APUSH Chapter 23: The Gilded Age

"waving the bloody shirt"

This was a campaign tactic used by post-Civil War Republicans to remind northern voters that the Confederates were Democrats. The device was used to divert attention away from the competence of candidates and from serious issues. It was also used to appeal to black voters in the South.

Tweed Ring

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 for his crimes and died behind bars.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

1872 illegal manipulation of contracts by a construction and finance company associated with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Panic of 1873

Four year economic depression caused by overspeculation on railroads and western lands, and worsened by Grant's poor fiscal response (refusing to coin silver).

Gilded Age

A name for the late 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.

Patronage

Granting favors or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support.

Compromise of 1877

Ended Reconstruction. Republicans promise 1) Remove military from South, 2) Appoint Democrat to cabinet (David Key postmaster general), 3) Federal money for railroad construction and levees on Mississippi river.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Prohibited discrimination against blacks in public place, such as inns, amusement parks, and on public transportation. Declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops.

Jim Crow

Laws implemented after the U.S. Civil War to legally enforce segregation, particularly in the South, after the end of slavery.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal.

Chinese Exclusion Act

(1882) Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate.

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.

Homestead Strike

1892 steelworker strike near Pittsburgh against the Carnegie Steel Company. Ten workers were killed in a riot when "scab" labor was brought in to force an end to the strike.

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.

Jay Gould

United States financier who gained control of the Erie Canal and who caused a financial panic in 1869 when he attempted to corner the gold market (1836-1892)

Horace Greeley

An American newspaper editor and founder of the Republican party. His New York Tribune was America's most influential newspaper from 1840-1870. He used it to promote the Whig and Republican parties, as well as antislavery and a host of reforms.

Rutherford B. Hayes

The 19th president of the United States, was famous for being part of the Hayes-Tilden election in which electoral votes were contested in 4 states, the most corrupt election in US history.

James A. Garfield

The 20th President of the US; he died two months after being shot and six months after his inauguration.

Chester 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 — became the 21st president.

Grover Cleveland

The 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.

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 like a "czar," making sure that his agenda dictated the business of the legislature.

Tom Watson

Georgia's Best-Known Populist. He was the first native southern politician concerned about African American Farmers. Introduces Rural Free Delivery Bill. In 1905 he returned to the Democratic party and becomes a white-supremist

William Jennings Bryan

Democratic candidate for president in 1896 under the banner of "free silver coinage" which won him support of the Populist Party. United States lawyer and politician who advocated free silver and prosecuted John Scopes (1925) for teaching evolution in a Tennessee high school.

J. P. Morgan

A banker who took control and consolidated bankrupt railroads in the Panic of 1893. In 1900, he led a group in the purchase of Carnegie Steel, which became U.S. Steel.

“Turn the Rascals Out”

Reform-minded citizens banded together to form the Liberal Republican party. Voicing the slogan “—-," they urged purification of the Washington administration as well as an end to military Reconstruction.

U.S. vs. Wong Kim Ark

Supreme Court ruling which guaranteed citizenship to anyone born in the United States.