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Grover Cleveland
22nd and 24th president, Democrat; won in 1884 election against Blaine; fought corruption (fired 2/3 of federal employees), vetoed hundreds of wasteful bills (opened up un-claimed railroad land for settlement in 1887), pushed for laissez-faire, achieved the Interstate Commerce Com-mission and civil service reform, violent suppression of strikes - "people support gov, but gov shouldn't support people" - pushed for lowering of high wartime tariffs to dissolve surplus in 1887
Union Pacific Railroad
A railroad that started in Omaha, Nebraska and it connected with the Central Pacific Railroad in Promentary Point, UTAH; for each mile of track, the company was given 20 square miles of land in alternating squares as well as a federal loan; the Credit Mobilier got some profits; "Paddies" who fought in the Union built it
Central Pacific Railroad
started in California, and pushed eastward; connected with the Union Pacific Railroad in Promentary Point, Utah; led by the Big 4; used many Chinese laborers
Leland Stanford
BIG FOUR - Former California Governor and organizer of the Central Pacific Railroad; had political connections
Collis P. Huntingon
BIG FOUR - adept lobbyist, helped organize Central Pacific Railroad
Northern and Southern Pacific Railroads
This railroad ran from Lake Superior to Puget Sound
Railroad into Southern California that greatly sparked interest in that area, despite the former idea that Southern California was unfarmable; linked New Orleans to California
The Great Northern and James J Hill
the last spike of the last of the five transcontinental railroads was hammered in 1893. This railroad ran from Duluth to Seattle; created by Canadian-American
Cornelius Vanderbilt, New York Central Railroad
He was the most prominent multimillionaire in the east (from steamboating). He controlled most of the Eastern railroads and the name of his railroad was the New York Central. Helped promote the steel railroads (replacing iron tracks in the New York Central) and a standard width for track.
Westinghouse air brake and Pullman Palace Cars
RAILROAD IMPROVEMENTS
Enhanced efficiency and safety
“Travel cars” for the well-off
Time zones
Due to railroads, the US abolished local times in 1883 in favor of 4 common times: Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern
“lords of the rail”
A raw, new aristocracy, consisting of these, replaced the old southern "lords of the lash".
The railroad was the maker of the most millionaires.
Credit Mobilier and Jay Gould
a joint-stock company organized in 1863 and reorganized in 1867 to build the Union Pacific Railroad. It was involved in a scandal in 1872 in which high government officials were accused of accepting bribes
a financier mogul who swindled a multimillion dollar revenue; busted the stocks of the Erie, Kansas Pacific, Union Pacific, Texas Pacific
Stock watering
Originally referring to cattle, term for the practice of railroad promoters exaggerating the profitability of stocks in excess of its actual value - led to “promoters profits”
The Grange (Patrons of Husbandry)
1867; social organization to bring farm families together; focused on economic issues affecting farmers (like railroads); used political clout to help states pass laws regulating railroad freight and storage rates
Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois
1886 Supreme Court case that decreed that individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce (means federal government would have to fix monopoly and corruption problems)
Interstate Commerce Act
(1887) Congress act that established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) - prohibited pools and required the public publication of railroad profit rates; forbade unfair discrimination against shippers and charging more for short trips than for long; the ICC enforced it - stabilized, not revolutionized
Henry Ford and Model T
___ developed the mass-produced ___ car, which sold at an affordable price. It pioneered the use of the assembly line. He greatly increased his workers wages and instituted many modern concepts of regular work hours and job benefits. The method was used further into the Gilded Age.
Alexander Graham Bell
Invented the telephone in 1876. Led to network of communication throughout the US. Led “number please” women to become telephone operators.
Thomas Alva Edison
This scientist received more than 1,300 patents for a range of items including the automatic telegraph machine, the phonograph, improvements to the light bulb (1879-transformed society, led to less sleeping), a modernized telephone and motion picture equipment.
Andrew Carnegie and Vertical Integration
Started off as a poor Scottish immigrant; controlled all parts of steel industry (coal fields, iron mines, steel factories, steamships); only his employees’ hands touch the products; combines all stages of manufacturing; destroyed competitors and eliminated middleman fees; part of the “Pittsburgh millionaires” and know as the “Napoleon of the Smokestacks;” wrote “The Gospel of Wealth”
John Rockefeller and horizontal integration and trust
The Oil Baron (this became illegal) and his Standard Oil Company; allied with competitors to monopolize market; eliminated middlemen and competition; to control rivals, had smaller oil companies buy stocks in Standard Oil (1870), causing them to care for the companies welfare (large-scale business combination); competitors left out of this were blocked out of market
J. Pierpont Morgan and interlocking directorates
A banker who quickly moved in to take control of the bankrupt railroads and consolidate them after the 1870s and 1890s depression; to consolidate them, he placed officers of his own banking syndicate on their various boards of directors; bought out Carnegie for 400 million (Carnegie donated to charity after); with Morgan’s new holdings, he made the United States Steel Corporation in 1901 (first US billionaire company)
Kelly-Bessemer Process
A method of making cheap steel, using the process of blowing cold air on red-hot iron caused the metal to become white-hot (and eliminates impurities). Ultimately made the present steel civilization possible
Drake Folly
1859 in pennsylvania where the first oil well drilled and it pour out its "black gold"; from it, kerosene, from petroleum, was produced and burned brighter; by 1879, it was America’s most valuable export; kerosene render obsolete by Edison’s lightbulbs; oil business boomed with 1900 automobiles
Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner
Mislabeled as Social Darwinists. Pioneers in the education of evolution/ survival of the fittest. Also advocates of laissez faire, or minimal government interaction. The second thought social classes owners each other nothing
Russel Conwell
He was a Revered and a staunch advocate of Social Darwinism. He helped the justification of the rich and the need to not help the poor in his "Acres of Diamonds" lecture.
Sherman Antitrust Act
an 1890 law that banned the formation of trusts and combinations (monopolies) in restraint of trade in the United States; was ineffective, due to many loopholes; used, unintentionally, to curb labor unions deemed to restrain trade; contrary to it, more trusts were formed in the 1890s under President McKinley than ever before (trusts finally ended in 1914)
James Buchanan Duke
Southern industrialist behind the American Tobacco Company (machine made cigarettes; absorbed competitors) and Southern Power Company who made great advances in the businesses of tobacco and hydroelectric power; Trinity University was re-named after him
Henry W. Grady
Editor of the Atlanta Constitution, preached about economically diversified South with industries and small farms, and absent of the influence of the pre-war planter elite in the political world; was stopped by the better rates in the North, caused free South to continue to function as a supplier; the “Pittsburg Plus” pricing system in the steel industry launched the Birmingham company while stunting the south through delivery tax
Hillbillies or lintheads
entire families of poor whites who often worked the new company cotton mill towns in the south; payed half the rate as their northern counterparts
Gibson Girl
The idealized American girl of the 1890s as pictured by a magazine image that showed that woman could make it big and did have buying power (athletic and independent), created by Charles Dana Gibson. Led to delayed marriage age and smaller families
Iron Clad Oaths / Yellow Dog Contracts:
after employers/companies "locked out" their workers, they forced them to sign these contracts which forbid them from joining labor unions; they could also put rebelling employees on a “black list”
National Labor Union
1866 - established by William Sylvis; lasted 6 years and gained 600,000 followers; wanted 8hr work days, banking reform, and an end to conviction labor; attempt to unite all laborers; blacks organized a colored version of this, which this did not work together; it fizzled out after the depression of the 1870s
Knights of Labor
labor union that sought to organize all workers and focused on broad social reforms after the National Labor Union; began in 1869 as a secret society; unlike the National Labor Union, which discriminated, it sought to include all workers into one big union (except for the Chinese - against which they participated in riots in Wyoming and Washington); "labor is the only creator of values and capital" - led by Terence V. Powderly and won a strike against Jay Gould’s Wabash Railroad in 1885
Haymarket Square Riot
A demonstration of striking laborers in Chicago in 1886 that turned violent with a bomb, killing a dozen people and injuring over a hundred. Policed rounded up 8 anarchists for conspiracy, 5 of which were sentenced to death
John Altgeld
Was the Democratic governor of the U.S. state of Illinois from; he improved workplace safety and child labor laws, pardoned three of the men convicted of the Haymarket Riot, and, for a time, resisted calls to break up the Pullman strike with force.
American Federation of Labor and Samuel Gompers and closed shop
1886; founded by _______; sought better wages, hrs, working conditions; skilled laborers, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialist and communist ideas, non-violent.; individual unskilled labors could not join; advocated closed shop (all-union labor) using the boycott and walkouts
Ohio Idea
idea that greenbacks should be exchanged for gold, in order to keep the interest rates low on poorer farmers; Democrats championed it
Horatio Seymour
A former governor of New York who ran for president (Democrat) against Republican Ulysses S. Grant in the election of 1868; supported the Ohio Idea
Jim Fisk and Jay Gould
Stock manipulators (brass and brains); manipulated Grant and the brother-in-law of President Grant; in 1869, plotted to corner the Gold Market by getting the treasury to stop selling gold, letting them profit from the heightened value; led to “Black Friday” - eventually forced the treasury to issue Gold, causing its price to plunge
Tweed Ring and Thomas Nast
A symbol of Gilded Age corruption, "Boss" Tweed and his deputies ran the New York City Democratic party in the 1860s and swindled $200 million from the city through bribery, graft, and vote-buying. Boss Tweed was eventually jailed in 1871 (Prosecuted by Samuel J. Tilden) for his crimes and died behind bars. A cartoonist repeatedly pilloried Tweet.
Credit Mobilier Scandal
Union Pacific Railroad insiders formed the Credit Mobilier construction company and then hired themselves at inflated prices to build the railroad line, earning high dividends. When it was found out in 1872 that government officials were paid stay quiet about the illicit business, some two congressmen and the VP were censured.
Whiskey Ring Scandal and William Belknap
Before they were caught, a group of mostly Republican politicians were able to siphon off millions of dollars in federal taxes on liquor; the scheme involved an extensive network of bribes involving tax collectors, storekeepers, and others
Grant pardoned a member of his own canine who participated in this; after more corruption involving Indian reservations came to light in 1876, Grant’s secretory of war resigned
Liberal Republican Party
Short-lived third party of 1872 that attempted to curb Grant administration corruption; spearheaded by New York Tribune’s Horace Greeley, whom democrats enforced and “ate crow” for; were defeated in the Election of 1872, but scared the Republicans enough into passing the general amnesty act
General Amnesty Act of 1872
allowed former Confederates, except those who held high rank, to hold public office; Congress also reduced high Civil War tariffs and made some reform in the Grant Admin
Panic of 1873
Economic depression during Grant's second term; Over-expansive, unregulated business during the post-Civil War years, the failure of American investment banking firms, and economic downturns in Europe all contributed to the panic; debtors, small farmers, and blacks were hit hard; Led to the retirement of greenbacks and a return to the gold standard (“contraction” policy) - worsened impact of depression, but Redemption Day returned greenbacks to full face value for gold trade in in 1879
Resumption Act of 1875
required the government to continue to withdraw greenbacks from circulation and to redeem all paper currency in gold at face value beginning in 1879; response to Panic of 1873
Gilded Age
A name for the late 3 decades of the 1800s, coined by Mark Twain to describe the tremendous increase in wealth caused by the industrial age and the ostentatious lifestyles it allowed the very rich. The great industrial success of the U.S. and the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy hid the many social problems of the time, including a high poverty rate, a high crime rate, and corruption in the government; saw a new height of voter turnout, and less 3rd party voting (ticket spitting)
Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)
a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army who had served in the American Civil War; supported the Republic party; posed problems for Cleveland by lobbying bills through congress and pension grabbing; many of their bills were vetoed by Cleveland
Patronage
One of the key inducements used by party machines; a job, promotion, or contract is one that is given for political reasons rather than for merit or competence alone.
Stalwarts and Roscoe Conkling
a faction of the republican party that favored patronage; led by the US senator from new york
Half-Breeds and James G. Blaine
faction of the republican party that opposed patronage and the spoils system; led by a congressman from Maine
Rutherford B. Hayes
largely unknown Republican candidate of the 1876 election from Ohio; ran against Tilden; the southern states of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida wee contested in the election due to how close it was; won because of the Compromise of 1877
Samuel J. Tilden
Hayes' opponent in the 1876 presidential race, he was the Democratic nominee who had gained fame for putting Boss Tweed behind bars. He collected 184 of the necessary 185 electoral votes.
Civil Rights Act of 1875
A law that required "full and equal" access to jury service and to transportation and public accommodations, irrespective of race; the Civil Rights Cases in 1883 declared that it was unconstitutional; last grasp of radical republicans
Jim Crow
Laws implemented after the U.S. Civil War to legally enforce segregation, particularly in the South, after the end of slavery. Developed in the 1890s.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Supreme Court case that legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal.” - referenced the equal protection caused of the 14th amendment, but black facilities, although equal in number, were far inferior
Great Strike of 1877
large number of railroad workers went on strike because of wage cuts (4 of the largest railroad companies cut wages by 10%); spread from the east to the west; after a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the rioting; the worst railroad violence was in Pittsburgh, with over 40 people killed by militia men; ultimately, the strike failed, showing weakness within labor unions
Guangdong Province
region in Southern China where the majority of Chinese immigrants to American emigrated from. They left for various reasons, including poverty, war (peasant rebellions, familial clashes over fertile land, and the Opium War aftermath), natural disasters, and the trans-Pacific connections with America established through the market economy of the region due to its numerous port cities; worked on railroads before 1880, and faced hard domestic jobs and discrimination
Denis Kearny
Irish immigrant who settled in San Francisco and fought for workers rights. He led strikes in protest of the growing number of imported Chinese workers who worked for less than the Americans (resented competition). Founded the Workingman's Party, which was later absorbed into the Granger movement. Terrorized the Chinese by cutting their hair or flat out killing them.
Chinese Exclusion Act
(1882) Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate. Tried to strip Chinese-Americans of their citizenship, but failed due to US v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898
US v. Wong Kim Ark
Supreme Court case in 1898 that attempted to strip the native-born Chinese-Americans from their American citizenship; Supreme Court ruled that by the Fourteenth Amendment, all persons born in the U.S. are guaranteed citizenship - populated “birthright citizenship” (based citizenship on parent nationality)
James Garfield
Ohio congressman and the republican candidate for the 1880 election; won by “waving the bloody shirt;” his running mate was stalwart Chester Arthur of New York
Charles J. Guiteau
Stalwart who assassinated President James A. Garfield to make civil service reform a reality. He shot Garfield because he believed that the Republican Party had not fulfilled its promise to give him a government job; Garfield’s death shocked politicians into ending the spoils system with Arthur as their tool
Chester A. Arthur
Appointed customs collector for the port of New York - corrupt and implemented a heavy spoils system. He was chosen as Garfield's running mate. Garfield won but was shot, so Arthur became the 21st president in 1881; turned away from the Stalwarts after his election and issued the Pendleton Act in 1883
Pendelton Act and the Civil Service Commission
A law enacted in 1883 that established a bipartisan civil service commission to make appointments to government jobs by means of the merit system. It also made compulsory campaign payments from federal employees illegal. As a result, corrupt politicians looked elsewhere to “marriages of convenience” with big business leaders
James G. Blaine and Mulligan Letters
a U.S. Representative, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time United States Secretary of State, and champion of the Half-Breeds. He was a dominant Republican leader of the post Civil War period, obtaining the 1884 Republican nomination, but lost to Democrat Grover Cleveland (due to his corrupt letters being released)
Mugwumps
Republican Party activists who had switched to the Democratic Party because they did not like the financial corruption that was associated with the Republican candidate James G. Blaine; supported 1884 Democratic presidential nominee Grover Cleveland instead; pushed for civil service reform
Benjamin Harrison
grandson of President William Henry Harrison; former Indiana senator; 23rd President in 1888; won due to Cleveland lowering protective tariffs, rallying up republicans; Republican, poor leader, introduced the McKinley Tariff and increased federal spending to a billion dollars
Thomas B. Reed
(1839-1902) The Republican congressman from Maine who became Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1889 and then led the Billion-Dollar Congress (McKinley Tariff Act) like a "czar," making sure that his agenda dictated the business of the legislature.
McKinley Tariff of 1890
In 1890, this tariff raised the tax on foreign products to a peacetime high of 48 percent; shepherded through Congress by Republican William McKinley; rose prices of manufactured goods and lost support of rural voters (lost many republican seats in 1890 midterms); launched the success of the Farmers’ Alliance (south and west)
Louis Sullivan
A leading architect of skyscrapers in the late nineteenth century, stressed the need for building designs that followed function. His works combined beauty, modest cost, and efficient use of space.
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie
1900 Novel exposing problem of urban life: plight of single women (Carrie Meeber) who had no support. She escapes from rural boredom to Chicago. Although city had strong allure and excitement, it was also a place of alienating impersonality and some degration/exploitation.
Dumbbell Tenements
Cheap housing units created when cities became packed with people during the industrial revolution; seven/eight stories with poor ventilation, no sun, and extremely cramped corridors; New York’s “Lung Block” is an example of this type of slum; they were often similar to “Flophouses”
bedroom communities
a residential suburb inhabited largely by people who commute to a nearby city for work; after risky events like the 1871 Chicago fire, the rich began to move to these
New Immigrants
immigrants who had come to the US after the 1880s from southern and eastern europe (Italians, Jews, Croats, Slovaks, Greeks, and Poles); came from countries with little history of democracy; totaled 19% of the immigrants in 1880s, but 66% in the first decade of the 2000s; flocked to New York and Chicago
Birds of Passage
Temporary migrants who came to the United States to work and save money then returned home to their native countries during slack season. Between 1820-1900, 25% of the 20 million immigrants were these.
political machines
Appealed to immigrants and urban poor due to lack of federal or state government help; provided jobs and services in exchange for support and votes; Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall; immigrants got food, housing, clothing, schools, parks, and hospitals; led to things like the Tweed Ring
Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall
an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State; gained the votes of immigrants in return for offering them perks and services
Walter Rauschenbusch
leading New York Protestant (German Baptist); took over a Congregational church in Ohio in 1882; advocate of the "social gospel" who tried to make Christianity relevant to urban and industrial problems - “Christian socialists” led to the later progressive movement
Jane Addams and Hull House (Settlement house)
Social reformer from Illinois who worked to improve the lives of the working class. In 1889 she founded the most prominent social welfare settlement house in the US, to assist the poor, combat juvenile delinquency and help immigrants learn to speak English; condemned war and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931; the house offering help learning English, child-care, and cultural activities; the houses became centers of women’s activism and reform
Lilian Wald‘s Henry Street Settlement
settlement like Addams’ Hull House; settlement house for immigrants built in New York and opened in 1893
Florence Kelley
reformer who worked to prohibit child labor and to improve conditions for female workers, blacks, and consumers; from the Hull House, she successfully lobbied for an anti-sweatshop law in Illinois in 1893 using aspects of socialism; moved the Henry Street Settlement in New York and became the secretary of the National Consumers League
American Protective Association (APA)
An organization created by nativists in 1887 that campaigned for laws to restrict immigration; urged voting against Roman Catholic Candidates and published lustful fantasies about nuns
Statue of Liberty
European immigrants saw this structure as a symbol of hope and freedom; had the words of Emma Lazarus; donated by France in 1886; nativists saw the immigrants as scum
Episcopal Church
“republican party at prayer” - owned New York slums; supported by J. Pierpont Morgan
Liberal Protestants
(1875-1925) Those who believed that religion had to be adapted to science and that the Bible was to be mined for its ethical values rather than its literal meaning (social gospel); rebelled against orthodox calvinism; reconciled Christianity with science and modernism
Dwight L. Moody
Popular evangelical urban revivalist preacher; preached “social gospel” and forgiveness/optimism; helped protestant Americans reconcile religion with the coming of modernism; part of the liberal protestantism movement
James Gibbons
An American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church devoted to American unity; popular with Catholics and Protestants; liberal and gave sympathy to the labor movement
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.
Church of Christ, Scientist and Mary Baker Eddy
founded in 1879 by ________, who preached that the true practice of Christianity heals sickness; wrote “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” - founded Christian Science movement
Young Men’s/Women’s Christian Associations
religious-affiliated organizations established in the united states before the Civil War; combined physical and other education with religious institution; known as the “Y”s - spread rapidly at the end of the 19th century
Louis Agassiz
a professor at Harvard College for 25 years who broke paths in biology; despite Darwin’s findings, this man still followed “special creation” theory
Chautauqua Movement
One of the first adult education programs. Started in 1874 as a summer training program for Sunday School teachers, it developed into a travelling lecture series and adult summer school which traversed the country providing religious and secular education though lectures and classes.
Booker T. Washington
Prominent black American, born into slavery, who believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society; was head of the Tuskegee (in Alabama) Institute in 1881. His book was "Up from Slavery" - had an “accommodationist” self-help approach to solving racial problems
Tuskegee Institute
Booker T. Washington built this school to educate black students on learning how to support themselves and prosper; George Washington Carver studied here, became a chemist, and boosted the Southern economy with uses for the peanut
W.E.B. DuBois
Opposed Booker T. Washington. Wanted social and political integration as well as higher education for 10% of African Americans-what he called a "Talented Tenth"; had a Harvard PhD; wanted complete equality for blacks; founder of the Niagara Movement which led to the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
Morill Act of 1862 (land grant colleges)
this act gave a generous grant of public land to states for education; "_____________" most of which became state universities, in turn bound themselves to provide certain services such as military training.
Hatch Act of 1887
extended the Morrill Act and provided federal funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in connection with the land-grant colleges.
Johns Hopkins University
This university was founded in Baltimore in 1876, the first to specialize in advanced graduate studies; carried Germanic traditions of footnoted tomes; Woodrow Wilson received his PhD from here
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