The American Pageant Chapter 23 Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age, 1869-1896 Cover Slide...

The American Pageant

Chapter 23

Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age,

1869-1896

Cover Slide

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Adapted from: Ms. Susan M. Pojer

Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

Adapted from: Ms. Susan M. Pojer

Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

The 1868 Republican TicketThe 1868 Republican Ticket

The 1868 Democratic TicketThe 1868 Democratic Ticket

Waving the Bloody Shirt!Waving the Bloody Shirt!

Waving the Bloody Shirt!

• Republicans nominated Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant– great soldier– had no political experience

• Democrats? – could only denounce military Reconstruction – couldn’t agree on anything els e= were

disorganized.

Waving the Bloody Shirt!

• The Republicans got Grant elected (barely) by “waving the bloody shirt” – =reliving his war victories

• used his popularity to elect him• popular vote was only slightly ahead of rival

Horatio Seymour.• Seymour = Democratic candidate

– didn’t accept a redemption-of-greenbacks-for-maximum-value platform, and thus doomed his party.

• Since election = close Republicans could not take future victories for granted.

1868 Presidential Election1868 Presidential Election

President Ulysses S. GrantPresident Ulysses S. Grant

The Era of Good Stealings

• Despite the Civil War, the population grew– Partially due to immigration

• politics became very corrupt• Railroad promoters cheated gullible

customers.• Too many judges and legislators put

their power up for hire.

The Era of Good Stealings

• Jim Fisk and Jay Gould– notorious millionaires– In 1869, they concocted a plot to corner

the gold market– Plan would only work if the treasury

stopped selling gold– they worked on President Grant directly

and through his brother-in-law– plan failed when the treasury sold gold.

The Era of Good Stealings

• Tweed Ring (AKA, “Tammany Hall) of NYC– Headed by “Boss” Tweed

• Used bribery, graft, and fake elections to cheat the city of as much as $200 million

• caught when The New York Times secured evidence of his misdeeds

• died in jail.

The Tweed Ring in NYCThe Tweed Ring in NYC

William Marcy Tweed (notorious head of Tammany Hall’s political machine)

[Thomas Nast crusading cartoonist/reporter]

Who Stole the People’s Money?Who Stole the People’s Money?

A Carnival of Corruption

• Grant– failed to see corruption going on– many of his friends wanted offices – his cabinet was totally corrupt

Credit Mobilier• railroad construction company that paid

itself huge sums of money for small railroad construction

• Tarred Grant• NY newspaper reported it• 2 members of Congress were formally

censured – company had given some of its stock to

the congressmen – Vice President was shown to have

accepted 20 shares of stock

Whiskey Ring• 1875- public learned that the Whiskey

Ring had robbed the Treasury of millions – group of officials were importing whiskey &

using their offices to avoid paying the taxes on it, cheating the treasury out of millions of dollars.

– when Grant’s own private secretary was shown to be one of the criminals, Grant retracted his earlier statement of “Let no guilty man escape.”

– 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap was shown to have pocketed some $24,000 by selling junk to Indians

And They Say He Wants a Third TermAnd They Say He Wants a Third Term

The Election of 1872The Election of 1872 Rumors of corruption

during Grant’s first term discredit Republicans.

Horace Greeley runsas a Democrat/LiberalRepublican candidate.

Greeley attacked as afool and a crank.

Greeley died on November 29, 1872!

1872 Presidential Election1872 Presidential Election

Popular Vote for President: 1872

Popular Vote for President: 1872

• Causes:– Unrestrained speculation on the railroads – Too easy credit

• Started when…– failure of the NY banking firm Jay Cooke &

Company, which was headed by the rich Jay Cooke, a financier of the Civil War.

The Panic of 1873The Panic of 1873

 Depression, Deflation, & Inflation

• Greenbacks that had been issued in the Civil War were being recalled– but now, during the panic

• “cheap-money” supporters wanted greenbacks to be printed en mass again, to create inflation.

–  supporters of “hard-money” (actual gold and silver) persuaded Grant to veto a bill that would print more paper money

• Resumption Act of 1875 • government would withdraw greenbacks & maKe

all further redemption of paper money in gold at face value, starting in 1879.

• Debtors now cried that silver was under-valued (another call for inflation), – Grant refused to coin more silver dollars,

which (stopped in 1873) • new silver discoveries in the later 1870s shot

the price of silver way down. Grant’s name remained fused to sound money, though not sound government.

 Depression, Deflation, & Inflation

 Depression, Deflation, & Inflation

• greenbacks regain their value– few greenback holders exchange their more

convenient bills for gold when Redemption Day came in 1879

• 1878, the Bland-Allison Act instructed the Treasury to buy and coin between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month. The minimum was actually coined and its effect was minimal on creating “cheap money.”

 Depression, Deflation, & Inflation

• Republican hard-money policy, – led to the election of a Democratic House of

Representatives in 1874– Spawned the Greenback Labor Party in 1878

• primarily composed of prairie farmers who went into debt during the Panic of 1873

• fought for increased monetary circulation through issuance of paper currency and bimetallism (using both gold and silver as legal tender)

• supported inflationary • sought benefits for labor such as shorter working hours

and a national labor bureau. • wanted the government to print more greenbacks.

Definition: Gilded Age

• “The Gilded Age,”– term coined by Mark Twain– times looked good, yet if one scratched a

bit below the surface, there were problems.

– corruption.

Northern Support WanesNorthern Support Wanes “Grantism” & corruption.

Panic of 1873 [6-yeardepression].

Concern over westwardexpansion and Indian wars.

Key monetary issues:

* should the government retire $432m worth of “greenbacks” issued during the Civil War.

* should war bonds be paid back in specie orgreenbacks.

1876 Presidential Tickets1876 Presidential Tickets

“Regional Balance?”“Regional Balance?”

1876 Presidential Election1876 Presidential Election

The Political Crisis of 1877The Political Crisis of 1877

“Corrupt Bargain”Part II?

Hayes PrevailsHayes Prevails

Alas, the Woes of Childhood…

Alas, the Woes of Childhood…

Sammy Tilden—Boo-Hoo! Ruthy Hayes’s got my Presidency, and he won’t give it to me!

A Political Crisis: The “Compromise” of 1877A Political Crisis: The

“Compromise” of 1877

1. A Two-Party Stalemate

1. A Two-Party Stalemate

2. Intense

Voter Loyalty to the

Two MajorPolitical Parties

2. Intense

Voter Loyalty to the

Two MajorPolitical Parties

3. Well-Defined Voting Blocs

3. Well-Defined Voting Blocs

DemocraticBloc

RepublicanBloc

White southerners(preservation ofwhite supremacy)

Catholics

Recent immigrants(esp. Jews)

Urban working poor (pro-labor)

Most farmers

Northern whites(pro-business)

African Americans

Northern Protestants

Old WASPs (supportfor anti-immigrant laws)

Most of the middleclass

4. Very Laissez Faire Federal Govt.

4. Very Laissez Faire Federal Govt. From 1870-1900 Govt. did

verylittle domestically.

Main duties of the federal govt.:

Deliver the mail.

Maintain a national military.

Collect taxes & tariffs.

Conduct a foreign policy.

Exception administer the annual Civil War veterans’ pension.

5. The Presidency as a Symbolic Office

5. The Presidency as a Symbolic Office

Party bosses ruled.

Presidents should avoid offending anyfactions within theirown party.

The President justdoled out federal jobs.

1865 53,000 people worked for the federal govt.

1890 166,000 “ “ “ “ “ “

The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post-Reconstruction South• Reconstruction ended …military

returned northward– whites asserted their power.– Literacy requirements for voting began, – voter registration laws emerged– poll taxes began– targeted at black voters.

• Most blacks became sharecroppers – providing nothing but labor

• Or tenant farmers – if they could provide their own tools

• Plessy v. Ferguson:– 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in the

case of that “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional• “Jim Crow” segregation was legalized.

The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post-Reconstruction South

Class Conflicts & Ethnic Clashes

• Railroad Strike:– Background:

• 1877, the presidents of the nation’s 4 largestrailroads decided to cut wages by 10%.

– Workers struck back, stopping work– President Hayes sent troops to stop this, – violence erupted– more than 100 people died in the several

weeks of chaos.

Class Conflicts & Ethnic Clashes

• Failure of the railroad strike?– showed weakness of the labor

movement– Note: this was partly caused by friction

between races, especially between the Irish and the Chinese.

• In San Francisco, Irish-born Denis Kearney incited his followers to terrorize the Chinese

• Anti-Chinese sentiment:– 1879-Congress passed a bill severely

restricting the influx of Chinese immigrants (most of whom were males who had come to California to work on the railroads• Hayes vetoed the bill

– Said that it violated an existing treaty with China

– After Hayes left office, the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in 1882, was passed, barring any Chinese from entering the United States—the first law limiting immigration.

Class Conflicts & Ethnic Clashes

James A. Garfield• 1880 : Republicans nominated James A.

Garfield– from Ohio rose to the rank of major general in

the Civil War– as his running mate, a notorious Stalwart

(supporter of Roscoe Conkling) was chosen: Chester A. Arthur of New York

• Democrats chose Winfield S. Hancock, – Civil War general (appealed to the South)

• due to his fair treatment of it during Reconstruction & a veteran who had been wounded at Gettysburg, and thus appealed to veterans.

1880 Presidential

Election

1880 Presidential

Election

– campaign avoided touchy issues – Garfield squeaked by in the popular vote (the

electoral count was wider: 214 to 155).• Garfield was a good person, but he hated to hurt

people’s feelings and say “no.”

– Garfield named James G. Blaine to Secretary of the State• he made other anti-Stalwart acts, but on

September 19, 1881, Garfield died after having been shot in the head by a crazy but disappointed office seeker, Charles J. Guiteau, who, after being captured, used an early version of the “insanity defense” to avoid conviction (he was hanged anyway).

James A. Garfield

Republican infighting

• StalwartsRepublicans fighting for civil service reform during Garfield's term; they supported Cleveland.

• Half-breedsFavored tariff reform and social reform, major issues from the Democratic and Republican parties. They did not seem to be dedicated members of either party

1881: Garfield Assassinated!1881: Garfield Assassinated!

Charles Guiteau:I Am a Stalwart, and Arthur is President now!

Chester Arthur

• Chester Arthur surprised many – Gave cold shoulder to Stalwarts (his chief

supporters)– called for reform

• Republican party slowly embraces reform

Pendleton Act (1883)Pendleton Act (1883)

Civil Service Act.

The “Magna Carta” of civil service reform.

1883 14,000 out of117,000 federal govt.jobs became civilservice exam positions.

1900 100,000 out of

200,000 civil service federal govt. jobs.

Republican “Mugwumps”Republican

“Mugwumps” Reformers who wouldn’t re-nominateChester A. Arthur.

Reform to them create a disinterested, impartial govt. run by an educated elite like themselves.

Social Darwinists.

Laissez faire government to them:

Favoritism & the spoils system seen as govt. intervention in society.

Their target was political corruption, not social or economic reform!

TheMugwu

mps

TheMugwu

mpsMen may come and men may go, but the work of reform shall go on forever. Will support

Cleveland in the1884 election.

1884 Presidential Election

1884 Presidential Election

Grover Cleveland James Blaine * (DEM) (REP)

A Dirty Campaign

A Dirty Campaign

Ma, Ma…where’s my pa?He’s going to the White House, ha… ha… ha…!

Little Lost MugwumpLittle Lost Mugwump

Blaine in 1884

Rum, Romanism & Rebellion!

Rum, Romanism & Rebellion! Led a delegation of

ministers to Blaine inNYC.

Reference to the Democratic Party.

Blaine was slow torepudiate the remark.

Narrow victory forCleveland [he wins NYby only 1149 votes!].

Dr. Samuel Burchard

1884 Presidential

Election

1884 Presidential

Election

Cleveland’s First TermCleveland’s First Term The “Veto Governor” from New

York.

First Democratic elected since 1856.

A public office is a public trust!

His laissez-faire presidency:

Opposed bills to assist the poor aswell as the rich.

Vetoed over 200 special pension billsfor Civil War veterans!

The Tariff IssueThe Tariff Issue After the Civil War, Congress raisedtariffs to protect new US industries.

Big business wanted to continue this;consumers did not.

1885 tariffs earned the US $100 mil. in surplus!

President Cleveland’s view on tariffs????

wasn’t really interested in the subject at first, but as he researched it, he became inclined towards lowering thetariff, so in late 1887, Cleveland openly tossed the appeal for lowertariffs into the lap of Congress.

The Billion Dollar Congress• Speaker of the House, Thomas B.

Reed= tremendous debater & very critical man.– To solve the problem of reaching a quorum

(having enough voters to vote) in Congress, Reed counted the Democrats who were present yet didn’t answer to the roll call, and after three days of such chaos, he finally prevailed, openingthe 51st, or “Billion Dollar” Congress—one that legislated many expensive projects.

Filing the Rough Edges

Filing the Rough Edges

Tariff of 1888

1888 Presidential Election

1888 Presidential Election

Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison (DEM) * (REP)

Disposing the Surplus

Disposing the Surplus

Price Indexes for Consumer & Farm

Products: 1865-1913

Price Indexes for Consumer & Farm

Products: 1865-1913

Founder of the National Grange of the Patrons of

Husbandry (1867)

Founder of the National Grange of the Patrons of

Husbandry (1867)

The Grange MovementThe Grange Movement

First organized in the 1870s in the Midwest, the south, and Texas.

Set up cooperative associations.

Social and educational components.

Succeeded in lobbying for “Granger Laws.”

Rapidly declined by the late 1870s.

Begun in the late 1880s (Texas first the Southern Alliance; then in the Midwest the Northern Alliance).

Built upon the ashes of the Grange.

More political and less social than the Grange.

Ran candidates for office.

Controlled 8 state legislatures & had 47representatives in Congress during the 1890s.

The Farmers AlliancesThe Farmers Alliances

Platform of LunacyPlatform of Lunacy

James B. Weaver, Presidential Candidate

&James G. Field, VP

Founded by James B. Weaverand Tom Watson.

Omaha, NE Convention in July, 1892.

Got almost 1 million popularvotes.

Several Congressional seatswon.

The Populist (Peoples’)

Party

The Populist (Peoples’)

Party

Omaha Platform of 1892Omaha Platform of 1892

• Politically:– Direct election of US Senators– Enacting state laws by voters themselves

• Economically:– Unlimited coinage of silver increase money supply– Graduated income tax– Govt. ownership of RRs, telephone & telegraph

companies.– Loans and federal warehouses for farmers to enable

them to stabilize prices for their crops– 8 hour day for industrial workers

Govt.-Owned Companies

Govt.-Owned Companies

1892 Election1892 Election

Causes of the 1893 Panic

Causes of the 1893 Panic

Begun 10 days after Cleveland took office.

1. Several major corps. went bankrupt. Over 16,000 businesses disappeared. Triggered a stock market crash. Over-extended investments.

2. Bank failures followed causing a contraction of credit [nearly 500 banks closed].

3. By 1895, unemployment reached 3 million. Americans cried out for relief, but the Govt. continued its laissez faire policies!!

Here Lies ProsperityHere Lies Prosperity

When the banker says he's broke And the merchant’s up in smoke, They forget that it's the farmer who feeds them all. It would put them to the test If the farmer took a rest; Then they'd know that it's the farmer feeds them all.

Written by a Farmer at the End of the 19c

Written by a Farmer at the End of the 19c

Jacob Coxey & his “Army of the Commonweal of Christ.”

March on Washington “hayseed socialists!”

Wanted gov’t to relieve unemployment

Coxey’s Army, 1894Coxey’s Army, 1894

Populist vote increased by 40% in the bi-election year, 1894.

Democratic party losses in the West were catastrophic!

But, Republicans won control of the House.

Result of Election Returns

Result of Election Returns

Gold / Silver Bug Campaign Pins

Gold / Silver Bug Campaign Pins

The “Great Commoner”

William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)

William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)

Revivalist style of oratory.

Prairie avenger, mountain lion,

Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan,

Gigantic troubadour, speaking like a siege gun,

Smashing Plymouth Rock with his boulders from the West.

William Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings Bryan

Bryant’s“Cross of Gold” Speech

Bryant’s“Cross of Gold” Speech

You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!

18,000 miles of campaign “whistle stops.”

Bryan: The Farmers Friend

(The Mint Ratio)

Bryan: The Farmers Friend

(The Mint Ratio)

Platform tariff reductions; income tax; strictercontrol of the trusts (esp. RRs); free silver.

Democratic Party Taken Over by the Agrarian Left

Democratic Party Taken Over by the Agrarian Left

Mark Hanna: The “Front-Porch”

Campaign

William McKinley (1843-1901)

Mark Hanna to Candidate McKinley

“A Giant Straddle”: Suggestion for a McKinley Political Poster

Joshua A. Levering: Prohibition Party

Into Which Box Will the Voter

of ’96 Place His Ballot?

1896 Election Results1896 Election Results

Why Did Bryan Lose?

His focus on silver undermined efforts to build bridges to urban voters.

He did not form alliances with other groups.

McKinley’s campaign was well-organized and highly funded.

Gold Triumphs Over Silver

Gold Triumphs Over Silver 1900 Gold Standard Act

confirmed the nation’s commitment to the gold standard.

A victory for the forces ofconservatism.

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

• Populism: A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written as an allegory to the situation that was happening in the Midwest. Every main character can be traced to either a particular person or group of people. Even the word “Oz” is used to represent the measurement of gold.

Dorothy:

Represents everyman. She is an innocent Midwest girl who is able to see what is really going on in Oz.

Munchkins:

• Represent the common

people, controlled by

the Wicked Witch of the

East (who represented the Eastern

Industrialists and Bankers.

Scarecrow:

• Represents the wise but naïve western farmer, taken advantage of by the industrialists and bankers.

Tinman:• Represents the

dehumanized industrial worker. He is turned into a machine back the industrialists because of his hard work ethic and not having another craft to succeed in. He eventually becomes unable to love.

Cowardly Lion:Represents

William Jennings

Bryan, having a loud roar

but was unable to back it up

(bite).

Wicked Witch of the West:

Represents the Western

industrial influence and is

ultimately destroyed by

water (representing

pure nature, a removal of machines).

"Your Silver Shoes will carry you over the desert.....If you had known their power you could have gone back to your Aunt Em the very first day you came to this country." Glinda explains, "All you have to do is knock the heels together three times and command the shoes to carry you wherever you wish to go." (p.257).

"The Silver Shoes had fallen off in her flight through the air, and were lost forever in the desert" (p.259).

The drive for the gold standard to be replaced with silver was lost when Bryan lost the election and the Populist party lost its motivation or drive.

Although the silver had been lost, the important message is a return to the Midwest farmer/family. It is where true happiness remains. Back in Oz, the Scarecrow now runs the Emerald City, the Tinman rules in the west, and the Lion rules over smaller animals in the forest. Power has been returned to the people.

1964: Henry Littlefield’s “Thesis”?

1964: Henry Littlefield’s “Thesis”?

Map 18.4 The Heyday of Western Populism, 1892 (p. 537)

• This map shows the percentage of the popular vote won by James B. Waver, the People’s Party candidate in the presidential election of 1892. Except in California and Montana, the Populists won broad support across the West and genuinely threatened the established parties in that region.

Why Did Populism Decline?

Why Did Populism Decline?1. The economy experienced rapid

change.

2. The era of small producers and farmers was fading away.

3. Race divided the Populist Party, especially in the South.

4. The Populists were not able to breakexisting party loyalties.

5. Most of their agenda was co-opted bythe Democratic Party.

Map 18.5 The Elections of 1892 & 1896 (p. 540)

• In the 1890’s the age of political stalemate came to an end. Compare the 1892 map with the 1888 map an note especially Cleveland’s breakthrough in the normally Republican states of the upper Midwest. In 1896 the pendulum swung n the opposite direction, with McKinley’s consolidation of Republican control over the Northeast and Midwest far overbalancing the Democratic advances in the thinly populated western states. The 1896 election marked the beginning of forty years of Republican dominance in national politics.