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1 Introduction “The fate of that noble party to which they all belonged, and which had a record that could never be forgotten, depended on their letting principle alone. Their principle must be want of principle.”1 Henry Adams’s bitter assessment of the Republican Party’s commitment to reform in the Gilded Age was one shared by many contemporaries and later observers. The party that had freed the slaves seemed to have abandoned them to embrace business interests and work solely for base political objectives. By the late nineteenth century, many Americans associated politics with despoiled state and national treasuries, unfit officeholders, purchased votes, campaign violence, and very few positive accomplishments. Politicians often were viewed as incompetent, untrained, unconcerned about corruption , and interested only in the results of the next election.2 The idea that political leaders in the 1880s made serious attempts to deal with societal problems and that a viable reform tradition existed defied conventional wisdom. The most sensational reform advocates in the Gilded Age confirmed the prevailing image. In almost every case, they seemed to be people outside the regular party lines and political discipline. Reformers who stayed within the two-party system, like the Liberal Republicans in 1872 and the Mugwumps in 1884, found they had little leverage with party leadership .3 Despite the generally high social and economic standing of these party-affiliated reform groups, the political process seemed impervious to change. Their legislative accomplishments were often quite conservative in nature and did not threaten the status quo. For example, some contemporaries and later historians maintained that the Civil Service Act of 1883 and the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887 did not represent important departures from previous practices.4 In addition , these changes appeared to be forced on a reluctant Congress by an aroused public opinion. Henry Blair’s life offers important insights into the origins and applications of political reform in the Gilded Age. Blair was first elected to Congress in 1875 and left in 1895. Although he dealt with a broad spectrum 2 Henry W. Blair’s caMpaiGn to reforM aMerica of issues during his congressional career, he came to symbolize the moral reformer in politics in the 1880s. He, along with George F. Hoar and other members of an informal Senate leadership called the Half-Breeds, dominated the Republican Party throughout the 1880s.5 They sought to complete many of the reform programs of the 1850s and 1860s while confronting some of the issues raised by industrialization and urbanization. Blair accepted racial classifications, the existing economic system, and the idea that individuals were personally responsible for advancing their position in society. Yet his identification with a tradition of political reform was deep and genuine. His presence in this circle of reformers was a product of the society in which he matured and the particular events of his early life. With a few exceptions, his ideas and experiences were typical of an entire generation, revealing a considerable amount about the way in which Americans viewed themselves. Many of the people around Blair shared a belief in dynamic forms of Christianity that required them to improve or perfect the world around them. Led by northern men of Whig and Republican politics, their values and behaviors were shaped by industrialization, evangelical Protestantism , and middle-class status.6 The result of this combination of ingredients was an earnest and optimistic individual who lived a moral home life, sought commercial success, was anxious about the increasingly unstable society around him, and viewed social respectability as a highly desirable goal.7 For Blair, the Christian reformer’s worldview became the most dominant force in his life. He faced a number of crises in his early life that could have challenged some of his assumptions, but their origin and final resolution tended to reinforce the ideals he had learned. This consistent pattern of beliefs and goals gave him enormous self-confidence in his self-worth and moral rectitude, enabling him to unceasingly pursue a program based on the platforms of the Whig and Republican Parties of the 1850s and 1860s. The reform program in which Blair felt so much confidence was, like his personal value system, a product of the maturing United States. Soon after its formation, the Republican Party adopted the platform of the rising middle class, calling for equal opportunity through “free land, free labor , and free men.”8 For Blair, this platform became a lifetime program that he continued to pursue more...

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