Corruption permeates every level of the political system from Washington down to local governments. Two …show more content…
President Grant had a connection to the financial issues experienced during this time – especially monetary policy. Before the Civil War, gold standard was the main focus of the economic operations; paper money was issued by state banks, which could be exchanged into gold coins of equal value. During the Civil War, greenbacks were created, which helped pay for the war, but as the nation’s money supply grew faster than the economy, inflation began to occur. President Grant tried to remove the greenbacks from the economy, which unintentionally resulted in a major economic collapse; the Panic of 1873 caused economic depression – businesses closed down, millions of people lost jobs, and poverty struck nearly the entire population of the …show more content…
Signs of corruption permutated in this case – it is considered to be one of the most controversial campaigns in the history of the United States. What was so unique about this election was that Tilden was leading in the electoral college (one hundred eighty-four to one hundred sixty-six), as well as the popular vote, but a total of nineteen votes from South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, remained unclear. Voter fraud became of concern and it forced Congress to create a new electoral commission to determine whether Hayes or Tilden would win the election. The decision relied on fifteen congressmen and Supreme Court justices. Their voting resulted in Hayes favor, which lead him to become the new president of the nation. Southern Democrats were not happy at all, and threatened to act upon the unfairness and injustice that they had witnessed with the voter fraud. They considered the election a “stolen” one. This rebellion and discontent of the Southerners lead to the Compromise of 1877, in which Republicans promised that if Hayes were to be president, he would have to remove the last federal troops from the South. The importance of this election includes details such as the cause of the civil rights of the African American population being abridged in the South and further division of the North and the South. It also showed how corrupt and standing the politics of the time were, being