The Gilded Age: Social And Political Reform In The Gilded Age

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After failed attempts at economic rehabilitation as well as social and political reforms in the South dubbed as Reconstruction, the United States was left in a state similar to how it was before with “redeemed” Southern states governed by white Democrats and the majority of African Americans working as sharecroppers, a lesser form of slavery. This degenerated situation was transformed by the boom in technological advancements and economics called the Gilded Age. During this era, entrepreneurs were able to establish large empires in business through monopolies, the government played a more active role in the economy, politics became more important to ordinary citizens with the creation of political machines, corruption spread through every
One reason that government action did not take place earlier in regards to the large monopolies is that there was no government party that specifically catered to helping the farmers in the 1880’s. The Republicans wanted government activism, but their primary focus was on fostering economic development, so they encouraged the industrialization believing that the government should help in the process. The farmers would not receive any help from them regarding the railroads since the Republicans wanted to further big businesses’ growth not limit it. On the other hand, the Democrats opposed high tariffs, claiming that tariffs should be kept at a minimum enough only to pay the cost of government because it was an unfair tax and hindered the consumers. This meant that the agrarian South would have to deal with global competition, thus needing to further reduce prices. The lack of help received by the farmers caused the Populist Party or the People’s Party to sprout up in 1890, a new anti-elitist party dedicated to serving the needs of the poor farmers and highly critical of capitalism. With platforms based heavily on economic issues, the party was held together by the downward trend in produce prices and farmers blaming their troubles on railroads as well as other big businesses. In 1892, the populist presidential candidate, James B. Weaver, was able to win one out of the twelve million popular votes, twenty two out of four hundred forty four electoral votes, and five of the forty four states, but the party was still disappointed with the two-party system unwilling to adopt their proposals for relief. Although the Populist movement did not reach the presidential level, Populist senators were elected, and in 1896 the party endorsed Democrat William J. Bryan for president with

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