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Chapter 4 The Native-Born Protestant Elite’s Bid for Control in the 1870s During the 1870s, it became increasingly clear that the promise of “free labor” would not be met. Rather than an expanding economy of small proprietors, the North was becoming more and more divided along class and ethnic lines. New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and other cities were full of immigrant working men who were not about to become the free laborers of antebellum mythology. Many of these wage workers did not adhere to the developing norms of middle-class respectability, nor did many of them even speak English. In addition, the unemployed of all ethnicities swarmed into the cities especially once the economic crisis began in 1873.1 Native-born Protestant urban elites across the country felt as if the cities were slipping into the grasp of these immigrant workingmen and unemployed vagrants. In response, the Protestant elite attempted to tighten its control over the nation’s cities. In Chicago, the traditional native-born, Protestant elite attempted to enforce stricter temperance laws, regulate economic life, especially construction , and gain tighter control over the municipal government itself. However , this elite faced two enormous problems in carrying out this program. First, it was an increasingly small electoral minority. Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia were among the cities with majority immigrant populations and increasing numbers of wage workers who were unwilling to ally politically with their bosses. Second, the state apparatus was not strong enough to implement elite plans for regulating either economic or leisure activity. The police stood at the center of this struggle. Police departments were expected to enforce temperance regulations, house vagrants or evict them from the cities, and control unruly workers, at the same time that businessmen were loath to tax themselves to pay for municipal services of any sort. Police departments also came under increasing criticism for corruption and inefficiency, which were often valid charges. Protestant Elite’s Bid for Control in the 1870s 73 These problems raised a series of questions about the nature of policing. Did maintaining law and order mean enforcing Sunday closing laws, or did it just mean protecting lives and property? Were the police primarily responsible for creating an orderly society, free of rabid dogs, as well as free of larceny and murder, or were they primarily responsible for maintaining the specific political and economic order that kept the business elite in control? The traditional Protestant urban elite in Chicago began the decade with an aggressive program for controlling as many aspects of urban life as possible. This would only be possible if the traditional elite could seize control over municipal governments and craft powerful police forces that would enforce their program. This process began in New York. That city’s elite particularly felt the threat of immigrant working men in the aftermath of the draft riot of 1863 and the growth of an immigrant-based Democratic machine run by Boss William Tweed out of Tammany Hall. The New York elite attempted to overcome these problemsbybandingtogetherpolitically.First,importantbusinessmenformed a so-called Committee of Seventy to carry out a municipal coup against Boss Tweed’sDemocraticmachinein1871.Thiscoupinstalledaprobusinessmunicipal government that, among other things, ensured the New York City police would intervene against any strikes. The New York elite even contemplated disfranchisingthecity’sworkers.AccordingtohistorianSvenBeckert,throughout the rest of the 1870s, New York businessmen increasingly united to retain control of city government and to form themselves into a cohesive class that could ensure the state at all levels acted on their behalf.2 Chicago’s elite faced even deeper problems. It was considerably weaker and less cohesive than New York’s. Chicago did not yet possess the millionaires who would emerge in the 1880s. Many of its wealthiest citizens were still real estate speculators who banked on the city’s continued growth, yet to ensure that growth they needed to ensure that the city would be safe for investment. Chicago also possessed a sizeable population of middle-class and wealthy Germans, who were culturally distinct from the native-born members of the elite but who had similar class interests. In addition, Chicago was growing at a tremendous clip during this period, from about three hundred thousand people in 1870 to half a million by 1880. While the city’s growth presented many new business opportunities, it also attracted hundreds of thousands of new immigrant wage workers who would have to be fed, housed, and controlled . Finally, Chicago’s police force was even weaker and...

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