POLITICAL PARALYSIS IN
THE GILDED AGE
Chapter 23
Emily, John, Sam, Garrett
Mark Twain wrote, The Gilded
Age: A Tale of Today in 1873
PRELUDE TO THE GILDED
AGE
 The Civil War
• Aftermath

Abraham Lincoln promised a new birth of freedom,
unfortunately…

Grant, great soldier, atrocious politician
BLOODY SHIRT ELECTS
GRANT
 Nominated by Republicans in 1868
• Republicans “bloody shirt”
• “Vote as you Shot”
 Democrats elect Horatio Seymour
 Electoral Votes: Grant 214 to Seymour 80
• Popular Vote 3 Million to 2.7 Million
• Slaves votes
• MS, TX, VA votes not counted
DEPRESSION, DEFLATION,
AND INFLATION
 Panic of 1873
• Railroads, mines, factories, grainfields
• Freedmen’s Bureau crash
 Debtors favor Greenbacks
 Creditors favor hard money
• Resumption Act of 1875
• Causes: Democratic House of Reps in 1874
• And Greenback Labor Party in 1878
PALLID POLITICS
 Political Seesaw
• Change of party in House 6 times in 11 Sessions
 Dems and Repubs see eye to eye
 Republicans- Trace lineage to Puritanism
• Strict Morality
 Democrats- Lineage to Lutheran and Roman Catholics
• Tolerance for differences
HAYES TILDEN STANDOFF
 Rutherford B. Hayes- unknown Republican
 Samuel J. Tilden- campaigned against
Republican scandal
 Election ended in tie and led to the
Compromise of 1887
COMPROMISE OF 1887
 Electoral deadlock in Florida, Louisiana, and S.
Carolina
 The deadlock was broken with the Electoral
Count Act
 The Democrats let Hayes have the presidency
if the troops in the South were removed and a
subsidy to construct a Tex-Pacific rail line.
JIM CROW LAWS
 Freedmen found themselves working for former slave owners
 The South made Jim Crow laws that supported segragation
• Plessy v. Furgeson (1896)
IRISH V. CHINESE
 Denis Kearney led a fight against the Chinese
GARFIELD & ARTHUR
 Republicans Repute Hayes for reelection, an replace him with
James A. Garfield
 Charles J. Guiteau shot Garfield
 Pendleton Act of 1883
THE CHINESE
 19th century burgeoning industries
• Chinese answered the call

First Chinese
•
•
China’s government collapses
Chinese society in America

1868 Treaty with China

Immigrant Clubs

Anti-Chinese agitation
•
Chinese Exclusion Act. Removal Burlingame Treaty of 1880
BLAINE CLEVELAND
MUDSLINGERS OF 1884
 James G. Blaine, Republican nominee
• Mulligan’s letters
 Democrats choose Grover Cleveland
 Campaign of 1884
 Cleveland elected
OLD GROVER TAKES OVER
 Supported laissez-faire
 Narrowed North-South Chasm
 Favored democrats
 Military pensions
 Battles for a Lower Tarriff
• Risked political neck
• 1881 treasury surplus
 Election of 1888 Harrison vs. Cleveland
BILLION DOLLAR
CONGRESS
 Republicans regain control
• Control of the house
• Thomas B. Preed
• Tactics
 Congress spends billions of dollars
• Higher tarrifs
• Bad for farmers
DRUMBEAT OF
DISCONTENT
 New party (populists)
• Wanted free silver
 Strikes
• Violent supression
 Showing in 1892 election (electoral votes)
 Couldn’t carry both because of race
• Tightened voting restriction on blacks
CLEVELAND AND
DEPRESSION
 Elected again in 1892
 Depression of 1893 over building and speculation
 Repeals Sherman Sewer Purchase Act
• William Jennings Bryan
 Turns to JP Morgan for loans
BACKLASH
 People view sellout of government
 Wilson-carman tariff
 Cleveland, Party blamed
 Election of 1896