Chapter 24

"Crime of '73"

through the coinage act of 1873, the US ended the minting of silver dollars and placed the country on the gold standard. this was attacked by those who supported an inflationary monetary policy, particularly farmers and believed in the unlimited coinage of silver

Ulysses S. Grant

(1869-1873) and (1873-1877) The 15th Amendment is added to the Constitution Administrative inaction and political scandal involving members of his cabinet, including the Crédit Mobilier scandal and the Whiskey Ring conspiracy. He was more successful in foreign affairs, where he was aided by his secretary of state, Hamilton Fish. He supported amnesty for Confederate leaders and protection for the civil rights of former slaves.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

(1882) Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate. American workers felt threatened by the job competition.

Rep. Rutherford B. Hayes (1876)

19th president of the United States, was famous for being part of the Hayes-Tilden election in which electoral votes were contested in 4 states, most corrupt election in US history

Dem. Grover Cleveland (1884)

22nd and 24th president, Democrat, Honest and hardworking, fought corruption, vetoed hundreds of wasteful bills, achieved the Interstate Commerce Commission and civil service reform, violent suppression of strikes

Rep. Benjamin Harrison (1888)

23rd President; Republican, poor leader, introduced the McKinley Tariff and increased federal spending to a billion dollars

Thomas Nast

A famous caricaturist and editorial cartoonist in the 19th century and is considered to be the father of American political cartooning. His artwork was primarily based on political corruption. He helped people realize the corruption of some politicians

"Gilded Age"

A name for the late 1800s, coined by Mark Twain to describe the tremendous increase in wealth caused by the industrial age and the ostentatious lifestyles it allowed the very rich. The great industrial success of the U.S. and the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy hid the many social problems of the time, including a high poverty rate, a high crime rate, and corruption in the government.

Horace Greeley

An American newspaper editor and founder of the Republican party. His New York Tribune was America's most influential newspaper 1840-1870. Greeley used it to promote the Whig and Republican parties, as well as antislavery and a host of reforms., Editor of the New York Tribune; presidential nominee for the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats for the 1872 election; lost to Grant and died a few weeks after his defeat.

"Waving the bloody shirt"

An expression used as a vote getting stratagem by the Republicans during the election of 1876 to offset charges of corruption by blaming the Civil War on the Democrats.

Charles Guiteau

Assassinated President James to make civil service reform a reality. He shot Garfield because he believed that the Republican Party had not fulfilled its promise to give him a government job.

Depression of 1893

Caused by excessive building and overspeculation as well as a continued agricultural depression along with the free coining of silver and the collecting of debts by European banking houses, this was the worst economic downturn of the nineteenth century

Whiskey Ring

During the Grant administration, a group of officials were importing whiskey and using their offices to avoid paying the taxes on it, cheating the treasury out of millions of dollars.

James A. Garfield (1880)

Elected to the presidency in 1880, he served as president for only a few months before being assassinated by Charles Guiteau, who claimed to have killed him because he was denied a job through patronage when he was elected. The assassination fueled efforts to reform the spoils system.

"Compromise of 1877"

Ended Reconstruction. Republicans promise 1) Remove military from South, 2) Appoint Democrat to cabinet (David Key postmaster general), 3) Federal money for railroad construction and levees on Mississippi river, Unwritten deal that settled the 1876 presidential election contest between Rutherford Hayes (Rep) and Samuel Tilden (Dem.) Hayes was awarded the presidency in exchange for the permanent removal of federal troops from the South.

Pendleton Act of 1883

Federal legislation which created a system in which federal employees were chosen on the basis of competitive examinations, therefore making merit, or ability, the reason for hiring people to fill federal positions

Panic of 1873

Four year economic depression caused by over speculation on railroads and western lands, and worsened by Grant's poor fiscal response (refusing to coin silver)

"Mugwumps" (1884)

Half-Breed refomers who didn't approve of Blaine's secretive letters and switched to the Democrat party

Dem. Samuel J. Tilden (1876)

Hayes' opponent in the 1876 presidential race, he was the Democratic nominee who had gained fame for putting Boss Tweed behind bars. He collected 184 of the necessary 185 electoral votes.

Civil Service Commission

In 1883, the new president, Chester A. Arthur signed the Pendleton Act which created this. This is a system that includes the most government jobs, except elected positions, the judiciary, and the military. The aim of this was to fill jobs on the basis of value. Jobs went to those with the highest scores of examinations.

Homestead Steel Strike (1892)

In 1892- one of the most violent strikes in America at the Carnegie Steel Company. 7 people died. 300 Pinkerton detectives were hired and there was a battle where they ultimately surrendered., When workers went on strike at Carnegie's Steel Company for higher wages. Workers broke in after being locked out and took control of the mill. Battle started when the Pinkerton Police were hired to get control. Pinkertons surrendered. Carnegie requested help to restore control over the strikers.

J. P. Morgan

Investment banker whose firm J. Pierpont Morgan and Company, under various names, channeled European capital into America and grew into a financial power; he also controlled one-sixth of the nation's railway system, and consolidated the steel industry with the United States Steel Corporation, the first billion-dollar corporation.

"Greenbacks"

Name given to paper money issued by the government during the Civil War, so called because the back side was printed with green ink. They were not redeemable for gold, but $300 million were issued anyway. Farmers hit by the depression wanted to inflate the notes to cover losses, but Grant vetoed an inflation bill and greenbacks were added to permanent circulation. In 1879 the federal government finally made greenbacks redeemable for gold.

"Jubilee Jim" Fisk

One of the two millionaire partners, who were notorius in the financial world. Fisk provided the brass while the undersized and cunning Gould provided the brains.

Greenback Labor Party (1878)

Political party devoted to improving the lives of laborers and raising inflation, reaching its high point in 1878 when it polled over a million votes and elected fourteen members of Congress.

McKinley Tariff Act of 1890

Raised tariffs to the highest level they had ever been. Big business favored these tariffs because they protected U.S. businesses from foreign competition, cost Harrison reelection

"Stalwarts"/Sen. Roscoe Conkling

Republicans in the 1870s who supported Ulysses Grant and Roscoe Conkling; they accepted machine politics and the spoils system and were challenged by other Republicans called Half-Breeds, who supported civil service reform.

"Jim Crow" laws

The "separate but equal" segregation laws state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965

"Billion-Dollar" Congress (1889)

The Fifty-First congress, the first to appropriate a billion dollars during peacetime. Controlled by Republicans, it aimed to destroy the surplus through spending measure such as the Pension Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.

General Amnesty Act (1872)

The Liberal Republicans caused the Republican Congress to pass this in 1872; removing political disabilities from most of the former Confederate leaders. Congress also reduced high Civil War tariffs and gave mild civil-service reform to the Grant administration.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

The Supreme Court case that upheld a Louisiana segregation law on the theory that as long as the accommodations between the racially segregated facilities were equal, the equal protection clause was not violated. The Court's ruling effectively established the constitutionality of racial segregation and the notion of "separate but equal."

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)

This organization was founded by former Union soldiers after the Civil War. It lobbied Congress for aid and pensions for former Union soldiers. It was also a powerful lobbying influence within the Republican party.

"Boss" Tweed

William Tweed, head of Tammany Hall, NYC's powerful democratic political machine in 1868. Between 1868 and 1869 he led the Tweed Reign, a group of corrupt politicians in defrauding the city.

Crédit Mobilier

a joint-stock company organized in 1863 and reorganized in 1867 to build the Union Pacific Railroad. It was involved in a scandal in 1872 in which high government officials were accused of accepting bribes.

Jay Gould

an American financier that was partnered with James Fisk in tampering with the railroad stocks for personal profit He, like other railroad kings, controlled the lives of the people more than the president did and pushed the way to cooperation among the kings where they developed techniques such as pooling., United States financier who gained control of the Erie Canal and who caused a financial panic in 1869 when he attempted to corner the gold market (1836-1892)

Chester A. Arthur (1881)

became the 21st president (1881 - 1885) of the United States upon the death of President James A. Garfield, who died six months after being shot by assassin Charles Guiteau. Due to his work as New York's port collector and his association with the Stalwarts, Arthur was deeply mistrusted on entering office, but surprised many by devoting his administration to civil service reform.

"Half-Breeds"/Sen. James B. Blaine

during the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881), a moderate Republican party faction led by Senator James Blaine that favored some reforms of the civil service system and a restrained policy toward the defeated South. They were half loyal to Grant and half committed to reform the spoils system

Resumption Act of 1875

required the government to continue to withdraw greenbacks from circulation and to redeem all paper currency in gold at face value beginning in 1879.