DOCSLIB.ORG

Urban Political Machines

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Urban Political Machines Good, bad and ugly POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE THE GILDED AGE The Gilded Age in United States history is the late 19th century, from the 1870s to about 1900. The term was coined by writer Mark Twain in The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873), which satirized an era of serious social problems masked by a thin layer of gold leafing THE EMERGENCE OF THE POLITICAL MACHINE Late 1800’s Cities experience rapid growth under inefficient government Influenced by Social Darwinism 1. Cities receptive to a new power structure 2. The political machine 3. Run by the city boss WHAT IS A POLITICAL MACHINE? An organized group that controls the activities of a political party. City Boss May or may not be mayor Controlled access to municipal jobs & business licenses Influenced courts & other municipal agencies Ward Bosses & Precinct Captains First or Second generation immigrants WHAT IS A POLITICAL MACHINE? It offers favors to voters in exchange for votes FAVORS: Help finding jobs Emergency housing after fire Help with the law Free food and beer at block parties for machine candidates Some help for new immigrants GRAFT (the illegal use of office for personal gain) Bosses steal elections (through intimidation & fraud) Kickbacks Favors to business in exchange for $$$ WILLIAM “BOSS” TWEED Head of Tammany Hall’s “political machine” 1863 – 1871 Tweed Ring stole millions from NYC 50% of NYC bills phony Court house $350,000 estimate, but cost $13,000,000 Indicted in 1871 on 120 counts of fraud & extortion Escaped prison ‘73, captured in Spain ‘75 TWEED VS. THOMAS NAST Cartoonist Thomas Nast depicts corruption of Tweed Ring in Harpers Weekly. THOMAS NAST CARTOONS, CONTINUED THOMAS NAST CARTOONS, CONTINUED THOMAS NAST CARTOONS, CONTINUED THOMAS NAST CARTOONS, CONTINUED THOMAS NAST CARTOONS, CONTINUED THOMAS NAST CARTOONS, CONTINUED PATRONAGE VS CIVIL SERVICE Patronage- (Spoils system) Gov jobs go to political supporters. Result is some unqualified people in gov. Result is some corrupt people in gov. Reformers- demand merit system Civil service jobs to qualified people only REFORM AT FEDERAL LEVEL Rutherford B. Hayes (R) 1877— starts civil service reform Couldn’t convince Congress to support reform Named independents to his cabinet Fired clerks who had nothing to do Fired C. A. Arthur (R) at NY Customshouse These actions enraged NY politicians and Stalwarts (party bosses) 1881 ELECTION Like the Republican Party of today, the G.O.P. during the 1880's was extremely divided and in decline Stalwarts - saw political machines as a good tool in staying in power Half-breeds - moderate group / believed in Civil Service reform Mugwumps - viewed the single most important issues being civil service reform, returning from to the gold standard and reducing or eliminating tariffs REFORM AT FEDERAL LEVEL James A. Garfield (R) 1881- “independent” in reform debate A compromise between Stalwarts, Half-breeds and Mugwumps makes Chester A. Arthur the VP Gave reformers jobs instead of Stalwarts’ ‘cronies’ Assassinated by spurned office seeker, Charles Guiteau Arthur becomes President CHARLES GUITEAU REFORM AT FEDERAL LEVEL C. A. Arthur 1881- patronage guy turns reformer Pendleton Civil Service Act 1883: federal job appointments based on exam score . Few at first – 40% by 1901 - 90% by 2000 . Public administration becomes more honest and efficient . Big business influence over gov’t grows Grover Cleveland 1885- a Democrat! (first time in 28 years) . Tried to lower tariff. FAILED. Benjamin Harrison 1889- Republican again . Signed McKinley Tariff Act – highest tariffs ever REFORM AT FEDERAL LEVEL Grover Cleveland 1893 – Elected a second time Only President elected to non-consecutive terms Supported a bill for lowering McKinley Tariff --- but refused to sign it since it also provided for a federal income tax (bill passed even w/o president’s signature) .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • George Edmunds of Vermont: Republican Half-Breed
    As much as any U. S. Senator of the post-Civil War genera­ tion, George F. Edmunds represents the character, ideas, and influence of a particular wing of the Republican Party.... George Edmunds of Vermont: Republican Half-Breed By RICHARD E. WELCH, JR. AMONG the major New England politicians of the post-Civil War J-\. generation, one of the more elusive is George F. Edmunds of Vermont. A United States senator torm 1866 to 1891, he was recognized by leaders of both parties as one of the hardest workers iri the senate and perhaps its ablest constitutional lawyer. After his retirement from politics, he was a highly successful corporation lawyer, a prominent spokesman for the Anti-Imperialist movement of 1898-1900, and a family monarch until his death in 1919 at the age of ninety-one. His was a full and an active life, but it has received little attention from historians. There exists no biography of Edmunds, nor even a biographi­ cal notice later than the publication of the Dictionary of American Biography in 1931. He has faded into the shadow-land reserved for the footnote figures of American history. One reason for this is the absence of a collection of "Edmunds Papers." There is a strong correlation between the size of a man's documentary legacy and the fascination he holds for historians. Ed­ munds left orders that all his personal papers be burned upon his death, and they were. There are, of course, other possible reasons for Edmunds' neglect by the historical profession. The biographer who seeks a colorful subject would not find Edmunds attractive.
    [Show full text]
  • Uniting Mugwumps and the Masses: the Role of Puck in Gilded Age Politics, 1880-1884
    Uniting Mugwumps and the Masses: The Role of Puck in Gilded Age Politics, 1880-1884 Daniel Henry Backer McLean, Virginia B.A., University of Notre Dame, 1994 A Thesis presented to 1he Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of English University of Virginia August 1996 WARNING! The document you now hold in your hands is a feeble reproduction of an experiment in hypertext. In the waning years of the twentieth century, a crude network of computerized information centers formed a system called the Internet; one particular format of data retrieval combined text and digital images and was known as the World Wide Web. This particular project was designed for viewing through Netscape 2.0. It can be found at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/PUCK/ If you are able to locate this Website, you will soon realize it is a superior resource for the presentation of such a highly visual magazine as Puck. 11 Table of Contents Introduction 1 I) A Brief History of Cartoons 5 II) Popular and Elite Political Culture 13 III) A Popular Medium 22 "Our National Dog Show" 32 "Inspecting the Democratic Curiosity Shop" 35 Caricature and the Carte-de-Viste 40 The Campaign Against Grant 42 EndNotes 51 Bibliography 54 1 wWhy can the United States not have a comic paper of its own?" enquired E.L. Godkin of The Nation, one of the most distinguished intellectual magazines of the Gilded Age. America claimed a host of popular and insightful raconteurs as its own, from Petroleum V.
    [Show full text]
  • Politics in the Gilded Age
    Politics in the Gilded Age MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Terms & Names Local and national political Political reforms paved the way •political machine •James A. Garfield corruption in the 19th for a more honest and efficient •graft •Chester A. Arthur century led to calls for government in the 20th century •Boss Tweed •Pendleton Civil reform. and beyond. •patronage Service Act •civil service •Grover Cleveland •Rutherford B. •Benjamin Hayes Harrison One American's Story Mark Twain described the excesses of the late 19th centu- ry in a satirical novel, The Gilded Age, a collaboration with the writer Charles Dudley Warner. The title of the book has since come to represent the period from the 1870s to the 1890s. Twain mocks the greed and self-indulgence of his characters, including Philip Sterling. A PERSONAL VOICE MARK TWAIN AND CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER “ There are many young men like him [Philip Sterling] in American society, of his age, opportunities, education and abilities, who have really been educated for nothing and have let themselves drift, in the hope that they will find somehow, and by some sudden turn of good luck, the golden road to fortune. He saw people, all around him, poor yesterday, rich to-day, who had come into sud- den opulence by some means which they could not have classified among any of the regular occupations of life.” —The Gilded Age ▼ A luxurious Twain’s characters find that getting rich quick is more difficult than they had apartment thought it would be. Investments turn out to be worthless; politicians’ bribes eat building rises up their savings.
    [Show full text]
  • Tenements City Sanitation
    Growing Pains Tenements Tenements helped answer the growing demand for housing in major urban centers throughout the mid-1800s and early 1900s. While more affluent city residents were relocating to more desirable areas, immigrants were flooding into America’s cities. New York’s Lower East Side especially became the landing point of countless immigrant families. Former single-family homes were retrofitted and subdivided to accommodate multiple families. In some instances, new floors were added to the tops of the buildings and additions were added onto the backs to accommodate more people. At the same time, new tenement buildings were quite literally on the rise. Most tenements were five to seven stories tall, twenty-five feet wide, and one hundred feet deep. Buildings were built as close together as possible in an effort to maximize space. This resulted in limited air circulation. Most rooms in tenement buildings received no natural light. To make matters worse, the buildings were built quickly and inexpensively with poor or no plumbing and, in many instances, no fire escapes. Tenements facilitated the rapid spread of disease, as in 1849 when some five thousand people died from cholera in New York City. The proximity of these buildings, as well as their poor ventilation and building materials, also made them susceptible to fire. This was the case in Chicago in 1871 when a fire destroyed numerous city blocks. There were some early efforts to regulate tenements in the late 1860s, including the Tenement House Act that required buildings to have a minimum of one toilet for every twenty occupants.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Party Machines of the 1920S and 1930S: Tom Pendergast and the Kansas City Democratic Machine
    Political Party Machines of the 1920s and 1930s: Tom Pendergast and The Kansas City Democratic Machine. BY JOHN S. MATLIN. A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of American and Canadian Studies, School of Historical Studies, University of Birmingham. September, 2009. Table of Contents. Page No. Acknowledgments. 3. Abstract. 5. Introduction. 6. Chapter 1. A Brief History of American Local Government until the end of the Nineteenth Century. 37. Chapter 2. The Fall and Rise of Political Party Machines in the Progressive Era. 51. Chapter 3. Theories of Political Party Machines and Their Core Elements. 81. Chapter 4. “Bossism”: The Need for Strong Leadership. 107. Chapter 5. Patronage: The Boss’s Political Capital and Private Profit. 128. Chapter 6. Challengers to the Machine: Rabbi Mayerberg, The Charter League and Fusion Movement. 145. Chapter 7. Challenges from the Press. The Self-Appointed Role of Newspapers as Moral Watchdogs. 164. Chapter 8. Corruption: Machines and Elections. 193. Chapter 9. Corruption: Machine Business, Organized Crime and the Downfall of Tom Pendergast. 219. Chapter 10. Political Party Machines: Pragmatism and Ethics. 251. Conclusion. 264. Bibliography. 277. 2 Acknowledgments It is a rare privilege to commence university life after retirement from a professional career. At the age of 58, I enrolled at Brunel University on an American Studies course, assuming that I would learn little that I did not already know. My legal life had taken me to many of the states of America numerous times over the previous forty years. My four years at Brunel as an undergraduate and post-graduate opened my eyes about the United States in a way I had not thought possible.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unitary Executive During the Second Half-Century
    THE UNITARY EXECUTIVE DURING THE SECOND HALF-CENTURY * STEVEN G. CALABRESI ** CHRISTOPHER S. YOO I. INTRODUCTION .....................................................668 II. THE UNITARY EXECUTIVE DURING THE JACKSONIAN PERIOD, 1837-1861 .........................669 A. Martin Van Buren .................................................670 B. William H. Harrison ..............................................678 C. John Tyler...............................................................682 D. James K. Polk..........................................................688 E. Zachary Taylor.......................................................694 F. Millard Fillmore.....................................................698 G. Franklin Pierce.......................................................704 H. James Buchanan .....................................................709 III. THE UNITARY EXECUTIVE DURING THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1869 ..................................717 A. Abraham Lincoln....................................................718 B. Andrew Johnson.....................................................737 C. The Tenure of Office Act and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson .................................................746 IV. THE UNITARY EXECUTIVE DURING THE GILDED AGE, 1869-1889................................759 A. Ulysses S. Grant ....................................................759 B. Rutherford B. Hayes...............................................769 C. James A. Garfield....................................................780 D. Chester
    [Show full text]
  • Accidental Presidents and the Vice Presidency 1 Presented to the Department O
    1 The Inadvertent Inheritors of the Moon and Stars: Accidental Presidents and the Vice Presidency 1 Presented to the Department of Government in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree with honors of Bachelor of Arts Harvard College March 2013 1This title is inspired by Vice President Harry S. Truman’s statement upon hearing the news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death: “I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.” 2 Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction ................................................................................. 3 Research and Methodology ................................................................................................. 8 Thesis Statement ................................................................................................................... 8 Significance .......................................................................................................................... 13 Overview.............................................................................................................................. 16 Chapter Two: Theoretical Discussion and Literature Review ....................... 17 Literature Review ................................................................................................................ 17 Theory Building and Discussion of Variables ................................................................ 21 Theory Summation ............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Political Machines and Progressive Reforms
    Read and study the sources about political machines, corruption, and Progressive reforms. Then use the four sources and your knowledge of U.S. history to answer the questions. Source 1 Excerpt from To Hold Your District: Study Human Nature and Act Accordin’ by George Washington Plunkitt This excerpt is from a speech given by George Washington Plunkitt, a member of the Tammany Hall machine, who also served as a state senator between 1884 and 1904. THERE’s only one way to hold a district: you must study human nature and act accordin’. To learn real human nature you have to go among the people, see them and be seen. I know every man, woman, and child in the Fifteenth District . I know what they like and what they don’t like, what they are strong at and what they are weak in, and I reach them by approachin’ at the right side. What tells in holdin’ your grip on your district is to go right down among the poor families and help them in the different ways they need help. I’ve got a regular system for this. If there’s a fire in Ninth, Tenth, or Eleventh Avenue, for example, any hour of the day or night, I’m usually there with some of my election district captains as soon as the fire engines. If a family is burned out I don’t ask whether they are Republicans or Democrats, and I don’t refer them to the Charity Organization Society, which would investigate their case in a month or two and decide they were worthy of help about the time they are dead from starvation.
    [Show full text]
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt Was the Only US President to Be Elected Four Times
    Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. President (1882–1945) Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to be elected four times. He led the United States through the Great Depression and World War II. Synopsis Born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio in 1921. He became the 32nd U.S. president in 1933, and was the only president to be elected four times. Roosevelt led the United States through the Great Depression and World War II, and greatly expanded the powers of the federal government through a series of programs and reforms known as the New Deal. Roosevelt died in Georgia in 1945. Early Life Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, into a wealthy family. The Roosevelts had been prominent for several generations, having made their fortune in real estate and trade. Franklin was the only child of James Roosevelt and Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt. The family lived at Springwood, their estate in the Hudson River Valley in New York State. While growing up, Franklin Roosevelt was surrounded by privilege and a sense of self-importance. He was educated by tutors and governesses until age 14, and the entire household revolved around him, with his mother being the dominant figure in his life, even into adulthood. His upbringing was so unlike the common people who he would later champion. In 1896, Franklin Roosevelt attended Groton School for boys, a prestigious Episcopal preparatory school in Massachusetts. The experience was a difficult one for him, as he did not fit in with the other students.
    [Show full text]
  • Who Is Judge Truman?"
    "WHO IS JUDGE TRUMAN?": THE TRUMAN-FOR-GOVERNOR MO VEM ENT OF 1931 FRANKLIN D. MITCHELL According to his detractors, Harry S. Truman was an obscure county judge elevated to the eminence of United States Senator by the powerful Pendergast political machine. This characterization of Truman's rise in politics has received corrective revision in the work of able biographers and scholars. Far from being a political unknown when he won his first senate race in 1934, Truman had awide circle of acquaintances in both met­ ropolitan Kansas City and rural Missouri. Furthermore, while his success in 1934 rested to a considerable degree upon the support of Tom Pender­ gast1 s organization in Kansas City, Truman's own assets played an impor­ tant role in his nomination and election to the United States Senate. * But one important episode in Truman's rise to prominence in politics has been neglected. In 1931 friends of Jackson County's popular presiding judge participated in a movement to secure for Truman the 1932 gubernato­ rial nomination of Missouri Democrats.2 By making both Truman and his record well known to outstate Missourians, his supporters hoped to impress leading Democrats — especially Kansas City boss Tom Pendergast — with 3 the desirability of backing the judge from Independence for governor e Tru­ man himself took an active part in the spirited effort friends made in his behalf during the spring of 1931, but Pendergast's support and the Demo­ cratic gubernatorial nomination went to Francis M. Wilson, the party's unsuccessful nominee for governor in 1928. Although limited in scope and destined for failure, the Truman-f or-Governor boom nevertheless repre­ sented a significant step upward in Truman's rise to political prominence.
    [Show full text]
  • JB APUSH Unit
    GildedGilded AgeAge PoliticsPolitics Third Party System (1860-1896) ▶ Antebellum and Post War Issues(1854-1877) ▶ Post Reconstruction Issues (1877-1896) ▶ Slavery and Emancipation ▶ Civil Service Reform ▶ Reconstruction policies ▶ Tariffs and Protectionism ▶ Gold Standard and Silver ▶ Populist Party ▶ Democrats ▶ Republicans . Platform . Platform ▶ Pro-slavery ▶ Radical Reconstruction ▶ States’ rights; laissez-faire ▶ Pro-business; tariffs; protectionism . Factions . Factions ▶ Bourbon Democrats ▶ Stalwarts . Pro-business Democrats . Preserve spoils system and machine politics . Supported civil service reforms ▶ Half-Breeds ▶ Redeemer Democrats . Pursued civil service reform . Coalition ▶ Mugwumps . Independents discouraged with corrupt GOP ▶ White Southerners, Catholics, . Coalition Lutherans, Jews, Immigrants, working class ▶ Business, upper-class, middle-class, Northern WASPs, reformers, blacks, ▶ Solid South scalawags, carpetbaggers ▶ Northeast and West Election of 1868 ▶ Ulysses S. Grant (R) ▶ Horatio Seymour (D) Ulysses S. Grant (R) (1869-1877) ▶ Civil War hero, but no political experience; linked with moderates and Radicals ▶ Grantism . Credit Mobilier ▶ Union Pacific Railroad creates dummy construction company to hire execs at inflated salaries and earn high dividends ▶ Sold stock to Republican congressmen and bribed press to keep quiet . Whiskey Ring ▶ Republicans embezzled liquor tax revenues using bribes and networks ▶ Amnesty Act of 1872 ▶ Panic of 1873 Election of 1872 Panic of 1873: The Long Depression ▶ Causes . Expansion of railroads, enterprises in industries and mines outpaces market demand . Coinage Act of 1873 ▶ Demonetizes silver contracting the money supply ▶ “Crime of 73” . Jay Cooke & Company bankrupt ▶ Major financing investment firm leads to chain reaction of banks ▶ Effects . Over 100 railroads fail; 16,000 businesses fail ▶ Unemployment at 14% “Election” of 1876 Samuel Rutherford B. Tilden (D) Hayes (R) ▶ Republicans struggle to nominate “boring” Rutherford B.
    [Show full text]
  • Harry Truman: One Tough Son-Of-A-Bitch of a Man
    22 # Harry Truman: One Tough Son-of-a-Bitch of a Man DAVID McCuiLOUGH When he learned that Roosevelt had died and that he was now president of the United States, Truman told a group of reporters: "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me." He did not want to be president, and he certainly did not look like one: though cheery and brisk and always dressed in a spotless suit "as if he had just stepped from a band- box, " as his wife said, he was short, slight, and plain looking, wore thick spectacles, spoke in a Missouri twang, and radiated ordinariness. But, as a friend said, behind that plain-looking facade was "one tough son-of-a-bitch." Though not privy to Roosevelt's war strategy and military secrets, Truman stepped into the job with alacrity and confi- dently made decisions that led the country to victory in the Second World War. In the postwar world, he faced a vortex of difficulties that would have daunted a lesser man. At home, the United States had to demobilize its vast military forces and convert wartime industry back to peacetime production. Abroad, the Allied victory proved to be a victory without peace. For out of the muck and rubble of the Second World War emerged a Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West that threatened the very survival of humankind.
    [Show full text]