 Issues
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of the late 1800s/early 1900s
Expansion of large corporations
Settlement of the trans-Mississippi West
Surge in urban growth
The political strain from all three
What would be the governments proper
role?
How do we assimilate all the immigrants?
What about access to new markets?
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From 1877 to 1884 political struggles were
intense: Pres. Elections were close; House
changed five times; seven new states
admitted
Democrats control the South
Republicans consolidate their coalition in
1896
Elections during this time had high voter
turnout (80%)
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Navigating unsure economic times
Influx of immigrants
Growth of cities
However, DC ignored most problems
generated by industrialization
Contested political visions
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Republicans became the party supporting
expansion of the railroad, tariff protection, land
subsidies for farmers, preserver of the family
Democrats viewed emancipation as a threat
to patriarchy
Neither party thought the govt. should regulate
corporations or protect the social welfare of
workers
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Laissez-faire was the rule
People looked more towards local authorities
Women were pulled into politics because both
parties linked economic prosperity to family
values
Patterns of Party Strength
 Republicans
and Democrats then are not the
same as today
 In the late 1800s
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Republicans ruled rural and small town New
England, PA, and upper Midwest; they ran
military leaders and “waved the bloody shirt”
Democrats ruled the South and northern cities;
southerners campaigned for minimal govt.,
opposed tariff increases, and attacked govt.
interference in the economy
Especially in the North they opposed
prohibition and English language requirements
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The role of governmental authority shaped the
general political debate, but family tradition,
ethnic ties, religious affiliation, and local issues
determined an individual’s vote
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Catholics (esp. Irish) and Germans voted Dem.
Old-stock northerners (75% of Methodists and
Congregationalists; 65% of Baptists; 60% of
Presbyterians) voted Rep.
British-born Protestants and 80% of Swedish and
Norwegian Lutherans voted Rep.
African Am. Voted Rep.
Social issues were key: prohibition, prostitution,
gambling, Sabbath observance
Regulating Money Supply
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How to create a money supply adequate for a
growing economy without producing inflation
Americans revered gold and silver
Bankers, creditors, business leaders, politicians,
economists favored sound money
Southerners and westerners favored expanded
money
The first question was Greenbacks
Greenback Party forms in 1877 and wins
congressional seats
The next question was silver
 Sherman
Silver Purchase Act of 1890:
the Treasury was to purchase 4.5
million ounces of silver monthly
The Spoils System
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The push for civil service reform
Hayes launches an investigation of New York
City customs offices: Future president Arthur is
one of the spoils issuers
Garfield wins the election of 1880
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Garfield is assassinated by a begrudged civil
service workers that expected patronage
Arthur, the poster child for corruption, takes over
For the fallen president, the Pendleton Civil
Service Act is passed
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Competitive exams; standards of merit; political
candidates can’t solicit from government
workers (initially only 12%)
1884: Cleveland Victories
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Republicans nominate a young James
Blaine
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Democrats nominate Grover Cleveland
(many Republicans bolted to him –
Mugwumps)
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Supposed to be different from Grantism
However had fathered an illegitimate child;
“Ma, Ma, where’s my pa?”
Cleveland was also opposed by Tammany
Hall
Democrats were denounced as the party
of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion”
Tariffs and Pensions
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Tariff issue
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Which products, commodities, or raw materials?
the high tariffs of the 1880s had created a budget
surplus; was this bad?
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Cleveland found it a corrupting influence because
of pork-barrel projects (a paternalistic govt.)
Pension issue
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Cleveland also took on the GAR (Grand Army of
the Republic) over costly pensions
He vetoed a bill which would have pensioned all
disabled veterans
1888: Big Business and the GAR
strike back
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Nominating Benjamin Harrison (weak)
Hit the tariff issue, focusing on the
importance of having a high protective
tariff
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Ensured prosperity,
Provided decent wages, and a
Healthy home market for farmers
They got around the Pendleton Civil
Service Act and received money from
corporations ($4 million)
Cleveland won the popular; Harrison won
the College
 Pension
rolls ballooned from 676,000
to about 1,000,000 (America’s first
public welfare program)
 1890 the Rep. passed the McKinley
Tariff
The Grange
 Abundant
harvests undercut prices
 Beginning in 1867 farmers begin to form
cooperatives
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Oliver Kelley and the Grange (Patrons of
Husbandry)
 Offered
information, emotional support, and
fellowship
 By
less and produce more
 Set up cash-only cooperatives
 The
also attacked the railroads, who always
charged less for large producers and bribed
legislators
 The lobbied state legislatures
 Munn v. Illinois (1877) – court upheld the law
to set a maximum rate, however. . .
 Wabash v. Illinois (1886) – court held that
states can’t regulate interstate railroad rates
 Congress passes the Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887 – federal authority; est. the ICC
(all it did was est. the feds role)
 The
railroads may have lost at the
national level, but the won at the state’s
by lobbying state govts.
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Most state repealed regulation laws by
1878
 The
Grange ultimately collapses under
the weight of the “necessity” –
borrowing money
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After the crop was grown all else was out
of the farmers control: Farmers were at
the mercy of local merchants and farm
equipment dealers, railroads form
transportation
Alliance Movement
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Centered in the South and West (Grange was
the Plains)
Begin in Texas in the 1870s but became the
National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union
(or Southern Alliance); a parallel black org., the
National Colored Farmers’ Alliance emerge in
Arkansas
Same ideas as the Grange
3 million in the Southern; 1.2 million in the NCFA
These farmers were the most geographically
isolated, poorest, and relied on one crop
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The Alliance was to give them knowledge and
opportunity
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eventually spread to the Plains, but
weather destroyed hopes in the mid-to-late
1880s
 “In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted”
 The Southern Alliance led by Tom Watson
and Leonidas Polk urged blacks and whites
to work together
 Women also joined the struggle
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Mary E Lease: “raise less corn and more hell”
The National Women’s Alliance in 1891
 Unified
political action in 1890 with a
litmus test for politicians
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Tariff reduction
Graduated income tax
Public ownership of the railroads
Federal funding for irrigation research
Ban on land ownership by aliens
Free and unlimited coinage of silver
 Success
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Four governorships and control of eight
legislatures in the South
On the Plains alliance endorsed
candidates secured control in NE leg.
And balance in MN and SD
 Problem
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Northern Alliance sought a 3rd party
to fight for their issues
Southern Alliance didn’t want any
challenges to the Democratic Party
because it was the party of white
supremacy
However, in 1892 alliance leaders
organized the People’s Party of the
United States; James B. Weaver is
the nominee
 Party
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platform
Traditional goals of the alliance
Direct election of senators
Govt. warehouses for surplus storage,
receive low interest loans using crops as
collateral, sell stored commodities when
market prices rose
African Americans in
Reconstruction
 Redeemer
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coalition in the South
Large landowners
Merchants
New South industrialist
 None
cared for blacks in the South
beyond insuring they behaved or voted
their way
 They were scared of Negro Rule
 Convict lease program
Notes Quiz
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1. Why was election turnout so high
during this time period?
2. What did Republicans support during
this time period? Identify four.
3. What were two provisions of the
Pendleton Civil Service Act?
4. What was Wabash v. Illinois?
5. Why did the Grange collapse?
6. What were four political ideas on
the People’s Party’s platform?