I. The Structure and Style of Politics
  A. Campaigns and elections
    1. The public enthusiastically participated in political campaigns and elections.   
    2. Campaign pageantry enthralled large and small communities.
    3. Virtually all men participated in politics including immigrants and blacks.
    4. Political parties mobilized the high electorate through detailed records, ensuring registrations, and  transporting voters to the polls.
    5. The election process was open and partisan but not necessarily corrupt.
  B. Partisan politics
    1. Democrats and Republicans enjoyed an almost even balance of support which made them work hard to get out the vote.
    2. Party affiliation was determined by a mix of regional, ethnic, religious, and local factors. Republicans were strongest in the North and Midwest, Democrats in the South and urban Northeast.
    3. Republicans were identified with nationalism and national unity, while Democrats favored limited government and personal liberties.
    4. There was little room for third parties that typically focused on specific issues or groups.
Map: The Two-Party Stalemate of the Late Nineteenth Century
  C. Associational politics
    1. Associations of people with similar opinions operated outside the electoral arena but played significant roles on politics.
    2. The Grange, for example, campaigned for Granger laws to help farmers but remained nonpartisan. The Mugwumps lobbied for civil service reform.
    3. Women were active in politics, especially through the National American Woman Suffrage Association founded in 1890 and social service organizations.
    4. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union gained a massive following.

II. The Limits of Government
  A. The weak presidency
    1. The impeachment of President Johnson weakened the presidency. Presidents viewed their duties as administrative.
  B. The inefficient Congress
    1. Congress was the most powerful branch of the national government. Early in the period, Congress was inefficient but as more national legislation was required, it reformed its procedures and structure.
  C. The federal bureaucracy and the spoils system
    1. The federal bureaucracy remained small and was criticized as being corrupt and inefficient.   
  D. Inconsistent state governments
    1. State governments were more active than the federal government.

III. Public Policies and National Elections
  A. Civil service reform
    1. Reform of the spoils system gained momentum during the Hayes administration.
    2. Reformers wanted a professional civil service based on merit that was divorced from politics.
    3. The assassination of President James Garfield by a disappointed office seeker prompted the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Act that emphasized merit and skill in government appointments.

  B. The political life of the tariff
    1. The tariff issue was hotly debated in the late 1800s. It was linked to partisan, ideological, and regional concerns.
    2. The Republican Party was committed to industry and championed protective tariffs.
    3. Democrats espoused a laissez-faire approach and favored tariff reduction.
    4. The political disagreement was over how much the tariff should be and whom should be protected.
    5. McKinley Tariff Act
  C. Beginnings of federal regulation
    1. Interstate Commerce Act
    2. Sherman Antitrust Act
  D. The money question
    1. Monetary policy was the most divisive political issue of the late nineteenth century.
    2. Creditors, bankers, conservative economists and many business  leaders supported a sound money policy to ensure economic stability, maintain property values, and retain investor confidence. Farmers and other debtors wanted to expand the money supply to match the nation’s growing population and economy.   
    3. The conflict on money focused on the use of paper currency and silver coinage. Silver became the prominent issue in the 1880s and divided Southerners and Westerners against Eastern conservatives.

IV. The Crisis of the 1890s
  A. Farmers protest inequities
    1. The agricultural depression of the late 1880s mobilized farmers.
    2. Farmers protested that the system of money and credit worked against agriculture. Monetary deflation worsened the debt burden of farmers.
    3. High railroad rates and protective tariffs also were targets of farmer reforms.
    4. Farmers organized the Farmers’ Alliance in the South and from the Great Plains to the Pacific Coast. The Alliance tried to establish cooperative and developed new ideas to solve rural credit and currency problems.

  B. The People’s Party
    1. In 1890, state-level third parties ran populist campaigns and gained control of two state legislatures and won several congressional elections.  Later gains included two governorships and more congressmen and state legislators.
    2. The People’s Party was organized in 1892 and ran  on the Omaha Platform.
    3. Though meeting disappointments, the People’s Party received over one million votes, carried several western states, and won hundreds of state office throughout the West and some areas of the South.

  C. The challenge of the depression
    1. A long, harsh depression began in 1893 that worsened the position of the farmers and led to labor unrest and violence.
    2. The major political parties did not respond to the crisis and President Cleveland refused to listen to appeals for reforms.
    3. The unemployed rallied around Jacob Coxey’s call for a march on Washington. While many Americans were sympathetic to the plight of the unemployed, the government suppressed Coxey’s Army.
    4. The federal government protected big business from labor unrest through court decisions and legislation.

  D. The battle of the standards and the election of 1896
    1. Unpopular actions and the continuing depression alienated workers and farmers from the Cleveland administration and the Democratic Party. Silver was the major issue in the 1896 election.
    2. McKinley won the Republican nomination on a platform that supported high tariffs and the gold standard.
    3. The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan on a silver platform, undercutting the People’s Party who also nominated Bryan.
    4. The campaign was intense and dramatic. Bryan was the first presidential candidate to campaign systematically for election, but he lost the election to McKinley.
    Map: The Election of 1896,

V. Conclusion
•    Politics and government often seemed at cross purposes in the late 1800s.
•    The localism, laissez-faire, and other traditional political and governmental principles were becoming increasingly inappropriate for America’s industrializing society.
•    By the end of the 1890s, the Republicans had emerged as the dominant party, a new activist presidency was emerging, and the stage was set for the Progressive Era of reform.