Gilded Age- seems good on the outside but is bad on the inside (1869-1896)

Boss Tweed: leader of Tammany Hall in NY, NY leader of the democratic political machine, political leaders depend on him for votes its not about how many votes you get its about who counts the votes, tampering with votes
It is common with political elections in the Gilded age to “fix” elections to ensure their candidate wins the election, not only in NY but throughout the country
Thomas Nast was the most famous political cartoonist of the Gilded Age, he exposed the practices of Tammany Hall, created the symbols of the Republican and Democratic parties (donkey and elephant). Cartoons supposedly allowed for the capture of Boss Tweed.
Graft: pocketing excess public funds for personal use; tool of corruption
“Debtors fought for inflation creditors fought for deflation”

Grant elected as president (1869-1877) most of the time during reconstruction
Grant was a failure
Panic of 1873, people loosing jobs
Force acts give grant the right to sent troops to dismantle the KKK, he dampens the success and slow their grown in some aspects (comes back in 1890s)
1866 KKK was the first home grown terrorist group first as a social group “when we kept the darkies in their place” the goal of the KKK was to bring down the black race
Freedman’s Bureau
“Waving the bloody shirt” meant that the republicans blamed the democrats for the civil war (Democrats of the time were racist and part of the KKK, Republicans at the time were the supporters of Blacks)
14th amendment (1868)—equality, equal protection under that law, overturned Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
1870, 15th Amendment gives black men the right to vote
President Grants scandals
Whiskey Ring— government wants to put tax on whiskey the distillers went the cabinet