Political Paralysis In The Gilded Age Analysis

An American writer, Susan Sontag, stated that capitalism is, “the ideology [which] makes us all into connoisseurs of liberty—of the indefinite expansion of possibility”. From 1850 to 1907, there was a mass immigration to America and the rise of ‘Gilded Age’ which the United States population and economy grew quickly. Capitalism is a social and economic system where both the means of production and any associate trades are privately owned. During 1850 to 1907, there were a number of factors which contributed to the rise of Capitalism such as: significant entrepreneurial figures such as Henry Ford; mass immigration and cheap labour; and Railway and telegraph lines expansion to transport goods to be sold.

Discuss Politics in the Gilded Age. Include major political events and issues, and the roles of the “bloody shirt,” corruption, patronage, and reform movements.

I don’t believe we are living in a second Gilded Age. So much has change. But there's still so many similarities. Even though everything is much more advanced. We are upgrading as we go.

These two lucrative thought up a genius way to make huge profits with little risk to themselves. Their plan was to buy up a majority of the gold in circulation, cause the price of gold to go through the roof, then sell it off for massive profits. To pull it off, Gould enlisted the help of President Ulysses S. Grant's brother-in-law, Abel Corbin. Gould and Fisk met with Grant through Corbin's help numerous times. Their goal was to convince Grant to put a hold on government sale gold, because if people noticed that the price of gold was going up because of the lack of it on the market, the government could change that in an instant by flooding the market with gold, in turn ruining Gould and Fisk's plan. They effectively got their hands on control of the governments gold by convincing Grant to hire Daniel Butterfield as assistant Treasurer of the United States. Butterfield agreed to warn Gould and Fisk if the government was planning to sell gold in return for money. Finally, Gould and Fisk had all the pieces of their plan assembled. Now it was time for action. Together, Gould and Fisk started buying as much gold as they could. Combined they bought about 75% of the gold on the market. On September 20, 1869 gold prices rose 20%, causing huge ripples in the financial world. Everybody was unprepared for the sudden rise in prices and many firms

The Gilded age was the period in U.S. history where politics had caused a halt in social advancement. The Robber Barons had become so rich and powerful that the country had plunged into an era of corruption. As illustrated in Joseph Keppler’s , “The Bosses of the Senate,” the monopolies of the rich had garnered immense influence in the government, effectively removing the people

In order to corner gold, someone had to keep treasury from selling so they had to get close with the highest power.

The Gilded Age was a very special time for our nation that took place from the 1870s to around 1900. During this time, economic growth was at a rapid increase, politics were corrupted yet had high turnouts, and urbanization flourished. Every aspect of the life of an American changed drastically throughout this time of the Gilded Age. The entire era was focused on the enormous changes that each aspect of America was going through. As this is brought to attention, if we are to look into the way that America is in our time of today, we can find that there are many similarities to that of the original Gilded Age. The United States of America have currently found themselves to be experiencing the second era of the Gilded Age throughout the areas of economic, politic and social transformation.

A successful economy is perhaps the most key ingredient leading to a successful nation. An economy is a delicate balance of many different conflicting and coexisting elements. Naturally, an economy’s success can often be measured by the amount of wealth it contains, not to mention the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of its distribution of the wealth. Effective distribution of wealth is no easy feat. Wealthy and poor people will always need to coexist- this is an inescapable truth. The government’s job in many cases becomes that of a referee. Naturally, perfect peace and harmony between two totally different classes would be a utopia, and probably will never be completely achieved. A government must, therefore,

When you are young and even well into your adult years people will tell you there will always be somebody who is smarter, faster, happier, or better at something than you are. This is true for all periods of time but in the Gilded Age those who were better gained more and more crushing the people below them with unprecedented greed, corruption, and power. The few exploited the many by way of opportunity. Something our nation was built on, yet the avaricious elite used it for evil methods.

During the years of 1893 to 1898, the United States went through an economic depression that severely damaged the economy. The final days of the Harrison administrations consisted of the financial failure of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in January of 1893, the United States was in deep trouble. After the financial railroad of Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, the National Cordage Co. Railroad failed in May, the Erie Railroad in July, the Northern Pacific in August, the Union Pacific in October and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in December (Watkins, n.d.). There was an average of 24 businesses failing per day in the month of May (Schoonover, LaFeber, n.d.). In addition, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and the “Billion Dollar Congress” caused the nations gold reserved to decline as the government began to use a bimetallic monetary system.. The nations reserves dropped under $100 million after President Cleveland was sworn in March of 1893. People began to panic and this led to a plunge in the stock market and European investors began to pull their funds from the United States frightened by the weakening economy. This led to a four year depression in which 15,000 companies and 600 banks closed with about one billion dollars worth of bonds defaulted (Schoonover, LaFeber, n.d.).

Freedom in a utopian society is considered to be impeccable. Freedom was given to all and force by other people wouldn’t be necessary for this perfect place. But, during the Gilded Age, freedom wasn’t for everyone. People like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller (or the captains of industry) had more freedom than the workers of the time. Workers during this age had less freedom for the fact that they didn’t have nearly as much money as the Captains of Industry. With the low wages of this era, it was pretty much impossible to make money, unless your business became profoundly popular to the point where you could then call yourself a robber baron. For example: while workers and other middle-lower class people were at their jobs, high-class and other citizens with money were out and about doing things that they please. This was mainly for the fact that they could because they had the money to do so. So, in the reality of that time freedom was most definitely not for everyone. Now on to another ideal that should be honored in a utopian society.

The Gilded Age was the last three decades of the nineteenth century, when America’s industrial economy exploded generating opportunities for individuals but also left many workers struggling for survival. With the many immigrants, skilled and unskilled, coming to America the labor system is becoming flooded with new employees. During this period, the immigrants, including the Italians, were unskilled and the skilled workers were usually American-born. There was also a divide in the workers and the robber barons. Robber barons were American capitalist who acquired great fortunes in the last nineteenth century, usually ruthlessly. There was much turmoil throughout the business and labor community. Two major organizations, the Knights of

The Gilded Age was a time of rapid industrialization and many mechanical advances, however “the application of intelligence to social affairs had not kept pace with the application of intelligence to individual needs and material ends. Natural science strides forward, but political science lags.” (Henry George. Social Problems. 1883) In this quote George discusses the main problem of this time, political corruption. This was a very significant ill that plagued the Gilded Age. Although there were many industrial advances, the negative aspects like the overwhelming amount political corruption and the control big businesses had on the country were more significant than any technological advances when looking back on the era.

An average prospector could mine $25 a day in gold, a lot of money for the times. However, prices were high, and the food, equipment and tools a miner needed would swiftly extract most of that gold from his pockets. Drinking, gambling and whoring took the rest.

2008, p. 8), then resold them further along the coast, using the proceeds to buy gold.