Why did the House of Representatives choose the president after the election of 1824?
No candidate won a majority of electoral votes
✓
Jackson refused to accept the popular result
The Senate deadlocked over the vice presidency
The Supreme Court ordered the votes recounted
Correct Answer
No candidate won a majority of electoral votes
Andrew Jackson won the most electoral votes and led the recorded popular vote but fell short of an electoral majority, so under the Twelfth Amendment the House chose among the top three candidates and picked John Quincy Adams. Jackson refused to accept the popular result is wrong, because Jackson himself had led the recorded popular vote. The Senate deadlocked over the vice presidency is wrong, because John C. Calhoun won the vice presidency outright. The Supreme Court ordered the votes recounted never happened.
Category: Elections and Parties
Question 2
Jackson's supporters charged a 'corrupt bargain' after John Quincy Adams named which rival candidate as his secretary of state?
John C. Calhoun
Henry Clay
✓
William H. Crawford
Daniel Webster
Correct Answer
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House, backed Adams in the House vote and then received the post of secretary of state, long seen as a stepping stone to the presidency. John C. Calhoun became vice president, not secretary of state. William H. Crawford, weakened by a stroke, finished third and did not join the Adams cabinet. Daniel Webster was not a candidate in 1824.
Category: Elections and Parties
Question 3
The American System promoted by John Quincy Adams combined which policies?
Low tariffs, state banks, and free western land grants
Free trade, hard money, and the removal of Native nations
Protective tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements
✓
Nullification, states' rights, and strict construction
Correct Answer
Protective tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements
The American System, championed by Henry Clay and embraced by Adams, used tariffs to protect industry, a national bank to steady credit, and federal money for roads and canals. Free trade, hard money, and the removal of Native nations fits Jacksonian Democrats far better. Low tariffs, state banks, and free western land grants was not the program. Nullification, states' rights, and strict construction were arguments made by the program's southern critics.
Category: Elections and Parties
Question 4
Why did many southerners call the Tariff of 1828 the 'Tariff of Abominations'?
It lowered rates and ruined southern factories
It placed a heavy tax on southern cotton exports
It banned the import of enslaved Africans
They believed it helped northern industry at the South's expense
✓
Correct Answer
They believed it helped northern industry at the South's expense
The high tariff raised the price of imported manufactured goods, which the South bought in large amounts, while it protected northern manufacturers from foreign competition. It placed a heavy tax on southern cotton exports is wrong, because the Constitution bars taxes on exports. It banned the import of enslaved Africans is wrong, because Congress had already done that in 1808. It lowered rates and ruined southern factories is wrong, because the tariff raised rates.
Category: Tariffs and Nullification
Question 5
Who anonymously wrote the South Carolina Exposition and Protest in 1828 while serving as vice president?
John C. Calhoun
✓
Daniel Webster
Henry Clay
Martin Van Buren
Correct Answer
John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina wrote the Exposition and Protest, arguing that a state could judge federal laws that overstepped the Constitution and refuse to enforce them. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts was a leading defender of the Union against that view. Henry Clay was a Kentucky nationalist who backed protective tariffs. Martin Van Buren was a New York politician and Jackson ally, not the vice president in 1828.
Category: Tariffs and Nullification
Question 6
How was the Nullification Crisis resolved in 1833?
South Carolina left the Union for several months
Congress passed a compromise tariff alongside the Force Bill
✓
The Supreme Court struck down all federal tariffs
Jackson agreed to let any state nullify tariffs
Correct Answer
Congress passed a compromise tariff alongside the Force Bill
Congress paired the Force Bill, which authorized military action to enforce federal law, with a compromise tariff that lowered rates over time, and South Carolina accepted the new tariff while nullifying the Force Bill. South Carolina left the Union for several months did not happen in 1833. The Supreme Court struck down all federal tariffs is false, since Congress clearly has the power to lay duties. Jackson agreed to let any state nullify tariffs is the reverse of his position.
Category: Tariffs and Nullification
Question 7
What democratic reform spread across many states in the early 1800s?
Abolishing the Electoral College for presidential races
Granting women the right to vote in state elections
Dropping property requirements for White male voters
✓
Guaranteeing free Black men the vote in every state
Correct Answer
Dropping property requirements for White male voters
New western states and reforming eastern ones, such as New York in 1821, ended property qualifications so that most White men could vote. Granting women the right to vote in state elections did not happen in this era. Abolishing the Electoral College for presidential races never occurred. Guaranteeing free Black men the vote in every state is backward, because several states restricted or ended Black voting as property rules fell.
Category: Expanding Democracy
Question 8
Rewarding loyal party members with government jobs after an election victory became known as what?
Seniority system
Civil service system
Caucus system
Spoils system
✓
Correct Answer
Spoils system
Under the spoils system, the winning party handed out posts such as postmaster jobs to supporters, and Jackson removed many officeholders in what he called rotation in office. The civil service system, adopted much later, hires by merit. The caucus system was a way of nominating candidates through party meetings. The seniority system rewards length of service rather than party loyalty.
Category: Expanding Democracy
Question 9
Jackson's informal circle of trusted advisers outside his official cabinet was nicknamed what?
Kitchen Cabinet
✓
Shadow Cabinet
Brain Trust
Old Guard
Correct Answer
Kitchen Cabinet
Jackson leaned on friends and allies such as Martin Van Buren and several newspaper editors, a group critics called the Kitchen Cabinet. Shadow Cabinet is a British term for the opposition's leaders. Brain Trust was the name for Franklin Roosevelt's advisers a century later. Old Guard is a general term for longtime conservative members of a group.
Category: Expanding Democracy
Question 10
Why did Andrew Jackson oppose the Second Bank of the United States?
He thought it lent too little to eastern merchants
He saw it as a privileged tool of the wealthy few
✓
He wanted it to print far more paper money
He believed southern planters secretly ran it
Correct Answer
He saw it as a privileged tool of the wealthy few
Jackson distrusted banks and paper money after his own losses in land speculation, and he and his allies attacked the bank as an elite, undemocratic monopoly that made the rich richer. He thought it lent too little to eastern merchants was not his complaint. He wanted it to print far more paper money is backward, since Jackson favored gold and silver. He believed southern planters secretly ran it is wrong, because the bank was run from Philadelphia by Nicholas Biddle.
Category: The Bank War
Question 11
Who directed the Second Bank of the United States during Jackson's Bank War?
Roger Taney
Albert Gallatin
Nicholas Biddle
✓
Thomas Hart Benton
Correct Answer
Nicholas Biddle
Nicholas Biddle headed the bank from Philadelphia and fought Jackson, at one point tightening credit in response to the removal of federal deposits. Albert Gallatin was Treasury secretary under Jefferson and Madison. Roger Taney, as Jackson's Treasury secretary, carried out the removal of deposits from the bank. Thomas Hart Benton was a Missouri senator who attacked the bank.
Category: The Bank War
Question 12
Which development helped bring on the Panic of 1837?
A federal ban on all sales of western land
A sharp increase in federal tariff rates in 1836
Congress rechartering the Second Bank in 1836
Tighter British credit and a collapse in cotton prices
✓
Correct Answer
Tighter British credit and a collapse in cotton prices
The Bank of England cut lending to the United States, cotton prices collapsed, and Jackson's Specie Circular drained gold and silver from banks, together setting off a long depression. A sharp increase in federal tariff rates in 1836 did not occur, since the Compromise Tariff was lowering rates. Congress rechartering the Second Bank in 1836 is wrong, because its federal charter ended that year. A federal ban on all sales of western land never happened.
Category: The Bank War
Question 13
Which president took office in 1837 just as a financial panic began and was blamed for the depression that followed?
Martin Van Buren
✓
John Tyler
William Henry Harrison
John Quincy Adams
Correct Answer
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren, Jackson's vice president and chosen successor, won the 1836 election and took office weeks before the panic struck, and the Whigs blamed him and the Democrats for the hard times. John Tyler became president only in 1841. William Henry Harrison defeated Van Buren in 1840. John Quincy Adams had left the presidency in 1829.
Category: The Bank War
Question 14
Why did Jackson's opponents choose the name Whigs for their new party in 1834?
To honor the founder of the first national bank
To link their cause to resistance against royal power
✓
To signal support for removing Native nations
To appeal to newly arrived Irish immigrants
Correct Answer
To link their cause to resistance against royal power
The name recalled the British Whigs and American patriots who had resisted the power of King George III, and Whig cartoons cast the president as King Andrew the First. To honor the founder of the first national bank is wrong, since the name had nothing to do with Alexander Hamilton. To signal support for removing Native nations was not the meaning of the name. To appeal to newly arrived Irish immigrants is wrong, since many Irish voters supported the Democrats.
Category: Elections and Parties
Question 15
What did the Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorize?
Creating permanent reservations for Native nations in Georgia
Granting citizenship to Native nations that took up farming
Trading eastern Native lands for lands west of the Mississippi
✓
Ending all federal treaties with Native nations at once
Correct Answer
Trading eastern Native lands for lands west of the Mississippi
The act let the president negotiate treaties exchanging the lands of southeastern nations such as the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole for territory in the West, in present-day Oklahoma. Granting citizenship to Native nations that took up farming was not part of the act. Creating permanent reservations for Native nations in Georgia is the opposite of its aim. Ending all federal treaties with Native nations at once is wrong, because removal was carried out through treaties.
Category: Indian Removal
Question 16
In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), what did the Supreme Court rule?
Missionaries were barred from living among Native nations
The Cherokee formed a foreign nation that could sue
States could remove Native nations whenever they chose
Georgia's laws had no force inside Cherokee territory
✓
Correct Answer
Georgia's laws had no force inside Cherokee territory
Chief Justice John Marshall held that the Cherokee were a distinct political community whose land Georgia had no authority over, but Jackson declined to enforce the decision and removal went ahead. The Cherokee formed a foreign nation that could sue is the claim the Court rejected in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia the year before. States could remove Native nations whenever they chose is the opposite of the ruling. Missionaries were barred from living among Native nations is wrong, because the Court overturned the Georgia law that had punished Samuel Worcester for living among the Cherokee without a state license.
Category: Indian Removal
Question 17
The forced removal of the Cherokee to present-day Oklahoma in 1838 and 1839, during which thousands died, is known as what?
Trail of Tears
✓
Long Walk
Black Hawk War
Great Migration
Correct Answer
Trail of Tears
Federal troops drove the Cherokee from their homes into camps and then west, and thousands died of disease, exposure, and hunger along the way. The Long Walk was the forced removal of the Navajo in the 1860s. The Black Hawk War was a brief 1832 conflict with the Sauk and Fox in Illinois. The Great Migration was the twentieth-century movement of Black southerners to northern cities.
Category: Indian Removal
Question 18
White Americans called the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole the 'Five Civilized Tribes' because these nations had done what?
Signed alliances with Britain during the War of 1812
Adopted many Anglo-American customs, such as farming and Christianity
✓
Lived on lands west of the Mississippi River
Refused all contact with European settlers
Correct Answer
Adopted many Anglo-American customs, such as farming and Christianity
These southeastern nations had taken up many Anglo-American practices, including commercial farming, Christianity, written laws, and in some cases slaveholding, yet that did not protect them from removal. Signed alliances with Britain during the War of 1812 does not explain the name. Lived on lands west of the Mississippi River is wrong, because they lived in the Southeast before removal. Refused all contact with European settlers is the opposite of the reason for the label.
Category: Indian Removal
Question 19
In Democracy in America, a French visitor praised equality under the law but warned that American democracy risked what danger?
Domination by a standing army
Rule by a hereditary aristocracy
Tyranny of the majority
✓
Control by a foreign monarch
Correct Answer
Tyranny of the majority
Alexis de Tocqueville argued that majority opinion could overpower the will of minorities and individuals, leaving little true independence of mind. Rule by a hereditary aristocracy was the old order he expected democracy to replace. Domination by a standing army was not his central warning about America. Control by a foreign monarch was not a threat he described.
Category: Majority Rule and 1840
Question 20
How did the Whigs portray William Henry Harrison in the presidential campaign of 1840?
As a firm opponent of westward expansion
As a polished diplomat trained in European courts
As a wealthy Massachusetts textile manufacturer
As a humble man of log cabins and hard cider
✓
Correct Answer
As a humble man of log cabins and hard cider
After a Democratic paper mocked Harrison as a man content with a log cabin and hard cider, the Whigs turned the jibe into an image of a plain man of the people, though he came from a privileged Virginia family. As a polished diplomat trained in European courts does not fit their campaign. As a wealthy Massachusetts textile manufacturer is wrong, since Harrison was a western military hero. As a firm opponent of westward expansion is wrong, because Whigs celebrated his frontier victory at Tippecanoe.
Category: Majority Rule and 1840