POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE
Congress had enacted an ambitious reform program during the 1860s & 1870s (Civil War & Reconstruction). After the election of Rutherford
Hayes & the Compromise of 1877, the national gov't settled into an era of stalemate & inactivity. Americans shifted their attention away from
politics to the development of the West, industrialization, labor movement & growth of cities.
- The expression 'Gilded Age,' first used by Mark Twain in 1873 as the title of a book
- This referred to the superficial glitter of the new wealth displayed in the late 1800s
- The politics of the era is often criticized as mostly show with little substance
- It was the era of 'forgettable' presidents, none of whom served two consecutive terms
- It was also the era of politicians who often ignored problems arising from the growth of industry and cities
- The two major parties in these years avoided taking a stand on controversial issues
CAUSES OF STALEMATE
- Factors accounting for the complacency and conservatism of the era included:
1. The prevailing political ideology of the time
2. Campaign tactics of the two parties
3. Party patronage
BELIEF IN LIMITED GOVERNMENT:
- Idea of "do-little" gov't was in tune with two other popular ideas of the time: laissez-faire economics & Social Darwinism
- Furthermore, the federal courts narrowly interpreted the government's powers to regulate business
- This limited the impact of the new regulatory laws that Congress did pass
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY:
- Close elections between 1876 & 1892 was one reason that Republicans & Democrats avoided taking strong positions on issues
- Democrats won only two presidential contests in the Electoral College, but they won four in the popular vote
- Democrats did control the House of Representatives during the majority of the general elections
- The result was divided gov't except for two years (1889-1891), when the Republicans controlled Congress & the Presidency
- With elections so evenly matched, the objective was to get out the vote & not alienate voters on the issues
- Campaigns were characterized by bands, flags, buttons, picnics, free drink, & crowd-pleasing speeches
- Both parties had strong organization, the Republicans usually on the state level and the Democrats in the cities
- The irony is that the issue-free campaigns brought out nearly 80% of the eligible voters for presidential elections
- The turnout resulted from strong party identification & loyalty, often connected with voters' regional, religious, & ethnic ties
REPUBLICANS
- Republican politicians kept memories of the Civil War alive during the Gilded Age by figuratively waving the 'bloody shirt'
- Republicans reminded Union army veterans their wounds were caused by southern Democrats who had also killed Lincoln
- The party of Lincoln, because of its antislavery past, kept the votes of reformers & African Americans
- Republican strength came from men in business and from middle-class, Anglo-Saxon Protestants
- Republicans remained rooted in their Whig past, supporting an economic program of high protective tariffs for business
DEMOCRATS
- Democrats after 1877 could count upon winning every election in the former states of the Confederacy
- The South was solidly Democratic until the mid-20th century
- In the North, Democratic strength came from big-city political machines and the immigrant vote
- Democrats were often Catholics, Lutherans, and Jews who objected to temperance and prohibition crusades
- Temperance & Prohibition movements were often conducted by Protestant & mainly Republican groups
- Democrats of the Gilded Age continued to believe in states' rights and limited powers for the federal government
PARTY PATRONAGE:
- Since no party had an active legislative agenda, politics was about holding office & providing gov't jobs to loyal party members
- In New York, Republican Senator Roscoe Conkling became a power leader of his party
- Senator Conkling dictated who in the Republican ranks would be appointed to lucrative jobs in the New York Customs House
- Senator Conklin & his supporters were known as the Stalwarts in the Republicans
- Their rivals for patronage in the Republican Party were the Halfbreeds, led by James Blaine of Maine
- Who got the patronage jobs within the party became a more important issue than anything else
- Republicans who did not play the patronage game were ridiculed as 'Mugwumps' for sitting on the fence
- They were called 'Mugwumps' because their "mugs" were on one side of the fence & "wumps" on the other side of the fence