Politics in the Gilded Age, c. 1870–1900

This is Unit Five, part one, on Gilded Age politics, from minority presidents to the two Sherman Acts. Unit Four closed with three writers attacking the industrial order, and pointed to the politics of the Gilded Age. This unit is that politics. Carry one fact through this part: every president elected from eighteen seventy-six to eighteen ninety-two won with less than half of the popular vote, and weak presidents repaid their debts with patronage. Watch where the first federal steps toward reform and regulation come from, and how small they are at first. By the end you will be able to explain why the presidents of this era were weak. To explain how Garfield's assassination led to the Pendleton Act. To explain how the tariffs treated manufacturers and farmers differently. To describe the first federal attempts to regulate railroads and trusts, and what limited them. And to distinguish the two Sherman Acts of eighteen ninety.

Four entries on thin majorities, coerced elections, and the system that ran federal jobs.

An era of close elections.

USH2 0601 Razor-Thin Majorities

The disputed election of eighteen seventy-six opened an era of presidents elected by the narrowest of margins, from eighteen seventy-two to eighteen ninety-six, and Grant was passed over for renomination after the Panic of eighteen seventy-three. Unit one taught how the eighteen seventy-six dispute was settled. This unit follows what such thin majorities did to presidential power.

How some of those votes were won in the South.

USH2 0602 Intimidation at the Polls

In the South, paramilitary groups such as the Redshirts and the White League used intimidation at polling places to keep Black men and Republicans from voting. Violence at the polls was part of how the Redeemers of unit one took and held power. Elections in these years were not only close but coerced.

The system that ran federal jobs.

USH2 0603 The Spoils System

Under the spoils system, government offices were handed out as rewards for electoral help, a practice Andrew Jackson introduced to the federal government, removing about nine hundred officeholders in eighteen twenty-nine, a tenth of all federal appointments, more than four hundred of them in the Post Office. Every new administration meant a new round of office seekers.

Why patronage mattered so much in these years.

USH2 0604 Presidents Under Half

Every president elected from eighteen seventy-six to eighteen ninety-two won with less than half of the popular vote, and weak executives owed favours to the party machinery that elected them. The anchor calls it a repetitive cycle: presidents repaid their debts with patronage, the one power they held in abundance.

Three entries on the quarrel over patronage, the gunshot that settled it, and the reform that followed.

The two factions that fought over patronage.

USH2 0605 Stalwarts and Half-Breeds

The Republican Party split into two factions: Stalwarts, led by Roscoe Conkling of New York, who defended the spoils system, and Half-Breeds, led by James G. Blaine of Maine, who favoured modest civil service reform. The two are often run together because both were Republican. The issue that divided them was patronage.

The gunshot.

USH2 0606 Garfield's Assassination

On July second, eighteen eighty-one, Charles Guiteau shot President James Garfield after being denied a diplomatic post he believed he deserved, reportedly declaring that he was a Stalwart of Stalwarts. Garfield died two months later, and Guiteau was hanged in eighteen eighty-two. Digital History says the killing produced a public outcry for reform.

The reform that followed.

USH2 0607 From Assassination to Reform

Garfield's successor, Chester Arthur, had risen through the spoils system himself, yet on January sixteenth, eighteen eighty-three, he signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act. It created a Civil Service Commission and required that certain federal jobs be filled through open, competitive examinations, awarded on merit. Digital History says only about ten percent of the government's one hundred thirty-two thousand civilian jobs were covered at first. Future presidents were barred from shrinking the list, so it could only grow. A man killed a president over a patronage job, and a president shaped by patronage signed the law that began to end it. Small at the start, and permanent in design.

Two entries on the tariff, the other great issue of the era, and on whom it protected.

The tariff question.

USH2 0608 The Tariff Question

Arthur created the United States Tariff Commission in eighteen eighty-two to study whether the high protective tariffs were still needed, and it recommended a twenty-five percent cut in most rates. Congress passed the Mongrel Tariff of eighteen eighty-three, which lowered rates by barely five percent. Tariffs protected manufacturers and raised farmers' costs.

The tariff that went the other way.

USH2 0609 The McKinley Tariff

Under President Benjamin Harrison, the McKinley Tariff raised some import duties by as much as fifty percent, and the anchor calls it the highest tariff in American history to that date. Protection for industry meant higher prices for consumers. Farmers paid more for what they bought, with no protection for what they sold.

Three entries on the first federal attempts to regulate the railroads and the trusts, and on what limited them.

The first federal attempt to regulate the railroads.

USH2 0610 The Interstate Commerce Act

The Interstate Commerce Act, approved February fourth, eighteen eighty-seven, created the Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee the railroad industry, requiring every railroad charge to be reasonable and outlawing unjust ones. Large shippers such as Standard Oil had won secret rebates while small farmers paid full rates, and the commission was meant to end that.

What the Supreme Court did to it.

USH2 0611 The Court and the Railroads

In the Wabash case of eighteen eighty-six, the Supreme Court struck down an Illinois law regulating railroad rates, holding that only Congress could regulate interstate commerce, and state regulation fell one law after another. In eighteen ninety-seven the Court's decision in Interstate Commerce Commission versus Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway undercut the commission itself.

The law against the trusts.

USH2 0612 The Sherman Anti-Trust Act

President Benjamin Harrison signed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act on July second, eighteen ninety, the first federal law against monopolistic business practices, declaring illegal any combination in the form of trust or otherwise in restraint of trade. The National Archives notes it was loosely worded and failed to define trust or monopoly. It was seldom enforced in its first decade.

Three entries on the fight over the money supply, and on two laws that share one name.

The fight over the money supply.

USH2 0613 Gold, Silver and the Crime of 1873

In eighteen seventy-three Congress made no provision for continuing the silver dollar, leaving gold as the single standard of value, and farmers called it the crime of eighteen seventy-three. Less money in circulation meant falling prices for crops and heavier real burdens for debtors. Farmers wanted silver coined again to expand the money supply.

The law that tried to answer them.

USH2 0614 The Sherman Silver Purchase Act

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of eighteen ninety required the Treasury to purchase four and a half million ounces of silver every month, paid for in Treasury notes redeemable in gold. The act did little for debtors. Investors turned the notes into gold, draining the gold reserve, and President Cleveland had it repealed in eighteen ninety-three.

Why two laws with one name are easy to confuse.

USH2 0615 Two Sherman Acts

Congress passed two laws named for Senator John Sherman in eighteen ninety, and they are different laws with different logic. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act attacked monopolies, outlawing combinations in restraint of trade. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act addressed the money supply, requiring the Treasury to buy four and a half million ounces of silver a month. One answered the trusts; the other answered the farmers' demand for more money. The trap is assuming one Sherman law did both. Ask what each targeted: business combinations, or the currency. The anti-trust act survived and was strengthened later; the silver act was repealed within three years.

Look at what you can now do. You can explain why the presidents of this era were weak. Every one elected from eighteen seventy-six to eighteen ninety-two won with less than half the vote, and repaid the party with patronage. You can explain how a gunshot became a reform. Guiteau killed Garfield over a job, and Arthur signed the Pendleton Act: merit examinations for about a tenth of federal jobs at first, on a list that could only grow. You can explain how the tariffs protected manufacturers and raised farmers' costs, from the Mongrel Tariff's five percent cut to the McKinley Tariff's rises of up to fifty percent. You can describe the first federal regulation, the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and what limited it: the Court, loose wording, and little enforcement. And you can distinguish the two Sherman Acts: one against business combinations, one about the currency.