1. APUSH REVIEWED! GILDED AGE POLITICS 1868-1890’s
American Pageant (Kennedy)Chapter 23 American History (Brinkley) Chapters 15, 17, 19 America’s History (Henretta) Chapters 15, 17, 20

2. President Grant ( )
Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant wins the Presidency for the Republican party in 1868
Temporary social and political revolution- black voters vote for Republican candidates
Corruption during the Grant administration
Credit Mobilier affair: VP & members of Congress involved in RR stock scandal
Whiskey Ring: 1875-Private Secretary of Grant helped steal 3 million from the fed govt in a tax corruption scheme.
“Grantism”- term used to describe corruption in politics
Freedman gave huge boost to Republican party.

3. The Ultimate Symbol of Gilded Age Political Corruption: Boss Tweed
Local Political corruption: Tammany Hall (Democratic party political machine):
“Boss” Tweed used bribery, graft, and fraudulent elections to steal over $200 million from NY taxpayers
Thomas Nast would expose this corruption to the masses

4. PANIC OF 1873
Severe economic collapse further distracts the nation from enforcing Reconstruction
Causes: 1) Overproduction in industries such as factories, railroad, and mining. 2) Over speculation by bankers: too much money loaned out
Hard times inflicted the worst effects on debtors
Debtors advocate for relaxation of tight money policies
Debate between “hard currency” vs. “greenbacks”
Agrarian and debtor groups want”cheap money”
want greenbacks issued
Bankers made too many imprudent loans to finance these enterprises
Overreaching promoters laid more railroad track, sunk more mines, erected more factories, sowed more grain fields than the existing markets could bear
Profits failed to materialize, loans went unpaid, the whole credit-based economy fluttered downward.
Boom times became gloom times as more than 15,000 American businesses went bankrupt.
Debtors wanted greenbacks. Why?
Paper $, inflation decreased value
Lenders wanted hard currency. Why?
Hard $, not affected by inflation, increased value
Grant sides with hard money bankers and creditors – vetoes bill calling for additional Greenback

5. Election of 1876 Compromise of 1877
Republican Rutherford Hayes vs. Democrat Samuel Tilden
Political controversy as results in 3 southern states were contested
Compromise of 1877
South/Democrats would recognize Hayes as President
Hayes would pull federal troops out of the South and end Reconstruction
Hayes to provide south political positions (patronage) and federal aid for a transcontinental RR for the south
Troops gone from all but 3 southern states
last of federal troops were withdrawn who were protecting AA and Republican governments
Two sets of returns
By 1870s Republicans were abandoning Reconstruction policy
return for withdrawing intrusive federal troops from the two states in which they remained
Louisiana and South Carolina

6. Federal troops leaving not only thing that ends Reconstruction
The Court Undermines Reconstruction
Civil Rights Act of 1875: Protected Rights
made it a crime for any individual to deny full & equal use of public places
Prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection
Civil Rights Cases of 1883: Court striking down!
Supreme Court said 14th amendment only protected against government violations of civil rights
Individuals can discriminate all they want
Overturns the Civil Rights Act of 1875
Jim Crow laws spread throughout the south
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Racial segregation was constitutional if equal facilities were made available to each race (“separate but equal”)
Federal troops leaving not only thing that ends Reconstruction
Supreme Court undermined Reconstruction
private citizens can still discriminate (RR, hotels, other business can)
The High Price of Compromise
Political peace was achieved by sacrificing the civil rights of southern blacks
With the Hayes-Tilden deal, the Republican party abandoned its commitment to racial equality
White Democrats (Redeemers) resume political power in the south
Blacks forced into sharecroppers system
Jim Crow laws (segregation) spread throughout the south
Blacks disenfranchised
No violation of 14th amendment----equal protection of the laws
Court decisions support segregation laws throughout the south

7. Idea of “New South” promoted: south would rebuild, industrialize, and develop their economy.
However, Agrarian sharecropping and tenant farming continued to dominant the region
Life for African Americans in the Post Reconstruction South continued to be filled with many challenges.
Sharecropping:
Many blacks were forced into sharecropping / tenant farming
The “crop-lien” system was where storekeepers extended credit to individuals for food and supplies, in return took a lien on their harvest.
Rebuild- industralialize, self sufficient, transportation---Did develop textile industry
Idea of New South-industrialization of the south
Agrarian sharecropping and tenant farming continued to dominant the region

8. 3.) Property Requirements
1.) Literacy Test
2.) Poll Taxes
3.) Property Requirements
4.) Grandfather Clauses: Exempted from electoral requirements anyone who had voted in 1860
Life for African Americans in the Post Reconstruction South
Systematic disenfranchisement of Southern blacks
Black who tried to assert their rights faced unemployment, eviction, and physical harm

9. Democrats Dominate the South
White Democrats (“Redeemers”) reassumed political power in the South
Solidified and swiftly suppressed the now-friendless blacks
Democrats regain control of politics in many Southern states

10. Chinese Immigration
Large increase in Asian immigration (especially from China)
Important during the various mining booms and building of railroad
Spike in nativism toward Asian immigrants in the west
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882: prohibited further immigration of Chinese laborers
1st time immigration restrictions on basis of race and nationality
1/3 of miners in West in 1860s were Chinese
Labor force expanding
National policy of discrimination and segregation
Unitl 1965-

11. Gilded Age Presidents 1876-1880: Rutherford B. Hayes (R)
: James Garfield (R) killed
VP Chester A. Arthur takes over
: Grover Cleveland (D)
: Benjamin Harris (R)
: Grover Cleveland (D)
: William McKinley (R)
Worse names / forgotten Presidents
A sarcastic name given to the three-decade-long post-Civil era by Mark Twain in 1873
the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age

12. “Gilded Age politics were intimately tied to big business and focused nationally on economic issues such as tariffs and currency policy.”
Both political parties during the Gilded Age ignored the political and social consequences of industrialization
LAISSEZ FAIRE

13. Key Issues: Currency, Civil Service Reform & Tariffs
Patronage was used by both political parties
Civil Service jobs given to supporters (“to the victor belong the spoils”)
Calls for Civil Service Reform
Half-Breeds: advocated civil service reform (James Blaine)
Stalwarts: supporters of patronage (Roscoe Conkling)
By the 1880’s the U.S. Treasury had a huge surplus from tariffs
Patronage—lifeblood of both parties
Jobs for votes, kickbacks, party service
Stalwarts:
Led by Roscoe Conkling, believed in patronage
Half-Breeds:
Led by James G. Blaine, wanted civil service reform
1881: Treasury had annual surplus of $145 million
Most of government revenue came from tariffs
Cleveland wanted lower tariffs – he was a Democrat
***McKinley Tariff Act of 1890***
Highest peacetime rate ever (48.4%)
Hated by farmers, loved by North
Remember…. Republicans want to Raise tariffs

14. Gilded Age Presidential Politics
: Rutherford B. Hayes (R)
Becomes President following Compromise of 1877
Sends federal troops to break up Great Railroad strike
: James Garfield
Garfield is assassinated
Chester A. Arthur throws support behind the Pendleton Act (1883) civil service reform
: Grover Cleveland (D)
Strong advocate of laissez faire- “Though the people support the government,” “the government should not support the people”
Signed into law Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
: Benjamin Harrison (R)
advocated for keeping the tariff high.
Billion-dollar Congress- McKinley Tariff, Civil War pensions
: Grover Cleveland (D)
Failure of the great railroad strike exposed the weakness of the labor movement.
established the Civil Service Commission to make appointments to federal jobs on the basis of competitive examinations rather than “pull.”
Arthur was a Stalwart ----supp[orted reform- Must be qualified
Establishes Civil Service Commission
Tariffs raised during the Civil War