Corrupt Politics in the Gilded Age [Ulysses S. Grant and the Compromise of 1877]

Hi, everybody, and welcome

back to Heimler's History.

Now, at this point we're moving

on to what is known as the Gilded Age.

And since this era comes right after

the Civil War, most Americans,

though somewhat disillusioned by all

the fighting, are looking towards the

future with great hope and expectation.

What they got instead was

a mouthful of corruption and greed.

To me, it's like saving up a bunch

of money to take your wife out

to a really nice steak dinner.

When you finally get to the restaurant

and you order your big, thick porterhouse,

the waiter returns with the plate

and instead of a steak,

they just shaved off the cook's mustache

and put a bunch of barbecue sauce

on it and said, "Here, enjoy that."

Well, if you're ready

to talk corrupt politics, I am.

Let's get to it.

It's time to kick it old school.

[MUSIC]

Well, I suppose we ought to start

with the presidential election of 1868

in which former Civil War hero Ulysses S.

Grant won the presidency.

Now, assuming that a great general would

also make a great president is not

something we should take for granted.

[LAUGHTER] [COUGHING] Uh.

The pun was intended.

Now, whether Grant was a bad president or

he just happened to assume the presidency

during a particularly corrupt moment

and therefore had no chance of success is

hard to say, but the political game stank

so much with corruption those days that it

was said that when the man in the moon

passed over America every night,

he held his nose.

Now, one of the most famous purveyors

of corruption during this time

was Boss Tweed of New York City.

Now, old Boss Tweed had New York City

wrapped around his finger as he

intimidated the police force

and bought crooked politicians.

And it seemed like there was a Boss Tweed

in every major city assuring

that the republic of the people,

for the people, and by the people

was none of the above.

Now, that corruption found its way all

the way to Washington, D.C. Now,

in 1874 to 1875, there was something known

as the "Whiskey Ring,"

and it was a bunch of guys who got

together to do some underground whiskey

trading and avoid as many

whiskey taxes as they could.

Well, President Grant got indignant

about this and he said, "Nuh-uh."

He said that anybody caught dodging

whiskey taxes should be punished with

the utmost severity and without mercy.

And in the process of cracking down

without mercy,

it was discovered that Grant's personal

secretary was a major

player in this graft.

And when Grant heard about it,

he wrote a personal letter to the jury

during his secretary's trial

which probably, most historians think,

helped exonerate the secretary.

So, during this time, crookedness abounds.

Now, apparently most Americans weren't

that upset about such things because they

elected Grant to a second term in 1872.

But shortly after that,

a powerful economic collapse would

add significantly to Grant's woes.

It was called the "Panic of 1873" and it

happened because America was in a period

of unprecedented capitalistic expansion

with no rails to keep it on the road.

Profit-hungry Americans had laid more

railroad tracks, dug more mines,

and planted more crops than they could get

a profit from, and the banks had been

equally unscrupulous in lending more than

enough money to finance

all this craziness.

So, when the profits didn't come through

and the banks started calling

in the loans, the economy fell to pieces.

Well, the nation eventually pulled itself

out of the economic depression and then it

was time to elect another president

in 1876, and this one was maybe

the worst election of all.

The candidates for this election

were Republican Rutherford B.

Hayes who was so obscure so as to earn

him the nickname the Great Unknown.

And I say when the greatest thing about

you is that nobody knows who you are,

then things are probably going badly.

And the other candidate

was Democrat Samuel J.

Tilden.

Now, this election was a hot mess.

Tilden won 184 out of 185 votes needed

to win the election,

and here's where the drama comes

in because there were 20 electoral votes

that were still outstanding,

but that were hotly disputed.

Depending on who was reporting

the numbers, you got

vastly different outcomes.

But since Tilden won the popular vote,

it was assumed that once everything

got sorted out, he would win.

But here was the problem.

Leaders from those contested states were

sending in two conflicting

counts of the vote.

So, let's say there were 10 total votes.

When Congress received the Republican

count it said, "Well, by our reckoning,

Hayes got eight and Tilden got two."

And then when Congress received

the Democratic count it said, "Well,

by our reckoning, Hayes got

two and Tilden got eight."

Add to all of that a further difficulty.

The Constitution explicitly states

that when the electoral votes come in,

they shall be read aloud in Congress

to determine who gets the presidency.

But what the Constitution patently does

not say is who is supposed to do

the reading of the electoral votes.

I mean, should it be

the president of the Senate?

If so, he was a Republican and he was

likely to receive the Republican version

of the numbers, and therefore

the presidency would go to Hayes.

Or, should the Speaker

of the House do the reading?

If so, he was a Democrat and therefore

probably would've announced the Democratic

version of the numbers and awarded

the presidency to Tilden.

Now, it got so bad that hotheaded

Democrats began drilling militias

with arms and shouting, "Tilden or blood,"

like they were actually going to start

firing if their guy

didn't get into office.

So, it's good to know that things cooled

down a little bit after the political

stress of the Civil War.

So, what was to be done with all of this?

Well, as I mentioned in another lecture,

they came to an agreement called

the "Compromise of 1877," and this is

basically what the compromise did.

Democrats agreed to award Hayes

the presidency and the Republicans agreed

to end Reconstruction by removing federal

troops from the South,

and that's exactly what happened.

And what do you think that the Southerners

did about all the civil rights legislation

that was passed during and after

the Civil War once those Union soldiers

who were enforcing

those laws were removed?

Well, they did exactly what you think they

did, but we'll have to get

to that in another lecture.

And I could go through the rest

of the presidential elections during this

time, whether it was Garfield in 1880,

or Cleveland in 1884,

or any of the others,

but one thing remains true throughout this

entire period when we're talking politics:

it was bad and it was entirely corrupt.

But I actually think that's what we ought

to have expected after emerging from such

a violent and disorienting

conflict like the Civil War.

I mean, when somebody gets hit in the head

hard enough to get a concussion,

one of the symptoms is that they are very

disoriented and they have trouble playing

thoughts one after the other,

and I think the Gilded Age is like that.

The nation was staggering and trying

to put itself back together again,

but our brain had just been hit too hard

and it was just gonna take some

time for us to learn to walk again.

And that's all we have time for now,

so I'll see you next time.