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Chapter 23: Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age (1869-1896)

Page history last edited by Joshua 15 years, 1 month ago

Chapter 23: Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age, 1869 - 1896

 

Identifications (Directions and Sample) - To write a strong identification, my best advice is to include details that cover the 5w's, and the most important part should be the significance (how, impact, relationship to other ID's, so what?, etc.). Use your book, notes and other resources to help you. Everyone should write two ID's; put your name behind yours so I identify the author. A sample is provided for you...

 

Cortez – a Spanish fortune seeker (conquistador) who eagerly volunteered to lead an expedition into Central America in hopes of acquiring lands and great wealth. He succeeded in defeating the Aztec Empire between 1519 and 1521 with only a few hundred men. He was greatly aided by native allies, diplomatic skills, disease, and general ruthlessness. His significance lies in his role and leadership in the Aztec conquest and in settling a pattern for future conquests and encomienda divisions of the spoils. Cortez also contributed greatly to the growing “Black Legend” of the Spanish in the New World.

 

Horace Greeley -

 

Thomas Nast -

 

Roscoe Conkling -

 

Charles Guiteau

 

William Jennings Bryan -

 

Jay Gould -

 

Gilded Age -

 

populism -

 

grand-father clause -

 

crop-lien system -

 

soft vs. hard money -

 

Tweed Ring -

 

"Crime of '73"

 

Greenback Labor Party -

 

Plessy v. Ferguson -

 

Chinese Exclusion Act -

 

Billion Dollar Congress -

 

Pendleton Act

 

Bland-Allison Act -

 

Sherman Silver Purchase Act -

 

"waving the bloody shirt" -

 

Half-Breeds, Mugwumps, and Stalwarts -

 

 

 

 

President Grant - "Waving the Bloody Shirt"

 

    Election of 1868:

  • Republicans nominated Ulysses S. Grant.
  • Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour.
  • Republican slogan, "Vote as You Shot."
  • Grant won with 214 electoral votes to 80 for Seymour.
  • Three uncounted states (Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia).
  • http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=73717&rendTypeId=4

 

 

    Election of 1872:

  • Liberal Republicans nominated Horace Greeley.
  • Greeley was the editor of the New York Tribune.
  • Republicans renominated Grant.
  • "Grant us another term."
  • Electoral count was 286 for Grant to 66 for Greeley.
  • Popular count 3,596,745 to 2,843,446.
  • http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=73718&rendTypeId=4

 

 

    Credit Mobilier Scandal:

  • Union Pacific Railroad formed the Credit Mobilier construction company.
  • They hired themselves at inflated prices to build the railroad
  • Dividends rose as high as 348%
  • In fear of getting caught, they distributed shares of stock to congressmen to keep quiet.
  • An investigation found that 2 congressmen and the VP had accepted payments

 

 

The Era of Good Stealings

 

    Jay Gould and Jim Fisk:

  • Corner the gold market and bid the prices skyward

 

    Boss Tweed: political machine- corruption, bribary, fraud voting

  • worse than the corruptions of the federal government
  • stole $200 million
  • He was prosecuted by Samuel J. Tilden, which led to his fame and he became a future presidential canidate.
  • His corruption was brought to an end by The New York Times and cartoonist Thomas Nast.

 

 

Depression, Deflation, and Inflation

 

    1873 Panic:

  • 15,000 companies went bankrupt
  • Resumption Act 1875- Further withdrawal of greenbacks from circulation and redemption of paper currency at face value

 

    "greenbacks" vs. hard-money:

 

 

Politics of the Gilded Age

 

    Democrats vs. Republicans (in the G.A.)

  • Marked ineptitude, stalemate, and corruption
  • Issues -monetary, agrarian reform, labor, race, and ecenomic fairness

 

    Grand Army of the Republic

 

 

The Hayes-Tilden Election of 1876

 

    Samuel Tilden:

  • Rose to fame as the man who bagged Boss Tweed in New York
  • Tilden racked up 184 electoral votes of the needed 185

 

    Problem: Closest election in history until G. W. Bush and Gore.

                   Nobody (Dem. nor Rep.) could count deciding votes, or they would pick their party

 http://spojene-staty-prezidentske-volby-1876.navajo.cz/spojene-staty-prezidentske-volby-1876.png

 

    Compromise of 1877:

 

       Terms:

  1. Hayes could take the presidency if he removed federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina
  2. Created the Electoral Count Act- 15 men from House, Senate, and Supreme Court (8 Rep. 7 Dem)
  3. Republicans assured Democrats a spot at the presidential patronage through a bill subsidizing the Texas and Pacific Railroad's construction of the railroad. 

 

       Significant Outcomes:

  1. Segregation becomes huge again!
  2. Ended Presidental Standoff and Reconstruction
  3. Jim Crow Laws came about after Reconstruction ended
  4. Republican party abandons its support for racial equality. (Civil Rights Act of 1875 was the last attempt)

 

Electoral Count Act

-was passed in early 1877

-set up an electoral commission which had 15 men selected from the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court.

 

 

The Jim Crow South

  • Whites take power and blacks are forced into sharecropping and tenant farming
  • Black farmers are constantly in debt to landowners and storekeepers
  • Literacy requirements and poll taxes keep blacks from voting
    • Grandfather Claus allows illiterate whites to vote
  • Plessy v. Ferguson creates "separate but equal" facilities

 

Class Conflict in the Gilded Age

 

Election of 1880:

  • James A. Garfield (Republican) beats Winfield Scott Hancock (Democrat) by about 40,000 popular votes.

 

The Assassination of Garfield

  • President Garfield was assassinated by an office seeker named Charles Guiteau.

 

    Causes:

  •  Garfield didn't believe in patronage and would not give Guiteau a job for supporting him.
  • Garfield's vice president Chester A. Arthur was a Stalwart and Garfield was not.

 

 

    Outcomes:

  • Arthur becomes President.
  • Pendleton Acts of 1883 come into affect
  • Patronage is outlawed by the Pendleton Acts

 

Election of 1884:

 

 

President Cleveland-forgettable president

 

    Mugwumps: Republican-minded reformers who supported the democrat Cleveland, hoping he would accomplish something while in office! 

 

    Tariff Issue: Cleveland wanted to lower tariff

 

    Election of 1888:

  • Democrats renominate Cleveland
  • Republicans nominate Benjamin Harrison
  • Cleveland had more popular votes, but Harrison won in the electoral college.

 

    Billion Dollar Congress:

 

    Panic of 1893:

  • Cleveland is blamed for this panic
  • Brought up issues of labor, race & economic fairness, agarian reform, and monetary

 

    Wilson-Gorman Tariff (1894):

  •  also known as the Revenue Act
  • slightly reduced the tariff rates set by the 1890 McKinley Tariff
  • supported by the democrats
  • imposed a 2% income tax to make-up for the lost revenue from lowering tariffs
  • had more than 600 ammendments attached to it by the time it was passed by congress 

 

Election of 1892

 

    The Populists: (1892)

  • made up of frusterated farmers
  • wanted income tax, gov't ownership of railroads, workday and immigration restrictions 
  • Nominated Weaver

 

Plessy vs. Ferguson

-Very famous court battle

-Said "seperate but equal" facilities are O.K.

 

 

    The Farmers:

 

       Thomas Watson

 

 

 

 

 

 

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