2. The Gilded Age
Political Corruption

3. Political Machines
Network of political activists bound together by personal loyalty to the boss or party organization each committed to cultivating and mobilizing voters in the neighborhood.

4. President Grant “Waving the Bloody Shirt”
Patriotism, Prosperity, Morality
“Vote as you shot” (GAR-General Army of the Republic)
Post-war economic growth
Tariff, monetary policies, land distribution
“all wise and well directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality”
Criticized Democrats

5. Credit Mobilier- Railroads
Union Pacific Railroad creates construction company, Credit Mobilier
Give themselves the contract to build the railroad (as much as $50,000 per mile)
Company sold shares of stock to congressman to protect their interests (two vice presidents).
Dividends 348 percent.

6. Grant Problems Whiskey Ring - Tax evasion
Bribe acceptance - Secretary of War, William Belknap
Congress voted themselves a 50% pay raise
later repealed

7. Opposition within the Republican Party
Roscoe Conkling- Stalwarts-
Keep things the same...GOP
Grand Old Party
James Blaine-”Half Breeds”
Change a little bit
Civil Service Reform
Horace Greeley- Liberal Republican Change a lot - laissez faire

8. Reform?
Pendleton Act-Civil Service Reform, giving jobs on merit system instead of spoils system
Sherman Antitrust Act-Weak attempt to regulate big business and outlaw monopolies-loopholes

9. Who is Thomas Nast? “Father of American Caricature” 1860- 1890
Campaign criticizing the NY Boss,
William Magear Tweed
Illustrations appeared in Harper’s Weekly
Responsible for exposing political corruption in national and local politics
First to use the donkey and elephant to represent the political parties

11. Who is Boss Tweed?
Tweed became a powerful figure in Tammany Hall–New York City’s Democratic political machine–in the late 1850s.
“Tweed Ring,” openly bought votes, encouraged judicial corruption, extracted millions from city contracts, and dominated New York City politics.
The Tweed Ring reached its peak of fraudulence in with the remodeling of the City Court House, a blatant embezzlement of city funds that was exposed by The New York Times.
Harper’s Weekly political cartoonist Thomas Nast, who conducted a crusade against Tweed, virtually every Tammany Hall member was swept from power in the elections of November 1871.