Ch 21

"waving the bloody shirt"

The use of Civil War imagery by political candidates and parties to draw votes to their side of the ticket.

Crédit Mobilier Scandal

A construction company was formed by owners of the Union Pacific Railroad for the purpose of receiving government contracts to build the railroad at highly inflated prices—and profits. In 1872 a scandal erupted when journalists discovered that the Crédit Mobilier Company had bribed congressmen and even the vice president to allow the ruse to continue.

Panic of 1873

A worldwide depression that began in the United States when one of the nation's largest banks abruptly declared bankruptcy, leading to the collapse of thousands of banks and businesses. The crisis intensified debtors' calls for inflationary measures such as the printing of more paper money and the unlimited coinage of silver. Conflicts over monetary policy greatly influenced politics in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Gilded Age

A term given to the period 1865-1896 by Mark Twain, indicating both the fabulous wealth and the widespread corruption of the era.

Patronage

A system, prevalent during the Gilded Age, in which political parties granted jobs and favors to party regulars who delivered votes on election day. Patronage was both an essential wellspring of support for both parties and a source of conflict within the Republican party.

Compromise of 1877

The agreement that finally resolved the 1876 election and officially ended Reconstruction. In exchange for the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, winning the presidency, Hayes agreed to withdraw the last of the federal troops from the former Confederate states. This deal effectively completed the Southern return to white-only, Democratic-dominated electoral politics.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

The last piece of federal civil rights legislation until the 1950s, the law promised Black people equal access to public accommodations and banned racism in jury selection, but it provided no means of enforcement and was therefore ineffective. In 1883, the Supreme Court declared most of the act unconstitutional.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system that emerged after the Civil War in which Black and white farmers rented land and residences from a plantation owner in exchange for giving him a certain "share" of each year's crop. Sharecropping was the dominant form of agriculture after the Civil War, and landowners manipulated this system to keep tenants in perpetual debt and unable to leave their plantations.

Jim Crow

System of racial segregation in the American South from the end of Reconstruction until the mid- twentieth century. Based on the concept of "separate but equal" facilities for Black and white people, the Jim Crow system sought to prevent racial mixing in public, including restaurants, movie theaters, and public transportation. An informal system, it was generally perpetuated by custom, violence, and intimidation.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of segregation laws, saying that as long as Black people were provided with "separate but equal" facilities, these laws did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision provided legal justification for the Jim Crow system until the 1950s.

Great Strike of 1877

Wage cuts by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company triggered a forty-five-day strike that engulfed Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Missouri. One hundred people died in the unrest.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Federal legislation that prohibited most further Chinese immigration to the United States. This was the first major legal restriction on immigration in U.S. history.

Pendleton Act

Congressional legislation that established the Civil Service Commission, which granted federal government jobs on the basis of examinations instead of political patronage, thus reining in the spoils system.

Jay Gould

He along with James Fisk attempted to purchase a majority of the gold from the open market, and refusing to sell in order to drive up prices, where only then, would they sell for maximum profit. This plan hinged on the US Treasury's cooperation and they tried through lobbying politicians but ultimately failed, gold prices crashed, and their scandal outraged people to remove the politicians that were involved.

Horace Greeley

The nominee of the newly formed Liberal Republicans, but also supported by the Democrats. He was an emotional and inconsistent with his political visions. This presidential campaign put up a fight against the Regular Republicans and their nominee, Grant, causing reformation nonetheless, despite their loss. These reforms loosened Republican Reconstruction efforts, reduced high tariffs, and cleaned the corrupt Whitehouse from many of their corrupt politicians.

Rutherford B. Hayes

The Republican Nominee for the presidential election of 1876. He was a compromise candidate between the divided Republican party from the crucial swing state of Ohio. He was relatively unknown and had no reputation, which was helpful. He ended up winning the presidency because of the compromise of 1877 but officially ended military Reconstruction. He supported large industrialists over the common man in the Great Strike of 1877 by sending federal troops to calm strikes. But he was ultimately unable to go for a second term because he promised he would not rerun to appease a faction within the Republican party in order to win the election of 1876.

James A. Garfield

New Republican Candidate for the presidential election of 1880 upon Rutherford B. Hayes's removal. He was also from Ohio and won the election. However, he died was assassinated in office when a mentally deranged Stalwart office seeker, Charles Guiteau, shot him thinking it would get him a job and end the internal republican conflicts. Brutal example of the harsh spoils system.

Chester Arthur

The vice-president of Garfield, assumed title as President upon his assassination. He was underestimated by members in his own party, but he showed great ability when he won many court cases. Under his presidency, the Spoils System ended, as the Pendleton Act of 1883 was passed, forcing government positions to be appointed based on ability rather than patronage.

Grover Cleveland

Democrat nominee in the presidential election of 1884. He was known for his temper, honesty, and reputation to stand with his morals. He experienced great controversy when Republicans revealed he had an affair and illegitimate child with another woman. Yet he still won the Presidency due to a blunder by Blaine, costing him many votes in New York. Although he believed in a merit-based system, he ultimately ended up clean housing, making room for his loyal supporters in office. ONE NOTABLE ISSUE during his presidency was the debate over the tariff, where Cleveland unwisely supported lowering the tariff which would have harmed the large industrialists that funded his political campaign and main source of power. He subsequently lost the election of 1888 because of this unthoughtout decision.

List the terms of the compromise of 1877.

1. Gave the Republicans the White House and let Hayes be President
2. Union troops would be removed from Southern territories
3.. Promised the south a Transcontinental Railroad

Why did the person who won the Election of 1868 win?

Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency despite the majority of white voters voting for the democrats because of the support he got from the newly enfranchised Freedmen in the South.

Explain the Whiskey Ring Scandal.

Some profits made from the excise tax(tax on commodities sold domestically) on whiskey was pocketed by Government officials.

Explain the Belknap(Trader Post) Scandal.

Secretary of War William Belknap accepted bribes from native american trade post construction companies, who were supposed to be constructing trading posts and supplying displaced natives through funding from the federal government, but was really just pocketing the money and not doing anything, and Belknap accepted bribes to keep his mouth shut.

List the cause for the Panic of 1873.

Overreaching promoters(basically just those who forecasted the profits to be way higher than feasibly possible) deluding themselves to thinking the war-time boom in economy would last forever
- because of this, more was invested into railroad companies than could be returned
- led to many loans going unpaid, resulting in the collapse of a key bank, leading to American credit collapsing

What kind of money policy did Farmer's support after the civil war?

Soft-money policy, paper money not supported by the value of gold

What kind of money policy did Creditor's support after the civil war?

Hard-money policy, return to a gold-supported system of credit

Why was contraction bad for farmers when in theory it should be beneficial for the economy?

Contraction is deflation, opposite of inflation. Because of contraction policies like the Resumption Act of 1875, paper-money was leaving circulation, and slowly we were returning to a gold-based economy. But, because of the lower amount of money in circulation, prices fell, meaning farmers made less money for selling the same amount of crop, while their loans/debts stayed the same, meaning their debt effectively went up in value.

What were the 2 factions in the Republican party?

Roscoe Conkling led the Stalwarts/Conklingites (supported Patronage).

James G. Blaine led the Half-Breeds(preferred merit-based civil service reform).

Explain the electoral commission process for the election of 1876.

15 total senators, representatives, and supreme court justices were sent to discuss what the country would do about the contradicting toll votes. Because of this odd number, the 8 republicans outvoted the 7 democrats, giving the republican party the on paper victory. However, the Democrats were outraged and threatened to filibuster(essentially stall the senate perpetually) if they decided to try to vote on the decision). This dilemma ultimately led to the Compromise of 1877, resolving the conflict.