1. Presidents: Grant – Cleveland

2. Presidential Election of 1868
Democrats
Horatio Seymour – former NY Governor
Denounced military reconstruction
Won 80 Electoral votes to Grant’s 214 –the popular vote was close (300,000)
Republicans
Ulysses S. Grant
He had no political experience
main job was to hand out patronage
“Let us have Peace”
“vote as you Shoot”
“Waving the Bloody Shirt”

3. The “Bloody Shirt” Elects Grant

4. Scandals Under Grant Credit Mobilier Scandal
1872 Union Pacific RR leaders created the company
Hired themselves at a 348% profit
Distributed stock to key congressmen & the VP of US.

5. Whiskey Ring: Robbed the government of millions in whiskey tax revenue
Included Grant’s own private secretary (who he protected)

6. Depression, Deflation & Inflation
Panic of 1873
Over-building of Railroads, mines, factories & farms
Bad loans – no profits and no payments, led to foreclosures
Hard vs. Cheap money
Cheap $: agrarian & debtor groups want greenbacks (Civil War $) to be re-issued
Hard money: Creditors wanted to be paid back with gold and silver coins
Grant vetoed a bill to make more greenbacks
Congress passed the Resumption Act of 1875
Buy back greenbacks in gold at face value by 1879

7. Presidential Election, 1876
Democrats
Samuel J. Tilden
1 vote short (184 needs 185) led in the popular vote
Deadlock was to be settled by an electoral commission
8 Republicans
7 Democrats…
Republicans:
Rutherford B. Hayes
3-time Governor of Ohio
20 disputed votes
Louisiana, S. Carolina & Florida
Both Parties sent delegates to the Electoral College

9. Compromise of 1877 & the End of Reconstruction
Electoral Commission
Voted along political lines--electing Hayes
Almost a second Civil War
Create a compromise to prevent
Troops leave South
Democrats will gain some patronage
Consequences of compromise:
Black equality is abandoned in the South

11. Compromise of 1877 & the End of Reconstruction
For example….
Civil Rights Act 1875
Blacks should have equal public accommodations & equality in jury selection
Not enforced
Civil Rights Cases 1883
14th Amendment only meant Government violations of Civil Rights

12. The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post Reconstruction South
Sharecropping and tenant farming
“Crop lien” system
Kept Blacks in poverty in the South
Jim Crow Laws
State-level segregation laws
Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
“Separate but Equal” facilities
Lynching:
Blacks lynched for the “crime” of asserting themselves as equals

14. Election of 1880 Republicans win election 214-155
Democrats
Winfield Scott Hancock
Republicans
James Garfield --“Dark Horse”
Chester A. Arthur—Vice president
From NY and a Stalwart
Republicans win election
Garfield assassinated, July 2, 1881
By Charles J. Guiteau
Disappointed because he did not receive patronage
Pendleton Act of 1883
Chester Arthur supports Civil Service reform
Jobs based upon a competitive exam
Placed the Civil Service Commission in charge of appointments

15. Election of 1884 Wins narrow election
Republicans
James G. Blaine
“Rum, Romanism, Rebellion” = loses NY
Mugwumps left to support Democratic Party in order to support reform
Democrats
Grover Cleveland
Very honest “a public office is a public trust”
Wins narrow election
Election over personalities NOT policy

16. “Old Grover” takes over
Vetoed a bill that would have provided seed for drought-ravaged Texas farmers
“Though the people must support the government, the government should not support the people”.
Named 2 former Confederates to his cabinet
Helped sooth North and South relations
“Caved-in” to spoils system
Military pensions:
Widespread $ given to Civil War Veterans
Cleveland reads each and vetoes 100’s

17. Cleveland Battles for a Lower Tariff
Tariff had been high since the Civil War
The Treasury had a surplus of $145 million
Cleveland felt a lower tariff meant lower prices for consumers & less protection for monopolies
Cleveland runs for the Democrats
Republicans nominate Benjamin Harrison (grandson of William Henry)
Harrison will win the electoral college but lose the popular

18. The Billion-Dollar Congress
Republicans have a thin lead in the House
Thomas “Czar” Reed becomes Speaker of the House and pushes legislation through
Pensions to Civil War Veterans
Government purchases of silver (Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1890)
McKinley Tariff = 48.4 % highest peacetime level
In the mid-term elections, Republicans lost dropping to 88 seats vs 235 Democrats also 9 members of the Farmers Alliance, a militant organization

20. Cleveland and the Depression
Only president elected after his defeat
Depression of 1893 (may have been worse than Great Depression)
Railroad over-building & over-speculation, labor disorders, agricultural depression – free-silver hurt the international market & European banking houses demanded repayments in gold lowering the gold reserve
8,000 business collapsed in 6 months, railroads went under
Soup kitchens and hoboes common, local charities hard-pressed
Federal Government “let nature take its course” philosophy
William Jennings Bryan makes a plea for silver-Cleveland breaks the filibuster and alienates “free silver” faction of the Democrat party
Cleveland finally has to go to JP Morgan for $65 million in gold

21. Cleveland Breeds a Backlash
Cleveland is blamed for “selling” out to JP Morgan and business interests (Morgan had made $7million on the gold loan to the government)
Wilson-Gorman Tariff 1894 (not much % drop over McKinley Tariff) 2% tax on incomes over $4,000) Cleveland allows the bill to become law without his signature
Mid-term elections, Republicans won back lost majority in congress
Cleveland blamed for their rebound

22. “Forgettable” Presidents
The word lilliputian has come into common usage, meaning "very small sized".
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison and Cleveland are all considered “forgettable” presidents largely because they did so little and they were controlled by Congress