Mark Twaine’s reference to the corrupted government, that it was “glittering on the surface corrupt underneath”, addresses the corruption that was shaping the nation in the mid-19th century. Reconstruction was a time when the U.S. population and economy grew quickly, but along with this, there was a lot of political corruption. The widespread belief in the middle to the late 19th century was that the United States had a special mission to expand westward. Urbanization during the Reconstruction, including rapid immigration along with the explosion of Americans moving into cities, gave rise to powerful political machines, a new political party, and it built America’s middle class. The urban explosion and expansion to the West contributed significantly
