The Gilded Age as an Important Political Turning Point in American History Term Paper

Introduction

It is generally believe that the modern America was born in the late nineteenth century and this period saw the closing of the western frontier. Historically speaking, four hundred and thirty million acres area in the far west was occupied by the Americans during 1865 and the 1890s period. “But to open lands west of the Mississippi River to white settlers, the Plains Indians were pushed in a series of Indian wars onto restricted reservations”. (The Gilded Age, n.p.).

It is also believe that the gilded age period was full of political corruption, unfettered capitalism, conspicuous consumption and so forth. Because of the fact that during that gilded age period small producers of agrarian society was transformed into an urban society prevailing by both small and large scale industrial organizations, one can also say that, that was the period of modern American formation. (The Gilded Age, n.p.).

According to statistics, except Britain, industrial goods production and per capita income in the U.S. during 19^th century, was also rapidly increased as compare to other nations. As a matter of fact, dangerous working conditions, less fringe benefits and lengthy working hours were all those factors which led the workers to make, join and participate in labor unions. (The Gilded Age, n.p.).

The political corruption of the Grant administration

During gilded age period, Grant, the famous but not the richest politicians like others; his administration party was declared as one of the most corrupt politician party. In spite of infrequent futile reforms attempts, most of the politicians in the gilded age were monopolized by the two patronage-fattened companies, which vied smartly for spoils while fundamentally agreeing on most national rules and policies. Moreover, various constituencies, difference of culture, and profoundly felt domestic concerns fueled intense party competition and unexampled voter participation. However, “periodic complaints by “Mugwump” reformers and “soft-money” advocates failed to make much of a dent on politics”. (The Gilded Age, n.p.).

Furthermore, during gilded age, rapid decline in labor wages and huge debts burden were some of the main reasons which compelled farmers to joined Populist Party. Harding administration during gilded age was not in the position to stop political corruption. Interestingly, it stayed particularly hale in domestic politics, where planned crime milked former political machines that had been countermined by the advent of the ‘New Deal’.( Wilentz, p.20).

The end of Reconstruction and the loss of black rights

In the year 1890, during the Mississippi convention, black peoples were constrained by white peoples to take part in election. In this regard, in most of the southern states, in order to stop illiterate black person from voting, secret ballot was adopted. “The secret ballot limited the amount of intimidation that could go on at polling stations. Once this ballot was an adopted nationwide, party boss had no way of knowing who voted how, and secret ballots put a near end to machine politics. However, Jim Crow’s law was accepted by the southern states between 1982 and 1908. As far as the southern black was concerned, Jim Crow’s laws were really effective. In the year 1896 it was found by the Supreme Court in Ferguson vs Plessey that radical sequestration stated that cars, houses, automobiles could be separate but they had to be equal.

Social changes brought by industrialization

Besides all aforementioned ground breaking realties, the gilded age was marked by quick industrialization, reconstruction, vulgarity and political corruption. Nonetheless, America was started to regroup as a new nation soon after the end of civil war. In this regard, many new changes were seen during this reformation, such as industrialization was taken over by the former agricultural country. One can say that all the changes occurred during gilded age badly affected politics, labor, farmers and businessmen.

In this regard, between 1870s and 1880s labor activism and radical thoughts were as it peak level in Chicago. Thousands of working men and women belonged to different fields of work started to join labor unions, and the main objectives behind this radical movement were involved: demand for shorter hour of work, higher wages and fringe benefits and safe & clean working environment. Federation of Labor and Knight of Labor were some of the active labor unions in Chicago during above-mentioned radical movements. (Auditorium Theatre, n.p.)

Somehow, women workers were neglected by Knights of Labor organization in some respect, and lower opportunities were available for women in Knights of Labor organization as compare to men. According to VandeCreek, “few women in Illinois cities went away to work early in Gilded Age, but more found jobs later in the period.” (VandeCreek, n.p.).

The economy dominated by giant trusts

Phillips believes that “the gilded age after the civil war–it was 1873 when Mark Twain coined the term–lifted the American economy to not only new heights of success and industrialization, but also of economic polarization, and it introduced the nation to new lows of corruption”. Nevertheless, in the year 1861 when the civil war was ended fifteen million dollar range was considered as one of the big fortune in the history of country. Furthermore, two giant business players John D. Rockefeller in oil sector and Andrew Carnegie in steel sector were worth three hundred million to four hundred million dollars. In the year 1860, more or less there had been three hundred millionaires in the country. However, by the end of 1900 there were just 4,000 to 5,000. Phillips also believes that “because there was little change in the value of a dollar between 1860 and 1900, the gains were real and not the product of inflation”. (Phillips, p.8)

Finally, in American philosophy the period of gilded age is considered as a turning point. However, Kawachi and Chapman believe that the “notion that government should not interfere on the side of the rich was reworked into the theorem that government had no business interfering on behalf of the downtrodden”. (Kawachi and Chapman, p. 42–43).

Conclusion

Conclusively, gilded age is considered as one the periods in American history in which political corruption were as its peak level. Most importantly, during that period almost all the corporations became the leading form of business companies. On the other hand, in fact that was the period in which American economy was flourished. In addition, introduction of modern industrial economy was also developed in that period. Both, network of communication and network of national transportation were established. Moreover, managerial revolution was also occurred during that period which literally transformed all the business operations.

Works Cited

Auditorium Theatre :: Auditorium Theatre – “CHICAGO & THE WORLD”. 2007. Web.

Kawachi, I, Chapman, P.H. “Literature And Epidemiology”: Five American authors on wealth, poverty, and inequality. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (2004) 58, 738-742.

Kelleher P. “Young Irish workers: class implications of men’s and women’s experiences in gilded age Chicago – Statistical Data Included.” Eire-Ireland:Journal of Irish Studies. (2001): 5, p. 12.

Phillips, K. How Wealth Defines Power: “The Politics of the New Gilded Age”. The American Prospect. (2003): 14, P.8.

“The Gilded Age.” 2007. Web.

VandeCreek, D. “Women’s Experience and Gender Roles.” 2007. Web.

Wilentz S. “A Scandal for Our Time”: Republicans Ruled; Ergo, Enron, The American Prospect.(2002): 13, P. 20.