Presidents of the Gilded Age

Leo Pawlika

US History I Honors

Mr. Pohlman

June, 4 2015

Presidents Of The Gilded Age

The Gilded age was the post-Civil War rebuilding time where the nation was recovering from many economic and work related hardships that were caused as a result of the Civil War and an inadequate rebuilding period. Many historians may say that the Gilded age presidents were some of the weakest the nation has ever had, however with what they were given those five presidents made a major turn around. These five presidents were responsible for fixing a mishandled rebuilding of the nation and after the entirety of what happened the nation came out much stronger than it was a the start. The presidents battled economic hardships and many labor strikes and after handling all of that they do not deserve the title of being called the weakest presidents that the nation has ever elected.  

Rutherford B Hayes was the first president to take office during the gilded age. He took office in 1876 by a slim margin of only one electoral vote after a joint congressional committee appointed him to office. However after what the public thought of as an unjust victory, Hayes was required to repay the Democratic Party by implementing what was called the compromise of 1877. This compromise forced Hayes to end reconstruction and remove all troops located in the south. However removing federal troops from the south would subject blacks to abuse again because there would be no Republican support to enforce that they would be treated equally. Lastly the compromise of 1877 would force Hayes to elect a Democratic vice president. Hayes, after taking office was left to deal with a country that was suffering from heavily from a business depression on top of being left with a great deal of political corruption from the previous Grant presidency. However, Hayes made a major turn around, “The nation became more industrialized than ever before, and labor unions gained thousands of new members. The population of New York City soared above a million.” (Bridges) This clearly shows the major recovery Hayes made on the economy. In addition, the growing population in New York shows how not only is the country growing economically but also immigration was rising greatly. Hayes also had a extensive civil service reform where he, “based his appointments on merit rather than on the spoils system. He even appointed a Southern Democrat, David M. Key, to his Cabinet.” (Bridges) This was the right thing for him to do even though he lost a lot of faith in his fellow party members. In addition, Hayes fought congress on his civil service legislation, which led to vast public support on top of making it easier for later presidents to make their own civil service legislation. There was also a great deal of money issues during Hayes’s presidency. Hayes was in favor of a more conservative money policy, however both the house and the public wanted more money to be pumped into the economy, “In 1878, Hayes vetoed the Bland-Allison Act, which required the Treasury to buy and coin between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver a month. Congress passed the bill over his veto. But the Treasury coined only the minimum amount required in an attempt to limit the inflationary effect of putting more money into circulation.” (Bridges)  Hayes was opposed to this and did what he could to minimalize the amount of money put into the economy. Another key thing that Hayes did to improve the money problems in the country was to pay back all of the greenbacks for specie. After the public knew this, it helped to stabilize the currency in the United States. Overall, the Hayes administration was a positive one for the United States. Many of the prior issues were fixed and Hayes helped pave a positive road for the following presidents.