Chapter 23 Outline Politics in the Gilded Age 1. 10 Important Facts

a) Ulysses S. Grant - He was a great soldier but an inept politician. Republicans would wave “the bloody shirt” for Grant which was reviving gory memories of the civil war. Grant had won with 214 electoral votes to 80 votes for Seymour. b) James G. Blaine - He was from Maine and was a radiantly personable congressman with an elastic conscience. Blaine was one of the late 19th century's leading Republicans and champion of the moderate reformist faction of the party known as the "Half-Breeds". c) Burly “Boss” Tweed – He employed briery, graft, and fraudulent elections to milk the metropolis of as much 200 million dollars. Tweed’s luck ran out when the New York Times discovered evidence in 1871 and published. He then died behind bars. d) Democrats – They had a solid electoral base in the south and in the northern industrial cities, teeming with immigrants and controlled by well-oiled political machines. e) Republicans – Their strength laid largely in the Mid-West and the rural and small-town Northeast. Important blocs of republicans’ ballots came from the GAR- a politically potent organization with many Union veterans of the civil war. f) Grover Cleveland – He was a solid lawyer of 47 and was the first democrat to take the oath of presidential office in twenty eight years since Buchanan. He also believed that the people should support the government but not vise-versa. g) McKinley Tariff Act- The tariff act was established in 1890. The act boosted rates to their highest at 48.4 percent during peacetime. The new tariff also brought fresh woes to farmers. h) The Era of Good Stealings – Railroad promoters cheated gullible customers. Railroad promoters cheated gullible customers. In 1869, the pair concocted a plot to corner the gold market that would only work if the treasury stopped selling gold, so they worked on President Grant directly and through his brother-in-law, but their plan failed when the treasury sold gold. i) James A. Garfield – In 1880, the Republicans nominated James A. Garfield, a man from Ohio who had risen to the rank of major general in the Civil War, and as his running mate, a notorious Stalwart. j) The Billion Dollar Congress - To solve the problem of reaching a quorum in Congress, Reed counted the Democrats who were present yet didn’t answer to the roll call, and after three days of such chaos, he finally prevailed, opening the 51st, or “Billion Dollar” Congress which also legislated many expensive projects.

2. Explain the Effects

k) Jim Crow Laws in the South- Literacy requirements for voting began, voter registration laws merged, and poll taxes began. These were all targeted at black voters. Most blacks became sharecroppers or tenant farmers. l) Hayes Tilden Election- m) Garfield Assassination- James Garfield’s assassination had one positive outcome. It shocked politicians into reforming the spoils systems. The unlikely instrument of reform was Chester Arthur he surprised many by prosecuting several fraud causes and give his former Stalwart pals the cold shoulder. n) Cleveland’s attempt at lowering tariff- Lower barriers would mean lower prices for consumers and less protection for monopolies. Most important they would mean an end to the treasury surplus. o) Harrison’s victory in 1888- Cleveland was the first president to be voted out of his chair since Martin Van Buren in 1840. After Harrison became president there was a 4 year famine. After the famine Republicans were hungry for the bounty of federal offices. p) Development of the Farmer’s Movement in the West and the South- They called for a litany of items including: a graduated income tax, government regulation of railroads and telegraphs/telephones, direct elections of U.S. senators, a one term limit, initiative and referendum, a shorter workday, and immigration restriction.

3. Gilded Age q) “The Gilded Age,” was a term coined by Mark Twain hinting that times looked good, yet if one scratched a bit below the surface, there were problems. Times were filled with corruption and presidential election squeakers, and even though Democrats and Republicans had similar ideas on economic issues, there were fundamental differences. Democrats were more like Lutherans and Roman Catholics. Republicans had strong votes in the North and the West, and from the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), an organization made up of former Union veterans.