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| 1872. Nov |
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| Reelection of Grant, the Republican candidate, over Horace Greeley (1811–72), the Liberal Republican candidate, who was endorsed by the Democratic Party, which had abstained from placing a candidate in the field. Grant received 286 electoral votes to 62 for Greeley. | 1 |
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| 1873 |
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| Crédit Mobilier scandal, resulting from the revelation by congressional investigating committees that Schuyler Colfax, the outgoing vice president, and a number of members of Congress, including James A. Garfield (1831–81), held stock, for which they had not paid, in the Crédit Mobilier, the construction company that built the Union Pacific Railway. This was merely one of the numerous instances of corruption in the Grant administration. In 1874 William A. Richardson, secretary of the treasury, hastily resigned to escape a vote of censure by Congress. Grant's private secretary, Orville E. Babcock, was implicated in the Whiskey Ring, while William W. Belknap, secretary of war, resigned in 1876 to escape impeachment for bribe taking. James G. Blaine, speaker of the house, was compromised through the Mulligan letters. | 2 |
| Depression. The depression of 1873 resulted in about 15 percent unemployment among workers; and thousands of farmers were forced to foreclose when the Northern Pacific Railroad financier Jay Cooke filed bankruptcy. This economic downturn would persist through the next four years. | 3 |
| The Great Bonanza. Important discovery of silver in Nevada. | 4 |
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| 1874 |
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| Foundation of Women's Christian Temperance Union, a major reform organization that often dealt with labor, health, and international peace as well as temperance issues. | 5 |
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| 1875 |
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| The Civil Rights Act of 1875 prohibited racial discrimination in a wide range of public facilities, including theaters, hotels, restaurants, and barber shops. | 6 |
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| Jan. 14 |
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| The Resumption Act was passed by Congress, providing for the resumption of specie payment (suspended in 1861) on Jan. 1, 1879. The measure made greenbacks redeemable in gold. At the same time, as the price of silver dropped with the expanding output of the Comstock Lode in Nevada, western mine owners urged the federal government to adopt a policy of free and unlimited coinage of silver. | 7 |
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