Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age

 

I.                    The Election of 1856

a.       General Grant

                                                               i.      Because of the arguments between Congress and President Andrew Johnson, people thought that a good general would make a good president

                                                             ii.      General Grant was by far the most popular Northern hero to emerge from the war (he was showered with houses and money)

                                                            iii.      He had been appointed Secretary of War by Andrew Johnson

                                                           iv.      He had no political knowledge and had only voted in one presidential election

b.      Republican Nomination and Platform

                                                               i.      Nominated Grant

                                                             ii.      Platform:

1.      Reconstruction of the South under federal and military guidance

                                                            iii.      Campaigned – “Vote as you shot” – powerful for Union army veterans.  “Waved the bloody shirt” – revived memories of the Civil War

c.       Democratic Nomination and Platform

                                                               i.      Platform:

1.      Denounced military Reconstruction

2.      Eastern delegates – demanded a that federal war bonds be redeemed in gold (even though some had been bought with worthless paper money)

3.      Midwestern delegates – wanted bonds to be redeemed in greenbacks (they hoped to keep more money in circulation and keep interest rates lower)

                                                             ii.      Midwestern delegates got the platform, but not the candidate – New York governor Horatio Seymour

d.      Election of 1868 Results

                                                               i.      Grant won – 214-80; 3.0 million-2.7 million

                                                             ii.      Most white voters supported Seymour

                                                            iii.      Three still unreconstructed southern States (MI, TX, and VA) were not counted (Seymour may have won otherwise)

II.                 The Era of Good Stealings

a.       Corruption

                                                               i.      Railroad promoters left gullible bond buyers without a real railroad

                                                             ii.      Judges and legislators could be bought off

                                                            iii.      Brokers would take people’s money who were investing in stocks

b.      Jim Fisk and Jay Gould

                                                               i.      Were millionaires who decided to manipulate the stock market

                                                             ii.      They were backed by Grant, who didn’t realize what they were scheming to do

                                                            iii.      They madly bid the price of gold skyward, while scores of honest businesspeople were nearly put out of business

                                                           iv.      Grant released the gold, after Grant’s assurances to the contrary

c.       Boss Tweed Ring

                                                               i.      Employed bribery, cunning, and fraudulent elections to illegally get as much as $200 million in New York City

                                                             ii.      Protestors’ taxes were raised and violence also met the opposition

                                                            iii.      The New York Times printed damaging evidence of Tweed’s corruption in 1871, although they were offered $5 million not to do so.  Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, also attacked Tweed in Harper’s Weekly.  Tweed was put behind bars and died there

III.               Corruption

a.       Corruption In the White House

                                                               i.      Grant’s in-laws were put on the federal payroll

                                                             ii.      Grant accepted gifts

                                                            iii.      His cabinet was took money and were incompetent

b.      Credit Mobilier Scandal

                                                               i.      Some stockholders who had a stake in the Union Pacific Railroad created a dummy company, the Credit Mobilier construction company

                                                             ii.      They hired themselves to build the Union Pacific Railroad at an inflated price and stole millions from the government

                                                            iii.      To keep Congress from doing anything, they shared their stock with members of Congress

                                                           iv.      A newspaper editor and congressional investigation revealed that two congressmen had accepted bribes as well as the vice-president

c.       Whiskey Ring

                                                               i.      To aid in the Civil War, liquor taxes were increased

                                                             ii.      People in government took money from the Whiskey excise tax revenue, including Grant’s secretary

                                                            iii.      Grant wrote a statement to the jury that helped acquit his secretary

d.      Secretary of War William Belknap

                                                               i.      Resigned after pocketing bribes from suppliers to the Indian reservations

                                                             ii.      Grant accepted his resignation with “great regret”

IV.              The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872

a.       Liberal Republican Party

                                                               i.      Banded together because they were tired of the scandals under Grant’s administration

                                                             ii.      They urged purification of the Washington administration as well as an end to military Reconstruction

                                                            iii.      They nominated Horace Greenley for president.  He was an editor of the New York Tribune and was emotional, unsound in political judgements, dogmatic (arrogantly asserting views as though they were facts), and petulant (discontented and irritable over trifles)

b.      Democrats & Republicans

                                                               i.      Embraced Greenley, even though he had said they were traitors, slave shippers, saloon keepers, horse thieves, and idiots

                                                             ii.      However, they embraced him because he wanted reconciliation between the North and South

                                                            iii.      Republicans renominated Grant

c.       Election of 1872 Results

                                                               i.      Both candidates made their careers in another field and both were unqualified

                                                             ii.      Both did a mud-slinging campaign

                                                            iii.      Grant won 286-66; 3.6 million-2.85 million

d.      Results of the Liberal Republican Third Party

                                                               i.      The Republican Congress in 1872 cleaned their own house before they were thrown out of it.  They did the following:

1.      Removed political disabilities from all but 500 former Confederate leaders

2.      Reduced high Civil War tariffs

3.      Passed mild civil-service reforms

V.                 Depression, Deflation, and Inflation

a.       Panic of 1873

                                                               i.      Promoters had laid more railroad track, sunk more mines, erected more factories, and sowed more grainfields than existing markets could bear

                                                             ii.      Bankers, in turn, had made too many unwise loans to finance those enterprises

                                                            iii.      When profits failed to materialize, loans went unpaid, and the whole credit-based system came down

b.      Results of the Panic of 1873

                                                               i.      15,000 businesses went bankrupt

                                                             ii.      Unemployed battled police in New York City

                                                            iii.      Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company went under.  Blacks had entrusted $7 million to the bank and lost it all

c.       Debtors

                                                               i.      During the war, $250 million of paper money had been issued, but it quickly depreciated

                                                             ii.      By 1868, the Treasury had withdrawn $100 million of the paper money from circulation.  Hard-money people, who wanted their debts paid by more valuable gold, wanted paper money’s complete disappearance

                                                            iii.      Now the debtors were wanted greenbacks to be reissued.  They reasoned that more money meant cheaper money and easier to pay debts

                                                           iv.      Creditors and advocated the opposite policy.  They had no desire to see the money they had loaned repaid in depreciated dollars – they wanted deflation, not inflation

d.      Silver

                                                               i.      Debtors wanted relief by using silver

                                                             ii.      The Treasury falsely believed that an ounce of silver is worth 1/16 of an ounce of gold.  It was worth much more and silver miners stopped selling silver to the federal mints

                                                            iii.      Congress dropped the coinage of silver dollars in 1873

                                                           iv.      Even though silver production shot up with the discovery of more silver mines, the government held firm

                                                             v.      Demand for more silver was another scheme to promote inflation

e.       Contraction

                                                               i.      Grant and the Treasury began to stock gold so that one day people would be able to resume metal-money payments

                                                             ii.      Coupled with the reduction of greenbacks, this policy was called contraction

f.        Results of Contraction

                                                               i.      Hurt the depression even more

                                                             ii.      Restored the government’s credit rating, bringing the greenbacks up to their full face value

                                                            iii.      Redemption Day (1879) – Few greenback holders bothered to exchange the lighter and more convenient bills for gold

g.       Results of the Republican Hard-Money Policy

                                                               i.      Helped elect a Democratic House of Representatives in 1874

                                                             ii.      Greenback Labor Party was formed in 1878 and polled over a million voters; elected 14 members to Congress

VI.              Politics in the Gilded Age

a.       Presidency and Congress

                                                               i.      Gilded Age – (a sarcastic name given to the 3 decade long post-Civil War era by Mark Twain in 1873) – gilded means a medieval association of merchants or craftsmen

                                                             ii.      Every presidential election was close and the majority in Congress changed several times.  Democrats and Republicans were nearly in agreement on all issues

                                                            iii.      80% of eligible voters cast their ballots in presidential elections

b.      How Were the Two Parties Different?

                                                               i.      Republicans –

1.      Strength lay in the mid-west and rural/small-town east.  Freedmen and the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – a politically potent fraternal organization of several hundred thousand Union veterans of the Civil War – also voted Republican

2.      Tended to trace their lines to Puritanism.  They stressed strict codes of personal morality and believed that government should play a role in regulating both the economic and moral affairs of society

                                                             ii.      Democrats –

1.      Strength lay in the South and in the northern industrial cities (with immigrants and political machines)

2.      Were mostly Lutherans and Roman Catholics.  They stressed toleration of differences and disliked government efforts to impose moral standards on the entire society

c.       Patronage In the Republican Party

                                                               i.      Stalwarts –

1.      Led by Senator Roscoe Conkling

2.      Swapped civil service jobs for votes

                                                             ii.      Half-Breeds –

1.      Led by Senator James Blaine

2.      Sort of wanted civil service reform, but in reality wanted to control the spoils

VII.            The Election of 1876: The Hayes-Tilden Standoff

a.       Grant and a Third Term

                                                               i.      Thought about running again

                                                             ii.      However, the House voted overwhelmingly to remind Grant of the dictator implications of running for a third term and of Washington’s two-term tradition.  They also thought he was inept

b.      Republican Party Nomination

                                                               i.      Nominated Rutherford B. Hayes

                                                             ii.      Served three terms as governor in the important swing State of Ohio

c.       Democratic Party Nomination

                                                               i.      Nominated Samuel J. Tilden

                                                             ii.      Fame was from exposing Boss Tweed in New York

d.      Election of 1877

                                                               i.      Tilden won 184 out of the 185 electoral votes needed

                                                             ii.      He also won 250,000 more popular votes than Hayes

                                                            iii.      Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida

VIII.         The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction

a.       Electoral Count Act

                                                               i.      May not be president by inauguration day

                                                             ii.      Deadlock was to be broken by the Electoral Count Act

                                                            iii.      It set up an electoral commission consisting of 15 men selected from the Senate, House, and Supreme Court

                                                           iv.      They voted on partisan lines 8 Republicans to 7 Democrats, that Hayes should be president

b.      Democratic Reaction

                                                               i.      Were very upset.  However, the Republicans conceded:

1.      Removing the remaining federal troops in the South

2.      Abandoned its commitment to racial equality

3.      Assured the Democrats patronage (not kept)

4.      Assured support for a bill subsidizing the Texas and Pacific Railroad’s construction of a southern transcontinental line (not kept)

                                                             ii.      The deal held together long enough to break the electoral standoff.  The president was sworn in only 3 days after being officially elected

c.       Civil Rights Act of 1875

                                                               i.      Showed the weakening Republican commitment to racial equality

                                                             ii.      It was to guarantee equal accommodations in public places and prohibit racial discrimination in jury selection, but the law was not enforced

                                                            iii.      The Supreme Court declared much of the law to be unconstitutional because they said that the 14th Amendment prohibited only government violations of civil rights, not the denial of civil rights by individuals

IX.              Jim Crow Laws in the South

a.       Conditions For Blacks

                                                               i.      White Democrats – Redeemers – resumed political power in the South

                                                             ii.      Blacks who tried to assert their rights faced unemployment, eviction, and physical harm

                                                            iii.      Were forced into sharecropping and tenant farming (some for their former masters)

1.      Tenant farming – a farmer cultivating land owned by another and paying a rent in money or produce

                                                           iv.      Crop-lien system – the farmer could buy food/supplies on credit, which could be paid back later when there was a harvest (some merchants kept them constantly in debt)

1.      The right to hold another’s goods or property until a claim is met

b.      Jim Crow Laws

                                                               i.      Name of the laws are said to be derived from a character in a minstrel song (entertained people in black face)

                                                             ii.      Laws (often in State statutes) separating whites and African Americans in public facilities and restricting their legal guarantees, such as the right to vote (through literacy requirements, voter-registration laws, and poll taxes)

                                                            iii.      Some blacks who violated the racial code were lynched (to kill someone in punishment for a real or presumed crime)

                                                           iv.      Support for these laws was provided in Plessy v. Ferguson

c.       Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

                                                               i.      Homer Plessy, an African-American man who appeared to be white, was a volunteer plaintiff for the Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Act, a Louisiana law requiring segregation in rail coaches.  Plessy was able to buy a ticket for the whites only car, but he made sure that the conductor knew that he was of mixed race.  When asked to move to the colored only car, Plessy refused and was arrested

                                                             ii.      The Supreme Court upheld the Louisiana law

                                                            iii.      Ruled that “separate by equal” facilities were constitutional under the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment

                                                           iv.      In reality, the quality of African American life was very unequal to that of whites

                                                             v.      Would eventually be reversed in Brown v. Board

X.                 Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes

a.       Railroad Strikes and Riots

                                                               i.      When the presidents of the nation’s 4 largest railroads collectively decided in 1877 to cut employees’ wages by 10%

                                                             ii.      Workers of the B&O Railroad struck over a second pay cut.  Hayes decided to call in federal troops to put down the strike – over 100 died

                                                            iii.      This brought widespread support from workers and work stoppages occurred

b.      Chinese Immigrants

                                                               i.      1880 – CA accounted for 75,000 Asian immigrants (9% of its population)

                                                             ii.      They had originally come to America to dig in for gold and to build railroads

                                                            iii.      When the gold ran out and the railroads were finished, many returned home with little savings

                                                           iv.      Those who remained in America faced hardships:

1.      Worked at low-paying jobs – cooks, laundrymen, domestic servants

2.      Without their families, they were lonely (some had children, which helped assimilate them to the English language and culture)

c.       Discrimination Against the Chinese

                                                               i.      Denis Kearney from Chicago incited his followers to violently abuse the Chinese (was a demagogue – a political speaker who plays on people’s passions to gain their support)

                                                             ii.      They resented the competition for cheap labor and were regarded as a menace

                                                            iii.      Kearneyites cut off Chinese pigtails and some were murdered

d.      Closing Immigration

                                                               i.      Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 –

1.      Prohibited all Chinese immigration until 1943

2.      Only legislation passed to limit immigration of any one group of people

                                                             ii.      U.S. v Wong Kim Ark (1898) –

1.      Supreme Court case in which the citizenship of native-born Chinese Americans was debated

2.      The Court ruled that the 14th Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all persons born in the United States

a.       Jus Soli (right of the soil) – if you are born on U.S. soil, then the child is a U.S. citizen

b.      Jus Sanguinis (right of blood) – a child born abroad can become a US citizen at birth if he/she is born to at least one parent who is a citizen and has lived in the US.

3.      This guaranteed Chinese and other immigrants certain rights and privileges that all U.S. citizens have

XI.              Garfield and Arthur

a.       Republican Nomination for 1880

                                                               i.      Hayes was denounced by the Republican party

                                                             ii.      James A. Garfield replaced him

                                                            iii.      His vice-presidential candidate was Stalwart Chester A. Arthur

                                                           iv.      Garfield won over Winfield Scott Hancock 214-155; only 39,213 more in the popular vote

b.      James Garfield’s Assassination

                                                               i.      Charles Guiteau didn’t get a government job from Garfield.  Disappointed and mentally deranged, he shot Garfield in the back at a railroad station in Washington, D.C.  Guiteau claimed he was a Stalwart and wanted Arthur, who was also one, in office (assuming that now people like Arthur would gain political appointment and spoils)

                                                             ii.      His attorneys claimed that he was not guilty because of his incapacity to distinguish right from wrong – an early instance of the “insanity defense”

                                                            iii.      He was found guilty and hanged

                                                           iv.      The importance of his assassination was that it shocked people into reforming the spoils system

c.       Reforming the Spoils System

                                                               i.      Arthur prosecuted several fraud cases and gave his former Stalwart pals the cold shoulder

                                                             ii.      Also worked to outlaw polygamy in Utah and to strengthen the Navy

                                                            iii.      Pendleton Act of 1883 –

1.      Made mandatory campaign contributions from all federal employees (no matter what their party) illegal

2.      Established the Civil Service Commission to make appointments to federal jobs on the basis of competitive examinations

3.      Only covered 10% of federal jobs at first, but it eventually expanded

4.      Today, 50% fall under this act

                                                           iv.      The Pendleton Act turned politicians away from patronage, but now they began to team up with big-business leaders (President would support the business in office if they gave him money)

XII.            The Election of 1884

a.       Republican Nomination & Mugwumps

                                                               i.      James Blaine (MA) – very talented, but wasn’t honest

                                                             ii.      Republicans who advocated reform didn’t like Blaine’s “Mulligan letters” – written by Blaine to a Boston businessman and linking the Blaine to a corrupt deal involving federal favors to a southern railroad

                                                            iii.      Many switched to the Democratic Party and were called Mugwumps (Indian for “holier-than-thou”

b.      Democratic Nomination

                                                               i.      Grover Cleveland – a lawyer, noted reformer, and governor of New York

                                                             ii.      Republicans dug up the fact that Cleveland had an illegitimate child who he made child-support payments to.  He admitted to the truth

                                                            iii.      Republicans taunted “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?”  Democrats came back by saying “Gone to the White House, ha, ha ha!”

c.       RRR & How Cleveland Won

                                                               i.      A Republican clergyman damned the Democrats in a speech as the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion” – insulting the culture, faith, and patriotism of New York’s populous Irish American voters

                                                             ii.      Although Blaine was present at the time, he didn’t repudiate the “RRR” statement immediately

                                                            iii.      The Irish deserted his camp and helped Cleveland win a slight majority in New York, giving him the presidency

                                                           iv.      First Democrat elected after the Civil War

                                                             v.      219-182; 4,879,000-4,850,000

XIII.         President Grover Cleveland

a.       Could the “Party of Disunion” Be Trusted?

                                                               i.      Cleveland was a man of principles and honest

                                                             ii.      He believed in laissez-faire

                                                            iii.      Was outspoken, stubborn, and hot-tempered

                                                           iv.      Vetoed a bill to provide seeds for drought-ravaged Texas farmers

b.      Cleveland In Office

                                                               i.      Narrowed the North-South gap by appointing two former Confederates to his cabinet

                                                             ii.      In the civil service, Cleveland was stuck between:

1.      Democrats who wanted spoils

2.      Mugwumps, who had helped elect him and wanted reform

                                                            iii.      At first, Cleveland favored the reformers, but caved into pressure and fired almost 2/3 of the federal employees

c.       Military Pensions

                                                               i.      Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – successfully lobbied for hundreds of private pension bills

                                                             ii.      Benefits were granted to deserters, bounty jumpers, men who never served, and former soldiers who in later years had incurred disabilities in no way connected with war service

                                                            iii.      Cleveland was a Civil War veteran and sympathetic, but vetoed many of the bills

XIV.         Cleveland Battles for a Lower Tariff

a.       Tariff

                                                               i.      During the Civil War, tariffs were raised to high levels to fund the military

                                                             ii.      Surpluses ran up to $145 million per year (before income tax – came from tariff)

b.      Squandering the Surplus

                                                               i.      Three options:

1.      Use it on pensions

2.      Use it on “pork-barrel” bills (government funding of something that benefits a particular district, whose legislator thereby wins favor with local voters – it alludes to the fatness of pork)

3.      Lower tariff –

a.       Would mean lower prices for consumers

b.      Less protection for monopolies

c.       End to the surplus

                                                             ii.      Cleveland wanted to lower the tariff

c.       Election of 1888

                                                               i.      Republicans played on the lower tariff issue when it came to businesses, who gave the Democratic nominee $3 million.  Some of the money was used to pay people off to vote for Harrison

                                                             ii.      Republicans nominated Cleveland

                                                            iii.      Democrats nominated Benjamin Harrison

1.      Grandfather was former president William Henry Harrison

                                                           iv.      Harrison won 233-168; 5,537,000-5,447,000

XV.           The Billion-Dollar Congress

a.       Stopping the Tariff

                                                               i.      The Republicans only had 3 more people than a quorum (majority) of 163

                                                             ii.      Democrats were prepared to obstruct all House business by refusing to answer roll calls, demanding roll calls to determine the presence of a quorum, and employing other delaying tactics

b.      Speaker of the House Thomas Reed

                                                               i.      Speaker Reed from Maine bent the House to do his will

                                                             ii.      He counted all Democrats who had not answered the roll

                                                            iii.      He dominated the Congress that was the first to spend a billion dollars:

1.      Passed pensions for Civil War veterans

2.      Increased government purchases of silver

3.      McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 – Boosted rates to their highest peacetime level ever (48.4%)

c.       McKinley Tariff Act

                                                               i.      Brought new troubles to farmers

                                                             ii.      Debt-burdened farmers had no choice but to buy manufactured goods from high-priced protected American industrialists, but were compelled to sell their own agricultural products into highly competitive, unprotected world markets

                                                            iii.      Importance is:

1.      Congressional elections of 1890, the Republicans lost their majority and went down to 88 seats, compared to 235 Democrats

2.      Farmers’ Alliance Party, a militant organization of southern and western farmers, won 9 seats in Congress

XVI.         Growing Discontent

a.       Populist Party

                                                               i.      Formed in 1892 in response to the tariff and government injustice

                                                             ii.      They were for the common farmers and workers

                                                            iii.      Met in Nebraska and wrote their “Omaha Platform,” which demanded:

1.      Inflation and unlimited coinage of silver

2.      Graduated income tax (tax that would be higher the more money you made)

3.      Government ownership of railroads, telegraph, and telephone

4.      Direct election of U.S. senators

5.      One term limit on the presidency

6.      Adoption of the initiative and referendum to allow citizens to shape legislation more directly

7.      Shorter workday

8.      Immigration restrictions

b.      Nationwide Strikes (1892)

                                                               i.      Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead (Homestead Strike)

1.      The steel plant near Pittsburgh called in 300 armed Pinkerton guards (a security guard agency) to stop a strike by steelworkers angry over pay cuts

2.      PA militia were eventually summoned

3.      10 died and 60 were wounded

                                                             ii.      Coeur d’Alene district (1892)

1.      Federal troops bloodily quelled another strike among silver miners in Idaho

c.       Populist Nomination In 1892

                                                               i.      General Weaver

                                                             ii.      Got 1 million popular votes

                                                            iii.      22 electoral votes – one of the few third parties to do so.  These came from Midwestern States

                                                           iv.      Industrial laborers didn’t rally to the cause as much as people thought they would

d.      Populist Leaders Appeal To the Black Community

                                                               i.      Blacks were disillusioned enough with the Republican party to respond

                                                             ii.      Alarmed, Southerners more aggressively used literacy tests and poll taxes to deny blacks the vote

                                                            iii.      The “grandfather clause” – any man or his descendants who had voted in the State before the adoption of the 15th Amendment (1870) could become a legal voter without regard to any literacy or taxpaying qualifications.  Black slaves had not voted at all

                                                           iv.      Harsher Jim Crow laws and lynching increased

                                                             v.      Eventually, the Populist party would stop appealing to blacks and seek to disenfranchise them

XVII.      Cleveland and Depression

a.       Depression of 1893

                                                               i.      Contributing causes were:

1.      Overbuilding and speculation

2.      Labor disorders

3.      Agricultural depression

4.      Free-silver damaged American credit abroad

5.      Loans being called in by European banks

b.      Results of the Depression of 1893

                                                               i.      80,000 American businesses collapsed in 6 months

                                                             ii.      Soup kitchens fed the unemployed

                                                            iii.      Hoboes wandered the country

                                                           iv.      Government took no action – they believed in letting nature take its course

c.       Deepening Deficit

                                                               i.      Cleveland used to have a surplus, but now it was a deficit

                                                             ii.      Legal tender notes were needed for the silver that the government bought. 

                                                            iii.      The gold reserve dropped below $100 million, regarded as the safe minimum for supporting $350 million in paper money

                                                           iv.      Gold was drained by this method:

1.      Government would buy silver with paper notes

2.      People who received the paper notes would turn them in for gold

3.      Paper notes could not be reused at this point, by law they new ones had to be reissued

d.      Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890

                                                               i.      In Congress, Democratic Nebraskan William Jennings Bryan used a filibuster to champion free silver.  Cleveland used his job-granting power to break the filibuster

                                                             ii.      He alienated the Democratic silverites and disrupted his own party

                                                            iii.      This act was repealed, stopping gold from being taken from the treasury

e.       Loaning the Government Gold

                                                               i.      Gold reserve went down to $41 million

                                                             ii.      The U.S. now either:

1.      Had to go off the gold standard – a move that could render the nation’s currency volatile and unreliable as a measure of value and would cripple American trade

2.      Get a loan of gold

                                                            iii.      They got a loan from J.P. Morgan, the head of a Wall Street syndicate (company financed railroads, banks, and insurance companies).  The bankers agreed to lend the government $65 million in gold, with a commission of $7 million (they got ½ of the gold abroad)

                                                           iv.      This temporarily solved the problem

XVIII.    The Election of 1896

a.       President Cleveland’s Mistakes

                                                               i.      Secretive dealings with J.P. Morgan was a sellout of the national government

                                                             ii.      Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894 -

1.      Bill intended to lower tariffs, but it was loaded with so many special-interest protections that it only made a small dent in the high McKinley Tariff rates

2.      Allowed a 2% income tax for salaries over $4,000

                                                            iii.      Bill was struck down as a violation of the “direct tax” clause in the Constitution (direct taxes must be collected according to population, not income)

                                                           iv.      People claimed that the Supreme Court was a tool of plutocrats (the rich)

b.      1894 Congressional Election

                                                               i.      The tariff that had dislodged the Republicans out of the House in 1890 now dislodged the Democrats in 1894

                                                             ii.      Republicans won 244 seats, while only 105 for the Democrats

c.       Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, and Cleveland

                                                               i.      Forgettable presidents

                                                             ii.      Didn’t solve the following issues:

1.      Tariff

2.      Money question

3.      Rights of labor groups