Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age
Election of 1868
• Reps
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Continue
Reconstruction with a
bayonet
• “Let us have peace”
• Dems
• Hugely divided over
redemption of war bonds
• East- want them
redeemed in gold
• West- “Ohio idea”
redemption in green
backs
• Horatio Seymour
Waving the Bloody Shirt
• Symbol for civil war
• Grants wins easily in
the electoral college,
but by only 300,000
votes.
• Black vote roughly
500,000- huge in
helping Grant
The Era of Good Stealings
• Jim Fisk and Jay Gould
scheme to corner the gold
market.
• Bid on price of gold so it
skyrockets
• “Black Friday” September
24, 1869- price of gold
drops, many honest people
are screwed
• Grant not to blame, just
didn’t act smartly
The Era of Good Stealings
•
•
•
•
Tweed Ring
NYC
William Boss Tweed
Used bribery, graft and
fraudulent elections
• Stole as much as 200
million
A Carnival Of Corruption
• Credit Mobilier
Scandal
• Exposed in 1872.
– Members of congress
censured.
– Vice President
implicated.
A Carnival of Corruption
• 1874-1875
• Whiskey Ring Scandal
• Cabinet members rob
government of
millions in excise tax
revenues
Liberal Republican Revolt Of 1872
• Reaction to corruption
of Grant
• Purify Washington,
end military
reconstruction
• Nominate Horace
Greeley
Grant v. Greeley
• Grant wins easily, 286-66,
because:
– Grant is perceived to be the
lesser of two evils
– Democrats are still stained
with fault for the Civil War
• Did lead the Republicans to
clean their own house.
• General amnesty Act,
• lowered tariffs
Depression And Demands For Inflation
• Panic of 1873
• Too much railroads, too
many factories created
• Banks gave out too
many loans to these
companies
• Businesses fail, cannot
pay loans
• Not just US, world wide
panic
Depression And Demands For Inflation
• 15,000 businesses went
under.
• Blacks hit hard –
Freedmen’s Savings and
Trust Company
• Paper money becomes a
big issue
• Debtors and Farmers want
paper money – inflation
• Creditors want hard money
– deflation
• Hard Money’s win
• 1874- convince Grant to
veto a bill to print more
money
• Resumption Act of 1875withdrawal of greenbacks
from circulation, and
redeem all paper currency
in gold at face value
Politics in the Gilded Age
• Balance of two political
parties during the Gilded
Age from 1869-99.
• Majority in Congress
flipped back and forth six
times in the 11 terms
between 1869-91
• Lackluster presidents
Republicans and Democrats
• Republicans:
– Embodied the old Puritanical ideals.
– Strict moral codes and belief that government should be
an instrument in regulating economic and moral affairs
of the community.
– Strong in Midwest and in rural and small-town New
England.
– Got most of votes from Freedman and from Union Civil
War Vets
Republicans and Democrats
• Democrats
– More Roman Catholic and Lutheran.
– South and northern industrial cities
– Large immigrant base and strong Dem.
machines
Stalwarts v. Half-breeds
• Patronage – give out jobs for votes
• Republicans had two rival factions
• Stalwarts (Conklingites)
– led by NY Sen. Roscoe Conkling.
– Big believers in patronage.
• Half-Breeds.
– Led by James Blaine.
– Flirted with civil service.
The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876
• Reps, beg Grant not to
run again
• Conflict between
Stalwarts and Half
Breeds forces reps to
select “The Great
Unknown” Rutherford
B Hayes
• Democrats- Samuel J.
Tilden
The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876
• 4 states have contested
results
• 3 southern states turn in
two sets, one demo, on rep
• Constitution just says
senate and house have to be
present when ballots are
read
• Head of Senate = Rep
• Speak of the House =
Demo
Compromise of 1877 and the End of
Reconstruction
• Electoral Count Act- sets
up electoral commission
• Comp
– Reps- get Hayes as president
– Demos- remove federal
troops from SC and LA
– Reps promise a southern
route for Transcontinental
RR
• Biggest loser- freedmen,
reps abandoned attempts at
racial equality
Civil Rights Act of 1875
• Last ditch effort by radical
reps
• Equal accommodations in
public places, and
prohibited racial
discrimination in public
jury selection
• Much of act is declared
unconstitutional
Post Reconstruction South
(Sharecropping)
Furnishing Merchant
 Loan tools and seed
up to 60% interest
to tenant farmer to
plant spring crop.
 Farmer also secures
food, clothing, and
other necessities on
credit from
merchant until the
harvest.
 Merchant holds
“lien” {mortgage} on
part of tenant’s
future crops as
repayment of debt.
Tenant Farmer
 Plants crop,
harvests in
autumn.
 Turns over up to ½
of crop to land
owner as payment
of rent.
 Tenant gives
remainder of crop
to merchant in
payment of debt.
Landowner
 Rents land to tenant
in exchange for ¼
to ½ of tenant
farmer’s future
crop.
Post Reconstruction South
(Sharecropping)
Post Reconstruction South
• State level segregation
• Known as Jim Crow
Laws
• Literacy Tests
• Poll taxes
• Voter intimidation
Post Reconstruction South
• Plessy V. Ferguson
1896
• Separate but equal is
constitutional under
the equal protection
clause of the 14th
amendment
• Violent repercussions
for southern blacks
who resist Jim Crow
Class Conflict and Ethnic Clashes
• Great Strike of 1877
demonstrates the lack of
power for workers
• Most Chinese came to
mine gold and lay
railroad, gold is gone, RR
are set
• Roughly half go home
• “Not a Chinamen’s
chance”
Class Conflict and Ethnic
Clashes
• Irish demagogue
Denis Kearney
(Kearneyites)
• Inspires Chinese
hatred
• “Beef eaters” vs.
“Rice eaters”
• “Coolies”
Class Conflict and Ethnic Clashes
• Chinese Exclusion Act
1882• Stays until 1943
• Some even tried to strip
them of citizenship
• US v Wong Kim Ark- upheld rights of Chinese
American citizens
Garfield and Arthur
• Hayes cannot run
(nobody supports him)
• Reps select James A.
Garfield , vp Chester
A. Arthur (Stalwart)
• Stalwart and half
breed conflict results
in the assassination of
Garfield by Charles J.
Guiteau
Assassination’s Impact
• Chester Arthur puts an end to the spoils system
• Pendleton Act 1883- compulsory campaign contributions
from federal employees illegal, establish Civil Service
Commission to make appointments to federal jobs on the
basis of competitive examinations
• Unintended consequence- drives politicians into alliances
with big business bosses
THE BLAINE-CLEVELAND
MUDSLINGERS OF 1884
• Reps: James G. Blaine
– Some reps (reformers) jump
to democrats
• Dems: Grover Cleveland
“Grover the Good”
• Reps find out Grover has
illegitimate son
• Demos ask him to lie about
that, but he insists on
telling truth
• Nasty election
Red Rover Red Rover, let Grover
take over
• 1st democrat since
Buchanan
• Favors big business
• Vetoed bill to help Texas
farmers
• Names two exconfederates to his cabinet
• Grand Army of the
Republic (GAR) gave him
the most headaches
Cleveland and Tariffs
• Country was running at a
surplus because of high
tariffs.
• Republicans had little
motivation to reduce these
tariffs.
• Cleveland has two options
to deal with govt. surplus
– 1. Spend it on pension
and pork barrel bills
– 2. Lower the tariff ( big
businesses didn’t want)
Election of 1888
• 1st time political parties
had different opinions on
something for a while
• Demos- unexcitedly renominate Grover
• Reps- Benjamin
Harrison
• Impact of Pendleton Act
– raise 3 millions dollars
for campaign-
Billion Dollar Congress
• Democrats still control the
HOR- plan to stall any
Republican measures
• Rep. Speaker of the House
Thomas “Czar” Reed of
Maine• Pass McKinley Tariff Act
of 1890- highest tariff rates
• Hurts farmers- have to buy
expensive American made
equipment but sell products
in world markets
Drumbeat of Discontent
• Populists emerge as a potent third party.
– Officially the People’s Party
– Nominate James B. Weaver
• Populist Agenda:
– free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of
sixteen to one
– graduated income tax
– Gov’t ownership of telephone, telegraph and RR
– direct election of US senators
– one-term limit on presidency
– use of the initiative and referendum to allow citizens to
propose and review legislation.
– Shorter work day-to appeal to labor
– restriction on immigration—to appeal to labor
Drumbeat of Discontent
• Nationwide strikes
give populist just
cause and hopes of
joining industrial
workers and farmers
• Homestead strike of
1892
– Put down by Pinkerton
army
Election of 1892
• Populists poll over onemillion votes and become
one of the few third
parties to win electoral
votes
• Couldn’t get enough
eastern industrial votes
• Appealed to blacks, that’s
why they couldn’t get
votes in the south
Life in the South
• Bourbon elite in south
play up old racial
problems to
discourage unity
between poor whites
and blacks
• Grandfather clause
• More harsh Jim Crow
laws, lynching
increases
OLD
GROVER
CLEVELAND
AGAIN
• Depression of 1893
• Causes:
– Over-building and over-speculation
– labor unrest
– agricultural depression from low commodity
prices
– reduction of US credit abroad because of Silver
Purchase Act
– Problems with overseas banks, which were forced
to call in US loans.
• Cleveland does next to nothing— laissez faire
Gold issue
• Gold reserves had dropped
below 100 million
• Stop bleeding by repealing
the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act
• Helped partially
• JP Morgan head of wall
street gives federal
government a loan, helps
restore confidence in nation
Cleveland Backlash
• Silverites and debtors
pissed, claim GC is selling
out to corruption
• Wilson Gorman Tariff
1894- supposed to lower
tariffs, but gets loaded
down with special interests
that it barely effects the
McKinley Tariff rates
Cleveland Backlash