1. National politics and influence of corporate power
Gilded Age Politics
National politics and influence of corporate power
Agrarian discontent and political issues of the late nineteenth century

2. Politics in the Gilded Age
Gilded Age - ‘covered with a thin layer of gold’
Wealth and prosperity and progress
VS.
Urban, labor, and farming problems and big business corruption

3. Gilded Age Politics

4. The “Business of Politics”
Laissez-faire
Government should play a very limited role in business
Favored high tariffs on imports (to protect American businesses)
Government subsidies
payment by government to encourage development of certain businesses and/or industries (I.e. RR)

5. Credit Mobilier Scandal: 1873
Gov’t awarded Union Pacific (UP) RR loans and land to build Transcontinental RR
Credit Mobilier company - hired to build RR
Credit Mobilier charged UP way too much $$$.
In order for Congress to keep funding, Credit Mobilier offered cheap shares of stock to Congressmen who agreed to support continued funding
Investigated in both parties, lots of indivuduals - guilty
“Every Public Question With an Eye Only to the Public Good”
Harper's Weekly March 15, 1873

6. Spoils System - Patronage system
Started in American politics with Andrew Jackson (1828)
‘To the victor, go the spoils of war…’
Giving of jobs as a reward for loyalty - even to unqualified people

7. Political Parties in the Gilded Age
Republicans
Appealed to industrialists, bankers, and eastern farmers
Strongest in N and upper Midwest
Favored tight money supply backed by GOLD
High tariffs
High pensions for Union soldiers
Gov’t aid to RR
Strict limit on immigration
Enforcement of blue laws - prohibited private activities many considered immoral
Democrats
Attracted those less privileged
Northern immigrant workers, laborers, southern planters, western farmers
Claimed to represent ordinary people
Favored increased money supply backed by SILVER
Lower tariffs
Higher farm prices
Less gov’t aid to big business
Fewer blue laws

8. “Waving the Bloody Shirt”
Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) organization of northern Civil War veterans
Campaigned for Republicans
Called on former Union generals as candidates

9. Ethnic Divisions and Gilded Age Politics
Democrats
Family tradition = Irish, immigrants
Religious affiliation = Catholic
Appealed to common city laborers
Local issues = prohibition
Republicans
Family tradition = Protestant, old-stock northerners,
Religious affiliation = Protestant
African-Americans
Local issues = against “vices” and for Prohibition in most cases

10. Well-Defined Voting Blocs
Democratic Bloc
Republican Bloc
White southerners (preservation of white supremacy)
Catholics
Recent immigrants (esp. Jews)
Urban working poor (pro-labor)
Most farmers
Northern whites (pro-business)
African Americans
Northern Protestants
Old WASPs (support for anti-immigrant laws)
Most of the middle class

11. Figure 18.1 Ethnocultural Voting Patterns in the Midwest, 1870–1892 (p. 521)

12. Intense Voter Loyalty to the Two Major Political Parties
High Levels of Political Participation

13. The Money Supply
Most $ in gold and silver coinage or U.S. Treasury notes
Bankers = limit $ supply
Debtors = expand $ supply
Panic of 1873
Greenback Party of expanded $ supply

14. Money Supply - continued
Silver demonetized in 1873
Silver discovered in huge quantities in 1873 in Nevada (Comstock Lode)
Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
Treasury to buy silver monthly
Issue Treasury notes
Increased $ supply some but not enough for farmers and other debtors

15. The Silver Issue
“Crime of ’73” - demonetization of silver (govt. stopped coining silver).
Bland-Allison Act (1878) - limited silver coinage to $2-$4 mil. per mo. (based on the 16:1 ratio of silver to gold).
Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)
The US Treasury must purchase $4.5 mil. oz. of silver a month.
Govt. deposited most silver in the US Treasury rather than circulation.

16. Spoils System Reform
President Rutherford B. Hayes refused to use patronage system
Began attempt at CIVIL SERVICE reform
Split his party (Republicans) in 1878

17. Rutherford B. Hayes and Civil Service Reform

18. Republican split Stalwarts - Sen. Conkling - defended spoils system
Half-Breeds - Sen. Blaine - reform spoils system but maintain party loyalty
Independents - opposed spoils system entirely (Mugwumps)

19. James Garfield 1880-1881 Elected 1880
Half-Breed faction - to reform spoils system but maintain party loyalty
Assassinated by Stalwart supporter - Guiteau - (who expected a job from Garfield and didn’t get it)

20. Garfield and the Pendleton Act

21. Chester Arthur VP w/ Garfield Became president after assassination
Beneficiary of patronage in NY
Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883

22. Pendleton Civil Service Act
Civil Service Commission set up
Tested applicants
Fed employees not required to contribute campaign $$$
Could not be fired for political reasons

23. Pendleton Act (1883) Civil Service Act.
The “Magna Carta” of civil service reform.
,000 out of 117,000 federal govt. jobs became civil service exam positions.
,000 out of ,00 civil service federal govt. jobs.

24. Election of 1884 - Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland - Democrat
Cleveland heavily criticized
Issues:
Favored tight money policies
Opposed high tariffs
Took back 80 million acres from RR
Supported more gov’t regulation of RR

25. Map 18.1 Presidential Elections of 1880, 1884, and 1888 (p. 517)

26. RR Regulation Many complaints of questionable RR practices
Rebates - partial refunds to favored customers
Munn v. Illinois - Supreme Court decision allowed states to regulate certain businesses (including RR)
decision limited state control in Wabash v. Illinois (interstate commerce still unregulated)
The Wabash decision led to the creation in 1887 of the first modern regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Interstate Commerce Act set up Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
ICC usually had to file suit against RRs and until 1905, lost 15 of 16 cases before the Supreme Court

27. Cleveland lost bid in 1888 to Republican James Garfield
Bandanna, 1888 Election (p. 514)

28. The Tariff Issue
After the Civil War, Congress raised tariffs to protect new US industries.
Big business wanted to continue this; consumers did not.
tariffs earned the US $100 million - In surplus!
Mugwumps (branch of Republican Party) opposed it -
President Cleveland’s view on tariffs:
Tariffs too high and needed to be reduced
Tariffs became a major issue in the 1888 presidential election.

29. President Benjamin Harrison - 1888
Republican - supported business interests
Favored an increase in tariffs
Awarded huge pensions to dependents of Civil War soldiers
Hurt the economy in the long run
Major Achievement:
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

30. Map 18.1 Presidential Election: 1888 (p. 517)

31. Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890
Outlawed any combination for companies that restrained interstate trade or commerce
Supposed to limit the formation and function of trusts and monopolies
Proved ineffective for over 15 years
Vague wording - enforced rarely
Courts ruled pro-business

32. Cleveland’s second term - 1893-1897 (unpopular)
Panic of 1893
Millions of workers lost jobs or had wages slashed
Coxey’s army demanded gov’t create jobs for unemployed
Repealed Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Sent federal troops to Chicago during the Pullman strike of 1894

33. Election of 1896 Populists - Democrats: William Jennings Bryan
Working class and farmers
Free silver
Labor reform
“Cross of Gold” speech
Republicans: William McKinley
New tariff bill (raised)
Stronger gold standard
“A Full Dinner Pail”

34. Election of 1896

35. Map 18.5 The Election of 1896 (p. 540)

36. Election of 1896: Realignment