Chapter 23 Key Terms (1869-1896) - The Gilded Age

Grant’s Presidency

• General Grant becomes president in 1868 and 1872

• He is unfit for the role, having little to do with Politics

• 500,000 Black votes helped him win

Waving the Bloody Shirt

• Slogan for Grant’s Campaign

• Reminder of the blood spilled by the Confederacy

Tweed Ring

• Crime Ring led by Boss Tweed

• Stole over $100 million from NYC

• Exposed by Thomas Nast in the NYT

Credit Mobilier

• Railroad Construction Company

• Formed by insiders who hired themselves to build the Transcontinental Railroad at high costs (and thus profit)

Panic of 1873

• Economic Recession

• Rapid capitalism and loans led to insolvent banks

• Many Americans became debtors

Hard & Soft Money

• Hard Money: Gold and Silver

• Soft Money: Greenbacks

• Hard Money people wanted less money in the system. Cheap Money people often debtors wanted more to pay off debts.

Resumption Act of 1875

• Established that the government would keep pulling Greenbacks out of the system

• Good for Hard Money people

• Forced debtors to invest in Hard Money

Crime of ‘73

• Coinage Act of 1873

• Demonetized silver after the government deemed them cheap

• Worsened the economy

Gilded Age

• 3 decade long period

• Ironic name as it was mostly negative:

  • Bad Factory Working Conditions

  • Racial Discrimination

  • Persecution of Native Americans

  • Spread of Corruption & Greed

Gilded Age Politics

• Voter turnout was at a peak of 80%

• The South remained Democratic up until 1950 (Solid Democratic South)

• Grand Army of the Republic provided hundred thousands of Union veterans in support of Republicans

• Both parties depended on Patronage to seek support

Jim Crow Laws

• Informal segregation after the Civil War that turned into laws

• The Supreme Court in 1896 under “Plessy v. Ferguson” declared “separate but equal” as legal