Politics: Republican dominance, 1890-1912

Question 1

Political tensions and divisions: the rise of Republican dominance:

Answer 1

By the early 1890s it was possible to see how two-party politics operated in the United States, and how the identity and ideology of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party had developed after the political battles over Reconstruction. But the American political system was not yet fully formed. The two main political parties were still evolving in response to the speed and scale of economic growth and social change. New forms of politics emerged and both the Republican and the Democratic Party had to adapt and change. The Republicans were more successful in managing this process, at least at first. Their victory in the 1896 election led to a long period of **Republican political dominance*. Between 1868 and 1932, Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson were the only two Democrats to interrupt the long chain of Republican presidents that stretched from Ulysses Grant to Herbert Hoover

Two of these new political forces were particularly important. The first was the rise of Populism, which brought about fundamental change (and deep divisions) in the Democratic Party. The second was Progressivism, a wide-ranging reform movement which deeply influenced the Republican Party, especially under Theodore Roosevelt. By 1912, Progressivism had become the central issue in American politics: a new National Progressive Party was formed; Progressivism deeply divided the Republicans; and Woodrow Wilson, strongly influenced by Progressive ideas, was leading the revival of the Democratic Party

Question 2

Completing the political nation:

Answer 2

Before 1890, American politics was not yet truly national. Between 1867 and 1912, 12 new states were added to the Union, six of them in 1889-90. These new states contained important new voters, with new political priorities. This required the main political parties to adapt and change

Question 3

Democratic Party support:

Answer 3

The core of Democrat support was the Solid South. For a century after the Civil War, the Democrat candidate won the South in every election except one (Al Smith in 1928). This meant two important things: first, the only question that mattered in elections was which Democratic candidate would be nominated; second, it gave segregationist Southerners a stranglehold on the national party. The Democrats could also rely on support in the industrial northeast, partly from business but especially from blue collar workers and recent immigrants. During the 1890s the Democrats won a lot of support from small farmers in the Western states. This rather contradictory coalition of support was the Democratic base until the 1960s

Question 4

Political balance between the Democrats and the Republicans:

Answer 4

In the ‘era of weak presidents’, the political balance between the parties was very even, as was shown by the close election battles between Grover Cleveland and his Republican rival Benjamin Harrison in 1884, 1888 and
1892. There was relatively little difference between them in policy and ideology; both Cleveland and Harrison supported conservative financial policies of ‘sound money’ backed by the gold standard. When Grover Cleveland won back the White House in 1892, therefore, it seemed likely to continue ‘politics as usual’. But the 1890s proved to be turbulent years, with a financial panic, economic depression, violent strikes, and the rise of Populism. The Democratic Party became more radical and more divided; a revitalised, pro-business Republican Party swept to power in the ‘turning point election’ of 1896

Question 5

Gold standard:

Answer 5

A system of finance that maintains the value of the currency by tying the currency to a fixed price backed by gold reserves. In the United States in the late nineteenth century, supporters of the gold standard argued that it ensured ‘sound money’; opponents claimed it harmed the economy by restricting the amount of money in circulation. In 1900 continuation of the system was confirmed by the Gold Standard Act

Question 6

Populism:

Answer 6

Populism first appeared as a political party at state level in 1890 and quickly became a grass roots mass movement, with strong support in the South, the Western Plains and the Rocky Mountains. In 1892 the Populists (also known as the People’s Party) set out their manifesto in the Omaha Platform. The Populists did well in the 1892 elections and gained even more support in the mid-term elections of 1894

The aim of Populism was to focus grievances and discontent into a political campaign for radical reform. The Populists demanded:
• government ownership of the railroads
• the opportunity for settlers and farmers to be able to acquire land from corporations and foreigners
• a graduated income tax (the tax you pay relates to how much you earn)
• a currency that was not controlled by private bankers
• ‘free silver’: the end of the gold standard and unlimited use of silver to increase the money supply

The political impact of Populism seemed sudden but its roots went deeper. From the 1870s, a range of protest movements had emerged, such as Patrons of Husbandry (often known as The Grange) and various Famers’ Alliances. These rural movements sometimes joined forces with workers’ groups such as the Knights of Labor. In the early 1890s these disparate groups coalesced to form the Peoples Party. The impact of Populism was boosted by the charismatic leadership of William Jennings Bryan, a lawyer from Omaha who soon gained a national reputation as a rising political star

Question 7

The Omaha Platform:

Answer 7

The People’s Party set out its political manifesto at Omaha in July 1892. Its theme was the need to fight corruption in government and the legal system, to save the nation from ‘moral, political and material ruin’. The Omaha Platform claimed that the people are demoralized; newspapers are muzzled; public opinion silenced; labor impoverished; ownership of the land is concentrated in the hands of a few capitalists

Question 8

Free Silver:

Answer 8

Populism was obsessed with reform of the currency. Populists saw the gold standard as the main reason for the depressed rural economy. They wanted more money to be available more cheaply, to make loans more available and debts easier to pay. Some Populists believed in a variant theory called ‘bimetallism’, in which both gold and silver would circulate. Most economists denounced the ideas of free silver and bimetallism as unrealistic and unworkable, but they attracted mass support in the 1890s

Question 9

William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925):

Answer 9

William Jennings Bryan was a lawyer from Illinois who settled in Nebraska. In 1890 he was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat. Bryan was a fundamentalist Christian, a pacifist, an anti-imperialist, a supporter of Prohibition, and a believer in ‘free silver’. With support from the Populists, he won the Democrat presidential nomination in 1896 but lost narrowly. He ran for president twice more, in 1900 and 1908, but lost again. From 1913, he was Secretary of State in the Wilson administration

Question 10

The panic of 1893:

Answer 10

The Democratic Party was weakened by the Panic of 1893 and the economic depression that followed. The party became more divided after its poor showing in the 1894 mid-term elections. Grover Cleveland and his pro-business allies, the ‘Bourbon Democrats’, stuck to traditional laissez-faire economics and to keeping the gold standard. In 1895 Cleveland got financial backing from Wall Street: the banker J. Pierpont Morgan and his allies lent the government $62 million to prop up its gold reserves. This gave ammunition to Cleveland’s opponents, because he had sided with the money men of Wall Street rather than the ‘little man’. Mary Lease, a spokeswoman for Kansas Populists, claimed in 1895: ‘This is no longer a government of the people, for the people and by the people, but a government of Wall Street, for Wall Street and by Wall Street

Question 11

The Democratic Party and Populism:

Answer 11

Unable to defeat Populism, the Democratic Party joined forces with it. As the election of 1896 approached, the Democrats needed a new candidate to run for the presidency, and a way to combat the rise of Populism. The party’s National Nominating Convention in Chicago solved both these problems in one blow. When the ‘silverites’ won the debate on the floor of the convention, the Democratic Party adopted the cause of free silver into its programme. The convention then gave the presidential nomination to William Jennings Bryan

Some Populists felt betrayed and wanted to run their own candidate against Bryan, but that would simply have meant handing victory to the Republicans, so the Populists endorsed Bryan and the Democrats. In the 1896 election, Bryan was defeated, and the cause of free silver went down with him. Populism never really recovered its momentum and was ultimately swallowed up by the Democratic Party

Question 12

The rise of the Republican Party and the election of 1896:

Answer 12

By 1890, the Republican Party was very different from the party of Abraham Lincoln. After the failure of Reconstruction, there were far fewer African-American voters and the South became a lost cause for the Republicans. Their main blocks of support came from big business and the urban workers who did well out of the rise of industrialisation. Republicans usually supported high tariffs and protectionist economics. (Democrats usually opposed them, but this could change according to circumstances)

There was a marked contrast in the campaigning style of the candidates who battled it out in 1896. William Jennings Bryan relied on his superb eloquence. He made numerous ‘whistle stop’ tours by train, making 600 speeches, mostly to enthusiastic crowds. His Biblical punch line demanding free silver and denouncing the gold standard was endlessly repeated: ‘You shall not press down upon the brow of labor, this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.’ The Republican candidate, William McKinley, did not need to make whirlwind tours; he had money instead. Behind his presidency was a modern political machine, oiled by millions of dollars and driven by a master political strategist, Mark Hanna

McKinley and Hanna were close political allies and had been planning his bid for the presidency for years. Hanna was a rich businessman, a battle-hardened politician who knew all about patronage and was a brilliant fundraiser. The McKinley campaign spent around $7 million (at 1896 values) and had more than a thousand volunteers sending letters to voters and contributors, especially in the key ‘battleground’ states from Ohio to Wisconsin

Question 13

The 1896 election:

Answer 13

Apart from Mark Hanna’s slick campaigning methods, McKinley had other significant advantages. The Democratic Party was divided. The Eastern conservatives who had backed Grover Cleveland were lukewarm in supporting Bryan. Outside the south and west, people were suspicious about free silver and not easily convinced it would work. McKinley’s promises to introduce a high protective tariff and to keep the gold standard were better received than Bryan’s mixture of unorthodox economics and fundamentalist religion

McKinley won by 600,000 votes. The ‘turning point’ election of 1896 began a period of Republican dominance as the ‘natural party of government’. The close links between the Republicans and business underpinned a series of election victories up until to 1912. A matching consequence of 1896 was the continuing weakness of the Democrats. William Jennings Bryan was a charismatic political presence, but he symbolised the division between the anti-urban wing of the party and the ‘Bourbon Democrats’ who had backed Grover Cleveland. Bryan was to prove a serial loser: he was the defeated Democratic candidate in 1900, and again in 1908

The 1896 election showed the resilience of two-party politics. Populism withered away almost as rapidly as it had risen. By its success at the Democratic National Convention, the People’s Party lost its separate identity. By 1908 it had virtually ceased to exist and Populism became just one of many strands in the Democratic Party. Progressivism replaced Populism as the movement of reform. The ability of the main political parties to absorb new elements into a national coalition proved to be a lasting characteristic of American politics

Question 14

The Republican presidency: McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Taft

Answer 14

William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were allies in the same party, but there were significant differences between them, both personal and political. Even when they ran on the same campaign ticket (president and vice-president) in 1900, McKinley and Roosevelt disagreed on many issues. When he became president, Theodore Roosevelt was regarded with great suspicion by conservative Republican backers like Mark Hanna. Roosevelt and Taft were close political allies in 1908, but four years later the divisions between them split the Republican Party in two and handed the 1912 election to Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats

Question 15

The presidency of William McKinley:

Answer 15

At McKinley’s inauguration in March 1897, Republican conservatism was riding high. The Republicans held the presidency and had large majorities in both the House and the Senate. For the first time ever, they had won the presidency without needing the black vote in the south. The Democrats were still weakened by internal divisions; Populism was a fading force. The economy was entering a period of exceptional growth. McKinley filled his administration with wealthy men and set out business-friendly policies, doing nothing to prevent the consolidation of business into ever-larger corporations

McKinley pleased his conservative backers by maintaining the protective tariff. The Dingley Tariff Act of 1897 pushed tariff rates to even higher levels. Like Grover Cleveland, McKinley was a strong believer in the gold standard.
This policy was strengthened by the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush of 1897-99, which increased the amount of gold in circulation. In 1900 McKinley introduced the Currency Act, committing the US to maintain the gold standard. The potential problems caused by these policies were lessened by the general prosperity of the time, including rising farm prices

McKinley’s political position was strengthened by the Spanish-American War. McKinley himself was not particularly keen on an expansionist foreign policy, but a lot of Republicans were. McKinley was happy to bask in the glow of the military and naval successes in Cuba and the Pacific. For his re-election in 1900 he adopted a hero of the war, Theodore Roosevelt, as his vice-president. McKinley and Roosevelt were not a harmonious team. There were significant differences between them in age, personality, and political beliefs. But they were a strong electoral team, and they cruised to a comfortable victory over William Jennings Bryan

William McKinley seemed destined for a smooth and successful second term as president, but within six months he was dead. In September 1901 he arrived in Buffalo, in upstate New York, to attend the Pan-American Exposition, a celebration of American prosperity and industrial might. Visiting the Temple of Music on 6 September, McKinley was shot in the stomach by a young anarchist of Polish-German descent, Leon Czolgosz. The president’s life was not thought to be in danger and the public were told he was recovering well, but complications set in from the bullet lodged in his body. He died on 14 September, eight days after the shooting. Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest-ever American president, at the age of 42

Question 16

William McKinley (1843-1901):

Answer 16

William McKinley fought for the Union (North) in the American Civil War and was elected Senator for Ohio in 1876. He was a strong supporter of high tariffs to protect industry. He lost his seat in the 1890 mid-term elections but was elected Governor of Ohio in 1891. With the backing of Mark Hanna, he won the presidency in 1896. As president he benefited from favourable economic conditions, and from success in the war against Spain. He easily won re-election in 1900, but was assassinated on 6 September 1901

Question 17

The reaction against big business: the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt

Answer 17

The main political function of a vice-president is to stand by in case the president dies in office, but few vice-presidents are chosen as ideal presidential prospects. Most receive the nomination as the result of political calculation - to ‘balance the ticket’. Often (as with Lyndon Johnson in 1960) they are viewed with suspicion, even hostility, by supporters of the president. This was the case with Theodore Roosevelt, who was younger, more radical, and more ready to take an interventionist approach than the men in McKinley’s political circle (who often referred to Roosevelt as ‘that damned cowboy’)

Conservative Republicans continued to be suspicious of their new president, even though Roosevelt proved to be popular and successful. Mark Hanna planned to challenge Roosevelt for the Republican nomination in 1904 but he died before the campaign could begin. Part of this was personal. Roosevelt was a bombastic personality, prone to self-advertisement; he would never be as easy for party leaders to handle as McKinley had been. But it was also intensely political, because of Roosevelt’s sympathy with Progressivism

Question 18

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919):

Answer 18

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) had a varied career: in the New York state assembly in 1884, a rancher in Dakota in the mid-1880s, in the US civil service from 1889, as police commissioner in New York City in 1895, assistant secretary to the navy in 1897, volunteer soldier in the Spanish American War, Governor of New York State in 1899, vice-president 1901, and president 1901-09

Question 19

Progressivism and Theodore Roosevelt:

Answer 19

The Progressive movement was the most important influence on American society and politics between 1900 and 1917. Progressivism was an angry, idealistic reaction against the perceived evils of monopoly capitalism, put forward by muckraking journalists and reform-minded politicians, from both sides of the political divide

Roosevelt had gained a reputation for fighting corruption when he was police commissioner in New York City. He was always willing to use the theatrical power of the presidency (what he called ‘the bully pulpit’) to appeal directly to the people against special interests. This made Roosevelt, at least publicly, the enemy of big business: he regularly denounced the ‘wealthy criminal class’ and the ‘conscienceless swindlers’ of the big corporations and cartels. He promised to regulate business effectively and limit its excesses. On the other hand, Roosevelt was less anti-business than he seemed. He was just as fierce in denouncing socialists and Populists as ‘pin-heads and cranks’, and he believed big business was essential for national prosperity

Question 20

Progressivism:

Answer 20

Progressivism was a wide-ranging movement expressing discontent and demands for social and political reform. Where Populism was rural and regional, Progressivism was urban, middle-class and national. It linked together several themes, including:
• attacks on political corruption
• demands to regulate business and break up cartels and trusts
• female suffrage and women’s rights
• higher standards of public morality, such as prohibition of alcohol
• protection of workers against unjust employers
• protection of the environment against pollution and land-grabbing

Question 21

‘The wealthy criminal class’

Answer 21

It was often said that twenty men controlled American industry and finance through ‘combinations’ - corporate trusts and monopolies. The riches of the business elites made them easy targets for criticism by Progressives. There were 4000 millionaires in America in 1901. John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil was worth $200 million; he became the world’s first billionaire by 1913. Andrew Carnegie sold his steel empire for $480 million in 1901

Question 22

The triumphs and failures of Roosevelt’s government:

Answer 22

Roosevelt did pursue policies to regulate business and cut down unfair practices. He mediated a settlement of the great coal strike of 1902, taking on the mine owners and their backers in the press, ready to send in federal troops if he had to. Also in 1902, Roosevelt blocked the creation of Northern Securities, a huge new monopoly to control railroads between the Great Lakes and the Pacific coast. Grover Cleveland and McKinley had rarely acted to enforce the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, but Roosevelt ordered the Justice department into action. In 1904, after a lengthy legal battle, the Supreme Court ordered Northern Securities to be broken up. In 1906, The Hepburn Act was passed to ensure closer regulation of the railroad companies

Roosevelt’s energetic style made him popular in the country. He was also a political realist, who knew when to make peace with Republican conservatives. He easily won re-election in 1904. He continued his ‘trust-busting’ policies, though there were occasions when he made compromises with business. He also pushed through measures in conservation to curb corruption in the exploitation of timber and minerals on public lands. He expanded the areas of national parks and forests. Under his chief of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, national forests increased from 20 million acres in 1898 to 193 million by 1909. There were 53 new wildlife reserves and five new national parks

The need to regulate big business, and the close links between business and politics, were demonstrated by the Panic of 1907. When the stock market collapsed, it appeared likely that there would be another disastrous period of depression like the one that followed the Panic of 1893. The government was bailed out by a consortium of financiers, led by J. Pierpoint Morgan, who injected millions of dollars into the stock market to shore up prices and restore business confidence. Depression was avoided but the power of the financiers and the weakness of the government was clearly shown. Progressives demanded reform

In 1908 Theodore Roosevelt was in a strong position to run for a third term as president. The economy was booming and the Republicans were virtually certain to win again. But Roosevelt decided not to run. He said he agreed with George Washington’s belief in presidents being limited to two terms in office, even though three terms, or more, was allowed by the constitution

Question 23

J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913):

Answer 23

J. Pierpont Morgan took over his father’s company and reorganised it as J.P. Morgan and Company in 1895. He played a leading role in the mergers that created General Electric in 1891 and US Steel in 1901. He had close links with bankers in London and arranged loans for many US industries. His control over so many American corporations made him a hate figure for anti-business Progressives

Question 24

Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft:

Answer 24

‘Big Will’ Taft was famous for his size. Enormously fat, he was a cartoonist’s delight. He also delighted the conservative wing of the Republican Party because he seemed ready to backtrack from much of Theodore Roosevelt’s reform agenda. His vice-president was a conservative; so was the Republican platform on which the 1908 campaign was fought. One of Taft’s first decisions was to please business by sacking Giffard Pinchot, Roosevelt’s Forest Service chief. Another conservative move was the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, setting the tariff at a very high level and angering reformers within the party. Taft also moved towards a more cautious, trade-oriented foreign policy, especially in relation to Latin America

Taft’s divergence from Theodore Roosevelt’s policies was surprising. They had been close political allies and Roosevelt had virtually nominated Taft as his successor. Yet the expected partnership between them did not work out as anticipated. Roosevelt did not approve of Taft’s shift to more conservative policies. In any case, Roosevelt made a bad ‘back seat driver’: he was always going to feel frustrated being on the sidelines, whoever was president in his place

Disagreements were more in style than substance. Taft actually launched antitrust actions at least as often as Roosevelt had, including a controversial action against US Steel. But Taft’s low-key approach was different from Roosevelt’s flamboyant personality and love of public attention. Taft preferred a quiet life; years later he said he enjoyed being Chief Justice of the Supreme Court much more than being president

Question 25

William Howard Taft (1857-1930):

Answer 25

William Howard Taft was a judge on the Appeals Court from 1891. In 1900 President McKinley appointed him Governor General of the Philippines. Taft became a close political ally of Theodore Roosevelt, who made him Secretary for War in 1904. Taft was president from 1909 to 1912 but lost power after the Republican Party was badly split by the rise of the Progressive Party. In 1921 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

Question 26

The fall of the Republicans:

Answer 26

Conservative Republicans were happy with William Howard Taft’s quieter political style, and reformist Republicans were reassured that Taft continued to push through Progressive legislation. It seemed that Republican political dominance was set to continue. This began to change in 1910, when Progressive Republicans joined forces with the Democrats to attack the ultra-conservative Speaker of the House, Joseph Cannon of Illinois. This showed how reformist Republicans were becoming dissatisfied with Taft and offered encouragement to the Democrats

The Democratic Party, now committed to Progressive policies, had unexpected successes in the mid-term elections in 1910. This setback brought the simmering divisions in the Republican Party to the surface. President Taft retreated into a defensive attitude and appointed mostly conservatives to his new Cabinet. The Progressive wing of the party, led by Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, became rebellious and started to organise a new National Progressive League to drag the Republican Party back towards reform. Also, Theodore Roosevelt decided to make his political comeback. During 1911 and 1912, these elements fused into a full-scale insurgency against Republican conservatism

Theodore Roosevelt had soon regretted his self-imposed political exile; he now believed he was the man to save the Republican Party from the ‘disaster’ of the 1910 mid-term elections. His comeback was disruptive and divisive.
Roosevelt did not openly declare he was going to run for the Republican nomination, though everyone in America thought he would. The ‘unofficial’ campaigning by his supporters undermined both President Taft and Robert La Follette, who was furious that ‘his’ Progressive insurgency was being hijacked

The Republican national convention in Chicago in June 1912 was a dramatic contest between a president and an ex-president, between two former friends who were now bitter enemies. Neither could hope to win a real victory. Taft won on the first ballot; this left Roosevelt without the nomination, but Taft was fatally weakened by the party divisions. The alienation between the two former allies became highly personal and full of insults - they did not make friends again until 1918, just before Roosevelt’s death

In July 1912, having bullied Robert La Follette into standing down, Theodore Roosevelt won the nomination for the National Progressive Party. This soon came to be known as the ‘Bull Moose’ party because Roosevelt, when asked if he was fit enough for mainstream politics after years of ‘retirement’, declared himself ‘as fit as a bull moose’. In normal circumstances, the Republicans would have had a strong chance of victory in 1912. But now, with the party badly split, with massive support for Theodore Roosevelt as a rebel candidate, and with the revival of the Democratic Party under Woodrow Wilson, it soon became obvious Taft would lose

Question 27

Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (1855-1925)

Answer 27

‘Fighting Bob’ La Follette was an experienced Republican politician who was elected both to the House and the Senate, and was Governor of Wisconsin. He was a fierce critic of railroad companies, bankers, and corporations. From 1910 to 1912, La Follette led the breakaway from the Republican Party to form a new Progressive Party. In 1924 he ran for the presidency as a Progressive, winning 5 million votes

Question 28

Summary:

Answer 28

From 1868 to 1912 only one Democrat, Grover Cleveland, occupied the White House. In those 44 years, there were six republican presidents. There were many reasons for Republican political dominance, including the divisions within the Democratic Party during and after Reconstruction. That dominance might well have continued but for the rise of Progressivism, and the personal and political rivalries that began to split the Republicans from 1910. As the 1912 election approached, the Democrats were able to see a path to political revival. Temporarily, at least, the years of Republican political dominance were over