Modern U'S' History Lecture

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Modern U.S. HistoryLecture 6

• Politics in the Gilded Age

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Themes

• The two major parties, the Democrats and
  Republicans failed to make major reforms.
• It took a third party, the Populist, to propose
  effective reform.

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• 1864 Abraham Lincoln-R (Reconstruction)
• 1865 Andrew Johnson-D (Reconstruction)
• 1868/72 Ulysses S. Grant-R (Recon. Gilded Age)
• 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes-R (Gilded Age)
• 1880 James Garfield-R (Gilded Age)
• 1881 Chester A. Arthur-R (Gilded Age)
• 1884 Grover Cleveland-D (Gilded Age)
• 1888 Benjamin Harrison-R (Gilded Age)
• 1892 Grover Cleveland-D (Gilded Age)
• 1896/1900 William McKinley-R (Gilded Age)
• 1901 Theodore Roosevelt-R (Progressive Era)

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Democratic Constituency

• White SouthernersVoting against the party of
  Lincoln, abolitionism, radical reconstruction.
• City immigrantslured by the political bosses.
• Midwestern farmersVoting against big business.

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Republican ConstituencyVote against the Party
of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion.

• Business interests
• City middle class dwellersresentment against
  immigrants.
• New Englandhome of abolitionism and Radical
  Republicanism
• Union VeteransGrand Army of the Republic waving
  the bloody shirt.

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Greenbacks
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Silver Currency
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Roscoe Conkling
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James G. Blaine
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James Garfield and C.A. Arthur
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Grover Cleveland
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Populist Party
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Populist Platform of 1896

• Graduated Income Tax
• Government ownership of the Railroads
• Direct election of U.S. Senators
• Recall elections of bad politicians
• Initiatives
• Monetization of silver
• Public works projects during Depressions

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Ida B. Wells

• What was Ida B. Wellss background? Why did she
  write the Red Record?
• What arguments or excuses did Southern whites
  use for lynching? How did he refute those
  arguments?
• How did she use references to law and the
  constitution in making her arguments? Why did
  she make those references?
• How did she portray African-Americans and their
  treatment of women in slavery, reconstruction,
  and the post-reconstruction era? Contrast that
  to her portrayal of of White southerners
  treatment of Northern women?

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Booker T. Washington and theAtlanta Compromise

• When did Washington give this speech? Where did
  he give the speech and why was he asked to give
  it?
• What did he mean by the expression, Cast down
  your buckets where you are?
• Some historians characterize this speech as the
  Atlanta Compromise. What did he want for
  African-Americans? What was he willing to give
  up?
• Why did he put so much emphasis on economics?

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Booker T. Washington
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W.E.B. DuBois