Nash Textbook Chapter 19

1. Chapter 19
Politics and Reform
The American People, 6th ed.

2. I. Politics in the
Gilded Age

4. Politics, Parties,
Patronage, and Presidents
 Americans in the nineteenth century mistrusted
hierarchical power and believed that everyone
could benefit form an economy free of
government interference
 After the gigantic splits after the Civil War, the
two political parties each drifted back to center
and avoided controversy
 None of the gilded age presidents served two
terms or distinguished themselves in any huge
way

5. National Issues
 Tariffs to protect business
 Money: hard currency versus paper
 Reform of the civil service
 Government regulation of railroads

6. II. Middle-Class Reform

7. Wealth and Social
Darwinism
 For most Gilded Age Americans, Christianity as
well as science supported the notions of class
divisions and the moral superiority of the
wealthy.
 Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth”
(1889)
 Carnegie’s ideas were drawn from social
Darwinism, based in turn on the scientific works
of Charles Darwin and the natural laws of
selection.

8. Settlements and Social
Gospel
 Jane Adams founded Hull House in
Chicago in 1889 to “aid in the solution of
the social and industrial problems which
are engendered by the modern
conditions of life in a great city.”
 She committed her life to reduce the
suffering of the poor.
 The settlement house movement
blended the idioms of idealism and
practicality

9. Reforming the City
 Urban government was the structure
most in need of reform in the nineteenth
century.
 Disease, waste, pollution, cholera, filth
and inefficiency were everywhere in the
large cities.
 Beautification was one solution: parks
and public spaces

11. The Struggle for Women’s
Suffrage
 Women’s rights advanced very slowly after the
Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.
 Before 1890 only the territory of Wyoming
allowed women full political equity.
 Three central arguments emerged:
 Women needed the vote to pass self-protection laws
 Women’s role as social housekeepers could only be
enhanced by political participation
 Protestant, white women needed the vote to
counterbalance the hordes of immigrants coming into
America.

12. III. Politics in the Pivotal
1890s

13. Important Issues
 Civil War veteran’s pensions: easily
approved by Congress with little debate
 Trusts: the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
passed with only one nay vote
 Tariffs: after many amendments and
debate, American protective tariffs were
raised higher than ever
 Money: after much debate, the gold
standard remained secure.

15. Depression and
Election
 1893 saw the worst national economic
depression up until that time.
 Wall Street crashed as the small gold supply
was demanded by thousands of depositors in
exchange for their paper money.
 The election of 1896 boiled down to the single
issue of free and unlimited coinage of silver,
which many believed would solve all the
problems of the country in short order.