Identify the one event introduced in the post-civil war era that you feel best represents twain's imagery of the gilded age and explain your reasoning for this selection

The Gilded Age’s Indian Ring Scandal Number The Indian Ring The Indian Ring is an infamous scandal of the US’s post-Civil War Era. It best captures the culture of people in Twain’s The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. In this scandal, William Belknap, serving as President Grant’s Secretary of War received bribes from large corporations and awarded them licenses to do business on the parcels of land reserved for Native American communities. Belknap was removed from the office by the Congress, but was later absolved of the blame by the Senate later in August 1876 (Perdue, 2012).
Under Grant, these corruption scandals had become more common to the extent that similar events were being referred to as “ Grantism,” a term that effectively captured greed and dishonesty of leaders of the time. The then citizens thought that funds from these investments were eventually used to bankroll Republican Party operations (Elder, 2002). This is especially true considering that the dealings led to the creation of the Liberal Republican Party. Regardless, the actual loophole for these corrupt Gilded Age deals was the then prevailing spoils system, in which better-endowed people used their influence to reward their relatives, friends and corrupt business allies with lucrative government tenders (Gerrard, & Newell, 2006).
As Gerrard and Newell (2006) said, an ever-growing citizenry, however, began to acknowledge the fact that the civil service needed urgent reform. The Dawes Act of 1887 for example, was a major piece of legislation which mandated the president to oversee the granting of land and citizenship to Indians (Gerrard, & Newell, 2006). The Act arguably set the pace for more accountability by state officers as evidenced in the Manifest Destiny, when it comes to the allocation of national resources. Manifest Destiny sought to correct acts of greed and dishonesty that were synonymous with the Gilded Age and build a better society where every community had a voice.
References
Elder, D. C., 2002. A Rhetoric of Etiquette for the True Man of the Gilded Age. Rhetoric Review, 21(2), p. 150.
Gerrard, J., & Newell, J. L., 2006. Scandals in Past and Contemporary Politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Perdue, T., 2012. The Legacy of Indian Removal. Journal of Southern History, 78(1), pp. 3-36.