US History › Section J · Cities and Gilded Age politics › Topic J.5
Patronage, tariffs, and the money question
Three issues dominated national politics in the Gilded Age: who should get government jobs, how high tariffs should be, and whether the dollar should rest on gold alone or on silver too. Each one decided who gained and who paid.
In this topic
- Three questions that divided the nation
- Spoils versus merit
- Stalwarts, Half-Breeds and Hayes
- An assassin's bullet
- The Pendleton Act
- The tariff debate
- Worked example: who pays for a tariff?
- Greenbacks, gold and silver
- Worked example: deflation and debt
- Railways, trusts and voting rights
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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