Republican campaigners of the era often "waved the bloody shirt," reminding voters of the Civil War and linking Democrats to the Confederacy.
Correct Answer
True
True. The bloody shirt appeal stirred memories of the war's dead to keep Northern voters loyal to the Republican Party. Republicans used it in the 1868 and 1876 campaigns, among others.
Category: Gilded Age Politics
Question 2
The special electoral commission that settled the 1876 election awarded all the disputed states to the Democratic candidate.
Correct Answer
False
False. The commission voted along party lines to give every disputed state to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Democrat Samuel Tilden had won the popular vote.
Category: Election of 1876
Question 3
The Panic of 1873 began an economic depression that lasted for several years.
Correct Answer
True
True. The panic led to business failures and unemployment that lasted until about the end of the decade. Hard times shaped the politics of the 1876 election.
Category: Gilded Age Politics
Question 4
Voter turnout in the Gilded Age was very low, with most eligible men skipping presidential elections.
Correct Answer
False
False. Turnout among eligible voters was high, driven by strong party loyalty and lively campaigns. Elections of the era routinely drew large majorities of eligible voters to the polls.
Category: Gilded Age Politics
Question 5
Many Americans of the era favored laissez-faire ideas, which discouraged the federal government from intervening in the economy.
Correct Answer
True
True. Laissez-faire held that the economy works best with little government interference. This belief helped keep the federal government relatively inactive in economic matters.
Category: Gilded Age Politics
Question 6
The Pendleton Act of 1883 expanded the spoils system by letting presidents fill every federal job with party loyalists.
Correct Answer
False
False. The Pendleton Act began to dismantle the spoils system by requiring merit exams for a portion of federal jobs. It followed the assassination of President Garfield by a disappointed office seeker.
Category: Civil Service Reform
Question 7
The Interstate Commerce Commission was weak in its early years because it lacked strong enforcement power.
Correct Answer
True
True. The commission could investigate railroads but struggled to enforce its rulings, and the courts often sided with the railroads. It gained real power only in the early 1900s.
Category: Tariffs and Regulation
Question 8
The Sherman Antitrust Act was vigorously enforced and broke up most large trusts within its first decade.
Correct Answer
False
False. The act was seldom enforced against business in the 1890s. Courts even used it against labor unions as combinations in restraint of trade.
Category: Tariffs and Regulation
Question 9
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required the Treasury to buy large amounts of silver each month.
Correct Answer
True
True. The act aimed to expand the money supply to help debtors. Many people redeemed the notes issued under it for gold, which drained the gold reserve, and Congress repealed it in 1893.
Category: Money Question
Question 10
Farm prices rose steadily in the last decades of the nineteenth century, easing farmers' debts.
Correct Answer
False
False. Farm prices fell sharply as rising production increased supply. Falling prices made it harder for farmers to repay debts to merchants, banks and mortgage lenders while still paying high railroad rates.
Category: Farmers' Movements
Question 11
Granger laws in several Midwestern states regulated railroad rates and grain elevator charges.
Correct Answer
True
True. States such as Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin passed these laws under pressure from the Grange. Their effect was limited after the Supreme Court restricted state regulation of interstate commerce.
Category: Farmers' Movements
Question 12
The Farmers' Alliances united Black and White farmers in a single, fully integrated organization.
Correct Answer
False
False. Racism kept the movement divided, and Black farmers organized in a separate Colored Farmers' Alliance. That alliance grew into one of the largest African American organizations of its time.
Category: Farmers' Movements
Question 13
Women took an active part in the Farmers' Alliance movement, and some became well-known speakers and organizers.
Correct Answer
True
True. Women joined many local alliances and took part in meetings, lectures and organizing. Some, such as Mary Elizabeth Lease of Kansas, became prominent speakers for the Alliance and later for the Populists.
Category: Farmers' Movements
Question 14
The Populist Party drew its strongest support from bankers and railroad owners in the Northeast.
Correct Answer
False
False. The Populists drew support mainly from struggling farmers in the South and on the Great Plains. They blamed bankers and railroad owners for farmers' hardships.
Category: Populist Party
Question 15
The Populists' Omaha Platform called for a graduated federal income tax.
Correct Answer
True
True. A graduated income tax would take a larger share from higher incomes. The platform also demanded government control of railroads and the subtreasury plan.
Category: Populist Party
Question 16
Unemployment fell during the Depression of 1893 as railroads expanded and hired new workers.
Correct Answer
False
False. Railroad failures set off a chain of bank and business collapses, and unemployment soared. Millions of workers were jobless at the depth of the depression.
Category: Depression of 1893
Question 17
During the Pullman Strike, the federal government justified intervening on the grounds that the strike blocked delivery of the U.S. mail.
Correct Answer
True
True. Because trains carried the mail, the Cleveland administration argued that federal action was needed. It obtained a court injunction and sent troops to end the strike.
Category: Labor Unrest
Question 18
The American Railway Union emerged from the Pullman Strike stronger and larger than before.
Correct Answer
False
False. The strike's defeat crippled the American Railway Union, which soon collapsed, and its leader, Eugene Debs, was jailed for defying a court injunction. The outcome showed how strongly the federal government sided with employers.
Category: Labor Unrest
Question 19
In 1896 the Populist Party endorsed Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan for president instead of running its own presidential candidate.
Correct Answer
True
True. The Populists backed Bryan because he shared their support for silver, though they named their own vice-presidential candidate, Tom Watson. Bryan's defeat is widely seen as the end of the Populist rise.
Category: Election of 1896
Question 20
William McKinley won the 1896 election by campaigning for the free coinage of silver.
Correct Answer
False
False. McKinley, the Republican nominee, supported the gold standard and high protective tariffs. His opponent, William Jennings Bryan, was the candidate of silver.
Category: Election of 1896