CH 23 APUSH

James Garfield

President whose assassination after only a few months in office spurred the passage of a civil-service law

Tom Watson

Radical Populist leader whose early success turned sour, and who then became a vicious racist

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

Stalwarts

Republican party faction led by Senator Roscoe Conkling that opposed all attempts at civil-service reform

Liberal Republican Party

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

McKinley Tariff

Sky-high Republican tariff of 1890 that caused widespread anger among farmers in the Midwest and the South

Civil Service

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

Jim Crow

Term for the racial segregation laws imposed in the 1890s

Laissez-faire

The doctrine of noninterference, especially by the government, in matters of economics or business

Pork barrel

In American politics, government appropriations for political purposes, especially projects designed to please a legislator's local constituency

Populists

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

Denis Kearney

Irish-born leader of the anti-Chinese movement in California

Gilded Age

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

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

Silver

Precious metal that "soft-money" advocates demanded by coined again to compensate for the "Crime of '73"

Greenback Labor Party

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

Amnesty

A general pardon for offenses or crimes against a government

Coalition

A temporary alliance of political factions or parties for some specific purpose

Deflation

An increase in the value of money in relation to available goods, causing prices to fall

Censure

An official statement of condemnation passed by a legislative body against one of its other members or some other official of government

Chinese

Asian immigrant group that experienced discrimination on the West Coast

Jim Fisk

Bold and unprincipled financier whose plot to corner the U.S. gold market nearly succeeded in 1869

James G. Blaine

Charming but corrupt "Half-Breed" Republican senator and presidential nominee in 1884

Grand Army of the Republic

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

Horace Greeley

Colorful, eccentric newspaper editor who carried the Liberal Republican and Democratic banners against Grant in 1872.

Consensus

Common or unanimous opinion

Credit Mobilier

Corrupt construction company whose bribes and payoffs to congressmen and others created a major Grant administration scandal

Roscoe Conkling

Imperious New York senator and leader of the "Stalwart" faction of Republicans

William Jennings Bryan

Eloquent young Congressman from Nebraska who became the prominent advocate of "free silver" in the early 1890s.

J.P. Morgan

Enormously wealthy banker whose secret bailout of the federal government in 1895 (as arranged by Grover Cleveland) aroused fierce public anger

Grover Cleveland

First Democratic president since the Civil War; defender of laissez-faire economics and low tariffs

Ulysses S. Grant

Great military leader whose presidency foundered in corruption and political ineptitude

Boss Tweed

Heavyweight New York political boss whose widespread fraud landed him in jail in 1871

Kickback

The return of a portion of the money received in a sale or contract, often secretly or illegally, in exchange for favors

Bloody Shirt

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

Jay Cooke

Wealthy New York financier whose bank collapse in 1873 set off an economic depression

Rutherford B. Hayes

Winner of the contested 1876 election who presided over the end of Reconstruction and a sharp economic downturn

Compromise of 1877

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