I.D. Terms Period 5-6

Wilmot Proviso

• Proposed by David Wilmot (a Pennsylvania Democrat who was angry about the lack of Southern support for a steel tariff) in 1846, (after the start of the Mexican-American War) this called for a ban on slavery in any of the territories the United States may gain from Mexico at the conclusion of the war.

• This further agitated the debate over slavery convincing Southerners that the North’s true goal was abolition.

Seneca Falls Convention

• The 1848 meeting in Seneca Falls New York that is considered the first women’s rights meeting. The meeting was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott and was attended by Frederick Douglass.

• The convention adopted the Declaration of Sentiments, which was a paraphrasing of the Declaration of Independence, which advocated for women’s political, social, civil, and religious rights. Some of the main goals were acquiring the right to vote, property rights after marriage, and divorce.

Dorothea Dix

• Journalists exposed some of the awful conditions of privately run mental health facilities (asylums) and challenged the idea that the mentally ill could not be helped.

• She successfully lobbied Congress for the creation of state-run mental facilities and successfully reformed the manner in which the mentally ill were cared for.

William Lloyd Garrison

• Founder of the anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator in Boston in 1831 which was influential in the American anti-slavery movement. He included in his newspaper “The Black List” which was a recounting of the atrocities of slavery. His work led to Southerners putting a bounty on his head. (reward for his killing).

• He also created the American Anti-slavery Society which called for the immediate and uncompensated freeing of slaves. He opposed colonization (freeing and sending slaves to Liberia or Haiti) and was a staunch advocate and supported women’s rights and suffrage and his promotion of women to leadership roles over men led to s split in his organization.

• He believed that the Constitution was a pact with the devil since it allowed for slavery and promoted the idea of “No union with slaveholders.”

Frederick Douglass

• Escaped slave from Maryland, became one of the leading antislavery advocates. He wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in part to help refute the belief that slaves were not intellectually capable to be independent citizens.

• In 1847 he started the abolitionist newspaper The North Star and split from Garrison’s Anti-slavery society because Douglass believed the constitution could be used as a tool for ending slavery where Garrison believed the constitution should be destroyed.

• Douglass published a public letter to his former master illustrating both his anger of his treatment and continued ownership of his family but also expressed compassion and said he had no personal animosity to him.

Manifest Destiny

• This phrase was coined in 1845 by John L. O’Sullivan, to reference the United States’ God-ordained destiny to spread democracy and capitalism from “sea to shining sea.”

• Manifest Destiny was used to help justify the removal or extermination of the Native American population and helped lead to the start of the Mexican-American War by promoting the annexation of Texas.

Homestead Act

• Passed in 1862 by a Republican dominated Congress with the southern states having seceded, this act encouraged westward migration and settlement by paying a $10 registration fee and agreeing to work the land for five years.

• This act further promoted conflict with the Native American tribes and the western settlers.

Sand Creek Massacre

• 1864 attack by American soldiers against a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. The land had been designated Indian territory by the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851 but the 1858 Pikes Peak Gold Rush brought settlers into Indian territory causing conflict.

• About 2/3s of the Cheyenne and Arapaho killed were women and children and the massacre sparked renewed hostilities and attacks against Americans. Unfortunately atrocities before and after this event happened to both sides justifying to each group their actions.

John C. Calhoun

• He served as Secretary of War, Vice-President to Andrew Jackson, and was a Senator from South Carolina and the strongest advocate in the senate for the doctrine of nullification.

• Calhoun was a member of the war hawks who advocated for war against England (1812), defended slavery as a positive good, and was a strong advocate for states’ rights.

• Calhoun led the South Carolina secessionist movement during the nullification crisis of 1832 over the tariffs of 1828 and 1832.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• 1854 Act drafted by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas that divided the Kansas territory into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. This act repealed the Missouri Compromise line and opened up the territories to slavery leading to bleeding Kansas and the rise of John Brown.

• The act paved the way for a northern transcontinental railroad into Chicago but fueled sectional tension over the issue of slavery and helped lead to the Civil War.

Hiram Revels

• He was a minister, college administrator, and the first black Senator in the United States.

• He was elected from Mississippi in 1870 as a Republican and was part of the initial success of reconstruction.

• Democrats attempted to block the seating of Revels citing the Dred Scott case but were outvoted by the Republicans.

The Emancipation Proclamation

• Issued by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862 and took effect on January 1, 1863, this proclamation declared all the slaves in the rebelling states to be free. This proclamation did not apply to parts of Virginia and Louisiana which were under union control

• This proclamation changed the basis of the war from saving the union to ending slavery. It also had the impact of ending the potential of France or England siding with the confederate states as both France and England were both anti-slavery.

Freedmen’s Bureau

• Government agency stared in 1865 with the purpose of providing freedmen (ex-slaves) food, clothing, medical care, shelter, and land. The bureau helped in family relocation, marriages, established schools, and helped oversee labor contracts.

• The agency was started by Oliver Howard (Howard University) and while it was unsuccessful at land redistribution (40 acres and a mule) it is viewed as successful especially in the field of education where over a thousand schools were created.

John D. Rockefeller

• One of the major robber barons/captains of industry, he was most famous for the creation of Standard Oil controlling 90% of all American oil. He was the wealthiest man in America and became a major philanthropist.

• He employed horizontal integration to build his monopoly and was heavily criticized for his business practices with a leading critic being Ida Tarbell. In 1911 Standard Oil was broken up in a lawsuit coming from the Sherman Anti-trust Act.

J.P. Morgan

• One of the robber barons/captains of industry, he was the greatest and most powerful banker of the time. He was the creator of the JP Morgan bank and the driving force behind the consolidation of many industrial fields into trusts or monopolies. He reorganized many industries such as railroads, steel, and electricity, and is credited for stabilizing the railroad industry.

• Morgan had a lot of power in government pertaining to financial decisions and he orchestrated a loan to the United States during the Panic of 1907 that prevented a collapse of the American economic system.

Andrew Carnegie

• One of the robber barons/captains of industry, he built a steel empire in the United States utilizing vertical integration (buying up all the steps and materials in the process of making a good) which became the basis for US steel.

• He wrote an influential paper called The Gospel Of Wealth, which justified the rich and powerful accumulating massive wealth, discussed the proper means of distributing wealth, and encouraged philanthropy (giving away one’s wealth to charitable causes). He would up giving away about 90% of his wealth before he died.

Knights of Labor

• Founded by Uriah Stephens with its most influential leader being Terence Powderly, this organization was open to unskilled and skilled workers as well as blacks and whites and men and women but not immigrants who were seen as competition. It was the first mass labor union in the United States.

• The Knights successfully advocated for an 8-hour work day but ultimately collapsed due to the public association of the Knights of Labor with the Haymarket Square Riot on May 4, 1886, in Chicago.

American Federation of Labor

• Created in 1886 and led by Samuel Gompers, this was an organization of trade or craft unions put together into one organization.

• This organization focused on “bread and butter” issues such as higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions and it kept itself out of politics.

• This union will grow in strength as the Knights of Labor disappear.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

• 1857 Supreme Court case where Dred Scott, after attempting to buy his freedom, sued for his freedom on the basis that he had been taken to a free territory and a free state.

• Justice Taney led the 7-2 decision ruling against Dred Scott and in favor of Sanford ruling that Dred Scott was still a slave, that blacks were not entitled to citizenship and had no standing before the court and that the Missouri Compromise line was unconstitutional.

• This case was a tremendous victory for southern slaveholders and outraged the abolitionists in the north.

Credit Mobilier scandal

• Credit Mobilier was a construction and finance company associated with the building of the transcontinental railroad from 1865 to 1869.

• The company was corrupt overcharging the government 44 million dollars and used some of that money to bribe government officials. Schuyler Colfax, vice-president to Grant, and James Garfield, future president were a couple of the politicians who were accused of taking bribes.

• No politicians were found guilty but the event, which became public in 1872, was used as proof of the corrupt nature of government in the Gilded Age.

The Gilded Age

• The term given by Mark Twain referencing the time period 1877 (post-reconstruction) to 1900 (start of the Progressive Era) This was a time of great economic growth where industrial workers saw about a 40% real growth in wages but was also a time period where some were living in incredibly impoverished conditions and others like Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Vanderbilt had amassed huge fortunes.

• Critics of the age often say the economic success hid many social, political, and economic problems that were starting to be exposed at this time and would become the center of the progressive movement.

The Compromise of 1850

• Written by Henry Clay and helped pass by Stephen Douglas, this compromise was the result of the acquisition of the southwest United States in the Mexican-American War through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the population explosion in California in 1849 leading California to petition to come into the union as a free state.

• The Compromise admitted California as a free state, allowed for popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico, outlawed the slave trade but not slavery in Washington D.C., paid Texas to give up land, and created a tougher fugitive slave law. The tougher fugitive slave law significantly increased tension between the North and South.

Dawes Act

• This act in 1887 outlawed tribal ownership of land and broke reservations into 160 acres plots to be owned by individual families. This act applied mainly to Plains Indians and while making individual Indians private land owners, it also opened up land previously held by tribes to be sold to Americans.

• The goal of the act was to assimilate the Native Americans into the United States but ultimately the policy was considered a failure as the Native Americans did not receive land worthy, nor often have the equipment necessary, to become successful farmers.

Ghost Dance movement

• Beginning in 1889, this was a spiritual movement of western Indian tribes led by Wovoka of the Paiute tribe, designed to bring back the spirits of the Indians to fight to stop American westward expansion.

• The dance was outlawed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and attempts at suppressing it are part of the Battle/Massacre at Wounded Knee

The Freeport Doctrine

• Name given to Stephen Douglas’ response to Lincoln in the Lincoln Douglas debates for the Illinois Senate seat in 1858. While Douglas will win the Senate Seat as a Democrat and the North, his answer will remove southern support for his 1860 presidential election bid.

• Douglas’ response was popular sovereignty, where the people of a territory would vote on adopting (or not) laws to protect slavery. This stance would allow for slavery to be banned at the territorial stage which southerners would not stand for.

Interstate Commerce Act

• 1887 congressional act that allowed Congress to control and regulate all trade that went across state lines. The act required rates to be “reasonable and just” but congress could not set specific rates.

• This was a natural outgrowth of the granger movement’s attempts to regulate railroads at the state level.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction 1863

• Also known as the 10% plan, this was Abraham Lincoln’s proposal for reconstruction during/after the Civil War. This was very lenient and called for 10% of eligible voters to take an oath of allegiance before a new constitution could be written.

• The oath of allegiance would grant the Southerners full pardons and the new constitution would have to recognize the abolition of slavery. Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Virginia would form states under this, and West Virginia was admitted to the union in 1863 after providing for the gradual emancipation of slaves and its disagreement with Virginia over secession.

Chinese Exclusion Act

• Passed in 1882, this was the first major restriction on immigration into the United States. Originally set as a 10-year ban, the act was renewed until its repeal in 1943. The restriction did not apply to teachers, students, merchants, diplomats, and travelers and was specifically passed targeting Chinese laborers.

• Anti-Chinese hostility was centered in California where Chinese made up about 25% of the lower-class labor force and efforts to ban Chinese immigration were supported by both the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor which saw Chinese laborers as depressing wages for Americans.

Henry George

• American political economist and journalist, his famous work Progress and Poverty was a look at the growing economic inequality in the United States and his solution which called for land taxes to redistribute income.

• His ideas became known as “Georgism” and he was incredibly influential in the political and economic changes throughout the Progressive Era.

Booker T. Washington

• Prominent black leader of the post-reconstruction time period. Washington was born a slave and advocated that black advancement in society would come through entrepreneurship and rising up from the bottom. His idea of advancement became popularized in a speech he gave called The Atlanta Compromise. While many supported his ideas, others were critical of him because he did not call for blacks to challenge segregation or disenfranchisement, rather he said those would come in time after economic success was gained.

• Washington was famous for the creation of the Tuskegee Institute, his autobiography Up From Slavery, and was invited to dine at the White House by Theodore Roosevelt.

W.E.B. Du Bois

• Prominent black leader of the post reconstruction time period who opposed the ideas of Booker T Washington. He advocated a position called The Talented 10th which promoted academic advancement for the top black students, a position called racial uplift. Du Bois was the leader of the Niagara Movement which called for immediate social, political, and economic equality.

• Du Bois was one of the founders of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and believed that capitalism was a root cause of racism and was a supporter of socialism.

Ida B Wells

• Born into slavery, she was one of the founders of the NAACP and an early advocate for African American civil rights. She was specifically active in the anti-lynching campaign with her publication Southern Horrors which exposed the prominence and frequency of black lynchings throughout the south.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction 1863 (10% plan)

• Issued by Abraham Lincoln, this was the plan for reconstructing the southern states, specifically some of the southern states which had been conquered by northern troops.

• This offered a pardon to all southerners except those who held the highest ranks and allowed states to rejoin the union when 10% had pledged an oath of loyalty to the United States, slaves would be emancipated, and provisions would be taken for black education. By 1864, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee had rejoined the union but Radical Republicans in congress thought Lincoln’s plan was too lenient.

Wade-Davis Bill (50% Plan)

• 1864 reconstruction proposal by the Radical Republicans which called for 50% of southern society to take an iron clad oath that they never voluntarily supported the Confederacy. The bill passed both houses of Congress but was pocket-vetoed by Lincoln. This indicated the differing views Lincoln and the Radical Republicans had towards reconstruction.

The Compromise of 1877

• The name given to the resolution of the presidential election of 1876 between Republican candidate Rutherford B Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden. 20 disputed electoral votes are awarded to Hayes but in return federal troops are officially pulled out of the South establishing what was called Home Rule. This allowed the South to end reconstruction and establish Jim Crow laws.

In Re: Debs

• 1895 Supreme Court Case citing Eugene for violating a federal injunction calling for an end to a railroad strike led by Eugene Debs (head of the American Railway Union) in support of the Pullman Railroad car workers. The ruling against Debs was seen as a victory of big business over labor.

Haymarket Square Riot

• May 4, 1886, Chicago Illinois. This was a rally supporting laborers striking for an 8-hour workday at McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. An anarchist threw a bomb at the police killing 7 policemen and 4 civilians.

• 4 anarchists will be hanged for their involvement and organized labor will be seen negatively by a lot of the public. Membership in the Knights of Labor will diminish greatly.

Lochner v. New York

• 1905 Supreme Court decision that invalidated a New York law limiting the amount of hours that bakers could work to 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week. The New York law was designed to protect workers but was deemed by the court to be a violation of their rights to contract. This case was seen as a limitation of the state’s power to regulate working conditions.

Homestead Strike

• 1892 steel strike in Pennsylvania between Henry Clay Frick (who ran the plant for Carnegie) and the steel workers union. When an agreement wasn’t reached on a contract, Frick locked the employees out of the steel plant.

• The union strikers attempted to prevent nonunion workers from getting into the plant and a battle broke out. After about 100 days the strike collapsed and support for the steel union dropped and many steel plants refused to hire union employees.

Pullman Strike

• 1894 American Railway Union led a strike against the Pullman Company that expanded into a railroad shut down that impacted 27 states. President Grover Cleveland got an injunction (court order to stop the strike- court case In Re Debs) and attached mail cars to trains to break the strike.

• Federal troops were used to ensure the trains would run and public sentiment was that the federal government was more in favor or management than labor.