History of USA Gilded Age & Progressive Era (1877-1917) Brief Overview People & Qs
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Brief Overview
Gilded Age Politics
Politics in the Gilded Age were intense. In the years between 1877 and 1897, control of the House of Representatives repeatedly changed hands between the Democratic and Republican parties. Political infighting between the Stalwart and Half-Breed factions in the Republican Party prevented the passage of significant legislation. During this era, the political parties nominated presidential candidates that lacked strong opinions—possibly to avoid stirring up sectional tensions so soon after the Civil War.
“The Forgotten Presidents”
Some historians have dubbed Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison the “forgotten presidents.” Indeed, it might be argued that the most notable event that occurred during the Gilded Age was the assassination of President Garfield in 1881. His death prompted Congress to pass the Pendleton Act, which created the Civil Service Commission two years later. This commission reformed the spoils system, which had rewarded supporters of a winning party with “spoils,” or posts in that party’s government.
Industrialization and Big Business
The Civil War had transformed the North into one of the most heavily industrialized regions in the world, and during the Gilded Age, businessmen reaped enormous profits from this new economy. Powerful tycoons formed giant trusts to monopolize the production of goods that were in high demand. Andrew Carnegie, for one, built a giant steel empire using vertical integration, a business tactic that increased profits by eliminating middlemen from the production line. Conversely, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company used horizontal integration, which put competitors out of business by selling one type of product in numerous markets, effectively creating a monopoly. These “captains of industry” cared little for consumers and did anything they could to increase profits, earning them the nickname “robber barons.”
Railroads
Railroads were the literal engines behind this era of unprecedented industrial growth. By 1900, American railroad tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt had laid hundreds of thousands of miles of track across the country, transporting both tradable goods and passengers. The industry was hugely profitable for its leaders but riddled with corrupt practices, such as those associated with the Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1871. When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of corrupt railroads in the Wabash case, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 to protect farmers and other consumers from unfair business practices.
Organized Labor
Organized labor did not fare nearly as well as big business during the Gilded Age, as most Americans looked down on labor unions during the era. The first large-scale union, the National Labor Union, was formed just after the end of Civil War, in 1866. Workers created the union to protect skilled and unskilled workers in the countryside and in the cities, but the union collapsed after the Depression of 1873 hit the United States. Later, the Knights of Labor represented skilled and unskilled workers, as well as blacks and women, in the 1870s, but it also folded after being wrongfully associated with the Haymarket Square Bombing in 1886.
Despite these setbacks for organized labor, workers continued to strike, or temporarily stop working, for better wages, hours, and working conditions. The most notable strikes of this era were the Great Railroad Strike, the Homestead Strike, and the Pullman Strike, all of which ended violently. The more exclusive American Federation of Labor, or AFL, emerged as the most powerful union in the late 1880s.
Urbanization and Immigration
As profits soared, so did America’s standard of living. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, millions of Americans left their farms and moved to the cities, which were filled with new wonders like skyscrapers, electric trolleys, and lightbulbs. Nearly a million eastern and southern European immigrants arrived in America each year, settling primarily in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago. These new immigrants crowded into the poorest neighborhoods, the cities’ crime- and disease-ridden slums. Political machine bosses like William “Boss” Tweed in New York preyed on immigrants, promising them public works projects and social services in exchange for their votes.
A growing middle class spurred a late-nineteenth-century reform movement to reduce poverty and improve society. Reformer Jane Addams, for example, founded Hull House in Chicago to help poor immigrant families adjust to life in America. The success of Hull House prompted other reformers to build similar settlement houses in the immigrant-clogged cities of the eastern United States.
The West
The American West also underwent radical transformations. Railroads allowed more and more Americans to travel from overcrowded eastern cities and settle out West. Within a twenty-year period, American settlers had slaughtered more than 20 million bison, nearly causing the animal’s extinction. Many Native American tribes of the West, including the Sioux, Fox, and Nez Percé, deeply resented white settlers’ disregard for their land and primary food supply and began to attack the settlers. After a number of bloody battles, skirmishes, and massacres, the U.S. Army subdued the Native American population, herding them onto reservations. In an effort to “Americanize” Indians, Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887, which forbade Native Americans from owning land.
The Populist Party
The Depression of 1873, which effectively dissolved the National Labor Union, also threatened many new settlers in the Midwest. Plagued by steep railroad fares, high taxes under the McKinley Tariff, and soaring debt, thousands of small farmers banded together to form the Populist Party in the late 1880s. The Populists called for a national income tax, cheaper money (what Populists called “free silver”), shorter workdays, single-term limits for presidents, immigration restrictions, and government control of railroads.
Cleveland’s Second Term
In 1892, Grover Cleveland defeated Republican incumbent Benjamin Harrison and Populist candidate James B. Weaver in 1892 to become the only U.S. president ever to serve two nonconsecutive terms. Although Cleveland’s first four years were free of any major change, his second term was a tumultuous one. The Depression of 1893 hit the U.S. economy hard, forcing Cleveland to ask Wall Street mogul J. P. Morgan for a loan of more than $60 million. In 1894, more than 500 protesters in “Coxey’s Army” marched on Washington demanding cheaper money and debt relief. Despite Morgan’s loan, Cleveland was unable to put the economy back on track, and it cost him the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1896.
The Election of 1896
In 1896, Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan, the “Boy Orator,” after he delivered his famous “Cross of Gold” speech demanding free silver. Because Bryan incorporated much of the Populist platform into his own, the Populists chose to endorse him rather than their own candidate. Meanwhile, Republicans nominated Senator William McKinley from Ohio on a pro-business, anti–free silver platform. McKinley’s campaign manager, Marcus “Mark” Hanna, worked behind the scenes to convince powerful business leaders to back several key Republican candidates. As a result, McKinley won the election of 1896, effectively killing free silver and the Populist movement.
The Spanish-American War
McKinley’s greatest challenge as president was the growing tension between the United States and Spain over the island of Cuba. Spanish officials had suppressed an independence movement in Cuba, its most profitable Caribbean colony, and forced Cuban men, women, and children into internment camps. “Yellow journalists” like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer published sensational stories about the atrocities in Cuba, partly to increase their papers’ circulation but also to provoke American ire for the Spanish. Although McKinley did not want go to war, he felt compelled to do so, especially after the mysterious explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor, which he blamed on Spain.
The war itself was over within a matter of weeks, but during that time, the United States seized the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, thanks in part to future U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. After the war, American forces withdrew from Cuba according to the Teller Amendment but also forced the new Cuban government to sign the Platt Amendment, giving the U.S. Navy a permanent military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The passage of the Foraker Act, meanwhile, granted Puerto Ricans limited government; they would not receive collective U.S. citizenship until 1917.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick Policy
McKinley won the election of 1900 with Roosevelt as his running mate but was assassinated by an anarchist less than six months into his second term. As a result, Roosevelt took office as one of the youngest presidents in American history. Despite his youth, Roosevelt proved to be a “bully” with his Big Stick diplomacy. One of his most important policies, the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, declared that only the United States, not Old World powers, had the authority to interfere with Latin American affairs. Roosevelt’s secretary of state, John Hay, drafted the Open Door Notes, which asked that Japan and the European powers respect China’s territorial status and fair trade. Roosevelt went on to take over Colombia’s northernmost province, Panama, in order to secure America the right to build the Panama Canal. Toward the end of his presidency, Roosevelt also toured with the Great White Fleet, a group of U.S. Navy battleships, around the world in a symbolic display of force.
Roosevelt and Progressivism
Roosevelt was just as active at home as he was abroad. During his presidency, America had become increasingly urbanized and industrialized. The Progressive movement, which formed as a response to the rapid social and economic growth and change that was taking place, helped spawn a new era of social reform. Muckrakers—journalists who wrote about political and industrial corruption as well as social hardships—had significant influence on Roosevelt, who outlined a package of domestic reforms called the Square Deal, which were meant to protect consumers, tame big business, support the labor movement, and conserve the nation’s natural resources.
Congress, meanwhile, passed the Elkins Act and Hepburn Act to regulate the railroads and the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act to regulate food inspection and sanitation. Congress passed the acts, in part, after the popularity of Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, which exposed unsanitary meatpacking practices. Roosevelt also supported strikers in the Anthracite Strike, prosecuted several trusts under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and signed the 1902Newlands Act, selling lands in the West to fund irrigation projects.
Taft’s Presidency
Roosevelt’s friend and handpicked successor William Howard Taft promised to carry out the rest of Roosevelt’s progressive policies if he were elected president. After winning the election of 1908, however, Taft proved to be more of a traditional conservative than most had expected. Although he continued progressive policy by prosecuting more trusts than his predecessor, in a more conservative vein than Roosevelt he signed the steep Payne-Aldrich Tariff in 1909 and fired conservationist Gifford Pinchot from the forestry division. Many Republican Progressives, including his former friend Roosevelt, denounced Taft as a traitor to the movement. When Republicans nominated Taft again in 1912, Roosevelt left the convention and entered the presidential race as the candidate for the new Progressive Republican or Bull Moose Party.
Wilson’s First Term
With two feuding party leaders splitting the Republican vote, Democrat Woodrow Wilson managed to win the presidential election. Also a Progressive, Wilson championed a new group of reforms, the New Freedom, which regulated big business, further supported the labor movement, and reduced tariffs. In 1913, he signed the Underwood Tariff, which was lower than Taft’s, and also reformed the national banking system with the Federal Reserve Act. The following year, Wilson passed the Clayton Anti-Trust Act to replace the much weaker Sherman Act of 1890, which was riddled with loopholes. Other progressive bills he signed into law included the Warehouse Act, the La Follette Seaman’s Act, the Workingman’s Compensation Act, and the Adamson Act. Wilson also ordered General John “Blackjack” Pershing to invade Mexico in 1916 to pursue the bandit Pancho Villa.
Key People
Jane Addams
Social activist who founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889 to help immigrants improve their lives in the city’s slums. Addams won the Nobel Prize for Peace for her efforts, which raised awareness of the plight of the poor and opened up new opportunities for the advancement of American women.
Chester A. Arthur
Vice president under James A. Garfield who became the twenty-first U.S. president in September 1881 after Garfield was assassinated. As president, Arthur refused to award Stalwarts federal posts and helped legislate civil service reform by signing the Pendleton Act in 1883.
William Jennings Bryan
Nebraska congressman who gave the famous “Cross of Gold” speech and was the Democratic Party nominee for president in the election of 1896. Known as the “Boy Orator,” Bryan was the greatest champion of inflationary “free silver” around the turn of the century. Although he never left the Democratic Party, he was closely affiliated with the grassroots Populist movement. The Populist Party later chose to back him in the election of 1900. Bryan ran for president in 1896, 1900, and 1908 but lost every time.
Andrew Carnegie
Scottish immigrant who built a steel empire in Pittsburgh through hard work and ruthless business tactics such as vertical integration. Carnegie hated organized labor and sent in 300 Pinkerton agents to end the 1892Homestead Strike at one of his steel plants. He eventually sold his company to Wall Street financier J. P. Morgan, who used it to form the U.S. Steel Corporation trust in 1901. Around the turn of the century, Carnegie became one of the nation’s first large-scale philanthropists by donating more than $300 million to charities, hospitals, libraries, and universities.
Grover Cleveland
Former Democratic governor of New York and both the twenty-second and twenty-fourth U.S. president—the only U.S. president ever elected to two nonconsecutive terms. During his rocky second term, Cleveland unsuccessfully battled the Depression of 1893, sent federal troops to break up the Pullman Strike in 1894, and had to ask J. P. Morgan to loan the nearly bankrupt federal government more than $60 million in 1895. Cleveland’s inability to end the depression helped give rise to the Populist movement in the mid-1890s.
Eugene V. Debs
Labor supporter who helped organize the Pullman Strike in 1894. Debs later formed the Socialist Party in the early 1900s and ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1908 against William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan.
James A. Garfield
Twentieth U.S. president, elected in 1880, who spent less than a year in office before he was assassinated. The assassin was a Republican Stalwart who wanted Garfield’s vice president, Chester A. Arthur, to become president. Garfield’s death compelled Congress to pass the Pendleton Act in 1883 to reform civil service.
Benjamin Harrison
Twenty-third U.S. president, elected in 1888, and the grandson of ninth U.S. president William Henry Harrison.
William McKinley
Powerful Ohio congressman and twenty-fifth U.S. president. As a member of Congress, McKinley managed to pass the McKinley Tariff in 1890, which raised the protective tariff rates on foreign goods to an all-time high. In 1896, he ran for president on a pro–gold standard platform against Democrat William Jennings Bryan; McKinley’s campaign manager, Mark Hanna, and wealthy plutocrats ensured that McKinley won the presidency. Although McKinley personally opposed the Spanish-American War, he asked Congress to declare war against Spain in 1898, fearing that the Democrats would unseat him in the next presidential election. He signed the Gold Standard Act in 1900 and was reelected later that year, but an anarchist assassinated him in 1901.
J. P. Morgan
A wealthy Wall Street banker who saved the nearly bankrupt federal government in 1895 by loaning the Treasury more than $60 million. Morgan later purchased Andrew Carnegie’s steel company for nearly $400 million and used it to form the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901.
John D. Rockefeller
Industrialist who founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. An incredibly ruthless businessman, Rockefeller employed horizontal integration to make Standard Oil one of the nation’s first monopolistic trusts.
Theodore Roosevelt
Twenty-sixth U.S. president, who took office after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt, already famous for his aggressive policies, continued them as president both at home and abroad. His domestic policies, collectively known as the Square Deal, sought to protect American consumers, regulate big business, conserve natural resources, and help organized labor. His Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe Doctrine asserted American influence and power in Latin America. Although Roosevelt endorsed William Howard Taft in 1908, he split the Republican Party by running against Taft in 1912 on the Progressive Party, or Bull Moose Party, ticket.
William Howard Taft
Theodore Roosevelt’s handpicked successor and the twenty-seventh U.S. president. Taft, elected in 1908 on a Progressive platform, ultimately alienated himself from his fellow Republicans by supporting the Payne-Aldrich Tariff and firing conservationist Gifford Pinchot. He and Roosevelt split the Republican Party in the election of 1912, giving Democrat Woodrow Wilson an easy victory.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
A wealthy, corrupt railroad tycoon and innovator. Vanderbilt was one of the first in the industry to make rails out of steel instead of iron and also established a standard gauge for his railroads. Despite these innovations that led to the improvement of the railroad industry, he and his son were notorious “robber barons” who issued unfair rebates, hiked rates arbitrarily, and cared little for American consumers.
Woodrow Wilson
Twenty-eighth U.S. president of the United States. Wilson entered the White House in 1913 after defeating Republican incumbent William Howard Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt. Wilson’s New Freedom domestic policies called for lowering the protective tariff and taming big business.
Terms
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
An umbrella organization for smaller independent unions founded and headed by labor organizer Samuel Gompers. The AFL protected only skilled workers and had a limited membership of a half a million workers around the turn of the century. It fought businesses for higher wages, shorter workdays, and improvements in the work environment.
“Cross of Gold” Speech
Speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the Democratic presidential nominating convention in 1896. In the speech, Bryan railed against the gold standard and proposed to issue paper money that would be backed by silver. Though he lost the election, his speech is regarded as one of the finest speeches ever delivered in American politics.
Depression of 1893
A depression caused by over-speculation, depressed agricultural prices, and weakened American credit abroad. The worst depression in America since the 1870s, the Depression of 1893 hit farmers hard and left millions in the cities without work. President Grover Cleveland’s inability to end the depression caused social unrest and helped strengthen the Populist Party’s following.
Gospel of Wealth
A social doctrine espoused by many wealthy businessmen during the Gilded Age that justified the growing income gap between rich and poor by arguing that God blessed the industrious with riches.
Half-Breeds
A faction within the Republican Party during the 1870s and 1880s that exploited the spoils system. The Half-Breeds, led by congressman James G. Blaine of Maine, engaged in a rivalry with the Stalwarts that weakened the Republican Party and ultimately played a part in the assassination of President James A. Garfield.
Haymarket Square Bombing
An explosion in the middle of a labor strike in Chicago’s Haymarket Square in 1886. Although investigators later concluded that anarchists had detonated the bomb, the American people quickly placed blame on the strikers. The bombing brought an end to the union group the Knights of Labor.
Horizontal Integration
A business tactic, often employed by Gilded Age businessmen, that seeks to put competitors out of business by selling one type of product in various markets. Another way to accomplish horizontal integration is to buy these competing companies and limit consumer access to a particular commodity, thereby creating a monopoly.
Hull House
A social settlement founded by Jane Addams in the slums of Chicago in 1889. Hull House attempted to improve life for the city’s impoverished immigrants by offering them classes, counseling, and day-care services.
Interstate Commerce Act
A bill passed in 1887 to restrict corrupt practices in the railroad industry. The act outlawed uncompetitive rebates and forced railroad companies to publish their prices outright. Congress passed the bill in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Wabash case. The act also created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to ensure that the railroad companies adhered to the new law.
Knights of Labor
An all-inclusive union founded in 1869 for skilled and unskilled American laborers, men and women, black and white. The Knights of Labor replaced the National Labor Union. When the union was falsely implicated in the 1886Haymarket Square Bombing in Chicago, it ended up losing thousands of its members.
USS Maine
A U.S. Navy ship that exploded mysteriously in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, in 1898. Although historians have since concluded that a boiler accident caused the ship to explode, yellow journalists published sensationalist stories about the incident that quickly led the American public to believe that agents from Spain had sabotaged the ship. The destruction of the Mainepushed the United States and Spain closer to the Spanish-American War.
McKinley Tariff
A bill passed in 1890 that was one of the highest tariffs in U.S. history, increasing the tax on foreign goods to approximately 50 percent. The tariff was highly unpopular among farmers in the Midwest and South, who over the next few years voted out many Republicans who had supported the bill, including President Benjamin Harrison. The tariff’s unpopularity also helped widen the influence of the Populist Party.
Muckrakers
Exposé writers who informed the public about many corporate evils and social injustices in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many muckraker articles and books, such as Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, pushed the U.S. government to launch reform campaigns and contributed to the Progressive movement.
New Freedom
President Woodrow Wilson’s comprehensive package of domestic policies that sought to lower tariffs, regulate trusts, and protect organized labor.
Open Door Notes
A group of notes sent by Secretary of State John Hay to Japan and several European powers, requesting that they respect Chinese rights and the policy of free trade. Hay sent the First Open Door Note in 1899, fearing that the United States would be excluded from lucrative trade rights in Asia. He drafted the Second Open Door Note in 1900, partly to ensure that the major European powers would recognize China’s territorial integrity, and partly because he feared that Europe would use the violence of the 1900Boxer Rebellion as a justification for colonizing China.
Pendleton Act
Bill passed after President James A. Garfield’s assassination in 1881 that created the Civil Service Commission. The commission administered competitive examinations to civil service workers to reform the spoils system.
Populist Party
Political party founded in 1891 by farmers in the Midwest who were suffering from the ill effects of high, pro–big-business tariffs. The Populists campaigned for shorter workdays, nationalization of public utilities, direct election of senators, the recall and referendum, a one-term limit for presidents, and cheap paper money backed by silver (at a ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold). Although William Jennings Bryan’s loss in the election of 1896 broke up the party, Populist ideals endured and later coalesced into the Progressive movement.
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
President Theodore Roosevelt’s addendum to the Monroe Doctrine, which effectively declared that only the United States could intervene in the affairs of Latin America. Roosevelt made the declaration in 1904 to prevent Britain, Germany, Italy, and other European nations from forcibly collecting unpaid debts in Latin America.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
A bill passed by Congress in 1890 that was intended to ban big business monopolies. Ironically, lawmakers used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to prosecute more labor unions than corporate monopolies during the 1890s. Roosevelt and Taft later used the act to prosecute dozens of trusts like Standard Oil and the U.S. Steel Corporation. In 1914, the tougher Clayton Anti-Trust Act replaced the Sherman Act, eliminating many of the older act’s loopholes.
Social Darwinism
The application of Charles Darwin’s theories of natural selection to a business-oriented society. Beginning in the 1880s, a growing number of scholars and business leaders began to view social problems through the lens of Darwin’s theories. These Social Darwinists argued that the new self-made captains of industry were wealthy because they had proven themselves to be the best among men. Conversely, the theory also implied that the poor remained poor because of their own inferiority.
Square Deal
The collective term for Theodore Roosevelt’s set of progressive domestic policies, which aimed to regulate big business, help organized labor, protect consumers, and conserve the country’s dwindling natural resources.
Stalwarts
A faction within the Republican Party during the 1870s and 1880s that exploited the spoils system. The leader of the Stalwart faction was Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York. The Stalwarts’ rivalry with the Half-Breeds, another Republican faction during this time period, weakened the Republican Party significantly.
Vertical Integration
A business strategy, often used by Gilded Age tycoons, that attempts to insulate a company from competition by integrating every aspect of production into a single company, thus eliminating middlemen. Steel baron Andrew Carnegie, for example, owned coal and iron fields, railroads, shipping companies, and marketing interests that were involved in the transportation and sale of his steel. By eliminating expensive middlemen, businessmen like Carnegie could secure more profit for themselves.
Wabash Case
An 1886 Supreme Court ruling that declared that only the federal government could regulate interstate commerce. The case prompted Congress to pass the Interstate Commerce Act a year later.
Study Questions
How did railroads change American society, politics, and economy in the post–Civil War era?
Railroads completely transformed the United States socially, politically, and economically during the Gilded Age. Literally the engine of the new industrialized economy, they facilitated the speedy transportation of raw materials and finished goods from coast to coast. In addition to raw materials, these “iron horses” carried people west to settle the heartland and the frontier. As the railroads grew in power, they exerted increasing influence on local and state governments, eventually prompting Congress and reform-minded presidents to pass laws to regulate the new industry.
After the Civil War, rail tycoons such as Cornelius Vanderbilt capitalized on the conversion of their iron tracks to steel, which allowed them to lay more track for only a fraction of the cost. As a result, by 1900, the United States boasted almost a quarter of a million miles of railroad track. In turn, steel magnates such as Andrew Carnegie benefited from the increased demand for steel and responded by producing more. As consolidation and innovation streamlined costs, it became cheaper and faster to ship raw materials, manufactured goods, foodstuffs, and oil via rail than by steamship.
Railroads transported people, too, and contributed, more than any other single factor, to the transformation and development of the West. Although more than a million Americans had moved westward in the days of “manifest destiny” before the Civil War, trains brought millions more throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. Railways made it physically and economically feasible for Americans to settle Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma in large numbers. At the same time, the decimated population of native grassland bison testified to the negative consequences of this drastic transformation of the Midwest.
As railroad companies grew in power, they exerted more and more influence on local politics and economics. Unscrupulous “robber barons” extorted the public by charging outrageous rates, distributing uncompetitive rebates to preferred customers, accepting bribes and kickbacks, and discriminating against small shippers. Public discontent with the railways emerged in small farming communities throughout the Midwest—a discontent that ultimately helped form the backbone of the populist movement. Populists, like the socialists of the early twentieth century, wanted to curb railroad corruption by nationalizing all lines.
Even though Populism eventually faded, cries for railroad reform did not, prompting the federal government to take action. In 1887, for example, Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which supervised railroad companies that operated in more than one state by outlawing unfair rebates and ordering companies to publish fares up front. The Elkins Act of 1903 and the Hepburn Act of 1906 strengthened the ICC by restraining railroad companies further. In addition, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of James Hill’s and J. P. Morgan’s Northern Securities Railway in 1904.
Railroads thus transformed American society, politics, and economy unlike any other invention during the Gilded Age. They allowed big business to prosper and people to settle the West and Midwest. Ultimately, public reaction against the railroad barons’ uncompetitive business practices formed the backbone of the reform-minded Populist and Progressive movements around the turn of the century.
Many historians believe that the election of 1896 was the most critical election of the post–Civil War years. Do you agree with this assessment? How did the election change American politics?
The election of 1896 was one of the most critical elections of the nineteenth century. William McKinley’s victory over William Jennings Bryan brought an end to the Populist movement, ensured financial stability that helped industrialization, and ushered in a new era of Republican conservatism that lasted for nearly forty years. In addition, the election demonstrated the importance of money in national politics and the support of urban voters.
William Jennings Bryan’s decision to incorporate much of the Populist Party platform into the Democratic Party platform effectively put an end to the Populist movement. Particularly important was Bryan’s call for inflationary free silver to help impoverished farmers in the South and Midwest pay off their debts. Populist leaders chose to unite with Bryan and the Democrats rather than try to win with a third party candidate of their own. Although Bryan represented the best choice for winning that particular election, the Populist Party’s support of him deprived them of their own platform and ultimately pushed many farmers permanently in line with the Democratic Party. The Populist Party never recovered and eventually dissolved completely.
However, both Populists and Democrats failed to realize that farmers no longer constituted the bulk of the American population. Even though the United States had been a predominantly agrarian country since the American Revolution, the industrialization and immigration of the Gilded Age shifted the population balance toward the cities. Bryan’s appeal for inflationary silver worried urban residents, who relied on steady wages, and the free silver issue ultimately cost him the election. Consequently, the election of 1896 marked the last time a presidential candidate from a major party tried to win by appealing to agricultural interests. McKinley, on the other hand, appealed to American city dwellers, promising economic stability and a “full dinner pail” for every American. His sound money policies, which kept big business booming and the economy growing, ultimately helped the United States become the greatest industrialized nation in the world.
The election of 1896 also demonstrated the growing importance of money in American politics. With more than $15 million, McKinley had more money to spend on his campaign than any of his predecessors. He also had Mark Hanna, his wily campaign manager, who successfully convinced business tycoons to donate to the campaign. McKinley won the election in part because of his ability to spend more money, prompting many Democrats to accuse the former senator of “buying” his presidency.
Just as significantly, McKinley’s victory ushered in a period in American politics dominated by Republican conservatism. In fact, Republicans controlled the White House for all but eight years between 1897 and 1933. Their fiscal conservatism and laissez-faire attitude toward the economy helped the American economy grow even further.
What were the causes of urbanization during the Gilded Age? What consequences did this urban revolution have on politics, the economy, and society?
Rapid immigration, along with the explosion of Americans moving from farms to the cities, caused an urban boom during the Gilded Age. The growth of cities gave rise to powerful political machines, stimulated the economy, and gave birth to an American middle class.
Civil wars and persecution prompted many southern and eastern Europeans to flee their homelands in search of better lives in America between the 1880s and 1920s. During these years, approximately a million immigrants from Italy, Greece, Russia, Poland, and other countries arrived in eastern U.S. cities every year. In addition to the influx of immigrants, millions of country-dwelling Americans moved to the cities to escape poverty.
The urban explosion contributed significantly to the rise of powerful political machines that became synonymous with the Gilded Age. Political bosses like William “Boss” Tweed in New York City accumulated power and wealth by preying on insecure immigrants living in the cities’ poorest slums. In exchange for their votes, bosses promised to provide social services, new public projects, and sometimes even physical protection. These political machines grew incredibly powerful well into the twentieth century and came to dominate local politics and even influence national politics. Nearly every U.S. president between Grant and Truman could trace their roots back to local and state party machines.
The shift in population from the countryside to the cities also changed the way presidential candidates campaigned, as demonstrated by William McKinley’s victory over William Jennings Bryan in 1896. McKinley was able to secure the urban vote, which led him to victory, whereas Bryan wrongly assumed that the majority of the voting public was still in America’s countryside.
The economy benefited greatly from the influx of immigrants and farmhands to the cities. Factory owners especially benefited from immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, who, eager to make a new start in America, often worked inhumane hours for meager wages and rarely threatened to unionize. The availability of such cheap labor contributed to the economic boom during the Gilded Age and throughout the early twentieth century.
The urban explosion, furthermore, contributed to the growth of a distinctive American middle class. Not rich but not poor either, a growing number of Americans could afford to live comfortably and enjoy the modern conveniences of Gilded Age life. The increasing number of middle-class women led to the reform movement of the late nineteenth century. Many of these women strove to eliminate poverty and right other social wrongs, such as drinking, prostitution, and gambling. Jane Addams, Lillian Wald, and other women founded settlement houses in urban slums to help immigrants improve their lives in the New World. This early reform movement served as the roots of the broader Progressive movement that dominated American politics after the turn of the century.
The veritable explosion in population between the 1880s and 1920s in eastern cities thus completely transformed American politics, society, and the economy. Politicians began campaigning harder in cities run by political machines, cheap labor fueled economic growth, and a distinctive American middle class emerged that would eventually spearhead the progressive movement.
