The Gilded Age/The Era of Weak Presidents (1877-1890)

Question 1

The Gilded Age

Answer 1

• A phrase coined by the famous American novelist Mark Twain
• Describes the era of lavish economic growth and power between 1877-1890
• The novel satirises greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America
• Mark Twain was highly critical of the wealth and political influence of the new breed of the super-rich industrialists

Question 2

The Era of Weak Presidents

Answer 2

• Name given to four presidents that were consecutively in power one after the other
• President Hayes, Garfield, Arthur and Cleveland
• Their limited achievements provided further evidence for critics to criticise them
• They didn’t do anything whilst in office
• Strong belief in the US Constitution and where the President only involves themselves in foreign affairs
• Strong belief in laissez-faire
• Wanted Congress to do everything for them
• Most Americans believed that it was a good thing if the presidency declined in power
• Left an impression of political stagnation due to its procession of conservative presidents
  -‘Thus in popular legend as well as in actually there are the dud presidents: Grant, a president discredited; Hayes, a president denied; Arthur, a president dismissed; Cleveland, a president denied; and Harrison, a president derided

Question 3

Republican Party’s Beliefs
(Gilded Age)

Answer 3

• Symbol: red elephant
• Party of the Union
• Favour big businesses
• Supporters of laissez-faire
• Protected tariffs
• Placed greater stress on government activism
• Wanted to encourage further economic development
• Favoured measures that hastened the assimilation of immigrants

Question 4

Democrat Party’s Beliefs
(Gilded Age)

Answer 4

• Symbol: blue donkey
• Stood for states’ rights
• Solid support for white supremacy in the South
• Rural Southern farmers
• Limited role of federal government and low tariffs
• Powerbase of voters usually came from the East, especially New York
• African Americans likely to vote Republican

Question 5

The Political Machine and
Pork Barrel Politics

Answer 5

• Political Machine: a political group where a boss can win elections by organising supporters votes and businesses donations
• Machines power based on the ability of the boss to get out of the vote for their candidates on election day
• Pork Barrel Politics: politicians/party machines would pass laws to dole out federal funds to reward favoured people or regions who have backed them

Question 6

Tammany Hall

Answer 6

• Built on East 14th Street in 1830
• From the 1870s it became the centre of Irish American local politics New York City
• Used bribes, patronage, electoral fraud, physical intimidation to promise to dominate New York City politics
• The ‘Tammany System’ was regularly accused of corruption because it was always able to ‘get out the vote’ for the Democrats

Question 7

Boss Tweed and the
Tweed Ring

Answer 7

• William Marcy Tweed (Boss Tweed) began as an NYC volunteer fireman and built his way up the political ladder
• Became the head of Tammany Hall, central organisation of the Democratic Party in New York
• Tweed’s Ring essentially controlled NYC until 1870, using embezzlement, bribery, and kickbacks to siphon NYC’s budget into their own pockets $40-$200 million
• Boss Tweed and his cronies were eventually taken down
  Largely due to the investigative journalism by the New York Times and the political cartoons of Thomas Nast in Harpers Weekly