The American JourneyA History of the United States, 7th Edition

By: Goldfield • Abbott • Anderson • Argersinger • Argersinger • Barney • Weir

Chapter

•Politics and

Government

•1877-1900

20

Politics and Government

1877-1900

The Structure and Style of Politics

The Limits of Government

Public Policies and National Elections

The Crisis of the 1890s

Conclusion

Learning Objectives

How did parties shape late nineteenth-century politics?

What explains the weakness and inefficiency of late

nineteenth-century government?

How effective was government in addressing the problems

of America’s industrializing economy?

Learning Objectives (cont'd)

What factors contributed to the rise and fall of the Populist

Party?

The Structure and Style of Politics

Campaigns and Elections

The public enthusiastically participated in political

campaigns and elections.

Campaign pageantry enthralled large and small

communities.

Virtually all men participated in politics including immigrants

and African Americans.

Campaigns and Elections (cont'd)

Political parties mobilized the huge electorate through

detailed records, ensuring registrations, and transporting

voters to the polls.

The election process was open and partisan but not

necessarily corrupt.

FIGURE 20–1 Voter Turnout in Presidential

Elections, 1876–1924

Partisan Politics

Democrats and Republicans enjoyed an almost even

balance of support which made them work hard to get out

the vote.

Party affiliation was determined by a mix of regional, ethnic,

religious, and local factors. Republicans were strongest in

the North and Midwest, Democrats in the South and

urban Northeast.

Partisan Politics (cont’d)

Republicans were identified with nationalism and national

unity, while Democrats favored limited government and

personal liberties.

There was little room for third parties that typically focused

on specific issues or groups.

Partisan Politics (cont’d)

Prohibition Party

A venerable third party still in existence that has persistently campaigned

for the abolition of alcohol but has also introduced many important

reform ideas into American politics.

Greenback Party

A third party of the 1870s and 1880s that garnered temporary support by

advocating currency inflation to expand the economy and assist

debtors.

Partisan Politics (cont’d)

Populist Party

A major third party of the 1890s, also known as the People’s Party.

Formed on the basis of the Southern Farmers’ Alliance and other

reform organizations, it mounted electoral challenges against the

Democrats in the South and the Republicans in the West.

MAP 20–1 The Two-Party Stalemate of the Late

Nineteenth Century

Associational Politics

Associations of people with similar opinions operated

outside the electoral arena but played significant roles on

politics.

The Grange, for example, campaigned for Granger laws to

help farmers but remained nonpartisan. The Mugwumps

lobbied for civil service reform.

Associational Politics (cont’d)

Women were active in politics, especially through the

National American Woman Suffrage Association founded

in 1890 and social service organizations.

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union gained a

massive following.

Associational Politics (cont’d)

Granger laws

State laws enacted in the Midwest in the 1870s that regulated rates

charged by railroads, grain elevator operators, and other middlemen.

Mugwumps

Elitist and conservative reformers who favored sound money and limited

government and opposed tariffs and the spoils system.

Associational Politics (cont’d)

National American Woman Suffrage Association

The organization, formed in 1890, that coordinated the ultimately

successful campaign to achieve women’s right to vote.

The Limits of Government

The Limits of Government

With a Congress and presidency divided between the two

major parties, a small and inefficient bureaucracy, judicial

restraints, and a resurgent belief in localism and laissez-

faire policies, the size and objectives of the federal

government were limited.

The Limits of Government (cont’d)

Laissez-faire

The doctrine that government should not intervene in the economy,

especially through regulation.

The Weak Presidency (cont’d)

The impeachment of President Johnson weakened the

presidency. Presidents viewed their duties as

administrative.

The Inefficient Congress

Congress was the most powerful branch of the national

government. Early in the period, Congress was inefficient

but as more national legislation was required, it reformed

its procedures and structure.

FIGURE 20–2 Increase in Congressional

Business, 1871-1901

The Federal Bureaucracy and

the Spoils System

The federal bureaucracy remained small and was criticized

as being corrupt and inefficient.

Inconsistent State Government

State governments were more active than the federal

government.

Public Policies and

National Elections

Civil Service Reform

Reform of the spoils system gained momentum during the

Hayes administration.

Reformers wanted a professional civil service based on

merit that was divorced from politics.

Civil Service Reform (cont'd)

The assassination of President James Garfield by a

disappointed office seeker prompted the passage of the

Pendleton Civil Service Act that emphasized merit and

skill in government appointments.

Civil Service Reform (cont'd)

Pendleton Civil Service Act

A law of 1883 that reformed the spoils system by prohibiting government

workers from making political contributions and creating the Civil

Service Commission to oversee their appointment on the basis of

merit rather than politics.

The Political Life of the Tariff

The tariff issue was hotly debated in the late 1800s. It was

linked to partisan, ideological, and regional concerns.

The Republican Party was committed to industry and

championed protective tariffs.

Democrats espoused a laissez-faire approach and favored

tariff reduction.

The Political Life of the Tariff (cont'd)

The political disagreement was over how much the tariff

should be and whom should be protected.

Arguments in the Tariff Debates

The Beginnings of Federal Regulation

Popular pressure began to propel Congress to take the first

steps toward regulating business, starting with railroads

and proceeding to interstate commerce and corporate

monopolies.

The Beginnings of Federal Regulation(cont'd)

Interstate Commerce Act

The 1887 law that expanded federal power over business by prohibiting

pooling and discriminatory rates by railroads and establishing the first

federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

The first federal regulatory agency, established in 1887 to oversee

railroad practices.

The Beginnings of Federal Regulation(cont'd)

Sherman Antitrust Act

The first federal antitrust measure, passed in 1890; sought to promote

economic competition by prohibiting business combinations in

restraint of trade or commerce.

The Money Question

Monetary policy was the most divisive political issue of the

late 19th century.

The Money Question (cont’d)

Creditors, bankers, conservative economists, and many

business leaders supported a sound money policy to

ensure economic stability, maintain property values, and

retain investor confidence. Farmers and other debtors

wanted to expand the money supply to match the nation’s

growing population and economy.

The Money Question (cont’d)

The conflict on money focused on the use of paper currency

and silver coinage. Silver became the prominent issue in

the 1880s and divided Southerners and Westerners

against Eastern conservatives.

Sound money

Misleading slogan that referred to a conservative policy of restricting the

money supply and adhering to the gold standard.

The Money Question (cont’d)

Free silver

Philosophy that the government should expand the money supply by

purchasing and coining all the silver offered to it.

The Crisis of the 1890s

Farmers Protest Inequities

The agricultural depression of the late 1880s politically

mobilized farmers.

Farmers protested that the system of money and credit

worked against agriculture. Monetary deflation worsened

the debt burden of farmers.

High railroad rates and protective tariffs also were targets of

farmer reforms.

Farmers Protest Inequities (cont'd)

Farmers organized the Farmers’ Alliance in the South and

the West. The Alliance tried to establish cooperatives and

developed new ideas to solve rural credit and currency

problems.

Farmers Protest Inequities (cont'd)

Farmers’ Alliance

Abroad mass movement in the rural South and West during the late

nineteenth century, encompassing several organizations and

demanding economic and political reforms; helped create the Populist

Party.

The People’s Party

In 1890, state-level third parties ran populist campaigns and

gained control of two state legislatures and won several

congressional elections.

The Populists were organized in 1892 and ran on the

Omaha Platform.

The People’s Party (cont'd)

Though meeting disappointments, the Populists received

over one million votes, carried several western states,

and won hundreds of state office throughout the West and

some areas of the South.

Omaha Platform

The 1892 platform of the Populist Party repudiating laissez-faire and

demanding economic and political reforms to aid distressed farmers

and workers.

The Challenge of the Depression

A long, harsh depression began in 1893 that led to labor

unrest and violence.

The major political parties did not respond to the crisis and

President Cleveland refused to listen to appeals for

reforms.

The Challenge of the Depression (cont’d)

The unemployed rallied around Jacob Coxey’s call for a

march on Washington. While many Americans were

sympathetic to the plight of the unemployed, the

government suppressed Coxey’s Army.

The Challenge of the Depression (cont’d)

The federal government protected big business from labor

unrest through court decisions and legislation.

Coxey’s Army

A protest march of unemployed workers, led by Populist businessman

Jacob Coxey, demanding inflation and a public works program during

the depression of the 1890s.

The Battle of the Standards and the Election of 1896

Unpopular actions and the continuing depression alienated

workers and farmers from the Cleveland administration

and the Democratic Party. Silver was the major issue in

the 1896 election.

McKinley won the Republican nomination on a platform that

supported high tariffs and the gold standard.

The Battle of the Standards and the Election of 1896

(cont'd)

The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan on a

silver platform, undercutting the People’s Party who also

nominated Bryan.

The campaign was intense and dramatic. But Bryan but he

lost the election decisively to McKinley.

MAP 20–2 The Election of 1896

Conclusion

Conclusion

Politics and government often seemed at cross purposes in

the late 1800s.

The localism, laissez-faire, and other traditional political and

governmental principles were becoming increasingly

inappropriate for America’s industrializing society.

Conclusion (cont'd)

By the end of the 1890s, the Republicans had emerged as

the dominant party, a new activist presidency was

emerging, and the stage was set for the Progressive Era

of reform.