President Garfield
Political background:
1. Political parties avoided taking clear-cut stands on
controversial issues
2. delicate balance of power between 2 parties
3. rapid social and economic changes create new problems
problems with no apparent solutions
Beginning:
1. Garfield’s administration is criticized
2. Garfield is indecisive
**people looked to state and local government to address
social and economic problems, not federal government
http://dig.lib.niu.edu/teachers/bland-allisonlesson.html
Political Parties
1. essentially separate state organization
2. basic reason to vote Democrat or Republican Parties based on
a. ethnic/religious affiliation
b. perception of the Civil War
c. rural or urban area
3. Issues
a. bloody shirt
b. GAR-veterans’ pensions
c. currency reform
d. Civil Service Reform
i. Both parties insisted it would destroy both parties
4. Political attitudes shaped by
a. Local and state issues interacted with religious and ethnic issues
i. National political leadership based their strategy/chose candidates with an eye
toward local and personal factors as well as national concerns
Political Party Platforms – Platforms Almost Identical
Democrats
1.
2.
3.
4.
Southern
Recent immigrants
Catholic
Against tariffs
a. lead to economic disaster, hurt family
5. Republican programs used excessive government
force
Republicans (followers)
1. Northern
2. Rural, small town New England
PA, upper Mid-West
3. Native-born Protestant
4. Support tariffs
5. GAR-”wave the bloody shirt
a. reference martrys and heroes
to criticize opponents
*both support laissez-faire, promote economic development, but not reulate industry
Swing states: NY, OH, IL, IN
Regulating the Money Supply
Question: How to create money supply adequate for a growing economy without producing
inflation
Fact: After Reconstruction – deflation (prices sharply decreased)
Benefits: bondholders, creditors
Injures: debtors, farmers
Political stand: Democrats and Republicans support deflation
National Greenback party supported by debtors and farmers
1892 – Populists: farmers combine with reps. For K of L and
political reformers
Debate: Should greenbacks be retained, expanded or phased out?
Panic of 1873 sharpened the debate
Limit Greenbacks
Business-bankers-creditorspoliticians
Gold/silver standard
Expansion causes inflation
Expand Greenbacks
Debtors-farmers
Limitations causes more financial difficulties
REFORMS
Specie Resumption Act -1875
1. all greenbacks redeemable in gold after 1879
Sherman Silver Purchase Act – 1890
1. required government to buy silver monthly – 4.5 million worth
2. repealed by Cleveland
Currency Act of 1890
1. US officially on Gold Standard
*Before 1890, politicians did not consider monetary policy as a devise for regulating the
economy.
Panic of 1893 – Depression of 1893-1897
1. collapse of railroad industry spread
2. speculative mania
3. agricultural stagnation triggered outburst of political radicalism – rise of Populism
4. some advocate laissez-faire policy
Tariffs
McKinley Tariff – 1890
1. increased duties on some products to protect manufacturing
2. provided exemption for countries that exempted imports from the US
3. Sherman Silver Act was supported by Republicans
Dingley Tariff – 1897
1. counteracted Wilson-Gorman Tariff
2. raise tariff rates between 46.5% to 57%
ACTS, COURT CASES, FARMERS
Post Civil War – 1873 to 1893
BATTLE FOR THE MARKETPLACE
1. Relationship between competition
and monopoly
2. Deflation combined with fierce
competition caused business
expansion then led to
concentration
ACTS:
Pendleton Civil Service Act – 1883
a. political reform law following Garfield’s assassination
b. set up the Civil Service
1) people have to take an exam when applying for government jobs
2) put limits on the spoils system
c. cannot be forced to contribute to a politician
Interstate Commerce Act (ICA) – 1877
a. answer to the Wabash case – challenged philosophy of laissez-faire
1) stated trusts and monopolies illegal
2) created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
a) first federal regulatory board to supervise the affairs of railroad, first to
investigate complaints, first to issue cease and desist orders when railroads
acted illegally.
i. railroads must publically publish rates
ii. 10 days notice given before a rate change
a) all changes made by railroads “shall be reasonable and just”
b)rebates, drawbacks, and other competitive practices declared
unlawful as well as their “monopolish” counterparts
Elkins Act – 1903
1. railroad companies were not to deviate from publised rates
2. recipients of rebates liable as well as railroads
a) heavy fines on recipients and railroads
i. do not confuse with Mann-Elkins Act
Hepburn Act – 1906
1. put “teeth” in the regulatory power of the ICC
a) power to inspect railroad companies records, set max rates, outlaw free passes
(used to influence politicians)
Mann-Elkins Act – 1910 (considered part of the Progressive reforms)
1. helped to rehabilitate the ICC
a) extended authority of ICC to include communications
b) closed loop-hole in long- and short-haul prohibition
c) can suspend proposed increases until legality can be considered
Sherman Anti-Trust Act -1890 – First anti-trust legislation
1. forbid trusts and outlawed interstate corporate magnates
2. purpose was to restore competition
3. emasculated with ruling in Knight Case that manufacturing was excluded from
anti-trust laws
4. often used to back up labor unions
Court Cases
Oliver Kelly – organized National Grange Movement
Munn v. Illinois – 1877
1. businesses that served the public interest can be regulated by the state
2. seemed to uphold Granger Laws – state laws that set maximum rates
a. railroads could charge for carrying or storing grain
The Wabash Case – 1886
1. concerned with early railroad regulation
2. Illinois regulation declared unconstitutional
a. declared long- short-haul illegal
3. result: states could not regulate interstate commerce
4. led to ILA and ICC
Reagen v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co. – 1894 Tax Case
1. court had “power and duty” to decide if rates were “unreasonable & unjust” even
when state legislatures had established them
US v. E.C. Knight Co. – 1895
1. dramatically limited Sherman Anti-trust Act
2. Supreme Court ruled that the American Sugar Refining Co. had not violated the law by
taking over a number of important competitors, even though Sugar Trust controlled
90% of all sugar refining in the US (it was not constraining trade)
3. Commerce Clause did not allow Congress to regulate the “manufacture” of products that
were shipped from one state to another
Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co. – 1895
5 to 4 decision
1. income tax was “unconstitutional and void because it was not apportioned according to
representation” under Article II (direct tax)
2. a similar law was levied during the civil War and upheld by the Court in Springer v. US-1881
1894 –Wilson Gorman Tariff (Revenue Act)
Congress passed the first national income tax in response to populist pressures
a. 2% levied on corporate and personal incomes
b. incomes less than $4,000 exempt = most working class (burden-wealthy)
1912 – Congress – states for ratification: 16th Amendment
a. only second time had Congress submitted an Amendment to reverse the Supreme
Court
1795 – 11th
1868 – 14th
In re Debs – 1895
Background: ARU strike – 15,000 members – strike due to 4 wage cuts in 4 years (30%)
July 6: 13 dead, 57 injured, 700 jailed 5,000 strikers and supporters
1. Federal attorney in Chicago had federal judges issue a sweeping injunction against blocking
trains that moved interstate commerce
a. “Debs Injunction” based on Sherman Anti-trust which judged refused to apply in Knight
Case
b. Debs defined injunction and charged with contempt
c. Supreme Court refused Debs writ of habeas corpus and unanimously affirmed his
contempt conviction and two-year prison term
1) went to jail as a Democrat, emerged as a Socialist
Holden v Hardy – 1898
1. upheld Utah state law that limited the number of hours for miners and smelters based
on the dangers of the job
Lochner v. New York – 1905
1. “liberty of contract” most controversial of Supreme Court decisions
2. declared a law to limit baker hours as “unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary
interference” because it attempted to regulate terms of employment not based on
dangerous work conditions
The Slaughterhouse Case – 1873
1. first interpretation of the 14th Amendment
2. citizen’s “privileges and immunities” were limited to those spelled out by the Constitution
and not by individual states
US v Reese – 1873
1. upholds poll tax, literacy test
2. undermined the 15th Amendment
US v. Cruikshank – 1876
1. Supreme Court nullified the Enforcement Act of 1870 overturning the conviction of
whites accused of violence against blacks in Louisiana
2. declared that the 14th Amendment did not sanction federal interference in matters
that were caused by individuals
Plessy v. Ferguson – 1895
1. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated places of public accommodations were
constitutional if they were of equal quality
2. Doctrine: “separate but equal” led to wholesale segregation and facilities rarely
provided for blacks
3. Overturned in 1954 – Brown v. Board of Education
Northern Securities Case – 1904
1. ruling against stockholders of Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroad who formed a
monopoly to dissolve Northern Securities Company
Muller v. Oregon – 1908
1. upheld state restrictions on working hours for women based on protecting the health
of a woman (sex discrimination)
Hammer v. Dagenhart – 1918
1. banned products made by children under the age of 14 or by children 14-16 who worked
more than 8 hours, overnight, or 6 days a week
Adkins v. Children’s Hospital -1923
1. minimum wage work for women is unconstitutional; was an infringement of “liberty of
contract”
Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by the populist Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894, the second year
Coxey’s Army – 1894
1. march by unemployed workers on Washington to demand jobs government created job
2. arrested when they walked on the grass of the Capitol
Booker T. Washington – Up From Slavery/Tuskegee
Cooperation with supportive whites will lead to reform
W. E. B. Dubois
Promoted political representation of
blacks for political reform