Untitled Flashcards Set

  • Sedition Act (1918)

    • The Sedition Act made it a crime to criticize the government or the war effort. This was significant because it allowed Wilson to put Eugene Debs in prison, who was his political competition.

  • Helen Jewett

    • Helen Jewett was an American prostitute in New York City who was brutally murdered. This was significant to the Victorian idea that anything could happen to people in the city and that people should not move there.

  • The Lost Cause

    • The Lost Cause was an effort to minimize the stigma of slavery and portray the Confederates in a better light. The Lost Cause is significant because it changed the memory of the Civil War.

  • The People’s Party (Populists) 

    • The Populists were a group that wanted the government to step in and regulate technologies like the railroad and telegraph. This was significant because they were a third party in the 1892 election and gained a lot of support. 

  • Moral Imperialism 

    • Wilson’s Moral Imperialism promised a new foreign policy that would respect Latin America’s independence. However, the U.S. only supported countries whose beliefs aligned with American interests. The significance of this was that while Wilson said he would respect Latin America’s independence, he produced more military interventions there than in U.S. history.

  • "Speak softly and carry a big stick"

    • To speak softly and carry a big stick was the idea of negotiating peacefully but flaunting strength (military) in the case that things went wrong. This was Theodore Roosevelt’s ideology during his presidency. This was significant to the Roosevelt Corollary which said that the U.S. had power in the Western Hemisphere (particularly to Europeans).

  • Redeemers

    • The Redeemers were a group who worked to undo Reconstruction. One thing they did was arrest any person without employment to reduce the ability of slaves to find better work. This was significant because the Redeemers wanted to enforce white supremacy.

  • Rutherford B. Hayes

    • Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th president of the United States. Because of Grant’s corruption, the Republican’s needed a reform candidate, and Hayes was moderate and had a good record. He was significant because he emphasized reconciliation for the Republican party after the Reconstruction era.

  • Jane Addams

    • Jane Addams founded the Settlement House movement in Chicago which aimed to help the working class (build kindergartens and health clinics). She is significant to the Progressive era due to her push for government reform. Basically, she helped start reform for the middle class, but ultimately said that the government should take care of it.

  • the Dawes Act (1887)

    • The Dawes Act broke up reservation land and gave native families 160 acres each. After allotment, the government could take unclaimed land into their control. This was significant because this allowed the government to spread out the Indians and give them white neighbors, affecting the Indians’ way of life.

  • Eugene V. Debs

    • Eugene V. Debs was the founding member of what was called the Socialist Party of America. He ran for president five times, once from jail, and each time he ran he gained more support. He is significant to the Progressive era because of the popularity of the socialist party during that time. He was later sentenced under the Sedition Act.

  • Ulysses S. Grant 

    • Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th president of the United States.  His election finalized Reconstruction in the South, however, later in his presidency, he had a nonintervention strategy that did damage to the earlier Reconstruction efforts. He is significant because of his influence in Southern Reconstruction and his later nonintervention strategy. 

  • The New Departure 

    • The New Departure was an initiative by the Democratic party to reform their political standing. They wanted to minimize their slaveholding past.

    • This was significant because the Democrats viewed the overthrow of Republican rule as necessary to working toward their own goals.

  • Platt Amendment

    • The Platt Amendment was a treaty between the U.S. and Cuba that said that once Cuba was independent, that the U.S. could intervene there militarily. This was significant because the U.S. wanted to use Guantánamo Bay as a naval base.

  • Charles J. Guiteau

    • Charles J. Guiteau shot and killed President Garfield. Guiteau was a stunt speaker and was not good at his job, but thought that when Garfield became president that he would give him a good job. Guiteau is significant because after he killed Garfield, the Civil Service Act of 1883 that created a merit system for federal employees was passed. 

  • John Wesley Powel

    • John Wesley Powel lost an arm in the Civil War and made a report on the lands of dry regions in the United States. He also made recommendations for water management, saying it should be irrigated by the federal government. His report was significant to Western land management.