Check Your Understanding- Chapter 23 Flashcards
The primary political base of the Democratic Party
included wealthy easterners, poorer Midwesterners, and Debt-burdened agrarians.
Boss Tweed’s widespread corruption was finally brought to a halt by
the journalistic exposés of The New York Times and cartoonist Thomas Nast
The Democrats’ nomination of Horace Greeley as their presidential candidate in 1872 was politically disastrous because
Greeley had spent many years denouncing Democrats as morally deficient slave traders and traitors.
The depression that began with the panic of 1873 created the first major clamor for
inflationary policies to be promoted by issuing greenbacks and other forms of soft money.
During the Gilded Age, the Democrats and the Republicans
had few significant policy differences.
One reason for the extremely high voter turnouts and partisan fervor between the Democrats and the Republicans of the Gilded Age was
sharp ethnic and cultural differences in the membership of the two parties.
The assassination of President James Garfield by a disappointed office seeker
created the impetus to establish the first civil service system for federal employees.
All of the following were true of the Election of 1884 except
Cleveland chose to “lie like a gentleman” about his illegitimate son
Blaine lost the election of 1884 for all of the following reasons EXCEPT
Cleveland had been involved in an amorous affair with a Buffalo widow, who had an illegitimate son, for whom Cleveland had made financial provision.
Grover Cleveland stirred political opposition by
vetoing many veterans’ pension bills.
Grover Cleveland proposed to address the problem of the large federal budget surplus by
lowering the tariff
Benjamin Harrison’s victory over Grover Cleveland in the election of 1888 was unusual in that
Harrison lost the popular vote to Cleveland but won in the Electoral College.
The Billion-Dollar Congress quickly disposed of rising government surpluses by
expanding pensions for Civil War veterans and increasing federal government purchases of silver.
The tariff bill, sponsored by the talented Congressman William McKinley of Ohio,
increased substantially tariff rates on imported manufactured goods, stirring rural political discontent.
In its first years, the Populist Party advocated, among other things
free silver; a graduated income tax; and government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephone.
