The American Dream essays

The American Dream essays Many residents of America as well as newly introduced immigrants first believed that America would be the land of the free. Most never dreamed it would be the land free of morals values, and integrity. However, during the last thirty-five years of the nineteenth century, that is exactly what it became. Some inhabitants of America thought it to be such a ring of the morally corrupt and dishonest politics that they were compelled to write literature based on the deceptions and misgivings of the time period. Upton Sinclair and Frank Norris, authors of The Jungle and The Octopus respectively, reflected the political manipulations and economic injustices during the period of 1865 to 1900. These authors used a manner of writing that depicted political corruption as harsh, cruel, and even tragic. Corruption ranged from the president and vice president to everyday people, including immigrants as well as Americans. Even Mr. President Ulysses S. Grant complied with requests from Jubilee Jim Fisk and Jay Gould to make the federal treasury refrain from selling gold. The president received $25,000 for his complicity and Fisk and Gould cornered the gold market. Not only accepting bribery, the presidents cabinet was full of favor seekers as well as incompetent. Then, in 1872, The Credit Mobilier scandal was made public. Insiders of the Union Pacific Railroad formed the Credit Mobilier Construction Company, hired themselves at inflated prices, and distributed shares of the company to a few key congressmen. It was also discovered that the vice president had accepted a sums of money from this corrupt company. The Whiskey Ring cheated the Treasury out of millions in excise-tax revenues, and the Secretary of War William Belknap pocketed bribes from suppliers to the Indian Reservations. President Grant may have been a fine general, however he was not an honest president when it came to the punishmen t o...