Political Corruption

Causes of Political Corruption

The root of political corruption during this period was corporate wealth driven by the desire to modernize the nation, turning the page after a difficult chapter of civil war and the continuing Reconstruction. Due to the laissez-faire political conditions pervading the country, it was difficult to control such abuses of the system.

Let's examine precisely which channels individuals used to exert their power and corrupt the nation.

All of these added up to the perfect storm in American society, and no one could epitomize the power that corruption held over the nation in the same manner as William "Boss" Tweed.

As awareness and opposition to Tweed's movement grew, he was finally arrested in 1873, not before grafting between $30 million and $300 million!

Fig. 2 - William "Boss" Tweed (centre) and his cronies are depicted as vultures, waiting for the storm of accusations to blow over, so they could feast again.

In fact, the storm never did blow over. This 1871 cartoon, among others, in Harper's Weekly by Thomas Nast, helped expose the Tammany Hall machine and "Elegant" Oakley, the New York mayor who was Tweed's puppet until 1872.

Having examined a master of political corruption, we can now explore the specific forms that it came in, before going through some of the most infamous case studies.

Types of Political Corruption

We can summarize political corruption in the Gilded Age into three distinct categories. These were all BAD!

Bribes and supports: the biggest engine of corruption. By bribing workers and the correct people in government positions, money could be made by everyone. It was a win-win for those involved but left ordinary people out of pocket.

Alienating the voting system: not only was political allegiance bought in exchange for jobs, housing, or citizenship - particularly in the case of immigrants, often times men would vote multiple times, having shaved their beard before returning to the polling station.

Disrupting government roles: using the "spoils system", friends and those who would be economically beneficial would fill positions. The choice of officials rarely correlated with their ability to do the job, and this only gradually changed with the Pendleton Act in 1883.

The Pendleton Act

Although having a limited impact with its introduction in 1883, due to the fact it only scrutinized 10% of government employees, it had a fantastic intention. For the first time, it signaled a departure from the cronyism of the spoils system.

Now meritocracy meant that specific positions could be filled by qualified, well-educated and trained candidates. The Pendleton Act is now much further reaching, applying to 2.9 million government positions.

Political Corruption Examples

But both before, and after 1883, were some scandalous examples of political corruption during the Gilded Age, let's evaluate some of the most controversial.

Crédit Mobilier

We have already seen the corruption of the Democratic Party with "Boss" Tweed and Tammany Hall. But, Crédit Mobilier, charged with building the Union Pacific Rail on the East Coast, was a prime example of Republican dishonesty and greed. The huge project had the backing of loans and taxes, but Crédit Mobilier used men in high places, including Oakes Ames, serving in the House of Representatives for Massachusetts, to funnel the profits into the accounts of a few. This was uncovered in 1873, with the project having ended in 1869.

The Whiskey Ring

In the early 1870s, a group of whiskey distillers were in cahoots with Revenue Officials. This occurred primarily in St. Louis, but also in many other states. John MacDonald led the ring, which was initially set up in 1871 to help fund Republican election campaigns. However, the pursuit quickly transformed into a purely criminal venture by 1873. Once more, it benefitted everyone. The distillers paid half the required tax on the whiskey, and the criminal organizers siphoned off millions in taxes for themselves.

However, when Secretary of the Treasury, William Richardson lost his job, his replacement Benjamin Bristow launched an independent investigation in 1874. The results were shocking, with 110 people convicted of involvement in the ring.

1876 General Election

With all of these scandals, it would come as a major surprise if President Grant led his country after the general election in 1876. He considered it but after the tarnishing of corruption and the Panic of 1873 (an economic depression) decided against it.

Republican Rutherford Hayes took his place, competing against Democrat Samuel Tilden. It looked like Tilden would win, gaining 184 out of the 185 electoral votes necessary to win and leading by 250,000 of the public votes, with a staggeringly high turnout of over 80%. The Republicans called foul play at the eleventh hour, disputing 20 votes. Eventually, the pendulum swung Hayes' way, and he won by the smallest ever margin. Faith in the electoral system had certainly been knocked, with the scandal referred to as the Compromise of 1877.

Fig. 3 - Male lobbyist illustration from the 1874 edition of Twain's novel

Effects of Political Corruption

Though legislation such as the Pendleton Act began to steer the United States away from systemic corruption, the results of decades of neglect of duty were stark. By 1890, 1% of families owned 51% of the country's real and personal property. The 44% of lowest income households held just 1.2% of the wealth. In the 1880s, there were a vast number of protests for workers' rights.

Soon, a new Populist Party became a political force, seeking to take power from the few and give it back to the masses. With the assassination of Republican William McKinley in 1901, another president who swindled his way to the top, bankrolled by bankers, the Gilded Age was over, and Theodore Roosevelt ushered in the Progressive Era. There has been a temptation to polarize the Gilded Age with the reforms of Roosevelt's Progressive Era, but this should not be indulged.

Clearly, Roosevelt did not wave a magic wand. He learnt from the mistakes of his predecessors and the shortcomings of a period, one that is easy to demonize because of Mark Twain's catchy title and heard the clamors for change from a politically engaged United States population.