Transcript

After the Civil War, Americans were extraordinarily engaged in the political process at the local, state, and national levels. Voter participation was extraordinarily high. For example, in presidential elections during the 1870s, 80s, and 90s, 80 to 90 percent of Americans voted, compared to 50 percent today. What explains that? Why were people so passionate about politics in the late 19th century? Why were they so eager to exercise their rights as citizens?

Of course, in the 19th century, women could not vote. And so political activity was limited to males in terms of voting and running for office. And it was very much a masculine activity. For example, saloons in major American cities were primarily political crossroads. Saloons were used widely in political campaigns to gather followers, report results, and stimulate political energies. Of course, unlike today there was no national television, no computer or Internet or immediacy of communication that there is today. Politics was more local and grassroots. Politics was also theatrical; it was a form of entertainment. When elections occurred, the political parties got out the vote by having people parade down the street by paying them to come out and vote, which was illegal but commonplace. Also, political parties distributed liquor freely in order to entice people to the voting booth.

Politics was also a very dynamic activity because of what was called the spoils system. Local and state politicians, and at the federal level as well, when they won a victory, rewarded their supporters by giving them a government job. At the same time politics was a visceral activity in the 1860s, 70s, and 80s because of the proximity of the Civil War to political life in the postwar era. Americans voted as they shot, as they said in the 1870s, which meant that the Republicans very frequently “waved the bloody shirt” and claimed that the Democrats were the party of the Confederacy, of slavery and secession. They encouraged people to vote based not so much on the particular issues as party loyalty and party history associated with the Civil War. Democrats, of course, did the same thing in the south. They pointed out that they were the party of secession and of the Confederacy in order to ensure that southerners voted the Democratic way.

Another reason that people participated in politics at the presidential level so actively in the late 19th century was that the parties were so evenly divided that only a few votes could determine the outcome of the election. So people went to the polls knowing that their vote was truly going to count because political balance between Democrats and Republicans was so evenly split.

Unfortunately, another reason why politics was so active in American life in the late 19th century was that corruption was widespread. In fact, the Republican Party actually split in two because the corruption alienated so many members of its party. That’s one reason why the Mugwump faction of the Republican Party emerged: they were so disgusted with the corruption of their party by so many of their elected officials.

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