Apush Chapter 23 Summary

Chapter 23 Study Guide

Vocabulary:

1. Paralysis – A state of helpless stoppage, inactivity, or inability to act.

2. Coalition – A temporary alliance of political factions or parties for some specific purpose.

3. Corner – To gain exclusive control of a commodity in order to fix its price.

4. Censure – An official statement of condemnation passed by a legislative body against one of its members or some other official of government. While severe, a censure itself stops short of penalties or expulsion, which is removal from office.

5. Amnesty – A general pardon for offenses or crimes against a government.

6. Civil service – Referring to regular employment by government according to a standardized system of
Tweed Ring – 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.

28. Credit Mobilier – 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.

29. Whiskey Ring – In 1875 Whiskey manufacturers had to pay a heavy excise tax. Most avoided the tax, and soon tax collectors came to get their money. The collectors were bribed by the distillers. The Whiskey Ring had robbed the treasury of millions in excise-tax revenues. The scandal reached as high as the personal secretary to President
Half-Breed – A half-breed was a republican political machine, headed by James G. Blaine c1869. The half-breeds pushed republican ideals and were almost a separate group that existed within the party.

38. Compromise of 1877 – 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.

39. Pendleton Act – 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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