Chapter 23: Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age – Big Picture Themes
1. President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration was riddled with corruption. Grant himself was clean, but many others were not and Grant was unwilling to fire them.
2. The political parties fell into the trap of serving themselves more than the people. Their top priority was to get their party reelected. As a result, little actually got done in the government.
3. Tensions rose over race and ethnicity. When the U.S. Army pulled out of the South as part of the Compromise of 1877, Reconstruction was over and southern blacks were left to fend for themselves. Also, anti-Chinese sentiment ran high and the Chinese were actually banned from immigration.
4. The government did reach the billion dollar level for the first time. This was largely due to military pension plans. The plans were very popular and revealed the goal of the legislators—pass something that will get me reelected.
5. Populism started. This was a farmer and worker movement that sought to clean up the government, bring it back to the people, and help the working man out.
Chapter #23: Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age
Ulysses S. Grant
Thomas Nast
Horace Greely
Roscoe Conkling
James G. Blaine
Rutherford B. Hayes
Samuel Tilden
James A. Garfield
Chester A. Arthur
Charles J. Guiteau
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
Cheap Money
Hard or Sound Money
Gilded Age
Bloody-Shirt
Tweed Ring
Credit Mobilier Scandal
Whiskey Ring
Resumption Act
Crime of '73
Bland-Allison Act
Half-Breed
Compromise of 1877
Civil Service Reform
Pendleton Act of 1833
Thomas B. Reed
"Billion Dollar" Congress
Pension Act
GUIDED READING QUESTIONS.
The "Bloody Shirt" Elects Grant
Know: Ulysses S. Grant,
1. Was General Grant good presidential material? Why did he win?
Know: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, Black Friday, Boss
2. "The Man in the Moon...had to hold his nose when passing over
A Carnival of Corruption
Know: Credit Mobilier, Whiskey Ring, William Belknap
3. Describe two major scandals that directly involved the Grant administration.
Know: Liberal Republicans, Horace Greeley
4. Why did Liberal Republicans nominate Horace Greeley for the presidency in 1872? Why was he a less than ideal candidate?
Depression and Demands for Inflation
Know: Panic of 1873, Greenbacks, Hard-money, Crime of '73, Contraction, Soft-money, Bland-Allison Act
5. Why did some people want greenbacks and silver dollars? Why did others oppose these kinds of currency
Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age
Know: Gilded Age, Grand Army of the Republic, Stalwarts, Roscoe Conkling, Half-Breeds, James G. Blaine
6. Why was there such fierce competition between Democrats and Republicans in the Gilded Age if the parties agreed on most economic issues?
The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876
Know: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel J. Tilden
7. Why were the results of the 1876 election in doubt
The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction
Know: Compromise of 1877, Electoral Count Act, David Davis, Civil Rights Cases (1883),
8. How did the end of Reconstruction affect African-Americans?
The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post-Reconstruction South
Know: Redeemers, sharecropping, tenant farming, Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson
9. Analyze the data in the lynching chart on page 513.
Know: Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Denis Kearney, Coolies, Chinese Exclusion Act
10. What was the significance of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877?
Know: James A. Garfield, Charles J. Guiteau,
11. What new type of corruption resulted from the Pendleton Act?
Know:
12. Why did most Chinese immigrants come to
The Blaine-Cleveland Mudslingers of 1884
Know: James G. Blaine, Tattooed man, Mugwumps, Grover Cleveland, Ma, ma where's my pa?, Rum, Romanism and Rebellion
13. Explain how character played a part in the presidential election of 1884.
14. Assess the following statement: "As president, Grover Cleveland governed as his previous record as governor indicated he would."
15. What were the reasons behind
The Billion Dollar Congress
Know: Thomas Reed, Civil War pensions, McKinley Tariff Act of 1890
16. Explain why the tariff was detrimental to American farmers.
The Drumbeat of Discontent
Know: Populists
17. What was the most revolutionary aspect of the Populist platform? Defend your answer with evidence.
Know: Grover Cleveland, Depression or 1893, William
18. What could
Know: Wilson Gorman Tariff
19. Is the characterization of the Gilded Age presidents as the “forgettable presidents” a fair one? Explain.
Varying Viewpoints: The Populists: Radicals or Reactionaries?
20. Were the Populists romanticized, or were they truly “authentic reformers with genuine grievances?”
2 comments:
Kathleen Gobin & Michelle Ganpat
Ulysses S. Grant- great soldier, with no political experience, became president 1868.
Thomas Nast- gifted cartoonist illustrate Tweed in New York Times, mocked him, ridicule.
Horace Greely- despite the worst of the scandals not having been revealed yet, and reformers organized the Liberal Republican Party and nominated the dogmatic Horace Greeley.
Roscoe Conkling- Republican infighting was led by him
James G. Blaine- (Half-Breeds), who bickered and deadlocked their party.
Rutherford B. Hayes- Republicans nominate him, dubbed the “Great Unknown” because no one knew much about him,
Samuel Tilden- gained fame by leading the prosecution of Tweed, and he would later use this fame to become the Democratic nominee in the presidential election of 1876.
James A. Garfield- a man from Ohio who had risen to the rank of major general in the Civil War.
Chester A. Arthur- a notorious Stalwart (supporter of Roscoe Conkling) was chosen: Chester A. Arthur of New York.
Charles J. Guiteau- who, after being captured, used an early version of the “insanity defense” to avoid conviction (he was hanged anyway).
Grover Cleveland- The Democrats chose Grover Cleveland as their candidate but received a shock when it was revealed that he might have been the father of an illegitimate child.
Benjamin Harrison- Republicans turned to him whose grandfather was William Henry Harrison.
Cheap Money- supporters that wanted greenbacks to be printed en mass again, to create inflation.
Hard or Sound Money- supporters of “hard-money” (actual gold and silver) persuaded Grant to veto a bill that would print more paper money
Kathleen Gobin & Michelle Ganpat
Gilded Age- “The Gilded Age,” was a term coined by Mark Twain hinting that times looked good, yet if one scratched a bit below the surface, there were problems.
Bloody-Shirt- The phrase implied that members of the Democratic Party (which garnered much of their support from the "Solid South") were responsible for the bloodshed of the war and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. (wikipedia)
Tweed Ring- (AKA, “Tammany Hall") of NYC, headed by “Boss” Tweed, employed bribery, graft, and fake elections to cheat the city of as much as $200 million.
Credit Mobilier Scandal- a railroad construction company that paid itself huge sums of money for small railroad construction, tarred Grant.
Whiskey Ring- robbed the Treasury of millions of dollars, and when Grant’s own private secretary was shown to be one of the criminals, Grant retracted his earlier statement of “Let no guilty man escape.”
Resumption Act- pledged the government to further withdraw greenbacks and made all further redemption of paper money in gold at face value, starting in 1879.
Crime of '73- Westerners from silver mining states joined with debtors in assailing the Crime of '73, demanding a return to the "Dollar of our Daddies".
Bland-Allison Act- instructed the Treasury to buy and coin between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month.
Half-Breed- bickered and deadlocked their party.
Compromise of 1877- For the North—Hayes would become president if he agreed to remove troops from the remaining two Southern states where Union troops remained (Louisiana and South Carolina), and also, a bill would subsidize the Texas and Pacific rail line.
For the South—military rule and Reconstruction ended when the military pulled out of the South.
The Compromise of 1877 abandoned the Blacks in the South by withdrawing troops, and their last attempt at protection of Black rights was the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which was mostly declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the 1883 Civil Rights cases.
Civil Service Reform
Pendleton Act of 1833- partially divided politics from patronage, but it drove politicians into “marriages of convenience” with business leaders. Thomas B. Reed- was a large, tall man, a tremendous debater, and very critical and quick man.
"Billion Dollar" Congress- one that legislated many expensive projects.
Pension Act- the so-called Magna Charta of civil-service reform (awarding of government jobs based on ability, not just because a buddy awarded the job), prohibited financial assessments on jobholders, including lowly scrubwomen, and established a merit system of making appointments to office on the basis of aptitude rather than “pull.”
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