What made the outcome of the 1876 presidential election disputed?
Rival sets of electoral returns from three Southern states
✓
A tie vote in the House of Representatives
The death of a candidate before Election Day
A third-party candidate who carried several states
Correct Answer
Rival sets of electoral returns from three Southern states
Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina each sent two conflicting sets of returns amid charges of fraud and intimidation, and one Oregon electoral vote was also challenged, so neither candidate had a clear majority. Congress created a special electoral commission to decide the contested votes. A tie vote in the House of Representatives did not occur. The death of a candidate before Election Day did not happen in 1876. A third-party candidate who carried several states did not appear; no minor party won any state.
Category: Election of 1876
Question 2
The disputed election of 1876 ended with which Republican taking the White House?
Samuel Tilden
Rutherford B. Hayes
✓
Ulysses S. Grant
James Garfield
Correct Answer
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes won 185 to 184 in the Electoral College after a special commission gave him every disputed state. Samuel Tilden was the Democratic candidate who won the popular vote but lost. Ulysses S. Grant was the outgoing president. James Garfield was elected later, in 1880.
Category: Election of 1876
Question 3
The Crédit Mobilier scandal, exposed in 1872, involved which kind of corruption?
A scheme to corner the national gold market
Tax fraud by a ring of whiskey distillers
Bribes to congressmen tied to transcontinental railroad funds
✓
Kickbacks from the sale of Indian trading posts
Correct Answer
Bribes to congressmen tied to transcontinental railroad funds
Crédit Mobilier was a construction company whose insiders gave members of Congress shares of its stock in the late 1860s while inflated federal funds flowed to building the transcontinental railroad; the scheme came to light in 1872 and damaged the reputations of several Republican leaders. A scheme to corner the gold market was the separate Black Friday affair of 1869. Tax fraud by whiskey distillers was the Whiskey Ring. Kickbacks from Indian trading posts was a scandal involving Secretary of War William Belknap.
Category: Political Corruption
Question 4
The Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 changed how many federal jobs were filled by requiring what?
Approval by state legislatures
Election by popular vote
Membership in the ruling party
Competitive merit examinations
✓
Correct Answer
Competitive merit examinations
The Pendleton Act required that a portion of federal jobs go to applicants who passed competitive exams, beginning the shift away from the spoils system. Approval by state legislatures was not part of the law. Election by popular vote applies to officeholders, not civil servants. Membership in the ruling party was the old spoils standard the law was meant to replace.
Category: Civil Service Reform
Question 5
The practice of handing out government jobs to loyal party supporters was known as what?
Patronage
✓
Bimetallism
Laissez-faire
Fusion
Correct Answer
Patronage
Patronage rewarded party workers with public jobs, and fights over it divided Gilded Age politics. Bimetallism was a monetary policy using both gold and silver. Laissez-faire was the idea that government should stay out of the economy. Fusion was the practice of two parties backing the same candidate.
Category: Civil Service Reform
Question 6
Republican reformers who broke with their party in 1884 to support Democrat Grover Cleveland were nicknamed what?
Stalwarts
Mugwumps
✓
Redeemers
Greenbackers
Correct Answer
Mugwumps
The Mugwumps left the Republicans because of corruption charges against their nominee, James Blaine, and helped Cleveland win a close race. Stalwarts were Republicans who defended the spoils system. Redeemers were Southern Democrats who retook power after Reconstruction. Greenbackers backed paper money not tied to gold.
Category: Elections of the 1880s
Question 7
In 1888, which candidate won the presidency through the Electoral College despite receiving fewer popular votes than Grover Cleveland?
James Blaine
William McKinley
Benjamin Harrison
✓
Chester Arthur
Correct Answer
Benjamin Harrison
Republican Benjamin Harrison carried key states such as New York while stressing a high tariff, and he won the electoral vote. James Blaine was the Republican who lost to Cleveland in 1884. William McKinley won the presidency later, in 1896. Chester Arthur became president in 1881 after Garfield's death and was not a candidate in 1888.
Category: Elections of the 1880s
Question 8
In the Gilded Age debate over tariffs, which group generally favored high protective rates?
Western wheat farmers
Importing merchants
Southern cotton farmers
Big industrial manufacturers
✓
Correct Answer
Big industrial manufacturers
High tariffs shielded American factories from foreign competition, so big manufacturers usually supported them. Western wheat farmers wanted lower tariffs to cut the cost of the goods they bought. Importing merchants wanted low duties because tariffs raised the price of the foreign goods they sold. Southern cotton farmers sold on world markets and gained little from protection.
Category: Tariffs and Regulation
Question 9
The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 created a federal commission to oversee what?
Railroad rates
✓
Bank interest rates
Factory working hours
Immigration quotas
Correct Answer
Railroad rates
The act set up the Interstate Commerce Commission to make railroad rates reasonable and fair, though the commission had little enforcement power at first. Bank interest rates were not under its authority. Factory working hours were regulated later, mostly by states. Immigration quotas came in the 1920s.
Category: Tariffs and Regulation
Question 10
Which 1890 law declared combinations in restraint of trade illegal but was seldom enforced during its first decade?
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Sherman Antitrust Act
✓
McKinley Tariff
Dependent Pension Act
Correct Answer
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act was the first federal law against monopolies, but courts and presidents rarely used it against business in the 1890s. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act, passed the same year, dealt with buying silver. The McKinley Tariff raised import duties. The Dependent Pension Act expanded pensions for Union veterans.
Category: Tariffs and Regulation
Question 11
Indebted farmers supported adding silver coinage to the gold standard mainly because it would do what?
Lower tariffs on imported goods
Strengthen the federal gold reserve
Expand the money supply and ease debts
✓
Reduce railroad shipping rates
Correct Answer
Expand the money supply and ease debts
More money in circulation would cause inflation, raising crop prices and making fixed debts easier to repay. Lowering tariffs was a separate issue. Strengthening the gold reserve was a goal of gold standard supporters, and silver purchases actually drained it. Railroad rates were addressed through regulation, not currency.
Category: Money Question
Question 12
The Patrons of Husbandry, founded in 1867 to support farmers through cooperatives and education, was better known as what?
The Farmers' Alliance
The Knights of Labor
The Populist Party
The Grange
✓
Correct Answer
The Grange
The Grange grew quickly in the 1870s and backed state laws regulating railroad and grain elevator rates. The Farmers' Alliance was a later farm movement of the 1880s. The Knights of Labor was a labor union for workers. The Populist Party was a political party formed in the 1890s.
Category: Farmers' Movements
Question 13
The Supreme Court's 1886 Wabash decision struck down an Illinois railroad law, ruling that states could not regulate what?
Commerce crossing state lines
✓
Grain elevators within the state
Public school funding
State bank charters
Correct Answer
Commerce crossing state lines
The Wabash ruling held that only Congress could regulate interstate commerce, which weakened the Granger laws and led to the Interstate Commerce Act. Grain elevators within a state remained open to state regulation. Public school funding and state bank charters were not at issue in the case.
Category: Farmers' Movements
Question 14
The Farmers' Alliance subtreasury plan proposed that farmers do what?
Sell all crops directly to European buyers
Store crops in federal warehouses and borrow against them
✓
Receive free homesteads on the Great Plains
Organize strikes against railroad companies
Correct Answer
Store crops in federal warehouses and borrow against them
Under the subtreasury plan, farmers could hold crops in government warehouses, take low-interest loans on them and sell when prices rose. Selling directly to European buyers was not the plan. Free homesteads had been offered since the Homestead Act of 1862. Strikes against railroads were a labor tactic, not this proposal.
Category: Farmers' Movements
Question 15
Which demand appeared in the Populists' 1892 Omaha Platform?
A strict gold standard
Higher protective tariffs
Direct election of U.S. senators
✓
An end to all federal taxes
Correct Answer
Direct election of U.S. senators
The Omaha Platform called for senators to be chosen by voters instead of state legislatures, along with a graduated income tax and government control of railroads. A strict gold standard was the opposite of what Populists wanted. Higher tariffs hurt farmers and were not a Populist goal. An end to federal taxes was not proposed, since the platform called for an income tax.
Category: Populist Party
Question 16
Who was the People's Party presidential nominee in 1892, finishing a distant third?
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
William Jennings Bryan
James B. Weaver
✓
Correct Answer
James B. Weaver
James B. Weaver won about a million popular votes as the Populist candidate in 1892. Grover Cleveland won that election as a Democrat. Benjamin Harrison was the losing Republican incumbent. William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic nominee in 1896, not 1892.
Category: Populist Party
Question 17
In 1894, Jacob Coxey led a march of unemployed workers to Washington, DC, to demand what?
Federally funded public works jobs
✓
Repeal of the federal income tax
New limits on immigration
Higher tariffs on imports
Correct Answer
Federally funded public works jobs
Coxey's Army asked Congress to hire jobless workers to build roads and other public works during the depression of the 1890s, but Congress ignored it and Coxey was arrested. Repealing the income tax was not their demand. New limits on immigration and higher tariffs were not their cause either.
Category: Depression of 1893
Question 18
Eugene V. Debs led which union during the 1894 Pullman Strike?
Knights of Labor
American Railway Union
✓
American Federation of Labor
Industrial Workers of the World
Correct Answer
American Railway Union
Debs's American Railway Union refused to handle trains carrying Pullman cars, which nearly halted rail traffic across the country. The Knights of Labor had declined after the 1880s. The American Federation of Labor was a federation of skilled craft unions led by Samuel Gompers. The Industrial Workers of the World was founded later, in 1905.
Category: Labor Unrest
Question 19
The 1894 Pullman Strike began after George Pullman did what?
Moved his factory to another country
Hired only immigrant workers
Cut wages without lowering company-town rents
✓
Refused to sell sleeping cars to railroads
Correct Answer
Cut wages without lowering company-town rents
During the depression, Pullman laid off workers and cut wages but kept charging the same rents in his company town, so workers struck. He did not move his factory abroad. Hiring only immigrant workers was not the cause. Selling sleeping cars to railroads was his business, not the dispute.
Category: Labor Unrest
Question 20
William Jennings Bryan's 1896 Cross of Gold speech argued for which policy?
A higher protective tariff
An end to railroad regulation
Strict limits on immigration
Coinage of silver alongside gold
✓
Correct Answer
Coinage of silver alongside gold
Bryan argued that the gold standard hurt farmers and workers and called for silver coinage to expand the money supply, which won him the Democratic nomination. A higher tariff was the Republican position. Ending railroad regulation was not his cause. Limits on immigration were not the subject of the speech.
Category: Election of 1896