U.S. Grant
The eighteenth President of the United States. He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War. Many presidential scandals
Roscoe Conkling
A politician from New York who served both as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He was the leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party.
Samuel Tilden
Hayes' opponent in the 1876 presidential race, he was the Democratic nominee who had gained fame for putting Boss Tweed behind bars. He collected 184 of the necessary 185 electoral votes.
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
Spoils System
The system of employing and promoting civil servants who are friends and supporters of the group in power
Credit Mobilier
A joint-stock company organized in 1863 and reorganized in 1867 to build the Union Pacific Railroad. It was involved in a scandal in 1872 in which high government officials were accused of accepting bribes.
Stalwart
The "traditional" Republicans against Rutherford B. Hayes' civil service reform. They were against the "Half-Breeds" (moderates) for Republican Party control. Preferred "political machines
Pendelton Act
A law enacted in 1883 that established a bipartisan civil service commission to make appointments to government jobs by means of the merit system.
Thomas Nast
Famous cartoonist in the 1860s-70s. He portrayed Tweed and his people as vultures picking at the city's bones.
James G. Blaine
A U.S. Representative, Speaker of th House, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time United States S.O.S, and champion of the Half-Breeds. He was a dominant Republican leader of the post Civil War period, 1884 Republican nominee, but lost to Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
23rd President; Republican, poor leader, introduced the McKinley Tariff and increased federal spending
James A. Garfield
20th president in 1880. He was assassinated, this brought about reforms in the spoils systems.
Bloody Shirt
Republican campaign tactic that blamed the Democrats for the Civil War; it was used successfully in campaigns from 1868 to 1876 to keep Democrats out of public office, especially the presidency.
Whiskey Ring
During the Grant administration, a group of officials were importing whiskey and using their offices to avoid paying the taxes on it, cheating the treasury out of millions of dollars.
Half-Breed
A faction of the republican party, headed by James G. Blane. They
pushed republican ideals and were almost a separate group that existed within the party.
Mugwumps
Republican activists who supported Democrat, Grover Cleveland in presidential election of 1884, switched parties because they rejected the financial corruption of Republican candidate, James Blaine.
Horace Greeley
An American newspaper editor of America's most influential newspaper and founder of the Republican party. He used the newspaper to promote the Republican parties, and reforms.
Rutherford B. Hayes
19th President, ended reconstruction by removing federal troops, disputed election resulted in the Compromise of 1877
Chester A. Arthur
Implemented a heavy spoils system. He was Garfield's running mate. Garfield won but was shot, so he became the 21st president.
Gilded Age
A name for the late 1800s, coined by Mark Twain to describe the tremendous increase in wealth caused by the industrial age and the ostentatious lifestyles it allowed the very rich that hid social problems: high poverty, high crime rate, and corrupt govern
Tweed Ring
The corrupt part of Tammany Hall in New York City, that Samuel J. Tilden, and Thomas Nast helped overthrow.
Crime of '73
Through the coinage act of 1873, the US ended the minting of silver dollars and placed the country on the gold standard. Populists attacted this who supported an inflationary monetary policy
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 railroads on Mississippi river
Cornelius Vanderbilt
A railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He made steel railroads poplar, creating safer railroads.
Thomas Edison
American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures.
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
Grange
A farmers association in the last 1800s to make life better for farmers by sharing information about crops, prices, and supplies
Gospel of Wealth
This was a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism as well as promoted the idea of philanthropy.
National Labor Union
1866 - established by William Sylvis - wanted 8hr work days, banking reform, and an end to conviction labor - attempt to unite all laborers
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
Andrew Carnegie
Philanthropist, had steel monopoly, used vertical integration by buying all means of production, gets bought out by banker JP Morgan,"Robber baron
Terence Powderly
Led the Knights of Labor, opposed strikes, producer-consumer cooperation, temperance, welcomed blacks and women
Bessemer Process
An industrial process for making steel blasting air through through molten iron burning the excess carbon and impurities.
New South
Term that identified southern promoters' belief in the technologically advanced industrial South
Haymarket Riot
Riot in Chicago, after the police fired into the crowd, the workers met and rallied to protest police brutality. A bomb exploded, killing or injuring many of the police. The Chicago workers and the man who set the bomb were immigrants, so the incident pro
Alexander G. Bell
Inventor of the late 19th century; most famous for inventing the telephone; Atlantic Telephone and Telegraph
John D. Rockefeller
Was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. He used Horizontal Integration
Samuel Gompers
He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.
U.S. Steel
Established in 1901 by J.P. Morgan and Carnegie, it was a combination of steel operations into a single corporation.
Yellow Dog Contract
An agreement some companies forced workers to take that forbade them from joining a union. It was used to limit the power of unions.
American Federation of Labor
Founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886; sought better wages, hours, and working conditions. Skilled laborers arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialist and communist ideas, non-violent. Bread and butter union
Sitting Bull
The American Indian, a Sioux medicine man and chief, was the political leader of his tribe at the time of the Custer's Last Stand and the Indian Wars
Geronimo
Apache chieftain who raided the white settlers in the Southwest as resistance to being confined to a reservation.
Nez Perce
Indian tribe led by Chief Joseph; ordered onto a reservation in Idaho in 1877, they fled instead. After giving up they were removed to a reservation in Oklahoma
Ghost Dance
A tribe that tried to call the spirits of past warriors to inspire the young braves to fight. It was crushed at the Battle of Wounded Knee.
Granger Laws
State legislatures in 1874 passed laws fixing maximum rates for freight shipments. The railroads responded by appealing to the Supreme Court to declare these laws unconstitutional
George A. Custer
He was a former general of the Civil War. He attacked 2,500 Sioux warriors near the Little Big Horn river in Montana and was completely wiped out.
Helen Hunt Jackson
Author of the 1881 book A Century of Dishonor. The book exposed the U.S. governments many broken promises to the Native Americans.
Sioux
Native Americans in the Dakotas. Massacred Custer at Battle of Little Bighorn. Many were later massacred at Wounded Knee in 1890.
Dawes Severalty Act
Bill that promised Indians tracts of land to farm in order to assimilate them into white culture. The bill was resisted, uneffective, and disastrous to Indian tribes
Farmers' Alliance
A Farmers' organization founded in late 1870s; worked for lower railroad freight rates, lower interest rates, and a change in the governments tight money policy
Oliver H. Kelley
Considered the "Father" of "The Grange," a fraternal organization for American farmers that encouraged farm families to band together for their common economic and political good.
Chief Joseph
Leader of Nez Perce. Fled with his tribe to Canada instead of reservations. However, US troops came and fought and brought them back down to reservations
Apache
A Native American-Indian tribe; 1870's group from Arizona and New Mexico led by Geronimo, difficult to control, chased into Mexico by Federal troops. They became successful farmers raising stock in Oklahoma
Battle of Wounded Knee
US soldiers massacred 300 unarmed Native American in 1890 after seeing the ghost dance. This ended the Indian Wars.
Populists
Party formed by farmers, wanted a reduced tariff, a graduated income tax, government control of the railroads, extension of the money supply (free silver), included Blacks (which hurt them)
Eugene Debs
Leader of the American Railway Union, he voted to aid workers in the Pullman strike. He was jailed for six months for disobeying a court order after the strike was over.
Marcus Hanna
Leader of the Republican Party who fought to get William McKinley the Republican nomination for president.
16:1
The ratio of silver to gold promoted by Bryan's Democratic political platform in 1896.
Cross of Gold
William Jennings Bryan's famous speech that criticized the monetary policy of the government for being too hard on the farmer; said in the speech that farmers were being crucified on this
William Jennings Bryan
United States lawyer and politician who advocated free silver and prosecuted John Scopes for teaching evolution
Bimetalism
Use of two metals, gold and silver, for currency as America did with the Bland-Allison Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Ended in 1900 with the enactment of the Gold Standard Act.
Homestead Strike
Strike at Andrew Carnegie's steel plant in which Pinkerton detectives clashed with steel workers
William McKinley
25th president responsible for Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, and the Annexation of Hawaii, imperialism. Is assassinated by an anarchist
Free Silver
Political issue involving the unlimited coinage of silver, supported by farmers and William Jennings Bryan
Pullman Strike
In Chicago, wages cut but same rents in the "company town", Eugene Debs had American Railway Union refuse to use the company's cars, Debs thrown in jail after being sued, strike achieved nothing; Cleveland's second term
Gold Standard
A monetary system in which paper money and coins are equal to the value of a certain amount of gold
Alfred Thayer Mahan
American Naval officer and historian. He is most famous for his book "The Influence of Sea Power on History" which defined Naval strategy. Resulted in igniting of naval race between countries.
Imperialism
A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, socially, and economically.
Teller Amendment
Legislation that promised the US would not annex Cuba after winning the Spanish-American war
Emilio Aguinaldo
Leader of the Filipino independence movement against Spain. He proclaimed the independence of the Philippines in 1899, but his movement was crushed. He was captured by Uncle Sam in 1901.
Joseph Pulitzer
Creator of the "New York World,"cut the prices so people could afford it, featured color comics and yellow journalism
George Dewey
A United States naval officer remembered for his victory at Manila Bay in the Spanish-American War
Jingoism
Extreme, chauvinistic patriotism, often favoring an aggressive, warlike foreign policy
Platt Amendment
Legislation that severely restricted Cuba's sovereignty and gave the US the right to intervene if Cuba got into trouble
Treaty of Paris
Ended the Spanish-American War in 1898. Spain recognized Cuba's independence and assumed the Cuban debt; it also ceded Puerto Rico and Guam, and the Phillipines to the United States. Ratified February 6, 1899.
William R. Hurst
An American newspaper publisher who built the nation's largest newspaper chain and whose methods profoundly influenced American journalism. He had a circulation war with Pulitzer
Theodore Roosevelt
26th president, known for: conservationism, trust-busting, Hepburn Act, safe food regulations, "Square Deal," Panama Canal, Great White Fleet, Nobel Peace Prize for negotiation of peace in Russo-Japanese War
Rough Riders
The First United States Volunteer Calvary, a mixture of Ivy League athletes and western frontiersmen, volunteered to fight in the Spanish-American War. Enlisted by Theodore Roosevelt, they won many battles in Florida and enlisted in the invasion army of C
Dupuy De Lome
He was a Spanish minister in Washington who wrote a private letter to a friend concerning President McKinley. The discovery of his letter which helped initiate the Spanish-American War.
MAINE
The sinking of this U.S. battleship in Havanna, Cuba which the U.S. blamed on Spain was the main cause of the Spanish-American War.
Yellow Journalism
Journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers; sensationalism