APUSH Unit 1: Important people, events, laws, etc.

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Election of 1868

• Ulysses S. Grant vs Horatio Seymour

• "Waving the bloody shirt"

• Grant won (very popular)

Ulysses S. Grant

• Successful general in the Civil War, which made him a popular political candidate.

• President from 1869-1877

• Unsuccessful politician (political greenhorn)

• Naive and terms were filled with scandals

"Waving the Bloody Shirt"

An expression used as a vote getting stratagem by the Republicans during the election of 1876 to offset charges of corruption by blaming the Civil War on the Democrats.

"Jubille JIm" Fisk and Jay Gould

• Millionaires who wanted to corner the gold market.

• Concocted a plan to do so by bribing politicians.

• Bought a large amount of gold to sell for a proft, which enabled them to control the price.

• (supply and demand, less supply available, more demand + higher prices they are able to sell it at)

Abel Rathbone Corbin

• Grant's brother in law and Fisk and Gould's friend.

• Convinced Grant not to sell gold.

City-Machines

• Political organizations designed to perpetuate a faction or party in office.

• Purpose: to win and retain office

• Faithful aides mobilized the vote and were rewarded with jobs.

• Did "charity work" but expected a vote in return.

Boss

Leader of a city-machine.

William "Boss" Tweed

• Led the Tweed Ring of Tammany Hill

• Milked the city of about $200 million.

Samuel Tilden

• Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency in the disputed election of 1876, the most controversial American election of the 19th century.

• Led the fight against the corruption of Tammany Hall

• Was the prosecutor of Boss Tweed.

Thomas Nast

Often drew Boss Tweed in political cartoons. Depiced him as fat (=greedy)

Credit Mobilier Scandal

• Scandal during Grant's presidency

• The Union Pacific Railroad was given federal funds to build the transcontinental railroad.

• Their rates were very high.

• All of the excess went to politicians and businessmen.

Whiskey RIng

• Scandal during Grant's presidency

• His cabinet members siphoned tax money from alcohol into their own bank accounts

• Distillers who didn't want to be the tax so they can keep the profits bribed politicians.

Election of 1872

• Liberal Republican Revolt

• Ulysses. S Grant (Republicans) vs. Horace Greeley (LIberal republican/Democrats)

• Republicans won, but the Lib Reps still forced them to "clean their own house".

General Amnesty Act

• Restored right of ex-Confederates to hold office after the passage of the 14th amendment

• Reduced high Civil War tariffs

• Effort to make country whole again

Panic of 1873

• Panic happened, obviously?

• A natural occurencce of laissez-faire economy.

• Hurts the labor movemet (like all panics)

• Brought the gold vs silver argument to prominence again.

• Gov't didn't have the rules and regulations to keep up with the progressing economy yet.

Gold vs. SIlver Debate

• Gold: supported by bankers & factory owners; effects=prices fall & less money in circulation.

• Silver: supported by farmers & workers; effects=prices rise & more money in circulation.

• Those who owed money wanted silver and those who were owed money wanted gold.

Patronage System

• How to pay for party government?

• Paid for by the government in job patronage.

• People sought federal employment, & worked hard for would-be candidates & and expected patronage in return.

Dumbed down --> How do I pay people to get people to vote for my party/me? I'll pay for the work they do for me with a job when I win.

Election of 1876

• Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) -- 165

• Samuel J. Tilden (Democrat) -- 184

• Needed 185 votes to win, three states were disputed.

Electoral Count Act - 1877

• Broke the election deadlock

• Set up an electoral commission consisting of 15 men selected from the Senate, House of Reps, and Supreme Court.

• Voted 8-7 (all along party lines obv), to accept the Republican returns from all three states.

• Made democrats vv angry, threatened to fillibuster "until hell froze over" so that the Act couldn't be passed for a long time.

Compromise of 1877

• Resolved 1876 Election and ended Reconstruction

• Hayes was given the presidency (Republican)

• (+ a little treat for the Dems <3) Removed federal troops from former Confederate states, Hayes put a southerner in his cabinet, helped fund the Southern part of the Transcontinental Line.

• Also resulted in the Republicans quietly abonding their commitment to racial equality. (they don't have the same control over the South anymore and, like the rest of the country, they're tired).

Civil Rights Act of 1875

• Granted equal access to public accomodations and banned racism in jury selection.

• Wasn't enforced, and was inneffective

• Last Civil Rights effort until ~1950s

Jim Crow South

• Democrats held tight onto their new power

• Blacks forced into sharecropping

• Crop Lien System

• Jim Crow Laws

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.

• Always trying to repay their debt with a bigger portion of crop than the previous year, because the landowner controls the prices in his store, making the farmer in debt.

• Simpler: Former-slaves can't exactly get jobs, houses, etc. They are indebted to former masters and they give them land to farm on. They don't anything so they borrow. They don't make enough crop to pay it back.

Crop Lien System

Storekeepers gave credit for food and supplies. In return took a lien on their harvests. Never-ending cycle of debt.

Jim Crow Laws

Systematic STATE-LEVEL codes of segregation. Bent federal laws so they didn't have to follow them (think lynching, [that's also like if you get in trouble for lynching the judge supports it so you're not getting in trouble])

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Ruled that separate but equal facilities were constitutional under the "equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment".

• In reality, everything was different, and any black person who tried to go against it was lynched.

Chinese Exclusion Act - 1882

Prohibited nearly all future Chinese immigration.

Election of 1880

• James A. Garfield (Republican) - 214

• Winfield Scott Hancock (Democrat) - 155

• VERY close popular vote

• In 1881, Garfield was assasinated

Charles Guiteau

• A mentally deranged office seeker (felt like he should have been given a patronage job) who assasinated James Garfield

• First to plead insanity in court

• Patronage is out of hand, assasination makes ppl realize this and start to fix it.

Pendleton Act

• Required all federal workers to pass a competitive exam & promotions are linked to merit.

• Campaigns can't force federal employees to donate to them anymore.

• Helped to reign in the most blatant abuses.

• Unintended consequence: Instead of money from people, they got money from big business.

Election of 1884

• Major mudslinging!

• James G. Blaine (Republican)

• Grover Cleveland (Democrat)

"Ma, Ma, where's my pa?" "Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!"

• Cleveland was the first Democrat to win in a hot minute.

Grover Cleveland

• 1885-1889

• Big believer of laissez-faire

• At first, supported reform movements.

• Replaced Republicans with "deserving Democrats"

• Pension bills were given to democrats that weren't exacctly deserving.

• When the Treasury had a surplus, instead of padding it more, he chose to lower tariffs.=Lower prices for consumers, less protection for monopolies, and ended the surplus.