Chapters 23 and 24 Flashcards
Ulysses S. Grant
Elected as Pres. in 1868
Ulysses S Grant- R vs. Horatio Seymour- D
“Let us have peace” Grant’s campaign slogan and epitaph
Grant’s supporters “waved the bloody shirt” dredging up memories of the war, and advised people to “vote as you shot”
Grant’s cabinet was a nest of corruption and incompetence, as Grant seemed easy to influence
Jay Gould & Jim Fisk’s plan to corner the gold market
The two men hoarded gold and madly bid the price of gold skyward (while gaining Grant’s trust, convincing him not to sell government gold). They sold their shares and made a killing. Sept, 24, 1869 was dubbed “Black Friday,” because the treasury had to release gold to remedy the economic crisis. Grant was furious! The men were never held accountable.
The Tweed Ring/Tammany Hall
TAMMANY HALL: DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL MACHINE
The Tweed Ring (led by William Magear “Boss” Tweed) used bribery, graft, and fraudulent elections to earn million from the people of NYC
Tweed was sent to prison but he fled from US authorities while on a home visit from jail. He was apprehended in Spain with help from a Thomas Nast cartoon (he was a very famous cartoonist during the gilded age) Tweed died in the Ludlow St. Jail
Mast’s cartoon shows Tweed’s source of power- the control over the ballot book. “As long as I count the Votes, what are you going to do about it?”
Thomas Nast
He was a very famous cartoonist during the gilded age, and his Tweed cartoons got Tweed arrested in Spain.
Credit Mobilier scandal
Crédit Mobilier scandal (1872): Union Pacific RR insiders such as Thomas Durant formed the Crédit Mobilier construction company and then cleverly hired themselves at inflated prices to build the RR line, while buying off key congressmen and Grant’s 1st VP Schuyler Colfax to keep them silent
Crédit Mobilier used gov checks to invest in the Union Pacific RR and sold bonds on the open market to make a profit
The scandal was broken by The Sun during Grant’s reelection campaign. 44 million was made in profit.
Whiskey Ring
The Whiskey Ring (1874-75) robbed the Treasury of millions in excise tax revenues. The ring involved govt officials, whiskey distillers, and distributors around the country
Treasury Sec. Bristow broke the ring without Grant’s knowledge, 110 convictions were made and 3 million in taxes recovered
Grant’s private secretary was in on it, yet Grant wrote a letter which would make him innocent
Liberal Republicans (Horace Greeley)
Liberal Republicans vowed to “Turn the Rascals Out” and urged the end of military reconstruction.
They nominated Horace Greely (editor of the New York Tribune) for the presidency. Democrats joined the Liberal Republicans.
Economic panic of 1873
Economic panic in 1873, came about due to too many loans and a lack of profits; greenbacks were virtually worthless. The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Co. went under.
“Cheap-money” supporters (agrarian and debtor groups) called for the printing of more greenbacks and coinage of silver. The gov decision to stop coining silver was dubbed the “Crime of 73) (Debtor urge inflation become more money, cheaper money, and leads to rising prices and easier-to-pay debts
“Hard-money” supports (creditors) wanted deflation- they did not want their loans repaid in depreciated currency
Hard-money supporters won, Grant vetoed a bill to print more paper money.
Greenback Labor Party
Political party devoted to improving the lives of laborers and raising inflation. They had an anti-monopoly ideology and were active between 1874 and 1889.
Gilded Age
Coined by Mark Twain given to the three decades following the Civil war when corruption occurred between business and politics despite many advancements.
patronage
Granting favors or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support.
Hayes vs. Tilden Election
the situation was Rutherford B. Hayes- R (3 terms governor of Ohio) vs Samuel J. Tilden - D, who had 184 of 185 electoral votes needed to win, 10 of the electoral votes were in dispute, Tilden was ahead by 150,000 votes
The election deadlocked, because the Constitution did not specify would would actually count the electoral returns once they arrived in Congress
There were disputed returns from 3 states (FL, LA, SC) which had sent both Democratic and Republican seat of returns
A bipartisan electoral commission was set up to count the votes. Hayes won, because all 15 men on the new electoral commission voted party lines, and there were more Republicans.
(Hayes & the Compromise of 1877)
THE COMPROMISE OF 1877
In return for Hayes taking office, Democrats wanted federal troops withdrawn from LA and SC, subsidies for the TX and Pacific RR’s southern transcontinental line, and patronage jobs. The Republicans abandoned their commitment to racial equality.
The last act, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, supposedly guaranteed equal accommodations in public places. It was not enforced and pronounced unconstitutional by the Court in the Civil Rights Cases (1883)
Jim Crow Laws
legal segregation in southern states
Plessy v. Freguson
Plessy v Ferguson (1896) legalized separate but equal accommodations under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment
Railroad Strike of 1877
Railroad Strike of 1877: employee wages cut by 10 percent in four large RR companies. Pres Hayes called in federal troops to quell the unrest. 100 people died in the battles between workers and soldiers
Chinese Exclusion Act
(1882): Congress banned the importation of Chinese laborers on the grounds that the Chinese caused disorder in certain areas. (the act was repealed by FDR in 1943)
Stalwarts vs. Half-breeds
Stalwarts were the “old guard” Republicans loyal to Pres Grant. They were pro-patronage.
Half-Breeds (moderate Republicans) followed Sec of State James G Blaine and wanted to reform the patronage system.
Garfield’s assassination
Garfield was assassinated after Charles Guiteau wanted a position for helping Garfield win, which Garfield refused. Guiteau shot because he was mad. Garfield survived for 11 weeks in agony before dying of infection as the doctor was stupid and didn’t believe in germ theory or think that the bullet could be somewhere that wasn’t the right side.
Pendleton Act
The Pendleton Act (1883) made compulsory campaign contributions from federal employees illegal and established the Civil Service Commission to make appointments to 1/4 of federal jobs based on competitive exams.
(One downside, politicians had to look elsewhere for money, like big business.)
Grover Cleveland
Cleveland (D) was a lawyer and former NY governor. He defeated Blaine thanks in part to the Mulligan letters and to a Republican clergyman who insulted Irish-Americans in his “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion” speech
Cleveland advocated laissez-faire (hands-off) government, was tactless and direct, outspoken, and tot-tempered
In the 1888 election (Cleveland vs Benjamin Harrison) the tariff issue became the dividing line between the two parties. Cleveland wanted to lower the tariff, which had been about 45% since the war
Cleveland was voted out in a close race. (Then got elected again after Harrison. 22 and 24th pres)
McKinley Tariff Act
In order to protect industrialists from foreign competition, this raised tariffs to an all-time high peacetime rate to 48%
