Early History of the Democratic and Republican Parties essays

Early History of the Democratic and Republican Parties essays The Democratic and the Republican parties between 1868 and 1890 had many of the same ideas. Although their support bases were from different parts of the United States, the two parties seemed to be seeing each other eye-to-eye and didn't disagree on nearly as many things as they would in the modern day, especially when it came to economic issues. Although they shared similar views, nevertheless they were extremely competitive with each other. In each election in this time frame, the outcome showed to be very close, which is unexpected because of the massive amount of voters that showed up on election days. In fact, nearly 80 percent of eligible voters turned out to cast a ballot, because of bribes and money they would earn by voting for a particular party. The Gilded Age was a time of scandals, bribes, and corruption and was full of enthusiastic political competition. After the great Civil War, the Republican party nominated General Ulysses S. Grant, who although was a great leader, had no political experience. The Democratic Party at this time, though, was extremely unorganized because they could only agree on one thing: the denouncement of military Reconstruction. In the next election, Grant would barely win by "waving the bloody shirt" by pure popularity (just beating the Democratic candidate, Horatio Seymour). Later, a majority of Grant's cabinet turned out to be corrupt, although the easygoing Grant could not see it. A sense of disgust was growing towards Grant, and by 1872, reformers set up the Liberal Republican Party and nominated Horace Greeley. The Democrats, to some surprise, also supported the candidate, who was set on ending Reconstruction. This campaign was one of great 'mudslinging' and Greeley was called an atheist, a vegetarian, a communist, and a signer of Jefferson Davis' bail bond. Grant, on the other hand, was called a swindler, a drunkard, and an ignoramus. Nevertheless, Grant crushed Greeley in the electi...