Urban Society: Late 1800s Flashcards
What two inventions led to the development of the skyscraper in the 1880s?
Elisha Otis’s safety elevator made large buildings practical, while the use of the Bessemer Process to create a steel framework enabled buildings to exceed 10 stories.
The first skyscraper was the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago. Skyscrapers proved exceptionally popular in New York City; driven by a lack of available space, New York City grew upwards instead of outwards.
Define:
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall was a political organization within New York City’s Democratic Party. Between the 1860s and the early 1900s, Tammany Hall was the headquarters of New York’s machine politics, where political bosses such Boss Tweed distributed political patronage in exchange for votes and large amounts of cash.
What is machine politics?
In machine politics, a political organization is controlled by a “boss” or small leadership group, which can motivate a large “get out the vote” effort. The boss commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state.
Due to their electoral control, political bosses can distribute government positions and government construction projects, often in exchange for bribes or political support.
Who was Boss Tweed?
Boss Tweed was a notorious political boss in New York City in the 1860s and 1870s. Through his control of Tammany Hall, Tweed was able to bilk New York City out of at least $45 million. Most of Tweed’s support came from newly arrived Irish immigrants, whom he courted by distributing food and clothing.
Tweed and other political bosses represented the corruption that led Mark Twain to call the period “The Gilded Age.”
What artist proved instrumental in bringing down Boss Tweed’s political machine in New York City?
Thomas Nast
Nast’s political cartoons in Harpers Weekly, a popular magazine of the day, spurred an investigation into Tweed’s “Ring” (his group of supporters). Auditors of the city books discovered millions in fraudulent charges.
Tweed fled to Spain, but was captured when Spaniards recognized Tweed’s face from Nast’s cartoons.
What term did novelist Mark Twain coin to describe the political corruption that characterized American government following the Civil War?
The period became known as the Gilded Age, derived from a novel Twain published in 1873 about political corruption.
How did Stalwart Republicans and Half-Breed Republicans differ?
Led by New York’s Roscoe Conkling, the Stalwart Republicans supported the spoils system, under which elected officials distributed jobs to friends and supporters.
In the elections of 1876 and 1880, Stalwart Republicans were opposed by Half-Breed Republicans, who favored civil service reform. Both Rutherford B. Hayes (the 1876 Republican nominee) and James A. Garfield (the 1880 Republican nominee) were Half-Breeds.
What significant political change did Rutherford B. Hayes advocate during his Presidency?
President from 1877 to 1881, Hayes advocated civil service reform, setting him at odds with Stalwart Republicans, who continued to support the spoils system.
Hayes’s most prominent reform was to clean up the New York Customs House, emblematic of the spoils system. Hayes’s efforts included firing Chester A. Arthur, the head of the Customs House.
