G

?

Gag rule
Passed by Southerners in Congress in 1836. The gag rule tabled all abolitionist petitions in Congress and thereby prevented antislavery discussions. The gag rule was repealed in 1845, under increased pressure from Northern abolitionists and those concerned with the rule’s restriction of the right to petition.
William Lloyd Garrison
Founder of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. Garrison was the most famous white abolitionist of the 1830s. Known as a radical, he pushed for equal legal rights for blacks and encouraged Christians to abstain from all aspects of politics, including voting, in protest against the nation’s corrupt and prejudicial political system.
Marcus Garvey
A powerful African American leader during the 1920s. Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and advocated a mass migration of African Americans back to Africa. Garvey was convicted of fraud in 1923 and deported to Jamaica in 1927. While the movement won a substantial following, the UNIA collapsed without Garvey’s leadership.
Gettysburg Address
Lincoln’s famous “Four score and seven years ago” speech. Delivered on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a cemetery for casualties of the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln’s speech recast the war as a historic test of the ability of a democracy to survive.
Gibbons v. Ogden
1824 Supreme Court case involving state versus federal licensing rights for passenger ships between New York and New Jersey. A devoted Federalist, Chief Justice Marshall ruled that the states could not interfere with Congress’s right to regulate interstate commerce. He interpreted “commerce” broadly to include all business, not just the exchange of goods.
Samuel Gompers
The founding leader of the American Federation of Labor. Under Gompers, the AFL rarely went on strike, and instead took a more pragmatic approach based on negotiating for gradual concessions.
“Good Neighbor” policy
FDR’s policy toward Latin America, initialized in 1933. He pledged that no nation, not even the U.S., had the right to interfere in the affairs of any other nation.
Mikhail Gorbachev
The last Soviet political leader. Gorbachev become general secretary of the Communist Party in 1985 and president of the USSR in 1988. He helped ease tension between the U.S. and the USSR—work that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He oversaw the fall of the Soviet Union and resigned as president on December 25, 1991.
Gospel of Success
Justification for the growing gap between rich and poor during the Industrial Revolution. The “Gospel” centered on the claim that anyone could become wealthy with enough hard work and determination. Writers like Horatio Alger incorporated this ideology into their work.
Grange
The Patrons of Husbandry, known as “the Grange.” Formed in 1867 as a support system for struggling western farmers, the Grange offered farmers education and fellowship, and provided a forum for homesteaders to share advice and emotional support at biweekly social functions. The Grange also represented farmers’ needs in dealings with big business and the federal government.
Ulysses S. Grant
Commanding general of western Union forces for much of the war, and for all Union forces during the last year of the war. Grant later became the nation’s eighteenth president, serving from 1869 to 1877 and presiding over the decline of Reconstruction. His administration was marred by corruption.
Great Debate
An eight-month discussion in Congress over Henry Clay’s proposed compromise to admit California as a free state, allow the remainder of the Mexican cession (Utah and New Mexico territories) to be decided by popular sovereignty, and strengthen the Fugitive Slave Act. Clay’s solution was passed as separate bills, which together came to be known as the Compromise of 1850.
Great Society
Lyndon B. Johnson’s program for domestic policy. The Great Society aimed to achieve racial equality, end poverty, and improve health-care. Johnson pushed a number of Great Society laws through Congress early in his presidency, but the Great Society failed to materialize fully, as the administration turned its attention toward foreign affairs—specifically, Vietnam.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Passed by the Senate in 1964 following questionable reports of a naval confrontation between North Vietnamese and U.S. forces. The resolution granted President Johnson broad wartime powers without explicitly declaring war.
Gulf War
Began when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990. In January 1991, the U.S. attacked Iraqi troops, supply lines, and bases. In late February, U.S. ground troops launched an attack on Kuwait City, successfully driving out Hussein’s troops. A total of 148 Americans died in the war, compared to over 100,000 Iraqi deaths.