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Politics and Government and Thought in the Gilded Age. "What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." Mark Twain-1871. Mainstream Politics: Politics as Entertainment. Political Theater High Turnout Competition - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Politics and Government and Thought in the Gilded Age
• "What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must."
– Mark Twain-1871
Mainstream Politics: Politics as Entertainment
• Political Theater
• High Turnout
• Competition
• Party Methods: Revivalism Inspired
• No Secret Ballot
• Veteran Dominated
• Women
Partisanship
• Regionalized Parties
• Swing States: NY, NJ, IN, OH
• Close Contests
• Party Culture
Republican Factions
• Evangelical Middle-Class Protestants• Middle to Upper Classes (Urban)• Old-stock Americans and Germans• Appealed to:
– Patriotism / Anti-Confederate sentiment– Industrial Economy– Evangelical / Middle-Class Social Control– Nativism
Democratic Factions
• Catholics
• Irish and newer Immigrants
• Urban Workers and Southern/Western Farmers
• Pro-European Immigrant / Anti-Black and Chinese
• Pro-Memory of Confedracy
• Anti-Government Imposition of Morality
Political Groups
• Machine Politics
• Associational Politics– Labor– Capital
• Women’s Associations– National American Women’s Suffrage Association
(1890)– Labor Reform– Temperance
The Weaknesses of Government
• The Weak Presidency
• Inefficient Congress
• Small, Corrupt Bureaucracy
• Widening State Action
Charles J. Guiteau Shot President Garfield
Dominant Political Issues (I)
• Civil Service Reform– Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)
• The Tariff– High to protect Industry?– Low to enable cheap imports for workers?– Protect Farm Prices?
Dominant Political Issues (II):Federal Regulation of Business
• Interstate Commerce Commission (1887)– Maximum Freight Rates Case (1897)
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)– United States v. E.C. Knight (1895)
• “The [Interstate Commerce] commission, as its functions have now been limited by the courts is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the public clamor for a government supervision of railroads, at the same time that that supervision is almost entirely nominal.” -- Richard Olney, Attorney General under Grover Cleveland, advising a railroad president
Dominant Political Issues (III): Hard vs. Soft Money
• Debtors want inflation– Paper Money or Silver / Free Silver
• Creditors want deflation– Hard Money / Gold / Sound Money
• Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)
Crisis of the 1890s
• Populist or People’s Party (1889)– Greenbacks and free silver– Economy in government– Confiscation of excess railroad lands– Public ownership of the means of
communication and transportation
Omaha Convention (1890)
• Attacks “The Money Power”
• Free Silver
• Electoral Reforms
• Labor Reforms
• Credit and Shipping Reforms
• 1892: 1 million out of 17 million votes / 22 electoral votes. But Cleveland wins (D).
Depression of 1893-7
• 20% Unemployed
• Cleveland Does Nothing
• Coxey’s Army (1894)
• Labor Turmoil: 1400 Strikes with 700,000 workers in 1894
Currency Crisis
• Unused Silver piling up / Bank Rush beginning
• SSPA is repealed by Cleveland
• Shows he helps bankers, lets everyone else go die
• JP Morgan now has to bail out the feds financially.
• “Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people.” -- Grover Cleveland
JP Morgan
• I've got to get to the top of the hill. -- John Pierpont Morgan, Final Words
• “No one can earn a million dollars honestly.” -- William Jennings Bryan
Bryan’s 1896 Campaign
• William Jennings Bryan
• Currency Conflict
• “A CROSS OF GOLD”
• Populist / Democratic Fusion
• Gold Democrats
• Campaigning Styles
• McKinley wins, ushering in Republican rule
Reform Movements
• Women’s Christian Temperance Union
• Settlement Houses
• Florence Kelly
• Illinois Consumer’s League (1898)
Radical Thought
• Socialism– Marxist Stages– Non-Marxist– Socialist Parties– Conservative Reaction
• Anarchism• Henry George• Edward Bellamy--Looking Backwards
• "The life of the law has not been logic, but experience.” -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Intellectuals
• William James
• John Dewey
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
• Louis Brandeis
• Political Science and Economists
• Social Gospel