Ulysses S. Grant
Scandals during this President's administration include Crédit Mobilier, the Whiskey Ring, Gould's attempt to corner the gold market, and Trader Post Scandal.
James Garfield
Half-breed Republican President who was assassinated for refusing to give away government jobs
Chester Arthur
Stalwart Republican President who sympathized with reform, helping to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Act
Grover Cleveland
Democrat President who doubled the number of federal jobs requiring exams and was elected to non-consecutive terms
Benjamin Harrison
Stalwart Republican President who filled almost every non-exam job with Republican supporters
William McKinley
Republican President who promised to uphold the gold standard during the 1896 campaign and was backed by wealthy industrialists
Sherman Antitrust Act
Law created to limit the power of monopolies in restraint of competition; allowed federal troops to intervene against Pullman strikers in 1894 who blocked mail cars
Stalwarts
Republicans who strongly defended the spoils and patronage system
Half-breeds
Republicans who favored civil service reform
Tammany Hall
The Democratic Party political machine of 1800s in New York City that used graft, bribery, and rigged elections to rob the city of over $200 million in tax money.
William "Boss" Tweed
Political boss who was an early leader of Tammany Hall
Populist party
Farmers, reformers and labor leaders formed this political party in the elections of 1892 and 1896
Whiskey Ring
During the Grant administration, a group of officials were importing whiskey and using their offices to avoid paying the taxes on it, cheating the treasury out of millions of dollars.
Crédit Mobilier
Fraudulent construction company created to take the profits of the Union Pacific Railroad using government funds and gave padded construction contracts to Congress members
National Grange
Organization founded by Oliver H. Kelley that helped improve the lives of isolated farmers
Farmers' Alliance
network of farmers' organizations that worked for political and economic reforms in the late 1800s
Interstate Commerce Act
1887 law passed to regulate railroad and other interstate businesses
Granger laws
State laws enacted in the Midwest in the 1870s that regulated rates charged by railroads
Pendleton Civil Service Act
Federal law that created civil service commission so that hiring and promotion would be based on exam scores rather than patronage, but covered only 10% of federal jobs
Greenbacks
Paper money not backed by gold or silver
Cooperatives
Organizations in which groups of farmers pool their resources to buy and sell goods
Gold standard
Monetary system in which paper money and coins are equal to the value of a certain amount of gold
Bland-Allison Act
1878 law requiring the federal government to purchase and coin more silver
Bimetallism
The use of both gold and silver as a basis for a national monetary system
Kickbacks
When someone "charges" the city for a service but actually overcharges and gives what they overcharged to the political machine
Spoils system
Employment based on rewarding party loyalists and friends
Patronage
Granting favors or making appointments to office in return for political support
Embezzlement
Stealing money or property that has been entrusted to your care
Graft
Illegal use of political influence for personal gain
Nepotism
Favoritism or jobs given to relatives by those in power
Cronyism
The appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications
Trader Post Scandal
Secretary of War William Belknap pocketed bribes from suppliers to the Indian Reservations
Jim Crow laws
Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites
Segregation
Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences
Lynching
Putting to death a person by the illegal action of a mob
Atlanta Compromise
Argument that African-Americans should not focus on civil rights or social equality but concentrate on economic self-improvement
W.E.B. DuBois
Rejected the Atlanta Compromise and called for immediate civil and voting rights and equal education for African Americans
Booker T. Washington
Founder of the Tuskegee Institute that created the Atlanta Compromise
Gospel of Wealth
Book written by Andrew Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists
Social Gospel
Protestant movement which preached charity and social responsibility as a means of salvation
Jane Addams
Founder of Hull House and winner of the Nobel Prize for her social work
Settlement houses
Community centers located in the slums and near tenements that gave aid to the poor, especially immigrants
Mark Twain
Realist author and humorist best known for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Jack London
Naturalist author best known for his novels "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang"
Ellis Island
Immigration processing center that open in New York Harbor in 1892
Angel Island
A receiving station on the west coast, active after 1910, and allowed immigrants from Asia to enter the US
Paper sons
Chinese men who entered the country by falsely claiming to be sons of Chinese American citizens
Chinese Exclusion Act
Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate
Steerage
A large open area beneath a ship's deck, often used to house traveling immigrants
Trachoma
Chronic, contagious form of conjunctivitis that typically leads to blindness
William Jennings Bryan
During the 1896 campaign, he promised "Bimetallism" and gave the "Cross of Gold" speech denouncing the Gold Standard
Exodusters
African Americans who moved from the Jim Crow South to Kansas
Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court case that ruled Jim Crow laws were constitutional as long as facilities for whites and African Americans were "separate but equal"
Poll tax
A requirement to be pay before voting
Literacy test
A test given to persons to prove they can read and write before being allowed to register to vote
Grandfather clause
A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.
Mary Church Terrell
Formed the Women Wage Earner's Association and led a boycott against department stores in Washington, D.C. that refused to serve African Americans
Ida B. Wells
African-American journalist who led the fight against lynching by publishing books and articles