Gilded%20Age

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Gilded Age
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Gilded Age

• Coined by Mark Twain in 1873
• Referred to the superficial glitter of the new
  wealth
• Very little was accomplished politically
• Era of forgettable presidents
• None served more than 1 term
• The 2 major political parties avoided issues

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Political stalemate

• Due to
• Prevailing political ideology
• Limited government
• Laissez-faire economics
• Social Darwinism
• Campaign tactics of the 2 parties
• Caused by the closeness of elections
• Wanted to get out the vote w/o alienating voters
• Brass bands, buttons, flags, picnics, free beer,
  etc.
• Voter turnout was as high as 80

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Political Stalemate

• Republicans
• Waved the bloody shirt in every campaign
• Blamed Dems for the CW Lincolns death
• Reformers, African-Americans, businessmen,
  middle-class Anglo-Saxon Protestants
• Democrats
• Won every election in southern states
• Solid South
• In North, Dems had political machines immigrant
  vote in cities
• Catholics Jews who objected to temperance
• Believed in states rights limited federal
  powers

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Political Stalemate

• Party patronage
• Neither party had a legislative agenda
• Goal was to get in office, stay in office,
  provide jobs to supporters
• Rep. Sen. Roscoe Conkling (NY)
• Powerful leader who gave lucrative jobs in the NY
  Customs House
• Stalwarts
• Followers of Conkling
• Halfbreeds
• Rivals for Republican patronage
• Led by James Blaine
• Mugwumps
• Republicans who did not follow either side
• Mugs on one side of the fence, wumps on the other

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1884 cartoon in Puck magazine ridicules Blaine as
the tattooed-man, with many indelible scandals.
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Gilded Age Presidents

• Rutherford B. Hayes
• Ended Reconstruction
• Attempted to reestablish honest government
• Stopped serving liquor in the White House
• Temperance reformer
• WifeLemonade Lucy
• Vetoed efforts to restrict Chinese immigration

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• Election of 1880
• Republicans nominated Halfbreed James Garfield
  for pres. Stalwart Chester A. Arthur for vp
• Democrats nominated Winfield S. Hancock, a former
  US Gen. wounded at Gettysburg
• James Garfield
• Besieged by Republicans seeking jobs
• Filled most jobs with Halfbreeds
• Shot by disgruntled office seeker
• Charles Guiteau

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President Garfield's assassination depicted in
engraving from 1881 newspaper
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• To General Sherman   I have just shot the
  President.  I shot him several times as I wished 
  him to go as easily as possible. His death was a
  political necessity. I am a lawyer, theologian,
  and politician. I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts.
  I was with General Grant and the rest of our men,
  in New York during the canvass. I am going to
  the Jail. Please order out your troops, and take
  possession of the jail at once.          
             Very respectfully,                   
        Charles Guiteau.

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President James Garfield lies in the sickroom at
the White House in the days following his
assassination.
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• Chester A. Arthur
• Better president than people expected
• Distanced himself from Stalwarts
• Supported a bill reforming civil service
• Approved the development of a modern US navy
• Began to question high protective tariff
• Was not renominated by the Republicans

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Election of 1884

• Republicans nominated Sen. James Blaine (ME)
• Responsible for reshaping the Republicans from
  antislavery party to pro-business party
• Tainted by scandals
• Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland
• Honest, conscientious, frugal, uncompromising
• Mayor of Buffalo governor of NY
• Mugwumps campaigned voted for Cleveland

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Election of 1884

• Republicans exposed Clevelands illegitimate
  child labeled Democrats the party of Rum,
  Romanism, Rebellion

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• The mud-slinging began when a Buffalo newspaper
  broke the story that Cleveland had an
  illegitimate son, then ten years old, from an
  affair with a young widow named Maria Halpin. 
  Republicans crowed, "Ma!  Ma!   Where's my Pa?" 
  Refer to the cartoon, "Another vote for
  Cleveland."  But instead of issuing a denial,
  Cleveland surprised both his allies and opponents
  alike with a frank admission of responsibility. 
  He instructed his campaign advisers "Tell the
  truth."  Yes, Cleveland (a bachelor) had been
  involved with Maria Halpin (as had other men,
  apparently), and although he could not be sure
  the child was his, nonetheless he did "the
  honorable thing" and provided financial support. 
  This took much of the air out of the scandal.

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• Catholics were offended by the Republicans phrase
  many voted for Cleveland
• Cleveland first Democrat elected president since
  Buchanan in 1856

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Grover Cleveland

• Believed in limited government (Jeffersonian)
• Implemented new civil service system
• Vetoed 100s of private pension bills for false CW
  veteran claims
• Signed Interstate Commerce Act
• Signed Dawes Act

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1870s 1880s Issues

• civil service, currency, tariffs

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Civil service

• Demand for reform after Garfields assassination
• Pendleton Act (1881) set up the Civil Service
  Commission created a system in which persons
  applying for classified federal jobs would be
  hired based on their scores on a competitive exam
• Law applied to 10 of federal jobs but has
  expanded
• Politicians became less dependent on party
  workers more on the rich

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Currency

• Debate over whether or not to expand the money
  supply
• Easy or soft-money advocates
• Debtors, farmers, new businesses wanted more
  money in circulation so they could
• Borrow money at lower interest rates
• Pay off their loans easier with inflated dollars
• Many blamed the gold standard for causing the
  Panic of 1873
• Campaigned for more paper money (greenbacks)
  for unlimited minting of silver coins

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• Sound or hard money advocates
• Bankers, creditors, investors, established
  businesses wanted currency backed by gold
• Backed currency would hold value against inflation

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Greenback party

• Civil War had been financed by issuing greenbacks
  (un-backed paper money)
• Northern farmers associated greenbacks with
  prosperity
• Creditors investors attacked it as violation of
  natural law
• Specie Resumption Act (1875) withdrew the last of
  the greenbacks from circulation
• Supporters of paper money formed the Greenback
  party

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Crime of 1873

• 1873 Coinage Act stopped the coining of silver
• Critics called it the Crime of 1873
• Bland-Allison Act (1878)
• Allowed a limited coinage of silver each mo. _at_
  the standard silver to gold ratio of 16 to 1
• Passed as a compromise bill after new silver
  discoveries in Nevada revived demands to increase
  money supply
• Law passed over President Hayes veto.

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Tariff issue

• Western farmers opposed to high, protective
  tariff
• Eastern capitalists favored high, protective
  tariff
• Republican Congress passed protective tariff
  during CW
• After CW, southern Democrats objected to high
  tariffs
• Other nations retaliated by taxing US
  productsfarmers were especially hurt losing
  overseas markets

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Election of 1888

• President Cleveland proposed that Congress lower
  the tariff because there was a surplus
• Clevelands proposal became the first issue
  between Dems Reps in years

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• Democrats campaigned for Cleveland a lower
  tariff
• Republicans for Benjamin Harrison (grandson of
  William Henry Harrison) a high tariff
• Played on fears of big business labor to gain
  support
• Also attacked Clevelands vetoes of pensions to
  gain veterans votes
• Close election
• Harrison won electoral votes Cleveland had
  majority of popular vote

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Billion Dollar Congress

• Republican president Reps controlled both
  houses of Congress
• Passed first billion-dollar budget in US history
  enacted
• McKinley Tariff (1890) raised tax on foreign
  products over 48
• Increases in monthly pensions to CW veterans,
  widows, children
• Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) outlawed
  combinations in restraint of trade
• Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) increased
  coinage of silver (not enough for farmers
  miners)

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1890s

• Congressional elections of 1890 many Republicans
  were replaced by Democrats
• Reaction against unpopular measures passed
• Prohibition of alcohol
• Sunday closing laws
• Midwestern non-Anglo non-protestant voters
• Growing agrarian discontent
• Farmers Alliances elected congressmen,
  governors, state reps

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• Farmers Alliances led to new partyPopulist or
  the Peoples party
• Delegates met in Omaha, NE in 1892
• Omaha Platform
• Restoration of government to the people
• Direct election of senators
• Initiatives referendums in states
• Unlimited coinage of silver
• Graduated income tax
• govt ownership of railroads
• Govt ownership of telegraph telephone systems
• Loans federal warehouses for farmers to
  stabilize crop prices
• 8-hour workday for industrial workers

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Election of 1892

• Democrat Grover Cleveland
• Won both popular electoral votes
• Only former president to return to White House
• Republican Benjamin Harrison
• Populist James Blaine
• Won more than 1 million votes
• Won 22 electoral votes (significant for a 3rd
  party)
• Populists did not do well in the South
• Southerners feared the uniting of poor whites
  blacks
• Blacks were kept from voting
• Failed to attract northern urban workers

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Panic of 1893

• Stock market crash
• Overspeculation dozens of railroads went
  bankrupt due to overbuilding
• Depression lasted 4 years
• Many farm foreclosures
• 20 unemployment
• Cleveland took conservative approach
• Championed the gold standard
• Adopted hands-off policy to economy

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Gold reserve crisis

• Decline in silver price caused investors to
  switch to gold
• Gold reserve fell dangerously low
• President Cleveland repealed the Sherman Silver
  Purchase Act
• It did not stop the drain on gold
• Cleveland turned to J.P. Morgan borrowed 65
  million gold
• Many Americans saw this as proof that the
  government was a tool of the rich
• Pullman strike
• Workers were further disenchanted with Cleveland
  when he used federal troops to crush the Pullman
  strike

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Wilson-Gorman Tariff, 1894

• Moderately reduced tariff rates
• Included a 2 income tax on incomes over 2000
• Supreme Court declared income tax
  unconstitutional within a year

Cleveland's humiliation by Gorman and the sugar
trust cartoon by W. A. Rogers
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Coxeys Army

• 1894 thousands of unemployed marched on
  Washington
• Led by Populist Jacob A. Coxey of Ohio
• They demanded that the federal government spend
  500 million on public works programs to create
  jobs
• Coxey other leaders were arrested the army
  went home
• The march worried conservatives who believe the
  depression was resulting in war between
  capitalists labor

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Coxeys Army
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Election of 1896

• Democrats divided
• gold Democrats loyal to Cleveland vs. Prosilver
  Democrats
• 1896 Democratic convention
• William Jennings Bryan
• Cross of Gold speech
• Won nomination by prosilver Dems

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Election of 1896

• Democratic platform
• Favored unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to 1
  ratio to gold
• This was the main issue for Populists who decided
  to nominate Bryan also run a duel campaign
• Gold Democrats defected the party

William Jennings Bryan
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Election of 1896

• Republicans nominated William McKinley of Ohio
• Favored high protective tariffs
• considered a friend of labor
• Republican platform
• Blamed Democrats for Panic of 1893
• High tariff to protect industry
• Gold standard

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Election of 1896

• Marcus Hanna
• Rich businessman who secured McKinleys
  nomination
• Ran McKinleys campaign by raising millions of
  dollars selling McKinley through the mass media
• Businessmen contributed fearing the silver
  movement
• McKinley stayed home conducted a front-porch
  campaign

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Election of 1896

• Bryan campaigned nationwide by train
• 18,000 miles over 600 speeches
• Appealed to farmers debtors
• Bryan was hurt by
• A rise in wheat prices
• Employers scaring workers that factories would
  close if Bryan was elected
• McKinley won the popular electoral vote

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Significance of 1896 election

• Marked end to the stalemate stagnation of
  politics in the Gilded Age
• Beginning of Republican dominance of the
  presidency (7/9) both houses of Congress
  (17/20)
• Republicans were now the party of business,
  industry, strong national govt

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Significance of 1896 election

• Populist party declined after 1896
• 1896 was a victory for big business, urban
  centers, conservative economics, moderate
  middle-class values
• William McKinley was first modern president
• Mark Hanna created a new model for running
  political campaigns