Guizen Del Canto AP US History Bailey P3 The American People:?Creating a Nation and a Society Chapter 19: Politics & Reform Politics in the Gilded Age Politics, Parties, Patronage, and Presidents In the late nineteenth-century, Americans ?mistrusted organized power and believed in harmony of interests and laissez-faire.? The federal government was passive and interfered little. The two major parties did not differ in principles, but patronage. Elected presidents would reward the faithful with government positions. Party affiliation generally reflected interest in important cultural, religious, and ethnic questions. Republicans ? ?Regulate moral life but not economic development? - Northeastern Yankee industrialists and Scandinavian Lutherans