American Pageant Chapter 23-24

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

A 1896 Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of segregation laws, saying that as long as blacks were provided with "seperate but equal" facilities, these laws did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision provided legal justification for the Jim Crow system until the 1950s.

Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois (1886)

A Supreme Court decision that prohibited states from regulating the railroads because the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce. As a result, reformers turned their attention to the federal government, which now held sole power to regulate the railroad industry.

Credit Mobilier scandal (1872)

A construction company was formed by owners of the Union Pacific Railroad for the purpose of receiving government contracts to build the railroad at highly inflated prices and profits. In 1872, a scandal erupted when journalists discovered that Credit Mobilier Company had bribed congressmen and even the Vice President in order to allow the ruse to continue.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

A law that forbade trusts or combinations in business, this was landmark legislation because it was one of the first Congressional attempts to regulate big business for the public good. At first the law was mostly used to restrain trade unions as the courts tended to side with companies in legal cases. In 1914, the Act was revised so it could more effectively be used against monopolist corporations.

American Federation of Labor

A national federation of trade unions that included only skilled workers, founded in 1886. Led by Samuel Gompers for nearly four decades, the AFL sought to negotiate with employers for a better kind of capitalism that rewarded workers fairly with better wages, hours and conditions. The AFL's membership was almost entirely white and male until the middle of the twentieth century.

Homestead Strike (1892)

A strike at a Carnegie steel plant in Homestead, PA, that ended in an armed battle between strikers, 300 armed "Pinkerton" detectives hired by Carnegie, and federal troops, which killed ten people and wounded more than sixty. The strike was part of a nationwide wave of labor unrest in the summer of 1892 that helped the Populists gain some support from industrial workers.

Tweed Ring

A symbol of Gilded Age corruption, "Boss" Tweed and his deputies ran the New York City Democratic party in the 1860s and swindled $200 million from the city through bribery, graft and vote-buying. Boss Twee was eventually jailed for his crimes and died behind bars.

Gilded Age (1877-1896)

A term given to the period 1865 - 1896 by Mark Twain, indicating both the fabulous wealth and widespread corruption of the era.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system that emerged after the Civil War in which black and white farmers rented land and residences from a plantation owner in exchange for giving him a certain "share" of each year's crop. Sharecropping was the dominant form of southern agriculture after the Civil War, and landowners manipulated this system to keep tenants in perpetual debt and unable to leave their plantations.

Pendleton Act (1883)

Congressional legislation that established the Civil Service Commission, which granted federal government jobs on the basis of examinations instead of political patronage, thus resigning in the spoils system.

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

Congressional legislation that established the Interstate Commerce Commission, compelled railroads to publish standard rates, and prohibited rebates and pools. Railroads quickly became adept at using the Act to achieve their own ends, but the act gave the government an important means to regulate big business.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Federal legislation that prohibited most further Chinese immigration to the United States. It was the first majir legal restriction on immigration in U.S. history.

Standard Oil Company (1870-1911)

Rockefeller's company, formed in 1870, which came to symbolize the trusts and monopolies of the Gilded Age. by 1877, Standard Oil controlled 95% of the oil refineries in the U.S. It was also one of the first multinational corporations, and at times distributed more that half of the companies kerosene production outside the US. By the turn of the century it had become a target for trust-busting reformers, and in 1911 the Supreme Court ordered it to break up into several dozen smaller companies.

Jim Crow

System of racial segregation in the American South from the end of Reconstruction until the mid-twentieth century. Based on the concept of "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites, the Jim Crow system sought to prevent racial mixing in public, including restaurants, movie theaters, and public transportation. An informal systems, it was generally perpetuated by custom, violence and intimidation.

Compromise of 1877

The agreement that finally resolved the 1876 election and officially ended Reconstruction. In exchange for the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, winning the presidency. Hayes agreed to withdraw the last of the federal troops from the former Confederate states. This deal effectively completed the southern return to white-only, Democratic-dominated electoral politics.

National Labor Union (1866-1872)

The first national labor organization in US history was founded in 1866 and gained 600,000 members from many parts of the workforce, although it limited the participation of Chinese, women, and blacks. The organization devoted much of its energy to fighting for an eight-hour workday before it dissolved in 1872.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

The last piece of federal civil rights legislation until the 1950s, the law promised blacks equal access to public accommodations and banned racism in jury selection, but the Act provided no means of enforcement and was therefore ineffective. In 1883, the Supreme Court declared most of the Act unconstitutional.

vertical integration

The practice perfected by Andrew Carnegie of controlling every step of the industrial production process in order to increase efficiency and limit competition.

Knights of Labor

The second national labor organization, organized in 1869 as a secret society and opened for public membership in 1881. The Knights were known for their efforts to organize all workers, regardless of skill level, gender, or race. After the mid- 1880s their membership declined for a variety of reasons, including the Knights' participation in violent strikes, and discord between skilled and unskilled members.

"waving the bloody shirt"

The use of Civil War imagery by political candidates and parties to draw votes to their side of the ticket.The Republican party particularly benefited from reminding votes of Democratic treachery during the secession crisis.

Haymarket Square (1886)

a May-Day rally that turned violent when someone threw a bomb into the middle of the meeting, killing several dozen people. Eight anarchist were arrested for conspiracy contributing to the disorder, although evidence linking them to the bombing was thin. Four were executed, one committed suicide, and three were pardoned in 1893.

trust

a mechanism by which one company grants control over its operatins, through ownership of it's stock, to another company. The Standard Oil Company became known for this practice in the 1870s as it eliminated its competition by taking control of smaller oil companies.

horizontal integration

a practice perfected by John D. Rockefeller of dominating a particular phase of the production process in order to monopolize a market, often by forming trusts and alliances with competitors.

Grandfather Clause

a regulation established in many southern states in the 1890s that exempted from voting requirements (such as literacy tests and poll taxes) anyone who could prove that their ancestors ("grandfathers") had been able to vote in 1860. Since slaves could not vote before the Civil War, these clauses guaranteed the right to vote to many whites while denying it to blacks.

Patronage

a system, prevalent during the Gilded Age, in which political parties granted jobs and favors to party regulars who delivered votes on election day. Patronage was both as essential wellspring of support for both parties and a source of conflict within the Republican party.

closed shop

a union organizing term that refers to the practice of allowing only unionized employees to work for a particular company. The AFL became known for negotiating closed-shop agreements with employers, in which the employer would agree not to hire non-union members.

Panic of 1873

a world wide depression that began in the United States when one of the nation's largest banks abruptly declared bankruptcy, leading to the collapse of thousands of banks and businesses. the crisis intensified debtor's calls for inflationary measures such as printing of more paper money and the unlimited coinage of silver. Conflicts over monetary policy greatly influence politics in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Social Darwinists

believers in the idea, popular in the late nineteenth century, that people gained wealth by "survival of the fittest". Therefore, the wealthy had simply won a natural competition and owed nothing to the poor, and indeed service to the poor would interfere with this organic process. Some social Darwinists alos applied this theory to whole nations and races, explaining that powerful peoples were naturally endowed with gifts that allowed them to gain superiority over others. This theory provided of the popular justifications for U.S imperial ventures like the Spanish-American war.

interlocking directorates

the practice of having executives or directors from one company serve on the Board of Directors of another company. JP Morgan introduced this practice to eliminate banking competition in the 1890s.