Chapter 23 Notes: Political Paralysis in the

Gilded Age
The Bloody Shirt Elects Grant
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The Republicans nominated Civil War General Ulysses Grant

o Very good soldier but had no political experience
o They got him elected by reliving his war victories
Used popularity to elect him
The Democrats couldnt agree on anything except to denounce military
Reconstruction
o Very disorganized
o Nominated Horatio Seymour
He didnt accept a redemption-of-greenbacks-for-maximum
value platform
Doomed his party
The election was very close, so Republicans knew they couldnt take the win
for granted

The Era of Good Stealings

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The population was still growing bigger and bigger, due to immigration
Politics started to become very corrupt at this time
o Railroad promoters cheated gullible customers
o Stock-market investors were a cancer in the public eye
o Many judges and legislators put their power up for hire
There were two notorious millionaires named Jim Fisk and Jay Gould
o 1869 the pair came up with a plan to corner the gold market
Only works if the treasury stopped selling gold
They worked on President Grant directly and through the
brother-in-law
The treasury started to sell gold and plan failed
o Tweed Ring (aka Tammy Hall) of NYC employed bribery, graft, and
fake elections
Cheated the city of 200 million
He was finally caught when New York Times got evidence of his
corruption
He died in jail later
Samuel J. Tilden got fame from leading the prosecution of Tweed
Would used this fame to become the Democratic nominee
in 1876
Thomas Nast was a political cartoonist who drew against
Tammys corruption

A Carnival of Corruption
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President Grant failed to see the corruption around him

o Many of his friends wanted offices and his cabinet was very corrupt
o His in-laws, the Dent family, were some of the worst

The Credit Mobilier

o A railroad construction company that paid itself huge sums of money
for small railroad construction
o A New York newspaper finally busted it
Two members of Congress were formally censored
The Vice President was shown to have accepted 20 shares of
stock
President Grant ignored it and turned his head
1875: The Whiskey Ring robbed the Treasury of millions of dollars
o Grants own private secretary was in on it
o Grant decided to retract earlier statement of Let no guilty man
escape.
o 1867: Secretary of War William Belknap pocketed money by selling
junk to Indians

The Liberal Republican Revolt of 187

-

1872: people were getting tired of Grants administration

o The worst scandals hadnt even been revealed yet
Reformers organized the Liberal Republican Party
o Nominated dogmatic Horace Greeley
Democratic Party also supported Greeley
Even though he had blasted them repeatedly in his
newspaper
But he called for an end of Reconstruction & bring North
and South together
o Campaign filled with a lot of mudslinging
Greeley called atheist, communist, vegetarian
Grant called ignoramus, drunk and a swindler
Grant still crushed Greeley in the voting
1872: Republican Congress passed a general amnesty act
o Removed political disabilities from all but some 500 former
Confederate leaders

Depression, Deflation, and Inflation

-

The Panic of 1873

o Caused by too many railroads and factories being formed
The existing markets could not handle it
Over-loaning by banks to these projects
Over speculation and too-easy credit
o First started with failure of the New York banking firm Jay Cooke &
Company
o The greenbacks of the Civil War were being recalled
The cheap money supporters wanted them to cause inflation
Supporters of hard-money persuaded Grant to veto a bill for
more paper money
Resumption Act of 1875 pledged gov. to withdraw
greenbacks

All further redemption of paper money in gold at

face value
o Debtors said silver was under-valued but Grant refused to coin more
silver dollars
Had been stopped in 1873
New silver discoveries in 1870s caused silver prices to take a
dive
o As greenbacks regained value, few of the holders exchanged the bills
for gold
1878: Bland-Allison Act
o Instructed Treasury to buy and coin $2-4 million solver bullion each
month
The Republican hard-money policy
o Led to election of Democratic House of Reps in 1874
o Created the Greenback Labor Party in 1878
o

Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age

-

The
o
o
o

Gilded Age was a term coined by Mark Twain

Hinting that times looked good but under the surface was problems
Filled with corruption and presidential election squeakers
Democratic and Republicans have same ideas but have differences
Republicans traced lineage to Puritanism
Democrats were more Lutherans and Catholics
Democrats had strong support in the South
Republicans had strong votes in North and West (a lot of
veterans)
1870-80s: Republican infighting was led by rivals
o Roscoe Conkling (Stalwarts) and James G. Blaine (Half-Breeds)

The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876

-

Grant wanted to run for a third term

o The House derailed that idea
Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes
o The Great Unknown because no one knew much about him
Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden
Election was very close
o Votes in four states were disputed and had sent in two sets of returns
Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, and part of Oregon

The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction

-

The Electoral Count Act: 1877

o Set up electoral commission consisting of 15 men selected from the
Senate, House and Supreme Court
o It would count the votes of the states
February of 1877
o The Senate and the House met to settle the dispute
o The Compromise of 1877 helped settle the dispute

For North: Hayes would become president

For south: military rule and Reconstruction ended and military
pulled out of South
A bill subsidized the Texas and Pacific rail line
Abandoned the Blacks in the South by withdrawing troops
Civil Rights Act of 1875 was the last attempt at protection
of Black rights
o It was mostly declared unconstitutional by Supreme
Court

The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post-Reconstruction South

-

Whites once again asserted their power as Reconstruction ended

o Literacy requirements for voting began, voter registration laws and poll
taxes
All were targeted at black voters
o Most blacks became sharecroppers (just labor) or tenant farmers (if
they had their own tools)
1896: Supreme Court ruled in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson
o separate but equal facilities were constitutional
o Jim Crow segregation as legalized

Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes

-

1877: the presidents of the nations four largest railroads decided to cut
wages by 10%
o Workers fought back, stopped working
o President Hayes sent troops to stop it and violence erupted
More than 100 people decided within several weeks
o The failure of the railroad strike showed weakness of labor movement
Partly because of the friction between races
Especially between Irish and Chinese
1879: Congress passed a bill restricting the influx of Chinese immigrants
o Hayes vetoed the bill saying it violated an existing treaty with China
o 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act passed after Hayes left office
Barred any Chinese from entering the U.S. (first law limiting
immigration)

Garfield and Arthur

-

James A. Garfield
o 1880 the Republicans nominated James A. Garfield
He was from Ohio and risen to the rank of major general in Civil
War
o The Democrats chose Winfield S. Hancock
Civil War general who appealed to the South from his fair
treatment in reconstruction
Appealed to veterans because he had been wounded at
Gettysburg
o The campaign avoided touchy issues and Garfield squeaked by

Garfield was a good person but didnt like saying no and hurting
feelings
He named James G. Blaine to Secretary of State
On Sept. 19, 1881 Garfield was shot in the head by a crazy,
disappointed office seeker
Charles J. Guiteau
He used an early version of the insanity defense to
avoid conviction
He was hanged anyway

Chester Arthur
-

He didnt seem a very good fit for the presidency but surprised people
o Cold shouldered the Stalwarts, his chief supporters
o He called for a reform, something heeded by the Republican party
Pendleton Act of 1883
o The so-called Magna Carta of civil-service reform
o Awarded gov. jobs based on ability, not on relations
o Prohibited financial assessments on jobholders
o Established a merit system of making appointments to office based on
aptitude
o Set up Civil Service Commission
Charged with administering open competitive service
Offices not classified by the president remained the foughtover footballs of politics
Arthur cooperated and by 1884 had classified 10% of all federal
offices
o Partially divided from patronage
Drove them into marriages of convenience with business
leaders

The Blain-Cleveland Mudslingers of 1884

-

James G. Blaine became the Republican candidate

o Some Republicans reformers didnt agree and switched to the
Democratic Party
They were called Mugwumps
The Democrats chose Grover Cleveland as their candidate
o They received a shock when it was revealed that he might be the
father of a illegitimate child
The campaign of 1884 filled with some of the worst mudslinging in history
o The whole thing rested on New York and their voted
A Republican insulted the race, faith, and patriotism of the Irish
population
There were a lot of Irish in New York and this tipped the scales to
Democrats

Old Grover Takes Over

-

Grover Cleveland was the first Democratic president since James Buchanan

o
o

A supporter of laissez-faire capitalism

This delighted business owners and bankers
He named two former Confederates to his cabinet
He at first tried to adhere to the merit system, but would give up
due to pressures from his party
He had some problems with military pensions
The bills were given to Civil War veterans to help them but were
used fraudulently
He showed that he was ready to take on the corrupt military
pensions
Vetoed a bill that would add people to the pension list

Cleveland Battles for a Lower Tariff

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1881: the Treasury had a surplus of $145 million

o Most of it came from the high tariff
Some wanted to lower it, but big industries opposed it
o Cleveland wasnt interested in this at first, but slowly was drawn to it
Decided to openly toss the appeal for lower tariffs to Congress in
1887
Democrats upset that their president did this
Republicans were happy that Cleveland made this
decision

The Billion Dollar Congress

-

Thomas B. Reed was the new Speaker of the House

o Very tall, tremendous debater and a very critical man
o There was an issue with reaching a quorum in Congress
Reed counted the Democrats who were present yet didnt
answer the roll call
After three days he prevailed
Opened the 51st or Billion Dollar Congress
It would legislate many expensive projects

The Drumbeat of Discontent

-

Populisit Party emerged in 1892 from unhappy farmers

o Main call was for inflation from free coinage of silver
Many had debts that inflation would help pay off
o They called for a list of items like
Graduated income tax, government regulation of railroads,
telegraphs/telegraphs, direct elections of U.S. senators, one
term limit, initiative and referendum, a shorter workday and
immigration restriction

Cleveland and Depression

Glover Cleveland stepped into the presidency as the Depression of 1893

broke out
o First panic in the new urban and industrial age
o Caused a lot of outrage and hardships
o About 8,000 American business houses collapsed in six months
Dozens of railroad lines went into the hands of receivers
o Cleveland had a deficit and a problem
The Treasury had to issue gold for nots it had paid in the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
They had to be reissued
Caused a drain on gold in the Treasury
o Dropped below $100 million at one point
Cleveland started to develop a growth under the roof of his mouth
o The surgery to remove it had to be a secret on his private yacht
o Had he died, Adlai E. Stevenson would have caused massive inflation
He was a paper money man
o William Jennings Bryan was advocating free silver and gaining
support
Angry Cleveland used his executive power to break the filibuster
in the Senate
Alienated the silver-supporting Democrats

Cleveland Breeds a Backlash

-

Cleveland had to resort to J.P. Morgan to vale out of the depression

o He was incredibly embarrassed
o Also embarrassed by the Wilson-Gorman Tariff
He had promised to lower the tariff but so many things it had
been added, the result didnt matter
The Supreme Court struck down an income tax
o It looked like all politicians were tools of the wealthy