8.4Party politics of the Gilded Age

Gilded Age politics was fiercely competitive but often short on substance. Republicans and Democrats were closely matched nationally, and elections turned out huge numbers of voters. Yet the parties differed less over grand principle than over patronage, tariffs, and regional loyalty.

The Republicans remained the party of the North, business, high protective tariffs, and the legacy of the Union. The Democrats held the "Solid South" and drew urban immigrant and working-class support in the North. Corruption was rampant in both, and reformers pushed for a professional civil service to replace the spoils system, achieving the Pendleton Act (1883). Real ideological realignment, however, still lay ahead.