Chapter 25 Vocab

Mechanization of Agriculture

The development of engine-driven machines, like the combine, which helped to dramatically increase the productivity of land in the 1870s and 1880s. This process contributed to the consolidation of agricultural business that drove many family farms out of existence.

Populists

Officially known as the People’s party, they represented Westerners and Southerners who believed that U.S. economic policy inappropriately favored Eastern businessmen instead of the nation’s farmers. Their proposals included nationalization of the railroads, a graduated income tax, and, most significantly, the unlimited coinage of silver.

Homestead Strike

A strike at a Carnegie steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, that ended in an armed battle between the strikers, three hundred armed Pinkerton detectives hired by Carnegie, and federal troops, which killed ten people and wounded more than sixty. The strike was part of a nationwide wave of labor unrest in the summer of 1892 that helped the Populists gain some support from industrial workers.

Grandfather Clause

A regulation established in many Southern states in the 1890s that exempted from voting requirements (such as literacy tests and poll taxes) anyone who could prove that his ancestors (“grandfathers”) had been able to vote in 1860. Because slaves could not vote before the Civil War, these clauses guaranteed the right to vote to many white people while denying it to Black people.

Pullman Strike

A strike by railroad workers upset by drastic wage cuts. The strike was led by socialist Eugene Debs but not supported by the American Federation of Labor. Eventually President Grover Cleveland intervened, and federal troops forced an end to the strike. The strike highlighted both divisions within labor and the government’s new willingness to use armed force to combat work stoppages.

Fourth Party System

A term scholars have used to describe national politics from 1896 to 1932, when Republicans had a tight grip on the White House and issues such as industrial regulation and labor concerns became paramount, replacing older concerns such as civil-service reform and monetary policy.

Gold Standard Act

An act that guaranteed that paper currency would be redeemed freely in gold, putting an end to the already dying “free-silver” campaign.

Oliver H. Kelley

Founder of the Grange movement, which organized farmers to promote agricultural education and fight railroad monopolies and high freight rates.

Mary Elizabeth Lease

Populist Party speaker and reformer who urged farmers to resist economic exploitation and called for inflationary policies to help debtors.

James B. Weaver

Populist Party leader and presidential candidate who advocated for free silver, government control of railroads, and expanded democracy.

Eugene Victor Debs

Labor leader and socialist who led the Pullman Strike and later ran for president multiple times as a Socialist Party candidate.

Grover Cleveland

U.S. president known for supporting limited government, opposing inflationary free silver policies, and defending the gold standard.

Jacob S. Coxey

Populist reformer who led Coxey’s Army, a march of unemployed workers demanding federal public works programs during the Panic of 1893.

Tom Watson

Populist leader from Georgia who initially supported Black and white farmer cooperation but later embraced racism and nativism.

William McKinley

U.S. president who supported protective tariffs and the gold standard and led the nation during the Spanish-American War.

Marcus Alonzo Hanna

Businessman and political strategist who managed McKinley’s campaigns and strengthened ties between big business and Republican politics.