1. Politics in the Gilded Age

2. Gilded Age
Dates are not formal. The Gilded Age is usually considered to be from the end of the Civil War to the turn of the century usually marks the beginning of the Progressive Era -The developments that defined the Gilded Age continued after 1900

3. The name came from the title of a book by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner: The Gilded Age, published in 1873

4. Gilded Age Politics Republican dominance of the Presidency
All Republican presidents (except Cleveland)
Southern state governments became Democratic
Corruption at all levels
Voter turnout was very high- close to 80% of eligible voters in presidential elections

5. Election of 1868
Ulysses S. Grant (R) v. Horatio Seymour (D) Grant won Popular vote was much closer (votes of newly enfranchised African Americans make the difference) Waving the “Bloody Shirt”- reviving memories of the Civil War to gain political support

6. Scandals Crédit Mobilier
Insiders gave stock to members of Congress to avoid investigation of the huge profits they were making from government subsidies for building the transcontinental railroad
“Jubilee Jim” Fisk and Jay Gould tried to corner the gold market
Whiskey Ring
Federal revenue agents conspired with the liquor industry to defraud the government of millions in taxes
Belknap scandal
Secretary of War Belknap was impeached for accepting bribes from companies that had licenses to trade on Native American reservations. He resigned.

8. Boss Tweed William Tweed was boss of the Democratic Party in NY City
The Tammany Hall machine controlled city politics
The Tweed Ring swindled $200 million from New York taxpayers before Tweed was exposed by The New York Times and Thomas Nast
Tweed was imprisoned.
Samuel Tilden helped bring Tweed down.
Consider connection of immigrants to NYC and the political machine

10. Graft- the acquisition of gain (as money) in dishonest or questionable ways (Merriam-Webster)

11. Thomas Nast Immigrant from Germany Cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly
Popularizes the donkey and the elephant as the symbols for the Democratic and Republican parties
Introduces the modern image of Santa Claus

12. Can the Law Reach Him? 1872 Cartoonist Thomas Nast
attacked “Boss” Tweed in a series of cartoons like this one
that appeared in Harper’s Weekly in Here Nast depicts
the corrupt Tweed as a powerful giant, towering over a
puny law force.
p490

13. “Let Us Prey”

14. The Bosses of the Senate
Joseph Kepler in Puck
1889

15. The Election of 1872
Liberal Republicans nominated Horace Greeley (editor of the New York Tribune)
Democrats endorsed Greeley
Greeley blamed the South and Democrats for the Civil War but accepted the Democratic nomination
Republicans nominated Grant
Grant won
The Republicans reacted to the Liberal Republican threat by passing a general amnesty act (removing political restrictions on some former Confederates, reducing high Civil War tariffs, and passing some civil service reform

16. Can Greeley and the Democrats “Swallow” Each Other?
1872 This cartoon by Thomas Nast is a Republican gibe
at the forced alliance between these former foes. General
William Tecumseh Sherman wrote from Paris to his brother,
“I feel amazed to see the turn things have taken. Grant who
never was a Republican is your candidate; and Greeley who
never was a Democrat, but quite the reverse, is the
Democratic candidate.”
p491

17. Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age
Presidential elections were close
Between 1869 and 1891 the majority party in the House switched six times
Republicans and Democrats generally agreed on most issues (tariff, civil-service reform, and currency)
Ethnic and cultural differences divided the parties

18. Two parties were highly competitive
They were both well organized with fiercely loyal members- partisanship was very high
Straight ticket voting was common
Election day was like a social event with parades, marching bands, food
Patronage was used to maintain party loyalty

19. VEP- Voter Eligible Population

20. Republicans
Core of Republican strength came from men in business and the middle class; most were Anglo-Saxon Protestants
Beliefs can be traced back to Puritanism
Stressed personal morality and believed gov’t should play a role in regulating the economy and moral affairs of society
Political base was in the Midwest and rural and small-town Northeast
Supported pro-business economic program of high tariffs

21. Republicans
1870s- leadership of the Republicans moved away from the previous reformers to those who played the patronage game
Stalwarts
Led by Roscoe Conkling (U.S. Senator from NY)
Half-Breeds
Led by James G. Blaine (Congressman from Maine)

22. Democrats
Immigrant Lutherans and Catholics played an important role in their strength
Generally believed in more religious toleration and did not believe that government should impose a single moral standard on society
Electoral base was in the South and in the cities

23. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats had a strong legislative agenda.
Politics in this era has been characterized by patronage and the objective of winning elections in order to provide jobs to the party faithful
At the local level, issues such as prohibition and education were important

24. The Political Legacy of the Civil War Union veterans of the Civil War supported
Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes in The Grand Army of the Republic
(G.A.R.), the Union veterans’ organization, voted heavily for the G.O.P. (Grand Old Party)
in the post-civil war years.
p493

25. The Election of 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes (R) vs. Samuel Tilden (D)
Tilden received 184 electoral votes of the 185 needed
Four states- Oregon, Louisiana, SC and Florida- were in dispute
The Constitution simply said that the electoral returns from each state shall be sent to Congress. It didn’t say who should count the returns.

26. Compromise of 1877
An electoral commission was established consisting of fifteen members selected from the Senate, the House and the Supreme Court to count the votes
As part of the compromise, it was agreed that Hayes could take office in return for withdrawing federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina (the two states in which the troops remained)

28. Map 23.1 Hayes-Tilden Disputed Election of 1876 (with
electoral vote by state) Nineteen of the twenty disputed
votes composed the total electoral count of Louisiana, South
Carolina, and Florida. T he twentieth was one of Oregon’s
three votes, cast by an elector who turned out to be ineligible
because he was a federal officeholder (a postmaster), contrary
to the Constitution (see Art. II, Sec. I, para. 2).
Map 23-1 p494

29. The Election of 1880
James A. Garfield (R) vs. Winfield Scott Hancock (D) Garfield won

30. Chester A. Arthur (a Stalwart) became President
1881 Garfield was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau (who declared himself a Stalwart)
Chester A. Arthur (a Stalwart) became President
Ended up being more reformist than expected

31. The Office Makes the Man, 1881 Besieged by his former
New York cronies, Arthur tries to assert the dignity of his
new presidential office.
p499

33. Figure 23.1 Civil-Service Employment The proportion
of federal jobs that are classified, or subject to rigid
civil-service laws and competitive requirements, has greatly
increased since Arthur’s presidency. The total number of civil service
jobs has remained relatively stable since the 1950s,
even as the government has expanded in size and budget.
The decline in classified civil-service jobs in recent decades
reflects the changes mandated by the Postal Reorganization
Act of 1971, which moved U.S. Postal Service employees from
competitive to excepted service. Excepted jobs are not subject
to rigid civil-service laws passed by Congress. (Sources:
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Federal Civilian Workforce
Statistics—Employment and Trends, and unpublished data.)
Figure 23-1 p502

34. Pendleton Act 1883
Garfield’s assassination helped push politicians to reform the civil-service system
Compulsory campaign contributions from federal employees were made illegal
The Civil Service Commission was established to make appointments to federal jobs on the basis of competitive examinations

35. Civil-service reform and the decline of patronage resulted in politicians looking to big business for campaign contributions
Mobilization of voters by party bosses gave way to raising money from manufacturers and lobbyists

36. The Election of 1884
James G. Blaine (R) vs. Grover Cleveland (D) “Mugwumps”- reformers who did not want Blaine because he was tainted with corruption bolted the party Cleveland won (NY proved to be the difference) Neither Blaine nor Cleveland had served in the war
A NY supporter of Blaine described the Democrats as the party of “rum, Romanism, and rebellion.” Blaine doesn’t disavow this slur and it hurts him in NY

37. “I Want My Pa!” Malicious anti-Cleveland cartoon.

38. “Old Grover” Takes Over
Uses patronage
Signs a tariff law that expands the tariff
Signs the Interstate Commerce Act

39. The Election of 1888
Grover Cleveland (D) vs. Benjamin Harrison (R) (Grandson of William Henry Harrison)
The tariff issue divided the two parties- Democrats want to lower it while Republicans wanted to keep it
Republicans raised $3 million
Harrison won
Cleveland won the popular vote

40. Pro-business policies
Signs Sherman Antitrust Act
First “Billion dollar Congress”

41. The Election of 1892
Cleveland (D) vs. Harrison (R) vs. Weaver (Populist) Cleveland won (the only President reelected after being defeated)

42. Map 23.3 Presidential Election of 1892 (showing vote by county) Note the concentration
of Populist strength in the semiarid farming regions of the western half of the
country. (Compare this with Map 26.4, showing average annual precipitation with major
agricultural products as of 1900, on p. 589.)
Map 23-3 p507

43. Cleveland signs Dawes Act
drastically changing the legal status of Native Americans
Makes Native Americans individual land holders on reservation lands
The Panic of 1893 turns into a long depression
The Pullman Strike is ended with use of the U.S. Army

44. p511