The Era of Good Stealings

by Summers, Mark Wahlgren

• ISBN13: 9780195075038
• ISBN10: 019507503X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-01-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Who, thinking of Reconstruction, fails to think of corruption? The Grant administration and the Great Barbecue remain inseparable in our minds. In his first book, The Plundering Generation , Mark W. Summers dealt with corruption and the breakdown of ethics in public life from 1849 to 1861. Now in a study of the post-Civil War years, he examines the aftermath of the war, when abuses of the public trust were all the fashion, from grafting South Carolina Republicans to plundering Tammany Hall delegates. Noting the effect of corruption on national politics during the era of Reconstruction, Summers nonetheless suggests the corruption issue may have had more important consequences than the misdeeds themselves. Indeed, the very forces that impelled corruption were the ones that defined and limited the character of reform. Official rascality raised the strongest possible argument for a scaled-down, cheap government, a professional civil service, and a retreat from Reconstruction. Without whitewashing villainy or blackguarding the liberal reformers, Summers re-examines the swindles, exposes the exaggerations and the self-interested motives of the accusers, and suggests ways in which the issue itself struck heavier blows at the way Americans governed themselves than did the acts of corruption.

Table of Contents

All, All of a Piece Throughout: A Context for Corruption
The Era of Good Stealings?	p. 3
"The Old Flag and an Appropriation"	p. 16
"We Know That Money Was Used": 1868	p. 30
"That Nauseous Muckhill"	p. 46
Bohemians in Babylon	p. 62
Sentinels and Tribunes: The "Independent" Press	p. 75
Thy Chase Had a Beast in View: Corruption and the New Political Economy
A Spoiled Peace	p. 89
"A Fearful Amount of Greasing": The Lobby	p. 107
"Spigotry"	p. 122
As Cities Expand, Shepherds Contract	p. 137
Thy Wars Brought Nothing About: Corruption and the Old Politics, 1868-72
"Five Years of Good Stealing": The Corruption of Southern Reconstruction	p. 153
"Honest Money": Liberal Reform and the Power of Moral Ideas	p. 166
The Great Disappointment	p. 180
The Party of the Mighty Past Finds an Issue	p. 200
"Turn the Rascals Out!": The Liberal Republican Debacle, 1872	p. 215
Thy Lovers Were All Untrue: The Realignment That Failed, 1873-77
1873	p. 231
Caesar, with Cigar	p. 244
Turning the Rascals In: The Strange Survival of the Republican Party	p. 259
"We Waited for the Coming Man"	p. 274
"Conscience Offers No Restraint": The Stolen Election, 1876-77	p. 287
Epilogue and Coda: 'Tis Well an Old Age Is Out and Time to Begin Anew	p. 300
Notes	p. 309
Index	p. 379
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