Chapter 23 Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age 1869-1896

Republicans: gold bugs Democrats: divided between gold bugs and silverites

What happened to the population of the US after the Civil War?

the population continued to grow rapidly due to the arrival of immigrants. it was the third-largest nation in the western world behind Russia and France

What was the national government like after the Civil War?

The Civil War and what came after it created waste, excessive spending, gambling on business deals, and corruption. Many idealistic Americans felt disappointed after the war. They had shed their blood for the Union, freedom for slaves, and Abraham Lincoln, who had promised "a new birth of freedom." Instead they got corruption and political deadlock—starting with Ulysses S. Grant, a great military leader but a terrible politician.

What caused Ulysses S. Grant to be elected president?

Fighting between Congress and President Andrew Johnson had made people dislike professional politicians during Reconstruction, and many still believed that a good general would make a good president.

Who was the most popular northern hero from the Civil War?

General Grant.

What was Grant’s experience with politics like?

He as inexperienced, having only voted one before for the Demoratic ticket in 1856

Which party nominated Grant for president in 1868?

The Republicans, no longer part of the Union party coalition from the war, enthusiastically nominated Grant for president in 1868. The party's platform strongly supported continuing Reconstruction of the South under military control.

What did the Democrats argue about during their nominating conventions for the election of 1868?

Hopeful Democrats, meeting in their own nominating convention, criticized military Reconstruction but couldn't agree on much else. Wealthy eastern delegates wanted a promise that federal war bonds would be paid back in gold—even though many of the bonds had been bought with paper money worth much less. Poorer midwestern delegates responded with the "Ohio Idea," which called for payment in paper money. Democrats with heavy debts, especially farmers, thus hoped to keep more money in circulation and keep interest rates lower. This argument started a bitter fight over money policy that continued to shake the country until the end of the century.

Who was the Democratic nominee for the 1868 election?

Midwestern delegates got their policy in the platform but not their candidate. The nominee, former New York governor Horatio Seymour, ruined the Democrats' small chance for success by rejecting the Ohio Idea.

How did Republicans build up enthusiasm for Grant?

Republicans whipped up enthusiasm for Grant by energetically “waving the bloody shirt”—that is, reviving gory memories of the Civil War—which became for the first time a prominent feature of a presidential campaign.

Who won the election of 1868?

Grant

Which group supported Seymour?

most white voters

What allowed Grant to win the presidency?

the votes of former slaves

What did the Republican party need to do to stay in power?

They had to continue to control the South—and to keep the vote in the hands of the grateful freedom slaves.

What was business and government like after the Civil War?

Although most businesspeople and government officials still did their work with decency and honor, the whole after-war atmosphere stank of corruption.

Who were two notorious people in the financial world and what they did do?

two millionaire partners, "Jubilee Jim" Fisk and Jay Gould. The fat and dishonest Fisk provided the "brass," while the small and clever Gould provided the brains. The crafty pair made a plot in 1869 to corner the gold market. Their slippery game would work only if the federal Treasury didn't sell gold. The plotters worked on President Grant directly and also through his brother-in-law, who received $25,000 for helping. For weeks Fisk and Gould wildly bid the price of gold upward, so they could later profit from its higher value. But on "Black Friday" (September 24, 1869), the bubble broke when the Treasury, contrary to Grant's supposed promises, was forced to release gold. The price of gold dropped, and many honest businesspeople were ruined. A congressional investigation concluded that Grant had done nothing dishonest, though he had acted foolishly and unwisely.

What was the infamous TWeed Ring and what did it show?

The infamous Tweed Ring in New York City clearly showed the ethics (or lack of ethics) common in that time. Big "Boss" Tweed—240 pounds of dishonesty—used bribery, corruption, and fake elections to steal as much as $200 million from the city. Honest citizens were scared into silence. People who complained found their taxes raised.

What caused the fall of Tweed?

The New York Times got damning evidence in 1871 and bravely published it, though offered $5 million not to do so.

Who was Thomas Nast and what did he do?

cartoonist Thomas Nast made fun of Tweed mercilessly, after turning down a large bribe to stop. The fat thief reportedly complained that his illiterate followers couldn't help seeing "them damn pictures."

Who persecuted Twee?

New York attorney Samuel J. Tilden led the prosecution, gaining fame that later helped him get the presidential nomination. Without bail and without anyone crying for him, Tweed died in prison.

What were the misdeeds of the federal government like?

President Grant's cabinet was full of corrupt and incompetent people. People seeking favors visited the White House, giving Grant himself cigars, wines, and horses.

What was the Credit Mobilier scandal of 1872?

Union Pacific Railroad insiders had formed the Crédit Mobilier construction company and then cleverly hired themselves at inflated prices to build the railroad line, earning profits as high as 348 percent. Fearing that Congress might stop them, the company secretly gave shares of its valuable stock to key congressmen. A newspaper exposé and congressional investigation of the scandal led to the formal criticism of two congressmen and the revelation that the vice president of the United States had accepted payments from Crédit Mobilier.

What was the scandal in Washington that pertained to alcohol?

n 1874–1875 the widespread Whiskey Ring stole millions in tax revenues from the Treasury. "Let no guilty man escape," declared President Grant. But when his own private secretary was found among the criminals, he gave a written statement to the jury that helped free the thief.

What was another example of corruption in the Grant administration?

More corruption in the Grant administration came to light in 1876, forcing Secretary of War William Belknap to resign after taking bribes from suppliers to the Indian reservations. Grant, always loyal to his dishonest friends, accepted Belknap's resignation "with great regret."

What occurred in 1872?

By 1872 a powerful wave of disgust with Grantism was beginning to build up throughout the nation, even before some of the worst scandals had been exposed.

Why was the Liberal Republican party formed?

Reform-minded citizens joined together to form the Liberal Republican party. Using the slogan "Turn the Rascals Out," they called for cleaning up the Washington administration and ending military Reconstruction.

What mistake did the LIberal Republicans make?

Their Cincinnati nominating convention nominated the brilliant but unreliable Horace Greeley for the presidency. Although Greeley was the fearless editor of the New York Tribune, he was stubborn, emotional, bad-tempered, and known for poor political judgment.

What did the office-hungry Democrats foolishly do?

They proceeded to support Greeley’s candidacy.In accepting Greeley the Democrats "ate crow" in large gulps, for the odd editor had long attacked them as traitors, slave shippers, saloon keepers, horse thieves, and idiots.

How did Greeley please the Northern and Southern Democrats?

Greeley pleased the Democrats, North and South, when he pleaded for joining hands across "the bloody chasm” (the deep divisions and animosity that existed between the North and South in the United States following the Civil War).

Who did the Republicans nominate for the 1872 election?

The Republicans dutifully renominated Grant.

What were the options that the voters had?

The voters were thus given a choice between two candidates who had made their careers in fields other than politics and who were both clearly unqualified, by personality and lifelong training, for high political office.

How did Republicans attack Greeley?

regular Republicans denounced Greeley as an atheist, a communist, a free-lover, a vegetarian, a brown-bread eater, and a cosigner of Jefferson Davis's bail bond.

How did the Democrats attack Grant’s character?

Democrats mocked Grant as an ignoramus, a drunkard, and a swindler.

Who won the presidency of 1872?

Grant

How did the Liberal Republican party affect the regular Republicans?

Liberal Republican pressure scared the regular Republicans into cleaning their own house before they were thrown out of it. The Republican Congress in 1872 passed a general amnesty act (a government pardon granted to a large group or class of people, typically for political offenses or past crimes, effectively wiping away their legal consequences and allowing them to be forgotten), removing political penalties from all but some five hundred former Confederate leaders. Congress also moved to reduce high Civil War tariffs and to clean up the Grant administration with mild civil-service reform. Like many American third parties, the Liberal Republicans left some lasting footprints, even in defeat.

What caused the panic of 1873?

the crash was one of those periodic drops that went up and down the economy in this age of uncontrolled capitalist expansion. Overreaching promoters had laid more railroad track, dug more mines, built more factories, and planted more grainfields than existing markets could support. Bankers, in turn, had made too many risky loans to finance those businesses. When profits failed to appear, loans went unpaid, and the whole credit-based house of cards fell down.

Who else suffered from a similar economic collapse in 1873?

nations worldwide

How did the Panic of 1873 affect American businesses?

more than fifteen thousand American businesses went bankrupt.

How were black Americans affected by the Panic of 1873?

The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company had made unsecured loans to several companies that went under. Black depositors who had trusted over $7 million to the bank lost their savings, and black economic development and black confidence in savings institutions went down with it.

How did the Panic of 1873 affect debtors?

It lead them to increase their demands for policies that would cause inflation.

How did supporters of inflation revitalize the issue of greenbacks?

During the war $450 million of the "folding money" had been issued, but it had lost value under a cloud of popular mistrust and questionable legality. By 1868 the Treasury had already taken $100 million of the "battle-born currency" out of circulation, and "hard-money" people everywhere looked forward to its complete disappearance. But now suffering farming and debtor groups—"cheap-money" supporters—demanded the reissuing of greenbacks. With a simple but basically accurate understanding of monetary theory, they reasoned that more money meant cheaper money and, therefore, rising prices and easier-to-pay debts.

What did creditors support?

They supported the opposite of what the debtors wanted, as they had no desire to see the money they had loaned repaid in less valuable dollars. They wanted deflation, not inflation. (did NOT want greenbacks so they were “hard money” [hard-money supporters were also known as gold bugs])supporters.

Which group won in 1874?

The "hard-money" supporters won the day. In 1874 they convinced a confused Grant to veto a bill to print more paper money. They scored another victory in the Resumption Act of 1875, which promised the government would take more greenbacks out of circulation and would redeem all paper currency in gold at face value, beginning in 1879.

After the victories by the “hard-money” supporters, what did debtors turn to?

When debtors couldn’t get help from greenbacks, they turned to silver. They called it the "sacred white metal" and argued it had been treated unfairly. In the early 1870s, the U.S. Treasury undervalued silver, claiming 1 ounce of silver was worth 1/16th of an ounce of gold, even though market prices were higher. Silver miners stopped selling to the government, and in 1873, Congress stopped making silver dollars—a move later called the "Crime of '73."

Later in the 1870s, new silver discoveries increased supply and lowered prices. Western miners and debtors joined forces, demanding a return to the "Dollar of Our Daddies" (silver coins). Like greenbacks, they wanted more silver money to create inflation, making it easier to pay debts. basically became silverites

How did hard-money Republicans resist the silverites’ plan?

Hard-money Republicans resisted this plan and counted on Grant to hold the line against it. He did not disappoint them. The Treasury began to collect gold stocks for the set day to resume metallic-money payments. Combined with the reduction of greenbacks, this policy was called "contraction." It had a noticeable deflationary effect—the amount of money per person in circulation actually decreased between 1870 and 1880, from $19.42 to $19.37.

What were the effects of contraction?

Contraction probably made the impact of the depression worse. But the new policy did restore the government's credit rating, and it brought the struggling greenbacks up to their full face value. When Redemption Day came in 1879, few greenback holders bothered to exchange the lighter and more convenient bills for gold.

What were the political effects of the Republican hard-money policy?

Republican hard-money policy had a political backlash. It helped elect a Democratic House of Representatives in 1874, and in 1878 it created the Greenback Labor party, which got over a million votes and elected fourteen members of Congress.

What is the Gilded Age?

a mocking name given to the three-decade period after the Civil War by Mark Twain in 1873).The Gilded Age, a period in U.S. history from roughly 1877 to 1900, was a time of rapid industrialization, economic growth, and significant social and political changes, marked by both immense wealth and widespread corruption, named after Mark Twain's novel The Gilded Age.

Why was the political balance delicate during the Gilded Age?

Even a small change could give advantage to the opposing party. Every presidential election was extremely close, and the majority party in the House of Representatives changed six times between 1869 and 1891. In only three sessions did the same party control the House, Senate, and White House. In this unstable situation, politicians moved cautiously, often dealing with small and unimportant issues.

What were the views between Democrats and Republicans like?

They had very similar views on issues like tariffs and civil-service reform, and most members of both parties also agreed on the much-debated currency question. Yet despite their agreement on these national matters, the two parties competed fiercely with each other.

What is ticket splitting?

not voting for all candidates of the same party. it was very rare during this period

How come there was political agreement between the two parties and party loyalty at the same time?

The answer lies in the sharp ethnic and cultural differences between the two parties—in differences of style and tone, especially religious feeling. Republican voters tended to follow religious traditions that came from Puritanism. They emphasized strict personal morality and believed government should regulate both economic and moral affairs of society. Democrats, which included many immigrant Lutherans and Roman Catholics, were more likely to follow faiths with a less harsh view of human weakness. Their religions promoted tolerance of differences in an imperfect world, and they rejected government efforts to impose a single moral standard on everyone. These differences often created loud political contests at the local level, where issues like prohibition and education were important.

Where did Democrats and Republicans have a solid voting base?

Democrats had a solid voting base in the South and in northern industrial cities, filled with immigrants and controlled by well-run political machines. Republican strength was mainly in the Midwest and rural and small-town Northeast. Freed slaves in the South continued to vote Republican in significant numbers. Another important block of Republican votes came from members of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—a politically powerful organization of several hundred thousand Union veterans of the Civil War.

What was the lifeblood of both the Democrats and Republicans?

It was patronage—giving out jobs in exchange for votes, kickbacks, and party service.

What was the problem with patronage in the 1870s and 1880s?

Loud fighting over patronage troubled the Republican party in the 1870s and 1880s. A "Stalwart" faction, led by the handsome and domineering Roscoe ("Lord Roscoe") Conkling, U.S. senator from New York, openly embraced the established system of trading civil-service jobs for votes. Opposing the Conklingites were the so-called Half-Breeds, who pretended interest in civil-service reform, but whose real argument with the Stalwarts was over who should control the distribution of jobs. The leader of the Half-Breeds was James G. Blaine of Maine, a charming congressman with a flexible conscience. But despite their colorful personalities, Conkling and Blaine only succeeded in blocking each other and deadlocking their party.

How was Grant barred from a third term in 1876?

the House, by a one-sided bipartisan vote of 233 to 18, stopped the third-term movement. It passed a resolution that firmly reminded the country—and Grant—of the anti-dictator meaning of the two-term tradition.

Which candidate did the Republicans run in the election of 1876?

Rutherford B. Hayes—he was so unknown he was called “The Great Unknown". His main qualification was that he came from the politically important swing state of Ohio, where he had served three terms as governor. Ohio was so crucial in the close presidential contests of the day that it produced more than its share of presidential candidates.

Who was the Democratic nominee for the 1876 election?

Running against the boring Hayes was the Democratic nominee, Samuel J. Tilden, who had become famous as the man who caught Boss Tweed in New York.

What was the standoff like during the election?

Tilden won 184 electoral votes of the needed 185, with 20 votes in four states—three of them in the South—uncertain because of irregular returns. Both parties hurried to send "visiting statesmen" to the contested southern states of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. All three disputed states submitted two sets of returns, one Democratic and one Republican. As weeks passed, the standoff grew worse, creating a dramatic constitutional crisis.

Why was there a constitutional crisis?

The Constitution only says that the electoral returns from the states shall be sent to Congress, and in the presence of the House and Senate, they shall be opened by the president of the Senate. But who should count them? On this point the Constitution was silent. If counted by the president of the Senate (a Republican), the Republican returns would be selected. If counted by the Speaker of the House (a Democrat), the Democratic returns would be chosen. H

What were the solutions for the constitutional crisis?

The stark choice was conflict or compromise. There was danger that there would be no president on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1877. behind the scenes, frantically working statesmen gradually created an agreement in the Henry Clay tradition—the Compromise of 1877.

How was the election deadlock broken?

it was to be broken by the Electoral Count Act, which Congress passed early in 1877. It created an electoral commission of fifteen men selected from the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court.

What occurred in Feb. 1877?

In February 1877, about a month before Inauguration Day, the Senate and House gathered in a tense atmosphere to resolve the disputed election results. The states were called in alphabetical order. When they reached Florida—the first of the three southern states with conflicting election results—the disputed votes were sent to a special electoral commission meeting nearby. After a long debate, the commission voted along party lines, with eight Republicans supporting the Republican results and seven Democrats opposing them. Frustrated Democrats in Congress, realizing they were losing, tried to stall the process indefinitely.

How was another deadlock avoided?

Another deadlock was avoided by the rest of the complex Compromise of 1877, already partially worked out privately. The Democrats reluctantly agreed that Hayes might take office in return for his removing federal troops from the two states where they remained, Louisiana and South Carolina. Among various promises, the Republicans assured the Democrats a share of presidential patronage jobs and support for a bill funding the Texas and Pacific Railroad's construction of a southern transcontinental line. Not all of these promises were kept in later years, including the Texas and Pacific funding. But the deal held together long enough to break the dangerous electoral standoff. The Democrats allowed Hayes to receive the rest of the disputed returns—all by the partisan vote of 8 to 7. it ended reconstruction

What were the effects of the Compromise of 1877?

The compromise brought peace at a price. Political violence was avoided by sacrificing the civil rights of southern blacks. With the Hayes-Tilden deal, the Republican party quietly abandoned its commitment to racial equality. That commitment had been weakening anyway. Many Republicans had begun to question the value of Reconstruction and were less willing to send money and soldiers to support southern state governments.

What was the Civil rights Act of 1875?

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was in a sense the last weak effort of the congressional radical Republicans. The act supposedly guaranteed equal accommodations in public places and prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection, but the law was born without enforcement power and stayed that way for nearly a century.

What happened to the Civil Rights Act of 1875?

he Supreme Court declared much of the act unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases (1883). The Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited only government violations of civil rights, not denial of civil rights by individuals.

What were the effects of the withdrawal of federal troops that were supporting Reconstruction governments?

When President Hayes withdrew the blue-uniformed federal troops that were supporting Reconstruction governments, the bayonet-backed Republican regimes collapsed. The Democratic South quickly unified and swiftly suppressed the now-friendless blacks. Reconstruction, for better or worse, was officially ended. Shamelessly using fraud and intimidation, white Democrats ("Redeemers") retook political power in the South and used it ruthlessly. Blacks who tried to assert their rights faced unemployment, eviction, and physical harm.

What were the effects of the Redeemers retaking political power in the South?

Many blacks (as well as poor whites) were forced into sharecropping and tenant farming. Former slaves often found themselves dependent on former masters who were now their landlords and creditors. Through the "crop-lien" system, storekeepers extended credit to small farmers for food and supplies and in return took a claim on their harvests. Clever merchants manipulated the system so that farmers remained always in debt to them. For generations to come, southern blacks were forced to live in poverty under conditions barely better than slavery.

What were the effects of white southerners taking back political control?

daily discrimination against blacks grew increasingly harsh. What had started as the informal separation of blacks and whites in the immediate post-war years developed by the 1890s into systematic state-level legal codes of segregation known as Jim Crow laws. Southern states also created literacy requirements, voter-registration laws, and poll taxes—and allowed violent intimidation of black voters—to ensure complete removal of voting rights from the South's freed slaves.

What was the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)?

laves. The Supreme Court approved the South's segregationist social order in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). It ruled that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional under the "equal protection" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. But in reality the quality of African American life was terribly unequal to that of whites.

How did southern whites ensure the stability of the new political and economic “new order”.

To ensure the stability of this political and economic "new order," southern whites dealt harshly with any black who dared to violate the South's racial code of conduct. A record number of blacks were lynched during the 1890s, most often for the "crime" of asserting themselves as equals.

What was needed to correct the racist imbalance of southern society?

A second Reconstruction was needed—it occurred nearly a entury later.

What did the year 1877 mark?

The year 1877 marked more than the end of Reconstruction. As the official end of regional warfare came, new scenes of class struggle began.

What was the cause of the class struggles of the 1877?

It was caused by the long years of depression and falling prices following the panic of 1873.

What difficulties did railroad workers face?

Railroad workers faced particularly hard times, while they watched the railroads continue to make huge profits. When the presidents of the nation's four largest railroads collectively decided in 1877 to cut employees' wages by 10 percent, the workers fought back.

How did President Hayes respond to the railroad workers fighting back and what were the effects?

President Hayes's decision to call in federal troops to stop the unrest brought the striking laborers support from other working-class people. Work stoppages spread rapidly in cities from Baltimore to St. Louis. When the fighting between workers and soldiers ended after several weeks, over one hundred people were dead.

What did the failure of the great railroad strike show?

The failure of the great railroad strike showed the weakness of the labor movement when faced with massive government support for the railroads. The federal courts, United States Army, state militias, and local police all helped keep big business operating at full speed, regardless of the workers' suffering.

WHat broke labor unity?

racial and ethnic divisions among workers broke labor unity. Divisions were particularly sharp between the Irish and the Chinese in California.

How did the Chinese fare in California by 1880?

By 1880 the Golden State counted seventy-five thousand Asian newcomers, about 9 percent of its entire population. Mostly poor, uneducated, single males, they came mainly from the Taishan district of K'uang-t'ung (Guangdong) province in southern China. They had originally come to America to work in the goldfields and to build the tracks of the transcontinental railroads across the West. When the gold supply ran out and the tracks were finished, many—perhaps half of those who arrived before the 1880s—returned home to China with their small savings.

What happened to the Chinese who remained in America?

Those who remained in America faced extraordinary hardships. They worked at the most basic jobs, often as cooks, laundrymen, or domestic servants. Without women or families, they lacked the children who in other immigrant communities helped their parents adjust through their exposure to the English language and American customs in school

What did Denis Kearney do in San Franciso?

In San Francisco Irish-born rabble-rouser Denis Kearney stirred up his followers to violently abuse the helpless Chinese. The Kearneyites, many of whom were recently arrived immigrants from Europe, strongly resented the competition of cheap labor from the even more recently arrived Chinese. The present tens of thousands of Chinese "coolies" were seen as a threat, the potential millions as a disaster. Taking to the streets, gangs of Kearneyites terrorized the Chinese by cutting off their precious pigtails. Some victims were murdered outright.

What was the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882?

Congress stopped Chinese immigrant laborers when it passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, banning nearly all further immigration from China. The ban stayed in place until 1943. Some exclusionists even tried to take away citizenship from native-born Chinese Americans, but the Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898 that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all persons born in the United States.

What is birthright citizenship?

This doctrine of "birthright citizenship" (or jus soli, the "right of the soil," as opposed to jus sanguinis, the "right of blood-tie," which based citizenship on the parents' nationality) provided important protections to Chinese Americans as well as to other immigrant communities.

Who was the candidate for the republican party duirng the 1880 presidential campaign?

James A. Garfield, from Ohio. His vice-presidential running mate was a well known Stalwart support, Chester A. ARthur of New york.

What was GArfield’s strategy?

memories of the Civil War

Who was the Democratic candidate for the 1880 election?

Civil War hero Winfield Scott Hancock

Who won the election of 1880?

Garfield

What happened immediately after Garfield became president?

he was immediately caught in a political conflict between his secretary of state, James G. Blaine, and Blaine's Stalwart enemy, Senator Roscoe Conkling

How did Chester Arthur contribute to reform after becoming president?

He prosecuted several fraud cases and gave his former STalwart friends the cold shoulder

What cut Garfield’s term as president short?

An office seeker and Stalwart named Charles J. Guiteau shot him in the back in a Washington railroad station. Garfield thus died on Sept. 19, 1881.

What were the effects of Garfield’s death?

Garfield's death had one positive outcome: it shocked politicians into reforming the shameful spoils system. The unlikely instrument of reform was Chester Arthur as he prosecuted several fraud cases and gave his former Stalwart friends the cold shoulder

What were the effects of Garflied’s murder on the Republican party?

Disgust with Garfield's murder gave the Republican party itself a previously undetected taste for reform. The medicine finally applied to the long-suffering federal government was the Pendleton Act of 1883—the so-called Magna Carta of civil-service reform.

What was the Pendleton Act of 1883?

It made mandatory campaign contributions from federal employees illegal, and it established the Civil Service Commission to make appointments to federal jobs on the basis of competitive examinations rather than favoritism.

What were the unintended effects of civil service reform?

With the federal posts now beyond their reach, politicians were forced to look elsewhere for money. Increasingly, they turned to the full coffers of the big corporations. A new breed of "boss" emerged—less skilled at mobilizing small armies of immigrants and other voters on election day, but more skilled at getting dollars from manufacturers and lobbyists. The Pendleton Act partially separated politics from patronage, but it helped drive politicians into "marriages of convenience" with big-business leaders.

How did powerful Republicans react to President Arthur’s integrity?

They were deeply offended and pushed him aside politically. He died in 1886

Who was chosen as the Republican nominee for the presidential eleciton of1884?

James G. Blaine.

Why didn’t reform-minded Republicans support Blain'e’s nomination and what were the effects?

Blaine's enemies publicized the suspicious "Mulligan letters," written by Blaine to a Boston businessman and connecting the powerful politician to a corrupt deal involving federal favors to a southern railroad Some reformers, unable to swallow Blaine, switched to the Democrats. They were mockingly called Mugwumps, a word of Indian origin meant to suggest that they were "self-righteous" or "holier-than-thou."

Who did the Democrats chose as their presidential nominee for the 1884 election?

Grover Cleveland, who was known for his honesty

What scandal shocked Cleveland’s admirers?

Determined Republicans, digging for dirt in the past of bachelor Cleveland, discovered the report that he had been involved in a love affair with a Buffalo widow. She had an illegitimate son, now eight years old, for whom Cleveland had made financial provision.

What was the campaign of 1884 like?

It sank to perhaps the lowest level in American experience, as the two parties fought roughly for the rewards of office. Their core beliefs were pretty similar and focused on personal attacks rather than important issues.