-
Political Machines
A Political machine is a party organization headed by a single boss or small autocratic group. The rapid growth of American cities in the 19th century, a result of both immigration and migration from rural areas, created huge problems for city governments. In those conditions, political machines-such as Tammany Hall, run by boss William Magear Tweed in New York City-were able to build a voter following, especially among immigrant groups, by performing such favors as providing jobs or housing. -
Monroe Doctrine
On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe used his annual message to Congress for a bold assertion. Along with such other statements as George Washington’s Farewell Address and John Hay’s Open Door notes regarding China, this ‘Monroe Doctrine’ became a cornerstone of American foreign policy. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams had played the most important role in developing the wording of the declaration, and he also influenced the doctrine’s overall shape. -
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny is a term for the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. This attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico. It also helped to fuel industrialization by gaining access to plethora of raw materials. -
Indian Removal
With the exception of a small number of Seminoles still resisting removal in Florida, by the 1840s, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, no Indian tribes resided in the American South. Through a combination of coerced treaties and the contravention of treaties and judicial determination, the United States Government succeeded in paving the way for the westward expansion and the incorporation of new territories as part of the United States. -
Urbanization
Between 1870 and 1920, industrialization and urbanization expanded in the United States faster than ever before.During this period, urbanization spread out into the countryside and up into the sky, thanks to new methods of building taller buildings. Having people concentrated into small areas accelerated economic activity, producing more industrial growth. Industrialization and urbanization thus reinforced one another, augmenting the speed with which such growth would have otherwise occurred. -
Bessemer Process
The bessemer process sped up the steel making process and made it more efficient. This led to a increased demand for labor. Due to the need for cheap labor child labor was often used. -
Robber Barons (Captains of Industry)
A negative term for some of the powerful 19th century U.S. men who made fortunes by monopolizing huge industries through the formation of trusts, engaging in unethical business practices, exploiting workers, and paying little heed to their customers or competition. Alternatively, those who credit the growth of American capitalism during this period to the indefatigable pursuit of success and material wealth are likely to celebrate these entrepreneurial tycoons as “captains of industry.” -
Homestead Act
Signed into law in May 1862, the Homestead Act opened up settlement in the western United States, allowing any American, including freed slaves, to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land. By the end of the Civil War, 15,000 homestead claims had been established, and more followed in the postwar years. Eventually, 1.6 million individual claims would be approved; nearly ten percent of all government held property for a total of 420,000 square miles of territory. -
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony was a pioneer crusader for the woman suffrage movement in the United States. She was also the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote. -
The Gilded Age
By the century's end, the nation's economy was dominated by a few, very powerful individuals. In 1850, most Americans worked for themselves. By 1900, most Americans worked for an employer.The growth was astounding. From the end of RECONSTRUCTION in 1877 to the disastrous PANIC OF 1893, the American economy nearly doubled in size. New technologies and new ways of organizing business led a few individuals to the top. -
Social Gospel
Advocates of the movement interpreted the Kingdom of God as requiring social as well as individual salvation and sought the betterment of industrialized society through application of the biblical principles of charity and justice. The Social Gospel was popular among liberal Protestant ministers. Labour reforms constituted the Social Gospel’s most prominent concerns. -
Industrialization
Industrialization is the development of industry on an extensive scale. The new technology and Industrial Revolution Inventions resulted in the mechanization of industry and transformed America from an agricultural to an industrial society. Industrialization changed the lives of Americans forever, bringing about complex social and economic changes. -
Nativism
Nativism is a construct scholars employ to explain hostility and intense opposition to an internal minority on the grounds of its foreign connections. Citizens celebrated their "manifest destiny" to bring the benefits of democracy and republican government to the Pacific. Racial nativism became crucial in the debate over imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century. -
Eugene V. Debs
He entered politics as a Democratic City Clerk in 1879, and in 1885 he was elected to the Indiana State Assembly. Debs organized the American Railway Union, which waged a strike against the Pullman Company of Chicago in 1894. After embracing socialism, he became the party’s standard-bearer in five presidential elections. -
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.The Chinese Exclusion Act required the few non-laborers who sought entry to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate. -
Haymarket Riot
On May 4, 1886, a labor protest rally near Chicago’s Haymarket Square turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police.The Haymarket Riot was viewed a setback for the organized labor movement in America, which was fighting for such rights as the eight-hour workday. At the same time, the men convicted in connection with the riot were viewed by many in the labor movement as martyrs. -
Dawes Act
The new policy focused specifically on breaking up reservations by granting land allotments to individual Native Americans. Individuals reasoned that if a person adopted white clothing and ways, and was responsible for his own farm, he would gradually be assimilated into the population. It would then no longer be necessary for the government to oversee Indian welfare in the paternalistic way it had been obligated to do. -
William Jennings Bryan
Born in Illinois, William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) became a Nebraska congressman in 1890. He starred at the 1896 Democratic convention with his Cross of Gold speech that favored free silver, but was defeated in his bid to become U.S. president by William McKinley. In his later years, Bryan campaigned for peace, prohibition and suffrage, and increasingly criticized the teaching of evolution. -
Ida B. Wells
Activist and writer Ida B. Wells-Barnett first became prominent in the 1890s because she brought international attention to the lynching of African Americans in the South. After the lynching of three of her friends in 1892, Wells became one of the nation’s most vocal anti-lynching activists. She also helped launch the National Association of Colored Woman. -
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a very successful steel tycoon and later philanthropist. He founded and owned the Carnegie Steel Corporation, which was a very successful corporation due to their control in every part of the steel process, from raw materials to finished product. However, some felt that his corporation's success came at the expense of the workers. -
Klondike Gold Rush
In August 1896 when Skookum Jim Mason, Dawson Charlie and George Washington Carmack found gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada's Yukon Territory, they had no idea they they would set off one of the greatest gold rushes in history. Beginning in 1897, an army of hopeful gold-seekers, unaware that most of the good Klondike claims were already staked, boarded ships in Seattle and other Pacific port cities and headed north toward the vision of riches to be had for the taking. -
Yellow Journalism
Yellow journalism was a style of newspaper reporting that emphasized sensationalism over facts. In the late 19th century it was one of many factors that helped push the United States and Spain into war in Cuba and the Philippines, leading to the acquisition of overseas territory by the United States.The rise of yellow journalism helped to create a climate conducive to the outbreak of international conflict and the expansion of U.S. influence overseas, but it did not by itself cause the war. -
Initiative & Referendum
In political terminology, the initiative is a process that enables citizens to bypass their state legislature by placing proposed statutes and, in some states, constitutional amendments on the ballot. The first state to adopt the initiative was South Dakota in 1898.If enough valid signatures are obtained, the question goes on the ballot or, in states with the indirect process, is sent to the legislature. -
Progressivism
Progressive reformers made the first comprehensive effort within the American context to address the problems that arose with the emergence of a modern urban and industrial society. The U.S. population nearly doubled between 1870 and 1900. Urbanization and immigration increased at rapid rates and were accompanied by a shift from local small-scale manufacturing and commerce to large-scale factory production and colossal national corporations. -
Populism
Populism, political program or movement that champions the common person, usually by favorable contrast with an elite. Populism usually combines elements of the left and the right, opposing large business and financial interests but also frequently being hostile to established socialist and labour parties. Populism was prevalent during the early 1900s due to the gap between the poor and the rich. -
Theodore Roosevelt
Roosevelt served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt confronted the bitter struggle between management and labor head-on. He became known as the great “trust buster” for his strenuous efforts to break up industrial combinations under the Sherman Antitrust Act. -
Recall
The people can petition and vote to have an elected official removed from office. This made elected officials more responsible and sensitive to the needs of the people. It also led to less corrupt officials. -
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union. He was among the first attorneys to be called a "labor lawyer." He also was known for defending teenaged thrill killers Leopold and Loeb, and John T. Scopes in the Scopes Monkey Trial. -
Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, and short-story writer, whose works reflect socialistic views. He gained public notoriety in 1906 with his novel The Jungle, which exposed the deplorable conditions of the U.S. meat-packing industry. It caused a public outcry and ultimately led to the passing of the Meat Inspection Act in 1906. -
Muckrakers
The muckrakers provided detailed, accurate journalistic accounts of the political and economic corruption and social hardships caused by the power of big business in a rapidly industrializing United States. The name muckraker was pejorative when used by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in his speech of April 14, 1906. But muckraker also came to take on favorable connotations of social concern and courageous exposition. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
The first Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906. The purpose was to protect the public against adulteration of food and from products identified as healthful without scientific support. The original Pure Food and Drug Act was amended in 1912, 1913, and 1923. A greater extension of its scope took place in 1933. -
Dollar Diplomacy
The goal of diplomacy was to create stability and order abroad that would best promote American commercial interests. Knox felt that not only was the goal of diplomacy to improve financial opportunities, but also to use private capital to further U.S. interests overseas. “Dollar diplomacy” was evident in extensive U.S. interventions in the Caribbean and Central America, especially in measures undertaken to safeguard American financial interests in the region. -
16th Amendment
Passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, the 16th amendment established Congress's right to impose a Federal income tax. It was far-reaching in its social as well as its economic impact. The income tax amendment became part of the Constitution by a curious series of events that ended with political maneuvering. -
17th Amendment
The Seventeenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1913, provided for the direct election of U.S. senators by citizens. This successful struggle marked a major victory for progressivism—the early twentieth-century political movement dedicated to pushing government at all levels toward reform. In addition to serving the longer-range goals of the reformers, the campaign was widely perceived as corruption in the election of senators by state legislatures. -
Federal Reserve Act
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 established the Federal Reserve System as the central bank of the United States to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. The law sets out the purposes, structure, and functions of the System as well as outlines aspects of its operations and accountability. Congress has the power to amend the Federal Reserve Act, which it has done several times over the years. -
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was known as the mother of social network. She founded the Hull-House in an underprivileged area of Chicago. She also founded the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919. -
18th Amendment
By the late 1800s, prohibition movements had sprung up across the United States, driven by religious groups who considered alcohol a threat to the nation. In 1920 Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. Prohibition led to a rise in organized crime, as the bootlegging of alcohol became an ever-more lucrative operation. -
19th Amendment
Ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote—a right known as woman suffrage. At the time the U.S. was founded, its female citizens did not share all of the same rights as men, including the right to vote. It was not until 1848 that the movement for women’s rights launched on a national level with a convention in Seneca Falls, New York, organized by abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880). -
Tea Pot Dome Scandal
The Tea Pot Dome Scandal of the 1920s shocked Americans by revealing an unprecedented level of greed and corruption within a presidential administration. The scandal involved ornery oil tycoons, poker-playing politicians, illegal liquor sales, a murder-suicide, a womanizing president and a bagful of bribery cash delivered on the sly. In the end, the scandal would, by legal precedent, empower the Senate to conduct rigorous investigations into government corruption. -
Immigration & the American Dream
During 1870-1920, there was a plethora of immigrants to the US. With the completion of Ellis Island in 1965, the immigration process streamlined. Immigrants came to the US for a new chance at life, to escape the prosecution, the famine or the struggle of their home countries. The "American Dream."
