6.13

Period 6: 1865-1898, Topic 13- Politics in the Gilded Age

Student Learning Objective- Explain the similarities and differences between political parties during the Gilded Age.

James Garfield- 60 Second Presidents

1. Who were the Stalwarts?

2. What happened to Garfield and why?

Chester Arthur- 60 Second Presidents

3. Why did Garfield choose Arthur as a VP?

4. What did people think Arthur might do when he became president?

5. What did Arthur do regarding patronage?

Historical developments:

  • Patronage led to cities run by political machines and political bosses
  • Roscoe Conkling and the Stalwarts
  • James Garfield's assassination
  • Chester Arthur and the Pendleton Civil Service Act
  • Populism
  • Populism pg 427

“The [political] machine represented the dominant urban political institution of the late nineteenth century. . . . Bosses purchased voter support with individual economic inducements such as offers of public jobs. . . . The machine sustained itself by exchanging material benefits for political support. . . .

“By 1890 Irish bosses ran most of the big-city Democratic machines constructed in the 1870s and 1880s. . . . By 1886, the Irish held 58 percent of the seats on the San Francisco Democratic party central committee. . . . 61 percent of the Tammany Society [political machine in New York City] were Irish in 1890.

“. . . What accounts for their unusually high group political participation rates? The Irish capture of the urban Democratic party depended on a large Irish voting bloc. In city after city the Irish mobilized politically much more quickly than other ethnic groups. Irish naturalization and voter registration rates were the highest of all the immigrant groups.

“[In the 1860s] Radical Republicans captured control of the New England and Middle Atlantic states. . . . [They] pursued a program of electoral and institutional reform in the eastern states with urban Democratic (and Irish) strongholds. Rather than weakening the embryonic Democratic city organizations, the Radical attack succeeded in strengthening these machines. The election of pro-machine Democratic governors in states such as New York, New Jersey, and California further aided Irish machine building.”

Steven P. Erie, historian, Rainbow’s End: Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840-1985, published in 1990

Discussion Question #1- What did the Democrats and Republicans have in common s far as city politics during the Gilded Age?

Discussion Question #2- What normally "positive" phenomenon was occurring for the Irish according to the excerpt?

Discussion Question #3- What "negative" phenomenon was occurring as a result?

When asked if he was a boss, James Pendergast said simply, "I've been called a boss. All there is to it is having friends, doing things for people, and then later on they'll do things for you... You can't coerce people into doing things for you—you can't make them vote for you.  Anytime you see a man bulldoze somebody, they don't last long..."

https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/14183/DorsettAldJImPen.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Discussion Question #4- Some urban areas with strong Irish voter turnout did not have an Irish ruling political machine. "Big Jim" Pendergast of KC, MO helped Irish, Italians and African Americans.  What did he say about "Patronage" (spoils system) and the typical city connections in politics?


Discussion Question #5- How was Boss Tweed portrayed in the 2 above political cartoons?

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=48

Discussion Question #6- What is your opinion of the Pendleton Civil Service Act?

HW- Read Chapter 23 of the American Pageant.  Quiz is Monday, September 11.

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