Examples Of Political Injustice In The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was a period in the U.S.’s history during the 1860’s to the 1900’s. This was a time period in which there was a great deal of political injustice, an economic growth caused by an industrial boom, a massive wave of immigrants, environmental exploitation, and new inventions that push America forward in time. All of these aspects are what lead the US into what we now call the “American Renaissance”.

Political injustice was common throughout the Gilded Age. Money was an asset that many people wanting to become a part of politics used. An example of this was Boss Tweed, a man that was mayor of New York in 1867. Tweed would send workers to Ellis Island to greet new immigrants and bribe them with things like jobs, shelter, food, and money. The immigrants would usually happily accept and become very loyal workers and voters when Tweed ran for mayor. Tweed not only used bribery to get votes but also used different mottos and quotes to get people to vote for him and sway the polls. For instance, one of his quotes was, “Vote early and vote often.” The problem with
It’s a misapplication of the theories of Charles Darwin that said all people are not born equal but some are born winners and some are born losers. They literally believed they were greater human beings compared to the lower classes. A quote that was used greatly by them was, “Life is inherently a struggle with the fit meriting riches and the unfit deserving exploitation and poverty.” They really felt that the poor deserved to be poor and the rich deserved to be richer, no matter what the cost was to society and the greater good of the American people. And when the Social Darwinists said they felt no guilt for what they said or did, a quote used to describe them was, “Men were answerable only to their own consciences and the consciences were well