9History 2020 United States Since 1877Lecture 1 Gilded Age.docx

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History 2020: United States Since 1877
Lecture 1: Gilded Age
1979: Dysfunctional presidency, do-nothing Congress,
immigration crisis, ecological disasters, foreign affairs beyond
control, ever-present terrorism
Background
*New World: Land, opportunity, promise, “Last best hope of
man”
*Dark Side: Native Americans, Slavery
*Glue: Constitution, economic opportunity
*Civil War: made America, divided America, on-going process
*Reconstruction: promise, failure
Question: What forces inspired and led America in the late
nineteenth-century?
One: Politics
Voting: no secret ballot, voting in public; yet high voter interest
and turnout
African-Americans were Republicans!
Equilibrium: 1865 to 1889
Presidency: Republicans 5, Democrats: 1
Senate: Republicans 10, Democrats: 2
House: Republicans: 6, Democrats 6
High interest in politics; the “power” rested in Congress
Issues: Immigration, tariff, civil service reform, monetary

policy, corruption, Bloody Shirt
Thomas Nast: Elephant and Donkey
Grant and scandals
The Election of 1876
Democrat: Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New York,
instrumental in bringing down the Tweed Ring.
Republican: Rutherford B. Hayes, Governor of Ohio, Civil War
general
Results: Tilden, 184: 4,300,000 185 to win
Hayes: 165: 4,036,000
FL: 4, LA: 8, SC: 7, OR: 1 = 20
David Davis and a special commission of 15 members
The Compromise of 1877
1. Reconstruction would end.
2. One Southerner on the cabinet
3. Patronage for Southerners
4. Internal improvements in the South
5. Aid for the Texas and Pacific Railroad
The Hayes Administration
Ruterfraud B. Hayes, Your Fraudulency, Lemonade Lucy
Republican Party Tensions:
Roscoe Conkling led the Stalwarts: machine politics

James G. Blaine led the Half-Breeds: civil service reform
Hayes favored civil service reform, but could do little about it.
Finally he removed Chester A. Arthur and Alonzo Cornell from
the New York Customs House.
Conkling then blocked Hayes’s appointments.
Hayes won in the end, but at great political cost.
Democrat: Winfield Scott Hancock: Civil War Hero (no Bloody
Shirt here!)
James A. Garfield: Civil War Hero and member of the US
House
Garfield was a Half-Breed, to keep the Stalwarts happy, Chester
A. Arthur was selected to run for vice-president.
“From the tow path to the White House”
Hancock: 155, 4,444,260
Garfield: 214, 4,446,158
A difference of 1,598 in the popular vote
The Assassination of Garfield
July 2, 1881, Charles Guiteau shot Garfield at a train station in
Washington.
“I am a Stalwart and Arthur is president now.”

Garfield lived for nearly three months, dying on September 19,
1881.
The Arthur Administration
Few positive expectations for the former Conklinite spoilsman.
Even his birthplace was in question.
Arthur, however, arose to the occasion and dismayed party
bosses.
The Pendleton Act of 1883 placed a limited number of federal
jobs under Civil Service protection and filled the jobs through
competitive exams.
The Civil Service Commission was formed but only 14,000 out
of over 100,000 federal jobs were classified.
The modernization of the US Navy
Democrat: Grover Cleveland: Governor of New York and
former sheriff of Buffalo, NY
Republican: James G. Blaine: US Senator (leader of the Half-
Breeds) and hard-liner on Reconstruction
Cleveland paid a substitute during the Civil War. It was then
learned that he had (probably) fathered an illegitimate child
with Maria Halpin.
“Ma, Ma, where’s my pa?” A draft-dodging womanizer could

not possibly be elected president!
Blaine had his problems. The Mulligan Letters surfaced,
showing evidence of illegal activities while Blaine was Speaker
of the House.
Mugwumps were Republicans who supported Cleveland.
In New York City a supporter of Blain, The Reverend Buchard,
gave a speech in which he attacked Irish Americans indirectly
by referring to the Democratic party as a party of “Rum,
Romanism, and Rebellion.”
New York made the difference with Cleveland polling 563,154
to Blaine’s 562,005, a difference of 1,149!
Cleveland: 219. 4,875,000
Blaine: 182, 4,852,000
The Cleveland Administration
In a word: conservative!
Vetoed a $10,000 measure for drought relief for stricken
farmers! “The lesson must never be forgotten. [that] though the
people support the government, the government should not
support the people.”
He expanded Civil Service protection to an additional 12,000
jobs.
Two-thirds of all incumbents were replaced (after all he was the
first Democrat since Buchanan).
He vetoed a harbor and rivers bill.

He had no special favors; he attacked railroad, lumber, and
cattle interests.
Problem: the federal government had a large SURPLUS!
Cleveland wanted to lower the tariff.
Cleveland’s marriage
The Election of 1888 ---------
This one had an issue: the tariff
Democrat: Grover Cleveland: running for a second term
Republican: Benjamin Harrison: Civil War general, US Senator
from Indiana
Cleveland: 168, 5,540,000
Harrison: 233, 5,440,000
Cleveland won the popular vote, but lost in the Electoral
College. On March 4, 1889, Cleveland held the umbrella for
Harrison while he gave his inaugural address.
“A sound and a fury signifying nothing.”
The Congress was deadlocked, the presidency was seen as an
honor, and the real issues were neglected.
Civil Rights
Regulation of commerce and industry
Indian affairs
Complacency was the order of the day in politics.

Two: Capital and Industry -----
Abraham Lincoln is remembered for the Civil War, but he
wanted to be remembered for something else. The Civil War
was unexpected; the Transcontinental Railroad and the
Homestead Act were passed during Lincoln’s administration and
he had big economic dreams.
The Civil War produced different economic dreams, which
served to expand industry and commerce in the North. The
economic boom continued through the nineteenth century with a
few bumps in the road and no little controversy.
Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner wrote The Gilded Age
which was an indictment of government and business practices
of the nineteenth century.
The average wage for workingmen in the period was $300 to
$400 per year.
Rise of the Railroad
Railroads in 1865: 35,000 miles
Railroads in 1900: 200,000 miles
The Transcontinental Railroad was the biggest government-
financed project in the nineteenth century.
The Federal Government gave, yes gave, the railroad companies
131 million acres!
The states coughed up another 49 million acres.
In addition to the land, the Federal Government paid $16,000

per twenty miles of level track.
$32,000 per MILE in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and $48,000
per MILE in extreme terrain.
$48,000.00 is $1.5 million today.
It is estimated that the Union Pacific cost $60 million and the
Central Pacific cost $36 million.
400 rails per mile, 10 spikes per rail, 3 sledge hammer strikes
per rail!
The Union Pacific began in Omaha and utilized Paddies.
The Central Pacific began in Sacramento and utilized Chinese
laborers.
May, 10, 1869, Promontory Point, UT
Effects
Nov. 18, 1883: Time zones (Indiana had 23 local time zones)
Standard gage: 4 feet 8 ½ inches. (1860s Charleston to
Philadelphia required 8 railcar changes.)
There was a fundamental shift from producing products to
creating stock value.
The Great Railroad Barons
1. Jay Gould: objective was to achieve a monopoly
2. James J. Hill of the Great Northern
3. Leland Stanford of the Central Pacific
4. Cornelius Vanderbilt of the New York Central

Railroad Business Methods
1. Pooling (price fixing)
2. Rebates (secret kickbacks)
3. Rate cutting (forcing out existing lines by temporarily
lowering rates)
4. Stock watering (faking the value of property)
5. Railroad passes
The Interstate Commerce Act was passed in 1887 (Cleveland)
The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the railroads in 15 out
of 16 cases! The Fourteenth Amendment was a handy tool!
The states would be called upon to regulate commerce, but that
proved impossible.
The railroads owned congressmen and sometimes entire state
legislatures!
The Robber Barons
J. P. Morgan 1837 - 1913
* Born to wealth
* Educated in Germany
* Finance was his game.
* Salvaged railroads
* 1893 loaned $65 million in gold to the US Treasury!
Business Method: Interlocking Directorate (corporate directors
serving on multiple boards)
Andrew Carnegie 1835 – 1919
· Poor immigrant from Scotland
· Worked as a child laborer
· Worked as a telegraph clerk
· Through insider trading became a millionaire at the age of
twenty-eight.

· Pioneered the steel industry
· By 1900 his income was $25 million per year
· Sold out to J. P. Morgan for $480 million.
· Known for his philanthropy
Business Method: Vertical Integration (owning every step of the
production and distribution process)
John D. Rockefeller 1839 – 1937
· Little formal education
· Devout Baptist
· The Oil Industry
· Later attacked by Ida Tarbell
Business Method: Horizontal Integration (owning every point of
distribution)
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 was another attempt to
regulate commerce: it was used to curb labor unions!
In 1886 the Wabash Case ruled that states had no right to
regulate interstate commerce.
In United States v. Knight1895, the court ruled that
manufacturing was not commerce in the legal sense.
Consumerism
Horatio Alger wrote 119 rags to riches novels, Raged Dick
being the most famous.
New methods of manufacture: Whitney and Colt
Montgomery Ward and Sears
Department stores

Uniform machine tools: standard screw
Typewriter (Sholes) 1867
Telephone (Bell) 1876
Impact on women in the workplace
Thomas Edison
1. Electric light bulb
2. Storage battery
3. Phonograph
4. Menlo Park, NJ
1850: 2,000 patents per year
1890: 21,000 patents per year
Frederick W. Taylor: Efficiency expert
Social Theory
The Gospel of Wealth: The wealthy should take responsibility
for their community by using their “wisdom”, experience and
wealth as stewards for the poor.
“The millionaire acted as a mere trustee and agent for his poorer
brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom,
experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than
they could or would do for themselves.” Carnegie, p. 467
In 1892 there were 4,047 millionaires.
Social Darwinism: Survival of the Fittest; applying Darwin’s
theory of natural selection to humans.

Herbert Spencer
Results:
1. Laissez faire capitalism
2. Appealed to businessmen, intellectuals, and clergymen
3. Justification for poverty and slums
Who inspired and led America in the late nineteenth century?
Politicians?
1. High voter turn-out and interest in politics
2. Nearly even split in party numbers
3. What legislation was passed to good effect?
Transcontinental Railroad Act put into effect (including much
corruption)
The Compromise of 1877: Ended Reconstruction
Pendleton Act of 1883: 14% of federal workers in civil service
Interstate Commerce Act of 1887: an attempt to control trusts
The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the railroads in 15 out
of 16 cases citing the Fourteenth Amendment.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890
Robber Barons?
1. Produced much wealth which translated into better lives for
many
2. Many were philanthropists who helped many (Gospel of
Wealth)
3. Inspired many (Horatio Alger novels) to work hard to get rich

4. Social Darwinism was the order of the day: laissez faire
capitalism
Better manufacturing techniques and more jobs (10 to 12 hour
days and poor conditions)
More creative business methods, which ruined many
Consumer goods and retail stores
A small elite group of millionaires who inspired and improved
lives, while relegating millions to poverty. Influence on the
government
History 2020: Study Guide for 1877 to 1900
1. Characterize American interest in politics in the late
nineteenth century.
2. What were Thomas Nast’s symbols for America’s major
political parties? Elephant and Donkey
3. What did the Democrats trade for the Whitehouse in the
Compromise of 1877?
4. What was the issue that divided the Stalwarts and Half-
Breeds?
5. What was Charles Guiteau’s motive in the assassination of
Garfield?
6. How did President Chester A. Arthur surprise his detractors?
7. In what ways was the presidential election of 1884

particularly ugly?
8. In what ways did the Transcontinental Railroad transform
America?
9. How powerful were the railroad barons?
10. Analyze the business practices of the Robber Barons.
11. What were the Gospel of Wealth and Social Darwinism?
12. What two railroad companies built the Transcontinental
Railroad?
13. What happened at Promontory Point in 1869?
14. What were the goals and how effective were the Interstate
Commerce Act of 1887 and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of
1890?
15. What were the findings of Wabash v. Illinois, 1886 and
United States v. Knight, 1895?
16. What effect did Horatio Alger have on America?
17. What was the impact of the Sears and Roebuck Catalog of
American consumers?
18. How did the typewriter and telephone affect women?
19. What inventions did Thomas Edison give America and the
world?
20. What did Turner’s Frontier Thesis say about American
history?
21. What did the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868
determine?
22. What was General Sheridan’s infamous quote about the
Native Americans?
23. What was the US Army’s policy toward the Native
Americans?
24. Describe the following battles in the Indian War: The Sand
Creek Massacre, The Fetterman Massacre, The Battle of the
Little Big Horn, and Wounded Knee.
25. How did the US government deal with Chief Joseph and the
Nez Perce Indians?
26. What did Helen Hunt Jackson and Sarah Winnemucca write
about?
27. What was the Dawes Act of 1887?

28. What was the impact of the miners’ bonanza, cattleman’s
bonanza, and the farmers’ bonanza on the west?
29. What was the message in Edward Bellamy’s novel, Looking
Backward.
30. Why was Utah so late in becoming recognized as a state?
31. What was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?
32. Describe the reasons for the rise of cities in late nineteenth-
century America.
33. What were the diversions of the late nineteenth century?
34. What were the Comstock Laws?
35. What was the contribution of Ida B. Wells?
36. What were Jim Crow Laws?
37. What was determined in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896?
38. What was the WCTU and who was Frances Willard?
39. Define the term “Cult of Domesticity.”
40. Why were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
important?
41. What did the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus’s poem,
The New Colossus, symbolize?
42. What was the objective of the APA?
43. New immigration in the late nineteenth century came from
what regions?
44. Describe industrial working conditions in late nineteenth-
century America.
45. Define the following: strike, lock out, yellow dog contract,
blacklist, and collective bargaining.
46. What was the weakness of the Noble and Holy Order of the
Knights of Labor?
47. How did Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of
Labor strengthen the labor union?
48. Describe the outcomes of the following labor incidents: The
Haymarket Affair, 1886; The Homestead Lockout, 1892; The
Pullman Strike, 1893-954
49. Who was John Peter Altgeld?
50. Who was Eugene V. Debs?
51. Describe farmer’s problems in the late nineteenth century.

52. What was the Grange (aka Patrons of Husbandry)?
53. Define Populism.
54. Who was Mary Elizabeth Lease?
55. Who was Thomas B. Reed?
56. What was the first for the Fifty-First Congress?
57. How popular was the McKinley Tariff of 1890?
58. Who was James B. Weaver?
59. What was the Ohio Platform?
60. What economic problem hit just as Grover Cleveland started
his second term?
61. What was the agenda of the Populist Party?
62. Why did Cleveland have secret surgery?
63. What was Cleveland’s stance on the gold standard?
64. What did J. P. Morgan loan the US Treasury?
65. What was Coxey’s Army?
66. How did the Wilson-Gorman Tariff affect tariff rates?
67. Why was Senator Mark Hannah of Ohio so powerful?
68. Describe the rise of William Jennings Bryan.
69. Compare and contrast the presidential campaigns of Bryan
and McKinley in 1896.
70. How did the Dingley Tariff affect tariff rates?
71. To what degree did Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz tell the
story of the Populists?
72. How did Josiah Strong’s, Our Country: Its Possible Future
and Present Crisis influence American imperialism?
73. How did Alfred Thayer Mahan influence American
imperialism?
74. Describe the American annexation of Hawaii.
75. The United States considered going to war with Britain over
what South American country?
76. What role did Hearst and Pulitzer play in the Yellow Press?
77. Who was Frederick Remington?
78. Who was John Hay?
79. Describe the events that led to the Spanish-American War.
80. What was the Teller Amendment?
81. What was Theodore Roosevelt’s role in the Spanish-

American War?
82. What was America’s attitude toward the Spanish-American
War?
83. Explain the impact of the following battles in the Spanish-
American War: Manila Bay, San Juan Hill, and Santiago.
84. What did the United States get in the Treaty of Paris, 1898?
85. What base did the US lease from Cuba?
86. What were the Insular Cases?
87. What was the Platt Amendment?
88. What was the Anti-Imperialist League and who were some
of its prominent members?
89. Who was Emilio Aguinaldo?
90. Describe the Philippine Insurrection.
91. What roles did Arthur MacArthur and William Howard Taft
play in the Philippines?
92. What was Hay’s Open Door Policy?
93. What was the Boxer Rebellion?
94. Describe the US acquisition of the Panama Canal.
95. What was the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine?
96. How did Theodore Roosevelt win the Nobel Peace Prize?
97. What was the Gentlemen’s Agreement?
98. What was the Root-Takahira Agreement?
99. What was the Great White Fleet?

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