Gilded Age Politics Waving the Bloody shirt in

Gilded Age Politics

Waving the “Bloody shirt” in the 1868 election Scandals Fisk and Gould-bribes Credit Mobiler-bribes and unfair hiring practices Grant’s secretary - helped whiskey distillers escape Foreign Policy Alabama Santo Domingo Grantism

Corruption Tweed Ring Stole from NYC Grantism

Election of 1872 Liberal Republicans (anti. Grant) along with Democrats nominated Horace Greeley Republicans nominated Grant for 2 nd term Reform of Republican party was the true success of the liberal republicans

Causes: Overproduction in both agriculture and industry Jay Cooke and bank failure Triggered 5 -year depression Debate hard v. soft money Resumption Act of 1875 Panic of 1873

Reconstruction and the Constitution Ex parte Milligan (1866) Texas v. White (1869) Slaughterhouse cases (1873) U. S. v. Reese (1876)

Reconstruction Abandoned Democrats in the South Home rule “Redemption” Terrorism Kansas fever Plantation before and after the Civil War

Election of 1876 - And the Winner is…. Hayes v. Tilden won Contested votes and fraud! Compromise of 1877 (end of Reconstruction)

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) In reality, segregation and inequality were mainstays in Southern society Jim Crow Laws Virginia Theaters: Every person. . . operating. . . any public hall, theatre, opera house, motion picture show or any place of public entertainment or public assemblage which is attended by both white and colored persons, shall separate the white race and the colored race and shall set apart and designate. . . certain seats therein to be occupied by white persons and a portion thereof , or certain seats therein, to be occupied by colored persons. Virginia Railroads: The conductors or managers on all such railroads shall have power, and are hereby required, to assign to each white or colored passenger his or her respective car, coach or compartment. If the passenger fails to disclose his race, the conductor and managers, acting in good faith, shall be the sole judges of his race.

Class Conflicts Railroad Strike Agreement to cut wages Strike with federal army brought in Chinese Primarily men Economic hardship Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Garfield (not the cat!) Garfield v. Hancock v. Weaver (Greenback Party) in 1880 Garfield won but was shot by deranged man Arthur Cracked down on Spoils system (Pendleton Act) Led to “marriage of convenience” with corporations

Conflicting Views of Spoils System “The civil service law is the biggest fraud of the age. It is the curse of the nation. There can’t be no real patriotism while it lasts. How are you goin’ to interest our young men in their country if you have no offices to give them when they work for their party? . . . First, this great and glorious country was built up by political parties; second, parties can’t hold together if their workers don’t get the offices when they win; third, if the parties go to pieces, the government they built up must go to pieces, too; fourth, then there’ll be hell to pay. ” –a political boss (George Washington Plunkitt) “The men who are in office only for what they can make out of it are thoroughly unwholesome citizens, and their activity in politics is simply noxious…Decent private citizens must inevitably be driven out of politics if it is suffered to become a mere selfish scramble for plunder, where victory rests with the most greedy, the most cunning, the most brazen. The whole patronage system is inimical to American institutions; it forms one of the gravest problems with which democratic and republican government has to grapple. – Teddy Roosevelt

Mudwumps and Mudslingers Republican Baine v. Democrat Cleveland (Election of 1884) Personalities not principles debated throughout campaign

Cleveland the President Spoils system Tariff Veteran Pensions

Election of 1888 The City v. Young Tippecanoe Harrison won Used big business money “voting cattle”

Billion-Dollar Congress Republican Congress passed out money liberally Major pensions Mc. Kinley Tariff Farmers respond with the vote

Election of 1892 Populist Party Farmers James B. Weaver as candidate One of few third parties since Civil War to gain electoral votes (22) Homestead Strike Carnegie Steel Pinkerton detectives Troops eventually called in

Cleveland (Again!) Won 1892 election Panic of 1893 Depression Gold Crisis with J. P. Morgan to the rescue Wilson Gorman Tariff (1894)

Industry and Economics

Power of Industry Vertical Ex: integration Carnegie’s steel Horizontal Ex: integration Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Interlocking Ex: directorates Morgan’s banks

Transcontinental railroad Vanderbilt Positive Impact Union Pacific meets Central Pacific Markets and industry Mining and agriculture Westward migration Time zones Problems Credit Mobiler Scandal Railroad “Kings” Government intervened with the Wabash Case of 1886 and Interstate Commerce Act of (1887) Railroads

Railroads

Steel Bessemer Process Carnegie J. P. Morgan and the U. S. Steel Company

Oil Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company Spies, manipulation and secrecy Justification Gospel of Wealth Social Darwinism

Government Involvement Commerce Act of 1887 Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 Clayton Anti-Trust Act

Unions Early Impact? Major Unions National Labor Union Knights of Labor Haymarket Square American Federation of Labor Samuel Gompers

Immigration New immigrants Southern and eastern Europe Reasons for coming to U. S. Reactions Bosses like Boss Tweed play role Charity Christian socialists Hull House Urban reformers Nativism