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75 Cards in this Set

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Ulysses S. Grant
Being a virgin to politics, he became the first president to be in office after the Civil War. He was previously a Union General who defeated General Lee at Appomatox Court House, which ended the Civil War. During his presidency, several scams passed through Congress. He was never proven to be involved with any of them. Also, the Panic of 1873 (overspeculation) came about in his reign. He served out two consecutive terms and was not renominated to run for a third.
Thomas Nast
He was a cartoonist for the New York Times and drew many famous political cartoons including one of Boss Tweed. The cartoon showed condemning evidence on the corrupt ring leader and he was jailed shortly afterwards.
Horace Greely
In 1872 the republicans renominated Grant and some of the "reform-minded" republicans left their party, creating the Liberal Republican party and nominating this candidate, editor of the New York Tribune. The Democrats also nominated him. There was much mudslinging involved in this election and this candidate lost, in more ways than one. Along with the loss of the presidency, he lost his job, his wife, and his mind within one month of the election.
Roscoe Conkling
He was the leader of a group for Republicans called the Stalwarts. These people loved the spoils system and supported it wherever it was threatened. They were opposed by the Half-Breeds led by James G. Blaine. He was a senator from New York, and Blaine's infighting caused the nomination of the politically neutral Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876.
James G. Blaine
He was the champion of the Half-Breeds, a political machine of the Republican party. A congressman from Maine; very good with people. Was candidate for Pres. in 1884 for the Rep., however, other Rep., like the mudwamps, wouldn't support him. They considered him a political villain. Became secretary of state during Garfield's administration and tried to persuade Garfield towards the Half-Breed political machine.
Rutherford B. Hayes
He was a republican governor from Ohio. He had spent majority of his term as governor reforming the government and politics within Ohio. He was elected president in 1876 by the Compromise of 1877. He was known as the "caretaker" president because he just took care of the country.
Samuel Tilden
A New York lawyer who rose to fame by bagging big boss Tweed, a notorious New York political boss in New York. Tilden was nominated for President in 1876 by the Democratic party because of his clean up image. This election was so close that it led to the compromise of 1877. Even though Tilden had more popular votes the compromise gave presidency to the Republicans and allowed the Democrats to stop reconstruction in the south.
James A. Garfield
He was elected to presidency in 1880. He barely won the popular vote but won by a huge margin in the electoral college. He was assassinated so Stalwarts could be in power in the government. This brought about reforms in the spoils systems.
Chester A. Arthur
He was the Vice President of James A. Garfield. After President Garfield was assassinated, September of 1881, he assumed the position. He was chosen to run as Vice President, primarily, to gain the Stalwart's vote. Arthur was left in charge of the United States with no apparent qualifications. He, in turn, surprised the public with his unexpected vigor in prosecuting certain post office frauds and wouldn't help the Conklingite cronies when they came looking for favors. He was also in favor of civil service reform.
Charles Guiteau
In 1881 he shot President Garfield in the back in a Washington railroad station. He allegedly committed this crime so that Arthur, a stalwart, would become President. His attorneys used a plea of insanity, but failed and he was hung for murder. After this event politics began to get cleaned up with things like the Pendleton Act.
Grover Cleveland
He was the democratic presidential candidate for the 1884 election. His republican opponent, James G. Blaine, was involved in several questionable deals, but he had an illegitimate child. Consequently, the election turned into a mudslinging contest. He won, becoming the first democratic president since Buchanan. He took few initiatives, but he was effective in dealing with excessive military pensions. He placated both North and South by appointing some former Confederates to office, but sticking mostly with Northerners. Cleveland also forced Congress to discuss lowering the tariff, although the issue could not be resolved before he was defeated by Benjamin Harrison in the 1888 election.
Benjamin Harrison
called "Young Tippecanoe" because of grandfather William Henry Harrison. Republican elected president in 1888. Opponent, Grover Cleveland. had more popular votes but Harrison put in office because of more electoral votes; pro-business, pro-tariff
Cheap Money
This is the theory that more printed money meant cheaper money. Therefore prices would be the same with more money out, making it easy to pay off debts. Creditors thought the exact opposite, however, thinking that it would mean harder to pay debts.
Hard Money/Sound Money
The metallic or specie dollar is known as this. It was extremely important during the late 1860's and early 1870's, especially during the Panic of 1873. It was in opposition with "greenbacks" or "folding money." The issuing of the "greenbacks" was overdone and the value depreciated causing inflation and the Panic of 1873. These advocates looked for the complete disappearance of the "folding money."
Gilded Age
The Gilded Age was a period in US history 1877-1900 that seemed alright on the outside but was politically corrupt internally. This period, although tainted by various political schemes, led to the development of many new industries.
spoils system
This political system popularized by Andrew Jackson in the 1830's where the person elected to office appoints people to office regardless of merit or ability, usually as a reward for assistance in campaigning. Extremely popular during the Gilded Age (1869-1889) and it led to much corruption in politics.
This slogan was a strong campaign slogan used by the Republicans in the presidential elections of 1868. It was used to blame the Democrats for the Civil War which cost the lives of many Americans. This was the first time that the Civil War was used in a presidential election. It was also a great example of the political "mudslinging" of the era.
Tweed Ring
A group of people in New York City who worked with and for Burly "Boss" Tweed. He was a crooked politician and moneymaker. This group supported all of his deeds. The New York Times finally found evidence to jail Tweed. Without Tweed the group did not last. These people, the "Bosses" of the political machines, were very common in America for that time.
Credit Mobilier Scandal
A railroad construction company that consisted of many of the insiders of the Union Pacific Railway. The company hired themselves to build a railroad and made incredible amounts of money from it. In merely one year they paid dividends of 348 percent. In an attempt to cover themselves they paid key congressmen and even the Vice-President stocks and large dividends. All of this was exposed in the scandal of 1872.
Whiskey Ring
In 1875 Whiskey manufacturers had to pay a heavy excise tax. Most avoided the tax, and soon tax collectors came to get their money. The collectors were bribed by the distillers. This group had robbed the treasury of millions in excise-tax revenues. The scandal reached as high as the personal secretary to President Grant.
Resumption Act
Crime of '73
When Congress stopped the coinage of the silver dollar against the will of the farmers and westerners who wanted unlimited coinage of silver. With no silver coming into the federal government, no silver money could be produced. The whole event happened in 1873. Westerners from silver-mining states joined with debtors in demanding a return to the " Dollar of Our Daddies." This demand was essentially a call for inflation, which was solved by contraction (reduction of the greenbacks) and the Treasury's accumulation of gold.
Bland-Allison Act
GAR: Grand Army of the Republic
This was an organization formed by the Union veterans at the end of the American Civil War in 1866. Its main goal was to aid fellow veteran's families, and to try to obtain pension increases. In 1890, they had over 400,000 members. They also adopted Memorial Day in 1868. The Republican party was influenced by them greatly until 1900.
A political machine led by Roscoe Conkling of New York in the late 19th Century. Their goal is to seek power in government. They also supported the spoils system.
This was a republican political machine, headed by James G. Blane 1869. This group pushed republican ideals and were almost a separate group that existed within the party.
Compromise of 1877
During the electoral standoff in 1876 between Hayes (Republican) and Tilden (Democrat). This agreement meant that the Democrats reluctantly agreed that Hayes might take office if he ended reconstruction in the South.
Pendleton Act of 1833
This was what some people called the Magna Carta of civil-service reform. It prohibited, at least on paper, financial assessments on jobholders. It created a merit system of making appointments to government jobs on the basis of aptitude rather than who you know, or the spoils system. It set up a Civil Service Commission, chaired with administering open competitive examinations to applicants for posts in the classified service. The people were forced, under this law, to take an exam before being hired to a governmental job position.
Election of 1884
James G Blaine was nominated by the Republicans, while Grover Cleveland was the Democratic nominee. The Independent Republicans, known as "Mugwumps," supported Cleveland, which cost Blaine the election. The Democrats controlled the House, while the Republicans dominated the Senate.
The Era of Good Stealings
The time period where railroad promoters cheated gullible customers, stock-market investors were a cinder in the public eye, and too many judges and legislators put their power up for hire.
Liberal Republican Revolt
This uprising marked a turning point in Reconstruction history. They split the Republican Party, supporting the Republican southern policy while attacking regular republicans on several key issues and denouncing Grantism and the spoils system.
Hayes/Tilden election of 1876
This presidential electing resulted in neither Democrat Samuel Tilden nor Republican Rutherford Hayes receiving the 185 electoral votes necessary to become president. There were 20 disputed votes, and a Congressional committee gave all of these to Hays, making him president. In exchange, he ended military rule of the South.
Jay Gould and Jim Fiske
They attempted to corner the gold market in 1869 with the help of Grant’s brother-in-law. When gold prices tumbled, Gould and Fiske salvaged their own fortunes. Unfortunately, investors were ruined. Grant’s reputation was tarnished and could not be restored.
"New Immigration"
They were a more recent group of immigrants coming into the United States that consisted of Italians, Slavs, Greeks, Jews, and Armenians. They came from both Southern and Eastern Europe, and also from the Middle East. In the 1890s, their numbers first began to increase, and the numbers continued to increase for the next three decades. Most of the immigrants came from peasant and poor backgrounds and boosted America’s foreign-born population by 18 million. They were often discriminated against.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
He founded a University in Tennessee. He was a big man with little education but he established a shipping-land transit across Nicaragua after the gold rush. He built a railway that connected New York to Chicago in 1873. He offered superior service at low rates and was extremely successful.
Thomas Edison
A deaf man who invented the phonograph and by 1900 it was used in over 150,000 homes. His invention made going to the symphony obsolete. He also invented the light bulb. This invention changed the way of life for thousands of Americans.
Andrew Carnegie
Steel king; integrated every phase of his steel-making operation. Ships, railroads, ect. pioneered "Vertical Integration" ; his goal was to improve efficiency by making supplies more reliable controlling the quality of the product at all stages of production and eliminating the middle man
John D. Rockefeller
He was a man who started from meager beginnings and eventually created an oil empire. In Ohio in 1870 he organized the Standard Oil Company. By 1877 he controlled 95% of all of the refineries in the United States. It achieved important economies both home and abroad by it's large scale methods of production and distribution. He also organized the trust and started the Horizontal Merger.
J. P. Morgan
He was a banker who financed the reorganization of railroads, insurance companies, and banks. He bought out Carnegie and in 1901 he started the United States Steel Corporation.
Terence V. Powderly
He was an Irish-American leader of the Knights who won many strikes for the eight-hour workday. He led the Knights to become a major power in gaining rights for the workers in factories.
Samuel Gompers
He is responsible for the formation of one of the first labor unions. The American Federation of Labor worked on getting people better hours and better wages. The formation of this triggered the formation of various others that would come later.
This is an informal agreement between a group of people or leaders of a company to keep their prices high and to keep competition low. The Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 made railroads publicly publish their prices and it outlawed the this agreement.
Vertical Integration
Horizontal Integration
A technique used by John D. Rockefeller. It is when you act of joining or consolidating with ones competitors to create a monopoly. Rockefeller was excellent with using this technique to monopolize certain markets. It is responsible for the majority of his wealth.
It is an economic tool devised late in the 1800's. It was pioneered by men such as Andrew Carnegie of the steel industry and John Rockefeller of the oil industry. The purpose of a trust is to eliminate competition in business. One powerful company will have control of the stocks of many smaller companies in the same line of business, creating a monopoly. The monopoly allows price-fixing and benefits all companies involved. Trusts were outlawed in the early 1900's.
Mary Baker Eddy
She founded the Church of Christ (Christian Science) in 1879. Preached that the true practice of Christianity heals sickness. (No need for a doctor, if have enough faith can heal self). Wrote a widely purchased book, "Science and Health with a key to the Scriptures".
Charles Darwin
An English Naturalists who wrote the Origin of the Species in 1859. His theory stated that in nature the strongest of a species survive, the weaker animals died out leaving only the stronger of the species. Through this process of natural selection the entire species improved.
Booker T. Washington
An ex-slave who saved his money to buy himself an education. He believed that blacks must first gain economic equality before they gain social equality. He was President of the Tuskegee Institute and he was a part of the Atlanta Compromise. Washington believed that blacks should be taught useful skills so that whites would see them as useful.
Horatio Alger
a popular writer of the Post-Civil War time period. He was a Puritan New Englander who wrote more than a hundred volumes of juvenile fiction during his career; the famous "rags to riches" theme.
Mark Twain
He was America's most popular author, but also renowned platform lecturer. He lived from 1835 to 1910. Used "romantic" type literature with comedy to entertain his audiences. In 1873 along with the help of Charles Dudley Warner he wrote The Gilded Age. This is why the time period is called the "Gilded Age". The greatest contribution he made to American literature was the way he captured the frontier realism and humor through the dialect his characters use.
"gilded age"
Given its name by the novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley, it is a time period which criticized the lobbyists, swindlers, politicians who took bribes, and those who got rich in the postwar boom. The period was characterized by industrial production, westward expansion, immigration, and urban growth, as well as strikes, depressions, despair and bitterness, buoyancy, and free-spending. The span of this era ranges from the end of the Civil War, 1869, to the turn of the century.
a philosophy in which you hate immigrants and have much patriotism
This is when wealthy millionaires give back some of the money they have earned to benefit society. The money would be sent to benefit the libraries, the arts, and the colleges. An example of two of the most famous donators would be Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.
W.E.B. Du Bois
The first Black to get a Ph.D. from Harvard University, demanded complete equality for Blacks and action now, and he also founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910. Many of his differences with Booker Washington reflected the contrasting life experiences of southern and northern Blacks.
Gospel of Wealth
Carnegie was an American millionaire and philanthropist who donated large sums of money for public works. His book argued that the wealthy have an obligation to give something back to society.
Social Gospel
These ideas were preached by many people in the 1880s and said that due to the social environment poor people sometimes could not help their situation. This caused some churches to get involved in helping the poor, but some disagreed and didn't think that they should be helped because it was their fault.
In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, which dealt with the idea of evolution, an idea that strictly conflicted with the literal interpretation of the Bible. This idea was called Darwinism and those who believed in it were called Modernists. They were disgraced by the church but as time went by more liberal thinkers were able to reconcile Darwinism and Christianity.
Social Darvinsim
It is a theory developed in the late 19th century by which individuals and societies believed that people, like all other organisms compete for survival and success in life. It was believed that human progress depended highly on competition. Those who were best fit for survival would become rich and powerful, and the less fit in society would be poor and the lower classes. Many felt that this theory was expounded by Charles Darwin, but in reality, they misinterpreted his words.
Yellow Jounalism
Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst were kwon as the lurid yellow press. Strong trumpeted the superiority of Anglo-Saxon civilization and summoned Americas to spread their religion and their values to the backward people. They were opposite then the View of virile Americans like Theodore Roosevelt and congressman Henry Cabot Lodge were interpreting Darwinism.
Joseph Pulitzer
He was a large newspaper publisher. In the newspaper circulation wars of the 1890s, he was one of the leading combatants. His chief opponent was William Randolph Hearst. The two used every tactic, including sensational yellow journalism, to encourage people to buy their papers.
William Randolph Hearst
Through dishonest and exaggerated reporting, William Randolph Hearst's newspapers whipped up public sentiment against Spain, actually helping to cause the Spanish-American War. Hearst was quite willing to take credit for this, as his New York City newspaper testified in an 1898 headline: "How Do You Like the Journal’s War?"
Sitting Bull
One of the leaders of the Sioux tribe. He was a medicine man " as wily as he was influential." He became a prominent Indian leader during the Sioux Was from 1876-1877.( The war was touched off when a group of miners rushed into the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1875.) The well-armed warriors at first proved to be a superior force. During Custer's Last Stand in 1876, Sitting Bull was " making medicine" while another Indian, Crazy Horse, led the Sioux. When more whites arrived at the Battle of Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull and the other Sioux we forced into Canada. The Sioux will return later and lead the "Ghost Dance" revival.
George A. Custer
Chief Joseph
He was chief of the Nez Perce Indians of Idaho. People wanting gold trespassed on their beaver river. To avoid war, and save his people he tried retreating to Canada with his people. They were cornered 30 miles from safety and he surrendered in 1877
He was the leader of the Apaches in Arizona and New Mexico, fought against the white man, who was trying to force the Apaches off of their land. Geronimo had an enormous hatred for the whites. He was, however, eventually pushed into Mexico where he surrendered
Joseph F. Glidden
1874 invented a superior type of barbed wire and in 1883 the company was producing 600 miles of the product each day; the barbed wire was used against trespassing cattle
James B. Weaver
He was a general during the Civil War. He was chosen as the presidential candidate of the Populist party. He was a Granger with and an excellent public speaker. He only ended up getting three percent of the popular votes, which is really a large number for a third party candidate.
Oliver H. Kelly
He was an energetic Mason from Minnesota. He was the National Grange of the Patron's of Husbandry's leading spirit. The Grange's primary objectives were to stimulate the minds of the farm people by social, educational, and fraternal activities. The Grange was organized in 1867. He had picnics, musical events, and lectures trying to appeal to enough of the farm people to reach his goals of self-improvement.
Mary Elizabeth Lease
Sioux Wars
These ango-saxon and Indian clashes lasted from 1876-1877. These were spectacular clashes between the Sioux Indians and white men. They were spurred by gold-greedy miners rushing into Sioux land. The white men were breaking their treaty with the Indians. The Sioux Indians were led by Sitting Bull and they were pushed by Custer's forces. Custer led these forces until he was killed at the battle at Little Bighorn. Many of the Indian were finally forced into Canada, where they were forced by starvation to surrender.
Native American-Indian tribe; 1870's; group from Arizona and New Mexico led by Geronimo were difficult to control; chased into Mexico by Federal troops; they became successful farmers raising stock in Oklahoma
Ghost Dance
A cult 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 after spreading to the Dakota Sioux. The Ghost Dance led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. This act tried to reform Indian tribes and turn them into "white" citizens. It did little good.
Battle of Wounded Knee
A group of white Christian reformist tried to bring Christian beliefs on to the Indians. Fearing the Ghost Dance American troops were called to go with the reformist. While camped outside of an Indain reservation a gun was fired and the troops stormed the reservation killing Indian men women and children.
Dawes Severalty Act
1887, dismantled American Indian tribes, set up individuals as family heads with 160 acres, tried to make rugged individualists out of the Indians, attempt to assimilate the Indian population into that of the American
Comstock Lode
In 1859, A great amount of gold and silver was discovered in Nevada. The "fifty-niners" rushed to Nevada in their own hopes of getting rich, which caused Nevada to become a state. It provided three electoral votes for President Lincoln.