Today is Thursday. Because Zach didn't do his chapter 7 section 3 presentation, Mr. Bruns filled in and did his own presentation.Ch. 7.3What was the political machine and what did they do for a city? A political machine was a political party within a city that would try to work towards gaining the position of Boss (basically the mayor of the city with extra-special privileges) whom that political machine appointed. A political machine consisted of many positions starting with the very lowly and poor, all the way up to the Boss.A person aspiring to be a boss would work very hard to gain the trust of those who could give support and votes for them. The person trying to be boss would do favors for those who struggle. Newcoming immigrants benefitted especially. The boss would set up their networks of contacts to provide homes, food, job opportunities, protection, and interpreters. The extremely grateful immigrants would vote for that boss and offered their loyalty very willingly.Tell me about Boss Tweed and the Tweed Ring. Boss Tweed was an especially well known boss. Tweed was the boss of Tamany Hall, the Democratic party that had control of New York City. Tweed had extreme power over the police force, news papers, and crime rings throughout the city. Tweed could easily pay off cops and keep the police well away from anything that could possibley bring Tweed down.Tweed was most famous for his crimes of laundering millions of taxpayers' money. When public buildings were constructed, Tweed had specially hired workers that were assigned to multiply their original construction bill by 5, 10, or even 100. The bills had to be paid by the city, so, after all of the original bills were paid to the workers (with a little raise of course) Tweed divided up the rest of the millions between himself, and his ring of cronies.What caused all this corruption in government? All of the corruption within the government was caused by the Spoils System, otherwise known as Patronage. Not only this, but the avarice that public officials unfortunately possess. The officials within the goverment sought to help only themselves, not the country that they had sworn to help and protect.What laws came about to reform government? Pendleton Civil Service Act required most government jobs to be given through a merit system based on test scores. This new law was the first step towards civil service within the country.Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland and William Mckinley were all presidents during the late 1800's. Were they a reform president or a status quo president? These presidents were reform presidents they were all presidents who fought back against the status quo officials within the government. Those presidents genuinely tried to aid the common people.The wealthy and powerful were furious with these presidents. The wealthy feared that if the commoners were aided, more and more money would inevitably be yanked out of the wealthy folks' pockets. They wanted to remain on top, and keep those that worked for them under their shoes. These feelings grew to such rancor that James A. Garfield was shot and killed.I am really glad that I did not live in the Gilded Age of the late 1800's. Actually, we are kind of in a gilded age of our own. We are in a recession, the government is trying to play the recession down, and the government is jampacked with corruption. We need to do all that we can to call for a nationwide reform, and get the corruption out of our government so elected officials actually work for the good of America, not themselves.
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