Immigration,
Industrialization &
Urbanization
Immigration
The United States has always been a nation of immigrants. After
the Civil War, however, industrialization drew an even greater
flood of immigrants.
From 1865 to l900, some 13.5 million people arrived from
abroad. Not until the 1920s would the numbers begin to dwindle.
Immigration to the United States can be divided into three stages.
Colonial Immigration
This period lasted from the arrival of the first people from
England through the Declaration of Independence.
People from England made up the largest part of these
immigrants. However, Scotch-Irish, German, Swedish, and Dutch
also came in significant numbers. Large numbers of Africans
were also part of the colonial immigration.
Colonial Immigration
REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION
Some came seeking political and religious freedom. Others
sought to improve their economic standing and their way of life.
The Africans came unwillingly, as slaves.
Colonial Immigration
AREAS OF SETTLEMENT
English settlement spread along the Atlantic Coast from Maine to
Georgia and inland to the Appalachians.
Within this area, other ethnic groups became concentrated in
certain regions. For example, many Dutch settled in New York
and New Jersey, many Germans in Pennsylvania, and many
Scotch-Irish in the backcountry areas of the Carolinas. Most
Africans came at first to the Chesapeake region, then spread
through the South.
Colonial Immigration
DIFFICULTIES THEY FACED
Immigrants came into conflict with the Native Americans. They
also had to overcome the challenge of building homes, farms, and
a new way of life in an unfamiliar region.
Colonial Immigration
CONTRIBUTIONS
The immigrants succeeded in establishing a culture much like the
one they had left in Europe, yet heavily influenced by the
geographic factors encountered in North America.
In addition to their language, people coming from England
brought forms of government, religions, family and cultural
traditions, and economic patterns from their home country. Other
groups contributed customs from their home countries. All
worked to build a successful economy in North America.
Old Immigration
The old immigration covered the years from the establishment of
the United States until around 1850. Most immigrants came from
northern and western Europe, especially Ireland, Germany, and
Scandinavia.
Old Immigration
REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION
Massive famine caused by failure of the potato crop drove
millions of Irish immigrants to seek opportunity in the United
States.
Revolution in Germany caused many immigrants to seek peace
and stability in America. Many people continued to arrive in
search of better economic opportunity.
Old Immigration
AREAS OF SETTLEMENT
The Irish largely settled in cities in the Northeast.
Some Germans also stayed in cities, but many moved west to
start farms, as did a large number of Scandinavian immigrants.
Old Immigration
DIFFICULTIES THEY FACED
Irish and German Catholic immigrants often faced hostility on
their arrival in the United States. Some
Americans feared economic competition from the newcomers.
Since at this time the nation was predominantly Protestant,
resentment toward Catholics and Jews was also strong.
Old Immigration
CONTRIBUTIONS
Irish workers helped build railroads and canals and labored in
factories.
Germans and Scandinavians brought, among other things,
advanced farming techniques and new ideas on education such as
kindergarten.
New Immigration
The new immigration covered the time from roughly l851 to
1924.
This period was marked by a shift in sources of immigration to
southern and eastern Europe, especially the nations of Italy,
Poland, and Russia. In addition, substantial numbers of Japanese
and Chinese arrived.
New Immigration
REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION
Hope of greater economic opportunity prompted many of these
immigrants to come to America. Some also came seeking
political freedom. Other groups, such as Russian Jews, sought
religious freedom.
New Immigration
AREAS OF SETTLEMENT
Most of the new immigrants settled in cities, especially industrial
centers and ports, and often were concentrated in ghettos, or
urban areas (usually poor) that are dominated by a single ethnic
group.
Asian immigrants tended to settle on the west coast, usually in
California.
New Immigration
DIFFICULTIES THEY FACED
Adjusting to life in the United States could cause strains in immigrant families. At
school, immigrant children learned not only English but American tastes and customs.
Immigrant parents often feared that their children were losing their
religious and cultural heritage.
In addition, the growing numbers of new immigrants produced reactions of fear and
hostility among many native-born Americans whose ancestors had come from very
different backgrounds.
Newcomers faced discrimination in jobs and housing.
(As low-wage workers, they also competed against other minority groups, such as
African Americans.) Popular pressure to limit immigration increased.
New Immigration
CONTRIBUTIONS
The new immigrants found an abundance of jobs in the nation’s expanding
industries. Yet the steady stream of incoming workers to fill such jobs kept
wages low.
Young Italian and Jewish girls worked in the sweatshops of the garment
industry.
Poles and Slavs labored in the coal mines and steel mills of Pennsylvania and
the Midwest.
Chinese workers helped build the transcontinental railroad.
These immigrants aided America’s economic expansion and contributed to the
nation’s rich cultural diversity.
Reaction Against Immigration
• The flood of immigration in the late 1800s brought with it a
new wave of nativism.
• Nativism was the belief that native-born Americans and their
ways of life were superior to immigrants and their ways of
life.
• In the late 1800s, descendants of the old immigrants were
often among the nativists protesting the arrival of new
immigrants.
Reaction Against Immigration
• Nativists believed that immigrant languages, religions, and traditions
would have a negative impact on American society.
• Nativist workers believed that the many new immigrants competing for
jobs kept wages low. A series of downturns in the economy added to fears
that immigrants would take jobs from native-born Americans.
• Immigrants thus often met with prejudice and discrimination. Jokes and
stereotypes about the newcomers were common. Nativists also tried to
influence legislation against immigrants.
Immigrants and American Society
Over the years, sociologists and others who studied immigration
developed different theories on how immigrants were absorbed
into the larger society.
Immigrants and American Society
• “MELTING POT” THEORY
• According to this theory, people
from various cultures have met in
the United States to form a new
American.
• The contributions of individual
groups are not easily distinguished.
The resulting culture is more
important than its parts.
Immigrants and American Society
• Assimilation: According to this theory, immigrants
disappeared into an already established American culture,
• They gave up older languages and customs and became
Americanized, adopting the appearances and attitudes of the
larger society in order to be accepted.
• Immigrants from Africa and Asia, who looked least like
nativist Americans, had the hardest time assimilating.
Immigrants and American Society
• Pluralism: This theory recognizes that groups do not always
lose their distinctive characteristics.
• They can live side by side, with each group contributing in
different ways to society.
• This approach is sometimes called the salad bowl theory, since
groups, like different vegetables in a salad, remain identifiable
but create a new larger whole.
Your Task
• You will be asked to create an image of one of
the three immigration theories:
• Melting Pot Theory
• Assimilation
• Pluralism
– You must be able to explain your image.
Reaction Against Immigration
Know-Nothing Party
• The party's members worked
during the 1850’s to limit the
voting strength of immigrants,
keep Catholics out of public
office, and require a lengthy
residence before citizenship.
• Also known as the American party, the Know-Nothing party
achieved none of these goals and died out by the late 18505.
Reaction Against Immigration
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
• Some native-born Americans
labelled immigration from Asia
a "yellow peril."
• Under pressure from California,
which had already barred
Chinese from owning property
or working at certain jobs,
Congress passed this law sharply
limiting Chinese immigration.
Reaction Against Immigration
"Gentleman's Agreement“
• In 1907 President Roosevelt reached an informal agreement
with Japan under which that nation nearly halted the
emigration of its people to the United States.
Reaction Against Immigration
Literacy Tests
• ln 1917 Congress enacted a law barring any immigrant who
could not read or write.
Reaction Against Immigration
Emergency Quota Act of 1921
• This law sharply limited the number of immigrants to the
United States each year to about 350,000.
Reaction Against Immigration
National Origins Act of 1924
This law further reduced immigration and biased it in favor of
those from northern and western Europe.
A New Industrial Age
The Gilded Age
The “Gilded Age” comes from Mark twain and Charles Dudley
Warner who believed this to accurately describe the greed and
corruption that lurked below the polite and prosperous luster of
late 19th America.
A New Industrial Age
Business and Industry
• Business Organization
• Proprietorships – Before the middle of the 19th century,
most Americans businesses were either single
proprietorships with one owner or a
• Partnership – a small business with two or more
owners.
A New Industrial Age
Business and Industry
• Business Organization
• In the years before the Industrial Revolution, the
proprietorship and partnership were workable forms
of business organization.
• However, as American industry and business grew,
facilitated greater amounts of capital, improved
transportation, greater demand for products, and an
available working force, small organizations proved to
be inadequate.
A New Industrial Age
Business and Industry
• Corporations – Following the Civil War, the
corporation became the major form of business
organization.
• By selling part ownerships of the business to the public
through the sale of stocks and bonds, the corporation
was able to raise the necessary capital for operations
and expansions.
• During the 1800’s, to encourage industry and
commerce, states passed general incorporation laws,
through limited liability and protection under the 14th
amendment.
Major Areas of Growth
Transportation
• Railroads – The nation’s first transcontinental railroad
was completed in 1869 with joining of the Central
Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad at
Promontory Point, Utah.
• Automobiles - By 1914, with the help of assembly line
production, 248,000 Fords costing $490 were sold.
• Urban Transportation – Cable cars, elevated tracks
and subways allowed for mass transportation and free
movement.
Major Areas of Growth
Building Materials
• During the late 20th century the U.S. transitioned from
using primarily wood for building structures to using
iron and steel.
• Steel beams allowed for larger building at greater
heights.
Major Areas of Growth
Energy Sources
• Oil – Discoveries of oil reserves in Pennsylvania, and
later in California and Texas, provided a major source
of fuel in the 20th century with the invention of the
internal combustion engine.
• By 1920 the U.S. produced 65% of the world
petroleum, much controlled by John D. Rockefeller and
Standard Oil.
Major Areas of Growth
Energy Sources
• Electricity – Harvard President Charles W. Eliot
pointed out the enormous change electricity brought to
American life saying, “It is the carrier of light and
power; devourer of time and space; bearer of human
speech over land and sea; greatest servant of man.”
• Thomas Edison developed the light bulb and alternate
current to transfer energy over long distances.
Major Areas of Growth
Communication
• Telegraph: developed by Samuel F.B. Morse
• Telephone: In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented
the telephone by 1885 the American Telephone and
Telegraph was organized to put the new invention into
widespread use.
Captains of Industry and the American
Worker
Robber Barons
• Through financial wizardy, stock manipulation, and fierce
competition, these men built corporate dynasties that
eventually threatened the free enterprise system in the U.S.
• Their management of business and the nations resources
also lowered he cost of oil, steel, and other goods for
America’s consumers and helped create the modern
corporation
Captains of Industry and the American
Worker
John D. Rockefeller (1839 – 1937)
• Rockefeller’s fortune was made in the
oil and in 1870 he formed the Standard
Oil Company.
• By the 1880’s his Standard Oil Trust
controlled almost all the nations oil
refineries.
Captains of Industry and the American
Worker
Andrew Carnegie (1835 – 1919)
• Working his way up through the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company, Carnegie became rich investing in oil,
ironmaking, and bridge building.
• The Carnegie Steel Company became America’s largest
steel company.
Captains of Industry and the American
Worker
Henry Ford
• Electrical engineer with Detroit’s Edison Company, Ford
developed and introduced the mass production of
automobiles.
• Copying the meat packing industry, Ford setup assembly
lines to produce automobiles, which greatly reduced the
time and expense of manufacturing cars.
Captains of Industry and the American
Worker
Puritan or Protestant Work Ethic
• The American work ethic can be traced back to the Puritan
settlements of the 1600s in New England
• The Puritans, followers of John Calvin, believed that good
luck and success during one’s life on earth were evidence of
the “elect status” necessary to gain entrance into heaven.
• As Puritans were often anxious about their spiritual state, they
devoted themselves to good works to help get to heaven, and
to hard Work, self-examination, and Bible study, looking upon
laziness and idleness as sure signs of damnation.
Captains of Industry and the American
Worker
Social Darwinism
• After 1870 the economic doctrine of laissez-faire received
additional support from the principle of Social. Darwinism.
• This was the belief that social progress depended upon
competition among human beings resulting in the “survival of
the fittest.”
• Social Darwinism coexisted with the belief that individuals
should be free to manage their property as they pleased and
should not be prevented from entering contracts of their own
choosing, workers and employers alike.
Captains of Industry and the American
Worker
Horatio Alger
• A 19th century American writer, Horatio Alger (1834-1899)
advanced the American dream of success through hard work in
over 100 novels based on the idea that virtue is always
rewarded.
• By leading an exemplary life entailing a valiant struggle with
poverty and temptation, Alger’s heroes all come to wealth and
honor.
• His works were quite popular and left a strong mark upon the
character of a generation of American youth.
Business Practices and Government
Laissez Faire Invisible Hand
• The principle of laissez-faire can be traced to Adam Smith’s
Wealth of Nations.
• By the late 1800’s three characteristics of laissez faire were
prevalent in the American economy.
• Labor should find its price in the market
• The value of money should be subject to an automatic
mechanism (use of gold standard)
• Goods should be free to flow from country to country
without restriction.
Business Practices and Government
Business Combinations (legal and illegal)
As competition among business during the second half of the
19th century cut prices and profits, businesspeople sought
ways to reduce price wars and increase profits.
Business Practices and Government
Business Combinations (legal and illegal)
A trust was a formal and permanent agreement.
Stockholders of competing companies would turn their stocks
and voting rights over to a central board of trustees who
controls the member companies to eliminate competition.
a). The result of the trust agreement was a monopoly, or near
total control, of an industry.
John D. Rockefeller, in an attempt to reduce competition in
the oil industry, was the first to employ the trust arrangement
with the formation of the Standard Oil Company.
Business Practices and Government
Business Combinations (legal and illegal)
• b. mergers – when two or more companies are joined,
resulting in a single corporation, a merger has taken place
• In the final decades of the 1800’s mergers and
consolidation took place in many industries, including
sugar, steel, machinery, tobacco, and copper.
• As combinations began to have adverse effects on
American society, the U.S. government began to consider
intervention.
Business Practices and Government
Business Combinations (legal and illegal)
• c. holding companies – In their efforts to avoid
combinations and mergers that had been declared illegal,
business people turned to the holding company.
• This arrangement included a central “holding company”
which brought a sufficient number of voting stocks in
different companies, resulting in the ability to control
“subsidiaries.”
Business Practices and Government
Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890
• In a response to increasing pressure to halt the domination
of the market by a small number of powerful corporations,
Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
• The provisions of the act included
• 1)that every contract, combination ,or conspiracy in
restraint of trade among the states or with foreign
countries was illegal
• 2) that persons guilty of monopolizing trade or
commerce were subject to fines or imprisonment.
Business Practices and Government
Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890
• Weaknesses of the act soon became apparent.
• Although trusts were prohibited, holding companies soon
started to replace them and were able to avoid the reaches
of the law.
Business Practices and Government
Interstate Commerce Act 1887 established the Interstate
Commerce Commission, which had the power to:
(1) require that railroads post their rates publicly;
(2) require rates to be “reasonable and just”;
(3)forbid practices such as pooling, rebates, and rate
discrimination;
(4)prohibit higher charges for short hauls than for longer
hauls over the same line; and
(5) investigate complaints against railroads and hand down
rulings that could be enforced in courts.
Labor Organizations /Organized Labor
Government Policies favored management
A. Unions – grew during the Age of Industry because of
working conditions, hours and pay.
• Organized labor in America can trace its roots to 1792 when
the journeymen Cordwainers (shoemakers) of Philadelphia
organized a local union.
• Following the Cordwainers cases, confusion existed
concerning the status of labor organizations. Although the
courts recognized the right of labor to organize, they ruled that
any “coercive action that harmed other businesses” was
unlawful. In other words, strikes were against the law.
Labor Organizations /Organized Labor
1. American Federation of Labor :
• Founded in 1881 by Samuel Gompers, the AFL was
organized as a federation of many separate skilled
craft unions rather than a general organization of
workers.
• The goals of the AFL stressed “bread and butter”
issues: higher wages, an 8-hour work day, improved
working conditions, use of union made products,
and passage of state and federal legislation to
benefit labor.
• By 1900 the AFL claimed 500,000 members.
Labor Organizations /Organized Labor
2. Knights of Labor Founded in 1869 by Uriah S.
Stephens, the Knights of Labor started as a secret
organization whose aim was to unite skilled and
unskilled workers into one great national union.
They advocated higher wages, 8-hour working days,
equal pay for equal work by men and women, abolition
of child labor (under 14 years), arbitration of labor
disputes, prohibition of foreign contract labor, safety and
health laws, workers’ cooperative associations, a
graduated income tax, and government ownership of
railroads and other public utilities.
Labor Organizations /Organized Labor
3. Industrial Workers of the World (or Wobblies) formed in
1905 under the leadership of “Big Bill” Haywood.
• They advocated militant agitation, willful obstruction of
industry, and damage to businesses.
• Although the IWW gained few victories, national attention was
focused on the union in 1912 when 30,000 textile workers in
Lawrence, Massachusetts struck for better working conditions
and higher wages.
• The American Woolen Company met nearly all of the union’s
demands. After America’s entry into World War I, the federal
government prosecuted various IWW leaders for their attempt
to obstruct the draft.
Labor Conflicts
1. Strikes
Great Railway Strike of 1877
• Protesting wage cuts, railroad workers called a strike and
attempted to stop the railroads from running.
• Federal troops were called in to settle riots in Pennsylvania,
Maryland, West Virginia, and Illinois.
• Some $5 million worth of property was destroyed before the strike
was broken and the railroad workers eventually returned at the
lower wages set by the railroads.
Labor Conflicts
• Homestead Strike
• When the Carnegie Steel Company threatened to cut
wages and crush the Amalgamated Association of Iron
and Steel Workers in 1892, workers picketed the plant.
• Management called in Pinkerton guards to protect the
plant but they were attacked by the strikers and run out
of town. An appeal to the governor of Pennsylvania
brought in the militia.
• Although the workers struck for nine months, public
opinion eventually turned against them and they went
back to work, agreeing to the company’s terms. The
strike crushed the Amalgamated Union and left the steel
industry unorganized for 40 years.
Labor Conflicts
• Pullman Strike 1894
• Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company struck in protest
over policies at the company town near Chicago and cuts in
wages.
• The strike spread, bringing railroad traffic west of Chicago to a
standstill when the American Railway Union, under the
leadership of Eugene V. Debs, aided the strikers by calling a
boycott in which union members refused to work on any train
with a Pullman car.
• The railroads appealed to the federal government for protection.
President Cleveland sent troops to Chicago to “protect the mails,”
but more probably to crush the strike.
Labor Conflicts
• Pullman Strike 1894 continued
• The federal government obtained a court injunction (order)
that forbade the union to strike. Within a month the strike was
ended and Debs was imprisoned for failing to abide by the
court injunction to end the strike.
• The Supreme Court upheld that an injunction was valid under
the federal government’s power to remove obstacles to
interstate commerce as provided by the Sherman Antitrust Act.
• The injunction became a powerful weapon of employers to
combat strikes.
Labor Conflicts
• Haymarket Riot 1886 Following a nation-wide strike for an
8-hour day by the Knights of Labor, trouble broke out in
Chicago as sympathetic anarchists addressed a protest meeting
held by the strikers.
• After police entered the crowd to break up the meeting, a
bomb was thrown, killing seven police and wounding sixty
more.
• Because of this incident, the Knights of Labor became
identified with anarchism and violence and this led to the
union’s decline. It also helped to turn American public opinion
against labor unions.
Labor Conflicts
C. Anti-Union Tactics
• Blacklists list of people who agitated
companies that was circulated to employers so
they couldn't get jobs
• Yellow Dog Contracts: requirement by the
employer that a newly hired employee sign an
agreement not to join a labor union
The Impact of Industrialization
A. Urbanization – the process by which more of a nation’s
population becomes concentrated in its cities.
• Between the Civil War and 1910, the urban population
nearly quadrupled while the rural population merely
doubled – from 6.2 million to 42 million.
• Large cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and
Chicago also saw extraordinary expansion.
The Impact of Industrialization
A. Urbanization – continued…
• People were attracted to the city because cities
offered jobs.
• During this growth cities became centers of
resource, ideas, education and culture.
• i.e. Carnegie Hall and Rockefeller Center
The Impact of Industrialization
1. City Conditions –
• Widespread poverty
• People lived in slums, the most famous was New
York’s Lower East Side, where the poor lived in
tenements and small apartments that lacked adequate
space safety and sanitation.
• Inadequate sanitation and the spread of disease became
a byproduct of urban growth
The Impact of Industrialization
1. City Conditions –
• Crime flourished in slums
with poverty and over
crowding.
• Cities were also centers of
tension due to mixing of races
and nationalities.
• Police force were still in there
infancy and were easily
corrupted.
The Impact of Industrialization
2. Work Conditions
• An impersonal relationship existed between labor and
management, and this relationship led to the
deteriorating conditions for the average worker.
• Long Hours
• Low Wages
• Child Labor
• Dangerous Working Conditions
The Impact of Industrialization
2. Work Conditions – continued…
• Child Labor was especially problematic as working in
factories brought problems for children including a
lack of education, emotional disruption, family
breakdown, and physical abuse.
• Working from “dark to dark” children toiled six days a
week earning little for 12 to 13 hour shifts.
The Impact of Industrialization
A. Women and Work
• Throughout the 19th century the supply of women
looking for work increased with the arrival of
immigrants.
• Women were often exploited and usually hired at
wages far below those paid to men.
• In the late 1800’s business expansion and new
inventions, including the typewriter and the telephone
brought a greater need for office workers.
The Impact of Industrialization
B. Women and Work – continued…
• Many office jobs were filled by women, and by 1890
twice as many young women were finishing high
school as men.
• Another profession that always welcomed women
throughout the 19th century was teaching.
The Impact of Industrialization
C. Growing Middle Class
• Industrialization helped to create a growing middle
class consisting of salaried workers, professionals,
salespeople, and government workers.
• A transformation took place in the lives of many
Americans, in their homes, work and leisure time.
The Impact of Industrialization
C. Growing Middle Class
• The buying power and consumption of the growing
middle class fueled further industrial growth.
• American technology, mass production and
productiveness provided goods such as ready-made
clothes and home appliances
The Impact of Industrialization
D. Conspicuous Consumption
• The spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury
good and service to publicly display economic power -
the income or of the accumulated wealth of the buyer.
• As the turn of the century approached, incomes
continued to rise as well as the amount of time spent at
leisure.
• American enjoyed baseball, football, art literature, and
music more than ever before.
The Age of Industry and Immigration
A. Old Immigration 1609 - 1860
• Immigrant coming from the Northern and Western
Europe
• Including people from the British Isles, Dutch, Swiss,
Swedes, Irish and Germans.
The Age of Industry and Immigration
B. New Immigration
• Immigrant coming from the Southern and Eastern
Europe
• Including Italians, Greeks, Russians, Jews, Poles and
Romanians.
The Age of Industry and Immigration
C. Reactions to New Immigrants
• Nativism – In the early years of settlement, there was
little opposition to immigration because labor was
needed in the growing country.
• However in the 1850’s nativists, those in favor of
native born Americans formed the “Know Nothing
Party.”
• Their opposition was directed at the Irish and German
Immigrants who they claimed would threaten native
jobs
The Age of Industry and Immigration
C. Reactions to New Immigrants
• Later nativist opposition was felt by Italians, Chinese,
Jews Poles and Japanese.
• Stereotyping became a common form of discrimination
• Other nativists organization that discriminated against
individuals because of race, religion, political beliefs
and economic fears included
• American Protective Association
• Ku Klux Klan
• Immigration Restriction League
The Age of Industry and Immigration
D. Government Restriction
• Chinese Exclusionary Act - Restricted Chinese
Immigration for a 10 year period.
• Gentlemen’s Agreement – Japan was persuaded to
deny passports to those who wanted to emigrate to the
U.S. because of American fears of “yellow peril”
The Age of Industry and Immigration
E. Immigrants and Work
• America’s greatest attraction was the opportunity
for social mobility through economic opportunities
• Growing industries needed inexpensive labor.
• The New immigrants took jobs that older
immigrants were less likely to tolerate the
deteriorating conditions od unregulated industrial
expansion.
The Age of Industry and Immigration
F. Immigrants and Politics
• Immigrants were often used as political combatants.
• Political corruption existed in the form of political
machines, like New York Cities Tammany Hall.
• Led by political bosses their main goal was to
obtain and keep political power.
• To achieve this goal graft and bribery were often
used.
Politics During the Gilded Age
A. Political Machines
• During the late 1800’s organized groups headed by
a city boss, controlled the activities of a political
party in a city
• The machine offered services to voters and
businesses in exchange for political or financial
support.
Politics During the Gilded Age
A. Political Machines
• Party Bosses controlled city government, as well as
jobs in police, fire, and sanitation departments.
• Bosses also controlled city agencies that granted
licensees to businesses, and funded construction
projects,
• By controlling the cities finances, bosses won
loyalty and influence.
• Many bosses were immigrants and could help
immigrants in exchange for votes.
Politics During the Gilded Age
A. Political Machines
• Graft - Political machines provided city dwellers with vital
services. But as they gained power, many bosses became
corrupt.
• They became rich through graft, or the illegal use of political
influence for personal gain.
• To win elections, some bosses filled the list of eligible voters with
the names of dogs, children, and people who had died. They then
used those names to cast votes for themselves.
Politics During the Gilded Age
• Patronage -For many decades, presidents had complained about
the problem of patronage.
• This is the giving of government jobs to people of the same party
who had helped a candidate get elected.
• As a result, many unqualified and corrupt workers were hired.
Reformers wanted to end the patronage system.
• They called for a merit system, in which jobs in civil service—
government administration—would go to the most qualified
people, regardless of their political views.
Politics During the Gilded Age
B. Tammany Hall-New York City’s most powerful
Democratic political machine.
• One of the most powerful political bosses was William
Marcy Tweed, known as Boss Tweed. He became the
head of Tammany Hall.
• The Tweed Ring was a group of corrupt politicians led
by Boss Tweed.
Politics During the Gilded Age
• Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, made fun of Tweed
in newspapers.
• Eventually, the public grew outraged by Tweed’s
corrupt practices. Authorities broke up the Tweed Ring
in 1871.
• Tweed and many of his followers were sentenced to
prison.
Politics During the Gilded Age
Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883
This act created a civil service commission to give government jobs
based on merit, not politics.
It helped reform the civil service. However, the Pendleton Act had
mixed results.
More qualified workers did fill government positions. But because
politicians had no jobs to offer, they had trouble seeking money
from supporters.
As a result, some politicians turned to wealthy leaders for financial
support. This strengthened the ties between government and
business.
