Chapter 16: Reconstruction Abandoned
1867-1877

     I. The "Gilded Age"
          A. Purchase of Alaska
          B. Transcontinental Railroad completed
          C. Grant as President 1868-1877

     II. Era of Scandals
          A. In Grant's Administration
               1. Fisk and Gould
               2. Credit Mobilier Company
               3. Salary Grab
               4. Whiskey Ring
          B. Tweed Ring

     III. Panic of 1873
          A. Plight of the unemployed
          B. Distress among farmers

    IV. Women in the 1870s
          A. WCTU

     V. End of Native American Resistance
          A. Grant's "Peace Policy"
          B. Annihilation of the buffalo herds
          C. Battle of the Little Big Horn

Key Terms

     William Seward
     Promontory, Utah
     Union Pacific RR
     Central Pacific RR
     Jim Fisk and Jay Gould
     Credit Mobilier
     Salary Grab
     Whiskey Ring
     Boss Tweed
     Tammany Hall
     Thomas Nast
     Patrons of Husbandry
     Susan B. Anthony
     Victoria Woodhull
     Frances Willard
     George Armstrong Custer

Study Questions

     1. The Grant administration is known for numerous political scandals.  Describe and discuss the major scandals of the time , including major players, and evaluate the role of the president in these affairs.  Note:  one of the most famous scandals of the era did not occur in Washington D.C. and had nothing at all to do with the Republican president Grant.  You may wish to write about this one, too.

     2. Describe the circumstances surrounding the confrontation between Native Americans and the U.S. Army at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.  Who were the ULTIMATE winners of this war?

     3. Explain what caused the Panic of 1873, assess its severity, and describe how it affected farmers and workers.

     4. How did women's lives change in the 1870s?  Do you feel that this was a dramatic period of progress towards women's rights or not?

     5.  The end of the Civil War in 1865 saw the Republicans in firm control of the U.S. government.  By 1876 much of that power had eroded and the election that year was extremely close.  What factors led to this loss of dominance?