Political Change in America: 1870s-1900

 Rapid Expansion of the Government Administration

1. 1. growth of government: public utilities, transportation, protection services
      1. taxes to pay for these services including city-improvement such as parks and schools
      2. political machines and political bosses ran local political campaigns through kickbacks, bribes (called ‘boodle’) in return for support in working-class neighborhoods
      3. offices filled by the spoils system, giving jobs to loyal party supporters in the winning party
   2. bureaucracy increases and federal government redefines itself
      1. In response to the spoils system and corruption (following Grant and the Credit Mobilier scandal), reformers step up efforts to reform government
      2. Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act (1883): created civil service system and professional bureaucracy based on merit and not merely party loyalty.
         1. Though the legislation had been around earlier, it was not enacted until after a disappointed office-seeker assassinated President James Garfield in 1881, whereupon VP Chester Arthur stepped in and, despite fears of corruption, helped pass the Pendleton Act
         2. Allowed President to create, with Senate approval, a 3-person commission to draw up guidelines for executive and legislative appointments
         3. Established a system of standards for various federal jobs and instituted “open, competitive examinations for testing the fitness of applicants for public service.”
         4. Also barred political candidates from soliciting campaign contributions from government workers
      3. Circuit Court of Appeals Act (1891): Congress granted the US Supreme Court the right to review any case–state or federal–at will. Idea was to define the parameters of government and legal compliance to constitutional interpretation.
      4. Professionalism and standardized legal requirements emerge in other fields also: American Medical Association, American Historical Association, American Bar Association (1878); accreditation for colleges and universities through degree programs was also created –Before this, few legal restrictions existed for these professions, wherein anyone with enough knowledge on a subject (or simply the desire to do so) could set up practice to try cases, defend accused criminals, treat patients and perform surgeries, or teach/grant degrees with wildly varying standards –With the advent of professional associations and government accreditation, safety and quality improved throughout the skilled professions and American society
      5. Laissez-faire politics: people did not expect the government to intervene in economic or social affairs, personal responsibility for success or failure was preferred to oversight by authorities
      6. Southern Alliance and Northwestern Alliance (rural farmers):precursors of the Populist Party (1892), called for tariff reduction, a graduated income tax, public ownership of the railroads, the secret ballot, and “free and unlimited coinage of silver”
      7. Grover Cleveland (D) elected in 1885, called for tariff cuts and rejected fraudulent Civil War pensions but was replaced by Benjamin Harrison(R) in 1889 who quickly raised the tariff and passed a generous pension bill for veterans
   3. Monetary Reform and Controversy
      1. Most people felt the only truly trustworthy money was precious metals, Congress stopped minting silver coins in 1873 (due to rising costs) just before new discoveries of silver mines in the West
      2. Business and creditors wanted to limit money supply so they were happy, whereas farmers and rural miners who needed funds were very unhappy
         1. agitated for expansion of paper money then demanded silver be purchased and minted to maintain farm prices and help pay off debts throughout the 1880s
      3. little change and much debate until 1892, 2nd election of Grover Cleveland (D)–only President in US history to have two separate presidential terms–who ran on Gold Standard platform, lost much rural support and compounded by Panic of 1893 (worst economic depression in American history at this point)
         1. issue of currency backed by gold versus soft money backed by silver
         2. Cleveland leaves office and William McKinley (R) comes in 1896, McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan (a silverite) by promoting big business and expansionist policies (wins 51% vs 47% for Bryan)
            1. huge voter turnout, 79% of eligible voters participated which marked the largest involvement of the public in politics since the 1860s,
            2. Republican party dominates for first time since the Civil War, in Presidency and Congress
               1. Democrats become minority party until Woodrow Wilson elected in 1912
               2. Populist party loses popularity until revived by William Jennings Bryan in 1910s
               3. Beginnings of Socialist party–led by Eugene V. Debs (ran for President four times
            3. McKinley and government adopt Gold Standard, push tariff rates to all-time high and the depression ends as the economy stabilizes

 New Prosperity after 1898

…due to economic recovery and movement further into global markets. McKinley reelected in 1900. Negative social issues arise during the 1890s and early 1900-1910s as a backlash to the period

1. 1. resurgence of nativism and xenophobia
      1. openly rejected immigrants or dark-skinned persons as inferior,
      2. high period of political disfranchisement for blacks
      3. increase in lynching incidents and the emergence of “Spectacle Lynching”–advertise and promote lynching, eventually brings demise because NAACP sends reporter to records the events and prints across the country, outrage erupts and Congress passes anti-lynching legislation
      4. There were earlier attempts to prevent lynching, led mainly by female reformers: Ida B. Wells and Jessie Ames (Southern Women’s Society for the Prevention of Lynching) but it took federal intervention to truly discourage the practice.
   2. de jure segregation throughout the South and much elsewhere
      1. spawns Great Migration–largest number of blacks move out of South and to the north and west, many encounter de facto segregation but less personal violence overall