Gilded Age Analysis

In January of 1832 Biddle’s supporters in Congress introduced the Bank re-charter legislation. They believed that the current Congress would re-charter the bank and they believed that Jackson wouldn’t risk the loss of votes in vetoing the Bank. Jackson’s hatred for the bank became more of an obsession. Jackson vetoed the Bank Re-charter Bill, and ordered the federal government’s deposits removed from the Bank and placed in state banks. These state banks were privately owned and it led to large inflation and the Panic of 1837.

What were the sources of the American economic recovery of the 1980s and 1990s? Who benefited from it and who did not, and why was that the case? The American economy during the time period of 1980-1990’s was in a state of regrowth after the federal government’s economic policies of the 1970’s was revised. President Reagan felt the federal government had become too intrusive in state administration with regards to economic policies (American History, 2012). Reagan’s economic plan was largely based on a “supply-side economic theory” in which large tax cuts would encourage people to work longer hours and promote investments.

To try and dispute what Jackson was doing, the president of the Bank called in outstanding loans and instituting a policy of credit contraction that helped bring on a recession in hopes to show that without the Bank the economy would greatly suffer. Jackson’s regime accused the president of the bank of deliberately and unnecessarily causing distress out of personal resentment and a desire to maintain his unchecked powers and privileges, which resulted in the bank never regaining its charter (American Stories P.

The editorial cartoon in Document H provides a useful illustration of this point (see Document H). As Uncle Sam, the federal government, pours more public money into the machinery of war the main beneficiary would be economic recovery. According to Document B spending on military hardware and in the industrial sectors that produced weapons led to substantially higher prices, a sharp upturn in the stock markets, and greatly reduced unemployment (Document G). Public anxiety and fear in Western Europe and in the U.S. were fed by the prospect of yet another World War. Whether intended or not, this led to another measure supported by Democrats and Republicans that addressed one of the crises of a depression.

Taudenciah Oluoch History 1302-004 Mr. Terry D. Cowan 21 October 2015 In 1875 the United States got involved in Hawaii, when King Kalakaua signed a treaty with the United States permitting access to American Markets for Hawaiian sugarcane, which was the island 's largest agricultural product. The planters ' belief that a coup and annexation by the United States would remove the threat of a devastating tariff on their sugar also spurred them to action. In 1893 planters staged an uprising to overthrow the queen. This agreement resulted in a boom in sugar production, and American planters in Hawaii soon formed an economic elite that built its fortunes on cheap immigrant labor, mainly Chinese and Japanese. The native Hawaiian population had been reduced to a minority by smallpox and other foreign diseases, and Asians quickly became the most numerous group.

Jackson believed “if the government would stop creating inequality by giving artificial stimulation to the engines of the Market Revolution…men would be left in a state of modest but natural inequality” . His ideas resonated with the common people who had already grown to fear big banks due to the Panic of

The alliance around Adams and Clay came to form the opposition Whig Party in the 1830s. The Whigs assembled in opposition to Andrew Jackson and believed the federal government should direct and sponsor internal improvements, pass laws to promote agriculture, manufacturing, and the arts, and create a national bank to help develop the economy and spread prosperity across the country. They viewed the market revolution as the embodiment of civilized progress and that a robust federal government enhanced freedom. Democrats under Jackson reduced spending, lowered the tariff, killed the national bank, and refused federal aid for internal improvements. Consequently, states replaced the federal government as main economic players, much to the ire of

The American System was a plan brought forth by Henry Clay, about economic development. The American system was brilliant plan that allowed federal funding for internal development. This plan created a protective tariff in order to protect American businesses but in turn created a high tariff on imported goods some American industries can strive. The American System helped the textile business, while British were bringing clothes over and selling them cheaper. The American system also wanted to create high land states, so that the revenues my help economic development.

In the late 1800s, the U.S Treasury Department used sales tax and tariffs to fund its federal budget. A tax or tariffs are funds that are paid to the government that are added when something is bought that is considered valuable. Because of the Civil war, there was a financial burden on the country. In 1861, Congress reacted by implementing taxes on individuals. The first income tax started off by taxing individuals 3% making more than $800, while people who made more than that gave up a larger percentage.

British sociologist Herbert Spencer adds some social Darwinism by arguing that “free market economies constitute the most civilized form of human competition in which the ‘fittest’ will naturally rise to the top”. This school of thinking believes that inequality is needed to create incentives to drive the performance of companies and individuals. An important element of this trickle down effect involves income tax cuts for the rich. It is argued that cutting income tax for the rich will benefit everyone, not just high income-earners. The trickle down effect explains that if that if higher-income earners get an increase in disposable income, they will thus increase their spending, creating additional demand in the economy.

World trade and imports drastically declined and the economic turmoil hit world wide. The gold standard is “ a monetary standard under which the basic unit of currency is defined by a stated quantity of gold and which is usually characterized by the coinage and circulation of gold, unrestricted convertibility of other money into gold, and the free export and import of gold for settling of international obligations.” Having the knowledge of what the gold standard is you can see the potential downfall that the value of gold had towards the world trade value. The gold standard belief of the central banks was that they were to supply the banks with gold above other priorities. If a country was loosing gold because of the impact of the exports and the imports were not keeping up, the central bank was supposed to raise interest rates to protect the gold reserve. Many countries who received gold should have lowered their rates, but they didn’t because they were nervous it would put their gold at

If consumers did not buy, then prices would fall, and industries would dismiss employees. It was all a chain reaction. Furthermore, another cause was the instability of the world economy. From the aftermath of World War 1, Germany struggled to pay reparations. They borrowed money from the United States.

According to , progressives were “enamored by science and efficiency.” Opposite of social Darwinists, progressives believed that the greed of corporations and the corruption of political figures led to the destitution of many communities. Also, rather than applying the theory of evolution like social Darwinists, progressives studied the poverty-stricken communities and discovered that there were also higher concentrations of disease in poor communities. The progressives eventually came to the conclusion that the problem was the conditions in which the poor families lived and worked.The high costs of housing forced people into small unsanitary tenant houses. In order to combat the continuation of this, congress enacted the Tenement House Act of 1901. The act called for the improvement of things like ventilation and fire safety of tenant houses.