APUSH - Topic 6.13 Politics in the Gilded Age

Explain the similarities and differences between the political parties during the Gilded Age.

Popular Politics

• election campaigns were entertainment → picnics, beer, bands

• Republicans had supporters on the state lever, Democrats in cities

• very high voter turnout

Party Patronage

• politicians were trying to get votes rather than make actual change

  • politicians avoided strong opinions on issues

• used patronage to get votes

• “mugwumps” → politicians who didn’t use patronage

Republicans

• continued waving the “bloody shirt”

• had votes of reformers and African Americans

• most votes were from middle-class and business men

• Hamiltonian pro-business → high tariffs

Democrats

• won most elections in the “solid South”

• most votes from political machines and immigrants

• Catholics, Lutherans, Jews, rejected temperance

• Jeffersonian states’ rights, limited federal power

Omaha Platform

1892

• members of new populist party decided on foundation of party

• wanted:

  • popular election of senators

  • allow citizens to vote directly on proposed laws

  • unlimited coinage of silver to increase money supply

  • graduated income tax

  • government ownership of railroads, telegraph lines, telephone systems

  • loans and federal warehouses for farmers → stabilize crop prices

  • 8-hour work day for industrial workers

The Election of 1892

• populist party gained many votes for a third-party candidate

• didn’t get votes of Northern urban workers and southerners

• President Cleveland won election

Panic of 1893

• overspeculation and overbuilding caused economic depression

• lots of unemployment and farm foreclosures

• President Cleveland championed gold standard, generally hands off about economy

Gold Reserve

• gold reserve fell dangerously low

• President Cleveland borrowed $65 million in gold from JP Morgan to

  • citizens saw it as being a tool of rich bankers

Wilson Gorman Tariff

1892

• moderate reduction in tariff rates

• 2% income tax on higher incomes

  • income tax declared unconstitutional within a year

a relatively popular measure

People were very agitated

• march to Washington

  • thousands of unemployed demanded spending money on programs to create jobs

• Coin’s Financial School

  • book that taught in simple terms that economic problems were caused by rich bankers + solution was unlimitedly coining silver

1896 Presidential Race

Democrats and Populists

• William Jennings Bryan nominated

  • “Cross of Gold” Speech

• Democrat and populist causes were very similar → populists took up democratic nominee

• unlimited coinage of silver

-”Gold Bug” Democrats → didn’t like free silver

Republicans

• William McKinley, supported by wealthy Marcus Hanna

• gold standard to protect industry

Campaigns

• Bryan traveled all over country → convinced many farmers and debtors

• Marcus Hanna did most of campaigning for McKinley

  • used mass media to sell him

• rise in wheat prices made farmers less desperate → Bryan lost some supporters, McKinley won

Populist Demise

• declined after 1896

• Black and White people could not be united under political party → difficult to gain traction as a party

• many Democrats and some Republicans eventually took up Populist ideals

Era of Republican Dominance

• Republicans won majority of following elections

• Mark Hanna created a new model for an effective campaign

Urban Dominance

• rural America dominated in election of 1896

• triumph of modern industrial and urban values over Jefferson and Jackson