1. William Tweed and Tammany Hall
• Tammany Society, 1789
– Political organization that became
center of Democratic Republican
party of city in 1830’s
– Its power grew with arrival of
immigrants in 1840’s, especially
Irish
– NYC divided into wards since
1680’s
– “Boss” maintained control of of
organization + through ward
captains offered aid to immigrants
+ working class in return for
political support
– William Tweed best known boss,
1850’s-’72
– Tammany Hall now synonymous
with graft, corruption, + greed

2. William Tweed and Tammany Hall
• Tweed greatly increased
power of Tammany Hall
• NY County Courthouse a
crowning achievement:
“the house that Tweed
built”
– Designed to cost $250,000
– Overruns ran to $13 m.
• $5.5 m. for furniture +
carpets
• $1.5 m. for plumbing fixtures
• $500,000 for plaster, + $1 m.
to repair it
• Left unfinished on Tweed’s
fall

3. William Tweed and Tammany Hall
• These were spoils; government contracts given to
loyal supporters who oiled machine
• Bosses came to power throughout nation by
skillful political organization + loyal support of
lower class workers, especially immigrants
– While often corrupt, machines took care of
immigrants when no one else would
• Found jobs for new arrivals
• Donated $, food, + clothing in times of crisis, free coal in
winter
• Contributed to orphanages, hospitals, . . . .
– Bosses got wealthy, but they also provided
considerable services

4. William Tweed and Tammany Hall
• City bosses corrupt by our standards, but their
role may be overemphasized
• Others played roles in city politics, + machines
accomplished some great things:
– Under Tweed: Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park,
MMA, 660 mi. water lines, 450 mi. sewer pipes,
1800 mi. paved streets
– Boston had largest public library in world
• Corruption vs. “honest graft”

5. The Washington Scene
• 5 presidents 1877-1893:
– Rutherford B. Hayes (R) 1876-1880
– James Garfield (R) 1880
– Chester Arthur (R) 1880-1884
– Grover Cleveland (D) 1884-1888
– Benjamin Harrison (R) 1888-1892
• None enjoyed noteworthy presidencies
• Few major issues + fewer opportunities for
success

6. The Washington Scene
• Political system of late 19C a paradox
– Both parties stronger + more stable than they ever
would be again
– Yet federal government, over which both fought
for control, doing very little of importance
– Most Americans of period engaged in political
activity not because of issues, but because of
regional, ethnic, or religious sentiments

7. The Washington Scene
• The Party System
– Electorate almost evenly divided 1877-1893, loyalties
rarely changing
– 16 states consistently Republican, 14 consistently
Democratic (mostly Southern)
– Only 5 usually in doubt, their voters effectively
deciding national elections
– Republican Party won presidency in all but 2 elections,
but party not especially dominant
• Average popular margin separating candidates 1.5%
• Congressional balance similarly stable, Republicans usually
controlling Senate, Democrats House

8. The Washington Scene
• Intensity of party loyalty as striking as balance
– Party affiliations passionate to degree hard for
later generations to understand
– Voter turnout near 80% in period, higher than any
point since
• Even in nonpresidential years, 60-80% turned out for
Congressional + state elections
– But loyalty not based on distinct party positions
on actual issues – a reflection of cultural
inclinations rather than calculated economic
interest
• Loyalty based largely on region, ethnicity, + religion

9. The Washington Scene
• Region:
– White loyalty to Democratic Party in South a
matter of faith – vehicle by which they had
triumphed over Reconstruction + preserved white
supremacy
– Northerners both black + white equally loyal to
Republicans – party of Lincoln remained bulwark
against slavery + treason

10. The Washington Scene
• Religion + ethnicity
– Democratic Party attracted most Catholic voters,
immigrants, + lower class – overlapping groups
• Northern Democrats tended to be foreign-born + Catholic
– Republicans appealed to northern Protestants; old-
stock + middle class
• More pietistic one was, more likely to be Republican + favor
use of government power to uphold moral values + regulate
personal behavior
– Matters concerning immigrants among few
substantive differences between parties
• Republicans usually supported immigration restriction +
temperance legislation
• Catholics + most immigrants read this as assault against
them + their cultures

11. The Washington Scene
• Religion + ethnicity, con’t.
– Education became key issue in ‘80’s
• Immigrants wanted native languages, Republicans
increasingly sought their exclusion
• Catholics fought for public support of parochial schools
– A losing battle; prohibited by 23 states in 1900
– Yet use of Anti-Catholic history text in Boston public schools drew
outrage + was removed
» Protestants incensed – elected new school board +
reinstated it
– Public Morality
• “Blue laws” – no baseball on Sunday! Major cultural
differences between Catholic + Protestant
• Evangelical Protestants long sought temperance legislation
– Indiana law
• Impact of Democrats identified as party of “Rum, Romanism,
and Rebellion”

12. The Washington Scene
• 2 parties avoided substantive issues partly
because government did very little
• Laissez-faire reigned – that government best
that governed least
• Federal government responsible for mail,
military, + tax + tariff collection
– Few other responsibilities, + few institutions
through which to undertake anything else

13. The Washington Scene
• Fact is US of late 19C a society lacking modern
national government
– Most powerful institutions were 2 political parties
(+ political bosses + machines that ran them) +
federal courts
• County, state, + national committees ran party business
• Conventions determined rules, platforms, + candidates
• Highly democratic in appearance, but run by unofficial
internal organization – insiders who undertook party
business in return for gov. contracts + connections

14. The Washington Scene
• Courts
– Public suspicious of government, making actual
political initiative largely impossible
– Power shifted from executive + legislative branches to
courts
– Courts increasingly guardians of rights of property
against grasping government regulation
– States responsible for social welfare + economic
regulation under residual powers clause
– Federal courts increasingly used 14th Amendment to
prevent states from using these powers to regulate
corporate activity
– Judicial supremacy possibly a reflection of low esteem
with which public held politicians of period

15. The Washington Scene
• Power of party bosses immense, seriously
interfering with presidential power
– Presidents of period blocked from doing much
more than distribute government appointments
– New president made 100,000 appointments,
mostly in Post Office
– Little real latitude – had to satisfy bosses +
factions of party or face serious opposition

16. The Washington Scene
• Rutherford B. Hayes
– Stuck between Stalwarts + Half-Breeds, competing
factions of Republican Party
• No real difference between them; rhetoric a means of
gaining larger share of patronage
• Stalwarts led by Roscoe Conkling of NY + favored traditional
machine politics
• Half-Breeds led by James Blaine of Maine + favored reform –
in theory
• Hayes tried to satisfy both; satisfied neither
• Battle over patronage doomed his one substantive initiative,
creation of a civil service system that neither supported
• Announced intention not to seek another term

17. The Washington Scene
• Infighting during Hayes’s administration nearly
lost Republicans presidency in 1880
– After long deadlock, factions agreed on Half-Breed
James Garfield + Stalwart Chester Arthur
– Garfield benefitted from end of recession in 1879 +
won; Republicans also won both houses of Congress
– Garfield began term defying Stawarts in appointments
+ in supporting civil service reform
– Public rhetoric ugly
– Garfield shot in July 1881 by Charles Guiteau,
deranged appointment seeker
– Arthur an open spoilsman + close ally of Conkling

18. The Washington Scene
• Arthur attempted independence, even
supporting reform
– Probably recognized that Garfield’s assassination
discredited spoils system in public mind
– Kept most of Garfield’s appointments in place
– Responsible for Pendleton Act, 1883
• 1st national civil service measure
• Required that some federal jobs be filled by
competitive exam over patronage
• Included few offices initially, but gradually extended
until most offices included by mid 20C

19. • Grover Cleveland
– James Blaine Republican candidate in 1884
• Symbol of politics’ dark side for many
– Faction of “liberal Republicans” bolted party,
supporting “honest Democrat”
• The Mugwumps
– Democrats responded with nomination of Grover
Cleveland
• Reform governor of NY; little real difference on issues
– Election largely decided by religious controversy
• “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion”

20. • Grover Cleveland, con’t.
– Opposed bosses, corruption, + pressure groups
– Willing to deny Congress’s demands
– Very much in keeping with public sentiment
• He did little, but Americans wanted little done
– Had always opposed tariff
• Believed it was responsible for annual surplus that fuelled Congress’s
“extravagant” legislation that he often vetoed
• Asked Congress to reduce tariff in 1887
– House approved reduction, Senate Republicans passed bill of their own
increasing it
– Goal was to make it a campaign issue in 1888
• 1888 election
– 1st post-Civil War campaign involving clear economic differences
between parties
– Harrison lost popular vote, but won electoral

21. • Benjamin Harrison
– Undistinguished; made little effort to influence
Congress
– But public opinion was forcing government
involvement in economic + social issues
– Sherman Antitrust Act, 1890
• While 15 states prohibited combinations restraining
competition, corps. got around them by incorporating
elsewhere – NJ
• Reformers believed only federal antitrust legislation could be
effective
• Passed with little dissent, but considered symbolic by most
• Little effect; used mostly against unions

22. • Benjamin Harrison, con’t.
– McKinley Tariff, 1890

23. Women’s Political Culture
• Male identity threatened in period + reasserted
in political sphere
• Woman suffrage movement made more difficult
as a result
• Differences dating back to Reconstruction put
aside
– National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1890
• Shifted focus from Constitutional amendment to state
campaigns
• Little success

25. Women’s Political Culture
• Separate Spheres
• Benevolent Empire
• Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union, 1874
– Francis Willard, 1879
• Suffragist, but moderate;
argued against approach of
Susan B. Anthony et. al.
• Conservative or brilliant?
• “Home Protection”
• Temperance, but what else?
• “Do Everything”
• Third party politics

26. Race and Politics in the New South
• Redeemers
• Segregation rampant but unofficial
• 1887: blacks formally excluded from 1st class
railway cars – important precedent
• Blacks’ political power declining
– gerrymandering
• Power of Democrats not a given
– Tensions between planter elite + small farmers
• Readjusters

27. Race and the New South
• Jim Crow
– Reassertion of white supremacy socially +
politically
– 1887 segregation of railway cars basis for further
state-sponsored segregation
• Ratified by Supreme Court in 1896: Plessey v. Ferguson
– 14th Amendment not violated so long as accommodations
were equal – “separate but equal”
– Also political disenfranchisement
• South passed laws to prevent blacks from voting
• Supreme Court ratified practice in 1896
– 15th Amendment not violated so long as race not a stated part
of restriction

31. Race and the New South
• Jim Crow, Con’t.
– Poll taxes
• As these effected poor whites as well, “grandfather
clauses” included – anyone whose father/grandfather
had been eligible to vote before 1867 could vote
without tax
• So obvious it was eventually struck down – in 1915
– Literacy + “understanding” tests
• More effective because less overtly racial
• 50% of Southern blacks illiterate; 12% whites
• Those not literate could take “understanding” tests
– Registrar read a passage of state constitution + evaluated
whether it was understood or not – broad discretion

32. Race and the New South
• Jim Crow laws supplemented by renewed
violence
– Lynching
• 1890’s average 180 per yr.

34. Without Sanctuary, James Allen

35. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• National politics in stalemate since Civil War
– An even balance between parties
• Equilibrium began to break down in late ‘80’s
– Benjamin Harrison’s 1888 election last close election
of era
– Tide turned away from Republicans
• Harrison’s presidency uninspired
• Democrats claimed McKinley Tariff of 1890 a sellout to
business interests
• Democrats took control of House in 1890, along with
governorships in several typically Republican states
– Cleveland regained presidency in 1892 by largest
margin in 20 yrs.

36. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Cleveland’s election could have signaled
period of Democratic dominance
• Economy collapsed as he was taking office
– Bankruptcy of railroads
– Foreclosure on farms
– Stock market crash 1893
– Unemployment over 20%
– Depression
– West + South especially hard-hit

37. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Populism
– Grangers had organized independent farmers in
1870’s
• Cooperatives
– Ultimately failed due to poor management
• State politics
– Number of state legislators elected
• Grangers laws
– Strict regulation of railroad rates
– Courts soon invalidated these gains
• Largely done by 1880, membership dropping as
agricultural prices rebounded

38. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Farmers Alliances
– Alliances began forming before Grange movement
faded
• Southern Alliance 4 m. strong by 1880
• equally powerful Northwestern Alliance grew up in
Plains + Midwest + built connections with Southern
counterpart
– Focused mostly on local problems, much as
Grange had
• Cooperative ventures designed to free members from
dependence on “furnishing merchants” that kept
farmers in perpetual debt
– Stores, banks, processing plants
– Often failed for same reason as Grangers’ cooperatives had

39. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Farmers Alliances, con’t.
– Some leaders saw movement in
larger term: to create a society
in which competition would
give way to cooperation
• “Lecturers” – some women –
travelled rural areas speaking out
against concentration of wealth +
power within corporate +
banking elite
• Didn’t support rigid
collectivism, but collective
responsibility + support allowing
farmers to resist oppressive
outside forces
– Notable for role of women
• Full voting members from
beginning in most local Alliances
• Advocated women’s suffrage, at
least in some areas

40. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• With increasing economic frustrations, Alliances began
organizing politically
• Southern + Northwestern Alliances agreed to loose merger in
1889
– A national convention in Ocala, Fl. produced a party platform
• Off-year elections of 1890 saw candidates supporting Alliances win full
control of 12 state legislatures, 6 governorships, 50 seats in House + 3 in
Senate
– Alliances encouraged enough to form their own party in 1892 – the
People’s Party or Populists
• Held convention in Omaha, nominated presidential + vice presidential
candidates, + adopted Omaha Platform
– An end to national banks
» Dangerous institutions of concentrated power
• Creation of “subtreasury” system for farm relief
– Government would build public warehouses where farmers could deposit crops
– Using crops as collateral, farmers could take out low interest loans + wait for prices to
recover before selling crops
• End to absentee ownership of land
• Direct election of senators (limiting power of conservative state legislatures)

41. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Populist presidential candidate
won over 1 m. votes + carried 6
states; 22 electoral votes
– 3 seats in Senate, 10 in Congress, 3
governors, 1500 state legislators
– A force that could not be ignored;
1st time a third party truly
challenged established 2 party
system
– Populist rhetoric more strident
• No middle ground between money
power + producers of wealth – labor
• Attempted to unite labor with
farmers
• Pulled labor movement left
– Gompers briefly lost control of AFL
• Similarities with social democratic
parties growing throughout Europe,
but Populists rejected Marxist
element + supported strong
government

42. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Populists advocated a strong state
– Called for nationalization of railroads +
communications
– Protection of land, including natural resources,
from corporate + foreign control
– Graduated income tax
– Unlimited coinage of silver – free silver
• Free silver became party’s defining issue, but
eventually divided farmers + industrial laborers +
ultimately caused movement’s decline

43. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Economy collapsed shortly after Cleveland’s
election
– Panic of 1893 triggered major worst depression
nation had experienced
– 2 major corporate bankruptcies triggered stock
market crash
– NY banks were heavily invested in market, leading
to wave of bank closures across nation
– Credit contraction led to further bankruptcies of
aggressive + loan-dependent businesses of period

44. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Longer range causes:
– Agricultural prices declining since 1887
• Weakened purchasing power of farmers – largest group in
population
– European economy had been declining previously, causing
loss of American markets abroad
• Also caused foreign investors to withdraw gold invested in US
• Effect devastating
– Within 8 months, 8,000 businesses, 156 railroads, + 400
banks failed
– Agricultural prices failed further
– Unemployment over 20%

46. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s

47. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Money and Politics
– Economic expansion requires money
• Volume of money has to increase quickly enough to meet
economy’s needs or expansion will be stifled
• But how fast should supply grow?
• Too slow, economy stifled; too fast, inflation + economic
hardship + potential collapse
– More money in circulation = inflated prices + reduced
cost of borrowing
• Producers benefit from higher prices, debtors (+ loan-
dependent businesses) benefit from lower “real cost” of
debt
• Creditors + most established businesspeople at clear
disadvantage

48. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Money and Politics, con’t.
– Today’s dollar largely based on confidence
– Before Civil War, economy’s needs met by state banks
• Stability always in question – ability of state banks to “redeem”
notes they issued varied
– US Banking Act of 1863 prohibited state banks from issuing
notes not backed by US bonds
– But Lincoln’s administration printed paper money –
greenbacks – to pay for war
• US Treasury effectively replaced state banks as source of easy
credit
• End of war raised questions about whether government should
continue to play that role
– “sound money” advocates said no – government had no business printing
money + should restrict national currency to amount of specie held by US
Treasury
– “Sound money” prevailed after 10 yrs. of controversy + circulation of
greenbacks ended
– State bank notes now in short supply + nation entered period of chronic
deflation

49. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Money and Politics, con’t.
– Specie was gold and silver
• Treasury fixed official ratio (“mint ratio”) of 16:1
– 16 oz. of silver equal in value to 1 oz. of gold
• Value of silver rose in 1870’s
– Commercial value (“market ratio”) greater than “mint ratio”
– People sold silver on open market, not to government
– Congress recognized reality + officially ended silver coinage
• Value fell to well below mint ratio later in ‘70’s
– Silver now easily available for coinage, but Congress had
discontinued it, blocking a means of expanding currency +
depriving silver miners of a consistent market
• Some saw conspiracy of big bankers + demanded “Crime of
’73” be undone
– Mine owners wanted government to buy silver above market
value
– Farmers wanted increased money supply – inflation of currency –
as a way of raising farm prices + easing payment of debts

50. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Money and Politics, con’t.
– Populists demanded “free and unlimited coinage
of silver” – free silver
– Nation’s gold reserves in decline, + Panic of 1893
stretched demand on those reserves
– Cleveland believed cause was Sherman Silver
Purchasing Act of 1890 requiring government to
purchase, but not coin, silver + pay for it in gold
• Congress repealed Act on his request, infuriating
Populists + silver interests + permanently dividing
Democratic Party
• Southern + western Democrats now firmly allied
against Cleveland + his eastern supporters

51. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Money and Politics, con’t.
– Cleveland wouldn’t budge on issue, even when
confronted by depression, falling prices, +
suffering farmers
– Brutal handling of Pullman Strike alienated
Populists further
– News that he had secretly negotiated with group
of NY bankers, led by Morgan, to buy gold needed
for Treasury created further outrage
– Free silver became defining issue in 1896 election

52. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• 1896 election hardest
fought election since
1860 + had most at stake
• As party in power,
Democrats considered
most responsible for
economic crisis
– Cleveland only added to
party’s problems
– Democrats repudiated him
at 1896 convention + made
free silver their primary
issue
• Nominated William
Jennings Bryan –”Cross of
Gold”
• Populists absorbed into
Democratic Party

53. The Crisis of American Politics: The 1890’s
• Republicans nominated
William McKinley
– Staunch supporter of high tariff,
sound money, + prosperity
based on industrial + corporate
growth
– Republicans had championed
Protestant morality, but now
emphasized “live and let live”
– Bryan’s crusading zeal +
language struck many as too
strong, combining with protests
to make middle class
uncomfortable
– McKinley won by considerable
margin