1. The Gilded Age

2. Mark Twain elegantly stated…
“Get rich; dishonestly if we can, honestly if we must.”

3. Corruption in Politics vocabulary
Political machines – powerful organizations that influenced city and county politics in the late 1800’s.
Exchanged money and jobs for working-class votes
Bosses – powerful leaders who ran the political machines

4. James Bryce stated…
“[He] rewards the loyal, punishes the mutinous [disloyal]… [and] negotiates treaties. He generally avoids publicity… and is all the more dangerous because he sits, like a spider, hidden in the midst of his web.”

5. Tammany Hall and other corruption…
William Marcy Tweed – Boss of Tammany Hall who was arrested [and later convicted] of stealingup to $200 million from the Boston City Treasury.
Ulysses Grant and the Whiskey Ring
Congress, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Credit Mobilier of America

6. Political Cartoons

7. Gilded Age Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield (assassinated)
Chester A. Arthur
Grover Cleveland (elected in 1884 and 1892)
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley (assassinated)

8. Rutherford B. Hayes (R)

9. James Garfield (R)

10. Chester Arthur (R)

11. Grover Cleveland (D)

12. Benjamin Harrison (R)

13. Election of 1892
Harrison loses the popular vote in 1888 to Grover Cleveland, but still becomes president… how???
Harrison controls inflation and helps to pass the Sherman Antitrust Act
In 1892, Cleveland runs again, beating now incumbent president Benjamin Harrison

14. William McKinley (R)

15. Civil Service Reform
Reaction to the corruption of the corruption of the Gilded Age
Pendleton Civil Service Act – law that creates a merit system for government employees
Today affects more than 90% of government jobs