When Bad Men Combine

The Star Route Scandal and the Twilight of Gilded Age Politics

Shawn Francis Peters

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9780807179611
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The Star Route scandal captured the nation's attention for more than a decade, with newspapers throughout the United States characterizing it as an unprecedented case of Gilded Age graft. Shawn Francis Peters's When Bad Men Combine provides a glimpse into this uniquely tumultuous period marked by brazen greed and duplicity. In the first book to offer a full recounting of the Star Route maelstrom, which roiled American politics during the 1870s and 1880s, Peters reveals how postal service corruption resulted in a remarkable legal case that featured jury bribery and document theft. When Bad Men Combine follows the saga to its culmination as two sensational criminal trials presented evidence implicating some of the most prominent men in America and, perhaps, led to the assassination of President James Garfield.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE: FRAUD AT ITS FINEST
• DRAMATIS PERSONAE
• 1. Celerity, Certainty, and Security: The Post Office Conquers the West, 1789–1878
• 2. Chapter First in the History of Plunder: Early Accusations and Investigations, 1872–1878
• 3. The Cynicism of This: Stephen Dorsey and His Ring, 1878–1881
• 4. Probe This Ulcer to the Bottom: President Garfield Takes Action, Spring 1881
• 5. Setting a Thief to Catch a Thief: A Special Prosecutor Is Appointed, Spring 1881
• 6. Business Connected with Dorsey’s Troubles: The Investigation Takes Shape, Spring–Summer 1881
• 7. The Newspapers Confirmed the Inspiration: The President Falls, Summer–Fall 1881
• 8. MacVeagh’s Waterloo: The Prosecution Falters, Fall 1881
• 9. This Lamentable Fiasco: The Prosecutors’ Civil War, Fall–Early Winter 1881
• 10. From the Sewers of Calumny: The Press v. the Prosecutors, Winter 1881–1882
• 11. Selling You Out to the Other Side: Prosecutors with Suspect Loyalties, Winter 1882
• 12. The Charge Here Is Conspiracy: The First Star Route Trial Begins, Spring–Summer 1882
• 13. Not So Hopeless: The Prosecution Makes Its Case, Summer 1882
• 14. Was Not That a Fraud?: The Defense Stumbles, Summer 1882
• 15. A National Humiliation: The Controversial Verdict, Late Summer 1882
• 16. Inconsistent and Peculiar: Charges of Jury Tampering and a Purge, Fall–Winter 1882
• 17. Suckled in Falsehood: The Star Route Retrial, Winter 1882–Spring 1883
• 18. Yes, the Star Route Business Killed Garfield!: Reckoning with the Scandal, 1883–1884
• 19. The Standard of Public Morals Has Been Elevated: After the Star Route Scandal, 1884–Present
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX
• Illustrations