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66 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Gilded Age
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The Gilded Age was a period in US history c1869-1889 that seemed alright on the outside but was politically corrupt internally. This period, although tainted by various political schemes, led to the development of many new industries. Coined by Mark Twain
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Waving the bloody shirt
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The slogan "bloody-shirt" was a strong campaign slogan used by the Republicans in the presidential elections of 1868. It was used to blame the Democrats for the Civil War which cost the lives of many Americans. This was the first time that the Civil War was used in a presidential election. It was also a great example of the political "mudslinging" of the era
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U.S Grant
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Being a virgin to politics, he became the first president to be in office after the Civil War. He was previously a Union General who defeated General Lee at Appomattox Court House, which ended the Civil War. During Grants presidency, several scams passed through Congress. Grant was never proven to be involved with any of them. Also, the Panic of 1873 (over speculation) came about in his reign. he served out two consecutive terms and was not renominated to run for a third
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Panic of 1873
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RRs, mines, factories, grainfields were too much for markets to bear. Before this, banks thought they could give out loans to these people trying to make factories, but instead there was no profit, and over fifteen banks go bankrupt.
Riots in NYC against police; blacks especially hard hit, freedmans savings and trust company made unsecured loans to several companies and it dissapearsed. Bank depositors lost savings, black economic development and black confidence in savings institutions go down too Debtors hurt too, inflation breathed new life into the issue of greenbacks. During war, 450millioin of it issued, but it depreciated. By 1868, the treasury withdrawn 100million of the currency from circulation. However, regulr people want green money because it would be inflated and reasoned that, more money = cheaper money hence rising prices and easier to pay debts. Creditors want the opposite because they don’t want to see the money they loaned out to be repaid in depreciated money. They wanted deflation not inflation because then people would have to buy with big money. |
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Boss Tweed
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The Tweed Ring of NYC displayed ethics of the age. Burly Boss Tweed employed bribery, graft, and fraudulent elections to milk the metropolis of more than 200 million
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Political Machines
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: an unofficial system of a political organization based on patronage, the spoils system, "behind-the-scenes" control, and longstanding political ties within the structure of a representative democracy; typically led by a boss & have a long-term group of dedicated workers who depend on the patronage generated by government contracts and jobs
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Tammany Hall
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The base of operations that Boss Tweed used to do his corrupt stuff
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Thomas Nast
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was a cartoonist for the New York Times and drew many famous political cartoons including one of Boss Tweed. The cartoon showed condemning evidence on the corrupt ring leader and he was jailed shortly afterwards
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Whiskey Ring Scandal
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In 1875 Whiskey manufacturers had to pay a heavy excise tax. Most avoided the tax, and soon tax collectors came to get their money. The collectors were bribed by the distillers. The Whiskey Ring had robbed the treasury of millions in excise-tax revenues. The scandal reached as high as the personal secretary to President Grant
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Credit Mobilier scandal
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A railroad construction company that consisted of many of the insiders of the Union Pacific Railway. The company hired themselves to build a railroad and made incredible amounts of money from it. In merely one year they paid dividends of 348 percent. In an attempt to cover themselves they paid key congressmen and even the Vice-President stocks and large dividends. All of this was exposed in the scandal of 1872
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1872 Congressional Election
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Grant beats out Greeley for a second term, and later pass the great Amnesty Act, removing disabilities from all but some five hundred former confederate leaders.
Congress also reduced high civil war tariffs and made small civil service reform |
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Horace Greenly
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In 1872 the republicans renominated Grant and some of the "reform-minded" republicans left their party, creating the Liberal Republican party and nominating Greely, editor of the New York Tribune. The Democrats also nominated him. There was much mudslinging involved in this election and Greely lost, in more ways than one. Along with the loss of the presidency, Greely lost his job, his wife, and his mind within one month of the election
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George Plunkitt
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Believed in honest graft-- HA
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"Honest Graft"
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Plunkitt tries to talk about there are good forms of corruption and bad forms of corruption, he says that he just sees his opportunity and takes it.
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Specie Resumption Act
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It stated that the government would continue of greenbacks from circulation and to the redemption of all paper circulation and to the redemption of all paper currency in gold at face value beginning in 1879
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Crime of 73
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When Congress stopped the coinage of the silver dollar against the will of the farmers and westerners who wanted unlimited coinage of silver. With no silver coming into the federal government, no silver money could be produced. The whole event happened in 1873. Westerners from silver-mining states joined with debtors in demanding a return to the " Dollar of Our Daddies." This demand was essentially a call for inflation, which was solved by contraction (reduction of the greenbacks) and the Treasury's accumulation of gold
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Inflation
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Breathed life into the greenback, debtors wanted inflation, they were for the greenback
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Deflation
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Creditors wanted deflation, against the greenback.
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Greenback Labor Party
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Made in 1878, it polled over a millioin votes and elected fourteen members of congress. The party opposed the shift from paper money back to a specie-based monetary system because it believed that privately owned banks and corporations would then reacquire the power to define the value of products and labor
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Roscoe Conkling
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Conkling was the leader of a group for Republicans called the Stalwarts. These people loved the spoils system and supported it wherever it was threatened. They were opposed by the Half-Breeds led by James G. Blaine. Conkling, a senator from New York, and Blaine's infighting caused the nomination of the politically neutral Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876
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Stalwarts
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A political machine led by Roscoe Conkling of New York in the late 19th Century. Their goal is to seek power in government. They also supported the spoils system
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Mugwumps
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were Republican political activists who supported Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the United States presidential election of 1884.
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Half-Breeds
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A half-breed was a republican political machine, headed by James G. Blane c1869. The half-breeds pushed republican ideals and were almost a separate group that existed within the party
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James Blaine
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champion of the Half-Breeds, a political machine of the Republican party. A congressman from Maine; very good with people. Was candidate for Pres. in 1884 for the Rep., however, other Rep., like the mudwamps, wouldn't support him. They considered him a political villain. Became secretary of state during Garfield's administration and tried to persuade Garfield towards the Half-Breed political machine
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Compromise of 1877
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During the electoral standoff in 1876 between Hayes (Republican) and Tilde (Democrat). The Compromise of 1877 meant that the Democrats reluctantly agreed that Hayes might take office if he ended reconstruction in the South
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Stalwarts
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A political machine led by Roscoe Conkling of New York in the late 19th Century. Their goal is to seek power in government. They also supported the spoils system
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Mugwumps
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were Republican political activists who supported Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the United States presidential election of 1884.
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Half-Breeds
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A half-breed was a republican political machine, headed by James G. Blane c1869. The half-breeds pushed republican ideals and were almost a separate group that existed within the party
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James Blaine
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champion of the Half-Breeds, a political machine of the Republican party. A congressman from Maine; very good with people. Was candidate for Pres. in 1884 for the Rep., however, other Rep., like the mudwamps, wouldn't support him. They considered him a political villain. Became secretary of state during Garfield's administration and tried to persuade Garfield towards the Half-Breed political machine
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Compromise of 1877
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During the electoral standoff in 1876 between Hayes (Republican) and Tilde (Democrat). The Compromise of 1877 meant that the Democrats reluctantly agreed that Hayes might take office if he ended reconstruction in the South
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Civil Rights cases
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(1883) proved much of the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. Decided that the 14th ammendment prohibited only government violations of civil rights, not the denial of civil rights by individuals.
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Crop-lien farming
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Storekeepers extended credit to small farmers for food and supplies and in return took lien on their harvests. Some shrewed merchants manipulated the system to make farmers in debt.
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Jim Crow Laws
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Legal codes of segregation.
Also, southern states enact literacy requirements, voter registration laws, and poll taxes to ensure full scale disfranchisement of the south’s black population. Black life became crazily unequal to the whites. They were segregated in inferior schools, separated from whites in all public facilities – railroad cars, theaters, and even restrooms. They were also assaulted and lynched |
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Plessy v. Ferguson
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Supreme court allows the jim crow laws, ruling that they were “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment.
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Chinese Exclusion Act
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Passed in 1882 when congress slammed the door on Chinese immigrant laborers, prohibiting all further immigration from china. It was shut til 1943.
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Great Railroad Strike of 1877
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Presidents of nation’s four largest railroad companies decide on 1877 to cut employee wages by 10%. Workers pissed, and president hayes has to bring in federal troops to stop the unrest. Work stoppages happened everywhere. Ended after several weeks with other hundred people dead.
Its failure showed weakness of labor movement. Differences among workers screwed up labor unity especially between irish and Chinese |
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Yellow Peril
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was a color metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers; The term refers to the skin color of East Asians, and the belief that the mass immigration of Asians threatened white wages and standards of living.
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Denis Kearney
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From san francisco and irish born, wanted his followers to abuse the Chinese. Many of the kearneyites were recently arrived immigrants from Europe, they attacked Chinese because they had competition of cheap labor from still more recently arrived Chinese. The Chinese, or “Coolies” were the menace.
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U.S v. Wong Kim Ark
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Supreme court rules in 1898 that fourteenth amendment guaranteed citizenship to all persons born in US. (birthright citizenship) it also helped other immigrants.
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Rutherford B Hayes
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Elected in 1876 election by republicans. He was the great unknown.
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James Garfield
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James Garfield was elected to presidency in 1880. He barely won the popular vote but won by a huge margin in the electoral college. He was assassinated so Stalwarts could be in power in the government. This brought about reforms in the spoils systems
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Pendleton Act
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This was what some people called the Magna Carta of civil-service reform. It prohibited, at least on paper, financial assessments on jobholders. It created a merit system of making appointments to government jobs on the basis of aptitude rather than who you know, or the spoils system. It set up a Civil Service Commission, chaired with administering open competitive examinations to applicants for posts in the classified service. The people were forced, under this law, to take an exam before being hired to a governmental job position. GARFIELDS DEATH WAS A TURNING POINT WITH A POSITIVE OUTCOME. IT CAUSED POLITITICIANS TO REFORM THE SPOILS SYSTEM. ALSO, GAVE REPUBLICAN PARTY A TASTE FOR REFORM
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Civil Service Commission
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established by the Pendleton Act to make appointlents to federal jobs on the basis of competitive examinations rather than "pull".
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Chester Arthur
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He was the Vice President of James A. Garfield. After President Garfield was assassinated, September of 1881, Arthur assumed the position. He was chosen to run as Vice President, primarily, to gain the Stalwart's vote. Arthur was left in charge of the United States with no apparent qualifications. He, in turn, surprised the public with his unexpected vigor in prosecuting certain post office frauds and wouldn't help the Conklingite cronies when they came looking for favors. He was also in favor of civil service reform
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Mudslinging
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Doing dirty stuff against a political candidate, mainly aprt of the Blaine Cleveland mudslingers of 1884. SOME PEOPLE PUBLISHED THE MULLIGAN LETTERS, WRITTEN BY BLAINE TO A BUSINESSMAN AND LINKING THE POWERFUL POLITICIAN TO A CORRUPT DEAL INVOLVING FEDERAL FAVORS TO A SOUTHERN RAILROAD.
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Grover Clevland
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Cleveland was the democratic presidential candidate for the 1884 election. His republican opponent, James G. Blaine, was involved in several questionable deals , but Cleveland had an illegitimate child. Consequently, the election turned into a mudslinging contest. Cleveland won, becoming the first democratic president since Buchanan. He took few initiatives, but he was effective in dealing with excessive military pensions. He placated both North and South by appointing some former Confederates to office, but sticking mostly with Northerners
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GAR
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Grand Army of the Republic, this was an organization formed by the Union veterans at the end of the American Civil War in 1866. Its main goal was to aid fellow veteran's families, and to try to obtain pension increases. In 1890, they had over 400,000 members. They also adopted Memorial Day in 1868. The Republican party was influenced by them greatly until 1900
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Benjamin Harrison
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called "Young Tippecanoe" because of grandfather William Henry Harrison. Republican elected president in 1888. Opponent, Grover Cleveland. had more popular votes but Harrison put in office because of more electoral votes; pro-business, protariff
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McKinley Tariff
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Passed by the Billion Dollar Congress in 1890 that boosted rates to their highest peacetime level ever.
Because it was so high, farmers had to buy manufactured goods from high priced protected American industrialists, but had to still sell their own agricultural products in a competitive world market. Rural voters in an uproar. |
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Czar Reed
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A master debator. He was speaker of the house. He dominated the billion dollar congress
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Farmers' Alliance
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A militant group of southern and western farmers. the Alliance was designed to promote higher commodity prices through collective action by groups of individual farmers. The movement was strongest in the South
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Populist Party
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The People’s party. Rooted in the farmers alliance of frustrated farmers, in the belts of the west and south. They met in Omaha and adopted a platform that denounced governmental injustice. Wanted inflation through free and unlimited coinage of silver at the rate of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. Further called for a graduated income tax; government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephone., the direct election of us senators; a one term limit on the presidency; the adoption of the initiative and more directly; a shorter workday; and immigration restriction. The populists nominated the greenbacker James B. Weaver
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Homestead Strike
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At Andrew carnegie’s homestead steel plant near Pittsburgh, company officials called in three hudnerd armed pinkerton detectives to crush a strike over pay cuts. Ten people died and sixty got wounded, troops were summoned and it was broken up.
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Tom Watson
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A populist leader who reached out to the black community. He eventually becomes racist because he didn’t want blacks to vote and advocated black disfranchisement
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Sherman Silver Purchase Act
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Before this, the treasury was required to issue legal tender ntoes for silver that it bought. Owners of the paper currency would present it for gold, and by law the notes had to be reissued. New holders would repeat the process and the gold began to drain away.
The gold reserve in the treasury dropped below 100milion then he had to repeal the Sherman Silver Puchse act of 1890 |
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Wilson-Gorman Tariff
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In 1894, this caused further embrassment for cleavelend. It barely effected the mckinley tariff. Supported by the Democrats, this attempt at tariff reform was important because it imposed the first peacetime income tax
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William Jennings Bryan
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Held galleries for three hours as he championed the cause of free silver. Friends of silver announced that hell would freeze over before congress would pass the repeal. Bryan was a devout Presbyterian, a supporter of popular democracy, a critic of banks and railroads, a leader of the silverite movement in the 1890s, a leading figure in the Democratic Party, a peace advocate, a prohibitionist, an opponent of Darwinism, and one of the most prominent leaders of Populism in the late 19th- and early 20th century.
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"forgettable presidents"
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Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, and Cleveland. Mainly, they left blanks on the nation’s political record, as issues like the tariff, the money question, and the righst of labor continued to fester. What little political vitality existed in the gilded age was to be found in local settings or in congress
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Panic/Depression of 1893
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Worst economic downturn of the 19th century. Lasted about four years. Causes were the splurge of overbuilding and speculation, labor disorders, and the ongoing agricultural depression
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Election of 1896
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Republican William McKinley defeat Democrat William Jennings Bryan; In political science the 1896 campaign is often considered to be a realigning election. McKinley forged a coalition in which businessmen, professionals, skilled factory workers and prosperous farmers were heavily represented
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Bland-Allison Act
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was an 1878 law passed over the veto of President Rutherford B. Hayes requiring the U.S. treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars. The goal was to subsidize the silver industry in the Mountain states and inflate prices.
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Spoils System/Patronage
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which is the use of state resources to reward individuals for their electoral support.
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"solid south"
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refers to the electoral support of the Southern United States for the Democratic Party candidates for nearly a century
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National Municipal League
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movement already begun, to wrest control of city governments from corrupt political machines, was given tremendous impetus by the panic of 1893. The National Municipal League, organized in 1894, united various city reform groups throughout the country; corrupt local governments were overthrown in such cities as New York in 1894, Baltimore in 1895, and Chicago in 1896–97.
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Grandfather Clause
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Says you can only vote if you're grandfather voted, excluding blacks for a couple generations.
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Pinkertons
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Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security guarding to private military contracting work. At its height, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency employed more agents than there were members of the standing army of the United States of America
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