Unit 7 Modules 6.5, 6.9, 6.10

Question 1

Term created by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner to describe the late nineteenth century. It implies the age was a shell covering corruption and materialism of the era’s superrich under the surface.

Answer 1

Gilded Age

Question 2

The commission investigated interstate shipping, required railroads to make their rates public, and could bring lawsuits to force shippers to reduce “unreasonable” fares. Regulatory commission in 1887

Answer 2

Interstate Commerce Commission

Question 3

passed by Congress in 1883, creating merit-based exams for most civil service jobs when Calls for civil service (government administration) reform began. This was during Chester Arthur’s Presidency in honor of the previous president, Garfield’s assassination. This Established the merit system, causing jobs to be filled through competitive exams and getting more qualified people to hold government jobs. Within 100 years, 90% of federal jobs would be classified.

Answer 3

Pendleton Act

Question 4

President of the Election of 1880, who was a Half-breed Republican. He was killed by Guiteau, who wanted to be US Ambassador to France but was denied. His assassination resulted in the Pendleton Act (1883)

Answer 4

James Garfield

Question 5

1894 strike by workers against a railcar company. When the strike disrupted rail service nationwide, threatening mail delivery, President Grover Cleveland ordered federal troops to get the railroads moving again.

Answer 5

Pullman Strike

Question 6

Led the Pullman Strike with workers belonging to the American Railway Union when Pullman cut wages without correspondingly reducing the rents of his employees.He helped establish the Socialist Party of America, appealing for working-class support by advocating the creation of a more just and humane economic system through the ballot box, not by violent revolution. He appealed not only to industrial workers but also to dispossessed farmers and miners

Answer 6

Eugene Debs

Question 7

The Republican-controlled Congress of 1890 that spent huge sums of money to promote business and other interests.

Answer 7

Billion Dollar Congress

Question 8

Severe economic downturn triggered by railroad and bank failures. The severity of the depression, combined with the failure of the federal government to offer an adequate response, led to the realignment of American politics.

Answer 8

Depression of 1893

Question 9

Religious movement that advocated the application of Christian teachings to social and economic problems. The ideals of the social gospel inspired many progressive reformers.

Answer 9

Social Gospel

Question 10

Democrats nominee, a farmers’ advocate who favored silver coinage and made the “Cross of Gold” speech. He hailed from Nebraska and reflected small-town agricultural America and its values, could not win over the swelling numbers of urban immigrants who considered his world alien to their experience. The fear that his free silver policy would lead to inflation, increasing the costs of goods and services without a corresponding bump in factory wages, many urban workers did not vote for him. He won the support of the Populist Party, and prosecuted John Scopes (1925) for teaching evolution in a Tennessee high school (1860-1925)

Answer 10

William Jennings Bryan

Question 11

When Republican William McKinley defeated Democratic-Populist “Popocrat’’ William Jennings Bryan. This marked a turning point in the political history of the nation. This transformed the Republicans into the majority party in the United States. Voting patterns shifted with this, giving Republicans the edge in party affiliation among the electorate not only in this contest but also in presidential elections over the next three decades. This broke the political stalemate of the preceding two decades. This persuaded voters that the Democratic Party represented the party of depression and that Republicans stood for prosperity and progress. The Republican win helped gold discoveries in Alaska helped increase the money supply and foreign crop failures raised American farm prices

Answer 11

Election of 1896

Question 12

1894 protest movement led by him. he and five hundred supporters marched from Ohio to Washington, D.C., to protest the lack of government response to the depression of 1893.

Answer 12

Coxey’s Army

Question 13

An impassioned address by William Jennings Bryan the Democratic presidential nominee during the national convention of the Democratic party, in which he attacked the “gold bugs” who insisted that U.S. currency be backed only with gold and supported the coinage of silver. His beliefs were popular with debt-ridden farmers.

Answer 13

“Cross of Gold” speech

Question 14

1896 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the legality of Jim Crow legislation. The Court ruled that as long as states provided “equal but separate” facilities for white and black people, Jim Crow laws did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Answer 14

Plessy vs. Ferguson

Question 15

African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcards or shop in white owned stores. She also ran crusade against violence and lynching

Answer 15

Ida Wells

Question 16

1890 act that increased the amount of silver the U.S. government was required to purchase to back production of federal dollars. The goal of this annual silver purchase was to raise inflation, and thereby raise the prices farmers were paid for their crops.

Answer 16

Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 1890

Question 17

an organization founded in 1867 to meet the social and cultural needs of farmers. they took an active role in the promotion of the economic and political interests of farmers.

Answer 17

The Grange

Question 18

Led by Congressman James Blaine. They were Moderates and rejected the patronage system and supported the spoils system. They would vote for both the Republicans and Democrats.

Answer 18

Half Breed

Question 19

Led by Senator Roscoe Conkling, they are Conservatives who hated the civil reforms, and supported the political machine and patronage system. A Division in the Republican Party

Answer 19

Stalwarts

Question 20

A political man and was the most notorious machine boss, head of Tammany Hall (NYC’s powerful democratic political machine in 1868) who carried corruption to new extremes, and cheated the city out of more than $100 million. He helped use fraud to win elections for politicians.

Answer 20

Boss Tweed

Question 21

New York City’s political machine during the nineteenth century. It swindled the city out of a fortune while supervising the construction of a lavish three-story courthouse in lower Manhattan. The building remained unfinished in 1873, when Tweed was convicted on fraud charges and sent to jail.

Answer 21

Tammany Hall

Question 22

Late nineteenth-century statutes that established legally defined racial segregation in the South. This legislation helped ensure the social and economic disenfranchisement of southern black people. This was designed to enforce segregation of Black people from whites and discriminated against Blacks.

Answer 22

Jim Crow Laws

Question 23

A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867. This allowed poor whites to avoid literacy and poll tax laws and vote

Answer 23

Grandfather Clause

Question 24

Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences. This was often actively perpetuated and enforced through “black codes” and Jim Crow era legislation which persisted into the latter half of the twentieth century.

Answer 24

Segregation

Question 25

Tax that requires each person to pay a fee in order to cast a ballot in elections. The taxes were designed to disenfranchise the poor and minority voters who could often not afford to pay.

Answer 25

Poll Tax

Question 26

asked questions designed to trip up black would-be voters. This was a test given to persons to prove they can read and write before being allowed to register to vote, and would be very biased.

Answer 26

Literacy Test

Question 27

The 25th president of the United States serving until his assassination six months into his second term. He led the U.S. to victory in the Spanish-American War, raised protective tariffs that promoted American industry, and maintained the gold standard. He was a republican that argued for the gold standard and defeated the Populist Party, Brian, in the election of 1896.

Answer 27

William McKinley