The Gilded Age

Gilded: “Having a pleasing or showy appearance that conceals something of little worth.”

Mark Twain coined the term “gilded age” and wrote a book of the same name that ridiculed the political and business leaders of the day.

The Gilded Age was a period of major growth in population in the U.S. and wasteful displays of wealth and excessive opulence of America's upper-class.

The Gilded Age was rooted in industrialization, especially heavy industry like factories, railroads and coalmines. During the Gilded Age, American manufacturing production surpassed the combined total of Great Britain, France, and Germany.

Railroad mileage tripled between 1860 and 1880, and tripled again by 1920, opening new areas to commercial farming, creating a truly national marketplace and inspiring a boom in coal mining and steel production.

Americans' sense of civic virtue was shocked by the scandals associated with the Reconstruction era, including corrupt state governments, massive fraud in cities controlled by political machines, political payoffs to secure government contracts, such the Credit Mobilier scandal regarding the financing of the transcontinental RR, and widespread evidence of corruption during the Grant administration.

In politics, the two parties engaged in very elaborate get-out-the vote campaigns that succeeded in pushing turnout to rates of 80 to 90%. The parties engaged in the spoils system” whereby the winning party distributed most local, state and national government jobs, and many government contracts, to its loyal supporters.

Large cities were dominated by political machines in which constituents supported a candidate in exchange for anticipated patronage, or favors back from the government, once that candidate was elected, and candidates were selected based on their willingness to play along. The best known example of a political machine from this time period was Tammany Hall in New York City, led by Boss Tweed.

Mudslinging became an increasingly popular way of gaining advantage at the polls, and Republicans employed an election tactic known as “waving the bloody shirt, the practice of politicians referencing the blood of martyrs or heroes to inspire support or avoid criticism.

Candidates, especially when combating corruption charges, would remind voters that the Republican Party had saved the nation in the Civil War. During the 1870s, voters were repeatedly reminded that the Democrats had been responsible for the bloody upheaval, an appeal that attracted many Union veterans to the Republican camp.

During the Gilded Age, approximately 10 million immigrants came to the United States, many in search of religious freedom and greater prosperity. The population surge in major U.S. cities as a result of immigration gave cities an even stronger impact on government, attracting power-hungry politicians and entrepreneurs.

Pressuring voters or falsifying ballots was commonplace for politicians, who often sought power only to exploit their constituents. To accommodate the influx of people into the U.S., the federal government built Ellis Island in 1892.

The construction of the Central Pacific RR was handled largely by Chinese laborers. In the 1870 census there were 58 Chinese men and 4 women in the entire country; these numbers grew to 100,000 men and 40,000 women in the 1880 census.

Congress banned further Chinese immigration through the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882; the act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the United States, but some students and businessmen were allowed in.

Modern labor unions emerged during the Civil War era. One of the earlier attempts at a national union was the National Labor Union formed in Baltimore in The Knights of Labor had success in the late 1880s but then collapsed. The American Federation of Labor (AFL), a coalition of trades unions, became dominant in the 1890s, under Samuel Gompers

Changes in industrialization and urbanization led to debates over how Americans should handle societal problems. Reformers in the Social Gospel movement used ideas of charity and justice to help the urban poor; Social Darwinists applied the theory of evolution to society, “Some were meant to be workers, some owners. The fittest would thrive while the unfit” would not.