APUSH Lecture 5E (covers Ch. 19) Ms. Kray Some slides taken from Susan Pojer

Weak federal government Main jobs: postal service, maintain military, foreign policy, and collect taxes & tariffs Very laissez-faire except for subsidies & pensions Extremely high voter turnout Well-defined voting blocks Regional differences, religion, and ethnicity shaped party loyalty much more than economic issues Strong party loyalty

Democratic Bloc Republican Bloc  White southerners (preservation of white supremacy)  Catholics  Recent immigrants (esp. Jews)  Urban working poor (pro-labor)  Most farmers  Northern whites (pro- business)  African Americans  Northern Protestants  Old WASPs (support for anti-immigrant laws)  Most of the middle class

Primary job of the president was to dole out government jobs 1865  35,000 jobs 1890  160,000 jobs Party bosses ruled Republican party split into two factions: Half-Breeds and Stalwarts Hayes tried to restore honest government after Grant Most significant act: Compromise of 1877 Temperance reformer

Half BreedsStalwarts Sen. James G. Blaine Sen. Roscoe Conkling (Maine) (New York) James A. Garfield Chester A. Arthur (VP) compromise

Garfield wins but... He is assassinated by Charles Guiteau! “I am a Stalwart... Arthur is now President!”

 Better president than people expected  Pendleton Act Civil Service Commission Examinations  Questioned the high protective tariff  His reward...

Grover Cleveland (D) James G. Blaine (R)

Ma, Ma…where’s my pa? He’s going to the White House, ha… ha… ha…!

Mugwumps Bolt the Republican Party When Blaine won the nomination, Liberal Republicans nicknamed mugwumps, who favored civil service reform fled the party “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion!” Protestant Minister Samuel Burchard made this comment about the Democrat party while supporting Blaine in NYC Blaine was slow to repudiate this remark, it cost him the state of NY

1 st Democrat elected president since 1856! Former governor of NY Believed in laissez-faire Opposed bills to assist the poor and the rich Even vetoed pension bills! Tried to reduce tariff “A Public Office is a Public Trust”

 Business wanted to keep  Farmers did not Raised price of consumer goods Other nations responded with tariffs of their own Business was growing rich at the expense of rural Am.  1885  tariffs earned the US $100 mil. in surplus!  Major issue in election of 1888!

Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison (DEM) * (REP)

One of the closest elections in U.S. history First election since Civil War in which Republican and Democrats differed significantly on economic issues

The Republican Harrison wins!!!

Generally a passive president but was forced to deal with some of the new issues arising in the public arena Sherman Antitrust Act, 1890 Pushed by Southern and Western states that wanted regulation of RR monopolies Forbid “combinations in restraint of trade” Poorly enforced  at first used only against labor unions McKinley Tariff of 1890 Highest peacetime tariff in history Public disliked it  Republicans suffered heavy losses in Election of 1892

Cleveland defeated Harrison in Election of Cleveland took on few major initiatives, focused on tariff reform Wilson-Gorman Tariff, 1894 Despite limited nature of the federal government, public support was increasing for more substantial reforms