Friday, October 25, 2013

Preview of the Upcoming Presidents Part 2 (1881-1897)


Here is the part 2 of my post from yesterday!

President Chester A. Arthur



President Chester A. Arthur is probably best known for his reformation of civil service policies by signing the Pendleton Act that the Congress passed. His acts regarding the tariffs, the “Mongrel” Tariff Act and the Tariff Act of 1883, cannot go unnoticed since he made great deal of efforts in reducing the tariffs. All in all, President Arthur opted for an honest administration and his administration was the first one that enacted the first general Federal Immigration Law.

Here are some of President Arthur’s other presidential policies...
  • Edmunds Act (banned Bigamists and Polygamists from voting and holding office)
  • Contract Labor Act (Foran Act)
  • Chinese Exclusion Act


President Grover Cleveland




Both the 22nd and 24th president before and after his successor President Harrison, President Cleveland was a democrat and the first democratic president since President Andrew Johnson. I believe that President Cleveland used his power of appointment pretty wisely since he didn’t use the spoils system to give away the governmental offices to his own party, although he later started replacing the government with democrats. With that power, he also decreased the number of federal employees. One of President Cleveland’s notable acts is his authorization of the usage of federal troops to break up the Pullman workers’ strike in Chicago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike).

Here are some(probably not all) of President Cleveland’s policies...
  • Dawes General Allotment Act
  • Interstate Commerce Act
  • Presidential Succession Act
  • Repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
  • Wilson-Gorman Tariff Bill


President Benjamin Harrison



President Benjamin Harrison, a republican president, is well known for supporting the bill that promoted voting rights of African Americans in the South, although it never reached concession in the Congress. Another speculation that is made about President Harrison is that his policies(listed under) hastened the Panic of 1893 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893). The well-known system of checking on corporations was established with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and while it wasn’t really useful during Harrison’s time, presidents such as President Roosevelt used this system effectively.

Here are the acts/polices made during President Harrison’s term...
  • Sherman Anti-trust Act
  • Dependent Pension Bill
  • Dependent and Disability Pensions Act
  • Sherman Silver Purchase Act
  • The tariff was removed from imported raw sugar, and sugar growers in the United States
  • Act that created the United States Circuit Court of Appeals
  • McKinley Tariff
  • Anti-Lottery Bill

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Joanne! I really loved how clear and succinct your descriptions were, and I really liked your brief summary of all the major acts the presidents passed during their terms. You really highlighted what was noteworthy about each president. When you were describing Grover Cleveland, you mentioned that he used his power wisely because he did not use the spoils system, however, later on he started replacing members of his government with democrats. I would argue that replacing members of his government with democrats creates a "yes-man" type of government, in which the members simply agree with what the president wants, which is not effective. Even though Cleveland didn't use the spoils system, I still do not think he used his power of appointment wisely.

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  2. This is going to be a pain to learn at school. Thanks for posting it here, because this was much easier to soak up than the book.

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