1. Chapter 17: Politics in the Gilded Age
Section One: Political Machines

2. I. The Rise of the Political Machines
Challenges of city government
Public services- fire, police, and sanitation departments
Bridges, parks, schools, streets, sewer, utility
Political Bosses
well- organized political parties- political machines
Dictated positions and made deals- pocketed money
Precinct captains and voters
Offered jobs, political favors, and services
Public Services
Alexander Shephard- D.C.
Jobs to supporters

3. II. Immigrants and Political Machines
Immigrants supporters
As soon as they arrived
Tammany Hall- New York City
Jobs for votes

4. III. Graft and Corruption
Election Fraud- vote early and often
Graft
Acquisition of money or political power through illegal or dishonest methods
Bribes, payoffs, kickbacks
George Washington Pluckitt- Tammany Hall- pg 522
Tweed Ring- 1860s
$200 million in graft
Thomas Nast- cartoonist

8. Restoring Honest Government
Section Two
Restoring Honest Government

9. I. Scandal in the White House
Grant’s first term
Scandals
Jay Gould- Gold Scandal- 1869
V.P. Schulyer Colfax- Credit Mobilier Scandal- 1872
The election of 1872
Civil Service Reform
Easily re-elected
Grant’s second term
More corruption
a taxation of whiskey
Politics of the Gilded Age
1873- Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner- The Gilded Age
Money lust- politicians take advantage

10. II. The Struggle for Reform
Election of Dem. Tilden vs. Rep. Hayes
Republican split
Hayes order prohibits federal employers from participating in campaigns
Stalwarts- opposed civil service reforms
Half-Breeds- supported civil service reforms
Election Hayes does not run
James A. Garfield- Half-Breed for pres.
Chester A. Arthur- Stalwart- for V.P.

11. II. Struggle for Reform cont.
C. Garfield’s assassination 1. July 2, four months shot by Charles Guiteau D. Reforms and reactions 1. Pendleton Civil Service Act- competitive exams Election- Grover Cleveland

12. III. Advances and Setbacks
Double # of federal jobs requiring civil service exams
Setbacks
Election Cleveland beat by Benjamin Harrison
Rep. fill every job not on the civil service exam list

13. Section Three
The Populist Movement

14. I. The Farmers’ Plight Tumbling prices Overproduction
Financial trouble

15. II. Farmers Organize The Grange Movement The Alliance movement
National Grange- Oliver Hudson Kelley- 1867
Social organization
Cooperatives- pool resources to buy and sell
“Granger laws”- railroad regulation
The Alliance movement
Farmers’ Alliance- Mary Elizabeth Lease
a. cooperatives, lobbyist, graduated income tax
African American Farmers
Separate Alliance
Organized strike

16. III. The Money Question
1873- Gold Standard- money in circulation was limited to the amount of gold in U.S. Treasury
Bland-Allison Act 1878 and Sherman Silver Act in 1890
1. Allowed the gov. to mint silver coins

17. IV. A Decade of Populist Politics
Populist Party- Feb. 1892
Alliance members, farmers, labor leaders, and reformers
Graduated income tax, bank regulation, government ownership of railroad and telegraph, coinage of silver, immigrant restrictions, shorter work day, and voting reforms
Economic depression
Panic of 1893
3 million unemployed
Cleveland stops silver coinage

18. V. Election of 1896 William Jennings Bryan vs. William McKinley
1. Gold standard vs. free silver- populism
The end of populism
Bryan lost
Improvements in economy