Gilded Age Politics

1
Gilded Age Politics

• Warfare at the ballot box

2
The Era of Patronage
3
Mexico

• Regime of Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911). Era known as
  the Porfiriato.
  
• Encouraged development of estates or haciendas at
  the expense of the poor and traditional tribal
  lands. Most of the population were akin to
  sharecroppers, working land that they did not
  own.
• Also encouraged investment on the part of
  American, European, and Canadian companies.
  
• Favored strong central government based in Mexico
  City. Resisted efforts of regions and peoples to
  push for more local autonomy.

4
The Caribbean

• Vestiges of colonial empires such as Jamaica and
  the Bahamas (Br.), Puerto Rico and Cuba (Sp.)
  Martinique (Fr.) and the Virgin Islands (Denmark
  and Br.), Netherlands Antilles (Holland).
• Independence movements developed in many of these
  areas. Cubas struggle, the best known, was
  between largely creole reformers and white
  planter class who favored stronger ties to the
  Spanish crown. Resulted in attempted
  independence movement and ten-year civil war in
  the 1870s. Spanish colonials regained control.
  Slavery gradually declined before being finally
  abolished in 1886.
• Among the major figures in favor of Cuban
  independence was the author Jose Marti. Helped
  revive an interest and movement for independence
  in the 1880s and 1890s. Promoted the ideal of
  Cuba Libre!, a Cuba free of both Spanish and U.S.
  control.

5
Canada

• Liberal Party
• Tended to favor more free trade. Greater
  connection to the United States as major trading
  partner.
  
• Francophone (Quebec) ties

• Conservatives (Tories)
• In spite of the name, are basically liberal in
  outlook but with stronger ties to Britain
  
• Anglophone (British) connections.
• Favor greater economic ties with the British
  Empire instead of the United States

6
The United States

• Democrats
• Originally Southern in background, favored
  limited government.
  
• Some Westerners.
• Supported independent farmer
• Emphasized free trade on the world economy

• Republicans
• Party of Lincoln and anti-slavery.
• Strong New England ties.
• Some Midwesterners
• Favored larger businesses and tariffs to protect
  them.

7
Divisions Republican

• Pro-business
• Embraced Hamiltonian ideal that the role of the
  government was to promote business, industry, and
  commerce.
  
• Favored gold standard and fiscally conservative
  economic policy.
  
• Favored tariffs to protect U.S. industries
• Participated in machine politics as with Democrats

• Reform
• Saw government as tool to change and reform
  society.
  
• With slavery abolished, turned to temperance
  (prohibition) as its main issue
  
• Favored reform against machine politics.
• Included urban, educated professionals.
• A few radicals were interested in womens
  suffrage.

8
Divisions Democratic

• Southern Whites.
• Favored limited federal government so that states
  could implement measures to enforce white power
  and segregation.
  
• Embraced the Jeffersonian ideal of U.S. as
  agrarian nation.
  
• White, Protestant in background.
• Dominated the South as essentially a one party
  society after end of Reconstruction.
  

• Northern Immigrants
• Tended to be urban and northern
• Large numbers of Irish and some Germans. Growing
  ties to Catholicism.
  
• Local autonomy meant freedom to have parochial
  schools and resistance to growing temperance
  movement.
  
• Embraced machine politics.

9
Politics Gilded Age Style

• Parties were sources of identity as much as
  political tools.
  
• Parties supported newspapers. Most larger cities
  had a Republican newspaper and a Democratic
  newspaper.
  
• Both parties were roughly equal in voting power.
  The key tactic was to get your party members to
  vote. A handful of swing states such as Ohio,
  tended to carry national elections.

10
Welcome to the machine

• Political organization based on patronage in
  return for votes.
  
• Usually tied to one of the major political
  parties.
  
• Distributed favors in return for officials who
  could get the most votes.

11
Tammany Hall

• Named for the headquarters building of the New
  York County Democratic Committee and the Society
  of Tammany
  
• Began as a fraternal organization called the
  Sons of St. Tammany formed after Revolutionary
  War.
  
• Supported with enfranchisement of men without
  property., which became a reality in 1822.
  
• William M. Tweed, became leader in 1860 and made
  the organization an openly political body. Made
  more efficient engine for patronage. Got his own
  candidate elected governor in 1868. Exposure of
  the Tweed Ring hurt Tammanys image and Tweed
  out by 1871 but patronage system continued.
• Experienced major revival in Turn of the Century
  where controlled NYC, the Democratic Party, and
  NY state govt.

12

• When you've voted em with their whiskers on,
  you take em to a barber and scrape off the chin
  fringe. Then you vote em againThen to a barber
  again, off comes the sides and you vote em a
  third time with the mustache
• Then clean off the mustache and vote em
  plain face. That makes every one of em for four
  votes." Big Tim Sullivan

13
Patronage and Power

• Politicians realized that these immigrants were
  voters and worked to harness the votes.
  
• Saw rise of machines organizations that sought
  to control the electoral process to benefit their
  own supporters. New Yorks Tammany Hall was the
  best known but were nationwide.
• Political bosses organized hierarchies of
  supporters to go out and get men to vote. If
  elected, those supporters got appointed to
  political offices and other benefits.
• For average voter, the machine bosses might be
  able to get things done quicker than through
  official channels.
  

14
Calls for reform

• Challenged the corruption in the machine system.
• Argued that it was set up for the bosses and not
  really there to help people
  
• Favored civil service laws where people had to
  either be elected to a position or had to take a
  test to show that they were actually competent to
  do the job.

15
The arguments

• Machine government was efficient. It encouraged
  loyalty to party. It also organized a system
  where people could get the goods and services
  they needed unlike the red tape and bureaucracy
  that is supposed to be an improvement.

• It benefits only a few while maintaining the
  illusion that it cares. The masses derive
  relatively little benefit. It also prevents
  qualified people from getting into office,
  appointing, instead, people whose only
  qualification is that they are party supporters

16
A boss defends the machine

• The consequence is that the poor look up to
  George W. Plunkitt as a father, come to him in
  troubleand dont forget him on election day.
  Another thing, I can always get a job for a
  deservin man. I make it a point to keep track
  of the jobs, and it seldom happens that I dont
  have a few up my sleeve ready to use. I know
  every big employer in the district and in the
  whole city, for that matter, and they aint in
  the habit of sayin no to me when I ask them for
  a job.

17
The elections, the candidates

• 1868 Ulysses S. Grant (R from Ohio) vs Seymour
  (D)
  
• 1872 Grant (R) vs Greeley (Rwith D support)
• 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes (R from Ohio) vs Tilden
  (D)
  
• 1880 James Garfield (R from Ohio) vs Hancock (D)
  
  
• 1884 Grover Cleveland (D-New Jersey) vs Blaine
  (R)
  
• 1888 Benjamin Harrison (R-Ohio) vs Cleveland
  (D)
  
• 1892 Cleveland (D) vs Harrison (R)
• For more info, see www.POTUS.com

18
The Grant Administration

• Known for its patronage, controversy, and
  corruption
  
• Credit Moblier scandal. Consortium that built
  the Union Pacific RR Included several members of
  Congress as well as Grants VP, Schuyler Colfax.
  Vehicle for investors to siphon off
  appropriations from Congress to build the RR.
  Tried to bribe senators in wake of investigation
  in 1872.
• Speculation, currency issues, and corruption
  fueled an economic downturn in the early 1870s.
  
• Rise in movements to start regulating railroads.
  Began with a series of state-based laws in places
  like Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Later ruled
  unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in what
  became known as the Wabash decision.

19
Garfield, patronage, and Arthur

• James A. Garfield (no relation to the cat) was
  elected in 1880. When took office, was
  immediately besieged by office seekers looking
  for patronage. Assassinated by Charles Guiteau, a
  disaffected office-seeker (wanted to be
  ambassador to France) in 1881. The attempts to
  save him in what were unsanitary medical
  conditions are generally thought to be what
  killed him. Chester A. Arthur (R-VT and NY)
  became president.

20
The election of 1884

• Between Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine.
  Blaine had been Speaker of the House in the 1870s
  and Secy of State in the 1880s and one of the
  first to build stronger relationships with the
  nations of Latin America. Was also known for his
  corruption and political connections. Several
  reformist Republicans, known as the mugwumps
  withdrew their support for him as potential
  candidate in 1880 and as candidate in 1884.
  Meanwhile, Blaines supporters spread rumors
  about Cleveland fathering a child out of wedlock.

21
Chants from 1884

• Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine. Continental
  liar from the state of Maine.

• Ma, ma, wheres my pa? Going to the White
  House! Ha, ha, ha!

22
Clevelands administration

• Included Democratic support in the House.
• Passed Interstate Commerce Act 1887, first major
  attempt to regulate railroads and national
  commerce.
  
• Unrest in the labor movements (including the
  Haymarket Riot of 1886) prompted growing concern
  and fear over strikes and the perceived influence
  of anarchism in society.
• Included Dawes Act that allowed the breaking up
  of Indian lands and distribution to individual
  families.

23
Storm clouds on the horizon

• Growing concern over monopolies resulted in the
  passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890
  
• Beginnings of economic downturn in the early
  1890s.
  
• Growing labor unrest resulted in greater strikes
  such as at Andrew Carnegies Homestead Steel
  Company in 1892 and at Pullmans Company in
  1894.
• Rise of new political movements such as the
  Socialist Party and the Populist Party.