very soon extended to the Missouri Pacific, and, in fact, to all the roads
constituting the Gould system. Traffic throughout the whole Southwest was practically
suspended, and before long the strike took on the form of riot and incendiarism. United
States troops were sent to maintain order, but their numbers were insufficient, and the
rioters cared nothing for the special deputies who had been sworn in to keep the peace. A
squad of these deputies fired upon a crowd, killing or wounding a number of persons
(April 7th). This act inflamed the mob, which armed itself, and for a time was master of
the city. The torch was applied to railroad property, factories were closed, and great
losses were inflicted, not only upon the railways, but upon the entire population. . . . .
Nearly fifty policemen were thrown to the ground, and seven of them were so badly
wounded that they died soon after. Of the anarchists arrested for this outrage, seven were
sentenced to death by Judge Gary. Of these seven, four had their sentences commuted to
imprisonment for life. Harry Thurston Peck, Chicago Haymarket Riot, Pg.276.
Document O
“We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and
material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and
touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States
have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal
intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public
opinion silenced, business prostrated, our homes covered with mortgages, labor
impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists. The urban
workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported pauperized
labor beats down their wages; a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is
established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European
conditions.. . . . From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two
great classes, tramps and millionaires. . . . .” The People's Party Platform, 1892.
Document P
“We are breaking up old traditions. We are breaking up hereditary rights, and
planting everywhere the seed of universal rights. We are breaking up the idea that money
makes the man and not moral worth. We are breaking up the idea that might makes right.
We are breaking up the idea that legislation is alone for the rich. We are breaking up the
idea that the Congress of the United States must be run by millionaires for the benefit of
millionaires. We are breaking up the idea that a few men may hold millions of acres of
untilled land while other men starve for the want of one acre. We are breaking up the
practice of importing [European] ignorance, bred of monarchies and dynamite, in order to
depreciate intelligent, skilled labor at home. We are breaking up the practice of
employing little children in factories, thus breeding a race of deformed, ignorant, and
profligate. We are breaking up the idea that a man who works with his hands has need
neither of education nor of civilized refinements. We are breaking up the idea that the
accident of sex puts one-half of the human race beyond the pale of constitutional rights.
We are breaking up the practice of paying woman one-third the wages paid man simply
because she is a woman. We are breaking up ignorance and intemperance, crime and
oppression, of whatever character and wherever found. Journal of United Labor, July 16,
1887: 318.
Document P
The Gospel according to Carnegie
Document Q
Immigration to the United States
Bureau of Census
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
248,120
318,568
315,722
138,640
352,768
387,203
321,500
404,806
459,803
313,339
227,498
169,966
141,857
138,469
177,826
457,257
669,431
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
788,992
603,322
518,592
395,346
334,203
490,109
546,889
444,427
455,302
560,319
579,663
439,730
285,631
258,536
343,267
230,832
229,299