APUSH ch 23/26

Mugwumps

Republican clean-government advocates who supported Democrat Cleveland in 1884 because of the corruption of republican nominee Blaine

Half-Breeds

Republican party faction led by Senator James G. Blaine that paid lip service to government reform while still battling for patronage and spoils

Liberal Republican

Short-lived third party of 1872 that attempted to curb Grant administration corruption

Cross of Gold

Spectacular convention speech by a young pro-silver advocate that brought him the Democratic presidential nomination in 1896

Civil Service Commission

System of choosing federal employees on the basis of merit rather than patronage, introduced by the Pendleton Act of 1883

Compromise of 1877

The complex political agreement between Republicans and Democrats that resolved the bitterly disputed election of 1876

Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion

The nasty "RRR" label attached to the Democratic party by a Republican speaker in the election of 1884

Credit Mobilier Scandal

corrupt construction company whose bribes and payoffs to congressman and others created a major Grant administration scandal

Stalwart

republican party faction, led by senator Roscoe Conkling, that opposed all attempts at civil-service reform

McKinnley Tariff Act

sky-high republican tariff that caused widespread anger among farmers in the Midwest and the South

People's party

third political party that emerged in the 1890s to express rural grievances and mount major attacks on the Democrats and Republicans

Gilded Age

Mark Twain's sarcastic name for the post-Civil War era, which emphasized its atmosphere of greed and corruption

silver

Precious metal that "soft-money" advocates demanded be coined again after the "Crime of '73"

Populist Party (People's Party)

insurgent political party that gained widespread support among farmers in the 1890s

Greenback Labor

"Soft-money" third party that polled over a million votes and elected fourteen congressmen in 1878 by advocating inflation

Chinese

Asian immigrant group that experienced discrimination on the West Coast

Pullman strike

Bitter labor conflict in Chicago that brought federal intervention and the jailing of union leader Eugene Debs

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)

Civil War veterans' organization that became a potent political bulwark of the Republican party in the late 19th century

Homestead Act

Federal law that offered generous land opportunities to poorer farmers but also provided the unscrupulous with opportunities for hoaxes and fraud

Oklahoma

Former "Indian Territory" where "sooners" tried to get the jump on "boomers" when it was opened for settlement in 1889

Bloody shirt

The symbol of the Republican political tactic of attacking Democrats with reminders of the Civil War

Grandfather Clause

notorious clause in southern voting laws that exempted from literacy tests and poll taxes anyone whose ancestors had voted in 1860, thereby excluding blacks

Coin's Financial School

popular pamphlet written by William Hope Harvey that portrayed pro-silver arguments triumphing over the traditional views of bankers and economics professors