doing a project on corruption in american government from the mexican cession till the guilded age. i currently have nothing! unless you count the exploitation of thousands of people based on their color and being used for free labor and no freedom...
and what about this too? : because corruption is exploitation of power for personal gain....polk used his power to "gain" mexico , it is corrupt because its not US land its mexican land......yah think thats good? more topics on corruption tho plz!!

Polk is absolutely NOT corrupt - I think you're misunderstanding the meaning of corrupt. Yes, it is the exploitation of power, but not for things like that - generally when you think of corruption, it's meant for things like bribery, political favors, and things like that of an illegal nature. Also, gaining Mexico was not personal gain for James Polk, it was acquiring land for the United States.

For politics in the Gilded Age, I have two hints for you...

1. Ulysses S. Grant. This sorry excuse for a politician was one of the worst, most corrupt presidents in our country's history. Do some research on him and you'll see what I mean.

2. Read Wikipedia for background information... you'd be amazed what you can find there. Just don't use Wikipedia as a source, because that's stupid.

Ulysses S. Grant was not, as I recall, particularly corrupt. He was just a phenomenal idiot, and corruption flourished under his nose.

OK, fine, that's a good point.

But dear GOD, he was inept, and that's good enough for me.