Democrats nominate Horatio Seymour former NY Governor They denounced military reconstruction And won 80 Electoral votes to Grants 214 the popular vote was close (300,000)
Republicans nominate
Ulysses S. Grant He had no political experience main job was to hand out patronage Let us have Peace vote as you Shoot and Waving the Bloody Shirt
The Era of good Stealings
Railroad scandals stock Tweed Ring: Boss market manipulation Jim Fisk and Jay Gould corner the gold market bribed Grants brotherin-law not to release any gold: Black Friday (24 Sept. 1869) almost bought all the gold on the market finally federal gold is released (William M.) Tweed NY City embezzled $200 million NY Times publishes the evidence and cartoonist Thomas Nast continually draws him. Samuel J. Tilden (later presidential candidate) will lead the prosecution. Others are implicated.
A Carnival of Corruption Credit Mobilier Whiskey Ring: robbed Scandal 1872 Union Pacific RR leaders created the company & hired themselves 348% profit, distributed stock to key congressmen & the VP of US. the government of millions in whiskey tax revenue Grants own private secretary (who he protected) William Belknap (Sec. of War) had accepted bribes from Indian agents who supplied the reservations
The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872
Reform-minded Republicans urged purification of the Party & an end to military Reconstruction They nominated Horace Greeley (editor of NY Tribune) for president Democrats will also endorse Greeley (he had blasted the Democrats as traitors, slavers, saloon keepers, horse thieves and idiots) Republicans will nominate Grant (for a 2nd term) who is elected easily 286 to 66 electoral votes They will pass and amnesty act (southerners) vote to lower tariffs and promote mild civil-service reform.
Depression, Deflation and Inflation
Panic of 1873 1. Over-building of Railroads, mines, factories & farms 2. Bad loans no profits and no payments, led to foreclosures Hard vs. Cheap money (agrarian & debtor groups want greenbacks (Civil War $) to be re-issued Hard money advocates (creditors) wanted to be paid back with gold and silver coins Grant vetoed a bill to make more greenbacks Congress passed the Resumption Act of 1875 (buy back greenbacks in gold at face value by 1879)
Depression, Deflation and Inflation
Cheap money advocates now promote silver attacking the 16-1 (16oz of silver = 1 oz of gold $$) 1870 a 7 member supreme court declares the Civil War Legal Tender (greenbacks) Act as unconstitutional With congressional approval Grant adds 2 members to reverse the decision 1871 they do so (now 9 members of Supreme Court) Coinage Act 1873 no more silver coins crime of 73 contraction of money supply (less $ available) Resumption Act 1875 few people turned in their bills Spawns the Greenback Labor Party 1878 1 million votes and 14 members of Congress
Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age
Gilded Age sarcastic name given by Mark Twain in 1873 Fight over Patronage Every presidential election was close and very little separated the Parties Democrats: Lutherans and Roman Catholics White South, and northern cities political machine
Republicans:
Protestants and strict codes of morality believed Government should regulate economy and morals support from small town NE and Midwest and: Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Civil War veterans Split: Stalwart (Roscoe Conkling) Half Breeds (James G. Blaine)
Hayes Tilden Standoff 1876
Rutherford B. Hayes: bagged Boss Tweed 3-time Governor of led the prosecution Ohio 1 vote short (184 needs 20 disputed votes 185) led in the (Louisiana, S. Carolina popular vote & Florida) Both The deadlock was to be Parties had sent settled by an electoral delegates to the commission (8 Electoral College Republicans and 7 Democrats)
Samuel J. Tilden
Compromise of 1877 & the End of Reconstruction
The electoral commission will vote down political lines electing Hayes Almost a second Civil War Compromise 1. Troops leave south (now only 2 states) 2. Democrats will gain some patronage (help toward Southern transcontinental RR) and have 2 members of the new Cabinet 3. Black equality is abandoned in the South Civil Rights Act 1875 should have equal public accommodations & equality in jury selection Not enforced: Civil Rights Cases 1883, 14th Amendment only meant Government violations of Civil Rights
The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post Reconstruction South
Democratic South suppression of the blacks Redeemer governments freedmen face unemployment, eviction & physical harm Sharecropping and tenant farming = Crop lien system
Jim Crow Laws Plessy v. Ferguson
State-level segregation laws
1896 Separate but Equal facilities Lynching: blacks lynched for the crime of asserting themselves as equals
Class conflicts and Ethnic Clashes
Since the Panic of 1873 RR workers hard times Cut wages by 10% Great Railroad Strike of 1877: general strike effecting 10 states over 100 killed Federal troop sent in to stop the strike impeding the federal mail Racial and Ethnic conflicts: Irish and Chinese in California Denis Kearny Kearneyites violence and cutting off of pig-tails led to Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 US v. Wong Kim Ark 1898 guaranteed citizenship to all persons born in the US
Garfield and Arthur 1880 Election
Garfield Dark Horse Republican Democrats nominate Winfield Scott Hancock
VP Chester A. Arthur of NY a Stalwart win election 214-155 Garfield assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau over spoils (disappointed because he was not rewarded with a public job) Arthur (a stalwart) promotes reform and gets congress to pass the Pendleton Act of 1883 magna carta of civilservice reform: jobs based upon a competitive exam and placed the Civil Service Commission in charge of appointments
Election of 1884 Blaine-Cleveland Mudslingers
Republicans nominate James G. Blaine Burn this letter end of a letter linking politics with corruption Rum, Romanism, Rebellion = loses NY Mugwumps left Republican Party to support reform
Democrats nominate Grover Cleveland Reformer, very honest a public office is a public trust Wins narrow election Election over personalities NOT policy
Old Grover takes over
Vetoed a bill that would have provided seed for drought-ravaged Texas farmers Though the
people must support the government, the government should not support the people.
He will name 2 former Confederates to his cabinethelps sooth relations North and South Will cave-in to spoils system Military pensions: widespread $ given to Civil War Veterans Cleveland reads each and vetoes 100s
Cleveland Battles for a Lower Tariff
Tariff had been high since The Tariff issue becomes the Civil War The Treasury had a surplus of $145 million Pork-barrel spending was common Cleveland felt a lower tariff meant lower prices for consumers & less protection for monopolies the main issue of the election of 1888 Cleveland runs for the Democrats Republicans nominate Benjamin Harrison (grandson of William Henry) Harrison will win the electoral college 233-168 but lose the popular
The Billion-Dollar Congress
Republicans have a thin lead in the House Thomas Czar Reed becomes Speaker of the House and pushes legislation through Pensions to Civil War Veterans Government purchases of silver (Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1890) McKinley Tariff = 48.4 % highest peacetime level In the mid-term elections, Republicans lost dropping to 88 seats vs 235 Democrats also 9 members of the Farmers Alliance, a militant organization
The Drumbeat of Discontent
PEOPLES PARTY OR POPULISTS They met in Omaha (Omaha Platform) Demanding: 1. Free & unlimited coinage of silver 2. Graduated income tax 3. Government ownership of railroads, telegraph & telephone
4. The direct election of US
Senators 5. One-term limit on the presidency 6. Adoption of initiative & referendum 7. A shorter workday 8. Immigration restriction Nominated Gen. James B. Weaver
The Drumbeat of Discontent
Homestead Strike 1892: a Carnegie Mill 1. Steelworkers angry over pay Populists made a remarkable showing in the 1892 Presidential election gaining a million votes and 22 electoral4 states Kansas, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada South divided along racial lines Colored Farmers Alliance Tom Watson, Georgia appeals to their votes But Bourbon elitism prevailed Grandfather Clause Jim Crow Laws segregation in public places
cuts 2. James Frick (working for Carnegie) hires Pinkertons to break up the strike 3. 10 killed and 60 wounded 4. Federal Troops stop the strike and break the union Federal troops also brutally put down a strike in Coeur dAlene Idaho
1. 2.
Cleveland and the Depression
Only president elected after his defeat
Depression of 1893 (may have been worse than Great Depression)
free-silver hurt the international market & European banking houses demanded repayments in gold lowering the gold reserve 8,000 business collapsed in 6 months, railroads went under (Philadelphia and Reading RR) Soup kitchens and hoboes common, local charities hard-pressed Federal Government let nature take its course philosophy Legal tender notes had to be issued for silver purchased (paper $) could be traded for gold & this also drops the gold supply Since silver was one obvious problem, Cleveland calls Congress into special session to repeal it William Jennings Bryan makes a plea for silver-Cleveland breaks the filibuster and alienates free silver faction of the Democrat party Cleveland finally has to go to JP Morgan for $65 million in gold
Cleveland Breeds a Backlash
Cleveland is blamed for selling out to JP Morgan and business interests (Morgan had made $7million on the gold loan to the government) Wilson-Gorman Tariff 1894 (not much % drop over McKinley Tariff) 2% tax on incomes over $4,000) Cleveland allows the bill to become law without his signature Mid-term elections, Republicans won back lost majority in congress Cleveland blamed for their rebound
Forgettable Presidents The word lilliputian has come into common usage, meaning "very small sized". (textbook p. 528) Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison and Cleveland are all considered forgettable presidents largely because they did so little and they were controlled by Congress
