Chapter 23 American Pageant 16th edition

"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.

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

This scandal occurred in the 1870s when a railroad construction company's stockholders used funds that were supposed to be used to build the Union Pacific Railroad for railroad construction for their own personal use. To avoid being convicted, stockholders even used stock to bribe congressional members and the vice president.

Panic of 1873 (1873-1879)

A severe international economic depression triggered by overproduction of railroads, mines, factories and farm products.

Historical Significance:

Led to the Railroad Strike of 1877.

Gilded Age

1870s - 1890s; time period looked good on the outside, despite the corrupt politics & growing gap between the rich & poor

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

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

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)

Horance Greeley

abolitionist newspaper publisher

Rutherford B. Hayes

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, most corrupt election in US history

James A. Garfield (1881)

* 20th president of the U.S.

* Republican

* Key Issues: Civil service reform, Chinese immigration

* Assassinated by a man who was angry because he did not get a job in the government

* His assassination led to the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act

Chester A. 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 Arthur became the 21st president.

Grover Cleveland

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

Republican Speaker of the House in 1888, he gained a reputation for an iron grip over Congress and kept Democrats in line.

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

United States lawyer and politician who advocated free silver and prosecuted John Scopes (1925) for teaching evolution in a Tennessee high school (1860-1925)

J.P. Morgan

Banker who buys out Carnegie Steel and renames it to U.S. Steel. Was a philanthropist in a way; he gave all the money needed for WWI and was payed back. Was one of the "Robber barons"