Key Terms
- bloody shirt campaign
- the strategy of Republican candidates to stress the sacrifices that the nation had to endure in its Civil War against Democratic southern secessionists
- civil service
- the contrast to the spoils system, where political appointments were based on merit, not favoritism
- Coxey’s Army
- an 1894 protest, led by businessman Jacob Coxey, to advocate for public works jobs for the unemployed by marching on Washington, DC
- Farmers’ Alliance
- a national conglomeration of different regional farmers’ alliances that joined together in 1890 with the goal of furthering farmers’ concerns in politics
- Gilded Age
- the period in American history during which materialism, a quest for personal gain, and corruption dominated both politics and society
- Grange
- a farmers’ organization, launched in 1867, which grew to over 1.5 million members in less than a decade
- Half-Breeds
- the group of Republicans led by James G. Blaine, named because they supported some measure of civil service reform and were thus considered to be only “half Republican”
- Mugwumps
- a portion of the Republican Party that broke away from the Stalwart-versus-Half-Breed debate due to disgust with their candidate’s corruption
- Populist Party
- a political party formed in 1890 that sought to represent the rights of primarily farmers but eventually all workers in regional and federal elections
- Stalwarts
- the group of Republicans led by Roscoe Conkling who strongly supported the continuation of the patronage system
- subtreasury plan
- a plan that called for storing crops in government warehouses for a brief period of time, during which the federal government would provide loans to farmers worth 80 percent of the current crop prices, releasing the crops for sale when prices rose