1. POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE A18 06.01.14

2. Origins of the Term: Origins of the Term: Mark Twain’s The Gilded Age(1873)

3. A Two- Party Stalemate

4. Intense Voter Loyalty to the Two Major Political Parties

5. Party Support in the Late 1800s REPUBLICANDEMOCRAT African-AmericansWhite Southerners Northern ProtestantsCatholics Old WASPs (Nativist) Recent Immigrants Most of Middle ClassUrban Workers (pro-labor) Pro - BusinessMost Farmers TemperancePersonal Freedom

6. Laissez-Faire Federal Govt.  From 1870-1900, federal govt. did very little. Its main duties:  Deliver the mail  Maintain a national military  Collect taxes & tariffs  Conduct a foreign policy  Exception: administer the annual Civil War veterans’ pension

7. The Presidency as a Symbolic Office  Party bosses ruled.  Presidents should avoid offending any factions within their own party.  The President just doled out federal jobs. Senator Roscoe Conkling  1865- 53,000 federal govt employees.  1890- 166,000 federal employees

8. Rutherford B. Hayes

9. 1880 Presidential Election: Republicans Half BreedsStalwarts Sen. James G. Blaine Sen. Roscoe Conkling (Maine) (New York) James A. Garfield Chester A. Arthur (VP) COMPROMISE

10. James G. Blaine the "Plumed Knight" (1830-1893) Copyright 1997 State Historical Society of Wisconsin

11. James A Garfield

12. Presidential Election of 1880

13. Garfield’s Assassination

14. Charles Guiteau: “ I Am a Stalwart, and Arthur is President now!”

15. Chester A. Arthur 1882

16. Civil service reform: Pendleton Act (1883)

17. Republican “Mugwumps” Reformers who would not re-nominate Chester A. Arthur. Support Cleveland in 1884. Reform to them: create a disinterested, impartial gov’t run by an educated elite like themselves. Social Darwinists; support laissez-faire gov’t. Favoritism & the spoils system seen as inappropriate gov’t intervention in society. Their target was political corruption, not social or economic reform.

18. 1884 Presidential Election Grover Cleveland James G. Blaine (DEM. – NY) (REP. - MAINE)

19. A Dirty Campaign “Ma, Ma … where’s my pa?” “He’s going to the White House, ha…ha…ha…!”

20. 1884 Presidential Election

21. Grover Cleveland

22. Cleveland’s First Term  The “Veto Governor” from New York  First Democrat elected since 1856  “ A public office is a public trust!”  “Laissez-faire” presidency:  Opposed bills to assist the poor as well as the rich  Vetoed over 200 special pension bills for Civil War veterans

23. 1888 Presidential Election Grover ClevelandBenjamin Harrison (DEM - NY)(REP - IN)

24. 1888 Presidential Election

25. 1892 Presidential Election Grover ClevelandBenjamin Harrison (DEM - NY)(REP - IN)

26. 1892 Presidential Election

27. Cleveland Loses Support Quickly  Only President to serve 2 non-consecutive terms  Blamed for the Panic of 1893  Defended the gold standard  Used federal troops in the 1894 Pullman strike  Repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act

28. The Silver Issue  “ Crime of ’73”- govt. stopped coining silver  Bland-Allison Act (1878) - limited silver coinage to $2-$4 mil. per mo. (based on 16:1 ratio of silver to gold)  Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)  US Treasury must purchase $4.5 mil. oz. silver a month.  Govt. deposited most silver in the US Treasury rather than circulation.