Ulysses S. Grant

Scandals during this President's administration include Crédit Mobilier, the Whiskey Ring, Gould's attempt to corner the gold market, and Trader Post Scandal.

James Garfield

Half-breed Republican President who was assassinated for refusing to give away government jobs

Chester Arthur

Stalwart Republican President who sympathized with reform, helping to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Act

Grover Cleveland

Democrat President who doubled the number of federal jobs requiring exams and was elected to non-consecutive terms

Benjamin Harrison

Stalwart Republican President who filled almost every non-exam job with Republican supporters

William McKinley

Republican President who promised to uphold the gold standard during the 1896 campaign and was backed by wealthy industrialists

Sherman Antitrust Act

Law created to limit the power of monopolies in restraint of competition; allowed federal troops to intervene against Pullman strikers in 1894 who blocked mail cars

Stalwarts

Republicans who strongly defended the spoils and patronage system

Half-breeds

Republicans who favored civil service reform

Tammany Hall

The Democratic Party political machine of 1800s in New York City that used graft, bribery, and rigged elections to rob the city of over $200 million in tax money.

William "Boss" Tweed

Political boss who was an early leader of Tammany Hall

Populist party

Farmers, reformers and labor leaders formed this political party in the elections of 1892 and 1896

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.

Crédit Mobilier

Fraudulent construction company created to take the profits of the Union Pacific Railroad using government funds and gave padded construction contracts to Congress members

National Grange

Organization founded by Oliver H. Kelley that helped improve the lives of isolated farmers

Farmers' Alliance

network of farmers' organizations that worked for political and economic reforms in the late 1800s

Interstate Commerce Act

1887 law passed to regulate railroad and other interstate businesses

Granger laws

State laws enacted in the Midwest in the 1870s that regulated rates charged by railroads

Pendleton Civil Service Act

Federal law that created civil service commission so that hiring and promotion would be based on exam scores rather than patronage, but covered only 10% of federal jobs

Greenbacks

Paper money not backed by gold or silver

Cooperatives

Organizations in which groups of farmers pool their resources to buy and sell goods

Gold standard

Monetary system in which paper money and coins are equal to the value of a certain amount of gold

Bland-Allison Act

1878 law requiring the federal government to purchase and coin more silver

Bimetallism

The use of both gold and silver as a basis for a national monetary system

Kickbacks

When someone "charges" the city for a service but actually overcharges and gives what they overcharged to the political machine

Spoils system

Employment based on rewarding party loyalists and friends

Patronage

Granting favors or making appointments to office in return for political support

Embezzlement

Stealing money or property that has been entrusted to your care

Graft

Illegal use of political influence for personal gain

Nepotism

Favoritism or jobs given to relatives by those in power

Cronyism

The appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications

Trader Post Scandal

Secretary of War William Belknap pocketed bribes from suppliers to the Indian Reservations

Jim Crow laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

Segregation

Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences

Lynching

Putting to death a person by the illegal action of a mob

Atlanta Compromise

Argument that African-Americans should not focus on civil rights or social equality but concentrate on economic self-improvement

W.E.B. DuBois

Rejected the Atlanta Compromise and called for immediate civil and voting rights and equal education for African Americans

Booker T. Washington

Founder of the Tuskegee Institute that created the Atlanta Compromise

Gospel of Wealth

Book written by Andrew Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists

Social Gospel

Protestant movement which preached charity and social responsibility as a means of salvation

Jane Addams

Founder of Hull House and winner of the Nobel Prize for her social work

Settlement houses

Community centers located in the slums and near tenements that gave aid to the poor, especially immigrants

Mark Twain

Realist author and humorist best known for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Jack London

Naturalist author best known for his novels "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang"

Ellis Island

Immigration processing center that open in New York Harbor in 1892

Angel Island

A receiving station on the west coast, active after 1910, and allowed immigrants from Asia to enter the US

Paper sons

Chinese men who entered the country by falsely claiming to be sons of Chinese American citizens

Chinese Exclusion Act

Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate

Steerage

A large open area beneath a ship's deck, often used to house traveling immigrants

Trachoma

Chronic, contagious form of conjunctivitis that typically leads to blindness

William Jennings Bryan

During the 1896 campaign, he promised "Bimetallism" and gave the "Cross of Gold" speech denouncing the Gold Standard

Exodusters

African Americans who moved from the Jim Crow South to Kansas

Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court case that ruled Jim Crow laws were constitutional as long as facilities for whites and African Americans were "separate but equal"

Poll tax

A requirement to be pay before voting

Literacy test

A test given to persons to prove they can read and write before being allowed to register to vote

Grandfather clause

A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.

Mary Church Terrell

Formed the Women Wage Earner's Association and led a boycott against department stores in Washington, D.C. that refused to serve African Americans

Ida B. Wells

African-American journalist who led the fight against lynching by publishing books and articles