Chapter 19 Key Terms - Unit 10 - Gilded Age Reforms, Politics and Government Actions

Antitrust Movement - 1880

The trusts came under widespread scrutiny and attack in the 1880s. Middleclass citizens feared the trusts' unchecked power, and urban elites (old wealth) resented the increasing influence of the new rich.

Sherman Antitrust Act - 1890

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

United States v. E.C. Knight Co. - 1895

Congress wanted to bust a trust because it controlled 98% of sugar manufacturing. Supreme court said no because it wasn't interstate commerce which they do have the right to regulate. Severely weakend the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Pendleton Act - 1883

Law that created a Civil Service Commission and stated that federal employees could not be required to contribute to campaign funds nor be fired for political reasons

Crime of '73 - 1873

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

Bland-Allison Act - 1878

Authorized coinage of a limited number of silver dollars and "silver certificate" paper money. First of several government subsidies to silver producers in depression periods. Required government to buy between $2 and $4 million worth of silver. Created a partial dual coinage system referred to as "limping bimetallism."

"Solid South" - 1877

Term applied to the one-party (Democrat) system of the South following the Civil War. For 100 years after the Civil War, the South voted Democrat in every presidential election.

Omaha Platform - 1892

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.

Coxey's Army - 1894

a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by the populist Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time

High Protective Tariffs - 1890

Put in place to protect northern manufacturers

Cross of Gold Speech - 1896

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.

Grover Cleveland

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

William Jennings Bryan

Democratic candidate for president in 1896 under the banner of "free silver coinage" which won him support of the Populist Party.