The Gilded Age Part II

What a city!

How do you think most Americans we’re feeling about their situation?

In times of need, many immigrants in the cities turned to “political machines” run by “bosses” who did them favors or gave them jobs in return for their vote in the next election. Political machines ran the city governments, not elected officials. The political bosses and their machines used bribery and graft to make millions off of tax payers dollars. Usually a company picked by the boss to do some construction would overcharge the city for its work. The extra money would end up in the hands of machine and the boss. Before anyone realized, all the service industries were run by the machines and their bosses. The most famous boss was “Boss Tweed” (William Tweed) of the Tammany Hall machine in New York.

Some immigrants even worked in politics on the national level, expecting to receive a federal job for supporting a national nominee. In 1881 James A. Garfield became President. He was assassinated less than six months into his first term by a man hoping the Vice President would give him a federal job once he became President. The nation now knew that the “spoils system” had to be destroyed. In response, Congress passed the Pendleton Act which created the Civil Service test. To get a federal post, you must take a civil service test first.