Politics in the Gilded Age

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Politics in the Gilded Age
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1. Part Four Intro. (pp. 500501)

• This introduction gives you a preview of the
  authors answers to certain key questions about
  the pallid politics and corruption but at the
  same time massive changes taking place in
  American life in the latter part of the
  nineteenth century.
• Look at this section and list three major
  questions you think the authors will be
  addressing in the next five chapters.

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1870 US -3rd largest nation in the World.
1870                                            
                                                  
                                                  
                                    
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Civic Health of the United States

• Waste
• Corruption
• extravagance
• Speculation
• Graft

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Election of 1868

• Republicans
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Let Us Have Peace
• Waved the Bloody Shirt
• Vote as You Shoot

• Democrats
• Could only agree that they wanted to get rid of
  military reconstruction
• Wealthy Eastern Democrats
• Wanted federal war bonds to b e redeemed in gold
• Eastern Democrats
• Ohio Idea- Redemption in Greenbacks
• Farmers
• More money in circulation
• Lower interest rate
• Nominee Horatio Seymour against the Ohio Idea

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Ulysses S. Grant

• How important was the black vote in electing
  Grant and how did this political factor affect
  the Reconstruction policy of the Republican
  party?

Let us Have Peace
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A few skunks can pollute a large area.
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Era of Good Stealings..

• Free wheeling railroad promoters
• Stock market manipulators
• Corrupt judges
• Bribed legislators

An honest politician was one who when
bought, Stayed bought!
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SCANDALS

• Black Friday (Fiske and Gould)
• Credit Mobilier
• Boss Tweed
• Whiskey Ring

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• Boss _________ in New York City is cited as an
  example of political corruption.

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• A combination of the two was the Crédit
  Mobilier scandal. What did the Crédit Mobilier
  scandal involve?

• Credit Mobilier was a construction company that
  helped build the Union Pacific Railroad.
• The company was owned by some union Pacific
  stockholders who gave the construction company
  huge contracts.
• They were funneling money from Union Pacific, a
  company that they owned little stock, into Credit
  Mobilier, where they owned a majority of the
  stock.
• With Union Pacific receiving government
  subsidies and funds, the investors were stealing
  government money.
• To avoid a governmental inquiry into the
  transaction, the investors gave Credit Mobilier
  stock to members of Congress.
• A congressional investigation in 1872 revealed
  many congressmen, high ranking republicans, and
  vice-president Schuyler Colfax took stock in the
  company. The scandal marred Grant's first term.
  Schuyler was replaced for the election in 1872.
  This began the uncovering of several scandals.

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• Ulysses S. Grant
• Waving the bloody shirt
• Jubilee Jim Fisk
• Jay Gould
• Boss Tweed
• Thomas Nast
• Crédit Mobilier
• Whiskey Ring
• Liberal Republicans.
• Horace Greeley
• General Amnesty Act (1872)

PEDITL
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The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872

• People were disgusted
• Reform minded people banded together
• Turn the Rascals out!
• Nominated Horace Greeley for President
• Editor of the New York Tribune
• Unsound in his political judgments
• Democrats nominated him too!

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Tough Election

• Mud Slinging
• Republicans called Greeley
• Athiest, communist, free lover, vegetarian,
• Democrats called Grant
• Ignoramus, drunkard, swindler

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The Republican Congress

• Passed a General Amnesty Act
• Removed political disabilities from 500 former
  Confederate Leaders
• Reduced high Civil War Tarrifs
• Passed some civil service reforms
• Liberal Republicans had left their mark!

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PROBLEM IN 1873

• Depression
• Caused by Overexpansion
• 15,000 businesses went bankrupt
• Black Americans were hard hit
• Freemans Savings and Trush
• Made unsecured loans- went under
• 7 million lost
• Debtors hard hit
• Want inflation

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Money Problems

• During the Civil War 450 million paper money in
  circulation
• By 1868- 100 million withdrawn from circulation
• Hard Money advocates want no soft money in
  circulation
• Cheap Money supporters- want more greenbacks in
  circulation

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1873 Depression and Hard Money (pp. 506507)

• a. The first paragraph of this section summarizes
  nicely the boom and bust cycles that seem to
  afflict American capitalism every generation or
  so. In your own words, what caused the economic
  panic of 1873?

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• b. We are used to inflation today (i.e., prices
  being higher this year than last). But in the
  late 1800s, the government actually contracted
  the money supply per capita, causing deflation
  (i.e., a loaf of bread would cost less this year
  than last). Why would debtors in the countryside
  who owed people money want more silver to be
  coined and more dollars to be printed? Why would
  eastern financial interests who lent money
  (creditors) oppose these inflationary actions?
• (1) Debtors for inflation
• (2) Creditors against inflation

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Hard Money Advocates Won!

• 1874- persuaded Grant to veto a bill to print
  more paper money.
• Passed the Resumption Act of 1875
• Take more paper money out of circulation
• Redeem paper currency in gold at face value
  starting in 1879.

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Debtors looked to SILVER!

• Early 1870s Treasury said that 1oz of silver
  1/16 oz of Gold
• Silver mines stopped selling to federal mints
• 1873- stopped coinage of SILVER
• Then- more Silver was discovered
• Price of silver went down
• Westerners from Silver mining states called it
  the Crime of 73

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Hard Money Republicans SAY NO!

• Treasury began to accumulate gold stocks
• Reduced greenbacks
• This is called CONTRACTION
• Had a noticable deflationary effect
• The amount of money per capita in circulation
  decreased between 1870 and 1881 from, 19.43-
  19.37
• Probably worsened the effects of the DEPRESSION
• Did restore the governments credit rating
• Brought the Greenbacks up to their full face
  value.
• Political Backlash
• Helped elect a Democratic House of
  Representatives in 1874
• Spawned the Greenback Labor Party in 1878

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Politics was delicate balance during this time
period

• Every election was a squeaker
• Majority party in the House of Reps switched six
  times in 11 sessions between 1869-1891
• Few significant issues separated the parties
• Still ferocious competition

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Political Parties

• Were tightly organized
• Fiercely loyal
• Voter Turnout was High 80

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• Politics in the Gilded Age was passionate if
  not particularly inspiring. Party distinctions
  had many similarities to the present day. List a
  few words to describe the Republican and
  Democratic parties of the period.
• (1) Republican
• (2) Democratic

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PATRONAGE

• Lifeblood of both parties
• Republicans- Infighting
• Stalwart Factions
• Roscoe Conkling (US Senator from NY
• Half Breeds
• James Blaine of Maine

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• In 1876, the two major candidates running for
  President were Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican,
  and Samuel J. Tilden, a Democrat.

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Hayes Tilden Standoff
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• The first returns indicated a victory for Tilden,
  who had won the popular vote with 4,284,020 votes
  to Hayes' 4,036,572.
• But Tilden's 184 electoral votes -- the votes
  that would decide the Presidency -- were still
  one short of a majority, while Hayes' 165
  electoral votes left him 20 ballots away.
• The votes of three Southern states and one
  western state still had not been counted.

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• The 20 electoral votes remaining in dispute were
  one from Oregon and 19 from the three Southern
  states that still retained Republican-controlled
  electoral boards -- Florida (4), Louisiana (8),
  and South Carolina (7). What complicated the
  matter was that Democrats in these states had won
  the state elections, mostly by violence and
  fraud.

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• Both parties claimed victory.
• The Republicans, who still held a majority on the
  electoral boards that would certify the election
  results, claimed that Hayes was elected because
  the Democrats' used fraud, violence, and
  intimidation in the Southern states. They "threw
  out" enough Democratic votes for Hayes to win in
  all three states.
• The Democrats submitted their own list for
  Tilden. In Oregon, Hayes had clearly won but the
  Democratic governor had managed to confuse things
  by sending one elector in Tilden's favor.

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• The Electoral College controversy would drag on
  for months, not reaching resolution until almost
  the eve of the scheduled inauguration on March 5,
  1877.

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• To break the deadlock, Congress appointed an
  Electoral Commission, made up of five Senators,
  five members of the House of Representatives, and
  five Supreme Court justices.
• Congress originally hoped to have seven
  Republican members of the Commission, seven
  Democrats, and one independent.
• As it turned out, however, the actual membership
  turned out to consist of eight Republicans and
  seven Democrats.

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• The Commission voted along straight party lines 8
  to 7 to accept all of Hayes' electoral votes and
  reject the Democrat's claims. The night before
  President Grant's term expired, the Senate
  announced Hayes had been elected President.

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• The deadlock was broken behind closed doors when
  Southern Democrats agreed to support Hayes' claim
  for the Presidency if he would support increased
  funding for Southern internal improvements and
  agree to end Reconstruction, thus guaranteeing
  home rule -- meaning white control -- in the
  South.
• Hayes became President and the Southern Democrats
  could reverse with impunity the gains that blacks
  had made during Reconstruction.

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• b. The backroom Compromise of 1877 involved ____
  (number) disputed electoral votes in the 1876
  election between Republican Rutherford B.
  ________ and Democrat Samuel J. _______. The deal
  gave the presidency to _________ in return, among
  other things, for the Democratic desire to
  withdraw the last federal troops from the South.
  This ended Republican commitment to racial
  equality in the South and completed the reversion
  of southern state governments to the white
  redeemers. What effect did the following have
  on the institution of legalized social
  segregation (Jim Crow laws) and black economic
  subservience in the South?
• (1) Compromise of 1877
• (2) Civil rights cases (1883)
• (3) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)