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Commonwealth v. Hunt
Commonwealth v. Hunt was a landmark legal decision issued by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the subject of labor unions. Before this decision, based on Commonwealth v. Pullis, labor unions which attempted to close or create a unionized workplace could be charged with conspiracy. In March 1842, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that unions were legal organizations and had the right to organize a strike. -
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish. It controlled the Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854. -
Boss Tweed
William Marcy Tweed, widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notible for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and state. At the height of his influence. Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the Erie Railway, the Tenth National Bank and the New York Printing Company, as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel. -
Contract Labor Law of 1864
The 1864 Contract Labor Law was an act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its Territories and the District of Columbia. -
Andrew Carnegie
Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur and major philanthropist. He migrated to the United States from Scotland as a child. He progressed through several jobs and eventually built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which later merged with Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company and smaller companies to create U.S. Steel. With his fortune, he built Carnegie Hall. He later turned to philanthropy and interests in education founding several other institutions. -
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army was an evangelical Christian church known for charitable work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries. It was founded in 1865 in the United Kingdom by William and Catherine Booth as the East London Christian Mission with a quasi-military structure. -
Burlingame Treaty
The Burlingame Treaty was also known as the Burlingame-Seward Treaty of 1868 which amended the Treaty of Tientsin of 1858. This treaty established formal friendly relations between the United States and China, with the United States granting China Most Favored Nation status. It was signed at Washington in 1868 and ratified at Beijing in 1869. -
Gould and Fiske
Gould and Fiske, also known as the Fisk/Gould scandal, was a financial panic in the United States. In 1869, a group of speculators, headed by James Fiske and Jay Gould, sought to profit by cornering the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange. It was one of several scandals that rocked the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. -
George Washington Plunkitt
George Washington Plunkitt was a long-time State Senator from the U.S. state of New York, representing the Fifteenth Senate District. He was especially powerful in New York City. He was part of what is known as New York's Tammany Hall machine. -
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt, also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur. He built his wealth in shipping and railroads and was the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family and one of the richest Americans in history -
John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller was an American oil magnate. He revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil company and aggressively ran it until he retired in 1897. As kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, Rockefeller's wealth soared, and he became the world's richest man and first American worth more than a billion dollars. Adjusting for inflation, he is often regarded as the richest person in history. -
Credit Mobilier
Credit Mobilier was one of the most important financial institutions in the world. It played a pivital role in the financing of numerous railroads and other infrastructure projects in Europe, North Africa and Middle East by mobilizing the savings of middle class French investors as capital for vast lending schemes. It was then indirectly implicated in the European takeovers of countries which defaulted on loans during the worldwide depression of the 1870s. -
Whiskey Ring Scandal
A scandal, exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. The Whiskey Ring began in St. Louis but was also organized in Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Peoria. Before they were caught, a group of mostly Republican politicians were able to siphon off millions of dollars in federal taxes on liquor; the scheme involved an extensive network of bribes. -
Terence V. Powderly
Terence V. Powderly was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania in 1849. He was the son of an Irish Catholic immigrant couple. He was a highly visible national spokesman for the working man as head of the Knights of Labor from 1879 until 1893. Although the Knights claimed over 600.000 members at its peak in 1886, it was so poorly organized that Powderly had little power. -
James A. Garfield
James A. Garfield served as the 20th President of the United States, from March 4, 1881 until his assassination on September 19, 1881. He survived a brief 200 days in office, the second shortest presidential tenure to that of William Henry Harrison. He was the only incumbent of the U.S. House of Representatives to be elected President. -
Knights of Labor
Knights of Labor, also known as the American Federation of Labor, was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift of the workingman, rejected Socialism and radicalism, demanded the eight-hour day, and promoted the producers ethic of republicanism. In some cases, it acted as a labor union, negotiating with employers, but it was never well organized. -
Josiah Strong
Josiah Strong was an American Protestant clergyman, organizer, editor and author. He was one of the founders of the Social Gospel movement that sought to apply Protestant religious principles to solve the social ills brought on by industrialization, urbanization and immigration. He serverd as General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance for the US, a coalition of Protestant missionary groups. After being forced out, he set up his own group, the League for Social Service. -
Hull House
The Hull House was a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located in the near west side of Chicago, IL, Hull House immediately opened its doors to the recently arrived European immigrants. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
Sherman Antitrust Act required the United States federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies, and organizations suspected of violating the Act. It was the first Federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies, and today still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by the United States federal government. However, for the most part, politicians were unwilling to refer to the law until Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. -
J.P. Morgan
J.P. Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892, Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. After financing the creation of the Federal Steel Company, he merged the Carnegie Steel Company and several other steel and iron businesses to form the United States Steel Corporation.