Period 6: 1865-1898
The Public Be Damned!
This image is an 1882 political cartoon by Frederick Opper depicting a poorly groomed, heavyset, cigar-smoking man -- railroad tycoon William Vanderbilt -- leaning back in a chair to which two dogs named "Congress" and "Legislature" are chained, while resting his foot on what appears to be a bird dressed in patriotic garments; the bird, in this case, is meant to exemplify the American populace, and the chained dogs are meant to show how big business and monopolies controlled Congress to the detriment of the general population. This period's politics were riddled with graft and corruption. The rise of big business was too speedy for the government or reformers to immediately react, and corporations quickly gained control of the legislature in the midst of weak presidents and the government's commitment to laissez-faire. The Gilded Age is the era of business and their unrestrained influence in every sphere of life: social, political, and of course, economic. Cartoons like this one were not employed to merely evoke humor, rather to incite change. Cartoonists like Opper and Thomas Nast became important figures in the fight against political machines and their unhealthy role in government. In fact, Thomas Nast is famously attributed to bringing down "Boss Tweed" of Tammany Hall. The abundance of this political corruption solicited a moderately strong resistance toward the end of this period which, in turn, helped set up the foundations for the rise of the Progressives in period 7.