The Republican leadership of today argues that life in the USA will improve in proportion to the extent to which the role of government is decreased and the role of business interests is increased without the restrictions of federal regulations.

In the springtime debates between the Republican candidates for the presidency, we witnessed a competition for who could most forcefully express this idea. When Rick Perry of Texas said that, if elected, he would pledge to make the federal government as “inconsequential as possible,” the others agreed and tried to outdo him.

In addition, the far right of today often claims that Perry’s view represents the intentions of our Founding Fathers. That claim is not supported by the facts, however, and would have been news to many of our Founding Fathers. During most of our country’s history, our democratic system has witnessed a lively competition and balance between these forces, usually resulting in compromises — while the pendulum of dominance swung back and forth. Our Constitution was designed so that action, not just stagnation, could occur.

Nevertheless, it is true that there was a lengthy period within our country’s 237-year existence during which the preferences of today’s far right did prevail and the influence of our federal government was almost inconsequential. That period lasted for about 30 years, from the late 1860s and to the late 1890s, and is generally referred to today as the “Gilded Age.” Given the stated goal of today’s Republican leadership, it is worth recalling what the Gilded Age was like.

First, it should be noted that the Gilded Age was sandwiched between two of our very strongest presidencies, those of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Both of these Republicans used all of the federal powers they could muster in order to accomplish the goals of the federal governments they led. Lincoln refused to let the Confederate states leave the Union, led a bloody civil war to ensure that they did not, and undid the South’s two-century old institution of slavery.

After he was assassinated in April 1865, the USA would not again see another strong president until Theodore Roosevelt took office in 1899 upon the assassination of his predecessor. Teddy Roosevelt then began what became known as the Progressive Movement of the early 20th century which set the stage for many of the social reforms that followed, including the New Deal led by his nephew, Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s.

Lincoln’s death in 1865 was followed by a long string of distinctly weak presidencies starting with that of Lincoln’s vice president, Andrew Johnson, and then the great Union general, Ulysses S. Grant. None of these eight presidents have been memorialized by their inclusion at Mount Rushmore as both Lincoln and Roosevelt were. Under their weaker presidential leadership, the power and influence of the federal government declined continuously during the Gilded Age to a point of becoming almost inconsequential.

During that period some things happened which would generally be considered to be good and even extraordinary and some things happened that were not so good and even downright ugly. Let’s start by summarizing some of the good things.

The American economy literally exploded during the Gilded Age in the Northern and Western states. New factories, mines, and farmland, along with an enormous expansion of our railroad system throughout the American Midwest and West all brought wave after wave of immigrants to our country. Foreign and local investments gave rise to Wall Street. Business opportunities and jobs were plentiful. Many prospered and some accrued fortunes. The names of prominent families, such as Rockefeller, Mellon, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt are still household words today. Many of the wealthy families became exceedingly generous philanthropists. By the end of the 19th century, the total wealth of the USA exceeded that of every other country in the world except Great Britain.

So let’s next consider, if the economy was booming in major portions of the USA and financial resources were abundant, why was this era branded merely with the name “Gilded.” Gilding refers to a process by which ordinary metals are coated with a thin film of gold. Thus, this era was not generally perceived to be a truly “Golden Era.”

First, clearly the most unfortunate aspect of this period concerned what happened in the Southern states. The South was at first maltreated and then neglected by the Union after the defeat of the Confederacy and the death of Lincoln. Most of the South remained exclusively rural, distinctly backward, and very poor relative to the North or West. As cotton prices fell after the Civil War, the economy of the South continuously shrunk, and many of the white farmers, and most of the blacks, became tenants on smaller and smaller farms doing their best to eke out marginal existences. Elementary education was spotty and very few high schools existed even for the white population of the South.

Racial segregation and outward signs of inequality were evident throughout the South and were rarely challenged. Blacks who violated the color line were liable to expulsion or much worse. Every Southern state passed “Jim Crow” laws mandating segregation in all public facilities with a supposedly “separate but equal” status for blacks. In reality, only the separate part was honored. Within a decade after the Civil War, all Union troops had been withdrawn from the South and the white Democrats of the Southern states quickly reversed any changes that President Grant had been able to make by his Reconstruction efforts. Black political power was then essentially eliminated in the 1880s and new laws effectively blocked over 90 percent of the blacks from voting.

The Catholic “late-comers” to the Northern states from southern and eastern Europe were not as well received as the earlier Protestant arrivals from Northern Europe had been. Thus, culture-based bigotry was rampant. Immigrants from Asia (mainly Chinese) were at first welcomed when needed for the construction of railroads in the Western states and later were expelled from American society because of their cultural differences.

The relationship between capital and labor in the prosperous North was strained to the limits. Andrew Carnegie saw efforts for collective bargaining and cooperation with labor unions as constituting “the destruction of individualism, private property and the law of accumulation.” Workers were dependent upon hourly wages and the good will of their employers. Wages were not generally enough to support a family, which could typically survive only by “ruthless under-consumption.” In such families, women as well as their children generally had to work and did so for exceedingly low wages.

Workers were victims of business cycles with no safety nets for their survival if laid off. Piece work and lower wages were introduced to reduce labor costs. Places of work were often dangerous and it was difficult to hold employers responsible for deaths and injuries. No enforcement of safety regulations existed. Insurance and pensions were rare and courts were not sympathetic to worker claims.

The political system of the prosperous North was about as dynamic as well as rotten as it could be. Voter turnout was spectacular because one’s salary or payout might depend directly on the outcome of that election. Both the Democratic and Republican parties built so-called “political machines” to manage elections, reward supporters and pay off potential opponents. While such practices commonly result in jail time today, there was relatively little fear of that form of “government infringement” during the Gilded Age. Often members of the U.S. Congress and occupants of the White House were parties to these widespread levels of corruption.

The natural environment of that era had to look after itself. The EPA and the National Forest Service did not yet exist and the Sierra Club was not founded until 1892. Only the wealthy had access to the retreats they built in various natural settings.

Most agree that we are fortunate today that Theodore Roosevelt was forced by fate into the White House at the turn of the century and began to place portions our remaining undeveloped regions under governmental control.

In a future essay, I will consider what might have happened if that kind of strong leadership had been found in the federal government at the beginning of the Gilded Age instead of at its end.

Eric Grimsrud is a resident of Kalispell.