Politics and Economics of
the Gilded Age
Unit 6B
AP U.S. History
Think About It
► Evaluate
the beliefs and debates of the
federal government’s role and policies
on economic and social issues.
Third Party System (1860-1896)
►
Antebellum and Post War Issues(1854-1877)
► Slavery and Emancipation
► Reconstruction policies
►
Democrats
 Platform
►
►
►
►
Post Reconstruction Issues (1877-1896)
► Civil Service Reform
► Tariffs and Protectionism
► Gold Standard and Silver
► Populist Party
Republicans
 Platform
Pro-slavery
States’ rights; laissez-faire
►
►
Radical Reconstruction
Pro-business; tariffs; protectionism
 Factions
 Factions
►
►
Bourbon Democrats


►
Pro-business Democrats
Supported civil service reforms
Stalwarts

►
Half-Breeds

Redeemer Democrats
 Coalition
►
►
 Coalition
►
White Southerners, Catholics,
Lutherans, Jews, Immigrants,
working class
Solid South
►
Pursued civil service reform
Mugwumps

►
Preserve spoils system and machine politics
Independents discouraged with corrupt GOP
Business, upper-class, middle-class,
Northern WASPs, reformers, blacks,
scalawags, carpetbaggers
Northeast and West
Political Machines and Boss Politics
►
Definition
 “in U.S. politics, a party organization,
headed by a single boss or small
autocratic group, that commands enough
votes to maintain political and
administrative control of a city, county, or
state”
 Patronage and spoils system
►
Tammany Hall (New York City)
 William “Boss” Tweed
Election of 1868
►
►
Ulysses S. Grant (R)
Horatio Seymour (D)
Ulysses S. Grant (R) (1869-1877)
►
Civil War hero, but no political experience; linked with
moderates and Radicals
► Grantism

Credit Mobilier
►
►

Whiskey Ring
►
►
►
Union Pacific Railroad creates dummy construction
company to hire execs at inflated salaries and earn high
dividends
Sold stock to Republican congressmen and bribed press to
keep quiet
Republicans embezzled liquor tax revenues using bribes and
networks
Amnesty Act of 1872
Panic of 1873
Election of 1872
Panic of 1873: The Long Depression
►
Causes
 Expansion of railroads, enterprises
in industries and mines outpaces
market demand
 Coinage Act of 1873
► Demonetizes
silver contracting the
money supply
► “Crime of 73”
 Jay Cooke & Company bankrupt
► Major
financing investment firm
leads to chain reaction of banks
►
Effects
 Over 100 railroads fail; 16,000
businesses fail
► Unemployment
at 14%
“Election” of 1876
Samuel
Tilden (D)
►
►
►
►
►
Rutherford B.
Hayes (R)
Republicans struggle to nominate
“boring” Rutherford B. Hayes
Democrats nominate solid and
popular Samuel J. Tilden
Tilden won the popular vote solidly
and needed only 1 more electoral
vote for majority
Contested electoral votes in 3
Reconstruction states (Louisiana,
South Carolina, Florida)
Electoral Commission rewarded 3
sets of electoral votes to Hayes

Split ideologically 8-7 in favor of
Republicans
81.8% voter turnout
Compromise of 1877
►
Hayes will become president,
if…
 Remove federal troops from the
South
 Help develop infrastructure in
South, ex. Railroads
 Appoint Southerner to Cabinet
 Limited enforcement of racial
equality
►
Redemption
 Redeemer Democrats
 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
 Jim Crow Laws
► Segregation
► Disenfranchisement
 Literacy tests
 Poll taxes
 Grandfather clauses
Rutherford B. Hayes (R) (1877-1881)
►
Compromise of 1877
► Great Railroad Strike of 1877
► Civil service reform
Election of 1880
►
James A. Garfield (R)

►
Protective tariffs
Winfield S. Hancock (D)

Lower tariffs
79.4% voter turnout
James A. Garfield (R) (1881)
► Challenged
political
machines, spoils system,
and senatorial courtesy
► Assassination
 July 2, 1881
 Charles J. Guiteau
► “a
disgruntled office-seeker”
► Death
 September 19, 1881
► Chester
A. Arthur
assumes presidency
Civil Service Reform
►
Corruption during Grant administration called for reform

Stalwarts
►
►

Half-breeds
►
►
►
►
Supported machine politics and spoils system
Roscoe Conkling
Pursued civil service reform
James G. Blaine
Garfield’s assassination
Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act (1883)



United States Civil Service Commission
Federal employees based on expertise, civil service exams
Prohibited federal employees and campaign contributions
Chester A. Arthur (R) (1881-1885)
► Assumed
office after
Garfield’s assassination
► Pendleton Act (1883)
 Despite being a Stalwart
► Chinese
of 1882
Exclusion Act
Election of 1884
►
►
►
Grover Cleveland (D)
James G. Blaine (R)
Campaign

“Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine.
Continental liar, from the state of
Maine”

“Rum, Romanism, and
Rebellion”

“Mama, mama! Where’s my pa?”
► “On to the White House,
HA HA HA”
77.5% voter turnout
Grover Cleveland (D) (1885-1889)
►
►
Haymarket Riot (1886)
Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
 Interstate Commerce Commission
(ICC)
►
Opposed Civil War veteran pensions
 Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)
advocacy
►
Pursued tariff reform
Election of 1888
►
Benjamin Harrison (R)

►
Protective tariffs
Grover Cleveland (D)



Lower tariffs
Against inflationary currency
and war pensions
Won the popular vote
79.3% voter turnout
Benjamin Harrison (R) (1889-1893)
► Sherman
Antitrust Act
(1890)
► Billion Dollar Congress
► Sherman Silver
Purchase Act (1890)
 Free Silver/Silverites
► McKinley
Tariff (1890)
► Homestead Strike (1892)
The Populist Movement
►
Origin and Evolution of Populist
Party




►
►
Granger Movement ->
Farmers Alliance ->
Populist Movement ->
People’s Party/Populist Party
West and South
Omaha Platform (July 4, 1892)








Coinage of silver
Direct election of Senators
Graduated income tax
State laws through
referendums/initiatives
Government regulation/ownership of
infrastructure
8-hour workday
Abolition of national banks
Civil service reform
A Populist Prescription for Social Reform;
A Social Darwinist View of Social Reform
People’s Party Platform of 1892
►
We have witnessed, for more than a quarter
of a century, the struggles of the two great
political parties for power and plunder, while
grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon
the suffering people. We charge that the
controlling influences dominating both these
parties have permitted the existing dreadful
conditions to develop without serious effort
to prevent or restrain them. Neither do they
now promise us any substantial reform…
We believe that the powers of government
– in other words, of the people – should be
expanded as rapidly and as far as the good
sense of an intelligent people and the
teachings of experience shall justify, to the
end that oppression, injustice and poverty,
shall eventually cease in the land.
William Graham Sumner – The Challenge
of Facts and Other Essays (1914)
►
Competition, therefore, is a law of nature.
Nature is entirely neutral; she submits to
him who most energetically and resolutely
assails her. She grants her rewards to the
fittest, therefore, without regard to other
considerations of any kind… If, therefore,
men were willing to set to work with energy
and courage to subdue the outlying parts of
the earth, all might live in plenty and
prosperity. But if they insist on remaining in
slums of great cities or on the borders of an
old society, and on a comparatively
exhausted soil, there is no device of
economists or statesmen which can prevent
them from falling victims to poverty and
misery or from succumbing in the
competition of life to those who have
greater command of capital.
Bimetallism
►
Coinage Act of 1873
► For Silver and Gold

Inflationary effect
►

►
Free Silver/Silverites
For Gold Standard



►
“If a farmer owes $3,000 and can earn $1 for
every bushel of wheat sold at harvest, he
needs to sell 3,000 bushels to pay off the
debt. If inflation could push the price of a
bushel of wheat up to $3, he needs to sell
only 1,000 bushels.”
“Sound money”
Banks and businesses preferred gold
standard
Stable economy and prevents inflation
Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)


U.S. Treasury ordered to buy 4.5 million oz
of silver monthly
Treasury notes could be turned in for silver
or gold
►
Most took gold depleting U.S. gold reserves
Election of 1892
►
Grover Cleveland (D)


►
Benjamin Harrison (R)


►
Lower tariffs
Gold standard
Protective tariffs
Bimetallism
James B. Weaver (Pop)

Coalition of farmers and labor
unions
74.7% voter turnout
Grover Cleveland (D) (1893-1897)
► Panic
of 1893
► Bimetallism
► Pullman Strike (1894)
Panic of 1893
►
Causes
 Overexpansion
 Railroad speculation
►
Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad
bankruptcy
 Silver Purchase Act repealed
►
Impact
 Unemployment to 18.4%
 16,000 businesses and 500 banks
bankrupt/failed
 Pullman Strike (July 1894)
 Coxey’s Army (1894)
►
March on Washington by
unemployed workers and farmers
$500 million for jobs
► Dispersed by federal troops
 J.P. Morgan and the Treasury
►
Cleveland and U.S. borrowed $65
million in gold
William Jennings Bryan (D)
►
“The Great Commoner”
 Appealed to farmers, working
class, middle class
►
“Cross of Gold” Speech

“If they dare to come out in the open field
and defend the gold standard as a good
thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost,
having behind us the producing masses of
the nation and the world. Having behind us
the commercial interests and the laboring
interests and all the toiling masses, we
shall answer their demands for a gold
standard by saying to them, you shall not
press down upon the brow of labor this
crown of thorns. You shall not crucify
mankind upon a cross of gold.”
Election of 1896
►
William McKinley (R)



►
William Jennings Bryan (D)

►
Populist rhetoric
Campaign


►
Mark Hanna
Outspent Bryan 5 to 1
Benefited from recovering
economy
Bryan’s stump speeches
McKinley’s “front-porch”
Realignment election


Ends Third Party System
Begins Fourth Party System
►
Republican domination