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Line 33: − [[Image:1871 0923 vultures 200.jpg|thumb|''A Group of Vultures Waiting for the Storm to "Blow Over"--"Let Us Prey."'' Cartoon of New York's [[Boss Tweed]] and other [[Tammany Hall]] figures, drawn in 1871 by [[Thomas Nast]] and published in ''[[Harper's Weekly]]''.]] −
→Politics: -broken file link
== Politics ==
== Politics ==
Americans' sense of civic virtue was shocked by the scandals associated with the Reconstruction era, including corrupt state governments, massive fraud in cities controlled by political machines, political payoffs to secure government contracts (especially the [[Crédit Mobilier of America scandal]] regarding the financing of the transcontinental railroad), and widespread evidence of government corruption during the [[Ulysses S. Grant]] Administration. Led by the [[Bourbon Democrats]], especially [[Samuel J. Tilden]] and [[Grover Cleveland]], there was a call for reform, such as [[Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act|Civil Service Reform]]. More generally, there was a sense that government intervention in the economy resulted in favoritism, bribery, kickbacks, inefficiency, waste and corruption. The Bourbon Democrats led the call for a free market, low [[tariff]]s, low taxes, less spending and, in general, a "Laissez-Faire" (hands-off) government. They also denounced imperialism and overseas expansion. Many business and professional people supported this approach, although most Republicans continued to argue for a high protective tariff to encourage rapid growth of industry and protect America's high wages against the low wage system in Europe. Labor activists and agrarians expressed the same spirit but focused their attacks on [[monopoly|monopolies]] and railroads as unfair to the little man; they also complained that high tariffs for instance on British steel benefited industrialists like Carnegie more than his employees who even at the time were regarded by many as being pitifully exploited.
Americans' sense of civic virtue was shocked by the scandals associated with the Reconstruction era, including corrupt state governments, massive fraud in cities controlled by political machines, political payoffs to secure government contracts (especially the [[Crédit Mobilier of America scandal]] regarding the financing of the transcontinental railroad), and widespread evidence of government corruption during the [[Ulysses S. Grant]] Administration. Led by the [[Bourbon Democrats]], especially [[Samuel J. Tilden]] and [[Grover Cleveland]], there was a call for reform, such as [[Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act|Civil Service Reform]]. More generally, there was a sense that government intervention in the economy resulted in favoritism, bribery, kickbacks, inefficiency, waste and corruption. The Bourbon Democrats led the call for a free market, low [[tariff]]s, low taxes, less spending and, in general, a "Laissez-Faire" (hands-off) government. They also denounced imperialism and overseas expansion. Many business and professional people supported this approach, although most Republicans continued to argue for a high protective tariff to encourage rapid growth of industry and protect America's high wages against the low wage system in Europe. Labor activists and agrarians expressed the same spirit but focused their attacks on [[monopoly|monopolies]] and railroads as unfair to the little man; they also complained that high tariffs for instance on British steel benefited industrialists like Carnegie more than his employees who even at the time were regarded by many as being pitifully exploited.