Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age 1869-1896

Chapter 23

The “Bloody Shirt” Elects Grant• Democrats nominate Horatio Seymour – former

NY Governor They denounced military reconstructionAnd won 80 Electoral votes to Grant’s 214 –the

popular vote was close (300,000)

• Republicans nominate Ulysses S. GrantHe had no political experience – main job was to

hand out patronage“Let us have Peace” “vote as you Shoot” and “Waving the Bloody Shirt”

The Era of good Stealings

• Railroad scandals – stock market manipulation • Jim Fisk and Jay Gould – corner the gold market

– bribed Grant’s brother-in-law not to release any gold: Black Friday (24 Sept. 1869) almost bought all the gold on the market – finally federal gold is released

• Tweed Ring: “Boss” (William M.) Tweed NY City embezzled $200 million – NY Times publishes the evidence and cartoonist Thomas Nast continually draws him. Samuel J. Tilden (later presidential candidate) will lead the prosecution. Others are implicated.

A Carnival of Corruption

• Credit Mobilier Scandal 1872 Union Pacific RR leaders created the company & hired themselves 348% profit, distributed stock to key congressmen & the VP of US.

• Whiskey Ring: robbed the government of millions in whiskey tax revenue – Grant’s own private secretary (who he protected)

• William Belknap (Sec. of War) had accepted bribes from Indian agents who supplied the reservations

The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872• Reform-minded Republicans urged purification of

the Party & an end to military ReconstructionThey nominated Horace Greeley (editor of NY

Tribune) for president• Democrats will also endorse Greeley (he had

blasted the Democrats as traitors, slavers, saloon keepers, horse thieves and idiots)

• Republicans will nominate Grant (for a 2nd term) who is elected easily 286 to 66 electoral votes

They will pass and amnesty act (southerners) vote to lower tariffs and promote mild civil-service reform.

Depression, Deflation and Inflation Panic of 1873 1. Over-building of Railroads, mines, factories &

farms2. Bad loans – no profits and no payments, led to

foreclosures Hard vs. Cheap money (agrarian & debtor groups

want greenbacks (Civil War $) to be re-issued Hard money advocates (creditors) wanted to be

paid back with gold and silver coinsGrant vetoed a bill to make more greenbacks Congress passed the Resumption Act of 1875

(buy back greenbacks in gold at face value by 1879)

Depression, Deflation and Inflation• “Cheap” money advocates now promote silver

attacking the 16-1 (16oz of silver = 1 oz of gold $$)

• 1870 a 7 member supreme court declares the Civil War Legal Tender (greenbacks) Act as unconstitutional

• With congressional approval Grant adds 2 members to reverse the decision – 1871 they do so (now 9 members of Supreme Court)

• Coinage Act 1873 – no more silver coins – “crime of “73”

• “contraction” of money supply (less $ available) • Resumption Act 1875 – few people turned in their

bills• Spawns the Greenback Labor Party 1878 1 million

votes and 14 members of Congress

Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age• “Gilded Age” sarcastic name given by Mark

Twain in 1873 • Fight over “Patronage”• Every presidential election was close and very

little separated the Parties• Democrats: Lutherans and Roman Catholics

White South, and northern cities – political machine

• Republicans: Protestants and strict codes of morality believed Government should regulate economy and morals – support from small town NE and Midwest and: Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Civil War veterans

• Split: “Stalwart” (Roscoe Conkling) “Half Breeds” (James G. Blaine)

Hayes – Tilden Standoff 1876• Rutherford B. Hayes: 3-time Governor

of Ohio• 20 disputed votes (Louisiana, S.

Carolina & Florida) – Both Parties had sent delegates to the Electoral College

• Samuel J. Tilden “bagged Boss Tweed” led the prosecution

1 vote short (184 needs 185) led in the popular vote

The deadlock was to be settled by an electoral commission (8 Republicans and 7 Democrats)

Compromise of 1877 & the End of Reconstruction• The electoral commission will vote down

political lines electing Hayes• Almost a second Civil War – Compromise1. Troops leave south (now only 2 states)2. Democrats will gain some patronage (help

toward Southern transcontinental RR) and have 2 members of the new Cabinet

3. Black equality is abandoned in the SouthCivil Rights Act 1875 should have equal public

accommodations & equality in jury selectionNot enforced: Civil Rights Cases 1883, 14th

Amendment only meant Government violations of Civil Rights

The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post Reconstruction South

• Democratic South – suppression of the blacks “Redeemer” governments – freedmen face unemployment, eviction & physical harm

• Sharecropping and tenant farming = “Crop lien” system

• Jim Crow Laws – State-level segregation laws

• Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 “Separate but Equal” facilities

• Lynching: blacks lynched for the “crime” of asserting themselves as equals

Class conflicts and Ethnic Clashes• Since the Panic of 1873 RR workers hard times –

Cut wages by 10%Great Railroad Strike of 1877: general strike

effecting 10 states over 100 killedFederal troop sent in to stop the strike “impeding

the federal mail”• Racial and Ethnic conflicts: Irish and Chinese in

California Denis Kearny “Kearneyites” violence and cutting off of pig-tails led to

• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 • US v. Wong Kim Ark 1898 guaranteed citizenship

to all persons born in the US

Garfield and Arthur – 1880 Election

• Democrats nominate Winfield Scott Hancock• Garfield “Dark Horse” RepublicanVP Chester A. Arthur of NY a Stalwartwin election 214-155 Garfield assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau over

spoils (disappointed because he was not rewarded with a public job)

Arthur (a stalwart) promotes reform and gets congress to pass the Pendleton Act of 1883 magna carta of civil-service reform: jobs based upon a competitive exam and placed the Civil Service Commission in charge of appointments

Election of 1884 Blaine-Cleveland Mudslingers• Republicans nominate James G. Blaine “Burn this letter” end of a letter linking politics with

corruption “Rum, Romanism, Rebellion” = loses NYMugwumps left Republican Party to support reform

• Democrats nominate Grover ClevelandReformer, very honest “a public office is a public

trust”Wins narrow electionElection over personalities NOT policy

“Old Grover” takes over

Vetoed a bill that would have provided seed for drought-ravaged Texas farmers “Though the people must support the government, the government should not support the people”.

He will name 2 former Confederates to his cabinet-helps sooth relations North and South

Will “cave-in” to spoils systemMilitary pensions: widespread $ given to

Civil War Veterans Cleveland reads each and vetoes 100’s

Cleveland Battles for a Lower Tariff• Tariff had been high since the Civil War• The Treasury had a surplus of $145 million• “Pork-barrel” spending was common• Cleveland felt a lower tariff meant lower prices for

consumers & less protection for monopolies

• The Tariff issue becomes the main issue of the election of 1888

• Cleveland runs for the Democrats• Republicans nominate Benjamin Harrison

(grandson of William Henry)• Harrison will win the electoral college 233-168 but

lose the popular

The Billion-Dollar Congress

• Republicans have a thin lead in the House • Thomas “Czar” Reed becomes Speaker of the

House and pushes legislation through• Pensions to Civil War Veterans• Government purchases of silver (Sherman Silver

Purchase Act 1890)• McKinley Tariff = 48.4 % highest peacetime level• In the mid-term elections, Republicans lost

dropping to 88 seats vs 235 Democrats also 9 members of the Farmers Alliance, a militant organization

The Drumbeat of Discontent

• PEOPLE’S PARTY OR “POPULISTS”They met in Omaha (Omaha Platform) Demanding:1. Free & unlimited coinage of silver2. Graduated income tax3. Government ownership of railroads, telegraph &

telephone

4. The direct election of US Senators 5. One-term limit on the presidency6. Adoption of initiative & referendum7. A shorter workday8. Immigration restrictionNominated Gen. James B. Weaver

The Drumbeat of Discontent

Homestead Strike 1892: a Carnegie Mill1. Steelworkers angry over pay cuts2. James Frick (working for Carnegie) hires Pinkertons to

break up the strike3. 10 killed and 60 wounded 4. Federal Troops stop the strike and break the unionFederal troops also brutally put down a strike in Coeur d’Alene

Idaho

• Populists made a remarkable showing in the 1892 Presidential election gaining a million votes and 22 electoral-4 states Kansas, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada

• South divided along racial lines• Colored Farmer’s Alliance• Tom Watson, Georgia appeals to their votes• But “Bourbon” elitism prevailed1. Grandfather Clause2. Jim Crow Laws – segregation in public places

Cleveland and the Depression• Only president elected after his defeat• Depression of 1893 (may have been worse than Great Depression)• Railroad over-building & over-speculation, labor disorders, agricultural

depression – free-silver hurt the international market & European banking houses demanded repayments in gold lowering the gold reserve

• 8,000 business collapsed in 6 months, railroads went under (Philadelphia and Reading RR)

• Soup kitchens and hoboes common, local charities hard-pressed • Federal Government “let nature take its course” philosophy• Legal tender notes had to be issued for silver purchased (paper $) could be

traded for gold & this also drops the gold supply• Since silver was one obvious problem, Cleveland calls Congress into special

session to repeal it• William Jennings Bryan makes a plea for silver-Cleveland breaks the

filibuster and alienates “free silver” faction of the Democrat party• Cleveland finally has to go to JP Morgan for $65 million in gold

Cleveland Breeds a Backlash• Cleveland is blamed for “selling” out to JP

Morgan and business interests (Morgan had made $7million on the gold loan to the government)

• Wilson-Gorman Tariff 1894 (not much % drop over McKinley Tariff) 2% tax on incomes over $4,000) Cleveland allows the bill to become law without his signature

• Mid-term elections, Republicans won back lost majority in congress

• Cleveland blamed for their rebound

“Forgettable” Presidents

• The word lilliputian has come into common usage, meaning "very small sized". (textbook p. 562)

• Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison and Cleveland are all considered “forgettable” presidents largely because they did so little and they were controlled by Congress