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The American Promise:A Compact History
Third Edition
Chapter 17Business and Politics in the Gilded
Age, 1870–1895Section 04 – Presidential Politics in
the Gilded Age
Copyright © 2007 by Bedford/St. Martin’s
Roark • Johnson • Cohen • Stage • Lawson • Hartmann
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Corruption and Party Strife
• The political corruption continued to trouble the nation in the 1880s.
• A small but determined group of reformers, concerned that powerful business interests often contrived to control state legislatures and, through them, U.S. Senators, championed a new ethics that would preclude politicians from getting rich from public office.
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Corruption and Party Strife
• President Rutherford B. Hayes, whose disputed election victory in 1876 signaled the end of Reconstruction in the South, tried to steer a middle course between reformers and spoilsmen.
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Corruption and Party Strife
• Party bosses dominated national politics: Roscoe Conkling headed the "Stalwarts,”
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Corruption and Party Strife
• James G. Blaine led the "Half-Breeds”
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Corruption and Party Strife
• the "Mugwumps," consisting primarily of reform-minded Republicans, constituted a third faction.
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Corruption and Party Strife
• The Republicans nominated a darkhorse candidate, James A. Garfield, and a Stalwart, Chester A. Arthur, to be his running mate.
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Garfield’s Assassination and Civil Service Reform
• After less than four months in office, Garfield was assassinated by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker who claimed to be motivated by political partisanship.
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Garfield’s Assassination and Civil Service Reform
• The public demanded reform.
• Reform came with the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Act in 1883.
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Reform and Scandal: The Campaign of 1884
• James G. Blaine won the Republican nomination in 1884.
• Grover Cleveland won the Democratic nomination
Presidential Politicsin the Gilded Age
Reform and Scandal: The Campaign of 1884
• Reform-minded Republicans who considered Blaine the personification of political corruption left the party and embraced the Democrats' candidate, Grover Cleveland