Chapter 23

1. Chapter 23 “Politics in the Gilded Age”

2. Election of 1868 • Republican – Grant • A great soldier but had no political experience. • Campaigned by “waving the bloody shirt” • Democrats – Seymour **Grant pulled out a surprisingly close victory. Won by only 300,000 popular votes **Former slaves and African-Americans gave Grant the victory Ulysses S. Grant was convicted of exceeding the speed limit while riding with his horse in the streets of Washington, D.C. late one night. The accusing police officer was reluctant to issue the $20 fine when he realized that the offender was President Grant, but Grant insisted the he be fined.

3. Gilded Age Corruption • Railroad companies were cheating customers • Many judges and legislators put their power up for hire • The infamous Tweed ring of NYC, headed by “Boss” Tweed, employed bribery, graft, and fake elections to cheat the city of as much as $200 million. • Tweed was finally caught when The New York Times secured evidence of his misdeeds, and Tweed, despite being defended by future presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden, was convicted and imprisoned.

5. Boss Tweed

6. Tweed Ring

7. Corruption in the Grant Administration • Whiskey Ring • Robbed the Treasury of millions of dollars, and when Grant’s own private secretary was shown to be one of the criminals, Grant retracted his earlier statement of “Let no guilty man escape.” • Credit Mobilier Scandal • A railroad construction company that paid itself huge sums of money for small railroad construction, hurt Grant. • A New York newspaper finally busted it, and two members of Congress were formally censured (the company had given some of its stock to Congressmen) and the Vice President himself was shown to have accepted 20 shares of stock.

8. Election of 1872 • Republicans – Grant • Democrats – Horace Greeley • Grant crushed Greeley in the Electoral and in the popular vote as well • Not long after the election, Greeley's wife died. He was Grief-stricken and died before the electoral votes could be cast. Greeley would have received 66 electoral votes; they were scattered among others because of his death. However, three of Georgia's electoral votes were left blank in honor of him.

9. Nast Cartoon Hatred of Greeley

10. 1873 Depression • In 1873, a paralyzing panic broke out, caused by too many railroads and factories being formed than existing markets could bear and the over-loaning of banks to those projects. • Demand by debtors for greenbacks to fight deflation • Grant resisted by passing the Resumption Act which took more greenbacks out of circulation • Solution to debtors was free and unlimited coinage of silver

11. Coinage of Silver • Bland-Allison Act - instructed the Treasury to buy and coin between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month.

12. 1878 Bland-Allison Silver Dollars

13. Comstock Lode Silver Mine

14. Gilded Age Defined • By 1870, not only the role of women was being challenged. Industrialists, corporations, utilities, bankers, and brokers were increasingly viewed as an enemy by the working class, whose wages had stagnated while men who were already millionaires got richer. Failed land deals, speculation, and corruption were prevalent. Many workers went from being independent tradesmen to being wage laborers concentrated in large factories. Millions of immigrants swelled the population of U.S. cities and began to compete for jobs. Labor unions were born to represent these angry and beleaguered workers. • Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner captured some of this turmoil in a book on which they collaborated, The Gilded Age, a tale of corruption and failed land deals and a loss of innocence. The book's title was often used to describe this period.

15. Gilded Age Politics • Age of tip toe politics because elections were close and therefore presidents were weak • Democrats had strong support in the South • Republicans had strong votes in the North and the West, and from the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization made up of former Union veterans. • Both parties has strong support from the people • Very little difference between the two parties

16. 3. Well-Defined Voting Blocs DemocraticBloc RepublicanBloc • White southerners(preservation ofwhite supremacy) • Catholics • Recent immigrants • Urban working poor (pro-labor) • Most farmers • Northern whites(pro-business) • African Americans • Northern Protestants • Old WASPs (supportfor anti-immigrant laws) • Most of the middleclass

17. Election of 1876 • Democrats – Samuel Tilden • Lawyer who brought down Tweed ring in NY • Republicans – Rutherford B. Hayes • Stalwarts • Led by Rosco Conkling who pushed for the spoils system • Half Breeds • Led by James G. Blaine • Hayes was a compromise candidate

18. Settling the Disputed Election of 1876 • The election was very close, with Tilden getting 184 votes out of a needed 185 in the Electoral College, but votes in four states, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, and part of Oregon, were unsure and disputed • The disputed states had sent in two sets of returns, one Democrat, one Republican

19. Creation of the Electoral Commission • The Electoral Count Act, passed in 1877, set up an electoral commission that consisted of 15 men selected from the Senate the House, and the Supreme Court, which would count the votes (the 15th man was to be an independent, David Davis, but at the last moment, he resigned). • In February of 1877, the Senate and the House met to settle the dispute, and eventually, Hayes became president as a part of the Compromise of 1877

20. Compromise of 1877 • Hayes would become President • Republicans agreed to remove all troops from the South effectively ending Reconstruction • Creation of a southern transcontinental Railroad • Republicans abandoned their commitment to civil rights • Southerners would receive patronage (jobs) in Hayes cabinet

21. Election of 1876

22. Nast Cartoon on Election of 1876

23. End of Republican Crusade for Civil Rights • Physical Harm • Rise of the KKK • Literacy tests, grandfather clauses, poll taxes • Sharecropping • Crop Lein System • Tenant farming • Jim Crowe Laws – Separate but equal facilities • lynchings

24. Discrimination in the South

25. Plessey Vs Ferguson • A case decided by the Supreme Court in the 1890s. The Court held that a state could require racial segregation in public facilities if the facilities offered the two races were equal. The Court’s requirement became known as the “separate but equal” doctrine. It was overturned by the Court in 1954 in Brown versus Board of Education.

26. Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes • Great Railroad Strike • In 1877, the presidents of the nation’s four largest railroads decided to cut wages by 10%, and workers struck back, stopping work, and when President Hayes sent troops to stop this, violence erupted, and more than 100 people died in the several weeks of chaos. • The failure of the railroad strike showed the weakness of the labor movement, but this was partly caused by friction between races, especially between the Irish and the Chinese. • In San Francisco, Irish-born Denis Kearney incited his followers to terrorize the Chinese • Chinese Exclusion Act • Forbade Chinese from immigrating to America

27. Anti-Chinese

28. Election of 1880 • Republicans – James Garfield • Darkhorse candidate • VP candidate was Chester Authur a Stalwart who had risen up the ranks via the spoils system • Democrats – Winfield Scott Hancock **Garfield won election

29. Assassination of Garfield • Garfield was a good person, but he hated to hurt people’s feelings and say “no.” • Garfield died after having been shot in the back by a crazy but disappointed office seeker, Charles J. Guiteau, who, after being capture, used an early version of the “insanity defense” to avoid conviction (he was hung anyway)

30. Chester Aurthur • Chester Arthur didn’t seem to be fit for the presidency, but he surprised many by giving the cold shoulder to Stalwarts, his chief supporters, and by calling for reform, a call heeded by the Republican party as it began to show newly found enthusiasm for reform • Pendalton Act Passed • Set up a Civil Service Commission to review hiring practices • Made a competitive test

31. Election of 1884 • Republicans – James Blaine • Republican reformers unable to stomach Blaine switched to the Democratic Party and were dubbed Mugwumps • Democrats – Grover Cleveland • Democrats received a shock when it was revealed that he might have been the father of an illegitimate child. **The contest depended on how New Yorkeres voted, until a Republican insulted the race, faith, and patriotism of New York’s heavy Irish population, and as a result, New York voted for Cleveland; that was the difference (Rum Romanism and rebellion) President Grover Cleveland was a draft dodger. He hired someone to enter the service in his place. He was ridiculed by his political opponent, James Blaine, but it was soon discovered that Blaine had done the same thing himself!

32. Rum, Romanism & Rebellion! • Reference to the Democratic Party. • Blaine was slow torepudiate the remark. • Narrow victory forCleveland [he wins NYby only 1149 votes!].

33. Malicious anti-Cleveland Carton

34. Grover Cleveland • Portly Grover Cleveland was the first Democratic president since James Buchanan, and as a supporter of laissez-faire, he delighted business owners and bankers • Military pensions plagued Cleveland; these bills were given to Civil War veterans to help them, but they were used fraudulently to give money to all sorts of people. • By 1881, the Treasury had a surplus of $145 million, most of it having come from the high tariff, and there was lots of clamor for lowering the tariff, though big industrialists opposed • In late 1887, Cleveland openly tossed the appeal for lower tariffs into the lap of Congress. • Upset Big Business

35. Election of 1888 • Republicans – Benjamin Harrison • grandson of William H. Harrison, as their candidate • Democrats – Grover Cleveland • passed the Dawes Act (to control the Indians) and the Interstate Commerce Act (designed to curb railroads), both of which were passed in 1887. • Lost support of Big Business

36. Big Business bought votes for Harrison in NY and Ohio. In spite of receiving 300,000 less votes Harrison won in the electoral college

37. Coming Out for Harrison

38. Benjamin Harrison • After four years out of the White House, the Republicans were eager to return to power, especially those seeking political rewards • James G. Blaine became the Secretary of State • Theodore Roosevelt was named to the Civil Service Commission • Gave pensions to Civil War Vets to use up the surplus in hopes of increasing the tariff • The Pension Act of 1890 gave pensions to all Union Civil War veterans who had served at least 90 days in the army.

39. Secretary of State James Blaine President Benjamin Harrison TR Civil Service Commission

40. Grand Army of the Republic

41. “Billion Dollar” Congress • Thomas “Czar” Reed was the new Speaker of the House

42. Sherman Silver Purchase Act • Allowed the Treasury to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver monthly and pay for it in notes redeemable in silver OR gold • Doubled Bland-Allison

43. McKinley Tariff Bill • Boosted tariff rates up to 48.4%—the highest level yet • The farmers were hurt the most from this tariff because they had to pay higher prices for eastern goods. • As a result, in the election of 1890, Democratic seats in the House rose to 235, while Republicans only had 88 representatives

44. Linking the Sherman Silver Purchase and the McKinley Tariff • Farmers got what they wanted – More silver • Big Business got what they wanted – A higher protective tariff.

45. Election of 1892 • Republicans – Benjamin Harrison • Democrats – Grover Cleveland • Populist – James Weaver • Rolled up over 1Million votes and 22 electoral votes **Grover Cleveland won election. Became the only president to win two non-consecutive terms

46. Populist Party • Grange – Farmers Alliance – Populist Party • Populist Platform • Free and unlimited coinage of silver • Graduated income tax • Government ownership of telephone, telegraph, and railroads • Direct election of Senators • One term limit for president • Initiative, referendum, and recall • Shorter work day for industrial workers – attempt to get the factory workers vote • Immigration restrictions

47. Govt.-Owned Companies

48. Historical cartoon of Populist Party as a snake with William Jennings Bryan's head swallowing donkey of the Democratic Party(Library of Congress

49. Populist Problems • The South was unwilling to support the Populists because of race: one million Black farmers in the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance, along with other Blacks, were targets of Populist outreach • Populist leaders like Georgia’s Tom Watson reached out to the Black community, but racist Whites stunted Populist support in the South.

50. Homestead Steel Strike • Homestead steel strike - plant near Pittsburgh, a strike resulted in violence that killed ten and wounded sixty • Pinkerton detectives called in to break up the rioting