Transcript Chapter 24: Politics in the Gilded Age

Chapter 24.2:
Politics in the Gilded Age
AP US Unit 9
With help from Ms. Susan Pojer
The “Gilded Age”
• Gilded Age: Name given by Mark Twain to
the post Civil War era. Name given in 1873.
Shiny on the outside, crap on the inside.
• Politics in the Gilded Age were a competitive
battle between very similar parties. Control of
the House, Senate, and White House see-sawed
each election and each election saw narrow
margins.
– Strongly run parties
• Massive party loyalty that caused 80% voter turnout with
rare ticket splitting.
A Two-Party Stalemate
Well-Defined Voting Blocs
Democratic
Bloc
Real differences were
in ethnicity and
culture
Republican
Bloc
 Lutherans and Catholics (less stern)  Puritans (stern view of human
condition)
 Against gov’t effort to put a single
moral standard on society
 Northern whites (pro-business)
 White southerners
(preservation of white supremacy)
 Recent immigrants (esp. Jews)
 African Americans
 Northern Protestants
 Urban working poor (pro-labor)
 Old WASPs (support for antiimmigrant laws)
 Most farmers
 Most of the middle class
 Midwest and small town NE
 GAR (Union Vets)
Very Laissez Faire Federal Gov
• From 1870-1900: Government did very little
domestically.
• Main duties of the federal government.:
– Deliver the mail.
– Maintain a national military.
– Collect taxes & tariffs.
– Conduct a foreign policy.
– Exception: administer the annual Civil War
veterans’ pension.
The Presidency as a Symbolic Office
Party bosses ruled.
Presidents should
avoid offending any
factions within their
own party.
The President just
doled out federal jobs.
Senator Roscoe Conkling
 1865  53,000 people worked for the federal gov
 1890  166,000 people worked for the federal gov
Class Conflicts and Ethnic
Clashes
• In 1877 the 4 major railroads decided to cut
workers’ pay by 10%.
– Work stoppages ensued and soldiers were sent to
stop the riots.
– After several weeks, 100 people were dead.
• The failure of the labor movement at this time
caused workers to become desperate and lash
out at what they could – immigrants.
– Often this racism was immigrant against immigrant
such as the Irish against the Chinese in California.
Class Conflicts and Ethnic
Clashes
• Irish immigrant Denis Kearney and his
followers, the Kearneyites, led these attacks.
• To put a stop to this violence, Congress tried to
pass the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1879, but
Hayes vetoed it saying that it broke our treaty
with China.
• This was political suicide for Hayes and the
Chinese Exclusion Act was passed once he
was out of office in 1882.
– The door to Chinese immigration would not
reopen until 1943.
Gilded Age Political Terms
• Spoils System: Embraced in the Gilded Age as
supporters won government jobs, especially in the
postal system.
• Stalwart: “One who steadfastly supports an
organization or cause: party stalwarts.” Faction of
the Republicans in the 1870’s and 1880’s led by
Roscoe Conkling (Senator from NY). Who openly
embraced the spoils system.
• Half-Breed: Fought with Conklinites. Still did
spoils system but really had issues with who should
give the spoils. Led by James G. Blaine
(Congressman from Maine).
• Stalwarts and Half-Breeds deadlocked themselves
and the Republican Party.
Election of 1880 - Republicans
• Hayes got very little accomplished in office and
was a shock to the political parties since he was a
religious and honorable man.
• Dark-horse James Garfield (of Ohio again) was
nominated after Half-Breed / Stalwart standoffs at
the convention.
– Garfield had come from poor roots, was a
veteran of the war who had risen to the rank of
major general.
– The Vice-Presidential candidate was a Stalwart,
Chester A. Arthur of NY (like Conkling).
Election of 1880 - Democrats
• Democrats nominated vet
Winfield S. Hancock who
was wounded at Gettysburg
and had fairly managed one
of the Southern military
districts (and therefore
appealed to the South).
• The Democratic platform
called for civil-service
reform and a revenue-only
tariff.
1880 Presidential Election
1881: Garfield
Assassinated!
Charles Guiteau:
I Am a Stalwart, and Arthur is
President now!
•Garfield was besieged
with office-seekers.
•One of these, a
mentally ill and
disappointed Charles
J. Guiteau shot
Garfield in the back in
Washington DC.
•Guiteau’s attorneys
used (one of the first
times) the “insanity
defense.” He was still
hung.
•Garfield’s death did
manage to shock the
country into civil
service reform.
Chester A. Arthur and
Reform
• Arthur was a former Conkling crony
who ended up championing reform and
rejecting the Stalwarts who came looking for
spoils.
• The Republican Party began to champion
for change and reform after losing the
midterm 1882 elections.
• Arthur, who had actually made change, was
not re-nominated by the Republicans and
died in 1886.
Civil Service Act.
The “Magna Carta” of
civil service reform.
Pendleton Act
1883
1883  14,000 out of
117,000 federal govt.
jobs became civil
service exam positions.
1900  100,000 out of
200,000 federal govt. jobs were
civil service
Caused party machines to
look towards businesses for
money
1884 Presidential Election
Grover Cleveland
* (DEM)
Former governor of NY.
Reformer. “Grover the Good”
James Blaine
(REP)
Half-Breed Champion and spoils-
man, caused reformers to join
Democrats (Mugwumps)
Republican “Mugwumps”
 Reformers who were upset about corruption with
the Republicans so they switched to the Democratic
Party in 1884
 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
government intervention in society.
Their target was political corruption, not social
or economic reform!
The
Mugwumps
Men may come and
men may go, but the
work of reform shall
go on forever.
 Support Cleveland in
the 1884 election.
A Dirty Campaign
Ma, Ma…where’s my pa?
He’s going to the White House, ha… ha… ha…!
Rum, Romanism & Rebellion!
 At the end of the campaign, a Republican blasted
Democrats in NY about their Rum, Romanism, and
Rebellion – at the same time taking shots at the Irish.
 Blaine was slow to repudiate the remark and Irish
supported Cleveland.
 Narrow victory for Cleveland (he wins NY
by only 1149 votes!)
 Mugwumps and RRR speech help Cleveland win by
30,000 popular votes
1884 Presidential Election
Cleveland’s First Term
 The “Veto Governor” from New York.
 First Democrat elected since 1856.
 A public office is a public trust!
 His laissez-faire presidency:
 Opposed bills to assist the poor as well as the rich.
 Vetoed over 200 special pension bills for Civil War
veterans! (they were mostly fraudulent)
 “Though the people support the government,
the government should not support the
people”
The Tariff Issue
 After the Civil War, Congress raised tariffs to protect
new US industries.
 Big business wanted to continue this; consumers did
not.
 1885  tariffs earned the US $100 million in surplus!
 Mugwumps opposed it
 President Cleveland’s view on tariffs: opposed them
because of fiscal responsibility
 Tariffs became a major issue in the 1888
presidential election.
1888 Presidential Election
Grover Cleveland
(DEM)
Dems weren’t thrilled about him. Major
blow came when it was leaked that
England was excited about a lower tariff
Benjamin Harrison
* (REP)
Grandson of Tippecanoe. Raised
massive money from scared businessmen
1888 Presidential Election
•Cleveland won the popular vote by 90,000
•He was the first sitting president to be voted out since van Buren in
1840
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