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

*FOR CLASS, WE ONLY HAD TO READ PART OF THIS CHAPTER, SO THE NOTES ARE ONLY FOR THE PART WE HAD TO READ.

The "Bloody Shirt" Elects Grant:
  • Republican party nominated Grant 1868 "let us have peace"
  • Democrats all agreed they were against military reconstruction. Wanted more money in circulation and lower interest rates. Nominated Horatio Seymour.
  • Republicans "waved the bloody shirt" - revived gory Civil War memories and reminded that the Republican party was Lincoln's party of the Union.
  • Grant won - got all the black votes

The Era of Good Stealings:

  • Corruption!
  • Jim Fisk and Jay Gould - "Black Friday" 1869, bid priced of gold up -> Treasury had to release gold. Grant wasn't crooked, just stupid.
  • Tweed Ring - bribery and fraudulent elections $200 million. Thomas Nast published evidence against Boss Tweed, and he was prosecuted by Samuel J. Tilden. Tweed went to prison.

A Carnival of Corruption:

  • "Spoils system" and favor-seekers of Grant
  • Credit Mobilier scandal 1872 - Union Pacific Railroaders hired themselves at inflated prices. Distributed shares to Congressmen and VP so goverment wouldn't blow the whistle.
  • 1874-1875: Whiskey Ring - robbed Treasury of excise tax revenues. Grant defended his private secretary, who was involved.
  • 1876 Secretary of War William Belknap guilty of pocketing bribes from suppliers to Indian reservations, Grant reluctantly made him resign.

Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age:

  • Political see-saw delicately balanced between parties. But party-followers were devout.
  • Republians: Puritanism, strict moral codes, believed grovernment should regulate conomic and moral affairs.
  • Democrats: Lutherans and Roman Catholics, toleration of differences, against goverment imposing moral standard.
  • Democrats: South, N industrial cities (immigrants)
  • Republicans: Rural and smalltown NE, Freedmen in the South, Grand rRmy of the Republic (Union veterans)
  • => Factions: "Stalwart" led by Roscoe Conkling embraced civil-service for votes (spoils system). "Half-breeds" led by James G. Blaine for civil-service reform. STALEMATE.

The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876:

  • Grant wanted to run for a 3rd term, but House voted against it 'two-term tradition'
  • Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes - from swing state of Ohio
  • Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden (bagged Boss Tweed)
  • Some disputed electoral states, who should tally the votes, Republican president of Senate, or Democrat Speaker of the House?

The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction:

  • 1877 - Electoral Count Act - set up electoral commission of 15 men from House, Senate, and Supreme Court.
  • 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats - Republican majority vote. Democrats outraged - launched a filibuster.
  • Deadlock avoided by the rest of the Compromise of 1877 - Democrats (reluctantly) agreed that Hayes take office if federal troops are withdrawn in the 2 remaining states (LA and SC). Republicans also said they'd make a transcontinental railroad through Texas.
  • Republican party quietly abandoned commitment to racial equality.
  • Civil Rights Cases - 1883 - Court declared 14th amendment only prohibited government violations of civil rights - not individual ones.
  • Grant elected and last soldiers removed.

Birth of Jim Crow in the Post-Reconstruction South:

  • White Democrats took control of the South
  • Blacks forced into sharecropping and tenant farming. "Crop-lien" system - storekeepers extended credit in return for portion of harvests
  • Discrimination against blacks grew into state-level legal codes of segregation - Jim Crow laws
  • Literacy reqs and voter registration laws ensured black disfranchisement - validated by Supreme Court Plessy vs. Ferguson 1896.

Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes:

  • Railroad presidents cut wages by 10% (1877) - President Hayes called federal troops to stop unrest in striking laborers. Workers vs. soldiers - 100 people died. Great railroad strike failed.
  • Many Chinese in Cali - to work on gold and railroad.
  • Irish resented Chinese - competition for cheap labor
  • congress passed Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 - prohibited immigration from China until 1943.
  • Birthright citizenship important to Chinese and other immigrants.

2 comments:

Tyler said...

The Democrat stance on military reconstruction has changed now hasn't it?

Blogger said...

Easily Increase Your ClickBank Banner Traffic And Commissions

Bannerizer makes it easy for you to promote ClickBank products by banners, simply visit Bannerizer, and get the banner codes for your picked ClickBank products or use the Universal ClickBank Banner Rotator to promote all of the available ClickBank products.