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The Gilded Age

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The Gilded Age was a period in US history c1869-1889 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.

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Rutherford B. Hayes

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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.

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James A. Garfield

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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.

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Half-breeds

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A half-breed was a republican political machine, headed by James G. Blane c1869. The half-breeds pushed republican ideals and were almost a separate group that existed within the party.

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Stalwarts

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they were the ones who favored the spoils system of political patronage, were lead by New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. The battle over patronage split the Republican party into two factions

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James G. Blaine

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a Republican Congressman, senator, secretary of state under Garfield, and a presidential candidate under the Republican Half-Breeds, who ran against Conkling. He was considered one of the most popular Republicans of his time, and was elemental in his party's success in elections.

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Andrew Carnegie

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decided to build his own steel mill in 1870. His philosophy was simple: "watch the costs and the profit will take care of themselves." At the age of 33, when he had an annual income of $50,000, he said, "beyond this never earn, make no effort to increase fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes."

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Gospel of Wealth

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book by Andrew Carnegie that argued that the wealthy have an obligation to give something back to society

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U.S. Steel

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leading steel producer at the time, first billion-dollar corporation

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Ulysses S. Grant

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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 Grants presidency, several scams passed through Congress. Grant 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.

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Bloody-Shirt

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The slogan "bloody-shirt" 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.

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Thomas Nast

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Thomas Nast 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.

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Chester A. Arthur

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He was the Vice President of James A. Garfield. After President Garfield was assassinated, September of 1881, Arthur 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, suprised 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.

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Credit Mobilier Scandal

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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.

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Tweed Ring

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A group of people in New York City who worked with and for Burly "Boss" Tweed. He was a crooked politician and money maker. The ring supported all of his deeds. The New York Times finally found evidence to jail Tweed. Without Tweed the ring did not last. These people, the "Bosses"of the political machines, were very common in America for that time

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Compromise of 1877

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During the electoral standoff in 1876 between Hayes (Republican) and Tilde(Democrat). The Compromise of 1877 meant that the Democrats reluctantly agreed that Hayes might take office if he ended reconstruction in the South.

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Grover Cleveland

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Cleveland was the democratic presidential candidate for the 1884 election. His republican opponent, James G. Blaine, was involved in several questionable deals , but Cleveland had an illegitimate child. Consequently, the election turned into a mudslinging contest. Cleveland 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.

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Pendleton Act of 1833

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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.

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Samuel Tilden

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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.

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James Fisk

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In 1864 he became a stock broker in New York and was employed by Daniel Drew as a buyer. He aided Drew in the Erie War against Cornelius Vanderbilt for control of the Erie Railroad. This resulted in Fisk and Jay Gould becoming members of the Erie directorate, and subsequently, a well-planned raid netted Fisk and Gould control of the railroad. The association with Gould continued until Fisk's death.

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Jay Gould

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United States financier who gained control of the Erie Canal and who caused a financial panic in 1869 when he attempted to corner the gold market (1836-1892)

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Roscoe Conkling

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Roscoe Conkling (October 30, 1829 Albany, New York - April 18, 1888) was a politician from New York who served both as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He was the leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party and the last person to refuse a U.

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crop-lien system

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The crop-lien system is a credit system that became widely used by farmers in the United States in the South from the 1860s to the 1920s

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populism

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the political doctrine that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite

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Plessy v. Ferguson

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A Supreme Court decision in 1896 that ruled "separate but equal" facilities for African Americans were constitutional under the Four teenth Amendment, it had the effect of legalizing segregation and led to the passage of much dis criminatory legislation known as Jim Crow laws.

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Chinese Exclusion Act

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The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed into law by Chester A. Arthur on May 8, 1882, following revisions made in 1880 to the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. Those revisions allowed the U.S.

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Alexander Graham Bell

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Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 - August 2, 1922) was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.

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Thomas Edison

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Edison: United States inventor; inventions included the phonograph and incandescent electric light and the microphone and the Kinetoscope (1847-1931)

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John D. Rockefeller

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John Davison Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 - May 23, 1937) was an American oil magnate. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897.

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vertical integration

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The combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies

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horizontal integration

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absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level

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assembly line

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An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product much faster than with handcrafting-type methods

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trust

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An organization or company managed by trustees

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injunction

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a formal command or admonition

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Union Pacific Railroad

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The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman.

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Central Pacific Railroad

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construction in the 1860's. Stereoviews, engravings, maps, and documents are treasures of western Americana that illustrate the history

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Bessemer process

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Modern steel is made using technology based on Bessemer's process. Bessemer was knighted in 1879 for his contribution to science.

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Social Darwinism

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The theory, now largely discredited, that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection.

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William Graham Sumner

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William Graham Sumner (October 30, 1840 - April 12, 1910) was an American academic and professor at Yale College. For many years he had a reputation as one of the most influential teachers there.

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New South

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New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a phrase that has been used intermittently since the American Civil War to describe the American South, in whole or in part. The term "New South" is used in contrast to the Old South of the plantation system of the antebellum period.

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Sitting Bull

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a chief of the Sioux; took up arms against settlers in the northern Great Plains and against United States Army troops; he was present at the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) when the Sioux massacred General Custer's troops (1831-1890)

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George A. Custer

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George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 - June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Today he is most remembered for a disastrous military engagement known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

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Chief Joseph

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Joseph: leader of the Nez Perce in their retreat from United States troops (1840-1904)

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Geronimo

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Apache chieftain who raided the white settlers in the Southwest as resistance to being confined to a reservation (1829-1909)

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Helen Hunt Jackson

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Jackson: United States writer of romantic novels about the unjust treatment of Native Americans (1830-1885)

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Sioux Wars

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The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people that occurred in the latter half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, when Indian warriors killed 29 U.S.

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Nez Percé

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he Nez Perce are a tribe of Native Americans who live in the Pacific Northwest region (Columbia River Plateau) of the United States. An anthropological theory says the tribe descended from the Old Cordilleran Culture, which moved south from the Rocky Mountains and west in Nez Perce lands.

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Apache

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Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the American Southwest.

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Ghost Dance

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The Ghost Dance (also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. The traditional ritual used in the Ghost Dance, the circle dance, has been used by many Native Americans since prehistoric times.

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Battle of Wounded Knee

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Convinced that Sitting Bull was going to lead an uprising, the United States Army massacred more than 200 Indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on Dec. 29, 1890. After the incident, the Ghost Dance movement which had been recently revived by Indians rapidly died out.

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Dawes Severalty Act

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The Dawes General Allotment Act was enacted by the U.S. Congress regarding the distribution of land to Native Americans in Oklahoma. It was signed into law February 8, 1887. Named after its sponsor, U.S. Senator Henry L.

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Little Big Horn

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Little Big Horn is an album by jazz cornetist Nat Adderley released on the Riverside label featuring performances by Adderley with Junior Mance, Kenny Burrell/Jim Hall Bob Cranshaw, and Mickey Roker. accessed February 17, 2010

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Buffalo Soldiers

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Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

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Frederick Jackson Turner

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Turner: United States historian who stressed the role of the western frontier in American history (1861-1951)

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Comstock Lode

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The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver and gold ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range.

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Long Drive

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Long drive is a competitive sport where success is derived by hitting a golf ball the farthest. A small but dedicated talent base of golfers populate the world of Long-Drive with the top talent competing professionally in various events and exhibitions.

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Joseph Glidden

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Joseph Farwell Glidden (January 18, 1813 - October 9, 1906) was an American farmer who patented barbed wire, a product that forever altered the development of the American West.

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Barbed Wire

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strong wire with barbs at regular intervals used to prevent passage

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Homestead Act

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The Homestead Act is one of several United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to up to 160 acres (1/4 section, 65 hectares) of undeveloped federal land outside the original 13 colonies.

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Sooner State

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Oklahoma: a state in south central United States

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safety-valve theory

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The safety valve theory was a theory about how to deal with unemployment which gave rise to the Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States.

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