Chapter 16: Politics and Reform

American History

Disagreements in Washington

When Hayes took office, he attacked the practice of patronage, or the spoils system introduced by President Jackson, by appointing reformers and replaced officials who owed their jobs to party bosses

Party bosses were called “Stalwarts” by the papers

The Stalwarts were already angry with Hayes for abandoning Reconstruction because it allowed Democrats to regain control of the South

Senator Roscoe Conkling, a party boss, labeled the Republicans “Halfbreeds” and accused them of backing up reforms to create openings for their own supporters

Garfield and Arthur

With Hayes not running again, the Republicans nominated a halfbreed, James A. Garfield, and a stalwart, Chester A. Authur, for president

won the election of 1880

A few months after being inaugurated, Garfield was assassinated

further excited public opinion on the spoils system

Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which allowed the president to decide which federal jobs would be filled based on rules laid down by the Civil Service Commission

candidates took exams, and positions were filled based on those who took the exams

Election of 1884

With the Democrats and Republicans holding equal power and representation in the states and on Capital Hill, there was a political stalemate, where no reforms were being enacted

Democratic Governor Grover Cleveland of New York and Republican Representative James Blaine were the candidates for president

Both were against corruption, which was the main focal point of each campaign

Because of Blaine’s lavish style of campaigning, many Republicans turned and supported Cleveland

“mugwumps”: more concerned with helping the nation than a political party

Cleveland wins, with problems on his

shoulders Cleveland won the election of 1884,

but stepped into issues immediately

Angered both supporters and mugwumps by not giving supporters government jobs and not multiplying positions for mugwumps

Industrialization caused workers to organize into unions, which often became violent

Large corporations began issuing rebates, or partial refunds, which caused other consumers to pay higher rates

Interstate Commerce Commission

In 1886, the case of Wabash v. Illinois was ruled that Illinois could not restrict the rates that the Wabash Railroad charged for traffic between states because that was an interstate issue

Public pressure forced Congress to pass the Interstate Commerce Act that created the Interstate Commerce Commission

regulated railroad rates, forbade rebates to high volume users, and made it illegal to charge higher rates for shorter hauls

Cleveland proposed to lower tariffs, since it raised prices on manufactured goods, and Congress passed a tariff reduction bill, but the Senate vetoed it

became an issue for the election of 1888

Harrison takes charge

Republican Benjamin Harrison won the election of 1888

With the Republicans in control of the Senate and House, Harrison was able to pass major bills addressing key issues

The McKinley Tariff: cut taxes in tobacco and raw sugar, increased rates on other goods, lowered federal revenue, and turned surplus into deficit

Sherman Antitrust Act: made it illegal for companies to combine into trusts

Populism

Populism was the movement to increase farmers’ political power and to work for legislation in their interest

A main concern for farmers during this time period was the economy and the money supply

New technology had increased the food supply, which decreased the value of food

Inflation, or a decrease in the value of money, occurred when the government issued greenbacks, or paper currency, without being accompanied by the increase in goods for sale

Deflation, or an increase in the value of money, also occurred when prices of goods fell, greenbacks stopped being printed, and silver was no longer minted

Deflation hits farmers hard

Farmers had to borrow money for seeds and equipment, and because the money was in short supply, interest rates began to rise, which increased what the farmers owed

Farmers sold their crops for less, and were unable to expand their lands because of high mortgage rates

Farmers desired for the printing of greenbacks and the minting of silver coins

Without representation, farmers began to organize

The Grange

Inspired by a visit to the rural South to check on farmers, Oliver Kelley created the first farmers organization, the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange

To address the issue of the evolving recession, the Grange members did one of three things:

Regulate railroad and warehouse rates

Join the Independent National Party (Greenback Party)

Pool resources and create cooperatives, or marketing organizations that worked for the benefit of their members Held crops off the market to force prices up and eliminate extreme

competition

The Grange’s plans did not work because of legislation, the Greenback Party failed to gain support, and cooperatives failed to gained support because people saw them as unions

The Farmer’s Alliance and the People’s Party

As the Grange fell, The Farmer’s Alliance began to form

began to gain support in the West and South

organized cooperatives called exchanges

The exchanges the Alliance organized began to fail for several reasons:

many loaned too much money that was never repaid

still too small to effect the world prices of products

The failure of the Alliance caused others to break away from the organization and create a new party, the People’s Party, or Populist Party

called for a subtreasury plan, where subtreasuries, or warehouse, were built, where farmers could store crops and receive low interest rates

Attempts to topple Populism

The Farmer’s Alliance met and issued the Ocala Demands, which called for:

adoption of subtreasuries, free coinage of silver, an end to protective tariffs and national banks, tighter regulation of railroads, and direct election of senators

To prevent farmers from voting Populist, Senator John Sherman pushed through the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890

authorized Treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month to put more money into use and reduce deflation

Many still voted for Democratic candidates who agreed to the Ocala Demands in the South and West, but many did not keep their promises

forced farmers to join People’s Party

A Populist for President

The People’s Party held its first convention and nominated James Weaver for president

denounced the coining of silver, federal ownership of railroads, and a graduated income tax, which taxed higher earnings more heavily

The People’s Party could not gain popular support, and many still sided with the Democrats, who voted for Grover Cleveland to return to the presidency in 1890

The Panic of 1893

After Cleveland was inaugurated, the country plummeted into the worst economic crisis it had seen

began when the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads declared bankruptcy due to inability to pay off loans

investors began to cash out their bonds for gold, depleting the U.S. gold deposits

Cleveland called Congress to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchas Act

Opinions split into two factions: Goldbugs: believed currency should be

based only on gold

Silverites: coining silver would solve economic crisis

Election of 1896

Candidates made the coining silver issue the focus of their campaigns

Democrats and Populists nominated William Jennings Bryan

Supported coining silver

Republicans nominated William McKinley, responsible for the McKinley tariff

conducted “front porch campaigns” when delegates came to visit him

Supported plans to provide workers with a “full dinner pail”

McKinley ended up winning the election, and with the depression over and gold discoveries in Canada and Alaska, the value of money increased, and the Populist Party decline

Repression in the South

After Reconstruction, most African Americans were sharecroppers, or farmers who handed their crops to landowners to cover the cost of rent and supplies

The conditions for African Americans in the South were not entirely better than slavery

Many migrated to Kansas: Exodusters

Those who stayed in the South formed the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance, which helped its members economically by setting up cooperative

Restrictions towards African Americans

The government used a loophole in the Fifteenth Amendment, which restricted illiterate people from voting, and incorporated that to illiterate African Americans, which was a large majority

The South began to demand that voters pay a poll tax, or a tax on voting, of $2, which was beyond the means of most African Americans

Literacy exams were also given to all voters

For those who were white and illiterate, they were granted the grandfather clause and allowed to vote if they had an ancestor registered to vote in 1867

Segregation legalized

Segregation, or separation of the races, was enforced by the Jim Crow laws

The Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which banned people from keeping other off their property based on racial discrimination

In 1892, Homer Plessy challenged segregation by riding in a railroad car reserved for whites

Plessy v. Ferguson: upheld Louisiana law and expressed a new doctrine endorsing “separate but equal” facilities for African Americans

Violence escalated in the South, resulting in many African Americans being lynched, or hung without court proceedings, by unruly mobs

African American Response

Many African American spoke out and protested, in their own way, against segregation

Ida B. Wells: spoke out against lynching; wrote newspaper articles denouncing lynching

Booker T. Washington: proposed that African Americans focus on economic goals rather than political and legal; proposed the Atlanta Compromise, which urged African Americans to postpone the urge to fight for civil rights and instead preparing themselves in education and vocation

W.E.B. Du Bois: proposed that in order for African Americans to achieve educationally and vocationally, they have to press for their rights