William Jennings Bryan
leader of the Democrats in the Chicago convention of 1896 who was a supporter of free silver and won his audiences with biblical fervor; jobless workers and bankrupt farmers resulted in Bryan's assault on the gold standard striking fear in many hearts
Cross of Gold" Speech
Democrats now a party for free silver; meant that the money question would be a national crusade where no one could be neutral
Election of 1896
McKinley v. Bryan; Republicans beat a strategic retreat from the politics of morality, persuaded nation that they were the party of prosperity and convinced many traditionally Democratic urban voters that they were sympathetic to ethnic diversity; elector
The Crime of '73
silver officially dropped as medium of exchange, resulting in silver mining in the West surging and the price of silver falling; DEFLATION
Populist Party/Movement
state Alliances grew stronger and more impatient, so they began to field independent slates, leading to the People's (Populist) Party in 1892
Omaha Platform
government ownership of railroads, 8 hour day, direct election of senators, graduated income tax, postal savings banks, and free silver
Free Silver
Farmers turned to silver because they hoped an increase in money supply would raise farm prices and the party's slim resources would be fattened by hefty contributions from silver-mining interests; triggered a debate for the soul of the Populist Party
Mugwumps
pompous or self-important persons; group of reform Republicans who hated James G. Blaine and supported Grover Cleveland; more adept at molding public opinion than at running government, defined terms of political debate, denying the machine system legitim
Half-Breeds
on the congressional side, party leaders considered themselves coequal with the president; Conkling didn't hesitate to take on Hayes over the latter's lenient policy toward the South
Stalwarts
led by Blaine, a group equally imperious in dealing with Chester Arthur's administration
Ida B. Wells
a muckraker who attacked the Standard Oil monopoly
Robert La Follette
tireless advocate of political reform who wanted to restore America to its democratic ideals
Initiative
One of the political reforms which allowed people the chance to choose legislation to put on the ballot
Referendum
A political reform that allowed citizens to veto legislation
Recall
The reform that gave voters the opportunity to choose if they wanted to remove someone from office if they SUCKED
New Freedom
Wilson's response to New Nationalism; would preserve political and economic liberty
New Nationalism
Roosevelt's issue of human welfare vs. property rights; property had to be controlled "to whatever degree the public welfare may require it" and the government would become "the steward of the public welfare
Square Deal
program of Roosevelt's from 1904 election; target was the business economy-when companies abused their powers, the government would intercede to assure ordinary Americans a "square deal
Muckrakers
Roosevelt thought writers went too far, comparing them to "Pilgrim's Progress" story; journalists who exposed underside of American life, calling the people to arms
Coxey's Army
Democrats bore the brunt of responsibility for economic crisis; When jobless marchers who arrived in Washington in 1894 to demand federal relief, Cleveland dispersed them forcibly and arrested their leader (Jacob S. Coxey)
Niagara Movement
called by Trotter and Du Bois on Canadian side because U.S. side wouldn't admit blacks to hotels; encouragement of black pride, uncompromising demand for full political and civil equality, the resolute denial "that the Negro-American assents to inferiorit
W.E.B. DuBois
celebrated the special genius of blacks, instilled black pride
NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909): founded by Mary White Ovington and sympathetic white progressives demanded equal rights, helped beat back the Wilson administration's effort at segregating the federal vicil service
National Urban League
(1911): social welfare, interracial, united many agencies serving black migrants arriving in northern cities
Booker T. Washington
black pride to narrowly middle-class and utilitarian; banked on black economic progress
Bland-Allison Act
(1878): required the U.S. Treasury to purchase and coin between $2-4 million worth of silver each month
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
(1890): an additional 4.5 million ounces of silver bullion was to be purchased monthly, to serve as the basis for new issues of U.S. Treasury notes
Plessy v. Ferguson
-(1896): Court ruled that segregation wasn't discriminatory [didn't violate 14th Amendment] provided that blacks received equal accommodations
-Hispanics and Asian were segregated
-"separate but equal" doctrine ignored the realities of southern life, segr
Williams v. Mississippi
(1898): Supreme Court validated the disfranchising devices of the southern states on the grounds that, if race was not a specified criterion for disenfranchisement, the rights of blacks to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment were not being violated
Roscoe Conkling
leader of the Stalwarts, didn't hesitate to take on Hayes over the latter's lenient policy toward the South; Republican senator from NY
Jim Crow laws
the color line which provided a precedent for the legal separation of the races; the enforcing legislation soon applied to every type of public facility; in 1890s, South became a fully segregated region by law for the first time
Social Darwinism
championed by William Graham Summer; competition a law of nature that "can no more be done away with than gravitation"; the fittest are "the millionaires...they may be fairly regarded as the naturally selected agents of society
Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
Taft fires Pinchot for accusing Ballinger of plotting to transfer resource-rich Alaskan land to a private business group; marked Taft among progressives as a friend of the "interests," bent on plundering the nation's resources
Garfield's Assassination
patronage and spoils system: government appointments were treated as rewards for those who served winning party--reform of this became urgent after Garfield shot and killed in 1881
Civil Service Reform
reformers blamed the poisonous atmosphere of a spoils system that left many disappointed in the scramble for office
Pendleton Act of 1883
established a non-partisan Civil Service Commission authorized to fill federal jobs by examination; original list only covered 10% of jobs
Muller v. Oregon
(1908): upheld an Oregon law limiting the workday of women to ten hours