Gilded Age Dbq

After the soaring ideals and tremendous sacrifices of the Civil War, the post-War era of the United States was generally one of political disillusionment. Even as the continent expanded and industrialized, political life in the Gilded Age was marked by ineptitude and stalemate as passive, rather than active, presidents merely served as figureheads to be manipulated rather than enduring strongholds. As politicians from both the White House to the courthouse were deeply entangled in corruption and scandal during the Gilded Age, the actual economic and social issues afflicting urbanizing America festered beneath the surface without being seriously addressed.

During this time, general American attention had shifted away from national politics and more towards economic change concerning the development of the West, urbanization of cities, and industrialization. Accompanying this transition was corruption in government policy, evident through immense government subsidies and land grants. The Senate was acutely involved in this corruption, most clearly seen in the Credit Mobilier scandal of 1872. Though laws were passed in an attempt to mollify government interventions, most notably the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 (E), these were often too vaguely worded to actually be effective.

In response to intervention, thousands of groups of people became defiant. Laborers living off the bare minimum often assembled into organized groups to enforce their demands upon the government, making a notable push for reform (D) while educated men such as Henry Demarest Lloyd promoted virtue, not land, as the ideal focus of government (B). Dissatisfaction continued within the middle class. As new industrial machines emerged, designed for mass product...

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...disrupting the equilibrium of American society, they confronted these issues and pushed for political, economic, and social reform. (H)

As American focus shifted away from national politics of the Gilded Age, the federal government settled into an era of stalemate and comparative inactivity. Failing to deal largely with the economic and social issues of the time, "forgettable" presidents took comfort in corruption and patronage and seemingly ignored the grievances of the littler peoples. Reformative action resulted from social and economic discontent, but didn't reach its intended effect until the beginnings of the 20th century. Nevertheless, it was a call for change in the era that was rife with stalemate, fiscal corruption, agrarian dissatisfaction, and, largely in part to government inactivity, disruption in the social and economic aspects of 19th century America.