APUSH (PAGEANT)
CHAPTER 23 WORKSHEET
QUESTIONS
1. How did Henry Adams view U. S. Grant? Did he have the makings of a good president? Why was he elected?
Henry Adams viewed Grant as a failure of evolution and a person not worthy of being president of the US. Grant did not have the makings of a good president because he had no political skills and his cultural background was breathtakingly narrow. The only reason Grant was elected was because he was popular war hero from the Civil War.
2. Why does your text refer to the era following the Civil War as the "Era of Good Stealings?"
The text refers to the era following the Civil War as the "Era of Good Stealings" as a play on the "Era of Good Feelings" from the time of James Monroe. Instead of like that time, where America was united after the war of 1812, America is filled with corruption and greed with many stealing from the federal government as well as social rights being stolen from not only blacks but also others such as the Chinese.
3. Who was Boss Tweed? What role did Thomas Nast have in Tweed's demise?
William Tweed, head of Tammany Hall, NYC's powerful democratic political machine in 1868. Between 1868 and 1869 he led the Tweed Reign, a group of corrupt politicians in defrauding the city. He was responsible for the construction of the NY court house; actual construction cost $3million and charged the project cost taxpayers $13million. Thomas Nast found evidence and published it through a cartoon so that everyone could easily understand, while at the same time he pilloried Tweed mercilessly after spurning a heavy brbe to desist.
4. Explain the Credit Mobilier Scandal. How did President Grant react to the "rottenness" in his administration?
The Credit Mobilier scandal was a group Union Pacific Railroad insiders who had formed the Credit Mobilier construction company. They then hired themselves at inflated prices to build the railroad line, earning dividends as high as 348 percent. The Credit Mobilier scandal was later exposed by a newspaper. President Grant reacted to the "rottenness" in his administration by volunteering to write statement to the jury that helped exonerate the thief, his private secretary.
5. Describe George Washington Plunkitt's "honest graft."
George Washington Plunkitt describes a "honest graft" as is taking advantage of the money-making opportunities that might arise in the future, while pursuing the public interest and one's personal interests at the same time.
6. Who were the Liberal Republicans? Why did the Democrats also nominate Horace Greeley for president? Was he a good choice? Explain.
The Liberal Republicans were a group of reform minded citizens. The Democrats also nominated Horace Greeley because the Democrats in the both the North and South were pleased when Greeley asked fro clasped hands across the "bloody chasm." Greeley was not a good choice because like Grant, he had no experience in politics, a temper, and was highly unqualified to be in a high political position.
7. Describe the election of 1872. What footprints did the Liberal Republicans leave behind?
The election of 1872 was Grant from the Republican Party versus Greeley from the Liberal Republicans with support of the Democratic party. The mud-slinging campaign consisted of the Republicans who denounced Greeley as an atheist, a communist, a free-lover, a cosigner of Jefferson Davis's bail bond, etc. and the Democrats derided Grant as an ignoramus, a drunkard, and a swindler. In the end of the voting, the count in the electoral column was 286 to 66 and in the popular column 3,596, 745 to 2,843,446. The Liberal Republicans left behind footprints such as Liberal Republican agitation, which frightened the regular Republicans into cleaning their own house before they were thrown out of it. The Republican were also frightened enough to pass a general amnesty act, removing political disabilities from all but some five hundred former Confederate leaders,and move to reduce high Civil War tariffs, which allowed to fumigate the Grant's administration.
