1865- 1890 The politics of the Gilded Age and the era of weak presidents; political corruption. Flashcards
To what extent were the presidents of the Gilded Age weak?
During the period 1877-90 there were four presidents - Hayes, Garfield, Arthur and Cleveland - whose limited achievements provided further evidence for the critics of the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age leaves an impression of political stagnation due to its procession of conservative presidents who thought of themselves as administrators rather than party leaders.
What was the 1877 Railroad strike and how did Hayes deal with it?
In his first year in office, Hayes was faced with the United States’ largest labour disturbance to date, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. In order to make up for financial losses suffered since the panic of 1873, the major railroads cut their employees’ wages several times in 1877, which led to a strike of railway workers. Hayes was prepared to send federal troops when requested to do so by several governors. Business leaders praised the support of Hayes who seemed to establish the principle of federal government support for business and industry in the face of possible strike action.
How did Hayes reform the civil service?
Hayes took office determined to reform the system of civil service appointments, which had been based on the spoils system. Officeholders were selected on the basis of party loyalty not administrative competence.
Hayes was opposed by a faction of the Republican Party led by Senator Roscoe Conkling, who were given the nickname of the ‘Stalwarts’.
Instead of giving federal jobs to political supporters, Hayes wished to award them by merit according to an examination that all applicants would take.
Immediately, Hayes’s call for reform brought him into conflict with those who favoured the spoils system, particularly New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, who fought Hayes’s reform efforts at every turn.
Chester A. Arthur, the Collector of the Port of New York, refused to obey the president’s order. Hayes eventually sacked Arthur and replaced him with one of his own nominees. While reform legislation did not pass during Hayes’s presidency, he had set the ball rolling for further civil service reform under his successors, particularly the Pendleton Act of 1883.
Describe James Garfields’, 1881, presidency?
Garfield was a self-taught scholar who, nevertheless, found presidential duties beyond him. His presidency was to last only a matter of months.
Garfield also supported reform of the civil service, believing that the spoils system was damaging to the presidency. He strengthened federal authority over the New York Custom House, stronghold of Senator Roscoe Conkling, who was leader of the Stalwart Republicans and dispenser of patronage in New York.
Garfield also continued the work of his predecessor, Hayes, in reform of the Post Office. In April 1880, there had been a Congressional investigation into corruption in the Post Office Department, where profiteering rings allegedly stole millions of dollars, employing bogus mail contracts called ‘star routes.Hayes had stopped the implementation of any new ‘star route’ contracts in a reform effort. Garfield forced the resignation of one of the ringleaders of the
‘star routes, Thomas J. Brady, who was indicted for conspiracy in 1883.
Garfields assassination
On 2 July 1881, less than four months after his inauguration, President Garfield arrived at the Washington railroad depot to catch a train for a summer’s retreat on the New Jersey seashore. As Garfield made his way through the station, Charles Guiteau raced from the shadows and fired two shots point blank into the President. One grazed Garfield’s arm; the other lodged in his abdomen.
An unsuccessful lawyer and insurance salesman, Guiteau believed Garfield owed him a patronage position in the diplomatic corps, and that the President’s political decisions threatened to destroy the Republican Party. He was convicted of murder and hanged on 30 June 1882.
Garfields death greatly increased the demand for and support of further civil service reform.
Describe Chester Arthurs, 1881-1884, presidency.
Arthur continued the civil service reform of his predecessors, most notably with the Pendleton Act of 1883. The first law specifically intended to begin the professional handling of the civil service. President Arthur pushed for passage of the Act and signed it readily. The creation of the first Civil Service Commission was the beginning of the end of the spoils system. The Pendleton Act called for a merit system for promotions within the service and ensured continuity in federal employees from one administration to the next, even if the White House changed parties.
In another area Arthur signed the first federal immigration law that excluded paupers, criminals and the mentally ill. Congress also passed a Chinese Exclusion Act that would have made Chinese immigration illegal for twenty years and made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by excluding them from US citizenship. Although Arthur vetoed the bill, he signed a revised bill that was not as harsh.
Arthur also tried to lower tariff rates so the Government would not be embarrassed by annual surpluses of revenue. Congress raised about as many rates as it trimmed, but Arthur signed the Tariff Act of 1883, which only reduced tariffs by an average of 1.47 per cent.
What happened in the 1884 Presidential election?
The 1884 election was one of the muddiest in American history. Cleveland’s opponent, Republican candidate James G. Blaine, was scorned during the campaign as Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, that continental liar from the State of Maine!’ because of charges of corruption involving railroad interests. He was also suspected of an anti-Roman Catholic bias. His opponents used the fact that Grover Cleveland had allegedly fathered an illegitimate child.
Some Republicans united in a group known as the Mugwumps, reformers unhappy with the high level of corruption in government. They abandoned Blaine during the campaign and were then known as ‘goo-goos. The Mugwumps claimed they would support an honest Democrat such as Cleveland, the reform-minded Governor of New York. The election was very close; Cleveland’s margin of victory was 25,000 votes out of 10 million cast and 37 electoral votes out of 401.
What were Grover Clevelands achievements?
Cleveland continued to reform the civil service. Soon after taking office, he was laced with the task of filling all the government jobs for which the president had the power of appointment. These jobs were still typically filled under the spoils system, but Cleveland announced that he would not fire any Republican who was doing his job well, and would not appoint anyone solely on the basis of party service. He also used his appointment powers to reduce the number of federal employees, as many departments had become bloated with political time-servers. Later in his term, as his fellow Democrats chaled at being excluded from the spoils, Cleveland began to replace more of the partisan Republican officeholders with Democrats. While some of his decisions were influenced by party concerns, more of Cleveland’s appointments were decided by merit alone than was the case in his predecessors’ administrations.
Cleveland, however, believed in a very limited role for the federal government. As a Democratic president, Cleveland laced a Republican-dominated Senate and often resorted to using his veto powers. He vetoed hundreds of private pension bills to American Civil War veterans, believing that if their requests had already been rejected by the Pension Bureau, Congress should not attempt to override that decision. When Congress passed a bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service, Cleveland also vetoed that bill. In 1887, Cleveland issued his most well-known veto, that of the Texas Seed Bill. After a drought had ruined crops in several Texas counties, Congress appropriated $10,000 to purchase seed grain for farmers there.
