630 ★ CHAPTER 16 America’s Gilded Age
treatment of those left behind in the scramble for wealth. “Get rich, dishonestly
if we can, honestly if we must,” was the era’s slogan, according to The Gilded Age.
The Corruption of Politics
As they had earlier in the nineteenth century, Americans during the Gilded
Age saw their nation as an island of political democracy in a world still domi-
nated by undemocratic governments. In Europe, only France and Switzerland
enjoyed universal male suffrage. Even in Britain, which prided itself on its tra-
dition of political liberty, most of the working class could not vote until the
passage of the Reform Act of 1884.
Nonetheless, the power of the new corporations, seemingly immune to
democratic control, raised disturbing questions for the American understand-
ing of political freedom as popular self- government. Political corruption was
rife. “The galleries and lobbies of every legislature,” observed an Illinois Repub-
lican leader, “are thronged with men seeking to procure an advantage” for one
corporation or another. In Pennsylvania’s legislature, the “third house” of rail-
road lobbyists was said to enjoy as much influence as the elected chambers. In
the West, many lawmakers held stock or directorships in lumber companies
and railroads that received public aid.
Urban politics fell under the sway of corrupt political machines like
New York’s Tweed Ring, which plundered the city of tens of millions of dollars.
“Boss” William M. Tweed’s organization reached into every neighborhood. He
forged close ties with railroad men and labor unions, and he won support from
the city’s immigrant poor by fashioning a kind of private welfare system that
provided food, fuel, and jobs in hard times. A combination of political reform-
ers and businessmen tired of paying tribute to the ring ousted Tweed in the
early 1870s, although he remained popular among the city’s poor, who consid-
ered him an urban Robin Hood.
At the national level, many lawmakers supported bills aiding companies
in which they had invested money or from which they received stock or sal-
aries. The most notorious example of corruption came to light during Grant’s
presidency. This was Crédit Mobilier, a corporation formed by an inner ring of
Union Pacific Railroad stockholders to oversee the line’s government- assisted
construction. Essentially, it enabled the participants to sign contracts with
themselves, at an exorbitant profit, to build the new line. The arrangement
was protected by the distribution of stock to influential politicians, including
Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, who was elected vice president in 1868.
In another example of corruption, the Whiskey Ring of the Grant administra-
tion united Republican officials, tax collectors, and whiskey manufacturers
in a massive scheme that defrauded the federal government of millions of tax
dollars.