Chapter 21 Study Questions
1. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century why did the major parties avoided clear stands on controversial issues?
2. Why was there so much rapid social and economic change during the last quarter of the nineteenth century?
3. What was the Tariff? Who supported it?
4. What was Laissez-faire?
5. What type of monetary policy was advocated during the last quarter of the nineteenth century?
6. How did ethnic backgrounds, religion, the Civil War, and rural and urban differences effect politics during the last quarter of the nineteenth century?
7. Who were the "vast ignorant fluctuating mass of people?" Who said this?
8. What was urban flight?
9. What problems did cities experience during the last quarter of the nineteenth century?
10. What was Machine Politics? How did it work?
11. What was a "Boss?" Who was William Marcy Tweed and Richard Croker? What was Tammany Hall?
12. What did the Irish have to do with Machine Politics?
13. The Republicans and the Democrats
14. Between 1868 and 1900 all of winning presidential candidates came from which states?
15. What was the difference between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates between 1868 and 1900?
16. What were the most important presidential campaign issues between 1868 and 1900?
17. What was civil service reform?
18. When was Rutherford B. Hayes elected President? What were his qualifications?
19. What did it mean to "support resumption of payments?"
20. When was James A. Garfield elected President? What were his qualifications?
21. What dose it mean to "Wave the Bloody Shirt?"
22. What were Mugwumps, Half-Breeds, and Stalwarts?
23. Who was Charles J. Guiteau? How did he influence Civil Service reform?
24. When did Chester A. Arthur become President?
25. Why was Chester A. Arthur not supported by the Stalwarts or reformers?
26. What was the Pendleton Act? When was it passed?
27. Who was Grover Cleveland? What were his qualifications?
28. Who was "The Continental Liar from the State of Maine?"
29. What were the "Mulligan Letters?"
30. What was Cleveland’s little problem? How did he view the office of the President? How did he view the "Gold Standard?"
31. What was the "Gold Standard?"
32. How did Irish immigrants influence the 1888 election?
33. Who was Benjamin Harrison? What were his political positions?
34. What was the McKinley Tariff?
35. What was new about the federal budget during the Harrison administration.
36. What was the G.A.R.?
37. How did Theodore Roosevelt get his job on the Civil Service Commission?
38. What was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act?
39. Who was pro-inflation?
40. What it mean to say that a "force" bill was filibustered to death?
41. What was so unusual about the national election in 1892?
42. Why was there agricultural discontent? What does the price of wheat imply?
43. How did the Tariff, middlemen, credit, foreign competition possibly effect farmers?
44. What speculation bubble burst in the 1890s?
45. How was the Farmer's Alliances similar to the Grange?
46. What was the Populist Movement?
47. Who were the Knights of Reliance? When and where was it formed?
48. What were the objectives of the Alliance movements? What did they think about banks and the American financial system?
49. What program did they utilize to reach these goals?
50. What was the Colored Alliance?
51. Why did the Alliance movement lose momentum? What sectional issues tore the Alliance apart?
52. What happened at the 1892 Omaha Convention?
53. What were the elements of the Populists platform? Who was Ignatius Donnelly?
54. Who was Tom Watson?
55. Why did the silver mining states support General Weaver?
56. What was the bi-metal standard?
57. Why did "Gold Bugs" oppose "Free Silver?"
58. What did the old "Greenback Party" and the advocates of "Free Silver" both really want?
59. Why did General Weaver do well in the silver-mining states?
60. Why did monetary policy hinged on silver?
61. What happened to the price of silver in the 1850s?
62. What happened to the price of silver in the 1870s?
63. What were The Coinage Act of 1873 and the "Crime of '73?"
64. What were the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890? Who supported each?
65. What did the ratios of 26:1 in 1893 and 32:1 in 1994 mean?
66. What was the value of the dollar around 1895 as compared with 1865?
67. Why did congress repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act?
68. What was the Panic of "93? What did Cleveland blame for this panic?
69. What was Coxey's Army? What did Jacob S. Coxey want?
70. What was the result of Pollock v. Farmer's Loan and Trust Co.?
71. What did it mean to be denied a writ of habeas corpus? Who wanted such a writ?
72. Why was the Gold supply distressed? What does this mean?
73. What was Greenback conversion?
74. Why did the governments bonds for gold sale fail?, failed
75. How low did the gold reserve reach? Why did J.P. Morgan underwrite a $62 million bond issue? How was Cleveland effected?
76. Why did the major parties take a stand on monetary policy in 1896?
77. Who was William McKinley? What was his position on the Gold standard and the Tariff?
78. Who were the "Silverites?"
79. Who was William Jennings Bryan?
80. What was the "Cross of Gold" speech?
81. Who supported the unlimited silver coinage at 16:1? Why?
82. Who "played Jonah to the whale?"
83. What was the sub-treasury plan?
84. Who did the Populists for President in 1896?
85. Who were the "National Democrats?"
86. How did the media effect the 1896 election?
87. How did Democratic newspapers effect the 1896 election?
88. Who was Marcus Alonzo Hanna? What did he innovate?
89. What was the "front porch campaign?"
90. How did the Democrats defend the workingman?
91. How did the Republicans defend the workingman?
92. What was William Jennings Bryan's greatest campaign strength?
93. What was William McKinley's greatest campaign strength?
94. Why might a banker fear William Jennings Bryan winning the election?