Unit 1 Exam

Gospel of Wealth

-Andrew Carnegie's article (1887) and argument that individuals should have the freedom to become wealthy and amass fortunes but that the wealthy then had an obligation to use their fortunes for the benefit of society -this argument reflects the paternalistic, class-oriented, laissez faire, social Darwinist thinking of the late 19th century which accepts the idea that the world is a predatory place in which the ablest take what they can and then, because they know best, can help the poor indirectly (through public libraries, for example) when they would not help the poor directly (through higher wages).

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)

-English clergyman and Reader at Oxford University who in 1798 formulated a law of population in "An Essay on the Principles of Population" and gave economics the reputation (contrary to the optimism of Adam Smith) for being the "dismal science." -reacting to the population boom which began in the 18th century (and continued into the 20th) and the suffering of the working poor, Malthus argues that population increases in geometical progression while food production increases in arithmetical progression so that population will exceed its ability to feed itself -that will automatically limit population growth because the excess population will die of vice and misery -the only way to reduce that suffering was to keep the population down and have people practice "moral restraint." -his observations' led to the conclusion that public welfare programs should be stopped because they simply encourage the poor to have children which they cannot actually afford -although Malthus' theories have been discredited to a great degree, population growth, food production, and public health are major world problems at the beginning of the 21st century

Emilio Aguinaldo (1864-1969)

-Filipino leader who led Filipino forces in alliance with US in a rebellion against Spain in 1896 in the Spanish-American War -also led forces when the US refused to grant the Philippines independence in the Filipino-American War (1899-1902) -represents how the US, during the Spanish-American War, transformed its effort from an anti-colonial war to a colonial war while continuing to claim that it was promoting democracy

Main-Travelled Roads

-Hamlin Garland's 1891 book which pictures overworked, hopeless farm women whom the frontier defeats -an attempt to portray the West realistically, this book helped to undermine the myth of the West as a trouble-free paradise where people live satisfying lives of self-reliance and virtue -the book belongs to the school of Realism which sought to provide frank accounts of the harsh and seamy sides of life experienced by the common man

Bishop Turner (1834-1915)

-Henry McNeal Turner, bishop in AME Church in Georgia -black nationalist that organized the International Migration Society in 1894 to recolonize blacks in Africa -represents the separatist strain in black thought

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)

-Scottist immigrant and steel baron, Carnegie built the largest steel-producing company in the US -before selling it to JP Morgan in 1901 when it became the basis for US Steel, the first billion dollar corporation in the US -Carnegie is representative of the entrepreneurs of the late 19th century who took advantage of the competitive market structure of early industrialization including wide-open markets and many competitors -these entrepreneurs built huge operations which controlled markets, eliminated competitors, and ensured enormous profits for themselves -Carnegie then became a philanthropist (donating money for public libraries and international peace) arguing, according to his "The Gospel of Wealth" (1889), that wealth should be used for the benefit of all humanity.

insular cases

-Supreme Court cases of 1901, dealing with Puerto Rico, which stipulated that the US Constitution and the privileges of citizenship and constitutional rights do not automatically apply to people living in territory annexed to the US but only as and when Congress sees fit -this meant that the US could keep the territories acquired after the Spanish-American War and not offer the inhabitants equality under the Constitution -US officials maintained that the US would govern these territories only temporarily until they were deemed ready for self-rule

Dollar Diplomacy

-Taft's foreign policy which emphasized securing opportunities for U.S. business investments overseas and protecting those investments -according to Taft, such investments would serve a double purpose -they would increase US business and trade, and they would improve the economic conditions in and therefore the stability of these other countries (especially in Latin America), thereby making U.S. military intervention unnecessary -more trade, prosperity, stability, and peace would all result. But this also meant that, if necessary, the flag would follow (and protect) the dollar sign

Big Stick Diplomacy

-Teddy Roosevelt's foreign policy calling for US action to keep international order to promote US interests -including peace, international trade, and civilization among lesser cultures -big stick was US navy with new steel-plated battleships

Monroe Doctrine

-U.S. policy statement issued by President Monroe in 1823 which declared that Latin America was no longer open to European colonization -this doctrine was used by the U.S. at different times to support both policies of isolationism and policies of active mission -in 1823, the doctrine was primarily isolationist in tone and effect; in the 1840s and in the 1890s and early 1900s, it became a justification for aggressive, interventionist policies by the U.S. as in the Mexican War of the 1840s and the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Roosevelt Corollary of 1904 -the U.S. also came to insist that the doctrine was the equivalent of international law and therefore should be recognized by all nations, a position which tended to make the Western Hemisphere a U.S. sphere of influence

missionary diplomacy

-Wilson's foreign policy which intended to promote liberal and humanitarian ends and which was based on the idea that the US has a mission to promote morality, democracy, and idealism around the world -this policy in action, however, led to US intervention in other countries (Latin America) which often considered such action by the US to be immoral, anti-democratic, and in the US's self-interest

crops diversification

-a method of increasing yields and maintaining the productivity of fields associated with scientific agriculture and also known as crop rotation -poor farmers were often ignorant of or resistant to these kinds of ideas and suffered from deteriorating soils, declining yields, and greater dependency

GAR

-abbreviation for Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union Civil War veterans which was formed after the Civil War -the GAR took an active part in political campaigns, usually on behalf of Republicans who would support veterans' pensions -the GAR was known for "waving the bloody shirt" or reminding voters of the Democratic identification with southern secession and Civil War in order to sway voters to the Republican candidate

Compromise of 1877

-agreement between Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans which brought an end to Reconstruction -allowed the election of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes as President in return for certain conditions -these being withdrawal of the remaining troops from the South, appointment of a former Confederate general to the Hayes cabinet (Postmaster General), federal aid to bolster economic and railroad development in the South, and a free hand for Southerners in regard to race relations -this represents the new alliance between northern business-oriented Republicans and well-to-do Southern whites at the expense of Blacks and the ideal of equality for all

agrarian myth

-aka rural myth -notion that the farmer and farm life symbolized the essence of america -that they were the backbone of the republic because they were independent, self-sufficient, incorruptible, and non-materialistic -lifestyle was said to be pleasant, peaceful, and satisfying -became persuasive belief in society making frontier life ideal -in late 19th century farmers were losing political power, prestige, and status

cooperatives

-associations organized by workers and, in the late 19th century especially, farmers under which the members would purchase stock and receive dividends in the form of price reductions or rebates or gain storage opportunities until prices rose -the members thereby reduced their dependence on outside suppliers or purchasers because the farmers were otherwise in an oligopsony -an oligopsony is a market structure with a few buyers and many sellers which meant lower prices for the sellers, the farmers

Moroccan Crisis

-attempt by Germany to split the British-French alliance (1904) and decrease French influence in Morocco which led to a threat of war -it was settled by the Algeciras Conference of 1906 in Spain at which Theodore Roosevelt helped obtain European agreement to Moroccan independence but a French and Spanish trained police force -the effect was the reverse of Germany's hopes as Germany became more isolated and the British and French more united -the crisis is symbolic of the continued importance of imperialistic desires in Europe and how those desires, by increasing tensions in Europe, helped bring on World War I

Horatio Alger (1832-1898)

-author of 119 novels which were based on the rags-to-riches idea -Alger's books are The Cash Boy, Driven From Home, The Errand Boy, A Fancy of Hers, Street Life in New York (or Ragged Dick), and Winning Out by Pluck -these stories represent the ideal that hard work and good character will lead to financial success -books became the ideal for middle-class Americans and were seen as the way out of poverty

bimetallic currency

-based on two metals, usually gold and silver -argument to reestablish bimetallic currency after 1873 became explosive (when minting of silver coins stopped) -major cause of Populist Party in 1890s -silver dollars were minted under the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 and the Sherman Silver Act of 1890 -abandoned bimetallic currency in 1897 and under McKinley went on the gold standard -represents the power of big business and financiers who wanted sound money -opposed demands of farmers and others who wanted more money in circulation to counter the deflationary conditions of the years 1873 to 1897

exodusters

-blacks who moved west to the Great Plains to obtain opportunity, land, and individual freedom and establish self-sufficient all-black communities especially after emancipation during the late 19th century -there were twenty-five all-black communities established in what is present-day Oklahoma alone

Battle of Wounded Knee

-bloody massacre of Sioux in South Dakota that left their reservation in 1890 to engage in ghost dancing -last battle of Indian Wars although the natives had already been defeated -incident reveals that whites were not prepared to allow the natives to practice even religious activities -this was bc it was perceived as dangerous or contrary to assimilation of natives into white culture

Jacob Coxey (1854-1951)/Coxey's Army

-businessman from Massillon, Ohio and leader of the "Good Roads Association of the United States and Commonweal of Christ," also known as "Coxey's Army," -led about 500 unemployed men on a march on Washington in 1894 to press for public work relief during the depression of the 1890s -congress passed several bills providing work for the unemployed and inflating the currency supply, but Coxey's followers were arrested for "walking on the grass" and dispersed -although widely ridiculed, Coxey had shown that the economy while dominated by private enterprise had a public effect and that the use of sensationalism, such as the claim that the "army" would influence Congress by "soul power," could attract media coverage and attract attention to a serious issue -whether government can and should take action to address problems such as unemployment.

bloody shirt

-campaign tactic used by republicans who identified the democratic party with rebellion and republicans with union victory in order to get northern votes -symbolic of inclination of late 19th century politicians to avoid actual issues created by the civil war and urban and industrial growth and instead use emotional arguments and stereotypes to appeal to the common man

cash nexus

-cash connection, this refers to and symbolizes the increasingly impersonal, amoral nature of society as a result of the financial and industrial revolutions and the decline of the hierarchical society -interpersonal relations in the 19th century (and to some degree in the 18th) gradually became more impersonal as the interaction between employers and employees and between business owners and customers came to be governed not by personal relations but by contracts and agreements -which involved some impersonal arrangement such as cash in the form of wages paid or goods purchased -the absence of personal relations shows the increased anonymity of people who were no longer living and working on farms and in small towns but in factories and cities -that anonymity and lack of personal connection with others gave individuals more freedom by releasing them from social constraints and therefore from ethical standards and humane considerations -if employers see employees not as individuals with faces and families but merely as numbers such as in statistics on the amount paid in wages, then the employers can overwork, underpay, and fire those employees much more easily. The Cash Nexus is also representative of how the world has become more interdependent economically (as in globalization) but more disconnected and atomized socially (as on the internet).t

alabama claims

-claims against the UK for shipping losses suffered during the civil war as a result of attacks by confederate ships built in the UK during the war (the alabama was a ship) -the Washington Treaty of 1871 called for arbitration which paid the US $15.5 million in 1872 -this reveals both the strong anti-British sentiment in the US at the end of the Civil War and the willingness of both sides to find an accommodation -especially the British who wished to override the precedent set by their construction of the Confederate ships

George W. Dewey (1837-1917)

-commodore and commander of the US Navy's Asiatic squadron which opened the Spanish-American War by attacking and destroying the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, the Philippines on May 1, 1898 -this led to a series of developments including the annexation of Hawaii to the US in July and the dispatch of US army forces under General Meritt which, with the support of Filipino guerrillas under Emilio Aquinaldo, took Manila on August 13 and obtained the Spanish surrender August 14

Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924)

-congressman and Senator from Massachusetts, friend of Theodore Roosevelt and adversary of Woodrow Wilson -early supporter of an expansionist foreign policy for the US in the 1890s when that was identified with more power for the US, but as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he led the opposition to US membership in the League of Nations, as Wilson wanted, following World War I

14th Amendment

-constitutional amendment ratified in 1868 which repaired one of the major deficiencies of the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments) and thereby expanded the definition of liberty in the US -the 14th Amendment was passed to protect Freedmen from the Democratic Party of the South. Prior to the 14th Amendment, individual rights and liberties were protected from abridgment by the national government but not by the states -the 14th Amendment set limits on state powers with three clauses -the citizenship clause establishes dual citizenship and indicates that national citizenship takes precedence over state citizenship -the due process clause stipulates that no state can deny any person the rights to life, liberty, or property without due process of law (i.e., a fair trial) -the equal protection clause says that no state can deny any person equal protection of the law within its jurisdiction

15th Amendment

-constitutional amendment, ratified in 1870, which forbade states to deny the vote to any male because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude -negative wording of the 15th Amendment made it possible for Southerners to disfranchise blacks and gain control of policy, as shown by Plessy v. Ferguson and segregation

cash crops

-crops such as wheat and cotton grown for sale on the national and international market rather than for the famer's consumption -reliance on cotton for income in the South made economic conditions worse for poor farmers -to raise their incomes, they produced more which brought falling prices -they fell into debt, and their creditors insisted they raise more cotton, causing further price declines and perpetual indebtedness

Colombian Exchange

-cultural and biological exchange between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres after the first voyage of Columbus in 1492 -each hemisphere sent microbes and diseases to the other (such as smallpox to the Western Hemisphere and syphilis to the Eastern Hemisphere) -also the people shared ideas, languages, and plants -the Amerindians had developed a number of plants which became crucial to expansion of the world population -these included corn (maize), potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cocoa (chocolate), peanuts, lima and kidney beans, various kinds of squash -the significance of the Columbian Exchange is that the European voyages of exploration did not bring about a one-way introduction of culture and civilization from Europe to the Americas -but instead a two-way interchange of culture and products and microbes both enriching and devastating the Eastern and Western Hemispheres -especially the Western as perhaps 90% of the Amerindian population died (including many whole peoples) and an unknown number of plants and animals became extinct -culturally, the exchange ultimately created new cultures as a result of the interaction and mixing of European, African, and Amerindian ways and peoples -this is symbolic of the fact that one of the chief stories of the early colonial US was the interaction of white, red, and black and how each changed and how the three became a mix as a result

gold standard

-currency system based on gold so that the ultimate legal tender is gold or currency which can be exchanged for gold -for most of its history the US has had a bimetallic system, based on both gold and silver, but the US has been on the gold standard from 1873 to 1879 and from 1900 to 1933 -reliance on the gold standard after 1873 combined with the deflationary conditions of the late 19th century were partial causes of the Populist movement and the demand for Free Silver in the 1890s -that was defeated in 1896 as shown by the Gold Standard Act of 1900.

Henry Adams (1838-1918)

-descendant of presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams -historian and social critic -sought to establish a scientific approach to history -his works "The Education of Henry Adams" and "Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres" -these works questioned whether advances in human technology reflect human progress -Adams represents the rising intellectual rebellion against 19th century beliefs in determinism and assured progress

deflation

-economic condition associated with a fall in prices and a decline in the supply of money which creates an increase in the real value of money and debts -from ca. 1873 to 1897, the US (and Europe) experienced deflationary conditions -this was significant because these conditions, while benefiting creditors and the wealthy few, placed at a disadvantage debtors and the common man generally because loans are harder to obtain and harder to pay back -one of the principal political demands by farmers in the late 19th century was to increase the currency supply (such as through "free silver")

inflation

-economic condition characterized by rising prices and an increase in the amount of currency in circulation as a result of too little supply of goods compared to demand which causes the value of money to fall -those benefiting are debtors and speculators as the actual value of debt falls along with the value of money

civil service reform

-effort beginning with the Pendleton Act of 1883, to establish a system for selecting government employees based on merit as indicated by competitive examinations -this reform was meant to reduce reliance on the patronage or spoils system (the practice of rewarding political supporters and contributors to campaigns with appointment to governmental office) -beginning with Andrew Jackson who in 1829 had first swept out officeholders en masse and replaced them with his own supporters, this patronage system had become the standard method of selecting people for jobs in government -its critics, such as the Liberal Republicans in 1872, argued that it contributed to corruption and inefficiency -these appointees often had no training or expertise for the job, would be replaced with another set of novices by a new president, and would make decisions according to political pressure rather than objective standards -this was the beginning of the modern bureaucracy, designed to operate professionally and fairly for all--hence, extensive record-keeping and paper work as proof

40 Acres and a Mule

-expression of freedmen's hope for and expectation of land following the Civil War -this was advocated by Thaddeus Stevens, Congressman from Pennsylvania, to no avail

American Federation of Labor (AF of L)

-federation of craft unions founded in 1881 by Samuel Gompers which broke with the Knights of Labor in 1886 and organized skilled workers only while avoiding political reforms and emphasizing immediate, realizable "bread and butter" goals -these goals being higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions -Gompers rejected socialism, instead wanting to protect skilled workers from the excesses of capitalists

investment bankers

-finance capitalists who operated banking houses which marketed investment opportunities such as stocks and bonds and provided funds for the growth and consolidation of big business

JP Morgan (1837-1913)

-financier who inherited and expanded one of the most influential international banking and stockbrokerage houses -became famous in the 1890s for helping to finance the U.S. government during the depression and for taking over and consolidating railroad companies which became bankrupt after the Panic of 1893 and thereby ending the Titans of Industry/Robber Baron period of industrial growth (1865-1895) -and beginning the Finance Capitalist period of industrial consolidation (1895-1910) when financiers such as Morgan further consolidated the power and wealth created by industrialization into the hands of even fewer people--the finance capitalists, those who controlled the money supply -and helped bring about a rapid increase in the formation of trusts with interlocking directorates -the goal of these new, bigger businesses was not greater growth (as was true with Carnegie and Rockefeller earlier) but instead control of the market place and a steady return on investment -one of the best examples of these larger, more powerful firms was U.S. Steel Corporation which Morgan created in 1901

Munn v. Illinois

-first of the "Granger cases" in which the Supreme Court (in 1877) upheld state laws regulating railroads and grain elevators within their boundaries on the basis of the social contract theory that when individuals became members of society, they give up some freedom for security and therefore businesses affected with "a public interest" cannot act in simply in their own self-interest but must consider the public well-being -Court found the Granger laws to be a legitimate expression of the state police power to protect that public well-being -Court reversed this decision in the Wabash case of 1886 by distinguishing between interstate and intrastate commerce and by arguing that property rights are a natural right (and therefore anterior to government) rather than societal rights

First Transcontinental Railroad

-first railroad to connect the Pacific coast with the East, built between 1865 and 1869 by two companies, the Union Pacific building westward from Omaha, Nebraska and the Central Pacific building eastward from Sacramento, California -they met at Promontory Point north of the Great Salt Lake in Utah -this construction project fired the industrial revolution by creating a huge demand for industrial goods such as steel, opened the west to settlement, and made the railroads into the first big businesses partly as a result of the government giving the railroads land grants in the form of every other square mile of land for twenty miles on each side of the track.

large policy

-foreign policy idea, adopted in the 1890s by people such as Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Whitelaw Reid, that the US should shift from continental to overseas expansion -these men thought that the US, as a great power, had a duty, a glorious mission, to spread civilization and promote democracy around the world

incorporate/corporation

-form of business organization which became prominent after the Civil War -offered several advantages including limited liability, continuous life, the ability to raise capital by selling stock, and legal rights -especially after the Supreme Court ruled in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific RR (1886) that corporations were legal persons under the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment and therefore they had the same rights as other persons

anti-imperialist league

-formed in Feb of 1899 -opposed to the US acquisition of overseas territories (such as the Philippines) -acquisition was unconstitutional -US founded on anti-colonialism, principles of the US as a republic -also dangerous bc people of territories are unassailable -its arguments show why historians contend that the US contradicted its own principles during/after the Spanish-American war

Great Plains

-geographical area of relatively flat, treeless, semi-arid land stretching from Canada to Mexico from about the 98th to the 105th meridian of west longitude through the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas -its settlement by farmers in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s marked the end of the frontier (as Frederick Jackson Turner theorized in 1893) as a clear line separating settled (Euro/black) from unsettled (Native American) territory -settlers had been discouraged by its reputation as a Great American Desert, so described by Coronado and other early explorers, and by the reputation of its inhabitants, the militant Plains tribes

Boss government

-government in the cities by political machines that dispensed political jobs and favors in return for votes and contributions -began in NYC in 1860s with Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall -represent that corruption in government, business, and society in gilded age and after -bosses offered help to immigrants and poor -was a cost to democracy by buying their vote and by wasting public monies through corrupt bargains with unscrupulous individuals and businesses

John Peter Altgeld

-governor of Illinois from 1892 to 1896 -resisted the alliance of government with big business against labor and the accompanying ideology that labor unions were revolutionary -most famous example was the pardon he issued in 1893 to two of eight anarchists convicted of bombing the police in the Haymarket Square riot of May 4, 1886 -four had been hanged on the basis of Judge Gary's ruling that subversive remarks made a person guilty of subsequent violent acts even if the person was not present for the acts -in 1894, Altgeld protested President Cleveland's dispatch of federal troops into Chicago during the Pullman Strike

bonanza farms

-huge wheat farms on the northern plains -frequently owned by corporations -depended on machinery, hired work force, and efficient managers -represent growth of commercial agriculture and an effort to consolidate and increase market share in order to overcome the problems of laissez faire economics in agriculture -the individual small farmer had to compete in a world market and therefore fell victim to ruinous supply and price fluctuations

mission

-idea that the US has a God-given purpose to establish and spread the free society -often identified as one of three traditional beliefs underlying US foreign policy (along with isolationism and the Monroe Doctrine), mission has had two main interpretations -one could be called Passive Mission -this form of mission dominated people's thinking from the early settlements (certainly the Puritans) to ca. 1840 -it argues that the US has a duty to act as an example for the world -the second interpretation of mission could be called Active Mission -it emerged ca. 1840 along with Manifest Destiny and argued that being an example was not enough and that the US needed to take action to spread the free society -one way to do that was to expand the borders of the US and thereby extend the blessings of the American way of life and its superior government, economy, religion, etc. to other people and lands -in the 1840s this aggressive, self-righteous attitude promoted the coming of the Mexican War and the acquisition of Texas (1845) and the Mexican Cession (1848)

bread and butter issues

-labor issues such as higher wages, shorter hours, industrial safety, benefits, and the right to organize and bargain collectively -this was the focus of the American Federation of Labor under Samuel Gompers -under this program, the AFL abandoned political and economic radicalism, cooperated with big business and made labor unions in the US supporters of the existing political and economic system -the US has no labor or workers or socialist political party

Samuel Gompers (1850-1924)

-labor leader who as a skilled worker (cigar maker) helped to organize the American Federation of Labor between 1881 and 1886 and, except for one year in 1895, served as its president until his death -observing the difficulties of the Knights of Labor as a result of its emphasis on radical political reforms, Gompers avoided political issues and focused on bread and butter issues

Knights of Labor

-labor organization founded in 1869 by Uriah S. Stephens which organized all workers on a geographic basis, proposed a cooperative system of production (socialism) be established alongside the existing competitive system, and worked for a wide variety of other labor, political, and social reforms -because it emphasized political change and because it included all workers, it had difficulty organizing strikes -it began to decline in influence in 1886 when two strikes failed, when the skilled workers began to leave and form the American Federation of Labor, and when the Knights became associated in the public mind with the Haymarket Riot of 1886 which led to accusations of political radicalism

contract labor

-labor system established soon after the Civil War under which freedmen signed agreements with landowners to work in gangs as field laborers on a year-by-year basis -or to work as sharecroppers whereby the freedmen received an acreage to farm sometimes with seed and supplies in return for giving the landowner 50% of the crop after the harvest

black codes

-laws passed by southern states under Johnsonian Reconstruction -limited rights of blacks and attempted to controls the actions of freedman socially, politically, and economically -denial of right to vote, vagrancy laws, harsh penal codes -threatened blacks with second class citizenship so that slavery could be restored in all but name -actions convinced north that south was not repentant and could not live up to principles of liberty and equality -more support for Radical Republicans and a refusal by congress in Dec 1865 to readmit the new southern state governments which extended Reconstruction

Dawes Severalty Act/Dawes Act

-legislation passed in 1887 intended to end the problems of the Native Americans and assimilate them into American culture (thereby making wars, reservations, and social conflict unnecessary) -by giving land and citizenship to individual Native Americans thereby destroying tribal bonds and their communal culture -the idea was to treat each American Indian as an individual rather than as a member of a tribe -each Native American, after renouncing tribal allegiance, received an allotment from the tribal reservation which would be held in trust for twenty-five years at the end of which time he would receive full title and full rights of citizenship -designed by well-intentioned reformers, the act undermined their position by giving whites an opportunity to redistribute to whites (through land runs) tribal lands remaining after allotment

De Lome Letter

-letter from the Spanish minister to the United States to a colleague in Cuba, printed by the Hearst press in February 1898, which criticized President McKinley -the publication of this letter outraged American public opinion and helped create conditions leading to the Spanish-American War which began at the end of April 1898

Appomattox courthouse

-location where Lee surrendered his army to Grant -other generals surrendered later (Stand Watie last to do so, 2 months later) -Appomattox has come to be identified with the end of the civil war

W.E.B. DuBois

-militant black leader and Harvard Ph.D. who, in his The Souls of Black Folks, argues that blacks should demand immediate equal civil rights, suffrage, and access to a traditional higher education -became a critic of Booker T. Washington's policy of accommodation -he helped found the NAACP

mass transit

-name for transportation systems designed to move large numbers of people usually within an urban environment -developing gradually during the 19th century, the methods of transport often began with horse-drawn omnibuses (often running on rails) before the Civil War and graduated to trolley cars (Frank W. Sprague) to cable cars to elevated trains to subways -these systems allowed the middle and upper classes to establish residential areas on the edge of cities, and therefore they had the effect of dividing cities into zones (residential, commercial, industrial) and sorting people into classes -the so-called "walking cities" of pre-industrial America had been small with mixed populations and neighborhoods and little zoning -mass transit re-enforced the social effects of factory employment and the cash nexus--employers and employees no longer worked together, no longer lived in the same area, no longer knew each other, no longer felt any personal responsibility for each other -mass transit also allowed cities to become characterized by urban sprawl as cities often spread with little planning other than what was profitable for the developer

Alfred T. Mahan

-naval officer, strategist and historian who argued, in books such The Influence of Sea Power on History (1890), that national power depended on naval supremacy, defensive stations, and foreign markets -he called for the US to have a two-ocean navy strategically placed coaling stations around the world, a canal in central America, and control over the access routes to that canal in the Caribbean and the Pacific -his ideas became the basis for the Republican foreign policy platform in 1896 and for Roosevelt's policies in the early 1900s

carpetbaggers

-northerners who moved south after the Civil War for idealistic and materialistic purposes and who were so named by Southerners to discredit them as scoundrels and thieves -as Republicans, they came into control of some southern state and municipal governments during Reconstruction -they were accused of corruption partly because there was corruption but more often because their policies of rebuilding the South (including railroads and public schools) were unpopular -and even more because these governments included blacks -they are representative of the mix of idealism and materialism of the time

The Clansmen

-novel written by Thomas Dixon (1864-1946) which portrayed Reconstruction as the product of northern revenge and a tragic period for the South -this novel was later adapted into a movie, Birth of a Nation, produced by D. W. Griffith in 1916, and was a major factor in the rise of the second Ku Klux Klan

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

-novelist often identified with the Naturalist school which rejected sentimentality and called for a realistic portrayal of life, often with the goal of promoting social justice -as with other members of this school, Crane's work expressed a tension between the apparent reality of determinism and the desirability of individual action -in Maggie: Girl of the Streets and Red Badge of Courage, Crane suggests that life is a social Darwinst struggle of tooth and claw but that it did not necessarily produce progress or the survival of the fittest -people were easily ruined by forces beyond their control and the only meaning and virture in the universe was what the individual put into it as a result of striving for human dignity -he symbolizes the growing disillusionment with the effects of urbanization and industrialization and the ineffectiveness of 19th century doctrines such as social Darwinism

capital goods

-one of the categories into which goods are divided, often in distinction to consumer goods -consumer goods can be defined as final goods because once purchased by the consumer, they have no further purpose -capital goods are goods that can be used to produce other goods and therefore include machinery, factories, mills, and products such as iron and steel -industrialization during the late 19th century involved creating an industrial base (the factories, steel mills, railroad network, and machinery basic to an industrial economy), and therefore the economy primarily produced capital goods -this remained true until the consumer goods revolution occurred in the 1920s -working class people in the late 19th century were forced to postpone immediate gratification because of limited power, low wages, and long hours -power and wealth was held by the entrepreneurs who became extremely wealthy by developing new industries and new goods without governmental regulations -regulations could have promoted more ethical business practices and a more equitable distribution of wealth

Credit Mobilier

-one of the major scandals of the Grant administration (revealed by the New York Sun in 1872) -this was actually the name of the construction company for the Union Pacific Railroad set up by promoters of the railroad in order to divert to themselves about 50% of the claimed expenses for constructing the transcontinental railroad -they received bonds, work contracts, and land grants in exchange for giving congressmen gifts of money, stock, and railroad lands -while enriching the manipulators, this arrangement put the Union Pacific RR itself in ruinous debt and reveals the unscrupulous, amoral attitudes of the Gilded Age -it also symbolizes the connection between government and business known as the Unholy Alliance whereby politicians and business tycoons cooperated to enrich themselves at society's expense and even the wellbeing of their own businesses

Ku Klux Klan

-organization of southern white night-riders who used violence and terror during Reconstruction to intimidate freedmen and drive Republicans from power in the southern state governments -this terrorism contributed to the end of Reconstruction by 1877 when all the Republican-dominated state governments in the South had been removed from power and replaced by southern Democrats who restored "home rule" which meant control of the South by whites for whites

Farmers Alliances

-organizations of farmers most active in the Plains states and the South in the 1880s after the Grange had gone into decline -they arose in response to hard times on the land including drought and falling prices and led to political activity when the farmers, together with labor and Greenback representatives, formed the People's or Populist party in 1890

Homestead Act

-passed in 1862 which granted 160 acres of government land to any adult who lived on a claim for five years or who paid $1.25 an acre after six months of residence -this act was intended to increase opportunities for the common man and promote the interests of free men and a democratic society -this was the effort to settle the Great Plains region

debt peonage

-perpetual indebtedness tying the debtor to the land which resulted from tenant farmers buying supplies on credit based on future crops -such indebtedness produced social subordination and provided an economic basis for segregation and second class citizenship for blacks in the South

John Dewey (1859-1952)

-philosopher and educator who developed a form of Pragmatism known as Instrumentalism which argues that ideas are tools for action and that education should emphasize the development of practical, experimental, creative intelligence which would better solve problems and social conflicts -the aim of life was not to reach perfection and, hence, a limiting end but to develop a process which could be used to transform the self continually to adjust to the continuing changes in life

William James (1841-1910)

-philosopher and psychologist, brother of novelist Henry James -trained as a physician, wrote one of the first and most influential texts for teaching psychology in 1890 -along with Charles S. Pierce, William James founded the philosophy of Pragmatism which argues the truth of an idea is determined by its practical consequences (end justifies the means) -this is because the philosophers of Pragmatism and Progressivism believe that the primary characteristics of the world are change, chance, and plurality and therefore there should be an emphasis on individuality, free initiative, spontaneity -this is a reaction against the determinism of the 19th century as expressed in social Darwinism

Mississippi Plan

-plan for circumventing the 15th Amendment and disfranchising blacks in the South -initially, ca. 1875, the plan was associated with the Redeemers and the harassment of blacks and other Republicans to keep them from voting and thereby return the South to the control of native white Southerners -beginning in 1890, the Mississippi Plan referred to four requirements for voting—first in Mississippi and then across the South -these requirements were: 1) residence in the state for usually two years, 2) no criminal record, 3) payment of the poll tax, with proof, and 4) satisfactory performance on a literacy test -a grandfather clause was added which allowed whites to vote because their grandfathers had voted, even if they could not pass the literacy test -most grandfathers of blacks were slaves and had not voted -this plan spread across the South, and by 1900 blacks had largely lost the right to vote in the South -this is representative of the degradation of blacks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

imperialism

-policy or practice of one nation gaining control over another area by one of two means -either by establishing direct control by claiming ownership and thereby establishing a colony (practicing formal imperialism) -or by establishing indirect control through political, economic, or military influence thereby establishing a protectorate (practicing informal imperialism) over an area which remains theoretically independent -in the late 19th century, this practice became the primary international activity as the industrializing nations, especially in Europe, took control of those portions of the globe not yet colonized, principally in Africa and Asia -the US participated informally, especially as a result of the Spanish-American and Filipino-American Wars

grange

-popular name for the National Organization for the Patrons of Husbandry -secret society for the promotion of the interests of agriculture organized in December, 1867 in Washington, D.C. -suffering from low farm prices and high railroad rates, farmers in the Old Northwest (Ohio to Iowa and Minnesota) joined the Grange, formed cooperatives, and then in the early 1870s took control of several state legislatures to pass "Granger Laws" -these were intended to regulate railroad rates, end monopolies, establish agricultural colleges, and generally promote the interests of farmers -this is an early indication that the common man felt the big businesses were exploiting the many for the advantage of the few

laissez faire

-popular name for the economic doctrine of pure or classical capitalism which means that there should be no governmental interference in the economy -widely advocated but thoroughly violated through much of US history, in the late 19th century it was defined loosely by industrialists so that it became a basis for opposing any government action which would oppose the industrialists' interests and a basis for supporting any government action which would promote the industrialists' interests -the original doctrine of classical capitalism as developed by Adam Smith and David Ricardo argues that government should not be involved in the economy but instead economic decisions should be made by the forces of supply and demand and that if individuals are free to act in their own self-interest economically, then the forces of supply and demand will act as an "invisible hand" to produce the best possible results for all

impeachment

-process of formally indicting an official for wrongdoing as one step in the process of removing him from office -the House of Representatives impeached Andrew Johnson in 1868, but the Senate, which acts as the trial jury for impeached federal officials, failed to convict him by one vote short of the necessary two-thirds required -Johnson therefore stayed in office and completed his term as president

Morrill Tariff

-protective tariff—a tax on imported goods designed to protect domestic producers from ruinous foreign competition--passed in 1861 as part of the Republican party's policy of promoting business and economic growth, a policy which reflected the interests of big business -introduced in Congress by Justin Morrill of Vermont, this act reversed the policy of lowering tariffs (adopted after the nullification/secession crisis of 1832-33 at the South's insistence and lasting from 1833 to 1842 and from 1846 to 1861) and set a trend in which the government generally raised tariffs until 1934 (except for the Underwood Tariff of 1913) -the act of 1861 raised duties to an average of 18.8% and then amendments in 1862 and 1864 increased the average duty to 40.3% -subsequent acts raised the duty higher and higher although by the end of the 19th century, manufacturers in the US were some of the strongest in the world and no longer needed to be protected from foreign competition -the Morrill Tariff and the subsequent increases in rates reveal the power of big business in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

grandfather clause

-provisions in southern state constitutions or legal codes designed to circumvent the 15th Amendment and prevent blacks from voting -these clauses excluded whites from certain qualifications for voting such as literacy tests, property ownership, residency requirements, and poll taxes (often dated from the Mississippi Plan of 1890) which, in turn, disfranchised blacks -whites were "grandfathered" in and allowed to vote by the provision stipulating that any descendant of a person who could vote January 1, 1867 could vote despite the qualifying tests. Several southern states passed such laws between 1895 and 1910

Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

-railroad fireman and labor organizer from Indiana -Debs became the principal leader of the Socialist party in the early 20th century in the US and ran for president five times (1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1920) -he became a Socialist after being imprisoned for organizing the American Railway Union in 1893 and leading it in support of the Pullman Strike of 1894 -he is significant for showing that socialism was not limited to recent immigrants or revolutionaries but was identified by its adherents as the best method of obtaining social justice through reform for the disadvantaged -this included unskilled laborers and poor and tenant farmers when the government under Republicans and Democrats supported big business against labor and the poor as was the case in the Pullman Strike

economic cycle

-recurring periods of economic expansion and contraction which are characteristic of free enterprise economies -late 19th century experienced strong booms followed by severe busts, especially in the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893 each of which led into depressions with many business and bank failures and high unemployment -these extremes of activity in the late 19th century reflect the belief in laissez faire economics and the absence of governmental regulation

Miners' Frontier

-refers to the locales and activity involving miners and others who moved into the Sierra Nevada, Rocky, and western ridge mountains in search of wealth either by finding gold, silver, and other valuable metals or by profiting from provisioning and serving the miners -these people became some of the first to settle in the trans-Mississippi West in the mid and late 19th century -ironically, the miners, while often staking claims in isolated areas, formed mining camps and towns so that the Miners' Frontier was at least partly an urban or semi-urban phenomenon in the midst of vast stretches of unpopulated territory -the Miners' Frontier also exemplified two of the more unfortunate characteristics of untrammeled individualism—exploitation and violence -the miners exploited the land and other people with little consideration of the long-term effects, and they engaged in violence partly because they were removed from any legal authority and had to rely on themselves, vigilante committees, or hired "guns" to enforce their extralegal arrangements -this frontier also represents how violence in the West was romanticized and idealized by authors such as Ned Buntline who helped create the idea of a Wild West -the results of this frontier included the admission of areas as states and territories before most of the land in the area was inhabited, the production of gold and silver which helped fund the Civil War and industrialization, and an increase in clashes with the Native Americans

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

-regulatory commission established by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 which had the power to investigate and prosecute railroad corporations that charged unfair rates or engaged in illegal practices. -congress passed this in response to public pressure after the Supreme Court in Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific RR v. Illinois (1886) ruled that the Granger Laws (upheld earlier in Munn v. Illinois in 1877) were unconstitutional because they were state laws regulating interstate commerce whereas the latter can be regulated only by the national government

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)

-reporter, editor, novelist identified with the Naturalist school who grew up in poverty in Indiana -his novels, such as Sister Carrie, The Titan, and An American Tragedy, reflect the Naturalists' concern with both mechanistic determinism and optimistic progressivism -with both a world dominated by forces beyond individual control and the value of individual dignity (even the moral autonomy of the superman), but they seem most interested in the mystery and terror of life -he seems to reflect the more dangerous side of the Progressive era, the pessimistic side which is also drawn to the possibility of a superhero as solution

Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones (1846-1904

-self-made man who operated his business and treated his employees according to the Golden Rule -became mayor of Toledo, Ohio (1897-1904) and, applying the same principle, opposed boss politics and supported the Social Gospel and democratic political participation by urban immigrants -serves as an example of how the Progressive reform movement began in the cities in the 1890s among businessmen and upper middle class leaders who wanted to end corruption and promote democracy partly as a means to achieve more order and efficiency

acres of diamonds

-sermon by baptist preacher Russell Conwell delivered over 6000 times -the central idea of the work is that one need not look elsewhere for opportunity, achievement, or fortune—the resources to achieve all good things are present in one's own community -"dig in your own backyard" -Conwell founded temple university in philedelphia -sermon is representative of the idea that hard work and self-development will lead to monetary success, and that monetary success is a sign of salvation -the first time he gave this sermon was in 1890

Jane Addams (1860-1935)

-social reformer and advocate of international peace -contributed to settlement house movement -helped establish Hull House in Chicago in 1889 which helped urban and immigrant poor -received nobel peace prize in 1931 -represents social justice movement of late 19th century that dealt with problems of industrialization and urbanization -progessive socialist that wanted to change america economically and socially

Greenbackers

-soft-money advocates, especially farmers and debtors, who wanted to expand the currency by increasing the supply of paper money -they organized the Greenback Party in 1875 and helped pass the Bland-Allison Act of 1878

Atlanta Compromsie

-speech delivered by Booker T. Washington at the Atlanta Explosion of 1895 -suggested that blacks focus first of self-development and economic independence -instead of immediate access to vote, civil rights, and social equality with whites, which will come later -Washington argued against blacks being dependent on whites or the federal government for their well being -two main strains of thought within black community (1) called for complete equality and full participation now (WEB DuBois) (2) called for black pride and self-development

Jim Crow laws

-state laws in the South which segregated blacks from whites first in public facilities and ultimately in all aspects of life -the South passed these laws beginning about 1890 and primarily ending by 1915, but by 1915 southerners treated segregation as if it were a folkway which had always existed and, as an extension of nature, must always exist -hence, these laws became a support for discrimination and prejudice and the argument that laws (such as federal civil rights measures) were useless folly because legal measures could never affect folkways, the way people naturally felt and acted

Homestead Strike, 1892

-strike at Carnegie's Homestead steel plant in 1892 precipitated by wage decreases which involved armed conflict with Pinkerton guards and was ended by the intervention of state troops -this was another example of how the government tended to support big business against the working man and how the efforts of unskilled workers to organize and improve their working conditions failed and remained ineffective in the late 19th century

graduated income tax

-tax under which citizens are taxed at several different levels according to their income; hence, those with more income pay more -such a tax had been levied temporarily in the North during the Civil War and then discontinued. It was proposed again in the 1890s because the new industrial rich who often had their fortunes in stock and bonds and therefore paid very little in taxes were becoming enormously wealthy while farmers and property holders paid most of the taxes -the 16th Amendment, ratified in 1913, overcame the Supreme Court's arguments of its unconstitutionality (in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., 1895) and thereby allowed the government to have the higher income earners contribute more to the national coffers

anarchists

-term used in the late 19th century in the US to brand any critics of the US -adherents to the doctrine, developed by Proudhon, Kropotkin, and Bakunin, argues that people are corrupted by institutions and private property and calls for the abolition of formal government, allowing for complete individual freedom within a society in which land and other resources are held in common

William Jennings Brian (1860-1925)

-the Democrat and Populist political leader from Nebraska who ran for the presidency three times (1896, 1900, 1908) -who first became famous when nominated, as a dark horse, in 1896 by both the Democrats and Populists after his "Cross of Gold" speech advocating free silver -known as the "Great Commoner," he represented the last ditch effort of agrarian America to hold on to power in the face of industrialization -his defeat by McKinley in 1896 marked the end of the Populist Party and the beginning of the Republican Party as the majority party until 1932 -he represents the decline in status of rural America and the transformation of farmer from hero to hick.

exceptional theory

-theory that the US is not like other nations and therefore not given to the same self-interested, untrustworthy, immoral, belligerent behavior -it is superior and, because of that and its good intentions, it should act on the belief that it has a mission, a God-given mission to save the world and spread liberty, democracy, and economic prosperity to all peoples

consumer goods

-these are final goods which, in contrast to capital goods, are not intended to contribute to the production of any other, subsequent goods -these kind of goods became the most important kind for the US economy in the 1920s, but from the Civil War to World War I, the most important kind was capital, such as steel and factories

horizontal integration

-this is a form of business expansion that sometimes led to monopoly -a business expands by buying other companies/stores/ factories in his line of business -one of the best and most successful examples of this was John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company who bought several refineries and dominated the oil refining industry by the 1870s

company town

-town owned by the company where management controlled all aspects of workers' lives. -these were designed to meet all the workers' needs and prevent union organization and strikes -one of the most famous in the late 19th century was Pullman, Illinois -these towns reveal the powerlessness of the workers and their lack of choices and independence

Ghost Dance (Movement)

-traditional Native American dance which was thought to be a means of contacting one's ancestors -circa 1890 this dance became identified with a new religious movement which spread among the northern plains tribes and seemed to threaten an Indian uprising -movement centered in the ideas of Wovoka, a Paiute prophet, who (using Christanity and the Book of Revelations) predicted that the end of the world was near and Native Americans would return to life -natural disasters would eliminate the white race, while dancing Indians would not only avoid destruction but would gain strength thanks to the return to life of their ancestors -among the Sioux in the Dakota Territory, this movement took on militaristic strains, the army ordered the tribes to stop the dances and move to the forts -when one tribe under Big Foot refused, the army hunted them down, resulting in the Massacre at Wounded Knee near Rosebud, South Dakota in December, 1890

isolationism

-traditional belief about US foreign policy which was dominant for most of the 19th century and which argues that the US should practice a policy of non-involvement in overseas affairs both for practical and ideological reasons -the practical reasons, which were strongest in the early 19th century, have been that the US has a natural geographic security provided by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and that the US, as a land of immense natural resources, can exist on its own -the ideological reasons include the arguments 1) that if the US becomes too involved with Europe or the rest of the world, it will be corrupted and lose its ability to establish and maintain a free society and 2) that too much involvement will lead to military engagements and the necessity of maintaining a standing army which the founding fathers considered a threat to liberty

Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty

-treaty of 1903 between the U.S. and Panama allowing the U.S. to build and operate an inter-oceanic canal and lease a zone ten miles wide around the canal -the US then built the Panama Canal between 1904 and 1914, and it made Panama a protectorate of the US

dumbbell tenements

-type of housing for the poor pioneered in New York City in the 1870s -dumbbell apartments were designed to house a maximum number of people in a minimum amount of space, while providing each room access to fresh air and light -usually 4 to 6 stories tall and approximately 30 by 100 feet, each dumbbell contained four apartments per floor, with floor residents sharing a common bath area -the novel feature of the dumbbell design was an airspace separating buildings -this air shaft was designed to provide light and air to each room of each apartment -however, due to overcrowding and a lack of city services, the air shafts became dumping areas for garbage -filled with litter, they attracted rats and roaches and contributed to the spread of fires in already crowded inner city areas

Lodge Corollary

-under President Taft and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, the Monroe Doctrine was extended to include private corporations -non-American private corporations were prohibited under the Lodge Corollary from gaining control of strategic resources in the Americas (as Mexican oil or Venezuelan copper)

Free Silver

-unlimited coinage of silver to inflate the currency which was demanded by the Populists and the Democrats (and their candidate William Jennings Bryan) in the election of 1896 -this represents the attraction which a panacea offered to farmers and others suffering from deflation and the depression following the Panic of 1893 -it allowed business leaders and the Republicans to paint the Populists as irresponsible and therefore bury and ignore the Populists' general demand that the government should be more democratic and more responsible for the well being of the society at large -the campaign convinced the middle class that the Populists were irrational and dangerous because Free Silver would ruin the economy -in effect, big business and the middle class' hope of achieving wealth for themselves won the election of 1896

crop lien (system)

-use of future crops to guarantee loans farmers contracted from merchants so they could plant crops and support their families until harvest time -this system contributed to peonage or perpetual indebtedness even among farmers in the South who owned their own land

Filipino-American War

-war between the United States and the Philippines, 1899-1902, in which the Filipinos, led by Emilio Aquinaldo, unsuccessfully attempted to gain independence from U.S. control and by which the US took the place of Spain and made the Philippines a US colony -based on the argument that the Filipinos were not prepared to govern themselves and would fall victim to another great power if the US did not protect them and train them to become democratic -to some Americans and many others, this seemed to be the height of hypocrisy

Haymarket Riot, 1886

-when police arrived to break up a peaceful labor protest meeting at Haymarket Square in Chicago, a bomb exploded, seven policemen were killed, and newspapers branded the protesters as wild-eyed radicals -this marked a turning point in the history of organized labor in the US because labor unions, and especially the Knights of Labor, became associated in the public mind with seditious, anti-democratic intentions -and the US became the only industrialized nation without a political party based directly on labor -the public hysteria became so great that people generally supported the arrest of eight men for the bombing and the execution of four of them -primarily because they were known anarchists and because Judge Gary argued that while not at the crime scene, their speeches on other occasions incited people to violence

literacy test

A test which required citizens to read and interpret a part of the state constitution in order to register to vote which was used in the South after the Civil War to disenfranchise blacks

Joseph Glidden (1813-1906)

Farmer who developed barbed wire (patented in 1873) as a cheap alternative to timber fencing. This was a key development for the success of farmers on the Great Plains where trees were few and cattle roamed free.

disenfranchised

Having lost the right to vote blacks suffered disfranchisement at the turn of the 20th century as part of being pushed down into second class citizenship under segregation and the Jim Crow laws

Gilded Age

Mark Twain's phrase from his and Dudley Warner's novel of the same name suggesting shallow glitter and excessive materialism as the prime characteristics of social and political life in the last quarter of the 19th century

Looking Backward

Socialist novel published by Edward Bellamy in 1888 which advocated the replacement of the competitive society of the 19th century with a classless, caring, collectivist new world

Congress for Industrial Organization (CIO)

a labor union which sought to organize workers in industry wide unions rather than separating them by skill or craft

mulatto

a person of mixed Caucasian and Negro ancestry but originally the term meant the first-generation off-spring of a black and a white

Freedmen's Bureau

agency established by Congress to ease the transition from slavery to freedom for the former ex-slaves by providing emergency supplies, education, help in relocating families, aid in locating land and jobs and a variety of other services

Henry George

author of Progress and Poverty (see Progress and Poverty) who argued for a single tax on unearned increases in land values in an effort to overcome the unequal distribution of wealth

heavy industry

companies involved in the production of goods such as steel, machinery, and factory equipment, the kinds of capital goods which dominated the late 19th century and created the industrial base necessary for the economic growth of the country and the production of consumer goods later

maldistribution of wealth

concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, leaving the masses poor

balance of power

concept that international relations are based of self-interest and power, so to keep peace, nations must be balanced against each other

manifest destiny

concept, first popular in the 1840s, that the United States had the God-given right and duty to expand across the North American continent; John O'Sullivan, a newspaperman, first coined the term

class conflict

conflict between upper and upper-middle class factory owners and managers on the one hand and lower and lower-middle class workers on the other

Commission of 1867

congressional commission authorized to make peace on the Plains which, at two major conferences in 1867 and 1868, met with the leaders of plains tribes in an effort to relocate these tribes in present-day South Dakota and Oklahoma

amnesty

executive clemency for groups of people accused of violating federal law

freedmen

former slaves who had been freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863) and the 13th Amendment (ratified in 1865)

ethnic enclaves

groups of immigrant ethnic groups who lived together within working class neighborhoods of American cities

ethnic diversity

having different kinds of people with different cultural backgrounds this has been a characteristic of the society of the US from its beginning

long drives

herding of cattle north from Texas to railhead towns in Kansas, Missouri, and Colorado for shipment east or to ranches on the northern plains between 1866 and 1888

contract laborers

immigrant laborers who promised to work for a number of years under contract and then return to their homelands

mass production

making of goods in factories in large amounts through the use of developments such as inanimate power, continually operating machinery, large labor forces, interchangeable parts, and assembly lines

Federalist-Whig Economic Program

measures, including a high protective tariff, a national banking system, federal appropriations for internal improvements, and land for western farmers designed to benefit free labor and free enterprise

Great White Fleet

new U.S. steel-plated navy sent on a world cruise by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 to symbolize the U.S. presence in the Pacific

In His Steps

novel by Charles Sheldon which promoted the social gospel by calling for Christians to base their actions on the question "what would Jesus do?"

A Fool's Errand

novel written by Albion Tourgee which blamed the failure of Reconstruction on southern violence and Congressional shortsightedness

liberal republicans

reform faction of the Republican Party which formed a third party and joined with Democrats in an attempt to dislodge the corrupt Grant administration in 1872

agrarian

relating to lands, especially public lands, and often used to refer to a society based on the land and owners of small farms or to a social philosophy which values wide-spread distribution of land

Cross of Gold Speech

speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic convention in support of free silver which gained him the Democratic nomination

Chinese Exclusion

the congressional act of 1882 banning immigration from China

continental expansion

the gradual spread of the US during the 19th century to the Pacific coast, thereby becoming a continental power

chain migration

the recruiting of immigrants through the reports and efforts of previous immigrants

Force Acts

three acts passed in 1870 and 1871 which gave the president power to use federal supervisors to assure that citizens were not deprived of their right to vote and which declared illegal secret organizations such as the Klu Klux Klan which used disguises and coercion to deprive others of equal protection of the laws