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The American JourneyA History of the United States, 7th Edition
By: Goldfield • Abbott • Anderson • Argersinger • Argersinger • Barney • Weir
Chapter
•Politics and
Government
•1877-1900
20
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Politics and Government
1877-1900
The Structure and Style of Politics
The Limits of Government
Public Policies and National Elections
The Crisis of the 1890s
Conclusion
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Learning Objectives
How did parties shape late nineteenth-century politics?
What explains the weakness and inefficiency of late
nineteenth-century government?
How effective was government in addressing the problems
of America’s industrializing economy?
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Learning Objectives (cont'd)
What factors contributed to the rise and fall of the Populist
Party?
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The Structure and Style of Politics
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Campaigns and Elections
The public enthusiastically participated in political
campaigns and elections.
Campaign pageantry enthralled large and small
communities.
Virtually all men participated in politics including immigrants
and African Americans.
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Campaigns and Elections (cont'd)
Political parties mobilized the huge electorate through
detailed records, ensuring registrations, and transporting
voters to the polls.
The election process was open and partisan but not
necessarily corrupt.
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FIGURE 20–1 Voter Turnout in Presidential
Elections, 1876–1924
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Partisan Politics
Democrats and Republicans enjoyed an almost even
balance of support which made them work hard to get out
the vote.
Party affiliation was determined by a mix of regional, ethnic,
religious, and local factors. Republicans were strongest in
the North and Midwest, Democrats in the South and
urban Northeast.
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Partisan Politics (cont’d)
Republicans were identified with nationalism and national
unity, while Democrats favored limited government and
personal liberties.
There was little room for third parties that typically focused
on specific issues or groups.
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Partisan Politics (cont’d)
Prohibition Party
A venerable third party still in existence that has persistently campaigned
for the abolition of alcohol but has also introduced many important
reform ideas into American politics.
Greenback Party
A third party of the 1870s and 1880s that garnered temporary support by
advocating currency inflation to expand the economy and assist
debtors.
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Partisan Politics (cont’d)
Populist Party
A major third party of the 1890s, also known as the People’s Party.
Formed on the basis of the Southern Farmers’ Alliance and other
reform organizations, it mounted electoral challenges against the
Democrats in the South and the Republicans in the West.
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MAP 20–1 The Two-Party Stalemate of the Late
Nineteenth Century
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Associational Politics
Associations of people with similar opinions operated
outside the electoral arena but played significant roles on
politics.
The Grange, for example, campaigned for Granger laws to
help farmers but remained nonpartisan. The Mugwumps
lobbied for civil service reform.
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Associational Politics (cont’d)
Women were active in politics, especially through the
National American Woman Suffrage Association founded
in 1890 and social service organizations.
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union gained a
massive following.
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Associational Politics (cont’d)
Granger laws
State laws enacted in the Midwest in the 1870s that regulated rates
charged by railroads, grain elevator operators, and other middlemen.
Mugwumps
Elitist and conservative reformers who favored sound money and limited
government and opposed tariffs and the spoils system.
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Associational Politics (cont’d)
National American Woman Suffrage Association
The organization, formed in 1890, that coordinated the ultimately
successful campaign to achieve women’s right to vote.
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The Limits of Government
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The Limits of Government
With a Congress and presidency divided between the two
major parties, a small and inefficient bureaucracy, judicial
restraints, and a resurgent belief in localism and laissez-
faire policies, the size and objectives of the federal
government were limited.
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The Limits of Government (cont’d)
Laissez-faire
The doctrine that government should not intervene in the economy,
especially through regulation.
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The Weak Presidency (cont’d)
The impeachment of President Johnson weakened the
presidency. Presidents viewed their duties as
administrative.
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The Inefficient Congress
Congress was the most powerful branch of the national
government. Early in the period, Congress was inefficient
but as more national legislation was required, it reformed
its procedures and structure.
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FIGURE 20–2 Increase in Congressional
Business, 1871-1901
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The Federal Bureaucracy and
the Spoils System
The federal bureaucracy remained small and was criticized
as being corrupt and inefficient.
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Inconsistent State Government
State governments were more active than the federal
government.
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Public Policies and
National Elections
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Civil Service Reform
Reform of the spoils system gained momentum during the
Hayes administration.
Reformers wanted a professional civil service based on
merit that was divorced from politics.
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Civil Service Reform (cont'd)
The assassination of President James Garfield by a
disappointed office seeker prompted the passage of the
Pendleton Civil Service Act that emphasized merit and
skill in government appointments.
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Civil Service Reform (cont'd)
Pendleton Civil Service Act
A law of 1883 that reformed the spoils system by prohibiting government
workers from making political contributions and creating the Civil
Service Commission to oversee their appointment on the basis of
merit rather than politics.
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The Political Life of the Tariff
The tariff issue was hotly debated in the late 1800s. It was
linked to partisan, ideological, and regional concerns.
The Republican Party was committed to industry and
championed protective tariffs.
Democrats espoused a laissez-faire approach and favored
tariff reduction.
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The Political Life of the Tariff (cont'd)
The political disagreement was over how much the tariff
should be and whom should be protected.
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Arguments in the Tariff Debates
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The Beginnings of Federal Regulation
Popular pressure began to propel Congress to take the first
steps toward regulating business, starting with railroads
and proceeding to interstate commerce and corporate
monopolies.
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The Beginnings of Federal Regulation(cont'd)
Interstate Commerce Act
The 1887 law that expanded federal power over business by prohibiting
pooling and discriminatory rates by railroads and establishing the first
federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
The first federal regulatory agency, established in 1887 to oversee
railroad practices.
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The Beginnings of Federal Regulation(cont'd)
Sherman Antitrust Act
The first federal antitrust measure, passed in 1890; sought to promote
economic competition by prohibiting business combinations in
restraint of trade or commerce.
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The Money Question
Monetary policy was the most divisive political issue of the
late 19th century.
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The Money Question (cont’d)
Creditors, bankers, conservative economists, and many
business leaders supported a sound money policy to
ensure economic stability, maintain property values, and
retain investor confidence. Farmers and other debtors
wanted to expand the money supply to match the nation’s
growing population and economy.
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The Money Question (cont’d)
The conflict on money focused on the use of paper currency
and silver coinage. Silver became the prominent issue in
the 1880s and divided Southerners and Westerners
against Eastern conservatives.
Sound money
Misleading slogan that referred to a conservative policy of restricting the
money supply and adhering to the gold standard.
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The Money Question (cont’d)
Free silver
Philosophy that the government should expand the money supply by
purchasing and coining all the silver offered to it.
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The Crisis of the 1890s
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Farmers Protest Inequities
The agricultural depression of the late 1880s politically
mobilized farmers.
Farmers protested that the system of money and credit
worked against agriculture. Monetary deflation worsened
the debt burden of farmers.
High railroad rates and protective tariffs also were targets of
farmer reforms.
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Farmers Protest Inequities (cont'd)
Farmers organized the Farmers’ Alliance in the South and
the West. The Alliance tried to establish cooperatives and
developed new ideas to solve rural credit and currency
problems.
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Farmers Protest Inequities (cont'd)
Farmers’ Alliance
Abroad mass movement in the rural South and West during the late
nineteenth century, encompassing several organizations and
demanding economic and political reforms; helped create the Populist
Party.
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The People’s Party
In 1890, state-level third parties ran populist campaigns and
gained control of two state legislatures and won several
congressional elections.
The Populists were organized in 1892 and ran on the
Omaha Platform.
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The People’s Party (cont'd)
Though meeting disappointments, the Populists received
over one million votes, carried several western states,
and won hundreds of state office throughout the West and
some areas of the South.
Omaha Platform
The 1892 platform of the Populist Party repudiating laissez-faire and
demanding economic and political reforms to aid distressed farmers
and workers.
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The Challenge of the Depression
A long, harsh depression began in 1893 that led to labor
unrest and violence.
The major political parties did not respond to the crisis and
President Cleveland refused to listen to appeals for
reforms.
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The Challenge of the Depression (cont’d)
The unemployed rallied around Jacob Coxey’s call for a
march on Washington. While many Americans were
sympathetic to the plight of the unemployed, the
government suppressed Coxey’s Army.
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The Challenge of the Depression (cont’d)
The federal government protected big business from labor
unrest through court decisions and legislation.
Coxey’s Army
A protest march of unemployed workers, led by Populist businessman
Jacob Coxey, demanding inflation and a public works program during
the depression of the 1890s.
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The Battle of the Standards and the Election of 1896
Unpopular actions and the continuing depression alienated
workers and farmers from the Cleveland administration
and the Democratic Party. Silver was the major issue in
the 1896 election.
McKinley won the Republican nomination on a platform that
supported high tariffs and the gold standard.
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The Battle of the Standards and the Election of 1896
(cont'd)
The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan on a
silver platform, undercutting the People’s Party who also
nominated Bryan.
The campaign was intense and dramatic. But Bryan but he
lost the election decisively to McKinley.
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MAP 20–2 The Election of 1896
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Conclusion
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Conclusion
Politics and government often seemed at cross purposes in
the late 1800s.
The localism, laissez-faire, and other traditional political and
governmental principles were becoming increasingly
inappropriate for America’s industrializing society.
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Conclusion (cont'd)
By the end of the 1890s, the Republicans had emerged as
the dominant party, a new activist presidency was
emerging, and the stage was set for the Progressive Era
of reform.