Transcript Politics in the Gilded Age - Mr. Nichol's History Hotline

Politics in the Gilded
Age
CHAPTER 15 SECTION 3
Main Idea
Political corruption was
common in the late 1800s,
but reformers began fighting
for changes to make
government more honest.
POLITICAL MACHINES
 Political Machine—was an informal group of professional
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politicians controlling the local government who often
resorted to corrupt methods for dealing with urban
problems.
Immigrants—were a loyal support base for the political
machines. In Boston, the Irish rose in the ranks to control the
political machine in that city.
Corruption—Political machines used illegal tactics to
maintain control, buying voter support and resorting to
election fraud.
The Tweed Ring—was a notorious political machine headed
by William Marcy Tweed.
Thomas Nast—a political cartoonist who attacked the
corruption in Harper’s Weekly.
Boss Tweed
Boss Tweed Escaped From Prison
December 4, 1875
Tweed unsuccessfully attempted to bribe both Nast and Jones to
leave him alone, but on November 19, 1873, Tweed was tried
and convicted on charges of forgery and larceny. He was
released in January 1875, but was immediately rearrested.
The state sued him for $6 million, and he was held in a
debtor's jail until he could come up with half that amount for
bail. In the debtor's prison, he was allowed daily trips,
accompanied by the jailer, to see his family. On one of these
trips, in December 1875, he escaped and fled to Spain. He was
a fugitive there for a year, working as a common seaman on a
Spanish ship until he was recognized by his likeness to a Nast
cartoon and captured. He died in a debtor's prison on April 12,
1878.
Scandals
Grant’s presidency was marred
by several scandals. Crédit
Mobilier cost the taxpayers $23
million and tainted the nation’s
leaders. The Whiskey Ring was
responsible for diverting tax
collections.
Hayes and Reform
 Reformers wanted to end the spoils
system, and the next president agreed.
Hayes issued an executive order that
prohibited government employees from
managing political parties or
campaigns. The Stalwarts wanted to
continue the spoils system.
Civil service reform
 Republicans compromised on James
A. Garfield as the next president, but
he was assassinated four months after
taking office. His successor, Chester
A. Arthur, turned against the spoils
system and passed the Pendleton Civil
Service Reform Act.
The Populist Movement
Farmers’ hardships
 Crop prices were falling,
and farmers had to repay
loans.
 Railroads were charging
high fees for transport
 Merchants made money
from farm equipment.
 Everyone made money but
the farmer doing the work
 Outraged farmers
organized to help
themselves.
 Local groups formed to aid
farmers
The National Grange
 First major farmers’
organization
 Campaigned to unite
farmers from all over
 As membership grew,
pushed for political reform
and targeted railroad rates
 Munn v. Illinois gave state
legislatures the right to
regulate businesses that
involved the public
interest.
 Wabash v. Illinois—federal
government could regulate
railroad traffic.
The Alliance Movement and money supply
 The Farmers’ Alliance helped with practical needs such
as buying equipment or marketing farm products. They
also lobbied for banking reform and railroad rate
regulation.
 In the South, the Colored Farmers’ Alliance formed. With
more than 1 million members, the Alliance advocated
hard work and sacrifice as keys to gaining equality in
society.
 The Alliances felt that an expanded money supply would
help farmers by inflating prices, with inflation easing
farmers’ debt burden. Money was tied to the gold
standard, and farmers wanted it to be backed by silver as
well. Now politically active, candidates supported by the
Alliance won more than 40 seats in Congress and four
governorships.
The Populist Party
 Encouraged by their clout in national elections, the
Alliance decided to form a national political party. The
Peoples’ Party was born in Nebraska in July 1892. This
coalition of farmers, labor leaders, and reformers became
known as the Populist Party.
 Party Platform—Supported the National Grange and
Alliance demands, with a platform calling for an income
tax, bank regulation, government ownership of railroad
and telegraph companies, and free coinage of silver.
 1892 election—Speaking for the common people
against the ruling elite, the Populists took several state
offices and won seats in Congress.
The Panic of 1893
 The nation plunged into another depression,
investors pulled out of the stock market, and
businesses collapsed.
 Cleveland focused on silver as a cause of the
national depression. When silver decreased in
value, people rushed to exchange paper money for
gold.
 Cleveland called for Congress to repeal the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act. The country stayed
on the gold standard.
Segregation and Discrimination
CHAPTER 15 SECTION 4
Main Idea
The United States in the
1800s was a place of great
change—and a place in
need of even greater
change.
Restricting the vote
 Once white Democrats had regained control over
their state legislatures, they passed poll tax and
literacy requirements to prevent African Americans
from voting.
 Most African Americans were too poor to afford the
poll tax, and many had been denied the education
needed to pass the literacy test.
 Some poor or illiterate white men could not meet the
requirements, but they were given a grandfather
clause allowing them to vote.
Legalized segregation
 Designed to create and enforce segregation, Jim
Crow laws were passed in the South.
 African Americans filed lawsuits, wanting equal
treatment under the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
 In 1883, the Court ruled the Act to be
unconstitutional, determining the 14th
Amendment applied only to state governments.
 Congress had no power over private individuals or
businesses.
Plessy v. Ferguson
 Thirteen years later, another key case came before the
Supreme Court. The matter involved a Louisiana state
law requiring railroads to provide “equal but separate
accommodations for the white and colored races.”
 Homer Plessy sat in a whites-only train compartment to
test the law and was arrested. He appealed based on the
14th Amendment.
 In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) the court upheld the
practice of segregation, with only Justice John Marshall
Harlan dissenting.
 The Court ruled that “separate but equal” facilities did
not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The Plessy
decision allowed legalized segregation for nearly sixty
years.
Informal Discrimination
Racial etiquette
 Strict rules of behavior, called racial etiquette,
governed social and business interactions. African
Americans were supposed to “know their place” and
defer to whites in every encounter.
Lynching
 If an African American failed to speak respectfully or
acted with too much pride or defiance, the consequences
could be serious.
 The worst consequence was lynching, the murder of an
individual usually by hanging, without a legal trial.
 Between 1882 and 1892, nearly 900 lost their lives to
lynch mobs. Lynchings declined after 1892, but
continued into the early 1900s.
Prominent Black Leaders
 With the turn of the century, two different approaches
emerged for improving the lives of African Americans.
 Born into slavery, Booker T. Washington believed
that African Americans should accept segregation for the
moment. Farming and vocational skills were the key to
prosperity, and he founded the Tuskegee Institute to
teach practical skills for self-sufficiency.
 W.E.B. Du Bois, a Harvard-trained professor, believed
in speaking out against prejudice and striving for full
rights immediately. African Americans should be uplifted
through the “talented tenth,” their best educated leaders.
Du Bois launched the Niagara Movement to protest
discrimination in 1905. Later, he helped found the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP).
Others Suffer Discrimination
Mexican Americans
 They encountered hostility from white Americans, often not
speaking English well and taking the most menial jobs for little
pay. Debt peonage tied many of them to their jobs until they
could pay off debts they owed their employer.
Asian Americans
 Chinese and Japanese Americans had to live in segregated
neighborhoods and attend separate schools. Housing was
difficult, because most house owners did not want Chinese
tenants. Several states also forbade marriage with whites.
Native Americans
 Native Americans faced continuous government efforts to stamp
out their traditional ways of life. Children were sent away from
their parents to be “Americanized.” Reservation life held little
opportunity for economic advancement.