chapter 23 politics in the gilded age. the “ bloody shirt ” elects grant
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 23
Politics in the Gilded Age
The “Bloody Shirt” Elects Grant
Americans disillusioned among idealistic
Got corruption, petty politics, and Grant
General would make a good president
Most popular war hero after the WarGiven lavish gifts like they owed him
for saving the Union
Not up to the political arenaNot very cultured
1868 Republican Platform
Continued reconstruction of South“Let us have peace” -Grant
Democratic Convention
Denounced reconstructionRepudiationForced through the Ohio Idea
-Redemption of bonds in greenbacks in fullDemocrats hope to keep money in
circulation to make loans affordable
Heratio Seymour - New York Governor
Denounces repudiation
Republicans wave the “bloody shirt”
“Vote as you shot”
Grant 214-80
Popular vote by only 300,000Majority of whites vote for SeymourTexas, Virginia, and Mississippi not
counted500,000 former slaves votes carry
Grant into office
Era of Good Stealings
Population growing by leaps and bounds
Becomes third largest western nation behind Russia and France
39 million
America is going to be full of graft and corruption
Railroad promoters left bond buyers with little success
Judges and legislatures were up for hire
Jim Fisk and Jay Gould
High living and showy millionaire Wanted to corner the gold market
1. Bought up gold 2. Convinced Grant not to sell gold 3. Took prices high 4. But Grant released gold anyway,
knowing the scheme
Jim Fisk
Tweed Ring
New York CityMilked city and state of over $200
millionAddition, division and silence
Thomas Nast
Cartoonist who helped bring down Boss Tweed
Turned down much in bribes
(example of a political cartoon)
Samuel Tilden headed prosecution
Tweed found guilty and sent to jail
A Carnival of Corruption
Grant Administration full of corruption
Except for Hamilton Fish - Secretary of State
In-laws are even a part of the graft
Credit Mobilier
1. Railroad Construction Company formed by insiders of Union Pacific
2. Hired themselves and paid themselves hefty sums
3. Distributed shares to Congressmen
Uncovered in 1872Tow Congressmen censuredVice President had even received
shares in stock
Whisky Ring
1. Robbed Treasury of millions by bribing tax collectors
2. Grants private secretary involved Grant gets him off
William Belknap
Made money by selling privileges of selling junk to Indians
The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872
Liberal Republicans
Reform minded citizensWant to purify Washington and end
reconstruction
Nominated Horace Greeley for president
Reform journalistNot a good politician Eccentric who was hostile to Democrats Got Democratic nomination to run
against GrantWants to clasp hands across the “bloody chasm” and brought Democrats on his side
1872 Election
Two candidates not qualified for the job
Campaign becomes one of name calling
Wave bloody shirt and wave dirty shirt
Grant wins againGreeley lost election, job, mind, life
within a month
Liberal Republicans force changes
1. General amnesty for former Confederate leaders
2. Lowered high Civil War tariff3. Mild civil service reform
Depression and Demands for Inflation
Panic and Depression of 1873
Promoters overextended and markets could not keep up
Bankers made too many bad loans
Jay Cooke and Company
Made loans hoping Europe would help out, but Europe experiences its own depression
Financier of the Civil War went bankrupt
15,000 business go bankrupt
Labor riotsBlacks hit hardest - lost savings
Debtors want inflationary policy
1. $450 million greenbacks still in circulation
2. Money losing value to gold3. Want cheap money to ease debts
Creditors want hard money to keep its value
Resumption Act of 1875
Grant convinced to print more paper money
Redeem at face value in gold Saw greenbacks taken out of circulation Fueled depression
Silver
Debtors look for relief from silver 1. Silver worth 1/16 of gold by Treasury
Dept 2. Silver miners stopped selling silver to
government 3. Treasury stops minting silver 4. Silver discovers drive price down
even further
Crime of 73
Westerners and debtors call for more greenbacks
A call for inflation
Contraction
Government collecting money to redeem greenbacks in 1879
Amount of money per capita decreased
Worsened the depressionRestored US credit rating Brought greenbacks up to face valueFew redeemed in 1879
Bland Allison Act
Compromise between sound money and soft money
Instructed Treasury to buy $2 to $4 in silver each month But they buy only minimum
Backlash
Democratic House in 1874 and 1878Beginning of Greenback Labor Party
Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age
Political seesaw in the late 19th Century
Presidential races closeMajority in House and Senate never
the samePoliticians not willing to take bold
stands Trivial and petty
Democrats and Republicans see eye to eye on most
issues
Fighting became fierceEfficient organizationsRecord voter turnoutsMany voted straight party ticket
Why political consensus and political fighting
Built along ethnic and cultural differences Republicans
Lineage to PuritansGovernment should play a role in economic
and moral affair
Democrats Immigrants, Lutherans, CatholicsMore tolerable of differencesOpposed government touching morality
Bitter politics at local level also
Democrats
Solid base in SouthRan well in northern industrial cities
Immigrants and political machines
Republicans
MidwestRural and small towns which usually
gave them victoryFreedmen voted RepublicanGAR - Grand Army of the Republic
Potent political block
Patronage
Parties built support on patronage and spoils of office
Infighting in Republican Party in 1870s and 1880s
Stalwarts - Roscoe Conkling - New York Senator Embraces spoils system Portrayed as a turkey
Half Breeds - James G. Blaine - Maine Toyed with civil service reform but
really wanted power in party to hand out spoils
Blaine wanted to be president Played both sides to appeal to all
Wave bloody shirt and twist British lion’s tail
Worked in stalemating eachother
The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876
Grant wants to run but many remind him of the two turn tradition Grant out of the running
Rutherford B Hayes
Compromise candidate between Stalwarts and Half Breeds
War veteranCame from Ohio
which was important in electoral college
Samuel Tilden
DemocratCivil Service reform
and against Republican scandal
Had 184 of 185 needed to win election and 247,000 more popular votes
Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida sent in two sets of presidential voting returns Who should count the returns in
Congress Which do they count
The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction
Both sides working on compromise in tradition of Clay
Electoral Count Act
1. Commission to count returns2. 15 from Senate, House, and
Supreme Court3. Tried to make it even and one
bipartisan - David Davis of the Supreme Court
4. Davis resigns and runs for Senate
Commission accepts Republican returns 8-7 along partisan lines for all 3 states
Compromise of 1877
1. Hayes takes office2. 15 from Senate, House, and
Supreme Court3. Tried to make it even and on
bipartisan-David Davis of the Supreme Court
4. Bill for Texas pacific railway Not all these promise kept
Deal completed only 3 days before inauguration
Deal broke standoff
Compromise at a Price
Violence averted by sacrificing black freedmen
Republicans abandon black equality
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Last feeble attempt at equality by Republicans
Give equal accommodations in public places and no discrimination in jury selection Law toothless
Civil Rights Case of 1883 says most of it is unconstitutional
Court says individuals may discriminate
Hayes appoints former Confederate to postmaster general
Hayes also withdraws last troops from South Republican governments in South gone
Democratic South soon move whites back into power Blacks disenfranchised
Threatened with unemployment, eviction, violence
South also institutes poll taxes and literacy tests
Make blacks economically dependent
Forced into sharecroppingCrop lien system kept blacks forever
in debt to masters
Jim Crow Laws
Moved from informal separation of races to state-level legal codes of segregation
Plessy v. Furgeson (1896)
Separate but equal facilities were legal
Segregated in all areas of life and education
South dealt harshly with any who challenged “new order”
Record number of lynchings Crimes against whites asserting themselves
Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes
Class warfare begins
Depression and deflationRR decide to cut wages 10%
StrikesGets working class supportWork stoppage
Weakness of Labor Movement
Chinese came to California Dig in gold fields Lay railroad 9% of population Left country with little money
Those who stayed were marooned Neither wanted now where they wanted to
be Children begin to assimilate
Dennis Kearny
Sand Lot IncidentLed violence against Chinese in San
Francisco Resent the competition of cheap labor Coolies a menace Kearnyites terrorized the Chinese
1879 Congress restricts Chinese influx
Hayes vetoes bill Angers Californians
1882 Passes when Hayes leaves office
Chinese Exclusion Act stays until 1943
Cold Water gets Cold Shoulder
Hayes begins with cloud over Presidency
Old 8 to 7His FradulencyTemperance in the White HouseLemonade Lucy Hayes
Accomplished little as President
Finished Reconstruction1880 Election-Hayes out
Garfield Interlude
James A. Garfield - Ohio
Stalwarts and Half Breeds deadlocked
Dark HorseCivil War Officer
Chester A. Arthur
Stalwart henchman for VP
Platform
Protective TariffFeeble Civil Service Reform
Democrats
Winfield HancockCivil War GeneralPopular in South
Platform
Civil Service ReformRevenue Tariff
Campaign
Avoided controversyRepublicans-wave bloody shirt
Gave money to Indiana to sway votersDemocrats-discredit Garfield and
bring up Credit Mobilier
Garfield 214-155
Patronage
Blaine becomes Secretary of State Tries to clip wings of Stalwarts
Charles Guiteau - kills Garfield
Sept 19, 1881Office seekerStalwart Insanity defense
does not workHung
Garfield
MartyrShocked public servants into action
against flagrant abuses of patronage
Chester Arthur takes command
Little qualifications to become President
Spoilsman in Conklings New York political machine
Underestimated at first
Prosecuted post office frauds“Owes VP to Conkling but President
to Almighty”
Begins to support civil service reform
They had lost the House in 1882Felt it would get worse if they did not
reform
Pendleton Act of 1883
Magna Carta of Civil Service1. Prohibited financial assessment of
job holders2. Merit system to office
appointments based on test3.Set up Civil Service Commission to
administer the tests
Arthur supports the Pendleton Act
Government begins classifying jobs
Problems of Civil Service Reform
1. Put good jobs beyond patronage and politicians
2. Turned to big corporations for money New breed of boss who could get money
for the party from lobbyists and corporations
Arthur turned out in 1884
Even though a good reformUpset Stalwarts
Blaine Cleveland Mudslinger of 1884
Blaine gets Republican nomination
Tattooed manMulligan Letters
By Blaine to a Boston businessman linking him to a corrupt deal involving federal favors to southern RR
Mugwumps
Republicans that join the Democratic side
Democrats-Cleveland a noted reformer
Lawyer-Governor of New YorkAmericans hungry for good character
Republicans
-Find Cleveland had an affair with Albany widow with illegitimate son Democrats demoralized Cleveland decides to “Tell the Truth”
Low Level Campaign
Few fundamental differencesFocused on personalities
Election may hinge on New York
Republican clergy labels Democrats as party of Rum, Romanism, Rebellion This insults the Irish voters Blaine does not speak out against this RRR is stuck to Blaine
Cleveland wins 219-182
Public dishonesty vs. private immorality
Mugwumps and New York were Blaine’s downfall
Old Grover Takes Over
First Democrat in over 28 years
Could the Democrats be trusted to govern?
Cleveland does not work well within his party
TactlessInsulting
Gave in to patronage
Fires 2/3 of 120,000 federal employees
Including 40,000 Republican postmasters
Military Pensions
Loopholes in bill spur graft and waste Fraudulent claims Congressmen introduce special bill to
end these loopholes Handouts to deserters, bounty jumpers
and men who never served
Cleveland vetoed these special bills
Challenging the GARCleveland a non veteran
Cleveland Battles for a lower Tariff
High tariff during the Civil War
Revenues for American militaryAmerican industry profitsTreasury running a surplus of $145
million- mostly from the tariff
1. Given surplus to veterans Would build up voting support
2. Lower the tariff - industrialists would dislike
Cleveland studies the issue
Likes lower tariffs Lower prices Less protection for monopolies Lessen the surplus
Overdoes it
Cleveland asks Congress for a lower tariff
Issue becomes national importanceRepublicans rejoice at recklessnessDemocrats depressed by
recklessnessIssue for 1888 campaign
Harrison Ousts Cleveland in 1888
Democrats nominate Cleveland reluctantly
Republicans nominate Benjamin Harrison
Campaign
Cleveland had marries young Accused of beating wife
Tariff prime issue
Did lower tariff mean a vote for England?
This issue was pushed by Republicans
Republicans begin lining up votes for Harrison against the low tariff Build war chest Buy votes if they have to
Harrison wins electoral vote but loses popular vote
Cleveland first sitting President to be ousted
Achievements
Dawes Act-designed to control Indians
Interstate Commerce Act-designed to curb RR
Retrieved 81 million acres of land for the government out West
Tied down by politics of the times
One of the forgettable presidentsCongress overshadowed the White
HouseLocal politics shown bright alsoCleveland a bright but dim star
during this time
Most able men attracted to industry where the money was