Deck 21: The Political System Under Strain at Home and Abroad 1877-1900

Question 1

The chapter introduction relates the story of the "World's Columbian Exposition"to make the point that

A) the 1890s marked a return to a more stable political and social order after the upheavals of the previous two decades.
B) a political revolution in the 1890s undermined the longstanding power of the Republican Party.
C) American society and the world had been transformed by the industrial revolution.
D) by the 1890s politicians from the South and the West were winning national office more regularly than easterners.

Answer 1

American society and the world had been transformed by the industrial revolution.

Question 2

The world created at the Columbian Exposition was indeed illusory; in fact, events in America at that time revealed which of the following to be true?

A) The political system in America was ill-equipped to cope with the economic and social revolutions that were reshaping the country.
B) Leadership of the country was in the best hands.
C) England and Germany were, economically, far ahead of the U.S.
D) American society had become increasingly egalitarian as a result of industrialization

Answer 2

The political system in America was ill-equipped to cope with the economic and social revolutions that were reshaping the country.

Question 3

The pattern of late-nineteenth-century politics included

A) deep similarities between the two major parties.
B) large swings with large margins of victory in the national contests between the two parties.
C) low voter participation.
D) strong party loyalty.

Answer 3

strong party loyalty.

Question 4

Which party tended to support a program of active federal support for economic growth, including high tariffs?

A) Democrats
B) Republicans
C) Both the Democrats and the Republicans tended to support a program of active federal support.
D) None of these answers is correct.

Question 5

Which of the following third-party movements was the first to have a presidential candidate to receive over one million votes?

A) the People's Party
B) the Greenback Party
C) the Farmers' Alliance
D) the Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Question 6

What was the "bloody shirt"?

A) a rhetorical symbol used by Republicans and Democrats to blame each other for the Civil War
B) a rhetorical symbol of Democrats that linked the Republicans to exploitative big business
C) a rhetorical symbol of Populists that linked the two major parties to the "crown of thorns" and "cross of gold"
D) a rhetorical symbol of civil service reformers that linked patronage-mongering politicians to the assassination of James Garfield

Question 7

The first modern governmental reform law, the Pendleton Act of 1883, enacted in response to the assassination of President Garfield, provided for

A) a high protective tariff.
B) voting rights for blacks in the South.
C) civil service merit standards and procedures for government jobs.
D) the breakup of monopolistic business.

Question 8

On the tariff issue, ________ supported high protective tariffs; on the money question, ________ sought the inflationary consequences of printing greenbacks.

A) Democrats; Republicans
B) Republicans; farmers and other debtors
C) southerners; Populists
D) large corporations and consumers; Democrats

Question 9

Rutherford B. Hayes

A) was a Tammany Democrat who became president.
B) opposed civil service reform.
C) moved quickly to end Reconstruction.
D) was indiscreet in his personal habits.

Question 10

Which statement is true of Grover Cleveland?

A) He won on the strength of his campaign slogan blasting the opposition as the party of "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion."
B) Conservative and business-minded, he supported civil service and the Interstate Commerce Commission.
C) He sought, unsuccessfully, to increase the tariff.
D) He served one term.

Question 11

Gradually, reform initiatives at the state and local levels set precedents for future action. Examples of these efforts include

A) anti-trust laws.
B) the NAACP.
C) the Greenback Party.
D) investigative and regulatory commissions.

Question 12

Farmer frustrations that fueled the rise of the People's Party included

A) inflation.
B) debt.
C) the isolation and drudgery of city life.
D) resentment against immigrants.

Question 13

The ________ was created in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Munn v. Illinois and set an important precedent in establishing a right for government to regulate private corporations.

A) Interstate Commerce Commission
B) Sherman Antitrust Act
C) National Municipal League
D) Atlanta Compromise

Question 14

In the years surrounding 1890, an innovative program of self-help spearheaded by the Southern Alliance movement flourished, though on the whole the effort, known as "________,"failed.

A) granges
B) bimetallism
C) itinerant lecturer-organizers
D) cooperatives

Question 15

As the result of observing what the British had done with its naval fleet in the quarter-century prior to 1900, the U.S. Navy

A) was mothballed out of existence.
B) was transformed into a modern, steam-driven institution.
C) engaged in several wars with European rivals.
D) shrank in size to its lowest numbers since the days of Andrew Jackson.

Question 16

The most innovative proposal coming out of the Alliance movement anticipated twentieth-century federal farm programs that seek to stabilize prices paid for farmers' crops. This early proposal for federal support for farm prices

A) called for federal regulation of railroad rates.
B) demanded lower tariffs to promote competition.
C) asked the federal government to buy up surpluses for distribution to the unemployed.
D) suggested a system of government warehouses for crop storage until prices rose.

Question 17

The Election of 1892 was especially significant because

A) the Democrats won both houses of Congress.
B) the Republicans continued their long run of controlling the presidency.
C) the Republicans won both houses of Congress.
D) the government was once again divided, Republicans controlling the Senate and Democrats the House.

Question 18

What is the best explanation of "free silver"?

A) The U.S. government would promote prosperity by inflating the money supply through minting all the silver offered to it.
B) The U.S. government would promote prosperity by distributing cash subsidies to the unemployed, paid for by recent mining bonanzas on public lands.
C) The U.S. government would support farmers by buying up surplus crops with silver coin ("lard money").
D) The U.S. government would support investors by allowing the purchase of silver on the open market

Question 19

Above all, the depression of the 1890s demonstrated the

A) effectiveness of the Populist protest.
B) weakness of the American economy in comparison with other parts of the world.
C) inability of the nation's political system to smooth out the economic cycle of boom and bust.
D) usefulness of the various federal programs enacted to help the unemployed.

Question 20

Coxey's Army

A) rallied farmers of the West and South to the Populist cause.
B) descended on Washington to demand a program to employ the jobless.
C) broke the Homestead Strike.
D) volunteered for service overseas.

Question 21

As a result of the depression of 1893,

A) new attitudes toward poverty and government responsibility emerged.
B) the federal government adopted a silver standard of currency.
C) the Populists expanded their following to the urban working classes.
D) the Democrats and Republicans unified around strong leaders.

Question 22

The 1896 election was important because it

A) showed that the American people would reject radicalism.
B) brought progressive politicians into power.
C) initiated a realignment in the power of the two parties, and an era of strong presidents.
D) discredited the free silver crusade.

Question 23

Free silver was a monetary scheme; it was also a symbolic protest of ________ against ________.

A) the agricultural South and West; the commercial Northeast
B) labor; capital
C) the American people; the political machines
D) embattled farmers; conservative, laissez-faire economic policies

Question 24

All of the following statements about the Election of 1896 are true EXCEPT that

A) Republican William McKinley decisively defeated William Jennings Bryan.
B) both candidates employed new techniques in their campaigns.
C) a major political realignment occurred, as Republicans forged a dominating new coalition of voters.
D) progressives used the free silver issue to achieve their first success in national politics.

Question 25

The most important issue in the 1896 presidential campaign was

A) the tariff.
B) foreign policy.
C) civil service reform.
D) the money question.

Question 26

Disenfranchisement of African Americans

A) was unsuccessful except in a few southern states.
B) ensured whites could pass the tests or pay the taxes that excluded blacks.
C) was opposed, unsuccessfully, by Populists and other reformers.
D) also targeted poor whites who might break party ranks.

Question 27

William McKinley is notable as

A) a relatively passive president.
B) an active chief executive who re-energized the executive branch of government.
C) a politician swayed by the influence of party bosses.
D) a typical Republican, in that he wished to restrain the role and reach of the federal government.

Question 28

Which one of the following was NOT an important reason for American expansion in the 1890s?

A) a belief in the basic equality of all people and races
B) the need for coaling stations to supply a modern steel navy
C) the importance of foreign markets to continued economic growth
D) the belief in the superiority of Western culture

Question 29

In the 1890s, the U.S. acquired

A) the Philippine Islands.
B) Aruba
C) the Virgin Islands.
D) the Falklands

Question 30

Among the elements making up the American ideology of imperialism, which does your text consider most compelling?

A) cultural superiority
B) racial paternalism
C) strategic advantage
D) commercial opportunity

Question 31

The Pendleton Act of 1883, the first piece of federal legislation to begin breaking down the spoils system, created a bipartisan ________ commission to supervise the federal job application process.

Question 32

In the South, poor farmers suffered; at the heart of their problem was ________.

Question 33

After the grange movement lost ground, another wave of farm protest organizations arose in the later 1880s, collectively known in the press as the ________ movement.

Question 34

First elected in the year ________, William McKinley became the first president since Ulysses Grant to win a majority of the popular vote.

Question 35

After a series of conventional battles ended in their defeat, Filipino ________ quickly learned to take advantage of the mountainous, jungle terrain of the Philippine archipelago.

Question 36

A(n) ________ is a geographic region beyond a nation's border over which that nation exerts political or economic control.

Question 37

Compare and contrast the Democratic and Republican parties in the last third of the nineteenth century.

Question 38

What were the major issues that consumed congressional politics?

Question 39

What was "free silver"? Discuss the two most important ways it would benefit indebted farmers and other debtor classes.

Question 40

What were "Granger laws,"and how did they work?

Question 41

What was the Alliance movement? Populism? The People's Party?

Question 42

What was the "battle of the standards"and why was it important?

Question 43

List and defend three ways in which the election of 1896 foreshadowed modern presidential campaigns.

Question 44

Explain two ways William McKinley affected the presidency

Question 45

Identify the five major groups of Americans who supported overseas expansion.

Question 46

Discuss the major motives Americans had for expanding overseas. Describe the methods they had available for expanding.

Question 47

Explain several reasons why anti-imperialists opposed the acquisition of the Philippines.

Question 48

Why was politics grinding into a dangerous paralysis in the last third of the nineteenth century?

Question 49

Why was it so difficult to resolve such issues as the spoils system, the tariff, and bimetallism, which consumed congressional energies in the late nineteenth century?

Question 50

Explain the absence of strong presidential leadership in the late nineteenth century.

Question 51

Discuss the three most important reasons for the rise and fall of Populism. What role did the election of 1896 play in its demise?

Question 52

Why did the Republicans emerge as the dominant political party in 1896?

Question 53

Explain the rise of "Jim Crow"politics.

Question 54

Discuss the role of popular opinion in America's emergence as a great power.

Question 55

Explain and defend the position you would have taken in the debate over annexation of the Philippines.

Question 56

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of John Hay's policy toward China.