Politics in the Age of Enterprise

1. Politics in the Age of Enterprise 1877 - 1896

2. Five Presidents—Sort of • Rutherford B. Hayes (R) • James A. Garfield (R) • Chester A. Arthur (R) • Grover Cleveland (D) • Benjamin Harrison (R) • Grover Cleveland (D) elected again in 1892

3. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents

4. President’s “Real” Job • Most demanding job at the time was dispensing patronage • Giving government jobs to political supporters regardless of merit • Spoils System • Following Garfield’s assassination in 1881, focus shifted to civil service reforms

5. Civil Service Reform • Pendleton Act of 1883 • Created list of jobs to be filled on basis of Examination. • Exams administered by new Civil Service Commission • Today’s OPM • Teddy Roosevelt served on Civil Service Board • Still a lot of patronage jobs around, however.

6. ExecutiveBranch’s Biggest Task • Delivering the mail! • In 1880, ~50% of federal employees worked for the Post Office. • The American Past: A Survey of American History by Joseph R. Conlin[http://books.google.com/books?id=8DWWbr9tCt0C&pg=PA418&lpg=PA418&dq=number+of+post+office+employees+in+1880&source=bl&ots=ZB2Dysfu1a&sig=YJXp3MuqryKxS2fQXPAFNZb52LA&hl=en&ei=o11lTaW5I8bLgQf1g-WjBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q&f=false]

7. Fiscal problems • How to get rid of the surplus federal funding created by customs duties and excise taxes. • Means that government expenses were less than revenues coming in • TARIFF remained a big issue in Congress • Republicans accused of protectionism • Tariff bills were a patchwork of bargains for special interests

8. Congress • Actually had more control over national policy than the White House • Congress functioned poorly, though • Caught up in procedural rules • Members were often unruly and resistant to party control

9. Political Parties • Neither party had a strong agenda • Party differences were unclear • Most divisions were actually within the parties rather than between them. • Republicans moved away from Civil Rights for freedmen and left the African-Americans on their own

10. Presidential Elections • From 1876-1892 • Won with slim margin • Neither party gained permanent command of Congress • Issues were more comedic than substantive • Cleveland accused of having an illegitimate child • Blaine may have lost because of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion” comment by a Republican supporter.

11. Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? … Gone to the White House, HA, HA, HA. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Ma_ma_wheres_my_pa.jpg

12. Blaine’s Faux Pas • Final week of the campaign and Blaine attends a Republican campaign meeting • Rev. Dr. Samuel Burchard says: “We are Republicans, and don't propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been rum, Romanism, and rebellion.” • An anti-Mugwumps statement • Blaine doesn’t disavow himself from the sentiment. • Cost him New York state and the election

13. Why bother?...to be interested in politics? • Passivity of federal government • Political parties were involved in politics for its own sake • Many people believed that little was at stake in public affairs.

14. Ideology of Individualism • 1880’s economic doctrine of laissez-faire • The less the government did, the better off everyone was regarding • Interference with business operations • Welfare of citizens

15. Social Darwinism • William Graham Sumner wrote What Social Classes owe to Each Other in 1883 • “A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be…The law of survival of the fittest was not made by man, and it cannot be abrogated by man.”* • All the government owed its people was law, order, and basic political rights. * See Boyers, Enduring Vision, page 571.

16. Social Darwinism, cont. • Herbert Spencer’s theory of Social Darwinism created elaborate analysis • Based on Darwin’s Origin of the Species and the process of natural selection • showed that human society evolved through competition and “survival of the fittest” • Millionaires were, of course, the most fit • Any government interference was destructive to “natural” social processes • Supported by Andrew Carnegie

17. Supreme Court is Strong • Starting in 1870s, courts increased power as guardians of rights of private property against the long-arm of government, especially state governments. • Used the 14th Amendment to limit states in their use of police powers in regulating private business

18. Supreme Court is Strong, 2 • Tied the federal government’s hands with two decisions in 1895 • United States v. E.C. Knight • Regulating interstate commerce did NOT include manufacturing (sugar refining) • Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust • Income Tax Act of 1894 was unconstitutional • Kept a watchful eye on federal efforts to regulate the railroads to assure the rights of property.

19. Politics • Northern Democrats tended to be foreign-born and Catholic • Republicans tended to be native-born and Protestant • Hot-button ethno-cultural issues also tied to party affiliation • Education • Liquor • Observance of Sunday Sabbath

20. Organizational Politics • Both parties were well-organized structures • Run by unofficial internal organizations aka “political machines” • Insiders willing to do party work in exchange for public jobs or connections • Based on power brokerage

21. Party Factionalism • Republicans • Stalwarts: Opposed efforts at Civil Service Reform • Roscoe Conkling of New York • Wanted a third term for Pres. Grant • Half-breeds: Derogatory term coined by Stalwarts • Moderates opposing Stalwarts • Supported reform • Senator James Blaine

22. Party Factionalism, cont. • Republicans • Mugwumps: term referring to pompous or self-important people • Disgruntled Republicans who supported Democratic candidate Cleveland • Accused Blaine of financial corruption • Good at defining terms of political debate • Denied the machine politics system legitimacy • Added an elitist bias to political opinion • Reformers on behalf of limited government

23. Initiatives in Northern States • Literacy tests which limited voting rights of immigrants • Adoption of secret ballot in early 1890s • Freed voters from the scrutiny of party politics at the polls

24. What about the women? • Politics was “no place for women”. • Women's’ Suffrage met stiff opposition • 1890: National American Woman Suffrage Association • Concentrated on state campaigns rather than focus on constitutional amendment • Separate Spheres • Women had different nature than men

25. What about the women?, 2 • Women’s social goals • Ending prostitution, assisting the poor, prison reform, improved educational opportunities for women • Required state intervention • Women became politically active and tried to create their own political sphere • Woman’s Christian Temperance Union • Formed in 1874 to combat alcoholism • “Do Everything” policy with Frances Willard • Linked social concerns to political participation

26. What about African-Americans? • After Reconstruction ended, South was “redeemed” and African-Americans lost their newly gained political influence. • Sought political power through farmers’ alliances and Populist Party • Colored Farmers’ Alliance • Populist Party made inter-racial appeals in the South

27. One Party Rule in South • Conservative Democrats and the “white man’s party” denounced Populists for supporting Freedmen • Defeated Populists in 1892 elections by voting fraud (miscounting votes) • Goal to disenfranchise Black voters • Mississippi adopted literacy test • Property and poll taxes (which also impacted poor whites)

28. Political White Supremacy • Based on racial prejudices • Tom Watson of Georgia used race-baiting • “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman of South Carolina used imagery of white manhood • Jim Crow Laws: • Legalized segregation of the races • Soon applied to every type of public facility

29. Supreme Court Cases • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • Upheld constitutionality of “separate but equal” segregation of facilities • Williams v. Mississippi (1898) • Validated disenfranchising devices of southern states as long as race was not a specified criterion for disfranchisement. • Blacks no longer participated in politics in the South; symbolic effect of not being citizens

30. It’s all about the economy… • Early 1890s, lots of farm foreclosures and railroad bankruptcies • You don’t need a crystal ball to tell that economic trouble is ahead • May 3, 1893 = stock market crash causing unemployment rate to soar above 20% • So, what’s a farmer to do?

31. Start the Granger Movement • Formed organization to help with farmers’ social isolation and need for financial services • Farmers also formed many alliances such as Farmers’ Alliance of the Northwest, the National Farmers’ Alliance, the Texas Alliance • The alliances began to form/sponsor their own political slates giving rise to the national People’s Party, aka Populist Party in 1892

32. The Populist Party • 1892Presidential Election ran James B. Weaver • Won enough votes to show an agrarian protest could threaten the two major parties • Welcomed women but silent on women's’ suffrage • Positive attitude toward government • Ideology recognized conflict between capital and labor.

33. The Populist Party, 2 • Founded in Omaha in 1892 • Called for: • nationalization of railroads and communications; • protection of the land and natural resources from monopoly and foreign ownership • graduated income tax • subtreasury plan • free and unlimited coinage of silver

34. Subtreasury Plan • Introduced by Texas Alliance • 1889 plan • Farmers could store their crops for free in government facilities when prices low and obtain govt loans for 80% of value of the crops’ market value • Well-suited to cotton which didn’t rot while in storage • Never passed Congress

35. Silverites vs. Goldbugs • Silver was demonetized in 1873 • Gold owners could deposit their gold at a U.S. Mint and receive gold coins in exchange. • Silver owners wanted to do the same • Would increase money supply • Supported by miners and governors of states with silver mines • Generally opposed by Republicans

36. Sherman Silver Purchase Act • 1890 • Required government to buy millions of ounces of silver for money • Silver sometimes referred to as the people’s money in contrast with gold • Backfired • Silver prices dropped • Most people redeemed silver for gold • Govt never really bought as much as could have • 1893 crash divided politics on party lines

37. Election of 1896 • Democrats blamed for economic crisis as party in power • Cleveland criticized • for his handling of Coxey’s army of jobless demonstrators • Brutality in putting down Pullman strike • Didn’t reform tariffs by allowing Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894 • Abandoned silver-based currency and had Congress repeal Sherman Silver Purchase Act

38. Dems abandon Cleveland • Especially after secret negotiations with Wall Street for gold purchases to replenish the Treasury • 1896, Dems go with William Jennings Bryan for President • At convention delivers “Cross of Gold” speech making Dems the party of free silver • Populists accept Bryan, too, and get absorbed into Democratic campaign

39. Best laid plans… • …Republicans win (William McKinley) who supported the gold standard • Effectively convinced many urban Democratic voters that the Republicans were sympathetic to ethnic diversity • Election of 1896 sets the stage for reform politics of the Progressive Era.

40. What are ethno-cultural politics? • Cultural values of ethnic and social groups that shaped their voting behavior • “Blue Laws” which banned liquor sales angered German-Americans and Irish-Americans who voted for candidates based on religious and other cultural factors.

41. So what happened to Cleveland’s second term as Prez? • Downturn of economy in 1893 • Social Darwinist approach to Coxey’s Army • Jobless markers who arrived in DC in 1894 demanding jobs • Leader arrested and others driven off • Use of force in ending Pullman Strike thus alienating working-class Dems

42. So what happened to Cleveland’s second term as Prez?, 2 • Caved to special business interested with protectionist McKinley Tariff of 1890 • Highest protective tariff in US to date • In exchange for cooperation on Sherman Silver Purchase Act (SSPA) • Pushed for repeal of SSPA • Used capital from private syndicate (JP Morgan) to purchase gold to replace silver as basis of US monetary system

43. Election of 1896 one of most decisive elections in US history • Shaped future of American politics • Hard-fought election over financial issues • Republicans represented big business issues of high tariffs, sound money, and prosperity • VS the more populist and moralistic Democrat, William Jennings Bryan • Republicans become the majority party • Electoral politics forever became an arena for national debate over economic and moral issues

44. Why was silver a national issue? • Farmers supported silver coinage • Inflation would lower farmers’ debts • Political issue because silver-state politicians joined Populists in promoting its use • Frightened “sound money” proponents who saw crazed agrarians/populists supporting bimetallic standard which might undermine gold and strong dollar

45. More on silver as national issue • Business cycle fluctuations strengthened pro-silver supporters • Bryan caught public’s attention with his “Cross of Gold” speech and silver becoming pivotal issue of 1896 campaign. • “If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. “ http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/

46. 1896 American cartoon by Grant Hamilton, 1896, on William Jennings Bryan's 'Cross of Gold' speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which won Bryan the presidential nomination. Cartoon by Grant Hamilton, printed in "Judge" Magazine, 1896. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cross_of_gold_speech_cartoon.jpg

47. What happened to agrarian radicalism after 1896 election? • Bryan and silver Dems lost decisively • Agricultural prices moved upward • Farmers enter “golden age” that lasts through WWI • Large gold finds had inflationary effects hoped for in silver • Farming’s overall importance to economy was declining as more workers went to manufacturing, etc.