Politics in the Gilded Age 1869-1896

1. Politics in the Gilded Age1869-1896

2. Election of 1868 • Impeachment/trial of Andrew Johnson occurred in 1868 • Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour • Republicans nominated war hero, Ulysses S. Grant (he had no political experience) • “waving the bloody shirt” • Grant won 300,000 more popular votes • the vote of 500,000 blacks gave the Republicans their victory

3. Election of 1868

4. 15th Amendment • Republican majorities in Congress acted quickly in 1869 to secure the African-American vote • Reconstruction Amendments: 13th, 14th, 15th • 15th Amendment: prohibited any state from denying or abridging a citizen’s right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” • Ratified in 1870

5. Southern Reaction • White Southerners used literacy tests and poll taxes to deny blacks the ballot • Grandfather clause: if a relative voted in 1860, you were exempted from the requirements • disenfranchisement

6. Civil Rights Act of 1875 • Guaranteed equal accommodations in public places (hotels, railroads, and theatres) • Prohibited courts from excluding African Americans from juries • Law was poorly enforced, Republicans were starting to fear the loss of white votes • Frustration over trying to reform an unwilling South

7. Reconstruction in the South • Republicans came to dominate Reconstruction in the South • Democratic opponents gave nicknames to their hated Republican rivals • They called southern Republicans “scalawags” and northern newcomers “carpetbaggers” • Northerners who went south wee often investors, missionaries, and teachers • Greed and graft existed

8. A cartoon threatening that the KKK would lynch carpetbaggers, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Independent Monitor, 1868.

9. Evaluating the Republican Record Accomplishments • universal male suffrage • property rights for women • debt relief • construction of roads, bridges and railroads • state-supported schools • new tax systems Failures • Republican rule seen as corrupt/wasteful • kickbacks and bribes • However, it was not just Republicans

10. Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall • William “Boss” Tweed was the boss of the local Democratic party in NYC • Masterminded dozens of schemes of political corruption • The Tweed ring stole roughly $200 million from New York’s taxpayers • The New York Times and the cartoonist Thomas Nast exposed Tweed and brought about his arrest and imprisonment in 1871

11. Greed and CorruptionThomas Nast and Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed

12. Thomas Nast Political Cartoonist • born in Germany • Anti-Catholic and nativist • credited with creating donkey (Democrats) and elephant (Republicans)

13. Election of 1872 Horace Greeley • Scandals of the Grant administration drove reform-minded Republicans to break with the party and nominate Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune • Democrats join them and nominate Greeley • Grant was nominated by the Republicans for a second term • “Waving the bloody shirt” (again playing up his Civil War reputation)

14. Election of 1872

15. Grant’s Administration and Corruption • In 1869 two Wall Street financiers schemed Grant’s brother-in-law in a scheme to corner the gold market • Credit Mobilier affair, stock given to Congress members to avoid investigation of profits • Whiskey Ring federal revenue agents conspired with the liquor industry to defraud the govt. of millions of dollars • Grant never involved but his reputation is tarnished

16. The End of Reconstruction • During Grant’s second term, it was apparent that Reconstruction had entered a third and final phase • Southern conservatives (redeemers) took control of state governments in the south • Most of their political programs focused on: states’ rights, reduced taxes, reduced spending on social programs, and white supremacy

17. Amnesty Act of 1872 • Seven years after Lee surrendered at Appomattox, many northerners were ready to move on • In 1872, Congress passed a general amnesty act that removed the last of the restrictions on ex-Confederates, except for the top leaders • This Amnesty Act allowed Democrats to retake control of state governments

18. African-Americans Adjust to Freedom • Learning to read and write • Migrating to cities • Founding of black churches (minister become leaders in black community) • Colleges: Howard, Morehouse, and Fisk are established ((to train ministers and teachers)

19. Sharecropping A new form of servitude? • South’s agricultural economy was in turmoil after the war • Whites lacked a compulsory labor force • Sharecropping: the landlord provides the seed and supplies, in return for a share (usually half) of the harvest • For the most part, sharecroppers remained dependent on the landowners • By 1880 roughly 5% of blacks were independent landowners

20. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • In 1890, Louisiana passed a law called the "Separate Car Act." This law said that railroad companies must provide separate but equal train cars for whites and blacks. • Homer Plessy was 1/8 black and therefore had to sit in the “colored” car, but he sat in the “white” car and was arrested • Plessy said this violated his 14th Amend. rights

21. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • The case made its way to the Supreme Court and they upheld the Louisiana law requiring “separate but equal accomodations” • The Supreme Court said the law did NOT violate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” • Wave of segregation laws follow in the South, known as Jim Crow laws • Segregated washrooms, park benches, etc.

22. Election of 1876(The United States was 100 years old!!!!!!!!!) • Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio • Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden of New York • Tilden won the popular vote • In three southern states the votes were contested (SC, FL and LA) • A special commission was created to determine the electoral votes • All votes were given to Hayes

23. Compromise of 1877 • Republicans and Democrats worked out a deal • Hayes would become President • He must: 1.) end federal support for Republicans in the South and 2.) support the building of a RR through the South • Shortly after his inauguration, Hayes withdrew federal troops from the South

24. Election of 1876

25. Chinese Immigration • Chinese grocery store - 1898 • Many Chinese arrived in the mid-1800s with the discovery of gold in California • More than 2 million Chinese left China for South America, Hawaii, and Cuba with roughly 300,000 entering the U.S. • San Francisco • Worked on transcontinental railroad (western portion) • “Chinatowns” • Faced widespread discrimination

26. Chinese Immigration • This 1852 photo by J. B. Starkweather shows a rare site: Chinese and European Americans working together in a gold mining operation.

27. Chinese Immigration • Secrettown TrestleChinese railroad workers transported dirt by the cartload to fill in this Secrettown Trestle in the Sierra Nevada Mountain.Courtesy of Union Pacific Historical Collection

28. Chinese Immigration • Violence in California against Chinese workers by European-Americans who resented the competition for jobs • Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) barred nearly all Chinese from entering the United States for six decades • Many Chinese-Americans took menial jobs, but eventually opened their own businesses such as restaurants and laundries

29. The People’s Party • Also known as the Populists • Originated from the Farmers’ Alliance • Wanted: a graduated income tax, government ownership of RRs and telegraphs, one-term limit on the presidency, immigration restriction • Adoption of initiative and referendum

30. Labor Unrest • Strikes by blue collar workers erupted in the late 1800s • Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead steel plant (near Pittsburgh) • Steelworkers strike over wages • Homestead Strike • Federal troops were eventually called in and broke the strike