Transcript Politics in The Gilded Age

Politics in The Gilded Age
1869-1889
By: Anthony Abreu and Emily
December
The “Bloody Shirt” Elects Grant
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A. People believed good general would become a
good president.
1. Ulysses S. Grant was the most popular hero to
emerge from the Civil War
A. Greenhorn almost no political
experience
2. Republicans nominated Grant for presidency in
1868
A. Republicans supported Grant by “waving
the bloody shirt" (reviving memories of the Civil War).
3. Grant won the 1868 Election
A. received 214 electoral votes and
3,013,421 in popular votes.
The Era of Good “Stealings”
• A. “A great deal sticks to the wrong fingers”
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1. Corruption in politics and economics
• B. Honest politicians, “when bought, would stay bought”
• C. Financial World had a millionaire duo in “Jubilee Jim”
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Fisk and Jay Gould
1. Devised a plan to “corner” the gold market in 1869
D. Failed because it depended on the Federal Treasury,
refraining from selling gold but instead they released it
E. Tweed Ring in New York City
1.Burly “Boss” Tweed used bribery, graft, and fraud
elections to cheat NYC out of $200 Million
The Era of Good “Stealings” (con’t)
• A Carnival of Corruption
• I. Credit Mobilier Scandal
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1. Railroad construction company which was formed by members of
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Union Pacific Railway
2. Hired themselves to build a railroad line paying $50,000 a mile
when it only actually cost $30,000. They paid dividends of up to 348!
3. Feared congress would take action against them so they distributed
shares to congressmen
II. The Whiskey Ring of 1875
1. Robbed treasury of millions of dollars in excise tax revenue
2. Grant did nothing because one of the culprits was his own private
secretary.
3. Secretary of War Belknap-1876
a. Made $24,000 by selling supplies or “junk” to Indians
b. resigned so he wouldn’t be convicted by congress
The Liberal Republican Revolt of
1872
• A. Liberal Republican Party
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1. Disgusted with corruption of Grant
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administration
2. Party formed by reform-minded citizens
3. “Turn the Rascals Out”
a. purification of Washington Admin.
b. end to military reconstruction
Depression and Demands for
Inflation
• A. Depression of 1873
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1. Large businesses failed to gain profits therefore loans
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weren’t paid
a. credit system plummeted
2. “Boom times became gloom times”
a. more than 15,000 businesses were bankrupt
3. “Cheap-Money” supporters
a. wanted greenbacks to be issued again
i. “Dollar of our Daddies”
4. “Hard-Money” supporters
a. gold and silver coins
b. resumption act 1875  withdrew greenbacks,
redemption of paper money in gold
c. Grant refused to coin silver dollars
5.Bland-Allison Act 1878- instructed the treasury to buy and
coin between $2 Million and $4 million worth of silver each month
Pallid Politics in Gilded Age
• A. Gilded Age
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1. Name given to post Civil War era by Mark Twain due to Corruption
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2. “Political Seesaw” slight nudge could tip advantage in favor of
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opposing party
B. Democrats and Republicans
1. Had similar opinions on issues of tariff, currency, and civil service
reforms
a. competitive with each other
2. Ethnic and Cultural Differences in Members of both parties
a. Republicans Puritanism
b. Democrats Lutherans, Roman Catholics
3. Supporters for both parties
a. Republicans strong votes in North and West and from
the Grand Army of the Republic formed by Union veterans)
b. Democrats - strong support in the south
The Hayes-Tilden Standoff,1876
• A. Grant was not allowed to seek a third term in presidency even
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though he wanted to...
1.House voted 233 to 18 in not allowing grant to run
again.
B. Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) and Samuel J. Tilden
(Democrat) ran for presidency.
1. The election was very close.
a. Tilden received 184 electoral votes but
needed 185 to win.
2. Votes in several states were unsure of and disputed
(South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Oregon)
3. These states returned one Democrat and one
Republican.
The Compromise of 1877 and the
End of Reconstruction
• A. Electoral Count Act 1877
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1. Established an electoral commission consisting of 15 men which
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were selected from the Senate, the House and the Supreme Court to count the
disputed votes
2. The Senate and the House met in February 1887 to settle the
dispute
I. Hayes would take office if he
1. withdrew federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina
2. Provided support for a bill which would subside the Texas and
Pacific Railroad’s construction of a southern transcontinental line
3. “The Compromise bought Peace at a price”
II. Republican Party abandoned commitment to black equality
1. Civil Rights Act of 1875 was last supportive act but was
“toothless” and wasn’t enforced whites once again discriminated blacks
2. Plessy v. Ferguson(1896)
a." separated but equal” facilities were constitutional
Cold-Water Integrity on the
Potomac
• A. Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes
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1. People criticized his election
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a. referred to Hayes as “Rutherfraud”, “His
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Fradulency”
2. Congress passed a bill later known as the Chinese
Exclusion Act to restricted Chinese
immigration
A. act wasn’t passed until Hayes left the
presidency because he vetoed this act
1. He vetoed it to maintain an
existing treaty with China
3. Did not accomplish anything significant or
beneficial for the Nation
The Garfield Interlude
• A. James A. Garfield
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1. Republican that was elected
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president in the 1881 election
2. Appointed James G. Blaine as
Secretary of State who passed Anti-Stalwart acts
3. Presidential term was short as he
was shot and died several weeks after on
Sep.19,1881
a. shot by a mentally deranged
office seeker Charles J. Guiteau
Chester Arthur Takes Command
• A. Chester Arthur becomes President
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1. Underestimated but soon people began to see his
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intelligence as he had graduated from Union College, had become
a lawyer and had political experience under Conkling.
2. The Pendleton Act of 1883  “Magna-Carta of Civil
Service reform
a. prohibited financial assessments on
jobholders
b. established merit system to be appointed
to office rather than “pull”.
c. set up a Civil Service Commission to
examine applicants for posts in classified government services
* By 1884 he had classified 10 % or 14,000 of the posts*
d. “divided politics from patronage, but it
drove politicians into marriages of convenience with business
leaders.”
3. Reforms offended powerful republicans his own
party betrayed him.
The Blaine-Cleveland Mudslingers
of 1884
• A. Presidential Campaign of 1884
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1.James G. Blaine was the republican
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candidate
candidate
2.Grover Cleveland was the democratic
a. democrats dubbed “mugwumps”
meaning “great man” or “holier than thou”
3.Campaigns for both parties used extreme
“mudslinging”
4.Cleveland won the election
a. swept in the South, received 219
electoral votes and 4,879,507 popular votes
“Old Grover” Takes Over
• A. Presidency of Grover Cleveland
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1.supporter of Laissez-Faire governing.
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a. appealed to business owners and bankers.
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2. Dismissed nearly two-thirds of the 120,000 federal
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employees.
3. People abused military pensions
a. Cleveland vetoed a bill that would add hundred
thousands more people to the pension list.
*Cleveland Battles for a Lower Tariff*
A. High Tariffs of Civil War
1. Treasury had a surplus of $145 million
a. most of the governments income came from tariffs.
Harrison Ousts Cleveland in 1888
• Democrats were dismayed; Republicans were rejoicing when they
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nominated their candidate, Harrison.
Launched one of the worst “mud slinging” campaigns ever.
Cleveland......
1. Called ”Beast of Buffalo”
2. Married a 21 year old woman; 27 years his junior.
3. Accused of Alcoholic/Domestic Abuse
4.(Major) Had an Illegitimate Child
5. According to Britain, a vote for him = lowered tariffs.
Note: The North was concerned with their industry; high tariffs =
success. The Irish in New York eventually didn’t support Cleveland
(a crucial vote lost).
Harrison Ousts Cleveland in 1888
continued
• 233 to 168- electoral votes (Harrison won)
• 5,537,857 (Cleveland) to
5,447,129(Harrison) – popular vote
Conclusion
• Most of the “Forgettable” presidents have
left blanks- or blots- on the Nation’s
political record.
• Economic gains “took away the ‘good tobe’ politicians”
• However, the politics wasn’t the greatest,
yet economy experienced a boom.