US Politics & Society in the Gilded Age: Factions, Reform, Populism, and Labor Strife

Republican Party Factions & the Spoils System

Three main GOP blocs after the Civil War
- Stalwarts
- Ultra-traditional, defended the patronage ("spoils") system.
- Boss: Senator Roscoe Conkling (NY).
- Half-Breeds
- Wanted limited reform; less wedded to spoils.
- Leader: Senator James G. Blaine (ME).
- Mugwumps
- Small, reform‐first group; championed merit civil service.
- Figurehead: Carl Schurz (German-American Civil-War veteran, later Sec. of Interior).
Spoils system basics
- Winning party distributed federal jobs to supporters.
- Traced by critics to Andrew Jackson, though the practice existed as early as Thomas Jefferson.
- Reform idea: create positions protected by rules (later becomes the Civil Service system).

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidency (1877-1881)

Entered office via disputed 1876 election compromise; immediately confronted by factional GOP.
Key domestic stands
- Supported embryo civil-service reform (had backed a failed bill while still in Congress).
- Great Railroad Strike of 1877: used troops to restore order yet sympathized with need for labor reform.
- Silver policy: vetoed a bill to introduce silver dollars; Congress overrode him.
- Feared bimetal confusion & inflation if \text{Silver} < \text{Gold} in market value.
Native–American policy
- Backed Schurz’s half-way assimilation approach vs. outright removal.
- Personally overruled Schurz to let the Ponca return to ancestral land.
Anti-corruption actions
- Fired Chester A. Arthur, Collector of the Port of New York (a Conkling protégé), after a two-year fight.
- Dismissed his Navy Secretary for accepting gifts from French canal promoter Ferdinand de Lesseps (Panama route).
Foreign affairs
- Arbitrated post-war border dispute between Argentina & Paraguay (aftermath of the War of the Triple Alliance).
- Saved Paraguay from major territorial loss; today a province & city in Paraguay bear his name.
Chinese Exclusion
- Vetoed the first Chinese Exclusion Act (1879); western GOP nevertheless joined Democrats to pass a later version.
Reputation
- Saw himself tasked to "wipe out the color line, abolish sectionalism, and bring peace"—even at personal political cost.
- Most historians credit him with restoring dignity after Lincoln’s assassination, Johnson’s impeachment & Grant-era scandals.
- Declined re-election, endorsed civil-service minded successor.

Election of 1880 & the Garfield–Arthur Administration

GOP Convention: 36 ballots
- Stalwart Conkling tried to draft Grant for a 3rd term; Half-Breeds blocked.
- Compromise: James A. Garfield (Half-Breed) for President; Chester A. Arthur (Stalwart) for VP to placate Conkling.
Democrats ran Winfield Scott Hancock; only clear policy split was on tariffs (Dems = low, GOP = protective).
Garfield victory; assassinated 1881 ⇒ Arthur becomes President.
Arthur surprises reformers by
- Vetoing an inflated $\$19\text{ million}$ Rivers & Harbors Act ("pork").
- Signing Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)—future foundation of merit hiring (not in transcript but logical connection to civil-service theme).

The 1884 Campaign: Blaine vs. Cleveland

GOP nominee: James G. Blaine (tainted by earlier railroad-bond scandals, portrayed in cartoons with “tattooed” graft).
Democrats: Grover Cleveland (NY governor, reputation for honesty; admitted paternity of a child out of wedlock—"Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?").
Fatal rally for Blaine: introducing speaker denounces "Rum, Romanism & Rebellion" (anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant screed). Blaine fails to repudiate.
- Cost GOP Irish-Catholic & moderate votes; Cleveland wins popular & electoral vote.

Grover Cleveland & Bourbon Democracy (1885-1889, 1893-1897)

Ideology
- Pro-business, anti-inflation, gold standard ( $\text{Gold} = \text{Money}$ only).
- Low-tariff advocate; against imperial adventures; against subsidies to any bloc (veterans, farmers, railroads).
- Battles urban political machines like NYC’s Tammany Hall (Boss Tweed model).
Anti-pork president
- Repeatedly returned bills: “remove the riders and I’ll sign.”
- Example: vetoed special veterans-pension expansions.
Major legislation signed
- Electoral Count Act (1887) – codifies procedure for tallying disputed electoral votes (reaction to 1876 chaos).
- Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
- Breaks communal reservation lands into private allotments of $160$ acres per man, woman & child.
- "Surplus" lands revert to federal control => opened via Oklahoma Land Rush (1889).
  - "Sooners" – claim-jumpers who left the start line sooner than the official cannon.
- Dual motives: assimilation + clear path for white settlement.
Unpassed initiatives: pushed federal for Black education & voting-rights enforcement; Congress blocked.

Native Affairs, Land & the Dawes Act

Intended good: integrate tribes into U.S. private-property culture.
Ulterior motive: unlock millions of acres for non-Indian settlement.
Mathematical upshot
- If tribe population = N $, total allotted land =$ 160N $acres.</li> <li>Given western reservation sizes$ >160N, the difference became "unallotted"—federal land sold/ opened.

Rise of Populism & the People’s Party (1890s)

Root grievance: many Americans felt marginalized by railroads, banks & monopolies.
Farmers’ economic squeeze
- Overproduction ↓ crop prices.
- High freight rates; few local grain elevators ⇒ forced distress sales.
Cooperative responses
- The Grange, Farmers’ Alliances (Northern, Southern, Colored) addressed seed & supply costs through bulk purchase.
- Jute-bag boycott (Lampasas County, TX) vs. St. Louis sack monopoly.
1890 midterms
- Alliances morph into Populist / People’s Party.
- Win governorships & House seats; field 1892 presidential ticket, creating a 3-way race.

Big Business, Tariffs & the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

Public fear: unchecked trusts ⇒ "5 or 6 men will soon own the whole country".
Standard Oil the poster child; eventual exposé by Ida Tarbell.
Congress acts: Sherman Antitrust Act
- Text vague; penalties ≤ fractions of magnates’ weekly donations (\approx\$5{,}000) .
- Critics: designed more for political than economic impact.
Tariff politics
- GOP leaders William McKinley (OH), Nelson Aldrich (RI) push high duties to "protect infant industry".
- Democrats, Populists, farmers favor lower rates.

Labor Unrest, Strikes & Private Armies

19th-century legal backdrop: British-derived conspiracy law—workers combining could be jailed.
- Early case: Cordwainers’ (shoemakers) trial – fined & blacklisted.
1880s flashpoints
- Great Southwest Railroad Strike (1886) vs. Jay Gould’s lines (TX-MO-AR-KS).
- Governors of TX & MO mobilize militia; Pinkerton Detectives hired; KS governor refuses force (peaceful picketing).
- Imported labor (e.g., German, Polish in Chicago) stokes nativist anxieties.

The Haymarket Affair (Chicago, May 1886)

Context: Federation of Organized Trades sets 8-hour-day deadline (8\,\text{h/day}\times6\,\text{days}=48\,\text{h/week} $).</li> <li>May 1: nation-wide strike ≈$ 500{,}000 walkout.
May 3: police kill striker outside McCormick Harvester plant.
May 4 rally at Haymarket Square
- Speakers disperse peacefully; police move in; unknown person hurls dynamite bomb.
- 7 policemen & several civilians die; dozens wounded.
Trial & aftermath
- 8 anarchists (many German-speaking) prosecuted; scant evidence; 4 hanged, 1 suicide, 3 commuted.
- Public opinion turns against radicalism; labor unions tarred with anarchism label.

Political Philosophies Clarified

Anarchism
- Government (the state) is unnecessary & harmful; aim = stateless society.
Socialism
- Public/common ownership of means of production; private property still possible; wages/money persist.
Communism
- Ultimate abolition of state & money; people collectively own everything; envisioned end-state resembles anarchy.
- No nation has achieved true communist end-state—human nature & power structures intervene.

Ethical & Philosophical Threads

Civil-service reform = merit vs. favoritism; ties to modern HR principles.
Indian assimilation vs. cultural autonomy: early case study in ethical colonialism.
Populism’s cry for economic democracy foreshadows modern debates on wealth concentration.
Labor conflict illustrates balance between property rights & human rights.
Anti-Catholic nativism ("Romanism") prefigures 20th-century identity politics.

Key Numbers, Dates & Terms (Quick Reference)

1877 $– Hayes inaugurated; Great Railroad Strike.</li> <li>$ 1879 $– Hayes vetoes Chinese Exclusion Act.</li> <li>$ 1880 $– 36-ballot GOP convention; Garfield-Arthur ticket.</li> <li>$ 1883 $– Pendleton Act (next lecture link).</li> <li>$ 1884 – "Rum, Romanism & Rebellion" gaffe; Cleveland wins.
1887 $– Dawes Act, Electoral Count Act.</li> <li>$ 1889 $– Oklahoma Land Rush.</li> <li>$ 1890 $– Sherman Antitrust Act; People’s Party forms.</li> <li>$ May\ 4,\ 1886 $– Haymarket bombing.</li> <li>$ 8 $-hour day = flagship labor demand.</li> <li>$ 160$$ acres – individual allotment under Dawes Act.
Spoils System – job-for-votes cycle; antithesis: merit civil service.