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In 1876, Republican Rutherford Hayes beat Democrat Samuel Tilden in electoral vote, 185-184. A special electoral commission was put together to investigate allegations of corruption. The Republicans made an offer to the Democrats in the South that they would remove the troops that still remained from the civil war. The image included with this depicts the Tilden vs. Hayes election and was meant to depict the harsh feelings people had towards Hayes when it was published on February 17, 1877.
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After the assassination of President Garfield, VP Chester Arthur became president of the United States. Without having to worry about paying back political favors, Arthur set out to make some changes. One of the biggest controversies of the time was the high tariffs on imported goods which were set in order to get Americans to only buy from big businesses in the U.S. Arthur created the U.S. Tariff Commission in order to counteract this but he was met with a lot of pushback from his own party.
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The Populist Party formed in 1891 and quickly became a major third party. They were able to get a significant number of votes in the 1892 election. Their struggles were depicted in the preamble given at the convention in 1892 when Ignatius Donnelly stated that they were tired of the two political parties fighting for power while the people of the US suffered. This was significant because this was the beginning of the citizens working to really make a change in politics in the United States.
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Theodore Roosevelt became president after William McKinley was assassinated shortly after he took office. This was extremely significant because of Roosevelt's progressive attitude. He was the first president in many decades to make substantial efforts to control trusts, intervene in industrial businesses, stop child labor, and protect the environment. In his 2nd inaugural address, he stated that relations with other countries were important but relations with each other were the most important.
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The United States entering WWI was politically significant because Woodrow Wilson had spent his entire first term and his campaign for his second term adamantly against getting involved in the war. After the Zimmerman Telegram was intercepted and detailed Germany's plan to help Mexico take back the land it had lost to the US, in exchange for Mexico's alliance with Germany, Wilson decided that war was necessary and congress, reluctantly, agreed.
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In the couple years after WWI ended, many things were going haywire in the states. The Red Scare, racial tensions, and a flu epidemic seemed to be causing chaos at home. The election of 1920, gave Americans a chance to choose a new leader that would meet their new needs. Wilson had been what America needed when he was elected but now they needed a president who focus on economic prosperity and who would return the US back to a state of 'normal.' Warren G. Harding was elected in 1920.
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President Harding had a philosophy to run the United States like a business. He initiated tax cuts, created a budget, and worked to keep international relations peaceful.