APUSH - Chapter 23: Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age (1869-1896)

Unit 1 Review Test

Describe the political corruption of the Grant administration and the mostly unsuccessful efforts to reform politics in the Gilded Age.

• corruption scandals were common

• Grant administration was plagued with graft and abuse

  • even Grant’s electon was questionable — Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia votes were not counted

• Credit Mobilier scandal

  • largest scandal of the time

  • implicating VP — Schuyler Colfax

  • Union Pacific Railroad officials formed the Credit Mobilier construction company and hired themselves at inflated prices to build the new railroad

  • collected astronomical dividends, as high as 348%

  • paid off key congressmen with stock

• Whiskey Ring

  • robbed the Treasury of millions in excise tax revenues

• Grants’ private secretary was also guilt

  • President Grant had declared "let no guilty man escape

  • Grant went against his word and wrote a letter to pardon him

  • Secretary of War William Belknap was forced to resign after taking bribes from suppliers to the Indian reservations

• Not only corrupt, but also faced difficulty in stabilizing the nation

• Panic of 1873

  • Lack of money circulation led to loans going unpaid and profits failing to materialize

  • failed to utilize his powers to reform the country during the age of Reconstruction

• 1870 — the Force Acts were passed, preventing the use of violence to prevent people from voting based on their race

  • did not assist blacks, white voters used other methods (literacy tests) to stop blacks from voting.

  • Similarly, most policies enacted during the Gilded Age only set back Reconstruction.

Describe the economic crisis of the 1870s, and explain the growing conflict between hard-money and soft-money advocates.

• Panic of 1873

  • initiated by the over-spending of borrowed money by large corporations as railroads and factories

  • economy had been over-expanding to a point in which the market could no longer sustain the growth

  • bankers had too many loans and when they were not being paid the economy began to crumble

  • led to the bankruptcy of more than 15,000 businesses

  • unemployed swamped the streets holding rallies and riots

• hardest hit community — the blacks.

  • With the Freedman's Savings and Trust Co. bankrupt, black Americans lost more than $7 million in savings

• Debtors wanted paper money (or greenbacks) to be printed in order to create inflation

  • it would be easier for them to pay their debts

  • called soft money, or cheap money

• wealthy bankers opposed their strategy and favored hard money

  • would keep the amount of money stable and backed by gold rather than just distributing paper money willy-nilly without any substance or backing

• Grant announced the Resumption Act, which favored the hard money strategy (lowered the amount of greenbacks in circulation)

  • As retaliation, debtors demanded that the government issue more silver coins

  • More silver coins meant more inflation and made it easier to pay off debt

  • The nation entered a period of contraction, decreasing the amount of money in circulation and raising the value of the dollar bill

Explain the intense political partisanship of the Gilded Age, despite the parties lack of ideological difference and poor quality of political leadership.

Two primary political parties — Republicans and Democrats

• Most of the parties agreed on similar ideologies, only differing in small reform movements.

• Republicans — relied strongly on good morals

  • supported by the North and West

• Democrats — support from the South, by Lutherans and Catholic

• In the 1870's the Republican Party split into the Stalwarts, led by Roscoe Conkling, and the Half-Breeds, led by James G. Blaine

• new parties were introduced to fend for the everyday citizen

  • Liberal Republicans — developed as a result of the corruption within the Grant administration

  • The Greenback Labor Party was started in 1878 with the purpose of supporting cheap money, or the backing of silver

  • The Populist Party also emerged from the Farmers Alliance. The party supported the idea of inflation through cheap money.

Indicate how the disputed Hayes-Tilden election of 1876 led to the Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction.

Due to the corruption of his administration, Grant was no longer considered for the election of 1876. Instead, the Republican party nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, governor of Ohio. Hayes running mate was Democrat nominee Samuel J. Tilden. What made the election so controversial was that the two nominees were in a deadlock for 185 votes needed to win. Both parties sent representatives to southern states of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. However, each state sent back two sets of returns, one democratic and one republican. The decision was then handed over to Congress where the deadlock would be broken by the electoral committee. As it would seem, members of the commission finalized a deal with both parties. Republican Hayes would be president while under the condition that he removed all federal troops from the south, South Carolina and Louisiana. Democrats were also assured a spot on the presidential patronage trough and support for a bill subsidizing the Texas and Pacific Railroad's construction of a southern transcontinental line. With the signing of the Compromise of 1877 and the removal of federal troops from the south Reconstruction was officially over. Republicans quickly abandoned racial equality in the south leaving freed black americans to fend for themselves.

Describe how the end of Reconstruction led to the loss of black rights and the imposition of the Jim Crow system of segregation in the South.

By passing the COmpromise of 1877 and removing federal troops from the south, white southerners reasserted their power over the freed blacks. Most blacks were forced to become sharecroppers. Where they farmed land that they didn't own and when harvest season came had to give most of their profit to the land owner. The fees were so high that the black workers would never get out of debt. Now "free" workers were working under the same conditions and the same families they had been slaves for before the Civil War. In order to further segregate the states enacted the Jim Crow laws. Southern states also performed literacy tests, registration laws, and poll taxes to prevent the black population from voting. The Supreme Court gave their approval to the segregation in 1896 during Plessy v. Ferguson. The Supreme Court declared "separate but equal." If one did not follow the laws placed before them they would be punished by the law or worse, the would be lynched by white civilians. The worst year was 1892, when a total of 230 people were lynched. Reconstruction ended before reconstruction could be completed because of that black americans would be tortured because of their race for years to come.

Explain the rise of class conflict between business and labor in the 1870s and the growing hostility to immigrants, especially the Chinese.

The Panic of 73' caused tension within the classes. in 1877, the four largest railroads got together and cut employee wages by 10%. In retaliation the workers went on strike. President Hayes was forced to call in federal troops to ease the unrest of the striking workers. Unfortunately the strike failed, exposing the weakness of the labor movement at the time. Ethnic clashes was also a problem. The largest was that of the Chinese and Irish. Clashes started when Chinese competed for low-paying jobs. In the minds of the Irish, the Chinese were stealing what is theirs. In 1880, 75,000 Asian newcomers were reported by California. The Chinese immigrants were mostly poor, uneducated, single males. They frequently got jobs building railroads. But after the railroads were built many left and returned back home to China. Many others stayed and struggled for odd jobs. Irishman Denis Kearney from San Francisco fired up his followers to abuse the Chinese. It was said that the "rice-eater" had no chance against the "beef-eater" in a life and death struggle for jobs. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act prohibited further immigration from China. The act would finally be lifted in 1943. Many attempted to strip Chinese Americans of their citizenship. The Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark that the 14th amendment guaranteed citizenship to all persons born in the United States.

Explain the economic crisis and depression of the 1890s, and indicate how the Cleveland administration failed to address it.

Grover Cleveland was the first Democratic President since President Buchanan. He strongly believed in the concept of laissez-faire, the idea that the government should not get involved within the economy or businesses. Cleveland was able to please the South by placing two former Confederates on his cabinet. He was known through his term for vetoing bills passed by Congress. Under his administration, Cleveland had a budget surplus, thus arose the name "Million Dollar Congress." Cleveland decided to lower taxes in order to get rid of the surplus via the McKinley Tariff. However the Tariff angered farmers because the act forced them to buy manufactured foods from high-price protected American factories and also made them sell their own agricultural products to an unprotected and high-priced market. Disturbed farmers form the Populist Party, or the People's Party. The Populists demanded inflation through "cheap money." They believed inflation would make it easier to pay off their debts which was their main goal. They also called for graduated income tax, government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephones. As well as the direct election of U.S. senators and a one term limit on the presidency. Cleveland was unable to cope with the economic crisis in which the nation was struggling.

Show how the farm crisis of the depression of the 1890s stirred growing social protests and class conflicts, and fueled the rise of the radical Populist Party.

Grover Cleveland is the only president to be reelected after defeat. His second presidency began with a boom. The first recession of the industrial age began titled the Depression of 1893. It was the most punishing economic failure in the 19th century. Over 8,000 businesses filed bankruptcy in only 6 months. Now, Cleveland had a money deficit, rather than a surplus he had had his first presidency! The gold supply was reaching an increasing low. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1890 required the government to buy silver and print paper money to pay for it. People would then turn in the paper money in exchange for gold. At one point, their was less than $100 million in gold supply. Eventually the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed, by much argument by the foremost spokesman for "cheap money", William Jennings Bryan. The decision to repeal the act deeply angered the Populist party who supported it for its ease in paying off their debts. Cleveland turned to J.P. Morgan for assistance. In return J.P. Morgan agreed to lend the U.S. $65 million in gold. The bankers would profit $7 million. The deal only hurt Cleveland's reputation as his actions were viewed as "sneaky" by others.

Define coalition.

A temporary alliance of political factions or parties for some specific purpose. “The Republicans, now freed from the Union party coalition of war days, enthusiastically nominated Grant…”

Define corner (in the market)

To gain exclusive control of a commodity in order to fix its price. “The crafty pair concocted a plot in 1869 to corner the gold market.”

Define censure.

An official statement of condemnation passed by a legislative body against one of its members or some other official of the government. While severe, a censure itself stops short of penalties or expulsion, which is removal from office. “A newspaper expose and congressional investigation led to formal censure of two congressmen…”

Define amnesty.

A general pardon for offenses or crimes against a government. “The Republican Congress in 1872 passed a general amnesty act…”

Define civil service

Referring to regular employment by the government according to a standardized system of job descriptions, merit qualifications, pay, and promotion, as distinct from political appointees who receive positions based on affiliation and party loyalty. “Congress also moved to reduce high Civil War tariffs and to fumigate the Grant administration with mild civil service reform. “

Define unsecured loans.

Money loaned without identification of collateral (existing assets) to be forfeited in case the borrower defaults on the loan. “The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company had made unsecured loans to several companies that went under.”

Define contraction

In finaance, reducing the available supply of money, thus tending to raise interest rates and lower prices. ““Coupled with the reduction of greenbacks, this policy was called ‘contraction’”

Define deflation(ary)

An increase in the value of money in relation to available goods, causing prices to fall.

Define inflation

a decrease in the value of money in relation to goods, causes prices to rise. “It had a noticeable deflationary effect — the amount of money per capita in circulation actually decreased…”

Define faternal organization.

A society of men drawn together for social purposes and sometimes to pursue other common goals. “… the Grand Army of the Republic [was] a politically potent fraternal organization of several hundred thousand Union veterans of the Civil War.”

Define consensus.

Common or unanimous opinion. “How can this apparent paradox of political consensus and partisan fervor be explained?”

Define kickback

The return of a portion of the money received in a sale or contract, often secretly or illegally, in exchange for favors. “The lifeblood of both parties was patronage — disbursing jobs by the bucketful in return for votes, kickbacks, and party service.”

Define lien

A legal claim by a lender or another party on a borrower’s property as a guarantee against repayment, and prohibiting any sale of the property “…storekeepers extended credit to small farmers for food and supplies and in return took a lien on their harvest.”

Define assassination

Politically motivated murder of a public figure. “… he asked all those who had benefited politically by the assassination to contribute to his defense fund.”

Define laissez-faire

The doctrine of noninterference, especially by the government, in matters of economics or business (literally, “leave alone”). “[The new president was] a staunch apostle of the hands-off creed of laissez-faire…”

Define pork barrel

In American politics, government appropriations for political purposes, especially projects designed to please a legislator’s local constituency. “One [way to reduce the surplus] was to squander it on pensions and ‘pork-barrel’ bills…”

T or F: Ulysses Grant’s status as a military hero enabled him to become a successful president who stood above partisan politics.

False; his military career meant he had no political experience + his administration was full of corruption

T or F: The scandals of the Grant administration included bribes and corrupt dealings reaching to the cabinet and the VP of the US

True

T or F: The Liberal Republican movement’s political skill enabled it to clean up the corruption of the Grant administration.

False; The Liberal Republicans lost in a close election due to their political mistakes, scaring the regular Republicans to clean up their own act. The Republicans passed the Amnesty Act, removing political disabilities from all (but some 500) Confederate leaders. Congress also moved to reduce high Civil War tariffs and to fumigate the Grant admin with mild civil-service reforms

T or F: The severe economic downturn of the 1870s caused business failures, labor conflict, and battles over currency.

True (Panic of 1873)

T or F: The close, fiercely contested elections of the Gilded Age reflected the deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats over national issues

False; Parties disagreed over ethnic/cultural differences, not national issues.

Republicans

• Puritanism

• strict codes of personal morality

• believed that gov should play a role in regulating both the economic and moral affairs of society

Democrats

• immigrant Lutherans and Roman Catholics

• adhere to faiths with a less stern view of human weakness

• toleration of differences in an imperfect world

• wanted the gov to impose a single moral standard

T or F: The battles between the Stalwart and Half-Breed Republican factions were mainly over who would get patronage and spoils.

True; patronage (disbursing jobs/kickbacks/party service in return for votes)

• resulted in a lot of infighting

T or F: The disputed Hayes-Tilden election was settled by a political deal in which Democrats got the presidency and Republicans got economic and political concessions.

True ****I’m not too sure about this one…

Compromise of 1877:

1. For the North—Hayes would become president if he agreed to remove troops from the remaining two Southern states where Union troops remained (Louisiana and South

   Carolina), and also, a bill would subsidize the Texas and Pacific rail lines.

2. For the South—military rule and Reconstruction ended when the military pulled out of the

   South.

T or F: The Compromise of 1877 purchased political peace between North and South by sacrificing southern blacks and removing federal troops in the South.

True; The Compromise of 1877 abandoned the Blacks in the South by withdrawing troops, and their last attempt at protection of Black rights was the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which was mostly declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the 1883 Civil Rights cases.

T or F: The sharecropping and tenant farming systems forced many Southern blacks into permanent economic debt and dependency.

True; “crop-lien” system — storekeepers extended credit to small farmers for food and supplies and in return took a lien on their harvests

• merchants manipulated the system so that farmers remained perpetually in debt to them

T or F: Western hostility to Chinese immigrants arose in part because the Chinese provided a source of cheap labor that competed with white workers.

True;

Ex. Kearnyites

• led by Denis Kearny

• these European immigrants resented the competition of cheap labor from the still more recently arrived Chinese

• the Kearnyites terrorized the Chinese with violence

T or F: By reducing politicians’ use of patronage, the new civil-service system inadvertently made them more dependent on big campaign contributors

True; turned to the “bosses”

T or F: The Cleveland-Blaine campaign of 1884 was conducted primarily as a debate about the issues of taxes and the tariff.

False; it was a mudslinging fiasco.

Blaine

• “Mulligan letters” to Boston businessman, linking him to a corrupt deal involving federal favors to a Southern railroad

Cleveland

• very honest

• had an affair + an illegimate son

• Chose to tell the truth instead of hiding it

T or F: The Republican party, in the post-Civil War era, relied heavily on the political support of veterans’ groups, to which it gave substantial pension benefits in return

True

• Military pensions plagued Cleveland; these bills were given to Civil War veterans to help them, but they were used fraudulently to give money to all sorts of people.

• However, Cleveland showed that he was ready to take on the corrupt distributors of military pensions when he vetoed a bill that would add several hundred thousand new people on the pension list.

T or F: The Populist party’s attempt to form a coalition of farmers and workers failed partly because of the racial division between poor whites and blacks in the South.

True

T or F: President Cleveland’s deal to save the gold standard by borrowing $65 million from J.P. Morgan enhanced his popularity among both Democrats and Populists.

False; did borrow $65 million from Morgan, but did not enhance his popularity

• ppl thought he was selling out the national gov

Financiers Jim Fisk and Jay Gould involved the Grant administration in a corrupt scheme to…

a. skim funds from the Bureau of Indian Affairs

b. sell watered railroad stock at artificially high prices

c. corner the gold market

d. bribe congressmen in exchange for federal land grants

e. provide federal subsidies for bankrupt Wall Street stockbrockers

C) Corner the Gold Market

• In 1869, the pair concocted a plot to corner the gold market that would only work if the treasury stopped selling gold, so they worked on President Grant directly and through his brother-in-law, but their plan failed when the treasury sold gold.

Boss Tweed's widespread corruption was finally brought to a halt by

а. federal prosecutors who uncovered the theft.

b. outraged citizens who rebelled against the waste of public money.

c. the journalistic exposés of the New York Times and cartoonist Thomas Nast.

d. Tweed's political opponents in New York City.

e. bank officials who disclosed Tweed's illegal financial maneuvers.

C) the journalistic exposés of the New York Times and cartoonist Thomas Nast.

The infamous Tweed Ring (AKA, “Tammany Hall) of NYC, headed by “Boss” Tweed, employed bribery, graft, and fake elections to cheat the city of as much as $200 million.

• Tweed was finally caught when The New York Times secured evidence of his misdeeds, and Tweed, despite being defended by future presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden, was convicted and imprisoned.

• Thomas Nast, political cartoonist, constantly drew against Tammany’s corruption.

The Credit Mobilier scandal involved

a.the abuse of federal loans intended for urban development.

b. railroad corporation fraud and the subsequent bribery of congressmen to cover it up.

с.Secretary of War Belknap's fraudulent sale of contracts to supply Indian reservations.

d. the attempt of insiders to gain control of New York's gold and stock markets

e.illegal gifts and loans to members of President Grant's White House staff.

B) railroad corporation fraud and the subsequent bribery of congressmen to cover it up

The Credit Mobilier, a railroad construction company that paid itself huge sums of money for small railroad construction

• A New York newspaper finally busted it, and two members of Congress were formally censured (the company had given some of its stock to the congressmen) and the Vice President himself was shown to have accepted 20 shares of stock.

Grant's greatest failing in the scandals that plagued his administration was his

a.refusal to turn over evidence to congressional investigators.

b. toleration of corruption and his loyalty to crooked friends.

c.acceptance of behind-the-scenes payments for performing his duties as president.

d. use of large amounts of dirty money in his political campaigns.

e.inability to distinguish innocent members of his staff from the guilty.

b. toleration of corruption and his loyalty to crooked friends.

• Grant’s private secretary

  • President Grant had declared "let no guilty man escape

  • Grant went against his word and wrote a letter to pardon him

The depression of the 1870s led to increasing demands for

a. a new federally controlled Bank of the United States.

b. federal programs to create jobs for the unemployed

c. restoration of sound money by backing all paper currency with gold

d. stronger regulation of the banking system.

e. inflation of the money supply by issuing more paper or silver currency.

E) inflation of the money supply by issuing more paper or silver currency.

• Before, the greenbacks that had been issued in the Civil War were being recalled, but now, during the panic, the “cheap-money” supporters wanted greenbacks to be printed en mass again, to create

  inflation

• However, supporters of “hard-money” (actual gold and silver) persuaded Grant to veto a bill that would print more paper money, and the Resumption Act of 1875 pledged the government to further

  withdraw greenbacks and made all further redemption of paper money in gold at face value, starting in 1879.

• Debtors now cried that silver was under-valued (another call for inflation), but Grant refused to coin

  more silver dollars, which had been stopped in 1873, and besides, new silver discoveries in the later

  1870s shot the price of silver way down.

  • Grant’s name remained fused to sound money, though not sound government.

  • As greenbacks regained their value, few greenback holders bothered to exchange their more

    convenient bills for gold when Redemption Day came in 1879.

The political system of the Gilded Age was generally characterized by

a. split-ticket voting, low voter tumout, and single-issue special-interest groups.

b. strong party loyalties. low voter turnout, and deep ideological differences.

c. third-party movements, high voter turnout and strong disagreement on foreign-policy issues.

d. strong party loyalties, high voter turnout, and few disagreements on national issues.

e. weak party loyalties. high voter turnout, and focus on personalities rather than parties.

D) strong party loyalties, high voter turnout, and few disagreements on national issues.

• saw nearly eye-to-eye on questions like the tariff and civil-service reform + currency question

• Nearly 80% of eligible voters cast their ballots

• droves of the party faithful tramped behind marching bands to the polling places

The primary goal for which all factions in both political parties contended during the Gilded Age was

a. racial justice.

b. a sound financial and banking system.

c. patronage.

d. a more assertive American foreign policy.

e. rapid expansion of the national railway system.

C) Patronage

• The lifeblood of both parties was patronage — disbursing jobs by the bucketful in return for votes, kickbacks, and party service

The key tradeoff featured in the Compromise of 1877 was that

a. Republicans got the presidency in exchange for the final removal of federal troops from the South.

b. Democrats got the presidency in exchange for federal guarantees of black civil rights.

c.Republicans got the presidency in exchange for Democratic control of the cabinet.

d.Democrats got the presidency in exchange for increased immigration quotas from Ireland.

e. Republicans got the presidency in exchange for permitting former Confederate officers to vote.

A) Republicans got the presidency in exchange for the final removal of federal troops from the South.

• For the North—Hayes would become president if he agreed to remove troops from the remaining two Southern states where Union troops remained (Louisiana and South Carolina), and also, a bill would subsidize the Texas and Pacific rail line.

  2. For the South—military rule and Reconstruction ended when the military pulled out of the South.

9. Which of the following was not among the changes that affected African Americans in the South after federal troops were withdrawn in the Compromise of 1877?

a. The forced relocation of black farmers to the Kansas and Oklahoma dust bowl

b. The imposition of literacy requirements and poll taxes to prevent black voting

C. The development of the tenant farming and share-cropping systems

d. The introduction of legal systems of racial segregation

е. The rise of mob lynching as a means of suppressing blacks who challenged the racial system

A) The forced relocation of black farmers to the Kansas and Oklahoma dust bowl

The rest:

• B — literacy tests + grandfather clauses

• C — dependence + credit debt

• D — Jim Crow Laws + Plessy v. Ferguson (“separate but equal”)

• E — There’s a table on page 497 with the statistics

The Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson upholding "separate but equal" public facilities in effect legalized

a. southern blacks’ loss of voting rights.

b. the right of blacks to establish separate colleges admitting blacks only.

C. the program of separate black and white economic development endorsed by Booker T. Washington.

d. the rights to "equal protection of the law" guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

e. the system of unequal segregation between the races.

D) the rights to "equal protection of the law" guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

The great railroad strike of 1877 revealed the

a. growing strength of American labor unions.

b. refusal of the U.S. federal government to intervene in private labor disputes.

c. ability of American workers to cooperate across ethnic and racial lines.

d. growing threat of class warfare in response to the economic depression of the mid-1870s.

е. American economy's capacity to find alternatives to railroad transportation.

D) growing threat of class warfare in response to the economic depression of the mid-1870s.

• 4 big companies cut wages by 10%

• Hayes had to call in federal troops to quash the rebellion

• was a by-product of the long years of depression and deflation following the Panic of 1873

The final result of the widespread anti-Chinese agitation in the West was

a. a program to encourage Chinese students to enroll in American colleges and universities.

b. a congressional law to prohibit any further Chinese immigration

c. the stripping of citizenship even from native-born Chinese Americans.

d. legal segregation of all Chinese into Chinatown districts in San Francisco and elsewhere.

e.the forced emigration of all but a handful of Chinese back to China.

B) a congressional law to prohibit any further Chinese immigration

• The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, prohibited nearly all further immigration from China

  • doors stayed shut until 1943

President James Garfield was assassinated by a(n)

a. fanatically anti-Republican Confederate veteran.

b. mentally unstable disappointed office seeker.

c. anticapitalist immigrant anarchist.

d.corrupt gangster under federal criminal indictment.

е. bitter supporter of his defeated Democratic opponent, Winfield Scott Hancock.

b. mentally unstable disappointed office seeker.

• Charles J. Guiteau

• an early example of the insanity plea

• shocked politicians into reforming the shameful spoils system

In its first years, the Populist Party advocated, among other things

a. free silver, a graduated income tax, and government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephone

b. higher tariffs and federally sponsored unemployment insurance and pensions.

C. tighter restriction on black economic, social, and political rights.

d. a Homestead Act to permit farmers and unemployed workers to obtain free federal land in the West.

e. greater support for land grant colleges to enhance scientific agriculture.

A) free silver, a graduated income tax, and government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephone

• The Populist Party emerged in 1892 from disgruntled farmers.

  • Their main call was for inflation via free coinage of silver.

  • They called for a litany of items including: a graduated income tax, government regulation of railroads and telegraphs/telephones, direct elections of U.S. senators, a one term limit, initiative and referendum, a shorter workday, and immigration restriction.

Grover Cleveland stirred a furious storm of protest when, in response to the extreme financial crisis of the 1890s, he

a. lowered tariffs to permit an influx of cheaper foreign goods into the country.

b. signed a bill introducing a federal income tax that cut into workers' wages.

C. pushed the Federal Reserve Board into sharply raising interest rates.

d. borrowed $65 million dollars from J.P. Morgan and other bankers in order to save the monetary gold standard.

e. seized federal control of the railroad industry.

D) borrowed $65 million dollars from J.P. Morgan and other bankers in order to save the monetary gold standard.

• Ppl thought he was “selling out”

• he stood by his actions though

ID: The symbol of the Republican political tactic of attacking Democrats with reminders of the Civil War

“Waving the bloody shirt”

ID: Corrupt construction company whose bribes and payoffs to congressmen and others created a major Grant administration scandal

Credit Mobilier

• The Credit Mobilier, a railroad construction company that paid itself huge sums of money for small

  railroad construction tarred Grant.

  • A New York newspaper finally busted it, and two members of Congress were formally censured (the company had given some of its stock to the congressmen) and the Vice President himself was shown to have accepted 20 shares of stock.

ID: Short-lived third party of 1872 that attempted to curb Grant administration corruption

Liberal Republicans

ID: Precious metal that soft-money advocates demanded be coined again to compensate for the Crime of '73

Silver

ID: Soft-money third party that polled over a million votes and elected fourteen congressmen in 1878 by advocating inflation

Greenback Labor Partu

ID: Mark Twain's sarcastic name for the post-Civil War era, which emphasized its atmosphere of greed and corruption

Gilded Age

ID: Civil War Union veterans' organization that became a potent political bulwark of the Republican party in the late nineteenth century

G.A.R. — Grand Army of the Republicans

ID: Republican party faction led by Senator Roscoe Conkling that opposed all attempts at civil-service reform

Stalwarts

ID: Republican party faction led by Senator James G. Blaine that paid lip service to government reform while still battling for patronage and spoils

Half-Breeds

ID: The complex political agreement between Republicans and Democrats that resolved the bitterly disputed election of 1876

Compromise of 1877

ID: Asian immigrant group that experienced discrimination on the West Coast

Chinese

ID: System of choosing federal employees on the basis of merit rather than patronage introduced by the Pendleton Act of 1883

civil-service system

• The Pendleton Act of 1883, the so-called Magna Charta of civil-service reform (awarding of government jobs based on ability, not just because a buddy awarded the job), prohibited financial assessments on jobholders, including lowly scrubwomen, and established a merit system of making appointments to office on the basis of aptitude rather than “pull.”

  • It also set up a Civil Service Commission, charged with administering open competitive service, and offices not “classified” by the president remained the fought-over footballs of politics.

ID: Sky-high Republican tariff of 1890 that caused widespread anger among farmers in the Midwest and the South

McKinley Tariff Act

• was worst for farmers

• had no choice but to buy manufactured goods from high-priced protected American industrialists

• compelled to sell their own goods into highly competitive, unprotected world markets

ID: Insurgent political party that gained widespread support among farmers in the 1890s

Populist Party

• The Populist Party emerged in 1892 from disgruntled farmers.

  • Their main call was for inflation via free coinage of silver.

  • They called for a litany of items including: a graduated income tax, government regulation of railroads and telegraphs/telephones, direct elections of U.S. senators, a one term limit, initiative and referendum, a shorter workday, and immigration restriction.

ID: Notorious clause in southern voting laws that exempted from literacy tests and poll taxes anyone whose ancestors had voted in 1860, thereby excluding blacks

Grandfather Clause

• meant freed slaves had to go through literacy tests — was difficult for them to get the vote

Who? — Heavyweight New York political boss whose widespread fraud landed him in jail in 1871

Boss Tweed

• The Tweed Ring or “Tammany Hall” was group of people in New York City who worked with and for "Boss" Tweed. He was a crooked politician and money-maker. The ring supported all of his deeds. The New York Times finally found evidence to jail Tweed. Without Tweed, the ring did not last. These people, the "Bosses" of the political machines, were very common in America for that time

Who? — Bold and unprincipled financier whose plot to corner the U.S. gold market nearly succeeded in 1869

Jim Fisk and Jay Gould

• In 1869, the pair concocted a plot to corner the gold market that would only work if the treasury stopped selling gold, so they worked on President Grant directly and through his brother-in-law, but their plan failed when the treasury sold gold.

Who? — Winner of the contested 1876 election who presided over the end of Reconstruction and a sharp economic downturn

Hayes

• Rutherford B. Hayes was a Republican governor from Ohio. He had spent the majority of his term as governor reforming the government and politics within Ohio. He was elected president in 1876 by the Compromise of 1877. Hayes was known as the "caretaker" president because he took care of the country.

Who? — Great military leader whose presidency foundered in corruption and political ineptitude

Grant

• Being a virgin to politics, he became the first president elected to office after the Civil War. He was previously a Union General who defeated General Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, thus ending the Civil War. During Grant’s presidency, several scams occurred, although Grant was never proven to be involved with any of them. Also, the Panic of 1873 (due to over-speculation) came about during his reign. He served out two consecutive terms and was not re-nominated to run for a third.

Term for the racial segregation laws imposed in the 1890s

Jim Crow Laws

Who? — Eloquent young Congressman from Nebraska who became the most prominent advocate of free silver in the early 1890s

William Jennings Bryan

• 33 year-old William Jennings Bryan was advocating “free silver,” and gaining support for his beliefs, but an angry Cleveland used his executive power to break the filibuster in the Senate—thus alienating the silver-supporting Democrats.

Who? — President whose assassination after only a few months in office spurred the passage of a civil-service law

James A. Garfield

• Arthur, his VP, took over

Who? — Irish-born leader of the anti-Chinese movement in California

Denis Kearny; Kearnyites

• led by Denis Kearny

• these European immigrants resented the competition of cheap labor from the still more recently arrived Chinese

• the Kearnyites terrorized the Chinese with violence

Who? — Radical Populist leader whose early success turned sour and who then became a vicious racist

Tom Watson

Who? — New York prosecutor of Boss Tweed who later lost in the disputed presidential election of 1876

Samuel Tilden

• Tilden was a New York lawyer who rose to fame by bagging Boss Tweed, a notorious New York political boss. Tilden was nominated for president in 1876 by the Democratic party because of his clean-up image. This election was so close that it led to the Compromise of 1877. Even though Tilden had more popular votes, the compromise gave the presidency to the Republicans and allowed the Democrats to stop Reconstruction in the South.

Who? — Imperious New York senator and leader of the Stalwart faction of Republicans

Roscoe Conkling

• Conkling was the leader of a group for Republicans called the Stalwarts. These people loved the spoils system and supported it wherever it was threatened. They were opposed by the Half-Breeds, led by James G. Blaine. Conkling, a senator from New York, and Blaine's infighting caused the nomination of the politically neutral Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876.

Who? — First Democratic president since the Civil War; defender of laissez-faire economics and low tariffs

Cleveland

• Cleveland was the Democratic presidential candidate for the 1884 election. His Republican opponent, James G. Blaine, was involved in several questionable deals, but Cleveland had an illegitimate child. Consequently, the election turned into a mudslinging contest. Cleveland won, becoming the first Democratic president since Buchanan. He took few initiatives, but he was effective in dealing with excessive military pensions. He placated both North and South by appointing some former Confederates to office, but sticking mostly with Northerners. Cleveland also forced Congress to discuss lowering the tariff, although the issue could not be resolved before he was defeated by Benjamin Harrison in the 1888 election.

Who? — Enormously wealthy banker whose secret bailout of the federal government in 1895 aroused fierce public anger

JP Morgan

Who? — Colorful, eccentric newspaper editor who carried the Liberal Republican and Democratic banners against Grant in 1872

Greeley

• In 1872, the Republicans re-nominated Grant causing some of the "reform-minded" Republicans to leave their party and create the Liberal Republican Party. They nominated Greely, editor of the New York Tribune. The Democrats also nominated him. There was much mudslinging involved in this election and Greely lost, in more ways than one. Along with the loss of the presidency, Greely lost his job, his wife, and his mind within one month of the election.

Who? — Charming but corrupt Half-Breed Republican senator and presidential nominee in 1884

James Blaine

• Blaine was the champion of the Half-Breeds, a political machine of the Republican party. A congressman from Maine, he was very good with the people and was candidate for president in 1884. However, other Republicans, like the Mugwumps, wouldn't support him. They considered him a political villain. He became Secretary of State during Garfield's administration and tried to persuade Garfield towards the Half-Breed political machine.

Putting In Order:

__ A bitterly disputed presidential election is resolved by a complex political deal that ends Reconstruction in the South

__ Two unscrupulous financiers use corrupt means to manipulate New York gold markets and the U.S. Treasury.

__ A major economic depression caused widespread social unrest and the rise of the Populist Party as a vehicle of protest.

__ Grant administration scandals split the Republican party, but Grant overcame the inept opposition to win reelection.

__ Monetary deflation and the high McKinley Tariff led to growing agitation for free silver by Congressman William Jennings Bryan and others.

4

1

3

2

5

Cause: Favor-seeking businesspeople and corrupt politicians

Effect: Caused numerous scandals during President Grant’s administration

Cause: The New York Times and cartoonist Thomas Nast

Effect: Forced Boss Tweed out of power and into jail

Cause: Upright Republicans' disgust with Grant administration scandals

Effect: Led to the formation of the Liberal Republican Party

Cause: The economic crash of the mid-1870s

Effect: Caused unemployment, railroad strikes, and a demand for cheap money

Cause: Local cultural, moral, and religious differences

Effect: Created fierce partisan competition and high voter turnouts, even though the parties agreed on most national issues

Cause: The Compromise of 1877 that settled the disputed Hayes-Tilden election

Effect: Led to the withdrawal of troops from the South and the virtual end of federal efforts to protect black rights there

Cause: White workers' resentment of Chinese labor competition

Effect: Caused anti-Chinese violence and restrictions against Chinese immigration

Cause: Public shock at Garfield's assassination by Guiteau

Effect: Helped ensure the passage of the Pendleton Act

Cause: The 1890s depression and the drain of gold from the federal treasury

Effect: Induced Cleveland to negotiate a secret loan from JP Morgan’s banking syndicate

Cause: The inability of Populist leaders to overcome divisions between white and black farmers

Effect: Led to failure of the third-party revolt in the SOuth and a growing racial backlash

Maps — Hayes-Tilden Disputed Election of 1876: In the controversial Hayes-Tilden election of 1876, how many undisputed electoral votes did Republican Hayes win in the former Confederate states?

0

Maps — Hayes-Tilden Disputed Election of 1876: Democrat Tilden carried four states in the North- states that did not have slavery before 1865. Which were they?

New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana

Maps — Growth of Classified Civil Service: The percentage of offices classified under civil service was approximately how many times greater under President McKinley than under President Arthur: two, three, four, five, or ten?

Four times

• Arthur — 10%

• McKinley — 41%

Maps — Presidential Election of 1884: Which of the following states gained the most electoral votes between 1876 and 1884: New York, Indiana, Missouri, or Texas?

Bro, there’s no map for this wtf… I had to use Wikipedia lmao

New York — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_vote_changes_between_United_States_presidential_elections

Maps — Presidential Election of 1884: How many states that were carried by Republican Hayes in 1876 were carried by Democrat Cleveland in 1884?