Essay Sample on Congressman Preston Scandal: CBS News Reports Sex and Violence

Klotter (225) indicated that on June 18, 1976, the CBS "Morning News" released a repugnant report of congressional sex and violence. According to Bruce Morton's commentary, there was a brewing scandal involving Congressman William Preston of Kentucky who was found in a "compromising manner with a young lady who worked in a model department of the patent office (Klotter p. 225). The aftermath of the scandalous news made Taulbee not to consider vying for re-election and also fuelled the divorce of him with his wife (Klotter p. 226).

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Taulbee expressed rage and anger towards Kincaid. He blamed his troubles on, and after a few months, the two men fought briefly, after that Kincaid resulted in avoiding the ex-congressman and any further trouble (Klotter pp. 226-227). The sexual habits of politicians have long been a subject of interest to Americans. Alexander Hamilton's 1797 public confession of an "irregular and indelicate amour" with Maria Reynolds proved to be a hot scandal that would have yielded its author considerable royalties from selling the magazine (Klotter p. 227). His philosophical opponent Thomas Jefferson was overtly associated by the opposition press to Sally Hemings, a slave on his farmstead (Klotter p. 227).

The postwar age provided no surcease of instances (Klotter p. 228). To an age growing increasingly dedicated to sensationalism and united by widespread communications, every glimmer of scandal could be magnified to provide weeks or months of reading material (Klotter p. 228). For example, prostitutes sitting in Congressmen's reserved private galleries in the 1880s went unreported except in the later chronicles (Klotter pp. 228-229). In an age that frankly proclaimed sexual mortality as a cornerstone of the public welfare, the ensuing trial probably added to the Gilded Age's cynicism with public leaders (Klotter p. 228).

Grover Cleveland's frank admission that he had agreed to provide for an illegitimate child of a young Buffalo widow assisted silence criticism (Klotter p. 228). Despite his error, the electorate chose him as their president, signifying that the age could be forgiving one as well. The subsequent murder trial ended in acquittal. By the time, the Taulbee scandal emerged, one member of the Kentucky congressional delegation already had made known his feelings about the mortality of such actions (Klotter p. 228).

In review, the near election of Breckinridge and his ensuing career is revealing. Gilded Age mortality had traditionally incorporated two contradictory images; that of the low state of public morality, and that of Victorian viewpoint (Klotter p. 229). The examples of Taulbee, Cleveland and Breckinridge give a clear indication of what transpired during that era (Klotter p. 228). Finally, if sexual offenses could be measured, the known examples of political officials would probably fall beneath the general public's Gilded Age average (Klotter p. 228).

Works Cited

Klotter, James C. "Sex, scandal, and suffrage in the Gilded Age." The Historian 42.2 (1980): 225-243. Retrieved from: file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/1890%20Sex,%20Scandal,%20and%20Suffrage%20in%20the%20Gilded%20Age.pdf