Chapter 23Political Paralysis in the Gilded

Age1869-1896

US Grant

1868 election: Grant (Republican) even without political experience

Focus on Military ReconstructionDemocrats split between wealthy

easterners and poor midwesternersThe Ohio Idea

Republicans “waved the bloody shirt”= victory for Grant

Financial Corruption

Jim Fisk and Jay Gould= stock speculation to control Erie Railroad

Wanted to corner gold marketPaid off Grant’s brother in lawBegan buying up gold summer 1869Federal government released $4 million

in gold= Black Friday

Political Corruption

Boss William Marcy Tweed in NYC’s Tammany HallDemocratic political machineBribery, graft, cronyism and election

fraudNY Times and Thomas NastNY attorney, Samuel J. Tilden

Can the Law Reach Him? 1872Cartoonist Thomas Nast attacked “Boss” Tweed in a series of cartoons like this one that appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1872. Here Nast depicts the corrupt Tweed as a powerful giant, towering over a puny law force.

Similarity?

The Liberal Republicans

Liberal Republican party formed 1872

“Turn the Rascals Out”Horace Greeley nominated,

Democrats backed Greeley too!Mudslinging campaign, forced the

Republicans to pass some reforms

Horace Greeley

Panic of 1873

Jay Cooke and Company went bankruptCreated a domino effect unemployment,

bankruptcies, banks closedNew debtor class (agrarian)= want

greenbacks for inflationSoft Money vs. Hard MoneyResumption Act 1875: withdraw

greenbacks and pay off in gold contraction

Panic of 1873

Debtors focused on silver nowSilver mines out west, inflationary tactic

Depression worsened, but US credit rating improved

Hard Money Republicans lost in House in 1874 and 1878

Greenback Labor Party created in retaliation

Run on the 4th National Bank

Republicans vs. Democrats

All elections in Gilded Age close= politicians focused on keeping jobs

Extreme party loyalty and high voter turnout

Republicans= Puritan lineage, government should regulate economy and moralityMidwest, rural and small towns in New

England, freedmen, GARDemocrats= immigrants, no government

interferenceSouth and industrial cities (political machines)

Stalwarts vs. Half Breeds

Division in Republican party in 1870’s-80’s over patronageStalwarts: trade civil service jobs for

votes (Roscoe Conkling)Half Breeds: civil service reform (James

G. Blaine)

Hayes vs. Tilden

1876 election: Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio (unknown)

Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden of NY received 184 electoral votes (needed 185)3 Southern states contested

Electoral Count Act: electoral commission voted along party lines (Republican)

Hayes-Tilden Disputed Election of 1876 (with electoral vote by state) Nineteen of the twenty disputed votes composed the total electoral count of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. The twentieth was one of Oregon’s three votes, cast by an elector who turned out to be ineligible because he was a federal officeholder (a postmaster), contrary to the Constitution (see Art. II, Sec. I, para. 2).

Compromise of 1877

Backroom deal to let Hayes have victory would give Democrats concessions if didn’t opposeRemove federal troops from South1 Southern Democrat in CabinetTranscontinental railroadIndustrialized South

Official end to Reconstruction Redeemer governments in SouthCivil Rights Act 1875 last attempt to help

blacks

Jim Crow

Solidly white South= Redeemer state governmentsIntimidation of blacksShare cropping or tenant farming crop

lien systemJim Crow laws, lynchingsPlessy vs. Ferguson 1896

A Southern Plantation, Before and After the Civil War

Chinese Immigrants

1880: 75,000 Asians in CaliforniaGold and transcontinental railroadOutcastes, no children to help with

assimilation, most menial jobsDenis KearneyChinese Exclusion Act 1882US vs. Wong Kim Ark 1898 (jus soli vs. jus

sanguinis)

Garfield and Arthur

1880 election: James A Garfield (Half Breed) and Chester A. Arthur (Stalwart)

Charles J. Guiteau shot Garfield“I am a Stalwart and now Arthur is

President”Insanity plea convicted and hung

Chester A. Arthur= reform spoils systemPendleton Act 1883Led to marriage of politics with big business

Assassination of Garfield

Grover Cleveland

Democrat Grover Cleveland won 1884 electionBourbon Democrat- believed in laissez

faire economics, gold standard, against imperialism and boss politics

Caved to spoils system, vetoed pension bills

Wanted to lower the tariff to get rid of $145 million surplus (small government)

Lost 1888 election to Benjamin Harrison over tariff issue ($ from business to Harrison to buy votes!)

The Populists

1892 The People’s Party (Populists)Adopted Omaha Platform at Convention

Inflation free and unlimited coinage of silver

Graduated income taxGovnt. ownership of RR, telegraph, telephoneDirect election of Senators1 term limit on presidentInitiatives and referendums (grassroots)8 hour work dayImmigration restrictions

Presidential Election of 1892 (showing vote by county)

Minnesota Farmers Loading a Husker-Shredder, 1890s The purchase of technologically advanced farm equipment increased the productivity of farmers but also saddled them with debt. Many sought debt relief in the 1890s by clamoring for inflationary schemes, including the monetization of silver

The Populists

Homestead Steel Plant (Carnegie)- workers went on strikePinkerton detectives sent in summer 189210 dead, 60 wounded, troops needed

Populists hoped to link agrarian movement to labor, but mostly seen in west and midwestSouth failed to join because of racism

Homestead Strike

Panic of 1893

Cleveland reelected 1892 (2 nonconsecutive terms)

Panic of 1893= worst downturn of 19th centuryOverbuilding, speculation, decrease in

agriculture, labor problemsLegal tender notes issued redeem for

gold or silver= run on gold!Needed to repeal Sherman Silver Purchase

Act- Treasury dropped below $100 million in gold

Panic of 1893

Needed to get past silverites (supported bimetallism) William Jennings Bryan

By 1894, still losing too much gold down to $41 millionLoan from JP Morgan in 1895 of $65

million with a $7 million commissionSeen as a deal with the devil by silverites