A | B |
Ellis Island | immigration processing station in New York Harbor through which some 17 million people passed between 1892 and 1924 |
Angel Island | immigrant processing center in San Francisco Bay though which many Chinese immigrants passed before 1940 |
melting pot | idea that the United States was a mixture of people of different cultures and races who were blended together to become Americans by abandoning their native languages and customs |
nativism | overt favoritism toward native born Americans |
Chinese Exclusion Act | banned entry of Chinese with few exceptions between 1892 and 1943 |
Gentlemen's Agreement | deal between the Japanese and US government to limit Japanes emigration in exchange for concessions from the US government |
urbanization | growth of cities |
Americanization movement | designed to assimilate people of wide ranging cultures into the dominant culturete |
tenements | multi-family urban dwellings that were often clumped together in dirty, dangerous slum areas |
mass transit | transportation systems designed to move large numbers of people along fixed routes (train, subway) |
Social Gospel movement | preached salvation through service |
settlement houses | provided assistance to people in slum areas, particularly immigrants |
Jane Addams | social reformer and advocate of settlement houses |
political machine | an organized group that controlled the activities of a political party in a city |
graft | the illegal use of political influence for personal gain |
Boss Tweed | head of Tammany Hall, New York's powerful Democratic political machine |
Tweed Ring | a group of corrupt politicians who defrauded New York City |
patronage | giving of public jobs to people who had helped a candidate get elected |
civil service | government administration |
Rutherford B. Hayes | Elected in 1876, tried to reform the spoils system |
spoils system | system of patronage in which the winners of elections gave jobs to their supporters |
James A. Garfield | president who sought civil service reform; was assasinated by a disgruntled job seeker in 1881 |
Chester A. Aurthur | became president upon Garfield's death and became a reformer |
Pendleton Civil Service Act | made appointment to government jobs based on a merit system |
Grover Cleveland | only president to serve two non-consecutive terms |
Benjamin Harrison | favored high tariffs; elected president in 1888; got the McKinley Tariff Act passed |