Chapter 23: Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age 1869-1896
Overview: As America modernized, politics played an increasingly important role in the lives of the common men.
Diverse groups participated in the political arena as they attempted to reform the social, political and economic
problems of the newly industrial nation. Taking its name from the novel, The Gilded Age, the era referred to the
decades from the 1870s to the 1890s where Americans struggled to battle corruption in a morally deteriorating
society.
Vocabulary Terms: you will NOT do notecards. You will use these terms in the
below assignments.
“waving the bloody shirt”
U.S. Grant
Tweed Ring
Thomas Nast
greenbacks
Gilded Age
Patronage
Rutherford B. Hayes
Compromise of 1877
“Reedemers”
crop-lien system
Jim Crow laws
Plessy v. Ferguson
Chinese Exclusion Act
James A. Garfield
Chester Arthur
Pendleton Act
Wilson-Gorman Tariff
GAR
“forgettable presidents”
“Czar” Reed
McKinley Tariff
Populist Party
literacy tests/poll taxes
William Jennings Bryan
J.P. Morgan
Reading Questions (Vocabulary terms should be highlighted throughout answer)
ANSWER THESE AND INCLUDE ANY TERMS ABOVE IN YOUR ANSWER THAT YOU
CAN!
1. Explain the term “The Gilded Age” and tell where it originated.
2. What was the driving force behind Gilded Age politics?
3. Explain how corruption in government, especially as it related to big business, energized the public to demand
reform. Specifically address at least two examples of corruption. What, if any, reforms were made?
4. Explain how racism and nativism were used to justify violence and policies of discrimination. Specifically
address at least two examples.
5. Explain the role of the government’s “laissez faire” policy on the economy.
6. Explain at least two economic challenges the nation faced between 1865 and 1898.
Reading Notes
(Vocabulary terms should be highlighted throughout outline AND you should write
AT LEAST 5 important facts for EACH topic listed in the left.
The “Bloody
Shirt” Elects
Grant
The Era of
Good Stealings
A Carnival of
Corruption
The Liberal
Republican
Revolt of 1872
Depression,
Deflation, and
Inflation ***
Pallid Politics
in the Gilded
Age
DO NOT DO THIS SECTION
The HayesTilden
Standoff, 1876
The
Compromise of
1877 and the
End of
Reconstruction
The Birth of
Jim Crow in the
PostReconstruction
South***
Class Conflicts
and Ethnic
Clashes
Garfield and
Arthur
The BlaineCleveland
Mudslingers of
1884
“Old Grover”
Takes Over
Cleveland
Battles for a
Lower Tariff
The BillionDollar
Congress
The Drumbeat
of Discontent
Cleveland and
Depression
Cleveland
Breeds a
Backlash