The Politics of Equilibrium- Hayes to Teddy

• Intense Voter Loyalty to the Two Major Political Parties
  • Well Defined Voting Blocs
    • Democratic Bloc
      • white southerners
      • Catholics
      • Recent immigrants (especially Jews)
      • Urban working poor (pro labor)
      • Most farmers
      • City Political Machines
    • Republican Bloc
      • Northern Whites (pro-business)
      • African Americans
      • Northern Protestants
      • Old WASPs (support for anti-immigrants laws)
      • most of the middle class
      • State Political Machines
    • Which has the strangest collection? Larry thinks the Democrats, which leads to party disunion.
  • Very Laissez Faire Federal Governement
    • from 1870-1900 the government did very litter domestically
    • Main duties
      • Deliver the mail
      • maintain a national military
      • collect taxes and tariffs
      • conduct a foreign policy
    • Exception was to administer the annual Civil War veterans' pension
  • The Presidency as a Symbolic Office
    • Party bosses ruled everything, including the President
    • Presidents should avoid offending any factions within their own party
    • Congress ran the political operations, there weren't many vetoes during this time
    • The President just doled out federal jobs; in other words, the leader of the spoils system
• The Election of 1876 (see the Reconstruction Notes)
• Highlights of Hayes
  • Introduction
    • The thing about being a one term president, is that you can do anything you want since you're not trying to be elected
    • Hayes's wife Lucy cleared the White House of alcohol
  • Lived up to the Compromise of 1877
    • remove federal troops from the South
    • put David M Key as Post Master General
    • put money towards internal improvements in the South
  • Attacked the Patronage System
    • Appointed a liberal crusader Carl Schurz as Secretary of Interior based on merit. Schurz cleaned up the BIA (Beaureau of Indian Affairs)
    • Removed Alonzo Cornell and Chester A. Arthur as directors of the NY Customs House
  • Great Strike of 1877
    • Hayes sent Federal Troops when the BNO RR company cut wages by 10% and the workers went on a strike
  • Vetoed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1879
    • Hayes vetoed not because he loved the Chinese, but because is violated the Burlingame Treaty of 1868 (he refused to give in to Denis Kearney and his Nativist followers from the West).
  • Hayes and Secretary of Treasury John Sherman- The Money Issue
    • Hayes vs. the Greenbackers
      • No help from the Supreme Court
        • In 1869 the Supreme Court said that it was ok for the president to print paper money in times of need in the case Hepburn vs Griswold.
        • Two years later the court reversed their decision in the "Legal Tender Cases"
      • Specie Resumption Act of 1875
      • "Day of Redemption" was on January 1, 1879 where you could turn in your paper money for gold
        • Peter Cooper and the Greenback Labor Party wanted to never exchange paper for gold.
        • General James B Weaver ran in 1880 for the presidency (Greenback Labor Party is like Populist Party)
• Garfield Asasination
  • Charles Guiteau was the assassin. Supposedly he shouted, "I am a Stalwart, and Arthur is now President." He shaved and mapped out the bumps on his head before he was executed, which is the early pseudo science called phrenology.
• The Arthur Interlude
  • Introduction
    • had a lot of guilt from the way he was elected to president
    • a widower
    • friends with Mark Twain
    • was very concerned with appearances- 80 pairs of pants.
  • Pendleton Act of 1883 (Civil Service Reform Act)
    • even though Arthur was seen as a symbol of the spoils system, he signed this act
    • The "Magna Carta" of Civil Service Reform Act
    • Competitive Exams
    • appointment on the basis of merit
    • In 1883, this applies to 10% of federal jobs, and in 1900, 50% of jobs were selected on merit. Today its something like 90%.
  • Modern US Navy (1883) Another Arthur Claim to fame
    • no more wooden ships, 100% steel and rifled guns
    • US took the title from GBR, who took it from Spain before that
• 1884 Presidential Election
  • Candidates
    • James Blaine- Republicans (leader of the half breeds)
    • Grover Cleveland- Democrats
    • Hey wheres Arthur?
      • he made his party really angry since he signed the Pendleton Act
      • also, he was dying of a Bright's liver disease
  • A very dirty election with lots of name calling.
    • The Mulligan Letters: supposedly Blaine had taken payment and stock from a railroad guru. The Mulligan Letters supposedly proved this true.
    • "Grover the Good" was a popular nickname for Cleveland, until he was accused of fathering an illegitimate child.
  • New York and Indiana were the two important swing states
  • The solid south was still in existence
  • The Mugwumps, who were in the Republican party got mad since the half breeds elected their presidential candidate. The Mugwumps left the Republican party and brought secrets of "Honest" John Kelley, the leader of Tammany Hall, and all of Blaine's weaknesses to the Democratic Party. Grover wins the presidency.
  • Delmonico's Restaurant, NYC
    • led a delegation of ministers to Blaine in NYC
    • reference to the Democratic Party, "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion"
    • Blaine didn't respond until later, so the Republicans took this as Blaine agreeing to the statement.
    • The Irish got mad at this statement and all turned up to vote against Blaine.
• Cleveland's First Term
  • Introduction
    • the veto governor from New York was one of his nickname's
    • vetoed a very popular bill to reduce railroad fares
    • continued to attack Honest John Kelley, the leader of Tammany Hall
    • "His own man"
    • First Democratic elected since 1856
    • "A public office is a public trust."
    • A laissez faire presidency (a Bourn Democrat and a Classical Liberal)
      • opposed bills to assist the poor as well as the rich
      • vetoed over 200 special pension bills for Civil War veterans (Dependent Pensions Bill of 1887) Did the GAR see to his defeat in 1888?
  • Issues and Events
    • Presidential Succession Act of 1886 was a significant departure from the Presidential Succession Act of 1793 when Washington was president.
      • This changed because of all the assassinations, as well as the fact that Cleveland had a tumor on the top of his mouth.
      • The people see the presidency as a completely separate branch from the legislative. Instead of the presidency moving from the executive branch to the legislative branch with the speaker of the house (like it does today), the line of succession goes through the cabinet first.
    • Dawes Severalty Act of 1887
      • divided the reservations up into 160 acre farm packages to make the Indians like the white people
    • Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
      • Cleveland went against his nature and signed this Act. It was hard for him since he is laissez faire/classical liberalist.
    • Hatch Act of 1887
      • This act was an extension of the Morril Land Grant Act that provided specifically for agricultural experiment stations. This established schools like NC State and Virginia Tech.
    • Vetoed the Dependent Pensions Act of 1887
      • Cleveland vetoed the act because of his conscience and made the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) mad because he wouldn't supply money for veterans.
    • Tried to raise the tariff after the civil war
      • This was silly because if you want to bring up something controversial, you should do it in the beginning of your presidency.
      • Big business wants to continue this; consumers obviously did not.
      • Tariff of 1883 or the Mongrel Tariff (first overall revision, but rates stayed the same)
      • in 1885 tariffs earned the US $100 million in surplus. Cleveland believes that this tariff is too high!
      • Mugwumps opposed high tariffs cause it hurt the peeps
      • The tariffs become a major issue in the 1888 election
• 1888 Election
  • Grover Cleveland- Democrat
  • General Benjamin Harrison- Republican
    • Senator Matthew Quay, who was the PA Pol. Boss. Remember that Republicans typically dominate on the State level and Democrats dominate on a city level.
    • Quay literally had men standing outside of the voting polls handing out money to people who voted for Harrison.
  • Results of the Election were basically what you would think
    • Solid South again: voted Democratically
    • 233-168 in favor of Harrison
  • Frances Folsom Cleveland married Cleveland in the White House. The first president to marry in the White house! This is where Baby Ruth chocolate comes from; Ruth was the first born in the White house.
• Harrison as a puppet
  • The "Billion Dollar Congress" is a nickname for Harrison's presidency
    • Thomas B Reed (nicknamed Tzar Reed)
    • Senator Majority Leader Nelson W. Aldrich, more on this guy later
  • The Republican Program of 1890: the Republicans are "wheeling and dealing" for the best deal possible
    • Higher tariff bill- help for the farmers
    • Wanted the Silver Purchase Bill to replace the Bland-Allison Act. The republicans didn't mind the purchasing of silver, they just didn't like when silver was currency cause it deflated currency overseas.
    • Voting rights for the southern blacks because of the poll tax/Grandfather clause
    • and Antitrust bill to shut up the people
  • The Results of the "Compromise of 1890"
    • the McKinley Tariff of 1890: not only slowed down overseas trade, but it cost the Republicans money. The tariff also paid a two cent bounty to people in the US who experimented with sugar. This encouraged people to "steal" Hawai'i, which we did.
    • Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
      • Purchased is underlined because thats all the government did. The silver was not even being made into coins or currency, is was just to keep the farmers happy.
    • The Henry Cabot Lodge Voting Bill was meant to protect the southern black voters, but it is thrown out since they realized that they needed the support of the Southern Democrats. The same year that this compromise is made, the poll tax starts in 1890. What a coincidence! (its not).
    • Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was just to keep the farmers and the people happy. This Act was all fluff and no substance.
    • Programs that drained the surplus
      • "Corporal" James Tanner and the GAR (Grand Army of the Republicans, the biggest lobby group of their time) got their money, which was a reversal of the Dependent Pensions Act of 1890.
      • The government gave ALL Civil War income taxes back to the Northerners
      • Lots of "pork" for everyone. Aka there were lots of pork barrel bills and handing out of money.
      • Let's buy lots of silver and pay someone to dust it!
• Oddities for Harrison
  • He was afraid of electricity, so he kept a servant with him at all times to turn the light switches on and off.
  • His "new" bride Mary Dimmick Harrison