Title: THE GILDED AGE
1THE GILDED AGE
2THE GILDED AGE
- The era from 1870 to 1890 is the only period in
American history commonly known by a derogatory
name the Gilded Age, after a title of an 1873
novel by mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warren. - Gilded means covered with a layer of gold, but
also suggests that the glittering surface covers
a core of little real value and is therefore
deceptive.
3THE GILDED AGE
- Twain and Warner were referring not only to the
remarkable expansion of the economy in this
period but also to the corruption caused by
corporate dominance of politics and to the
oppressive treatment of those left behind in the
scramble for wealth. - Get rich, dishonestly if we can, honestly if we
must. was the eras slogan, according to The
Gilded Age.
4POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE
5POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE
- To modern eyes, the nature of the American
political system in the late 19th century appears
in many ways paradoxical. - The two political parties enjoyed strength and
stability during those years that neither was
ever to know again. - Yet the federal govt was doing relatively little
of importance.
- Most Americans engaged in political activity less
because of their interest in national issues than
because of broad regional, ethnic, or religious
sentiments. - Party loyalty had less to do with positions on
public policy than the way Americans defined
themselves culturally.
6THE PARTY SYSTEM
- The most striking feature of the late 19th
century party system was its remarkable
stability. - From 1877 until the late 1890s, the electorate
was divided almost precisely evenly between the
Republicans and Democrats.
- 16 states were solidly and consistently
Republican. - 14 states (most of them in the South) were
solidly and consistently Democrat. - Only 5 states were usually in doubt, and it was
there that national elections were commonly
decided, often on the basis of voter turnout.
7THE PARTY SYSTEM
- The Republican Party captured the presidency in
all but two of the elections in the era, but the
party was not really as dominant as that
suggests. - In the five presidential elections beginning in
1876, the average popular-vote margin separating
the Democratic and Republican candidates was 1.5.
8THE PARTY SYSTEM
- The congressional balance was similarly stable.
- Between 1875 and 1895, the Republicans generally
controlled the Senate and the Democrats
controlled the House of Representatives. - In any given election, the number of seats that
shifted from one party to the other was very
small.
9THE PARTY SYSTEM
- As striking as the balance between parties was
the intensity of public loyalty to them. - Voter turnout in presidential elections between
1860 and 1900 averaged over 78 of all eligible
voters. - Even in non-presidential years, from 60 to 80 of
voters turned out for congressional and local
candidates.
10THE PARTY SYSTEM
- Large groups of potential voters were
disenfranchised during the era - Women in most states
- Almost all blacks and many poor whites in the
South.
- But for all adult white males outside the South,
there were few franchise restrictions. - The remarkable turnout represented a genuinely
mass-based politics.
11THE PARTY SYSTEM
- Party politics in the Gilded Age occupied a
central position in American culture. - Political campaigns were often the most important
public events in the lives of communities. - Political organizations served important social
and cultural functions.
12THE PARTY SYSTEM
- Political identification was almost as important
to most individuals as identification with a
church or ethnic group. - Partisanship was an intense, emotional force,
widely admired and often identified with
patriotism.
13THE PARTY SYSTEM
- WHAT EXPLAINS THIS REMARKABLE LOYALTY TO THE TWO
POLITICAL PARTIES? - It was not that the parties took distinct
positions on important public issues. - Both were solidly committed to the growth of the
corporate industrial economy. - Both were hostile to all forms of economic and
social radicalism. - Both were committed (at least until the 1890s) to
a sound currency and to the existing structure
of the financial system.
14THE PARTY SYSTEM
- What determined party loyalties was less concrete
issues than other factors. - REGION was perhaps the most important.
- To white Southerners, loyalty to the Democratic
Party was a matter of unquestioned faith.
- For white Southerners, the Democratic Party was
the vehicle by which they had triumphed over
Reconstruction. - For them, the Democratic Party was the vehicle
for the preservation of white supremacy.
15THE PARTY SYSTEM
- To many old-stock northerners, white and black,
Republican loyalties were equally intense for
opposite reasons. - The party of Lincoln had freed the slaves.
- For them, the party of Lincoln had preserved the
Union. - For them, the Republican Party was a bulwark
against slavery and treason.
16THE PARTY SYSTEM
- RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC DIFFERENCES also shaped
party loyalties. - The Dem. Party attracted most Catholic voters,
most recent immigrants, and most of the poorer
workers. - These three groups often overlapped.
17THE PARTY SYSTEM
- The Republican Party appealed to northern
Protestants and citizens of old stock.
18THE PARTY SYSTEM
- Among the few substantive issues on which the
parties took clearly different stands were
matters concerning immigrants. - Republicans tended to be more nativist and to
support measures restricting immigration. - They also tended to favor temperance legislation.
- Catholics and immigrants viewed such proposals as
an assault on their culture and lifestyle and
opposed them. - The Democrats followed their lead.
19THE PARTY SYSTEM
- For many Americans party identification was
usually more a reflection of vague cultural
inclinations than a calculation of economic
interest. - Individuals might affiliate with a party because
their parents had done so, or because it was the
party of their region, church, or their ethnic
group. - Most clung to their party loyalties with
persistence and passion.
20THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
21THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
- One reason the two parties managed to avoid
substantive issues was that the federal
government (and for the most part state and local
govts as well) did relatively little.
- The govt in Washington was responsible for
- Delivering the mails
- Maintaining a national military
- Conducting foreign policy
- Collecting taxes and tariffs.
22THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
- The federal government had few other
responsibilities. - And it had few institutions with which to engage
in additional responsibilities even if it chose
to do so.
23THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
- The USA in the Gilded Age was a society without a
modern, national state. - The most powerful national institutions were
- The two political parties
- The federal courts
- In a very real sense the American govt of the era
was a state of courts and political parties. - The national leaders of both parties were
primarily concerned with winning elections and
controlling patronage not policy.
24THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
- Both parties were dominated by powerful bosses
and machines chiefly concerned with controlling
and dispensing jobs. - The Democrats relied on big city organizations
such as Boss Tweeds Tammany Hall in NYC. - These machines helped them to mobilize the voting
power of immigrants.
25THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
- The Republicans tended to depend on strong
statewide organizations such as those of Senator
Roscoe Conkling in New York.
26THE GILDED AGE PRESIDENTS
27THE GILDED AGE PRESIDENTS
- The power of the party bosses had an significant
effect on the power of the presidency. - The office had great symbolic importance, but its
occupants were unable to do very much except
distribute government appointments. - A new president had to make almost 100,000
appointments most of them in the post office,
the only large government agency at the time.
- Even in making appointments, the president had
very little latitude, since they had to avoid
offending the various factions within their own
parties. - The administrations of Hayes, Garfield, and
Arthur reflected the political stalemate and
patronage problems of the Gilded Age. - All in all, it was an age of forgettable
presidents.
28THE PRESIDENCY OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
- The issue of patronage played a big role during
the Hayes presidency. - Hayes was the winner of the disputed Election of
1876. - He was harried by angry Democrats who called
him His Fraudulency from the beginning of his
term to the moment he left. - He was crippled as well by his own party the
Republicans.
29THE PRESIDENCY OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
- By the end of his term two groups the
Stalwarts led by Roscoe Conkling of NY and the
Half-Breeds, led by James G. Blaine of ME. were
competing for control of the Republican Party and
threatening to split it. - The dispute between these two groups was
characteristic of the political battles of the
era.
30THE PRESIDENCY OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
- The dispute had virtually no substantive
foundation. - Rhetorically, the Stalwarts favored traditional,
professional machine politics. - The Half-Breeds favored reform.
- Neither group was much interested in political
change. - Each wanted a larger share of the patronage pie.
- Hayes tried to satisfy both and ended up
satisfying neither.
31THE PRESIDENCY OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
- The battle over patronage overshadowed all else
during Hayes unhappy presidency. - His one important substantive initiative an
effort to create a civil service system
attracted no support from either party. - His early announcement not to seek re-election
only weakened him further.
32THE PRESIDENCY OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
- Hayes had no power in Congress.
- The Dems. Controlled the HoR throughout his
presidency, and the Senate during the last two
years of his term.
- Senate Republicans, led by Conkling, opposed his
efforts to defy the machines in making
appointments. - Hayess presidency was a study in frustration.
33THE PRESIDENCY OF JAMES GARFIELD
- The Republicans retained the presidency in 1880
in part because they managed to agree on a ticket
that made it possible for the two factions to
briefly paper-over their differences. - The nominated James A. Garfield a Half-Breed
- His VP running mate was Chester A. Arthur - a
Stalwart.
34THE PRESIDENCY OF JAMES A. GARFIELD
- Garfield won a decisive electoral victory.
- However his popular vote margin was very thin.
- The Republicans also captured both houses of
Congress.
35THE PRESIDENCY OF JAMES A. GARFIELD
- Garfield soon found himself in an ugly public
quarrel with Conkling. - But before it could be resolved, Garfield was
victimized by the spoils system in a more
terrible sense.
- 7/2/1881 Only four months after his
inauguration, Garfield was shot twice was
standing in the DC railroad station by an
apparently deranged gunman and unsuccessful
office seeker. - Garfield lingered for three months then died a
victim as much of bungled medical treatment as of
the wounds themselves.
36THE PRESIDENCY OF JAMES A. GARFIELD
37THE PRESIDENCY OF CHESTER A. ARTHUR
- Chester A. Arthur succeeded Garfield.
- Arthur had spent a political lifetime as a
devoted, skilled, and open spoilsman and a close
ally of Conkling. - But as president, he tried to follow an
independent course and even to promote reform.
38THE PRESIDENCY OF CHESTER A. ARTHUR
- The terrible circumstances which brought him to
the presidency had undoubtedly shaped his
behavior. - He realized that Garfields assassination had to
some degree discredited the traditional spoils
system.
- The new Arthur dismayed the party bosses.
- He kept most of Garfields appointees in office.
- He also supported civil service reform, aware
that the legislation was likely to pass whether
he supported it or not.
39THE PRESIDENCY OF CHESTER A. ARTHUR
- 1883 Congress passed the Pendleton Act.
- The nations first national civil service
measure. - It identified a limited number of federal jobs to
be filled by competitive written exams rather
than by patronage.
- Relatively few offices fell under civil service
at first. - But its reach extended steadily so that by the
mid-twentieth century most federal employees were
civil servants.
40THE ELECTION OF 1884 THE RETURN OF THE DEMOCRATS
41THE ELECTION OF 1884 THE RETURN OF THE DEMOCRATS
- The unsavory election of 1884 was typical of
national political contests in the late 19th
century in its emphasis on personalities than
policies. - The Republican Party repudiated Arthur who was
in any case already suffering from an illness
that would kill him two years later.
42THE ELECTION OF 1884 THE RETURN OF THE DEMOCRATS
- The Republicans instead chose their most popular
and controversial figure, James G. Blaine of ME. - To his adoring supporters he was known as the
plumed knight. - To thousands of Americans, he was a symbol of
seamy party politics.
43THE ELECTION OF 1884 THE RETURN OF THE DEMOCRATS
- An independent reform faction, known derisively
by their critics as the mugwumps, announced
they would bolt the party and support an honest
Democrat.
44THE ELECTION OF 1884 THE RETURN OF THE DEMOCRATS
- Raising to the bait, the Democrats nominated
Grover Cleveland, the reform governor of NY. - He differed from Blaine on no substantive issues
but had acquired a reputation as an enemy of
corruption.
45THE ELECTION OF 1884 THE RETURN OF THE DEMOCRATS
- The campaign of 1884 was filled with personal
invective. - What may have decided the election was the last
minute introduction of a religious controversy.
- Shortly before the election, a delegation of
Protestants ministers called on Blaine. - Their spokesman, Dr. Samuel Burchard, referred to
the Democrats as the party of rum, Romanism, and
rebellion. - Blaine was slow to repudiate Burchards
indiscretion.
46THE ELECTION OF 1884 THE RETURN OF THE DEMOCRATS
- Democrats quickly spread the news that Blaine had
tolerated a slander on the Catholic church. - Clevelands narrow victory may well have been the
result of a heavy Catholic vote for Democrats in
NY. - Cleveland won 219 electoral votes to Blaines
182 his popular vote margin was only 23,000
votes.
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48THE PRESIDENCY OF GROVER CLEVELAND
- Cleveland was the embodiment of an era in which
few Americans believed the federal govt could,
should, or do very much. - Cleveland believed in frugal and limited
government in the Jeffersonian tradition. - No one should forget, he explained, that though
the people support the Government, the Government
should not support the people.
49THE PRESIDENCY OF GROVER CLEVELAND
- Cleveland did grapple with one major economic
issue protective tariffs. - He doubted the wisdom of protective tariffs.
- He concluded that the existing high rates were
responsible for the annual surplus in federal
revenues, which was tempting Congress to pass the
reckless and extravagant legislation he
frequently vetoed.
- 12/1887 He asked Congress to reduce the tariff
rates. - Democrats in the HoR approved a tariff reduction.
- But Senate Republicans defiantly passed a bill of
their own actually raising the rates. - The resulting deadlock made the tariff an issue
in the election of 1888.
50THE ELECTION OF 1888
51THE ELECTION OF 1888
- The Democrats renominated Cleveland and supported
tariff reductions. - The Republicans settled on Benjamin Harrison of
ID. - Harrison was obscure but respectable and the
grandson of President William Henry Harrison.
- The campaign was the first since the Civil War to
involve a clear questions of economic difference
between the parties. - It was also on of the most corrupt and closet
elections in American history.
52THE ELECTION OF 1888
- Harrison won an electoral majority of 233 to 168.
- But Cleveland won the popular vote by 100,000
votes making this one of only three
presidential elections in American history (1876
and 2000) in which the loser in the popular vote
was the victor in the electoral vote.
53THE PRESIDENCY OF BENJAMIN HARRISON
- Harrisons record as president was little more
substantial than that of his grandfather, who
died a month after taking office. - One reason for his failure was the intellectual
drabness of the members of his Admin beginning
with the president himself and extending through
his cabinet.
54THE PRESIDENCY OF BENJAMIN HARRISON
- Another reason for failure was Harrisons
unwillingness to make any effort to influence
Congress. - And yet during his dreary term, public opinion
was beginning to force the govt to confront some
of the pressing social and economic issues of the
day.
- Most notably, perhaps, sentiment was rising in
favor of legislation to curb the power of trusts. - Mid-1880s 15 western and southern states had
adopted laws prohibiting combinations that
restrained competition. - But corporations found it easy to escape
limitations by incorporating in states like NJ
and DL that offered them special privileges.
55THE PRESIDENCY OF BENJAMIN HARRISON
- If antitrust legislation was to be effective, it
would have to come from the federal govt. - 1890 Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act,
almost without dissent.
- The Act prohibited any contract, combination, in
the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in
restraint in trade or commerce. - Most members of Congress saw the Act as largely
symbolic to help deflect public criticism, not
likely to have any real effect on corporate power.
56THE PRESIDENCY OF BENJAMIN HARRISON
- For over a decade after its passage, the Sherman
Act had virtually no impact. - 1901 The Justice Department had instituted only
14 suits under the law against business
combinations and had obtained few convictions. - It used the law much more frequently against
labor union.
57THE PRESIDENCY OF BENJAMIN HARRISON
- The courts weakened the act considerably.
- 1895 United States v. E.C. Knight Co.
- The govt. charged that a sugar trust controlled
98 of refined sugar mfg. - The Supreme Court rejected the govts case.
- It ruled that the sugar trust was engaged in mfg,
not in interstate commerce. - Thus the Court ruled that the Act applied to
commerce not to mfg.
58THE PRESIDENCY OF BENJAMIN HARRISON
- The Republicans were more interested in the
issue, they believed had won them the Election of
1888 the tariff. - Rep. William McKinley (OH) and Nelson Aldrich
(RI) drafted the highest protective measure ever
proposed in Congress.
59THE PRESIDENCY OF BENJAMIN HARRSION
- 10/1890 The McKinley Tariff became law.
- It raised the tax on foreign imports over 48.
- Politically, it hurt the Republican Party.
- They misinterpreted public sentiment.
- The party suffered a stunning reversal in the
1890 congressional election. - Their majority in the Senate was slashed to 8.
- In the HoR, they retained only 88 of the 323
seats.
60THE ELECTION OF 1892
61THE ELECTION OF 1892
- The Republicans were unable to recover from the
political fallout over the McKinley Tariff. - Benjamin Harrison once again supported
protection, and Grover Cleveland, renominated by
the Democrats, once again supported it. - Only a new third party, the Peoples Party, which
James B. Weaver as its candidate, advocated any
serious economic reform.
62THE ELECTION OF 1892
- RESULTS
- Cleveland 277 electoral votes
- Harrison 145 electoral votes
- Weaver 22 electoral votes
- Cleveland won the popular vote by 380,000 votes.
- For the first time since 1878, the Democrats won
a majority of both houses of Congress.
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64CLEVELANDS SECOND TERM
- The policies of Clevelands second term were much
like the first term - Devoted to limited govt
- Hostile to active state measures to deal with
social or economic problems.
65CLEVELANDS SECOND TERM
- But this time, a major economic crisis (the Panic
of 1893) created popular demands for a more
active government. - For the most part, Cleveland resisted those
pressures.
- Again, he supported a tariff reduction, which the
HoR approved but the Senate rejected. - Cleveland denounced the result but allowed it to
become law as the Wilson-Gorman Tariff.
66CLEVELANDS SECOND TERM
- The bill also included a 2 income tax on incomes
of over 4,000. - But the Supreme Court declared it
unconstitutional. - Only after approval of the Sixteenth Amendment in
1913 was the federal govt able to tax incomes.
- Pressure was also growing for regulation of the
railroads. - The Courts limited the powers of the states to
regulate commerce even within their own
boundaries. - Railroad regulation had to come from the federal
government.
67CLEVELANDS SECOND TERM
- 188 Congress responded with the Interstate
Commerce Act - It banned discrimination in rates between long
and short hauls. - Required railroads to publish their rate
schedules and file them with the govt. - Declared that all interstate rail rates must be
reasonable and just although the bill did not
define what this meant.
68CLEVELANDS SECOND TERM
- The Act established the Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) - A five-person agency
- Purpose to administer the Interstate Commerce
Act - But it had to rely on the courts to enforce its
rulings - The Act was haphazardly enforced and narrowly
interpreted by the courts thus rendering the
Act and ICC useless.
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70THE GILDED AGE
- The controversies over the tariff, the trusts,
and the railroads were signs that dramatic
changes in the American economy were creating
problems that much of the public considered too
important and dangerous to ignore. - But the govts response to that agitation
reflected the continuing weakness of the American
state.
- The govt lacked institutions adequate to perform
any significant role in American economic life. - And not enough Americans had yet embraced a
political ideology that would justify any major
expansion of govt responsibilities.
71THE GILDED AGE
- The effort to create such institutions and to
promote such an ideology would occupy much of
American public life in the coming decades.
- Among the first signs of that effort was a
dramatic dissident movement that shattered the
political equilibrium the nation had experienced
for the previous twenty years.