Ch. 15-18 Review Flashcards

Question

Which country did Ulysses S. Grant propose annexing in 1870?

Answer 1

Santo Domingo, now known as the Dominican Republic. Both Grant and the government of Santo Domingo supported annexation, but Congress refused to authorize it.

Answer 2

Under the crop lien system, farm workers estimated the value of their forthcoming crops, and borrowed against it. The failure of a crop would often result in foreclosure of the farm and dispossession of the farmer.

Answer 3

White supremecist terrorist organization founded by Confederate General Nathan Bedfor Forrest, sought to intimidate newly freed Blacks by torture, rape, lynchings, whippings, and destroying Black-owned businesses. During Reconstruction, they operated unabated until Congress passed laws ordering the army to hunt them down.

Answer 4

A series of four separate Force Acts were passed between 1871 and 1875. These were the government’s attempt to make sure that racist white southerners were abiding by the new constitutional provisions found in the 14th and 15th amendments, which were designed to protect the rights of Black people.

Answer 5

October of 1871: President Grant proclaimed 9 counties in the southern state of South Carolina in open rebellion, using the military to suppress violence there, as well as allowing the indefinite detention of suspected rebels without trial. Suspending the writ of habeas corpus allowed President Grant the authority to do this. Actions like these around the south proved valuable as the government destroyed the KKK.

Answer 6

Northerners who came South after the War to operate the Reconstruction governments.

Answer 7

Southerners who supported the Union and Reconstruction.

Answer 8

Organizations in various Southern cities during Reconstruction, mostly headed by Northern blacks; providing education, trained political candidates, registered voters

Answer 9

Passed by Congress In 1872, re-instated civil rights to all but top-ranking Confederates, including the right to vote. Re-enfranchised voters throughout the South promptly elected pro-Confederate/anti-Reconstruciton Democrats to their state governments.

Answer 10

The process of pumping air through molten iron to remove impurities; converts iron into steel, a stronger building material than iron alone. The Process revolutionized the making of steel by significantly lowering the cost of its production.

Answer 11

The owner of the Carnegie Steel Company; Supplied half of all steel used worldwide; consolidated business through vertical integration; optimized prodution thhough the Bessemer process; developed and advanced the "Gospel of Wealth"

Answer 12

Form of business consolidation in which all the aspects of production for a manufactured good are owned by a single person or trust. For instance, Andrew Carnegie’s steel company owned the iron mines where steel originated, the distribution network where steel was sold, and everything in between.

Answer 13

Greenbacks were issued as currency during the Civil War. Since Greenbacks were not backed by specie they were worth less than their value in gold (i.e. $1 in Greenbacks bought less than $1 in gold). Farmers and small businessmen continued to advocate their use after the end of the War because it was cheaper to pay debt using Greenbacks rather than gold. Further, those who supported Greenbacks believed their use increased the price of farm products.

Answer 14

Greenbacks were not backed by specie (gold or silver). Believing that specie-backed dollars would better hold their value, bankers, investors, and established businessmen argued against Greenbacks, contending that dollars backed by specie would better hold their value against inflation.

Answer 15

Passed in 1873, the law prevented the mailing of “obscene” materials via U.S. mail. Included in his list not only pornography but materials discussing abortion and birth control.

Answer 16

Signed by President Grant, the Coinage Act ended bimetallism, placing the United States once more on the gold standard. Farmers and small businessmen considered the Act a crime because it would increase interest rates and restrict the money supply. Instead, they supported both Greenbacks and bimetallism.

Answer 17

A monetary standard by which the value of the monetary unit is defined as both the value of an amount of silver and the value of an amount of gold.

Answer 18

increase the money supply by having the government print more Greenbacks and coin silver. President Grant disagreed and threatened to veto any legislation to that effect. By increasing the money supply, the farmers hoped that it would cause inflation. Inflation is good for people who owe a lot of debt, since it’s easier to pay off debt, since debt doesn’t grow with inflation.

Answer 19

New York Stock Exchange stopped trading for the 1st time in history; Unemployment hit 14%; 18,000 businesses failed; 25% of all railroads shut down

Answer 20

An alliance of reform-minded farmers and organized labor founded in 1873. Advocated for the printing of Greenbacks to ease the economic depression, labor reforms, and government regulation of the railroads. Although it failed to become a lasting political force, the Greenback Party did win a few state and Congressional elections. Several of the Party’s leaders, however, went on to be prominent voices in the Populist Party.

Answer 21

During Reconstruction, many blacks left churches dominated or monitored by whites, and joined black churches in large numbers. Most religious blacks joined the African Methodist Church or the Negro Baptist Church.

Answer 22

In 1869, two stockbrokers, Jay Gould and James Fisk, attempted to enrich themselves by cornering the gold market. To make the scheme work, they bribed President Grant’s brother-in-law to convince the President to have the Treasury Department stop selling gold. Discovering the scheme, Grant ordered the Treasury Department to begin selling gold on “Black” Friday, September 29, 1869. The price of gold fell, and numerous businessmen were ruined.

Answer 23

The Crédit Mobilier was a land company associated with the Union Pacific Railroad. Beginning in the late 1860s, the Crédit Mobilier owners provided stock to Congressmen in an effort to protect themselves from Congressional oversight and investigation. The scandal was uncovered by the New York Sun in 1872 during President Grant’s re-election campaign. Although Grant had no knowledge of the affair, it did much to tarnish his reputation.

Answer 24

The Whiskey Ring was another of the many scandals of President Grant’s administration. During the scandal, federal tax collectors were bribed by liquor manufacturers to defraud the federal government of millions in tax revenue. While Grant did not know of the scheme, the discovery of the scandal in 1875 was seen by many as a sign of corruption endemic to Republican administrations.

Answer 25

Democrat: Samuel J. Tilden, prominent Northern reformer and a former New York Governor. Republican: chose Rutherford B. Hayes, a Civil War General, Congressman, and Governor from Ohio (though many Republicans supported Grant for a third term).

Answer 26

Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic Party’s candidate. Tilden received 184 electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes’s 165 electoral votes. 185 votes were needed for election.The results from three militarily occupied Southern states (Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina), however, were disputed, as was one electoral vote from Oregon, for a total of 20 votes. These 20 votes were eventually awarded to Hayes to secure his winning the election.

Answer 27

Although Grant had already started the withdrawal of US troops from the South, Hayes had agreed to remove the remaining troops in the South once becoming President. By doing this, Hayes essentially ended Reconstruction in the South, beginning the era of Jim Crow racism.

Answer 28

A collective name for laws passed in the South after Reconstruction to discriminate against and disenfranchise blacks. Jim Crow Laws included school segregation, poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses.

Answer 29

Only permitted a potential voter to cast his ballot if his grandfather had also voted. Enacted as part of the Jim Crow Laws, in practical effect, grandfather clauses disenfranchised blacks, whose grandfathers had been slaves, and unable to vote.

Answer 30

A tax that must be paid before one is allowed to vote. Since the poor were often unable or unwilling to pay the poll tax, they were effectively disenfranchised. The poll tax was used as part of the package of Jim Crow Laws enacted after Reconstruction, and affected poor whites as well as blacks.

Answer 31

Proposed changes in the Southern economy in the post-Civil War era: ncreased laissez-faire policies; emphasized economic diversity; supported greater industrialization; criticized over-reliance on cotton as the South’s sole economic driver

Answer 32

Native American who in 1877, refused to vacate their lands in the Pacific Northwest and move to an Idaho reservation. The Army’s attempt to force the Nez Perce onto reservation land led to a 1,150-mile pursuit, 18 engagements, and four major battles, until the Nez Perce Tribe surrendered. Chief Joseph, the most famous of the Nez Perce, gave his famous speech “I Will Fight No More Forever” at the surrender.

Answer 33

Prompted by the influx of gold miners to South Dakota during the Black Hills Gold Rush in 1876; The Sioux resented the incursion of white miners onto their reservations. Led by Chief Crazy Horse, the Sioux had several early successes, including wiping out General Custer and the Seventh U.S. Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn; By 1877, an overwhelming number of forces and a loss at the Battle of Wolf Mountain induced the Sioux to surrender and return to their reservations.

Answer 34

Term coined by novelist Mark Twain to describe the political corruption and growing economic disparity that characterized the American government following the end of Reconstruction

Answer 35

A belief that natural market forces, rather than the government, should regulate the marketplace; the ideas contradictions were increasingly exposed in the late 1800s, as consolidation reduced natural competition, prompting the first government regulations of business and the economy.

Answer 36

Civil Service Reform; this set him at odds with Stalwart Republicans, who continued to support the spoils system. Hayes was trying to remove corruption by requiring that people take an exam in order to get a government job.

Answer 37

During the 1870s and 1880s, railroads proliferated and were significantly overbuilt. To make a profit, many of these railroads reached discount agreements with frequent customers. To make up the shortfall, the railroads charged high rates to farmers, whose areas were often only serviced by one railroad line.

Answer 38

an anti-competitive measure that takes place when competitors agree that they will match prices. During the later half of the 1800s, competing railroads often agreed amongst themselves on the prices that they would charge farmers for shipping produce, leading to increased costs to the farmers.

Answer 39

A cooperative association of farmers. Originally founded as an educational organization, the Grange fought against unfair prices charged by railways.

Answer 40

Several states had established “Granger Laws,” which served to regulate the rates charged by railroads, grain elevator operators, etc. Six of these laws came before the Supreme Court. The decisions, known as the Granger Cases, upheld the Granger Laws, protecting farmers from railroad price-fixing. This would only last for 9 years since the court case Wabash v Illinois virtually destroyed the Granger Laws since it ruled that an individual state could not regulate railroads that entered multiple states since those railroads were considered interstate commerce.

Answer 41

Both food and durable goods were shipped throughout the country via railway; The development of the refrigerated railroad car meant that meat could be shipped long distance; An increased number of canned goods meant that vegetables could be shipped long distances without spoilage, improving people's diet; Shopping by catalog became the new standard, allowing distant farm families to purchase goods, which were then shipped to them via railroad.

Answer 42

Rise of mass consumption; economic growth as manufactured goods were shipped throughout the country; exponential growth in the coal and steel industries; Creation of more complex forms of corporate structuring such as trusts and corporations; the standardization of time, resulting in the four times zones in the US today.

Answer 43

In 1877, the largest railroads announced a 10% cut in wages for all workers as a result of the ongoing Panic of 1873 that turned into a Great Depression. Workers struck first in West Virginia, and the strike spread to 10 other states. In sympathy, workers in several other industries struck as well. The strike ended when President Rutherford B. Hayes used federal troops to put down the strike. Some 100 strikers were killed. This showed how serious the government was willing to get in order to force people back to work.

Answer 44

President of the New York Central Railroad during the 1860s and 1870s. The New York Central dominated rail traffic between Chicago and New York City, and was the result of the merger of several smaller railway lines in 1867.

Answer 45

The goal of federal Indian policy was assimilation, through the de-humanization of the Native Americans, incorporating them into the American way of life. Assimilation policies led to attempts to convert the Indians forcibly to Christianity, and to Indian boarding schools, where young Indians were taken from their families and forcibly taught to forget their religion, their language, and their history.

Answer 46

Students were forced to change their names, stop speaking their native languages, and cut their hair. Students were also forced to convert to Christianity, sometimes by physical assoult and torture. 186 Native American children died while attending due to the physical and mental abuse inflicted upon them by the American government.

Answer 47

Hunt described the treatment of Indians at the hands of the U.S. government and detailed broken treaties. To date the government has violated 500 treaties with Native American groups since its founding in 1776.

Answer 48

Lynching: Lynchings had become common in the South. Wells, a prominent speaker and social advocate, investigated lynchings and published Southern Horrors: Lynch Laws in All Its Phases, which led to some minor reforms, although lynchings would continue through the Civil Rights Era; One of the founding members of the NAACP, Wells advocated for black equality in both law and fact.

Answer 49

Founded the Tuskegee Institute in 1881, a vocational school for Blacks in Alabama. The Tuskegee Institute taught skilled trades, preached the value of hard work, and contended that Black empowerment would come through employment and self-advancement.

Answer 50

Passed in 1882; banned immigration from China for a period of 10 years, extended an additional 10 years in 1892. Passed under pressure of Western nativists; in the West, Chinese miners and laborers made up a large proportion of the workforce, filling jobs which Western workers felt belonged to them.

Answer 51

A nationwide movement that thrived in the 1880s and 1890s, encompassing many regional farmers’ movements such as the Grange, the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance and Cooperative Union, and the National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union.

Answer 52

The Court held that while states had the right to regulate railroads that operated solely within their borders, only Congress could regulate long-haul shipping rates, i.e. rates charged for shipping goods from one state to another, which is considered interstate commerce. The Court’s decision limited the early rulings in the Granger Cases (1877) to only railroads that stayed within that state. Individual states could not regulate railroads going through multiple states since that was considered interstate commerce.

Answer 53

Coined money (typically silver or gold).

Answer 54

Soft-money: argued that paper money should be issued that was not tied to the amount of gold in the U.S. Treasury. By the 1880s, soft-money advocates also pushed for increased silver coinage; Hard Money: supporters wanted to limit the amount of currency in circulation to the amount of gold possessed by the U.S. Treasury.

Answer 55

Extended the evolutionary theory of “survival of the fittest” to the world of business, and justified the concentration of large amounts of wealth into the hands of a small few by contending that it benefited the country and humanity as a whole. Essentially, Social Darwinists believed that wealth belonged in the hands of those best suited to control it, and any effort by the government to regulate the distribution or accumulation of wealth was not only an infringement on liberty, but deliterios for the human species.

Answer 56

Invented the telephone in 1876.

Answer 57

Elisha Otis’s safety elevator made large buildings practical, while the use of the Bessemer Process to create a steel framework enabled buildings to exceed 10 stories.

Answer 58

A political organization within New York City’s Democratic Party. Between the 1860s and the early 1900s, Tammany Hall was the headquarters of New York’s machine politics, where political bosses such as Boss Tweed distributed political patronage in exchange for votes and large amounts of cash.

Answer 59

A political organization controlled by a “boss” or small leadership group, which can motivate a large “get out the vote” effort. The boss commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state. Due to their electoral control, political bosses can distribute government positions and government construction projects, often in exchange for bribes or political support.

Answer 60

a notorious political boss in New York City in the 1860s and 1870s. Through his control of Tammany Hall, Tweed was able to bilk New York City out of at least $45 million. Most of Tweed’s support came from newly arrived Irish immigrants, whom he courted by distributing food and clothing. Tweed and other political bosses represented the corruption that led Mark Twain to call the period “The Gilded Age.”

Answer 61

Led by New York’s Roscoe Conkling, the Stalwart Republicans supported the spoils system, under which elected officials distributed jobs to friends and supporters.

Answer 62

Favored civil service reform. Both Rutherford B. Hayes (the 1876 Republican nominee) and James A. Garfield (the 1880 Republican nominee) were Half-Breeds.

Answer 63

While Garfield was a Half-Breed Republican and in support of civil service reform, Arthur was chosen to appeal to Stalwart Republicans, who supported the spoils system.

Answer 64

Began the decline of the spoils system on the national level by providing a selection of government employees based on competitive exams, rather than based on personal, politcal, or monetary connections/transactionswho you knew.

Answer 65

The Supreme Court held that Congress could not outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals. The Court reasoned that the Fourteenth Amendment only applied to state acts, but not to the acts of private individuals; put an end to the efforts of Radical Reconstructionists to ensure black equality in the South, and endemic Southern discrimination continued into the 1960s.

Answer 66

Established the first regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission. Congress charged the Commissionwith ensuring that railroad rates were “reasonable and just.”

Answer 67

The second large-scale national labor union, reaching a million members in the 1880s. Advocated for arbitration (rather than strikes) to: end disputes between workers and employers; establish an eight-hour work day; end child labor; increase government regulation of business

Answer 68

During a peaceful rally for the 8-hr day in Haymarket Square in Chicago, an unknown terrorist (likely an agent provocateur in the pay of the Pinkertons, Chicago PD, and welathy business interests), threw a bomb, which injured seven policemen, and instigating a massive riot. Americans condemned the labor union movement, believing it too radical and prone to violence. Membership in the Knights of Labor plummeted and the union movement as a whole received a severe setback.

Answer 69

Combination of craft unions founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers. By the 1900s had 1 mil members. Took a much more concilatory position then the National Labor Union or the Knights of Labor. Denounced violent labor militancy, revolutionary rhetoric, and political radicalism. While they ocassionally deployed labor militancy (strikes, walkouts, lockouts), they sought peaceful resolution through collective bargaining, in which all employees negotiated with mamagement together. The AFL achieved succes because they represented workers that could not be easily replaced by scabs.

Answer 70

Policy through which the US government forced Native Americans to sell their “excess land”, oftentimes underpaying when purchasing land from them. To encourage them to sell their land, they promised Native Americans their citizenship but only if they sold their land. By doing this, the US government was hoping to encourage them to farm the land, despite that most of the land was not suitable for farming.

Answer 71

When two companies are joined into one, e.g. Company A and Company B are consolidated to form Company C. Mergers were first used during the railway boom after the Civil War, as companies were consolidated to increase efficiency and to reduce duplication of railway lines.

Answer 72

When a member of the board of directors of one company also serves on the board of directors of a competitor. By serving on both boards, the director is able to coordinate policy between the two, harming competition. Often used by corporations during the late nineteenth century, interlocking directorates became illegal with the Clayton Act (1914).

Answer 73

Under the control of John D. Rockefeller, was the largest oil producer in the United States in the late 1800s, with ownership of 95% of the market. Rockefeller grew Standard Oil through the use of horizontal integration; stockholders of competitors sold their stock to Rockefeller, giving him control of their company. Using this tactic, Rockefeller then drove the price of oil down, forcing other competitors out of business.

Answer 74

Where a single person or trust owns virtually all of one aspect in the production process; usually brought about by consolidating several smaller companies in the same field into one cooperating enterprise; ohn D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company controlled virtually all the oil refining capability in the United States in the late 1800s by using horizontal integration. The control of this crucial phase in the production of oil gave him power over the entire market for oil.

Answer 75

Used to combine several smaller competitors into large business concerns, the resulting company being known as a “trust.” The tactic eliminated competition between the firms. Trusts existed in a number of industries, including sugar, whiskey, meat, leather, and tobacco.

Answer 76

Towns in which most, if not all, the real estate and buildings are owned by a company that employs the populace of the town. During the late nineteenth century, industrialists such as George Pullman, who owned most of the luxury railroad cars during this time, built company towns that provided workers with indoor plumbing, sewers, and gas heating. Workers in this town still had to pay the company for rent though. In this way, the company could also make money off of the workers too.

Answer 77

An agreement between a worker and an employer that requires the worker to agree not to join a union. If the worker joins one, he would be automatically fired from the job.

Answer 78

Workers hired during a strike to keep a company’s production flowing, and can be used by a company to prolong and defeat a strike by the company’s workforce.

Answer 79

The wealthy had a duty to better society by aiding the poor. Carnegie did not, however, advocate merely providing the poor with money. Rather, Carnegie believed that it was the duty of the wealthy to provide means by which the poor could achieve success, such as by endowing free libraries, schools, and universities. In order to do this, wealthy people must be uninhibited taxation or regulatoin to accumulate as much wealth as possible.

Answer 80

Published in 1890, How the Other Half Lives contained photographs of the living conditions in New York’s tenements and slums. The shock value of Riis’s photographs drew attention to the squalid living conditions of the “other half.”

Answer 81

the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited all restraints of trade and unfair methods of competition. The new act was ambiguously written and rarely enforced by the government, so it did little to weaken the monopolies that crushed competition during the Gilded Age.

Answer 82

In 1892, workers at Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Mill went on strike when manager Henry Clay Frick announced a 20% reduction in wages. Frick instituted a lockout and brought in scabs. When strikers attacked the scabs, Frick hired Pinkerton detectives to remove the strikers. In the ensuing violence 16 workers died and 150 were injured. To stop the violence, the governor of Pennsylvania (Robert Pattinson, of Twighlight fame) ordered out the state militia, who joined the mill’s management in protecting scabs. The strike was crushed.

Answer 83

Argued that America’s success was due to the American Frontier: As Americans moved west, each succeeding generation discarded elements of European political and social culture which were no longer valuable, such as established churches and a small group of landowners; becoming instead individualistic, independent, and less tolerant of hierarchy.

Answer 84

Pullman was the largest maker of railroad cars in the country. In 1894 George Pullman announced a reduction in wages, but not a corresponding reduction in rents at the Pullman company town. Workers went on strike and sought the assistance of Eugene V. Debs, head of the American Railway Union. Throughout the country, Debs instructed workers to refuse to load, link, or carry any train that had a Pullman car attached, and the nation’s transportation infrastructure ground to a halt.

Answer 85

The Pullman Strike of 1894 paralyzed the nation’s rail network, as workers refused to load, link, or carry any train with a Pullman car. Rail owners attached mail cars to the Pullman cars, and then claimed to the U.S. government that the strikers were blocking the mail, a violation of U.S. law. With the approval of Grover Cleveland, rail owners sought and received an injunction from the courts, which required workers to stop striking. Workers and the American Railway Union leadership who refused (including Eugene V. Debs) were jailed.

Answer 86

Eugene V. Debs was the head of the American Railway Union, who had been arrested in the Pullman Strike of 1894 for violating a court injunction ending the strike. Debs argued that the use of court injunctions to stop strikes was impermissible. The Court disagreed, and justified the use of injunctions to avoid interruptions of interstate commerce during strikes. The decision had two results: 1) allowed corporations to destroy labor unions through the use of the courts; 2) Debs concluded that more radical solutions were needed to assist labor, and turned to socialism.

Answer 87

focus on class struggle (between elite/capatlists & labor/workers); advocates collective ownership of property -> owned by state/workers;

Answer 88

Revolutionary expression of socialism = the only way to attain worker power is through revolution