6.11, 6.12, & 6.13: Politics of the Gilded Age
6.11: Explain how different reform movements responded to the rise of industrial capitalism in the Gilded Age.
6.12: Explain continuities and changes in the role of the government in the U.S. economy.
6.13: Explain the similarities and differences between the political parties during the Gilded Age.
In the last set of notes, we talked about the society of the Gilded Age. Now, we’re going to be continuing to talk about the Gilded Age but we’ll be moving on to the politics of it.
Reformation Movements
An example of an attempt at reform was with Henry George. He was a politician and economist who believed it was ridiculous that a country could have so many wealthy businesses and poor people living together. As a result, he proposed the Single Tax on land. This was a tax on the value of land that was meant to provide the government with a source of money to spend on projects such as construction.
Artists also advocated for change. An author named George Bellamy wrote a novel called Looking Backward in 1888. In this novel, a man goes to sleep in 1887 and wakes up in 2000 to see that the United States had been transformed into a socialist utopia with no more capitalism or big businesses.
Women’s Suffrage
During this time, there was also a significant reform movement advocating for women to have the right to vote. This was called women’s suffrage. In 1890, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to rally for the right to vote. However, this wasn’t the only thing women advocated for. They also advocated for temperance, or abstinence from alcohol. At the time, Americans were drinking 5 galloons per preson per year. In 1874, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was established to promote abstinence from alcohol. By 1898, the union had over 500,000 members. Alongside other organizations such as the Anti-Saloon League, it protested and lobbied for Congress to pass laws to reduce alcohol consumption.
Economics
So what did the government do in response to all of this reform and rising industry? Essentially, the government’s response to all of these changes were mixed. Many debated on whether or not the government should have a strong regulatory role in the economy and industry or not. While many people supported increased government intervention due to the existence of unfair labor practices and wealth inequalities, there were a few who believed in laissez-faire economics and that the government should leave people and businesses alone.
Laissez-faire economics, French for “let alone” was the dominant economic ideology in America during the Gilded Age. Supporters of this ideology believed that people should leave the economy alone and let people be free to do whatever they wanted in businesses and markets. This originated from the Enlightenment with a publication titled The Wealth of Nations written by Adam Smith. In this publication, Smith argued that the natural laws of supply and demand were enough to keep an economy balanced and in check. If the government tried to interfere, it would only harm the economy. This meant that people should just let everyone else make decisions based on their own personal interest and allow the “invisible hand” of the economy to naturally take over. The hand would naturally make the economy prosper if nobody interfered. However, the idea of laissez-faire economics was based on the idea that there would be competition between different businesses. During the Gilded Age, this was not the case. Many big businesses and tycoons had long since gotten rid of any competition that existed by buying out all of their competitors and making their competition go bankrupt.
During the late 19th century, the government continued believing in laissez-faire economics. During the Panic of 1893, which occurred after a leading railroad company suddenly went bankrupt, the 22nd and 24th President Grover Cleveland mostly did nothing to help Americans as they were struggling to feed themselves. Despite many banks failing and unemployment peaking at 20% in 1894, the government did almost nothing. Barely anything was done even as the government’s gold reserves were beign depleted. Even in times when the government tried to intervene, they mostly failed to cause any change. For example, in 1886, the Supreme Court ruled in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. that corporations were classified as persons and therefore received equal protection from the law, meaning they couldn’t be discriminated against. The government then created the Interstate Commerce Commission to make sure states were following this new ruling. However, this commission was underfunded and therefore failed to do almost anything. In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed to try to prevent monopolies from developing. But again, it failed to prevent anything.
Economic Imperialism
However, the government did make some attempt at economic intervention but this usually only occurred if it would benefit businesses. For example, Republican politicians worked with business leaders to expand markets overseas and spread their influence to other continents. They supported the overthrow of Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii in 1893, leading Hawaii to be annexed in 1898. The U.S. continued enforcing the Monroe Doctrine from the 1820s, discouraging European countries from interacting with other countries in the Americas. In China, the U.S. negotiated the Open Door Policy in 1899. This divided China into spheres of influence in which the U.S. and other European powers would have free trading rights.
The Populist Party
The debates continued until the early 1890s when the Populist Party emerged. This party was a party aiming to improve the economy and help people by reducing the power of banks and trusts. In the Ocala Demands of 1890, Populists advocated for the direct election of senators, an eight-hour workday, lower tariff rates, unlimited silver coinage, a graduated income tax, a new federally-regulated banking system, federal storage for farmers' crops, and federal loans to reduce their dependency on creditors. In the Election of 1896, they nominated William Jennings Bryant as their candidate. However, because the Democrats also chose him as their candidate, they divided their vote between Populists who wanted to support the Democrats and Populists who didn’t. This led to the Republican candidate, William McKinley, winning the 1896 Election. This ended the Populist era. Afterwards, the Democratic party began taking in many of the Populist ideals, such as silver coinage.
Politics
Now let’s focus on the worst side of the Gilded Age: corruption and political machines. During this period, there were two main political parties, the Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats were mainly southerners who supported state rights and segregation. Republicans, on the other hand, were mostly composed of northerners. This group included industrialists, reformers, the middle-class, Protestants, and the now-free black people. However, during this time, political elections were more about beating the opponent than establishing good public policies and agendas. Democrats relied on appealing to the South to get votes from former Confederate states. Republicans used “bloody shirt” campaigns, which were campaigns in which they reminded all of the death and suffering that had happen as a result of the Civil War to rally people against the South. With the only goal of elections being to win, the practice of patronage emerged. This was a practice in which politicians would promise jobs in government to people who supported them. This led to corruption and also resulted in presidents spending most of their term passing out jobs instead of working on other important tasks, similar to Andrew Jackson's Spoils System from the early 19th century.
Political Debates
But then 20th President James Garfield was assassinated one day by one of the people he didn’t give a job to. As a result, Congress decided to fix the system of patronage and passed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1881 under 21st President Chester A. Arthur. This replaced the patronage system with a merit-based system. Now, government employees would be selected through competitive exams instead of whether or not they had supported the president in elections. However, this ended up changing the ways parties were funded.
Previously, parties were funded by members of the party and supporters, which was why these supporters felt as if they were owed jobs for their support. However, after patronage ended, party members reduced their funding because they could no longer buy their way into getting jobs. Funding then changed to now be from wealth individuals instead. This led to many debates about the money. At the time, the United States’ currency was backed by the gold standard. This meant that there would only be enough money printed to be in proportion to however much gold the United States had. This prevented inflation but many people wanted the United States to print more money beyond the gold standard. They also wanted the unlimited coinage of silver. They wanted this in order to increase the money supply. If the money supply increased, they believed it would reduce interest rates and make it easier to borrow money from banks. Some of these people then went on to form a new political party known as the Greenback Party.
There were also many debates between parties about tariffs because during the Gilded Age, tariffs provided over half of the federal revenue. During the Civil War, Congress had set up protective tariffs in order to raise money for the war and to protect American industry. But despite the war having been over for several decades by now, Congress still did not remove the tariffs. As a result, many other countries set up retaliatory tariffs against the United States. This increased the cost of foreign goods and made it harder to sell crops to other countries internationally.
During Chester A. Arthur’s presidency, he began the development of a more modern American navy. After Arthur, Grover Cleveland was elected as the 22nd President in the Election of 1884. During his presidency, he vetoed hundreds of private pension bills from those who had lied about serving in the Civil War. He then implemented a new civil service system and took back millions of acres of land from railroad, lumber, and cattle companies. He was also the president who passed the Interstate Commerce Act and Dawes Severalty Act. As a president, he opposed high tariffs, imperialism, and government subsidies. He also fought to try to bring an end to political corruption and patronage.
During the Gilded Age, the production of goods changed from being done by hand locally to being mass produced in factories. This became known as “industrial capitalism”. The rise of these factories was due to laissez-faire economics because this form of economics allowed for businesses to grow and do whatever they wanted without government regulation. With no restrictions, many business owners exploited their workers freely and became incredibly rich. Their workers had to suffer however. The working class had to work for low wages and in dangerous working conditions. As a result of this inequality, several reform movements then emerged to demand change.
During the Gilded Age, journalists known as muckrakers began reporting on the suffering of the poor and corruption within businesses. Their journalism and news reporting led to many of these issues becoming known to the public. For example, Jacob Riis created a photo essay titled How The Other Half Lives. This was a collection of photos of the living conditions of those in poverty. Lewis Hine published photos depicting child labor. Because of journalists, many debates on citizenship, corruption, and civil rights emerged, leading to demadns for government intervention. Socialism also became popular during this time because it advocated for equal ownership of the means of production and equal distribution of wealth. However, although the Socialist Party of America was founded in 1901 by leaders such as Eugene V. Debs, it quickly fell apart after Debs ran for president and failed.
Another group of people argued for reform due to the Social Gospel. The Social Gospel was the belief that Christians should not only be moral and good, but they should also fight to solve society’s problems. Because of this belief, many Protestant preachers began arguing for social justice and helping the poor toward the end of the Gilded Age. They argued that Christians and the middle class needed to help solve poverty. The actions of this group also led to the creation of charity groups such as the Salvation Army and YMCA.
In 1894, there was a protest march called Coxey’s Army that occurred. Jacob Coxey led an “army” of three thousand people from Ohio to Washignton D.C. to protest for relief for the unemployed. These protestors wanted Congress to pass a bill allowing the construction of more roads so the unemployed would have jobs. However, this protest failed and he was arrested.
Political Machines
In cities, political machines were a common feature of them. These were political organizations led by a small group of people who would recruit members by bribing them or offering incentives. For example, in many urban areas, political machines would promise jobs to people in exchange for support and their votes. During the Gilded Age, these machines had a lot of control over politicians and society. who recruited members by offering incentives and exerted a great deal of control over their actions. In New York City, one of the most famous machines, Tammany Hall, was created. This was an organization ran by Boss Tweed. He catered to the needs of businesses, immigrants, and poor people to make them indebted to Tammany Hall and ensure their votes. Anybody who didn’t vote for the machine and support it would lose their benefits, which included jobs, food, and the construction of hospitals and orphanages in urban areas. This made many poor immigrants reliant on the machine for assistance. However, although Tammany Hall did provide a lot of aid to their supporters, it was also involved in fraud and embezzlement. It stole money from taxpayers and used it to build the New York County Courthouse in downtown Manhattan, costing around $13 million.
