APUSH Midterm 2020

Tenements, poverty

As rich people left residences near the business district, the buildings were often divided into small crowded windowless apartments for the poor.

Lincoln Steffens

Author of "Shame of the Cities"

J.P. Morgan

Banker who buys out Carnegie Steel and renames it to U.S. Steel. Was a philanthropist in a way; he gave all the money needed for WWI and was payed back. Was one of the "Robber barons"

J.P. Morgan

Banking; born into riches

Upton Sinclair

"The Jungle"; exposed the meat-packing industry; led to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act

California Gold Rush

(1848-9) Gold was discovered in Sacramento, and in 1848 and 49 masses of prospectors came to CA in search of gold, resulting in rapid economic and population growth in CA - statehood became a sectional issue, as CA drafted a constitution excluding slavery

"Uncle Tom's Cabin"

(1852) book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that portrayed the evils of slavery (splitting of slave families and physical abuse of slaves) - inspired by the FSL and 2GA

Gadsden Purchase

(1853) Agreement w/ Mexico that gave the US parts of present-day New Mexico & Arizona in exchange for $10 million; all but completed the continental expansion envisioned by those who believed in Manifest Destiny.

Gadsden Purchase

(1853) U.S. pays Mexico $10 M. for NM and AZ in order to complete a transcontinental railroad from CA/OR to the rest of the country - gave south the advantage regarding the railroad

Ostend Manifesto

(1854) A declaration issued from Ostend, Belgium, by the U.S. ministers to England, France, and Spain, stating that the U.S. would be justified in seizing Cuba if Spain did not sell it to the U.S.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

(1854) Stephen Douglas proposed splitting Nebraska (free) into two territories, which involved the repealing of the Missouri Compromise (angered Northerners) - most important short-term cause of the civil war

Ostend Manifesto

(1854) the U.S. secretly demanded Cuba for $120 M. from Spain - if Spain refused, the U.S. would take it by force, rejected by Northerners (esp. Free Soilers)

"Bleeding Kansas"

(1854-61) a series of violent political confrontations involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in KA (incl. caning of C. Sumner, Pottawatomie Massacre, Lecompton Constitution) - effectively shattered the Democratic party

Pottowatomie Massacre

(1856) John Brown and sons slaughtered 5 men in revenge for the attack on Lawrence and the caning of Sumner

caning of Charles Sumner

(1856) Sumner, an abolitionist Northern senator gave a speech in Congress condemning pro-slavery Southerners and was subsequently beaten by S.C. Congressman Preston Brooks (demonstrated hatred brewing in Congress between North and South)

sack of Lawrence, Kansas

(1856) a proslavery gang attacked and burned part of the free-soil town

Bleeding Kansas

(1856-1861) A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent.

Lecompton Constitution

(1857) Kansas' proposed Constitution that declared popular sovereignty and slavery - accepted by Buchanan, shot down by Stephen Douglas & Free-Soilers - Kansas denied statehood until 1861 as a free state

Lincoln-Douglas debates

(1857) Lincoln (R) challenged Douglas (D) for the Senate seat - "A house divided cannot stand." - Lincoln stated that the nation cannot be half and half, must be whole

Dred Scott case

(1857) Slave sued for his freedom on the basis that he was living on free soil; justice ruled that because Scott was a slave, he couldn't sue - slaves could be taken from their owners without due process of law, as private property, slaves could be moved into any territory, MO Compromise ruled unconstitutional, split Democratic party

Dred Scott v. Sanford

(1857) Supreme Court case that decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process. Invalidated the Missouri Compromise.

"The Impending Crisis of the South"

(1857) book written by anti-slavery Hinton R. Helper who argued that nonslaveholding whites suffered most from slavery; used as Republican propaganda in 1859

Robert E. Lee

Confederate general who had opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force. Military genius whose aggressiveness made him a fearsome opponent throughout the Civil War.

expansion under Pierce

1. Nicaragua (Walker's Expedition) 2. Japan (Commodore Matthew Perry) 3. Cuba (Ostend Manifesto) 4. Gadsden Purchase

13th, 14th, 15th Amendments (Reconstruction Amendments)

13th: Abolished slavery except for criminal punishment. 14th: Gave equal rights and government protection to all men. 15th: Secured suffrage for men.

Great White Fleet

16 white battleships sent around the world to demonstrate America's increased power; "good will cruise"

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)

Andrew Johnson

17th President of the United States

Andrew Johnson

17th President of the United States, A Southerner form Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, he became president. He opposed radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto. The first U.S. president to be impeached, he survived the Senate removal by only one vote.

Texas Annexation

1845. Originally refused in 1837, as the U.S. Government believed that the annexation would lead to war with Mexico. Texas remained a sovereign nation. Annexed via a joint resolution through Congress, supported by President-elect Polk, and approved in 1845. Land from the Republic of Texas later became parts of NM, CO, OK, KS, and WY.

Mexican American War

1846 - 1848. President Polk declared war on Mexico over the dispute of land in Texas. At the end, American ended up with 55% of Mexico's land, called the Mexican Cession.

California Gold Rush

1849. Gold discovered in California attracted a rush of people all over the country and world to San Francisco; arrival of the Chinese; increased pressure on federal government to establish a stable government

Republican Party

1854. Established by anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats, "free-soilers" and reformers from the Northwest met and formed party in order to keep slavery out of the territories.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854. Proposed that the issue of slavery be decided by popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska territories, thus revoking the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Introduced by Stephen Douglass in an effort to bring Nebraska into the Union and pave the way for a northern transcontinental railroad.

Jane Addams

1860-1935. Founder of Settlement House Movement. First American Woman to earn Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 as president of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

10% Reconstruction Plan

1863. Introduced by President Lincoln, it proposed that a state be readmitted to the Union once 10 percent of its voters had pledged loyalty to the United States and promised to honor emancipation of slaves.

Sherman's March to the Sea

1864-1865. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march through Georgia. An early instance of "total war", purposely targeting infrastructure and civilian property to diminish morale and undercut the Confederate War effort.

freedmen

1865 - Agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. It furnished food and clothing to needy blacks and helped them get jobs

Black Codes

1865-1866. Laws passed throughout the South to restrict the rights of emancipated blacks.

Freedmans' Bureau

1865-1872. Created to aid newly emancipated slaves by providing food, clothing, medical care, education, and legal support.

Freedmen's Bureau

1865. Organization (turned government agency) run by the army to care for and protect southern Blacks after the Civil War, sometimes including settling them on confiscated confederate lands.

Military Reconstruction Act

1867. Divided the South into five districts and placed them under military rule; required Southern States to ratify the 14th amendment; guaranteed freedmen the right to vote in convention to write new state constitutions

Military Reconstruction Act of 1867

1867; divided the South into five districts and placed them under military rule; required Southern States to ratify the 14th amendment; guaranteed freedmen the right to vote in convention to write new state constitutions

Credit Mobilier

1872, This was a fraudulent construction company created to take the profits of the Union Pacific Railroad. Using government funds for the railroad, the Union Pacific directors gave padded construction contracts to Congress members.

Munn v. Illinois

1876; The Supreme Court upheld the Granger laws. The Munn case allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads, and is commonly regarded as a milestone in the growth of federal government regulation.

interstate commerce act

1887 is a United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates.

Dawes Severalty act

1887, dismantled American Indian tribes, set up individuals as family heads with 160 acres, tried to make rugged individualists out of the Indians, attempt to assimilate the Indian population into that of the American

Oklahoma land rush

1889 was the first land rush into the Unassigned Lands. The area that was opened to settlement included all or part of the present-day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties of the US state of Oklahoma.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

1890 act which directed the Treasury to increase the amount of currency coined from silver mined in the West and also permitted the U.S. government to print paper currency backed by the silver.

McKinley Tariff

1890 tariff that raised protective tariff levels by nearly 50%, making them the highest tariffs on imports in the United States history

Boxer Rebellion

1899 rebellion in Beijing, China started by a secret society of Chinese who opposed the "foreign devils". The rebellion was ended by British troops.

Puerto Rico and the United States

1900(Foraker) and 1917 (citizenship) *In 1900, Congress passed the Foraker Act, which gave Puerto Rico limited popular government *In 1917, American citizenship was granted to Puerto Ricans

McKinley Assassination

1901; anarchist assassinates McKinley in Buffalo NY in 1901

Civil Rights Act of 1866

1964; banned discrimination in public acomodations, prohibited discrimination in any federally assisted program, outlawed discrimination in most employment; enlarged federal powers to protect voting rights and to speed school desegregation; this and the voting rights act helped to give African-Americans equality on paper, and more federally-protected power so that social equality was a more realistic goal

Oregon Trail

2000 mile long path along which thousands of Americans journeyed to the Willamette Valley in the 1840's.

William McKinley

25th president, Republican, Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, and the Annexation of Hawaii, imperialism

Theodore Roosevelt

26th president, known for: conservationism, trust-busting, Hepburn Act, safe food regulations, "Square Deal," Panama Canal, Great White Fleet, Nobel Peace Prize for negotiation of peace in Russo-Japanese War.

Bland Allison Act of 1878

A law to compromise with demands of silver to expand money supply. Passed over Haye's veto in 1878, allowed only a limited coinage of between $2-4 million in silver in each month at the standard silver to gold ratio of 16:1.

Isolationism

A category of foreign policies institutionalized by leaders who asserted that their nations' best interests were best served by keeping the affairs of other countries at a distance.

Horatio Alger stories

A collection of dime novels that featured rags to riches stories featuring how down and out boys can become rich and successful through hard work.

Spanish-American War

A conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor leading to American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.

Haymarket Square Riot

A demonstration of striking laborers in Chicago in 1886 that turned violent, killing a dozen people and injuring over a hundred.

carpetbaggers

A derogatory term applied to Northerners who migrated south during the Reconstruction to take advantage of opportunities to advance their own fortunes by buying up land from desperate Southerners and by manipulating new black voters to obtain lucrative government contracts.

scalawag

A derogatory term for southerners who were working with the North to buy up land from desperate southerners; sometimes used in a general way by southerners criticizing other southerners who had northern sympathies.

Cooperatives

A farm, business, or other organization that is owned and run jointly by its members, who share the profits or benefits.

impeachment

A formal accusation of misconduct in office against a public official, famously used against Andrew Johnson after he disobeyed the Tenure of Office Act.

Liberty Party

A former political party in the United States; formed in 1839 to oppose the practice of slavery; merged with the Free Soil Party in 1848.

Referendum

A general vote on a specific issue referred to the people for a decision

copperheads

A group of northern Democrats who opposed abolition and sympathized with the South during the Civil War.

homestead strike

A group of railroad workers on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad rose up and began to strike due to wage cuts. ... It was one of the most violent strikes in U.S. history. It was against the Homestead Steel Works, which was part of the Carnegie Steel Company, in Pennsylvania in retaliation against wage cuts.

Battle of Gettysburg

A large battle in the American Civil War, took place in southern Pennsylvania from July 1 to July 3, 1863. Union General George G. Meade led an army of about 90,000 men to victory against General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army of about 75,000. Proved to be a significant turning point in the war because of the loss of about 1/3 of Lee's army.

Statue of Liberty

A large statue symbolizing hope and freedom on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. (Ellis Island)

Charles Sumner

A leader of the Radical republicans along with Thaddeus Stevens. He was from Massachusetts and was in the senate. His two main goals were breaking the power of wealthy planters and ensuring that freedmen could vote

William Randolph Hearst

A leading newspaperman of his times, he ran The New York Journal and helped create and propagate "yellow (sensationalist) journalism."

Social Gospel

A movement in the late 1800s / early 1900s which emphasized charity and social responsibility as a means of salvation.

"Self-made man"

A nineteenth-century ideal that celebrated men who rose to wealth or social prominence from humble origins through self-discipline, hard work, and temperate habits.

carpetbagger

A northerner who went to the South immediately after the Civil War; especially one who tried to gain political advantage or other advantages from the disorganized situation in southern states (as viewed from the southern perspective).

Manifest Destiny

A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.

Political machines, "bosses"

A party organization, headed by a single boss or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state.

sharecropper

A person who works fields rented from a landowner and pays the rent and repays loans by turning over to the landowner a share of the crops. You usually go into debt and cant come out.

Imperialism

A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries poitically, socially, and economically.

Imperialist

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or the threat of military force.

william mckinley

A political leader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; he was president from 1897 to 1901. McKinley, a Republican, led the United States during the Spanish-American War, although he at first opposed taking action against Spain.

Tammany Hall

A political organization within the Democratic Party in New York city (late 1800's and early 1900's) seeking political control by corruption and bossism.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical.

Ku Klux Klan

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights.

Civil Rights Cases of 1883

Court ruled that Congress could not legislate against the racial discrimination practiced by private citizens.

Francis Willard

Dean of Women at Northwestern University and the president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

McKinley Tariff effects

Decedents of missionares started farms in Hawaii selling sugar cane- because Hawaii was not a state, McKinley Tariff increased prices on sugar. Farmers revolt against Liliuokalani so that they can be annexed into US so they won't be subject to tariff. Pearl Harbor was another reason to annex Hawaii, but Cleveland denied annexation. McKinley passes it.

Wabash, et. al. v. Illinois

Decision that severely limited the rights of states to control or impede interstate commerce.

William Jennings Bryan

Democratic candidate in the 1896 presidential election who ran on the promise of equality for all; anti-trust

Lewis Cass

Democratic candidate in the election of 1848 who introduced the idea of popular sovereignty in territories in the Mexican Cession during his campaign

Woodrow Wilson

Democratic party; Moral Diplomacy (condemned imperialism, spread democracy, and promote international peace); supported Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which stabilized the economy; "New Freedom" program (emphasized business competition and small government); won the presidential election because the Republican vote was split between Roosevelt and Taft

James K. Polk

Democratic president after John Tyler who was best known for policies that promoted Manifest Destiny and expansionism.

Great Rapprochement

After decades of occasionally "twisting the lion's tail," American diplomats began to cultivate close, cordial relations with Great Britain at the end of the nineteenth century—a relationship that would intensify further during World War I.

radical republicans

After the Civil War, a group that believed the South should be harshly punished and thought that Lincoln was sometimes too compassionate towards the South.

Organizers of a parade for women in March, 1913

Alice Paul and Lucy Barns

Suffrage Arguments

All people are created equal Mothers would vote to benefit the nation Women already participate in politics Women are capable and qualified appeal to own social class/race

15th amendment

Amendment that extended suffrage to all races.

George Westinghouse

American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry.

Frederick Jackson Turner

American historian best known for the "frontier thesis." (American democracy was formed by the American frontier. He stressed the process—the moving frontier line—and the impact it had on pioneers going through the process.)

Frederick Jackson Turner

American historian who said that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into. The frontier provided a place for homeless and solved social problems.

Thomas Edison

American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures.

morill land-grant

An Act donating Public Lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.

Ulysses S. Grant

An American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.

John C. Fremont

An American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States (1856), and the first presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform in opposition to slavery.

Jefferson Davis

An American statesman and politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history from 1861 to 1865.

Sherman antitrust act 1890

An act passed in 1890 which prohibited any "contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce."

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.

Laissez-faire capitalism

An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated for profit with minimal or no government interference.

KKK (Ku Klux Klan)

An extremist, paramilitary, right-wing secret society founded in the mid-nineteenth century and revived during the 1920s. It was anti-foreign, anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-Communist, anti-internationalist, anti-evolutionist, and anti-bootlegger, but pro-Anglo-Saxon and pro-Protestant. Its members, cloaked in sheets to conceal their identities, terrorized freedmen and sympathetic whites throughout the South after the Civil War.

Ellis Island

An immigrant receiving station that opened in 1892, where immigrants were given a medical examination and only allowed in if they were healthy.

Cross of Gold Speech

An impassioned address by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic Convention, in which he attacked the "gold bugs" who insisted that U.S. currency be backed only with gold.

American Protective Association

An organization created by nativists in 1887 that campaigned for laws to restrict immigration.

Imperialism

An unequal human and territorial relationship, usually in the form of an empire, based on ideas of superiority and practices of dominance, and involving the extension of authority and control of one state or people over another Regressive (bad) imperialism -Conquest -Exploitation -Replacing with "superior" group Progressive (good) imperialism -Social Darwin -Elevating overall society -Spread democracy

Election of Lincoln

Angered many people in the south who owned slaves because he wanted to end slavery. Won the election of 1860 but did not win the popular vote. South Carolina was happy at the outcome of the election because now it had a reason to secede.11 states in the south seceded and made themselves the Confederacy after the election.

Spheres of Influence

Areas in which countries have some political and economic control but do not govern directly.

William Graham Sumner

Argued that helping the poor was misguided because it interfered with the laws of nature and would only weaken the evolution of the species by preserving the unfit.

Harper's Ferry

John Brown tried to invade south and create a slave rebellion and establish a free black state; rebellion failed and Brown killed - but became a martyr in the North - abolitionists and free-soilers infuriated by execution - ominous in South's eyes - looking like most of the North is turning into abolitionists - prompted secession

election of 1866

Johnson took to the road and used his infamous, "swing around the circle" speeches to attack Congressional opponents; appealed to racial prejudices of whites; Republicans accused Johnson of being a drunkard and a traitor and used antisouthern prejudices by employing a campaign tactic known as "waving the bloody shirt"-inflaming the hatreds of northern voters by reminding them of the hardships of war; Johnson won but Republicans owned both House and Senate

Yellow journalism

Journalism that exaggerates stories and uses sensational headlines to attract readers

Yellow Journalism

Journalist who wrote to influence american public opinion about the Spanish/American War ( influenced americans to think they needed to go to war with Spain)

Muckrakers

Journalists who wanted to ignite change

Henry Clay

Known as the "Great Compromiser"; senator who pushed for compromise between the North and South and worked with Stephen Douglas; major figure in the passing of both the Missouri Compromise (1820) and Compromise of 1850.

Knights of Labor

Labor union founded in 1869 that included skilled and unskilled laborers irrespective of race or gender.

20th amendment

Lame duck amendment; changed the presidential inauguration from March to January

Redeemers

Largely former slave owners who were the bitterest opponents of the Republican program in the South. Staged a major counterrevolution to "redeem" the south by taking back southern state governments. Their foundation rested on the idea of racism and white supremacy.

"Grandfather" clauses

Law that excused a voter from literacy test if his grandfather had been eligible to vote.

black codes

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War Any code of law that defined and especially limited the rights of former slaves after the Civil War.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites.

Emilio Aguinaldo

Leader of the Filipino independence movement against Spain (1895-1898). He proclaimed the independence of the Philippines in 1899, but his movement was crushed and he was captured by the United States Army in 1901.

Sanford B. Dole

Led a revolt of planter against Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani in 1893

Teller Amendment

Legislation that promised the US would not annex Cuba after winning the Spanish-American war.

election of 1860

Lincoln (R) def. Stephen Douglas (D) - democratic party split in two, Lincoln wins under platform of no extension of slavery, protective tariff, no loss of rights for immigrants, pacific railroad, internal improvements in the west, free homesteads from the public domain - satisfied almost all republican groups, but directly led to southern secession

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas to debates during the senatorial race of 1858 which became a public referendum on the issue of slavery.

Panic of 1873

Economic panic caused by overexpansion and overspeculation, causing the nation's largest bank to collapse (and bringing with it many smaller banks, business firms and the stock market). Occurred at the beginning of Grant's second term.

Henry Ford

Eight hour work days and a living wage; assembly line method of production; cars

Anti-union tactics

Employers used the following tactics to defeat unions: the lockouts (closing the factory), blacklists (lists circulated among employers), yellow dog contracts (contracts that forbade unions), private guards to quell strikes, and court injunctions against strikes.

Election of 1876

Ended reconstruction because neither candidate had an electoral majority. The Democrat Sam Tilden loses the election to Rutherford B Hayes, Republican, was elected, and then ended reconstruction as he secretly promised.

election of 1876

Ended reconstruction because neither canidate had an electorial majority. Hayes was elected, and then ended reconstruction as he secretly promised

Civil Service Commission

Enforced the Pendleton Act

John. D Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history.

Eugene V. Debs

Eugene Victor Debs was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.

Ida Tarbell

Exposed corruption in the Standard Oil Company

Thomas Nast

Exposed political corruption with cartoons

causes of labor discontent

Factory work was monotonous, conditions were dangerous, worked under tyranny of the clock.

Family size, divorce

Family size continued to drop as more people moved from the farms to the cities. Children were needed to do work on farms, but in the city they did not provide that advantage. Divorce rates increased as the legal grounds for divorce became more lenient.

Fort Sumter

Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the confederate attack on the fort marked the start of the Civil War.

George B. McClellan

First commander of the Army of the Potomac; well-known for being a master at training an army; was replaced several times by President Lincoln during the Civil War because of his timidness and sometimes outright refusal to send his army into battle.

Sherman Antitrust Act

First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions.

Panamanian Revolution

Panama revolted against Colombia after Roosevelt pushed it. Previously there had been strong nationalist movements. US recognized Panama as a new nation 2 days after revolution started.

Fugitive Slave Law

Passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, it set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways.

Pendleton Act

Passed by President Arthur, it created a system in which federal employees were hired based on merit rather than on any sort of political connections

Gold Standard Act

Passed by President McKinely, it stated that all paper money must be backed by gold; it got rid of America's practice of bimetallism

Hepburn Act

Passed by President Roosevelt, it increased the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission

homestead act

Passed in 1862, it gave 160 acres of public land to any settler who would farm the land for five years. The settler would only have to pay a registration fee of $25.

Economic discrimination

Paying a person a lower wage or excluding a person from an occupation on the basis of an irrelevant characteristic such as race or gender.

Justifications for Imperialism

People justified imperialism by the concept of "white man's burden," which stated that European should govern other because it was right and better for the people, social darwinism

habeas corpus

Petition requiring law enforcement officers to present detained individuals before the court to examine the legality of the arrest. Protects individuals from arbitrary state action. Suspended by Lincoln during the Civil War.

Election of 1852

Pierce (D) def. Scott (W), marking the end of the Whig party (shattered by sectionalism) - Democratic party the only true national party, but when it cracked in 1860, Civil War broke out

Omaha Platform

Political agenda adopted by the populist party in 1892 at their Omaha, Nebraska convention. Called for unlimited coinage of silver (bimetallism), government regulation of railroads and industry, graduated income tax, and a number of election reforms.

Populism vs progressivism

Populism: farmers; wanted more government control of banking and industries; focused more on a economic system Progressivism: mostly middle class; saw the unfairness in the economy; fed up with corruption; focused more on a political system

"Granger laws"

Grangers state legislatures in 1874 passed law fixing maximum rates for freight shipments. The railroads responded by appealing to the Supreme Court to declare these laws unconstitutional.

Anti-Imperialist League

Group objected to the annexation of the Philippines and the building of an American empire. Idealism, self-interest, racism, constitutionalism, and other reasons motivated them, but they failed to make their case; the Philippines were annexed in 1900.

Cleveland lowers tariff

Grover Cleveland created a political storm by challenging the high protective tariff. Proposed that Congress set lower rates because there was a growing treasury surplus and the government did not need more tax revenue.

Interstate Commerce Commission

Had the power to investigate and prosecute pools, rebates, and other discriminatory practices.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe's widely read novel that dramatized the horrors of slavery.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

He was a confederate general who was known for his fearlessness in leading rapid marches, bold flanking movements, and furious assaults. He earned his nickname at the battle of first bull run for standing courageously against union fire. During the battle of Chancellorsville his own men accidently mortally wounded him.

Samuel Gompers

He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.

Henry George

He wrote Progress and Poverty in 1879, which made him famous as an opponent of the evils of modern capitalism.

Eugene Victor Debs

Head of the American Railway Union and director of the Pullman strike; he was imprisoned along with his associates for ignoring a federal court injunction to stop striking. While in prison, he read Socialist literature and emerged as a Socialist leader in America.

Dorothea B. Dix

Helped to reform conditions for the mentally ill; wanted grants for insane asylums

Causes of migration

Immigrants and Americans moved to American cities because of industrial advancements and urbanization.

"New" immigrants

Immigrants who had come to the US after the 1880s from southern and eastern Europe.

When did women first demand the right to vote?

In 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in NY

Immigration Act of 1882

In 1882, this act placed restrictions on the immigration of undesirable persons, such as paupers, criminals, convicts, and mentally incompetent.

Eastman's Kodak camera

In 1888, George Eastman invented the camera.

Edward Bellamy

In 1888, he wrote Looking Backward, 2000-1887, a description of a utopian society in the year 2000. Envisioned a cooperative society.

Ocala Platform of 1890

In 1890, a national organization of farmers, called the National Alliance, met in Florida to address the problems of rural America. It fell short of becoming a political party, but many of the reform ideas would become part of the Populist movement.

bankruptcy of railroads

In 1893, a quarter of all railroads were forced into bankruptcy because of a financial panic, and a number of bankers moved in to take control of/consolidate them.

Antisaloon League

In 1893, this organization became a powerful political force and by 1916 had persuaded twenty one states to close down all saloons and bars.

African American migration

In 1894, the International Migration Society was formed to help blacks emigrate to Africa. Other blacks moved to Kansas and Oklahoma.

Spanish-American War

In 1898, a conflict between the United States and Spain, in which the U.S. supported the Cubans' fight for independence

When did women gain the right to vote?

In 1920, thanks to the 19th amendment

wounded knee massacre , 1891

In December 1890, Army troops captured some of Sitting Bull's followers and took them to a camp. 300 Sioux men, women, and children were killed

Monroe Doctrine

Stated that Europeans couldn't get involved in US affairs

Roosevelt's Corollary

Stated that US could act as police in Latin American affairs if Europeans caused problems

Freeport Doctrine

Stated that exclusion of slavery in a territory (where it was legal) could be accomplished by the refusal of the voters to enact any laws that would protect slave property. Stated by Stephen Douglass during the Lincoln-Douglass debates, eventually contributed to his loss in the 1860 presidential election as Democrats believed he had walked back the gains made with the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision.

Open Door Policy

Statement of U.S. foreign policy toward China. Issued by U.S. secretary of state John Hay (1899), the statement reaffirmed the principle that all countries should have equal access to any Chinese port open to trade.

Second Industrial Revolution

Steel, chemicals, electricity. This is the name for the new wave of more heavy industrialization starting around the 1860s.

Gag Resolution

Strict rule passed by pro-southern Congressmen in 1836 to prohibit all discussion of slavery in the House of Representatives

Lecompton Constitution

Supported the existence of slavery in the proposed state and protected rights of slaveholders. It was rejected by Kansas, making Kansas an eventual free state (and was a factor in spurring violence there).

Roger B. Taney

Supreme Court justice that wrote the Dred Scott case

Panama Canal

TR was interested in building the canal because: -Connect the Atlantic and Pacific -Ensure America's dominance in the region -Becomes economic power -Issue: Columbians don't want this

China and Dollar Diplomacy

Taft attempted to buy up railroads owned by the Japanese and Russians

Nicaragua and Dollar Diplomacy

Taft backed a political candidate with US $$

election of 1848

Taylor (W) def. Cass (D), van Buren (FS) - Cass supported the idea of popular sovereignty, Taylor was a slaveholder but was neutral on the slavery issue, van Buren supported the Wilmot Proviso

sectionalism

Term used to describe the growing differences between the regions of the United States, especially the North and South, leading up to the Civil War.

Ku Klux Klan

The "Invisible Empire of the South", founded in Tennessee in 1866, made up of embittered white Southerners who resented the success and ability of Black legislators. They would terrorize, mutilate, and even murder "upstart" blacks or their supporters to "keep them in their place".

Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines

The 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the US, which allowed temporary American control of Cuba, ceded indefinite colonial authority over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands from Spain

self-determination

The ability of a people/government to determine their own course or future using their own free will.

Jones Act (1916)

The act that granted the Phillipines territorial status and promised independence as soon as stable government was achieved

garfield assasination

The assassination of James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, was initiated upon his being shot at 9:30 am on July 2, 1881, less than four months into his term as President, and ended in his death 79 days later on September 19, 1881.

Melting pot vs. cultural diversity

The historian's term, melting pot, refers to immigrants leaving their old-world characteristics and adopting the United States characteristics. Other historians argue that first-generation immigrants maintained their cultural identity and only the second and third generations were assimilated in the U.S. society.

open range

The invention of barbed wire in the 1870s allowed cattle to be confined to designated areas to prevent overgrazing of the range. In Texas and surrounding areas, increased population required ranchers to fence off their individual lands.

Ghost Dance movement

The last effort of Native Americans to resist US domination and drive whites from their ancestral lands, came through as a religious movement.

Portsmouth Conference

The meeting between Japan, Russia, and the U.S. that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the fighting between those two countries.

william marcy tweed

The most notorious political boss of Tammany Hall

Abolitionist Movement

The movement to end the practice of slavery within the entirety of the United States.

Popular Sovereignty

The notion that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery.

Salvation Army

This welfare organization came to the US from England in 1880 and sought to provide food, shelter, and employment to the urban poor while preaching temperance and morality.

emergency powers

Wide-ranging powers a president may exercise during times of crisis or those powers permitted the president by Congress for a limited time.

WCTU

Women's Christian Temperance Union

19th amendment

Women's suffrage

William McKinley

Won the 1896 presidential election because of the donations to his campaign from the three big titans

Missionary Diplomacy

Woodrow Wilson's policy contingent on the belief that it was America's responsibility and destiny to spread its institutions and values to the far corners of the globe

Protestant work ethic

Way of life based on Biblical teaching that God expects all men to work and all work is a noble duty to be performed toward God.

range wars

a type of armed conflict that occurs in agrarian or stock-rearing societies. The subject of these conflicts was control of "open range", or range land freely used for cattle grazing, which gave the conflict its name. Typically they were disputes over water rights or grazing rights.

Platt Amendment

after us switched its original promise of giving cuba its ind. after usa defeat spanish (teller amendm.) USA forced into Cuban Constitution. Cuba could not make treaties with other nations; US had right to intervene in Cuba; US naval bases on Cuban land; Cuba cant borrow money from other countries

USS Maine

american battleship dispatched to keep a "friendly" watch over cuba in early 1898 it mysteriously blew up havana harbor on feb. 2 1898 w/260 sailors dead, explosion was accidental, USA thought it was spanish submarine fault and was ready for war

J.P. morgan

an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation in the United States of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. He was the leading financier of the Progressive Era, and his dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform American business

thomas edison

an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as America's greatest inventor.[1] He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. first inventor to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention

standard oil company

an American oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refinery in the world of its time.

william jennings bryan

an American orator and politician from Nebraska. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the Democratic Party, standing three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States.

cash crop farming

an agricultural crop which is grown for sale to return a profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family.

andrew carnegie and his vertical integration

an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market-specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need.it allowsed carnegie to buy out railroads and gain lots of money

John Brown

an extreme abolitionist known for his raid on Pottawatomie in 1856

salvation army

an international religious and charitable group organized on military lines and founded in 1865 by William Booth for evangelizing and social betterment

Fugitive Slave Law

any law that provided for the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another state or territory - was enforced weakly in the North in the Antebellum period exc. from 1850-1861, but became the most sectional issue between North and South

battle of little-bighorn

battle in which General George Custer and his forces were defeated by Sioux warriors on 25 June 1876, popularly known as Custer's Last Stand. It took place in the valley of the Little Bighorn River in Montana.

Transatlantic cable

Invented by Cyrus W. Field in 1866, made it possible to send messages across the seas in minutes.

Alexander Graham Bell

Inventor of the telephone.

credit mobilier scandal 1872

Involved the Union Pacific Rail Road and the Crédit Mobilier of America construction company in the building of the eastern portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The scandal was in two parts. The construction company charged the railroad far higher rates than usual, and cash and $9 million in discounted stock were given as bribes to 15 powerful Washington politicians, including the Vice-President, the Secretary of the Treasury, four senators, and the Speaker and other members of the House.

Anti-Imperialists

believed imperialism would violate American principle "the right of all people to independence and self-government" feared contaminating effects of contact with "inferior" races.

"Beecher's Bibles"

breach loading rifles that men sent into Kansas by the New England Emigrant Aid Company carried with the intention of stopping slavery from spreading into KA during Bleeding Kansas

union pacific- irish labor

built primarily by Irish laborers from the Eastern Seaboard who were veterans of the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. ... Between 1865 and 1869, the Central Pacific had laid 690 miles of track and the Union Pacific 1,087 miles of track

Temperance arguments

caused domestic violence waste of money immoral

Jefferson Davis

chosen president of the Confederate States of America during the civil war

Compromise of 1850

compromise proposed by Henry Clay, with the following concessions: (PopFACT) Popular sovereignty in the Mexican territories, stronger Fugitive Slave Law in the North, Abolition of slave trade in D.C., CA becomes a free state, and TX paid $10 M. for surrendering claim to a part of NM

West farmers suffered from...

crop over-production, drought, debt and deflation, and abusive railroad rates

the gilded age

defined as the time between the Civil War and World War I during which the U.S. population and economy grew quickly, there was a lot of political corruption and corporate financial misdealings and many wealthy people lived very fancy lives.

unions

developed to promote demands for higher wages, shorter hours, safer workplaces, and an end to child labor

Weyler the Butcher

did whatever it took to suppress cubans, (concentration camps, diseases) cause sympathy for Cuba

Open Door Policy

sent by John Hay to Germany, Russia, Great Britain, France, Italy & Japan asking the countries not to interfere with US trading rights in China.

Commodore Matthew Perry

sent in 1853 by President Pierce to force Japan to open trading negotiations with the U.S. - introduced Japan to imperialism and industrialism

Constitutional Union Party

short-lived political party that emerged in the election of 1860 with the sole purpose of preserving the Union via compromise - nominated John Bell to try and compromise, but failed

American interests in Hawaii

sugar plantations and potential naval base

american railway union

the American Railway Union was briefly among the largest labor unions of its time and one of the first industrial unions in the United States.

Queen Liliuokalani

the Hawaiian queen who was forced out of power by a revolution started by American business interests

turner's frontier hypothesis

the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that American democracy was formed by the American frontier. He stressed the process—the moving frontier line—and the impact it had on pioneers going through the process.

Stephen Douglas

the designer of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and was the Democratic candidate who lost to Lincoln in the election of 1860

bi-metallic campaign

the economic term for a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, typically gold and silver, creating a fixed rate of exchange between them.

laissez-faire capitalism

the government leaves the people alone regarding all economic activities. It is the separation of economy and state. There are two ways that a government typically is tempted to interfere with the economy.

"Young America"

the idea during Pierce's presidency that Manifest Destiny should be expanded overseas, into Nicaragua, Japan, and Cuba - supported by Southerners who wanted to gain land for the expansion of slavery (esp. Cuba)

martial law

Rule by the army instead of the elected government (such as in the South as a result of the Military Reconstruction Act)

U.S. v. E.C. Knight

Ruled that companies engaged in manufacturing rather than interstate commerce were to be regulated by state and not federal law, and could not be dismantled by the federal government.

scabs, lockout, black list, yellow dog contract, injunction

Scab-worker who refuses membership in labor union; employee who works while others strike; person hired to replace striking worker. Lockout- withholding of employment; used by employers to hinder union organization; literally locking employees out of workplace. Black list- list of persons or organizations that have incurred disapproval or suspicion or are to be boycotted or otherwise penalized. Yellow dog contract- agreement b/w employer and employee where employee agrees not to join union; prohibited by federal law. Injunction- A court order prohibiting a party from a specific course of action

Adam Smith

Scottish economist who wrote the Wealth of Nations a precursor to modern Capitalism. Argued that business should not be regulated by government but by the "invisible hand" of the law of supply and demand.

Underground Railroad

Secret system of safe houses along a route that led many slaves to freedom in the North and eventually Canada.

Seward's Folly

Secretary of State William Seward's negotiation of the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. At the time everyone thought this was a mistake to buy Alaska the "ice box" but it turned out to be the biggest bargain since the Louisiana purchase

Stephen A. Douglas

Senator from Illinois who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln and was a leading voice in the debates over slavery and its expansion before the Civil War. Wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Freeport Doctrine.

John C. Calhoun

Senator who argued for states' rights for the South. He asked for slavery to be left alone, slaves to be returned to the South, and state balance to be kept intact.

Charles Sumner

Senator who spoke out for black freedom and racial equality post-Civil War. Publicly beaten by Preston Brooks for speaking out against the violence in Kansas, an event that marked increasing tensions between the North and South prior to the Civil War.

Border States

Southern states that never chose secession and joined the Confederacy during the Civil War (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Deleware).

John D. Rockefeller

Standard Oil Company; self-made man

Bear Flag Revolt

(1846) a revolt that took place during the Mexican-American War when 500 Americans (Anglos) in Mexican California took the city of Sonoma, CA in the spirit of Manifest Destiny and declared California to be an independent nation.

Free-Soil Party

(1848) Political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery into new territories.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

(1848) The Mexican government gave up the area of Texas and offered to sell the provinces of California and New Mexico as a result of its defeat in the Mexican-American War.

carnegie's gospel of wealth

"Wealth", more commonly known as "The Gospel of Wealth", is an article written by Andrew Carnegie in June of 1889 that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich.

John Muir

(1838-1914) Naturalist who believed the wilderness should be preserved in its natural state. He was largely responsible for the creation of Yosemite National Park in California.

The American Party (The Know-Nothing Party)

(1840s-1850s) This political party carried anti-immigrant sentiments against the Catholic and the Irish and saw some electoral success.

Wilmot Proviso

(1846) Proposal to prohibit slavery in any land acquired in the Mexican War. Never passed by both houses of Congress but helped fan the flame of sectional tension.

John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

(1859) John Brown led a raid on Harper's Ferry. He hoped to start a rebellion against slaveholders by arming enslaved African Americans. Brown was quickly defeated by citizens and federal troops. Brown became a villain to southerners who now thought northerners would use violence to end slavery as well as a martyr to some northerners who saw Brown as someone who sacrificed himself for the ideal of freedom for all.

Ableman v. Booth

(1859) Supreme Court upholds the Fugitive Slave Law as constitutional (idea that slaves were property)

Election of 1860

(1860) The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War. Hardly more than a month following Lincoln's victory came declarations of secession by South Carolina and other states, which were rejected as illegal by outgoing President James Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln.

Crittenden Amendments

(1860) last attempt at compromise before the civil war - designed to appease to the South concerning extension slave trade - rejected by Lincoln (violated why he was elected)

Thirteenth Amendment

(1865) The constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude.

Civil Rights Act of 1867

(1867) Banned discrimination in public accommodations, prohibited discrimination in any federally assisted program, outlawed discrimination in most employment; enlarged federal powers to protect voting rights and to speed school desegregation.

Fourteenth Amendment

(1868) Provided equal protection of the law to freed slaves. Representation for any state that withheld voting from African Americans would be reduced.

Fifteenth Amendment

(1870) Prohibited any state from denying citizens the right to vote on the grounds of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Compromise of 1877

(1877) It withdrew federal soldiers from their remaining position in the South, enacted federal legislation that would spur industrialization in the South, appointed Democrats to patronage positions in the south, appointed a Democrat to the president's cabinet, and allowed Rutherford B. Hayes to win the election. Marked the end of reconstruction.

Big Sister Policy

(1880s) a foreign policy of Secretary of State James G. Blaine aimed at rallying Latin American nations behind American leadership and opening Latin American markets to Yankee traders; the policy bore fruit in 1889, when Blaine presided over the First International Conference of American States

William Howard Taft

(1908-1912), was endorsed by Roosevelt because he pledged to carry on progressive program, then purused "dollar diplomacy", also actively pursued anti-trust law suits, ran for re-election in 1912 but lost to Wilson.

Mexican Revolution

(1910-1920 CE) Fought over a period of almost 10 years form 1910; resulted in ouster of Porfirio Diaz from power; opposition forces led by Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.

South Carolina secession

(Dec. 1860) S.C. unanimously decides to secede from the Union due to the election of Lincoln - w/i 6 mo.s, 6 other states seceded (MI, FL, AL, GA, LO, TX)

Good Neighbor Policy

(Henry Clay) wanted markets of neighbors that lie south of us secured

First Battle of Bull Run (Battle of Manassas)

(July 1861) first major conflict of the Civil War. Southern victory led to overconfidence.

Panama Canal

(TR) , The United States built the Panama Canal to have a quicker passage to the Pacific from the Atlantic and vice versa. It cost $400,000,000 to build. Columbians would not let Americans build the canal, but then with the assistance of the United States a Panamanian Revolution occurred. The new ruling people allowed the United States to build the canal.

WCTU

(Women's Christian Temperance Union) group organized in 1874 that worked to ban the sale of liquor in the U.S.

Republican Party

(est. 1854) political party formed in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act that consisted of Whigs, Northern Democrats, Free-Soilers, and Know-Nothings - not allowed in the South; Abraham Lincoln (R) won the election of 1860

pendleton act 1883

-Banned Federal candidates from requiring that federal employees work on their campaigns or make financial contributions. -Extended the about rule to all federal civil service workers -Previously, government workers were expected to make campaign contributions in order to keep their jobs.

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; as long as Hayes became the president

New England Emigrant Aid Company

sent 2,000 armed men into Kansas to stop slavery from spreading there during Bleeding Kansas

White Man's Burden

-Some countries are better than others -Responsibility of stronger nations to help weaker nations -Andrew Carnegie - economic - Gospel of Wealth Reference Poem: -All about how white westerners and Europeans can bring about significant change to other cultures "Fill the mouth of famine." "Bid sickness away." -Bring tech to help them

Arguments against women's suffrage

-Suffrage is not a right -Women belong at home -Women cannot emotionally handle voting -Women have husbands who speak for them -Women will want to become men if they vote

John Wilkes Booth

..., was an American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.

14th Amendment

1) Citizenship for African Americans, 2) Repeal of 3/5 Compromise, 3) Denial of former confederate officials from holding national or state office, 4) Repudiate (reject) confederate debts

pacific railway act

1862 legislation to encourage the construction of a transcontinental railroad, connecting the West to industries in the Northeast (Union Pacific and Central Pacific RR)

Homestead Act

1862. A federal law that gave settlers 160 acres of land for about $30 if they lived on it for five years and improved it by, for instance, building a house on it. The act helped make land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward-moving settlers.

Gettysburg Address

1863. Abraham Lincoln's oft-quoted speech, delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty.

Emancipation Proclamation

1863. Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were "separate but equal."

Thaddeus Stevens

A Radical Republican who believed in harsh punishments for the South. Leader of the Radical Republicans in Congress.

Civil Rights Act (1866)

A Reconstruction bill which gave which granted citizenship to African Americans and weakened the poliferation of Black Codes in the South.

Cardinal Gibbons

A Roman Catholic leader who supported organized labor.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.

George Dewey

A United States naval officer remembered for his victory at Manila Bay in the Spanish-American War, U.S. naval commander who led the American attack on the Philippines

Battle of Antietam

A battle near a sluggish little creek, it proved to be the bloodiest single day battle in American History with over 26,000 lives lost in that single day. Prevented an Confederate invasion of Maryland.

Panama Canal

A canal through Panama to speed up ship travel; cost $40 million; established the US as a world super power

populist party

A third-party movement that sprang up in the 1890s and drew support especially from disgruntled farmers. The Populists were particularly known for advocating the unlimited coinage of silver.

subsidized transcontinental railroad

A train route across the United States, finished in 1869. It was the project of two railroad companies: the Union Pacific built from the east, and the Central Pacific built from the west. The two lines met in Utah.

Bessemer Process

A way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly remove impurities.

Role of cities

A whole, integrated system providing goods and services.

Great Plains tribes

About two-thirds of the western tribal groups lived on the Great Plains. These nomadic tribes, such as the Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, and Comanche, had given up farming in colonial times after the introduction of the horse by the Spanish. In the late 19th century, their conflicts with the U.S. government were partly the result of white Americans having little understanding of the Plains people's loose tribal organization and nomadic lifestyle.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Act which prohibited further immigration to the US by Chinese laborers, first major act of Congress to restrict immigration on the basis of race/nationality.

Specie Resumption Act of 1875

Act which withdrew all greenbacks from circulation.

Compromise of 1850

Admitted California as a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law. Widely opposed in both the North and South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery.

Margaret Sanger

Advocated birth control

Lucretia Mott / Elizabeth Cady Stanton / Susan B. Anthony

Advocates of women's rights who participated in the Seneca Falls Convention to promote women's suffrage

Ida B. Wells

African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcars or shop in white-owned stores.

Booker T. Washington

African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African American better themselves individually to achieve equality.

Roosevelt Corollary

Roosevelt's 1904 extension of the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States has the right to protect its economic interests in South And Central America by using military force

Wade-Davis Bill

Bill pushed by Congress in 1864 that required 50 percent of a state's voters take the oath of allegiance and demanded stronger safe-guards for emancipation than proposed in Lincoln's 10 percent plan. Pocket-vetoed by Lincoln.

black reconstruction

Blacks could vote and had rights, but black codes kept them virtually enslaved. They did get more political power, however.

Economic cooperation

Booker T. Washington's National Negro Business League emphasized racial harmony and economic cooperation.

department stores

Brought together many products under one roof such as clothing and furniature; gave excitement to shopping.

Theodore Roosevelt

Bull Moose party; Big Stick Diplomacy ("speak softly but carry a big stick"; relied on a strong navy; established the US as a leader); full of contradictions; conservationist; supported radical change and reform; TRUST BUSTER

Residential suburbs

By 1900, suburbs had grown up around every major U.S. city. the United States became the world's first suburban nation.

central pacific - chinese

Central Pacific Railroad, which was to be built from Sacramento, California connected to the Union Pacific Railroad which was being built simultaneously

Jane Addams

Chicago Hull House; aimed to help the poor with assimilation

Helen Hunt Jackson

Chronicled the injustices done to American Indians in her book, A Century of Dishonor (1881).

civil service

Civil Service Reform; one of the major issues of the Gilded Age. 1883 Pendleton Civil Service Act introduces merit system. The Pendleton Civil Service Act, passed by Congress in 1882, created the Civil Service Commission to oversee competitive examinations for government positions.

Louis O'Sullivan

Coined the term Manifest Destiny in a newspaper article.

American Federation of Labor

Concentrated on attaining narrower economic goals. Founded in 1886. Focused on higher wages and improved working conditions. Nation's largest union with 1 million members. Would not achieve major successes until early 20th century.

National Grange Movement

Organized by Oliver H. Kelley primarily as a social and educational organization for farmers and their families. By the 1870s however, the Grange organized economic ventures and took political action to defend members against the middlemen, trusts, and railroads.

William H. Seward

Congressman of the "Young Guard" who fiercely opposed slavery and argued that Americans should follow a "higher law" (God's law) over the Constitution when it came to the issue of slavery.

redeemer governments

Conservative white democrats many of them planters or businessmen who reclaimed control of South following the end of reconstruction

cornelius vanderbuilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt, also known informally as "Commodore Vanderbilt", was an American business magnate and philanthropist who built his wealth in railroads and shipping.

Dawes Act of 1887

Designed to break up tribal units giving individual families a small plot of land and making them US citizens after 25 years of adopting the habits of civilized life. Failed and abandoned in 1930s. Like a homestead act for Indians.

Insular Cases

Determined that inhabitants of U.S. territories had some, but not all, of the rights of U.S. citizens.

electric power

Developed by Edison in his research laboratory, who created a dynamo to generate it.

telephone

Developed in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell.

Ethnic neighborhood

Different immigrant groups created areas where each group could maintain their own language, culture, church or temple. and social club.

Big Stick Diplomacy

Diplomatic policy developed by T.R where the "big stick" symbolizes his power and readiness to use military force if necessary. It is a way of intimidating countries without actually harming them and was the basis of U.S. imperialistic foreign policy.

17th amendment

Direct election of US Senators

Dollar Diplomacy

Foreign policy created under President Taft that had the U.S. exchanging financial support ($) for the right to "help" countries make decisions about trade and other commercial ventures. Basically it was exchanging money for political influence in Latin America and the Caribbean.

secession

Formal withdrawal of states or regions from a nation

W.E.B. Du Bois

Fought for African American rights. Helped to found Niagra Movement in 1905 to fight for and establish equal rights. This movement later led to the establishment of the NAACP.

Carrie Nation

Founded WCTU to outlaw selling/drinking alcohol. She was married to an abusive man that she killed with an axe and she didn't get punished for it. She formed a group that walked into bars with axes.

Spanish-American War

Four month war; caused by Cuban War of Independence; US win; U.S.S. Maine blew up ("Remember the Maine!")

High tariff

From a farmer's point of view, industry seemed to be growing rich at the expense of rural America.

Lynch mobs

In the 1890s, more than 1,400 African American men were lynched (hung by a mob without trial) by Southerns.

Markets and farmers

In the late 1800s, farming became increasingly commercialized and specialized. They became dependent on large and expensive machinery and small, marginal farms were often driven out of business.

"Indian wars"

In the late 19th century, the settlement of the thousands of miners, ranchers, and homesteaders on American Indian lands led to violence.

Streetcar cities

In these cities, people lived in residences many miles from their jobs and commuted to work by horse-drawn streetcars.

16th amendment

Income tax

Crop price deflation

Increased crop production and global competition drove prices down while farmers still had mortgages to pay with high interest rates.

Railroads and middlemen

Railroads and middlemen were able to charge high or discriminatory rates in the food supply chain because they had little competition.

10 Percent Plan

Lincoln's plan for re-admitting the Southern states into the Union: a state could be reintegrated into the Union when 10 percent of its voters in the presidential election of 1860 had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States and pledged to abide by emancipation.

Dwight Moody

Made the Moody Bible Institute. Helped generations of urban evangelists to adapt traditional Christianity into city life.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Meant to stop trusts, but was hardly enforced until the progressive presidents took office

McKinley Tariff of 1890

Raised the tax on foreign products to a peacetime high of more than 48 percent.

Literacy tests

Method used to deny African-Americans the vote in the South that tested a person's ability to read and write - they were done very unfairly so even though most African-Americans could read and write by the 1950's they still failed. Also applied to immigrants trying to come to America.

monopolistic buisnesses of industrial age

Monopolies affected the consumers during the 19th century in a positive way while the stronger company is competing with weaker companies because when the demand for a product is high the company will lower the prices so other companies will also lower their prices causing the weaker companies to go out of business. However, when when the stronger company has developed a complete monopoly the company can raise the prices to as high as the company pleases causing a negative effect to the consumers.

Radical Republicans

Most liberal part of the Republican Party. Desired political, economic, and social equality for African Americans. Wanted harsh punishment for the South after the Civil War.

"City Beautiful" movement

Movement in environmental design that drew directly from the beaux arts school. Architects from this movement strove to impart order on hectic, industrial centers by creating urban spaces that conveyed a sense of morality and civic pride, which many feared was absent from the frenzied new industrial world.

Lewis Hine

Muckraking photographer of child labor

Jacob Riis

Muckraking photographer of tenement living; "How the Other Half Lives"

Menlo Park Research Laboratory

NJ, Edison's Lab, introduced concept of mechanics and engineers working as a team rather than lone inventors.

Radical Reconstruction

Name given to the period when Congress, which was controlled by Republicans, took over Reconstruction efforts. When southerners balked at some of the more moderate reforms proposed, more radical republicans started to gain more power and pass more legislation.

NAWSA

National American Woman Suffrage Association; founded in 1890 to help women win the right to vote.

Southwest tribes

Navajo and Apache; nomadic hunter-gatherers.

Origins of progressivism

Rapid industrialization, immigration, and urbanization, which led to national growth and prosperity

The Square Deal

Roosevelt's plan for reform; meant to give all Americans an equal opportunity

Walter Rauschenbusch

New York clergyman who preached the social gospel, worked to alleviate poverty, and worked to make peace between employers and labor unions.

William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer

Newspaper tycoons, they helped to start the fighting in Cuba against Spain for the their independence, by using exaggerated stories in their papers.

Copperheads

Nickname for Northerners who were pro-Confederacy.

Poll taxes

One of the obstacles African Americans faced when trying to vote.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

One of the worst outbreaks of labor violence which occurred when the railroad companies cut wages to reduce costs. Spread across 11 states and shut down two thirds of country's rail tracks. Hayes sent troops to deal with it violently, around 100 people were killed. Somewhat effective.

Freedmen's Bureau

Organization run by the army to care for and protect southern Blacks after the Civil War

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America prior to and during the Civil War.

White primaries, juries

Primary elections held in the Southern United States in which only white voters were permitted to participate.

"Survival of the fittest"

Process by which individuals that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called natural selection.

18th amendment

Prohibition

Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

Promoted the reestablishment of tribal organization and culture.

Ida B. Wells

Promoted the well-being of black children by organizing preschools for them

"Iron law of wages"

Proposed principle of economics that asserts that real wages always tend, in the long run, toward the minimum wage necessary to sustain the life of the worker.

Rebates and pools

RR companies would discount shipping for favored large companies and then charge large amounts to small farmers; competing companies secretly agree to fix rates on goods and share traffic

Thaddeus Stevens

Radical Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who defended runaway slaves in court for free and insisted on being buried in a black cemetery; hated white Southerners. Leading figure on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction and for the social equality of African Americans.

Tenure of Office Act of 1867

Radical attempt to further diminish Andrew Johnson's authority by providing that the president could not remove any civilian official without Senate approval; Johnson violated the law by removing Edwin Stanton as secretary of war, and the House of Representatives impeached him over his actions

Carrie Nation

Radical member of the temperance movement

"Fire Eaters"

Refers to a group of extremist pro-slavery politicians from the South who urged the cessation of southern states.

"Seward's Folly"

Refers to the United States' Secretary of State William Seward's decision to purchase the Alaskan territory from Russia in 1867. At the time, Seward's decision to buy the land was regarded as a terrible one by many critics in the United States.

William Howard Taft

Republican party; Dollar Diplomacy (further foreign policy through use of economic power by guaranteeing loans to foreign countries); supported conservatism, not progressivism; supported subtle reform; wanted to break up all trusts; lost progressive support because he raised tariffs (Payne Aldrich tariff)

Dingley Tariff of 1897

Republicans honored their party by enacting this tariff, increased the tariff to more than 46 percent. Counteracted the Wilson-Corman Tariff of 1894.

Interstate Commerce Act of 1886

Required railroads to be "reasonable and just." It set up the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first federal regulatory agency.

Force Acts of 1870-71

Restricted Ku Klux Klan. Banned and sometimes arrested KKK members.

Contract Labor Act of 1885

Restricted the immigration of temporary workers, to protect American workers.

Concentration of wealth

Richest 10 percent of US in 1890s controlled 90 percent of nation's wealth.

Why was progressivism so popular during this time?

Rise of the middle class resulted in more free time and more disposable income; growing hostility towards monopolies; horror at conditions of cities due to muckrakers

robber barons-philanthropy

Robber Baron was a term applied to a businessman in the 19th century who engaged in unethical and monopolistic practices, wielded widespread political influence, and amassed enormous wealth.

Gentlemen's Agreement (1907)

Roosevelt persuaded the school to change its policy after making sure that Japanese would not issue visas except to former residents, halted the impulse of Japanese immigrants and brought some respite to racial agitation in California

Treaty of Paris

Signed by the United States and Spain in December 1898, this treaty ended the Spanish-American War.

Appomattox Court House

Site (city) where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865 after almost a year of brutal fighting throughout Virginia in the "Wilderness Campaign".

Steel-framed buildings

Skyscrapers were made possible by this type of building. The first, was the Home Insurance Company Building in Chicago. It was made possible by a steel skeleton, Otis elevator, and central steam heating system.

Susan B. Anthony

Social reformer who campaigned for women's rights, the temperance, and was an abolitionist, helped form the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Progressive goals

Social, moral, economic, and political goals

Social Darwinism:

Some countries are "better" than others better suited for the world etc.

Business vs. consumers

Some people objected to the high tariffs because the raised the prices on consumer goods.

Gospel of Wealth

This was a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism as well as promoted the idea of philanthropy.

The success of the rally organized by Alice Paul and Lucy Barns led to the formation of an organization called what?

The Congressional Union

Rough Riders

The First United States Volunteer Calvary, a mixure of Ivy League athletes and western frontiermen, volunteered to fight in the Spanish-American War. Enlisted by Theodore Roosevelt, they enlisted in the invasion army of Cuba.

haymarket square riot

The Haymarket affair was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on Tuesday, May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago

Federal treaty policies

The Indian Appropriation Act of 1871 ended recognition of tribes as independent nations by the federal government and nullified previous treaties made with the tribes.

pullman strike, 1894

The Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States on May 11, 1894, and a turning point for US labor law.

Little Big Horn

The Sioux ambushed and destroyed Colonel George Custer's command here in 1876.

Hayes-Tilden Election

The South conceded to let Hayes win the presidency because he agreed to pull out the troops.

state-suicide theory

The Southern states had relinquished their rights when they seceded. This, in effect, was suicide.

rugged individualism

The belief that all individuals, or nearly all individuals, can succeed on their own and that government help for people should be minimal

Social Darwinism

The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle.

Census of 1890

The census of 1890 declared that except for a few pockets, the entire frontier had been settled.

Expansionism

The doctrine of expanding the territory or the economic influence of a country.

federal land grants and loans

The federal government provided loans and land grants to railroad companies with huge subsidies. Often promoted hasty and poor construction and led to government corruption (i.e. Credit Mobilier).

"Fifty-Four Forty or Fight"

The phrase used in James K Polk's 1844 presidential election dealing with the Oregon Territory. Polk's campaign used the phrase as a rallying cry for the United States to obtain all of Oregon Territory, including land claimed by the English, up through Northern Canada.

Big Stick Diplomacy

The policy held by Teddy Roosevelt in foreign affairs. The "big stick" symbolizes his power and readiness to use military force if necessary. It is a way of intimidating countries without actually harming them.

Initiative petition

The process of beginning a referendum on a recall or special issue (the number of valid signatures of registered voters must be verified by the state election's official)

Civil disobedience

The refusal to obey a law due to the belief that the law is immoral

Panic of 1893

The stock market crashed as a result of overspeculation, dozens of railroads went bankrupt. Cleveland dealt with this by championing the gold standard and otherwise adopting a hands-off policy toward the economy.

Platt Amendment

The united states right to intervene in Cuba to maintain peace and law and order

Mark Twain

The writer and humorist best known for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1835-1910); used "realistic fiction". Huckleberry Finn revealed the greed, violence, and racism in American society.

Who coined the term "muckraker"?

Theodore Roosevelt

White supremacists

This group favored separating (segregating) public facilities, as a means of treating African American as social inferiors.

Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894

This tariff provided a moderate reduction in tariff rates and levied a 2 percent income tax.

Effects of Spanish-American War

Treaty of Paris; US acquired Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico; purchased Philippines for $20 million

anti-trust movement

Trusts came under widespread attack and scrutiny in the 1880s. Middle class citizens feared their unchecked power and urban elites of old wealth resented the new rich. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890.

USS Maine

U.S. Battleship that exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898; Evidence suggests an internal explosion, however Spanish military was framed by Yellow Journalism; The incident was a catalyst for the Spanish American War

Alfred Thayer Mahan

US Admiral who encouraged the US to strengthen its naval power to become a world power.

Andrew Carnegie

US Steel Company; self-made man

Panama and Big Stick diplomacy

US used navy to intimidate Colombia int granting independence

William Tecumseh Sherman

Union General who destroyed South during "march to the sea" from Atlanta to Savannah; example of total war and "scorched-earth" military tactics.

Anaconda Plan

Union war plan by Winfield Scott, called for blockade of southern coast, capture of Richmond, capture of the Mississippi River, and to take an army through heart of south.

dumbbell tenements

a tenement building formerly common in New York City and having a long narrow plan characterized by two narrow air wells at each side.

Joseph Pulitzer

United States newspaper publisher (born in Hungary) who established the Pulitzer prizes (1847-1911).

William Randolph Hearst

United States newspaper publisher whose introduction of large headlines and sensational reporting changed American journalism (1863-1951)

New York Draft Riots

Uprisings during the Civil War (1863), mostly of working-class Irish-Americans, in protest of the draft. Rioters were particularly incensed by the ability of the rich to hire substitutes or purchase exemptions.

Urban reformers

Urban reformers stated more than 400 settlement houses in the cities. They provided services to help poor immigrants.

Recall

Voters can remove and replace an elected official before their term of office is up (different from impeachment)

Assimilationists

Wanted to eradicate tribal life and assimilate Native Americans into white culture through education, land policy, and federal law.

First state to grant women the right to vote

Wyoming

Y.M.C.A

Young Men's Christian Association, commonly known as the YMCA or simply the Y, is a worldwide organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 2 billion beneficiaries from 125 national associations.[1] It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London and aims to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy "body, mind, and spirit".

tammany hall

a Democratic political organization in New York City, founded in 1789 as a fraternal benevolent society and associated especially in the late 1800s and early 1900s with corruption and abuse of power. the building in which the Tammany organization had its headquarters. Origin of Tammany Hall.

William H. Seward

a Northern radical during the antebellum period who opposed granting concessions to the south, and used a moral argument against (extension of) slavery

crop lien system

a credit system that became widely used by cotton farmers in the United States in the South. Sharecroppers and tenant farmers who did not own the land they worked obtained supplies and food on credit from local merchants

grange

a farmers' association organized in 1867. The Grange sponsors social activities, community service, and political lobbying.

urbanization-ethinic neighborhood enclaves

a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration of ethnic firms

settlement houses

a house where immigrants came to live upon entering the U.S. At Settlement Houses, instruction was given in English and how to get a job, among other things. The first Settlement House was the Hull House, which was opened by Jane Addams in Chicago in 1889.

knight of labor

a member of a 19th century secret labor organization formed in 1869 to secure and maintain the rights of workingmen in respect to their relations to their employers.

"Know-Nothings" (American party)

a nativist political party composed of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) that opposed Catholicism and immigration - nominated Millard Fillmore in 1856

democrats

a person who believes in the political or social equality of all people.

Free-Soil Party

a political party formed in the U.S. in 1848 that argued against the extension of slavery into American territories - nominated van Buren in 1848, but lost to Taylor; foreshadowed the emergence of the Republican party in 1854

ghost dance

a religious dance of native Americans looking for communication with the dead

social gospel movement

a religious movement that arose during the second half of the nineteenth century. Ministers, especially ones belonging to the Protestant branch of Christianity, began to tie salvation and good works together. They argued that people must emulate the life of Jesus Christ.

comstock laws

a set of federal acts passed by the United States Congress under the Grant administration along with related state laws. The "parent" act (Sect. 211) was passed on March 3, 1873, as the Act for the "Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use".

jane addams hull house

a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located in the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, Hull House (named after the home's first owner Charles Jerald Hull) opened to recently arrived European immigrants

conspicuous consumption

expenditure on or consumption of luxuries on a lavish scale in an attempt to enhance one's prestige. "an age of increasing conspicuous consumption"

cross of gold speech, 1896

he Cross of Gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former United States Representative from Nebraska, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 9, 1896

hunger strike

how women arrested for suffrage efforts protested in prison

"Old" immigrants

immigrants who had come to the US before the 1880s from Britain, Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia, or Northern Europe.

Pullman Strike

in Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town", Eugene Debs had American Railway Union refuse to use Pullman cars, Debs thrown in jail after being sued, strike achieved nothing.

Settlement houses

institutions that provided educational and social services to poor people.

glidden's barbed wire fences

invented barbed wire. This allowed a farmer to protect his land and his crops so that wild herds would not trample the property. They can fence in the property more cheaply, and the production of barbed wire went up dramatically in 1874.

john d. rockefeller

john Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American oil industry business magnate, industrialist, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the wealthiest American of all time, and the richest person in modern history.

Freeport Doctrine

part of L-D debates - Douglas stated that territories could refuse to pass laws protecting slavery thus effectively ending slavery in that territory - response led to the split in this party and end to his chance at presidency

Preston Brooks

proslavery South Carolinian senator who beat Northern congressman Charles Sumner with his gold cane after Sumner delivered a condemning anti-slavery speech in Congress

Mckinley Tariff

raised duties on hawaiian sugar and set off renewed efforts to secure the annexation of hawaii to the USA

Panic of 1857

resulted from over-speculation, influx of California gold into economy - citizens worried that government couldn't back up their money with real gold

Big Four

the name popularly given to the famous and influential businessmen, philanthropists and railroad tycoons who built the Central Pacific Railroad, built from the mid-continent at the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean during the middle and late 1860's. Composed of Leland Stanford,Collis Potter Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker, the four themselves however, personally preferred to be known as "The Associates."

Indian wars

the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between White settlers or the federal government and the Indigenous population of North America.

horizontal consolidation

the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger. The process can lead to monopoly if a company captures the vast majority of the market for that product or service.

merit system

the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections. It is the opposite of the spoils system.

popular sovereignty

the proposed idea that sovereign people of a territory should decide for themselves the status of slavery - emerged as a way to avoid the issue of slavery in the Mexican Cession during the 1850s, introduced by Lewis Cass,

interstate commerce act

the purchase, sale or exchange of commodities, transportation of people, money or goods, and navigation of waters between different states. Interstate commerce is regulated by the federal government as authorized under Article I of the U.S. Constitution.

social darwinism

the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform.

gold standard vs free silver

unlimited silver coinage vs. the gold standard brought out the same kind of emotions as gun control, abortion, or immigration today. ... In that year, the gold standard was adopted. But silver coinage was added five years later, after an economic depression.

Rough Riders

volunteer Calvary, a mixure of Ivy League athletes and western frontiermen, volunteered to fight in the Spanish-American War. Enlisted by Theodore Roosevelt

american federation of labor

was a national federation of labor unions in the United States founded in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association.

reservation system

were devised to encourage the Indians to live within clearly defined zones, and the U.S. promised to provide food, goods and money and to protect them from attack by other tribes and white settlers.