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Gilded Age Analysis

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This section was centered around the gilded age. This age was most notable for its corruption and inactivity in the government. Questions of whether democracy could succeed in a time that was dominated by wealthy men and powerful industrial corporations that would bribe people for the betterment of themselves. These corporations caused a lot of people to want political and economic reform.
Political parties were so evenly divided during this time that no laws were able to be passed. There were only two times between the years of 1877 and 1897 that a single party had control over the white house and both houses of congress. Most of the elections during the gilded age were very close and presidents, of this age, were very weak. Most of the presidents …show more content…

The two issues were the monetary policy and the tariff policy. The tariff policy separated the democrats and the republicans while the monetary policy gave rise to disagreements over the gold standard. A tariff on imported goods was created to protect newly developed industries. The disagreement spurred on whether to increase or lower the tariff Priceline a good. It became most relevant during the presidential election of 1888. Republicans wanted the tariff price to be raised saying that it would allow American industry to grow and promote new jobs. Democrats argued that the increase in tariff would increase the cost of goods to consumers and make it harder for farmers to sell their goods abroad. The second economic issue was about the monetary policy. During the civil war, the government issues paper money called greenbacks. The greenbacks were terminated after the war because they caused inflation. During the same time period, congress passes the coinage act of 1873. This act reversed the government’s policy of making both gold and silver coins. This threw people into disagreements over whether to consider silver or gold as money. Bankers argued that silver money would undermine the economy while others said that silver money could create inflation which would cause a rise in

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