Politics in the Gilded Age

 

I)                   1876 Election – after the eight years of the Grant administration (personified by periods of spectacular corruption), both parties ran candidates with impeccable personal integrity; the Democrats former New York governor Samuel Tilden, and the Republicans former Ohio Governor (from nearby Fremont) Rutherford B. Hayes.

I. The Lingering Death of Reconstruction

A)    1868 Election – the election of Republican presidential candidate U.S. Grant and the return of the Republican majority in both houses of Congress ironically spelled the end of the influence of the Radical Republicans.  While legislation of benefit to the freedmen continued to be passed (for example, the 15^th Amendment), the will to see that these laws were actually implemented by the states was no longer there.

1)      15^th Amendment – ensured freedmen the right to vote

2)      Spectacular corruption of the Grant Administration – although Grant made a great military leader, his reliance upon corrupt associates undermined his effectiveness as a political leader.

3) Grant also had little support among Republican Party elites, who tended to attempt to undercut him in the newspapers and magazined that they wrote for--which made the corruption seem even worse.

B)     1876 Election controversy – The race between Samuel Tilden (Dem from New York) and Rutherford B. Hayes was extremely close; Tilden won the popular vote, and led in votes in the Electoral College, but didn’t have enough votes to win; vote totals from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida were in dispute, because there were allegations of fraud, and voter intimidation by Democratic Party partisans.

Rumored Southern Democratic deal – Many historians have believed that southern Democrats cut a deal with Republicans, that they would not contest making Hayes president in return for the withdrawal of the remaining troops, and accept “in good faith” the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments. In truth, Southern Democrats did all they could to obstruct making Hayes president, but with both houses of Congress, the presidency, and the Supreme Court still in the hands of Republicans (even though the Democrats had won control of the House in the election, they would not be sworn in until the next session of Congress), there was in reality little they could do about it.

C)    Reign of “His Fraudulency” – the method which put Hayes in office undermined his best attribute, his personal integrity.

1)      One-term presidency – Hayes quickly decided to limit his political career to one term; whether he could have been elected to another term is in some dispute by historians.

II)                 1880 – Republican Stalwarts and Half-Breeds – beginning with the 1880 election, the Republican party begins to splinter; although they are able to unite behind one candidate, and for the most part hang onto the office of the president (except for the two Grover Cleveland interludes), the party does lose control of the Congress during this time period.

A)    Stalwarts – faction led by Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, advocated  returning U.S. Grant to the Presidency, a Radical Southern policy, and the spoils system

1)      “Waving the Bloody Shirt” – appeal to the support of all patriotic northerners to continue punishing the Southern traitors

B)     Half-Breeds – faction of the Republican Party led by James G. Blaine, senator from Maine; advocated Blaine for presidency, a more moderate Southern policy, and tepid support for civil service reforms

C)    1880 Republican Convention – chooses James A. Garfield as a compromise candidate over Grant and John Sherman.

1)      Garfield wins election – Garfield won the fall election over fellow veteran Winfield Scott Hancock by only 39,000 votes, although his electoral college vote total was a much more comfortable 214 to 155 margin, due to the winner take all system of the electoral college

D)    Garfield assassinated – Garfield was assassinated only four months after taking office, in July of 1881, by a disgruntled Stalwart faction office seeker who was probably also insane, Charles Guiteau. It was also Garfield's misfortune to suffer the best medical care then available, which included regular prodding of his wound by the unsanitized fingers of his physician; he died from an infection from this treatment, although Guiteau received all of the blame. Garfield was succeeded in office by Stalwart Chester A. Arthur

1)      Civil Service reforms – as a result of the public outcry over the assassination of Garfield, civil service reforms were a popular issue with much of the voting public; surprisingly, Arthur supported these efforts.  He also led the fight to lower the protective tariff.  These two stands on issues made him popular with the general public, but unpopular within his own party.

III)              1884 Blaine v. Cleveland

A)    The Continental Liar from Maine – Blaine, like many of his collegues in the Senate during this period, had used his political position to help line his own pockets (it wasn't called the “Rich Man’s Club” for nothing); when this reputation was coupled with two blunders of his courting rich supporters, and Protestant minister supporter who characterized Democrats as the party of “rum, Romanism, and rebellion” raised the ire of ethnic voters.

B)     “Ma, Ma, Where’s Pa?” – referred to the illegitimate child Cleveland fathered by a Buffalo widow; despite this peccadillo, Cleveland projected an image of personal integrity which resonated with enough voters to get elected.

1)      Cleveland’s view of limited government – refused to extend pensions for Union veterans, but did sign into law the Interstate Commerce Commission, which began regulating the railroad industry.

(a)    Cartels – this regulation of the railroad industry was welcomed by the companies, because it allowed them to begin to set prices for hauling freight without fear of being undercut by competitors

(i)                  Define difference between cartels and monopolies – a monopoly, for our purposes, is one company controlling an industry; a cartel is a group of business acting collectively to control an industry—kind of like a trade union for capitalists

(ii)                Question to ask oneself is, why are cartels encouraged by government, but trade unions were not?

IV)              The Tariff Issue and the 1888 Election

A)    The Tariff as the “mother of all trusts” – the various tariffs protected various American industries, but also raised prices of goods for consumers; Cleveland decides to make this a campaign issue.

B)     Republican candidate – Benjamin Harrison from Indiana, grandson of the former President; Union veteran and lawyer.

C)    The campaign

1)      Murchison Letter – dirty trick, letter getting a prominent British politician to “endorse” Cleveland

2)      Cleveland wins popular voted, but with Harrison winning crucial electoral votes in Indiana and New York

3)      Harrison as president – owed his election to the votes of Union veterans, which he repaid by signing the Dependent Pension Act that Congress passed in 1890 (allowed any veteran incapable of performing manual labor to collect a pension); this doubled the pension rolls by 1893.

(a)    Sherman Anti-Trust Act – forbade contracts, combinations, or conspiracies in restraint of trade or in the effort to establish monopolies in interstate or foreign commerce.  This law for the next decade was little enforced by successive administrations, however, courts “interpreted” the law set forth by this legislation to restrict collective action by labor unions.

(b)   Sherman Silver Purchase Act – required the US Treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces (over 280,000 pounds) of silver each month, and to issue treasury notes that were redeemable in either gold or silver.  This inflationary money policy was not inflationary enough to please either representatives from the western silver mining states (the main proponents of the law, who hoped that it would drive up the price of silver, and enhance their profits), or the farmers who were increasingly feeling the effects of falling prices and tighter credit.

(c)    McKinley Tariff (1890) – increased the tariff on goods imported into the country an average of nearly 50%.  The tariff issue proved not to be nearly as popular with the public as the Republican Party had assumed that it would be, with the result that the Congressional elections in 1890 returned a resounding number of Democrats to the House, and greatly decreased the margin of the Republicans in the Senate (one of the losers in the Senate included William McKinley himself).

V)                Rise of “Third” Parties – because there was little difference between the two major parties on matters of substance, smaller, issue-driven parties began to proliferate.

A)    Prohibition Party – concerned with the temperance issue; the bulk of the membership of this party was made up of disaffected Republicans, and the incorporation of Prohibition Party platforms in local Republican Party campaigns probably contributed to the large ethnic voter turnout that the Democratic Party enjoyed.

B)      People’s Party – the voice of disaffected western and southern farmers, better known perhaps as the Populist Party.

1)      Radicals in the South – the People’s Party in the South was extremely threatening to the ruling elite, because it united (briefly), both poor whites and poor blacks.

(a)    Playing the race card – for the first time since Redemption, the ruling elite in the South played the race card, raising the threat of social equality and miscengenation.

Conclusion

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era are usually depicted as two different epochs, but it may be more accurate to see the time period from the end of the Civil War to the eve of the “war to end all wars” as a continuum, an attempt to control the changes and problems that industrialism and capitalism made on society.