Introduction
The Gilded Age was for many years remembered for the achievements of several entrepreneurs, American thinkers, and investors. In the early 20th century, the Age was seen as a time of great social change and even a change in the economic growth of the United States. It saw rapid urbanization, innovation in science, industrialization together with technology, the rise of large businesses, and the building of great transcontinental railroads over the years between Reconstruction and the establishment of the current century. [1] Also, the first years of the new century were marked by progressivism, which was a political development that attempted to review a portion of the issues that had happened during the Gilded Age. This progressivism approved legislation to ensure the privileges of buyers, free the government from exceptional interests, battle corruption, and also get control over enormous businesses.
The Gilded Age (1876-1900)
From 1876 to 1900, during the Gilded Age, Congress was notable for its wastefulness, making it hard to find a majority that easily accomplished anything due to several members being drunk and even engrossed in other affairs of the government. Furthermore, the corridors of Congress were even loaded with tobacco smoke, while the floor environment was portrayed as a fiendish noise. On the other side, the Senate was also known as a rich man’s club, and it was where political favors were done, while the necessities of the general population and common laborers lay beyond the visualization of those magnified legislators. The central government was then commanded by the Senate during the Gilded Age.
During this period, from 1876 to 1896, only five essential bills passed successfully through Congress to the office of the president. The discussions concerning the graduated income tax also failed tremendously to arouse public debate. However, there was massive voter turnout as well as interest in the political process, with most elections indicating a considerable turnout of about 80 percent. However, the modern dilemmas brought in by urbanization, immigration, and industrialization were met with passivity and confusion.
The Gilded Age presidents were more successful in domestic affairs. Domestic affairs in connection with presidents are those things occurring in legislative issues and the US government. The inverse of domestic affairs is foreign affairs, and that includes international governmental issues. Chester Arthur was the only president who came into power well-prepared to deal with the management of a federal bureaucracy [2]. Reducing tariffs, Chinese immigration, and reforming civil service policies were among the affairs he was capable of taking care of.
A significant number of historians have named the presidents of the Gilded Age the overlooked presidents, and most Americans, indeed, still have difficulty remembering their names and even their contributions to the country. The six presidents, Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, Ulysses Grant, James Garfield, Grover Cleveland, and Rutherford Hayes, had relatively common terms in office and confronted some crises during their presidencies. Different historians have proposed that these Gilded Age presidents were unexciting for a reason, since Americans had the goal of counteracting striking government officials who might demolish the fragile peace that was set up after the Civil War.
The Gilded Age became an important period for politics, and this was seen during the post-Civil War period. During this period, Americans paid more attention to politics as well as national elections than at any other moment in history, and this was because every election could meddle with the delicate balance and peace between the Democrats and the Republicans. In the late nineteenth century, voters turned out in expansive numbers to vote in favor of presidents, with voter turnout going up to 80 percent. The significance of elections likewise helps in clarifying how Congress approved irrelevant legislation after the Reconstruction era, in which control of the House of Representatives repeatedly changed hands between the Republicans and the Democrats, with each vote making an accord on all major issues almost inconceivable. [3]
The increase in voter turnout was likewise partly the result of machine-party political issues, which bloomed in the larger United States urban areas during the Gilded Age. Powerful political managers in every party forced urban people to vote in favor of their candidates, as they expected to be given bribes in return for helping them get elected. These political bosses would similarly spend their money to enhance constituent neighborhoods to ensure an enduring flow of votes in favor of their machines. In this case, party managers, together with the political machine, greatly helped some poor individuals in urban communities. Many government officials elected during the Gilded Age were the outcome of machine-party politics.
In 1800, it was difficult to find people like Madison or Jefferson who believed that the legislative role was to manage business. According to the Constitution, it assigns duties regarding the regulation of interstate trade to the Congress of the United States. In the case of Gibbons v. Ogden in 1824, John Marshall, as Chief Justice, affirmed that idea when he proclaimed that the government had the exclusive right to regulate business exchanges between the states.
In the late 19th century, it was discovered that significant businesses needed to be regulated, and as a result, the convention of laissez-faire was not practical and was unsafe. Furthermore, labor relations regarding trade frequently deteriorated into bloody challenges fought to the death between business managers and their employees. However, the inevitable outcome was that the government needed to accept the responsibility of managing the work environment. The political existence of the Gilded Age was ruled by the American economy as well as the state.
The first significant split with the idea of free enterprise was accompanied by the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, under which businesses were not allowed to utilize monopolistic practices and take unjustifiable advantage of competitors. The Sherman Act had to be altered and strengthened by legislation, though the passage of the act demonstrated that the period of unrestrained business excess was reaching its end.
Conclusion
The Gilded Age was a period of incredible advancements for America. The rich rose to influence, and lower- and middle-class Americans fell into destitution. That was mostly because business owners were mishandling their power and taking advantage of the few labor laws America had at the time, so the proprietors could exhaust their workers with little protest from the government. But during this period, poverty was by all accounts not the only thing that stood out. Americans during this time made much progress in innovation and engineering, and the world, therefore, became lovely for the upper class. There were six distinct presidents during this time, and each brought different things to the table. The basic answer would be that the presidents were more successful in domestic affairs.
Bibliography
Haynes, Stan M. President-Making in the Gilded Age: The Nominating Conventions of 1876-1900. 2016.
Johnston, Robert D. The Making of America: The History of the United States from 1492 to the Present. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2010.
Willner, Mark, Joann Peters, Eugene V. Resnick, and Jeff Schneider. SAT Subject Test. 2017.
- Haynes, Stan M. President-Making in the Gilded Age: The Nominating Conventions of 1876-1900. 2016. ↑
- Willner, Mark, Joann Peters, Eugene V. Resnick, and Jeff Schneider. SAT Subject Test. 2017. ↑
- Johnston, Robert D. The Making of America: The History of the United States from 1492 to the Present. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2010. ↑
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