The Gilded Age Asa Henley, Jai Williams, Nathan Bardo Gilded Age
The gilded age is the period after the American civil war and before World War I, that saw the United States economy grow quickly. During this period U.S politics, and government as a whole, were dominated by powerful tycoons, like J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller. Politics during this time suffered from mass corruption. John Pierpont Morgan
● Born April 17, 1837 in Hartford, Connecticut to Junius and Juliet Morgan
● In 1854 he graduated from a Boston high school
● Left for Europe and learned but french and german in only three years
● Returned in 1857 to start his financial career J.P. Morgan
● A few years after his return he was drafted into the military for the civil war but bought his way out with a substitute
● To earn a little extra money during the war morgan bought rifles for $3.50 a piece and sold them to generals for $22 a piece
● In 1892 Morgan took interest in electricity and merged Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to make General Electric Saving the Government
● Three years after the making of General Electric Morgan got word that the U.S. Government was running low on gold reserves
● Morgan wanting more money decided to buy $62 million worth of U.S. bonds with gold
● President Cleveland realized what he was doing but had no choice but to agree
● The economy was saved and Morgan was able to sell the bonds he bought for a huge profit U.S. Steel
● In 1901 Morgan talked to Carnegie the owner of Carnegie Steel in order to make a deal to buy it
● Carnegie agreed to sell it for $492 Million dollars
● Morgan took Carnegie Steel and merged it with several other companies to make U.S. Steel the world's first billion dollar company Pujo Committee
● In 1912 Morgan was called to testify because he was accused of being a part of “Money Trust”
● Money Trust was a group of Wall Street financiers who aimed to control American banking and industry
● These meeting brought about the creation of the Federal Reserve System and the Clayton Antitrust act of 1914
● Morgan died one year later on March 31 1913 Jean Strouse
''His authority -- in his office, over railroads, in the world's capital markets -- came not from what he said but from what he did. He took responsibility but demanded complete authority. He insulated himself from people who thought differently and was deaf to the agrarian protest movements that flared up during the 1880's and 1900's.”
She is an American biographer, cultural administrator, and critic.
She wrote a book called Morgan: American Financier that was about Morgan A new attitude towards wealth
Wealth was a big portion to why people like J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie were hated so much and there were a few reasons why
One reason was because of the rather new idea being spread around known as Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is an idea that promotes the strong saying they were “better fitted” to survive in the new economic world and that the common man or jobless man was just lesser or inadequate compared to the big business tycoons. Cont.
● Because of this idea, this angered many people and gave the businessman a bad reputation for being stuck up snobs and bad people, even though they were not all that bad a people.
● Charles Darwin (The creator of the theory of Darwinian Evolution) was highly upset that his theory which he used to explain where The human species had derived from was being used in an economical or business sense. Paul Johnson
He said “because of our social instincts, we must bear without complaining the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind."
He is an English journalist, historian, speechwriter and author.
He wrote a book on Darwin and Social Darwinism called Darwin: Portrait of a Genius Cool Ancestor
● Born: October 24, 1867
● He urged for Vigilantes to keep an eye on politicians because of the fear that politicians were lying about platforms
● He was the leader of the New Jersey Taxpayers committee and the New York Shipbuilding company.
● He also butted heads The deal President Roosevelt put in action that added a minimum wage.
Politics in the ● The presidents of the Gilded Age were coined the nickname, “Forgettable Gilded Age Presidents”, because of how imperfect and tainted their presidencies were seen.
● These presidents include the likes of Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, and his vice president Chester Arthur.
● The three branches of government were dominated mostly by the legislative branch, or congress. The “Forgettable Presidents”
● Andrew Johnson, to many people, was as a horrible president. Being the first president to be impeached from office, one could see why.
● Ulysses S. Grant cabinet was littered with corruption. Even though he was a vital part of the Union’s victory over the confederacy, his presidency was looked down upon. The Forgettable Presidents Questions
1.What did J.P. Morgan do during the civil war to earn some extra cash?
A. Start a bank
B. Blackmail his old classmate
C. Buy rifles for cheap and sell them expensive
D. None of the above
2. Why did Morgan take an interest in electricity?
A. He wanted to put Rockefeller out of business
B. He was scared of the dark
C. It was a new way for him to make money
3. How did Morgan use the lack of gold reserves to his own advantage?
A. He bought bonds for cheap and sold them for a lot after saving the economy More Questions
4. What is Social Darwinism?
A. The same thing as evolution
B. The idea that the strong are better fitted to surive
C. When people gain brid like attributes
5. Why were The Gilded Age Presidents “Forgettable”?
A. They didn’t stay president very long
B. Their presidencies were imperfect and tainted
C. They couldn't remember much information
6. Who was the first president to be impeached?
A. Andrew Johnson
B. Ulysses S. Grant Questions
7. Why was Morgan called to the Pujo Committee?
A. He killed a man
B. He was accused of being a “Money Trust”
C. He stole someone's identity
8. Why was Darwin mad at the idea of Social Darwinism?
A. He thought he had a copyright on the idea but was sadly mistaken
B. The idea was meant for animals and not business and politics
C. Darwin didn’t want people to get the wrong idea about Darwin’s Finches
9. What was the first Billion Dollar Company?
A. General Electric
B. U.S. Steel Questions
10. Why were rich tycoons like Morgan and Carnegie hated so much?
A. They were rich
B. They had good families
C. They wouldn’t hire anybody that wasn’t also rich Works Cited %7CPPQSTR203680479&windowstate=normal &limiter=AC+y&displayGroups=&action=e&documentId=GALE =1&zid=5ebbe22408a1632497b8dbe56fb8bf78&u=down87562 p=UHIC%3AWHIC&mode=view&catId=&view=docDisplay&total E+Anthracite+Coal+Strike%2C+1902&prodId=UHIC&source=& sWindow?displayGroupName=Videos&currPage=1&query=OQ http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/VideosDetailsPage/VideosDetail http://www.history.com/topics/john hn_pierpont_morgan http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/jo http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/morganbonds.html - pierpont - morgan