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Gilded Age Politics C . 1876—1900

Gilded Age Politics C . 1876—1900. Gilded Age Politics. The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Warner (1873) Political equilibrium Civil service reform, currency, and the tariff. Gilded Age Politics. Strict Constructionists Commander in Chief Enforcer of laws passed by Congress

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Gilded Age Politics C . 1876—1900

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  1. Gilded Age Politics • C.1876—1900

  2. Gilded Age Politics • The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Warner (1873) • Political equilibrium • Civil service reform, currency, and the tariff

  3. Gilded Age Politics • Strict Constructionists • Commander in Chief • Enforcer of laws passed by Congress • Head of political party

  4. Gilded Age Politics • High Voter Participation— Why? • (1) People believed that the issues were important • (2) People believed that their votes counted • (3) Politics = Entertainment

  5. Gilded Age Politics • Involved electorate, but what determined how it voted? • Republicans: Protestants of English and German descent, Southern Blacks, and Union Civil War Veterans. Ohio River Valley, the West, and New England

  6. Gilded Age Politics • Democrats: Southern Whites, Roman Catholics, Jewish people, immigrants under the influence of party bosses. • Campaigns—Republicans: • The Bloody Shirt • Veterans’ Pensions

  7. Gilded Age Politics • Nativism • Campaigns—Democrats: • Republicans will take your booze away • Played to Race in the South • Maintained that Republicans were corrupt

  8. Gilded Age Politics • Why the push for Civil Service Reform? • President Ulysses S. Grant (R) (1822-1885) (1869-1877)

  9. Gilded Age Politics • Patronage • Roscoe Conkling— • Stalwart • James Blaine— • Half-Breed

  10. Gilded Age Politics President Rutherford B. Hayes (R) (1822-1893) (1877-1881)

  11. Gilded Age Politics President James A. Garfield (R) (1831-1881) (1881)

  12. Garfield was shot on 2 July 1881 and died on 19 September

  13. Gilded Age Politics A disgruntled patronage seeker, Charles J. Guiteau (1840?-1882), assassinated Garfield

  14. Gilded Age Politics President Chester A. Arthur (R) (1830-1886) (1881-1885)

  15. Gilded Age Politics • Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883) “Merit-based system” • Put approximately 14% of Federal Jobs under classified services; jobs were obtained through competitive examinations.

  16. Gilded Age Politics • The Tariff • By 1888, over 4,000 items imported into the US had duties of roughly 45%. • Protectionism • Created tensions between industry and agriculture

  17. Gilded Age Politics • Arthur appointed a special Tariff Commission (1882) • Recommended lowering the tariff 20-25% • “Riders” • Mongrel Tariff (1883)

  18. Gilded Age Politics • The Underwood Tariff (1913) • Income Taxes (XVI Amendment 1913) • Currency • debtors vs. creditors

  19. Legal Tender—US can require creditors to accept paper money as payment for debt. The • Fed printed $450,000,000 Greenbacks

  20. Gilded Age Politics • Hepburn v. Griswold (1870) • Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873) • Specie Resumption Act (1874)

  21. Coinage Act (1873) • Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)—required Federal Government to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver each month with Federal Bank Notes

  22. The Agrarian Revolt • (1) High railroad rates in farming regions • (2) Overcharged and ripped off by middlemen • (3) Hurt by high tariff • (4) Victimized by eastern bankers • (5) Not enough money

  23. The Agrarian Revolt • The Grange • The Farmers’ Alliance • Cooperatives • Crop Sub-Treasuries • The Populists

  24. The Agrarian Revolt Mary E. Lease (1850-1933)

  25. The Agrarian Revolt • Populist Platform endorsed at the Party Convention, Omaha, Nebraska 4 July 1892: • (1) Crop sub-treasury • (2) Free and unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to 1 • (3) Graduated income tax

  26. The Agrarian Revolt • (4) Nationalization of railroads, telegraphs, and telephones • (5) Eight-hour workday • (6) Immigration restrictions • (7) Initiative, Referendum, and Recall

  27. The Agrarian Revolt • (8) Australian Ballot • (9) Direct election of United States Senators • (10) At least $50.00 in circulation per capita

  28. The Agrarian Revolt • Presidential Election of 1892 • James B. Weaver (1833-1912) (P) • Carried Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, and Nevada

  29. The Agrarian Revolt • Presidential Election of 1896 • William Jennings Bryan (D) (1860-1924)

  30. The Agrarian Revolt William McKinley (R) (1843-1901) (1897-1901)

  31. Bryan lost the election. Why? Bryan Altgeld

  32. The Agrarian Revolt • Exuded Protestant evangelism • Republicans would not join the Populist/Democrat fusion • Many believed he was communistic or anarchistic; American labor did not join the American farmer

  33. Legacies of the 1896 Election • A new campaigning style • Ascendancy of the industrial over the agricultural • Beginning of the end of American mass political participation • Decline of Party and the rise of Special Interest Groups

  34. The Progressive Era • The desire to use government as an agency of human welfare • Antecedents of Progressivism: • (1) Movement owed a great deal to Populism • (2) Social Critics and Writers—

  35. The Progressive Era • Individuals described by Theodore Rooseveltas the “lunatic fringe of muckrakers” • a. Henry Demarest Lloyd used articles to attack monopoly including, “Story of a Great Monopoly” in Atlantic Monthly (1881)

  36. The Progressive Era b. Ida M. Tarbell also targeted John D. Rockefeller with her History of the Standard Oil Co.

  37. The Progressive Era c. Lincoln Steffens wrote about municipal corruption in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis for McClure’s, Everybody’s, and Cosmopolitan

  38. The Progressive Era • Four features of Progressivism: • Democratic • Direct primaries • Initiative, referendum, and recall • Income Taxes (XVI Amendment 1913)

  39. The Progressive Era • Direct election of US Senators (XVII Amendment 1913) • Government efficiency • City Manager • Staunton, Virginia (1908) • National Association of City Managers

  40. The Progressive Era • Governor Robert M. “Fighting Bob” La Follette (R) (1855-1925) • Legislative Reference Bureau • “Wisconsin idea”

  41. The Progressive Era • Regulation • Increased tendency to direct some business activities through federal regulations • Social Justice • Settlement House movement

  42. The Progressive Era Jane Addams (1860-1935)

  43. The Progressive Era Ellen G. Starr (1860-1940)

  44. The Progressive Era Hull House Chicago, Illinois (1889)

  45. The Progressive Era • The National Child Labor Committee (1904) • By 1914, 35 state legislatures had passed laws prohibiting children under age fourteen from working

  46. The Progressive Era • Florence Kelly (1859-1932) • National Consumers’ League • Sociologist Louis D. Brandeis

  47. Triangle Shirt Waist Company fire , New York (25 March 1911)

  48. The Progressive Era Liquor Prohibition—”manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors . . . prohibited.” (XVIII Amendment 1919)

  49. The Progressive Era • Presidential Election of 1900 • William Jennings Bryan (D) (1860-1924)

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