TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1. Identify the social bases for the flourishing democracy of the early mid-nineteenth century.
2. Describe the efforts made in this period to strengthen the economic integration of the nation and identify the major crises that
hindered these efforts.
3. Identify the major areas of conflict between nationalism and sectionalism.
4. Describe the ways Andrew Jackson embodied the contradictions of democratic nationalism.
5. Explain how the Bank War influenced the economy and party competition.
Multiple Choice
1. Andrew Jackson’s inauguration was
a. small and dignified.
b. much like the previous presidential inaugurations.
c. limited to only the upper crust of society.
d. a large, rowdy event.
e. a disastrous affair during which Jackson’s opponents protested outside the White House.
2. What did Andrew Jackson symbolize to most Americans during the “Age of Jackson”?
a. the insidious nature of political rhetoric
b. the failure of democracy
c. the nobility of the hereditary elite
d. the spirit of pacifism
e. the triumph of political democracy
3. In the early to mid-nineteenth century, property qualifications for voting
a. continued in Virginia because large-scale slaveholders dominated the state’s politics.
b. survived in all of the slave states but in none of the free states.
c. died out entirely, allowing all whites to vote in every state.
d. were more popular in newer states than in the original thirteen.
e. disappeared because of the Voting Rights Act championed by President Andrew Jackson.
4. What was a voting requirement that all states except Rhode Island had eliminated by 1860?
a. being male
b. being white
c. being a citizen
d. owning property
e. being twenty-one years or older
5. What motivated the actions that resulted in the Dorr War?
a. the fear that the federal government would attempt to outlaw slavery
b. anxiety over the growing income inequality in the 1820s
c. frustration over the federal government’s failure to honor treaties made with Native American tribes
d. the desire to create an independent government free of the Spanish empire
e. a desire to expand Rhode Island’s voting laws to include those who didn’t own property
6. The Dorr War
a. started as a disagreement over internal improvements in New York.
b. refers to fighting that broke out between whites and Cherokees in Georgia.
c. demonstrated the contentiousness of the national bank debate.
d. divided Rhode Islanders over the issue of expanding voting rights for white men.
e. resulted from the nullification crisis in South Carolina.
7. By 1840, 90 percent of which group in the United States was eligible to vote?
a. adult white men
b. adult U.S. citizens
c. African-American adults
d. adult women
e. Native American adults
8. By 1840, U.S. national identity was primarily defined by
a. a common religion.
b. democratic political institutions.
c. ethnic unity.
d. the English language.
e. fear of Canada.
9. By 1840, approximately ________ percent of adult white men were eligible to vote.
a. 40
b. 55
c. 65
d. 75
e. 90
10. What was a broadly accepted idea in the United States in the 1830s that was also a departure from Western thought?
a. Only propertied people should participate in politics.
b. Only highly educated people should participate in politics.
c. Race and gender should not be barriers to political participation.
d. Race and gender are social constructs.
e. Sovereignty belongs to the mass of ordinary citizens.
11. Which of the following did Alexis de Tocqueville observe about American society in Democracy in America?
a. American culture had not changed much from its British precedents.
b. America was not a true democracy, but rather a voter-selected oligarchy.
c. The practice of democracy in American had created an important cultural shift.
d. The decline of the Federalist Party, and the rise of one-party politics, was a threat to American democracy.
e. The success of American democracy was dependent on strong presidential leadership.
12. Which of the following occurred during the Age of Jackson?
a. Native Americans won important legal cases that resulted in the restoration of some of their tribal lands.
b. Ex-slaves gained the right to vote in all of the New England and Mid-Atlantic states.
c. Economic inequality decreased for white males, due largely to the rise of labor unions.
d. A group of white women, meeting in Seneca Falls, New York, began what would be a long struggle to gain the right to vote.
e. Democracy for white males was more fully realized.
13. According to Noah Webster’s American Dictionary, which term had become synonymous in American society with the right to
vote?
a. “American”
b. “citizen”
c. “freeman”
d. “property owner”
e. “radical”
14. What name is given to the sharp increase in printing and the availability of printed material in the 1830s?
a. The Progressive Era
b. Great Society
c. Market Revolution
d. Era of Good Feelings
e. Information Revolution
15. What innovation led to mass production of newspapers and pamphlets in the 1820s and 1830s?
a. the invention of the printing press
b. Noah Webster publishing a dictionary for Americans
c. the spread of telegraph wires
d. the use of steam power for presses
e. the creation of a postal system
16. Which type of publication first began to be produced in the late 1820s?
a. political pamphlets attempting to change public opinion
b. newspapers that were published daily
c. books written by escaped slaves
d. “alternative” newspapers, such as labor and abolitionist publications
e. full-color magazines
17. Which statement is true about women in the 1830s?
a. Women gained the right to vote in most states.
b. Women’s participation in religious institutions declined.
c. Women became lawyers, dentists, and architects for the first time in American history.
d. Literacy rates for women of all classes and races decreased.
e. An increasing number of women published their writing.
18. Why were there more opportunities for women writers in the 1820s and 1830s?
a. Girls became eligible to attend public schools in 1810, and a generation of young, literate women came of age during this
period.
b. There was a craze for fiction about female factory workers, especially those working in mills.
c. Lydia Maria Child founded a publishing house that only published women writers.
d. The reading public grew considerably, creating a growing market for all types of writing.
e. Influential religious groups, such as the Quakers and Mennonites, popularized the idea that women had a role in the public
sphere.
19. Which view of women in America first became prominent in the early nineteenth century?
a. Women should not have the right to vote because they were too easily swayed by passions and emotions.
b. Through education, women could develop into capable participants in American democracy.
c. Women were too gentle and pure to be contaminated by the world of politics.
d. Women who took jobs in factories were no longer fit to be wives and mothers.
e. Women should not be allowed to speak publicly, as the Bible expressly forbade it.
20. Which statement is true in regard to democracy in the Age of Jackson?
a. Jackson was a typical poor farmer who came to be an accurate symbol of the age.
b. The justification for the disenfranchisement of women was similar to that used against blacks.
c. The ideals of the Declaration of Independence expanded beyond white men.
d. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that democracy in the United States was overrated.
e. States created after 1800 extended suffrage beyond white males.
21. Which of the following was used as a justification for excluding women and blacks from voting during the Age of Jackson?
a. Because these groups had not voted in Britain, they should not vote in America.
b. Because the members of these groups were not citizens, they could not vote.
c. Both of these types of people lacked the necessary intellectual capacity to be voters.
d. Members of these groups had never asked to be included in politics.
e. As they did not own property, they could not be expected to have the right to vote.
22. In 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “the most rabid Radical” is likely to be conservative in what respect?
a. his economic aspirations
b. his views on women and marriage
c. his views on free blacks
d. his thoughts about immigration
e. his religious beliefs
23. What marked Herman Melville as unique in mid-nineteenth-century America?
a. He was a white minstrel show performer who refused to wear blackface or portray black characters as dishonest or
unintelligent.
b. He was an author who presented his black characters as stereotypes of happy, superstitious slaves.
c. He was an author who portrayed complex, heroic black characters.
d. He was an author who portrayed complex, strong women characters.
e. He invented the racist minstrel show character “Jim Crow.”
24. In 1821, the New York constitutional convention that removed property qualifications for white voters also
a. raised the property requirement for black voters, so most black New Yorkers could no longer vote.
b. removed property qualifications for black voters, so all black New Yorkers could now vote.
c. enfranchised Native Americans.
d. enfranchised women.
e. barred immigrants from voting.
25. What is true about race in the mid-nineteenth-century United States?
a. Race replaced class as the boundary between men who enjoyed political freedom and those who did not.
b. Some states accorded black Americans full equality before the law by today’s standards.
c. By 1860, black men could vote on the same basis as white men in every state north of Maryland.
d. Most literature and popular culture rejected racist stereotypes.
e. An ideology of racial superiority and inferiority developed in the South but was rejected in the North.
26. By 1860, free black men could vote on the same basis as whites only in
a. Virginia and Maryland.
b. New York and Pennsylvania.
c. the Upper Northwest (Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota).
d. four states in the Lower South.
e. five New England states.
27. White male European immigrants
a. could vote in some states almost from the moment they landed in America.
b. had less access to the suffrage (the right to vote) in most states than free black men.
c. were increasingly divided politically along ethnic lines as they gained the right to vote.
d. could vote in all states within one month of immigration.
e. were regarded as lower in status than free black men.
28. Which is true of the political positions of younger Republicans, such as Henry Clay, in the years immediately following the War
of 1812?
a. They embraced the idea that the nation’s economic independence required a manufacturing sector.
b. They maintained the Jeffersonian belief that the future of the United States depended exclusively on agriculture.
c. They believed that only the states had the constitutional right to enact policies to encourage economic development.
d. They hoped to secure exclusive trading rights with Britain through trade agreements.
e. They rejected James Madison’s American System as being unconstitutional.
29. The “American System”
a. called for the abolition of tariffs because they violated free trade principles.
b. made national banks illegal.
c. proposed providing federal financing of internal improvements, such as roads and canals.
d. was based on the idea that the government should not be involved in economic development.
e. was opposed by President James Madison.
30. What position did President James Madison take regarding government-sponsored economic development?
a. He spoke out vigorously against what Henry Clay called the “American System.”
b. He approved a law that funded roads and canals throughout the eastern United States.
c. He insisted that a constitutional amendment would be required to empower the federal government to build roads and canals.
d. He signed into law John Calhoun’s bill providing funding for federally financed internal improvements.
e. He was staunchly opposed to the creation of a new national bank, but supported tariffs on imported goods.
31. What was the precedent that Calhoun referred to when justifying federal funding of canals and roads?
a. the National Road
b. the construction of Washington, D.C.
c. the creation of a standing army
d. the Erie Canal
e. the Louisiana Purchase
32. Which was a component of the American System?
a. States would be responsible for financing roads and canals.
b. The federal government would create a new national bank.
c. Slavery would not be allowed to spread north of latitude 36°30.
d. The United States would not become involved in wars in Europe.
e. Tariffs on imported goods would be reduced in order to encourage trade.
33. The Second Bank of the United States was created
a. by Congress in 1816, with the support of President Madison.
b. to counterbalance the power of the First Bank of the United States.
c. by President Monroe’s executive order in 1820.
d. by a group of New York bankers after the First Bank of the United States failed.
e. by Congress in 1832, with the support of President Jackson.
34. Which is true of paper money in America in the early nineteenth century?
a. It could be issued only by the federal government.
b. It was in limited supply and used extensively only in the larger cities.
c. It represented a promise to pay the bearer, on demand, a specific amount of gold or silver.
d. Its value was determined by the president of the Second Bank of the United States.
e. Its value could not legally exceed the amount of money that the bank printing it held in its vault.
35. Which was a cause of the Panic of 1819?
a. a decline in the European market for American farm products
b. debts incurred to finance the War of 1812
c. the Bank of England’s demand that American merchants pay their creditors in gold or silver
d. a flood of immigrant labor into American cities
e. the collapse of the Second Bank of the United States
36. What was a result of the Panic of 1819?
a. Many farmers and businessmen declared bankruptcy.
b. Unemployment declined in eastern cities.
c. Trust in banks increased.
d. Many western states enlisted militias to collect debts.
e. Political harmony increased.
37. Which was a result of the Panic of 1819?
a. European demand for American farm products surged.
b. Prices for western lands tripled within a span of ten years.
c. The Second Bank of the United States declared bankruptcy.
d. Some states suspended debt collections.
e. John Marshall decided against the Second Bank of the United States in Gibbons v. Ogden.
38. In its decision in McCulloch v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
a. the Indians were not allowed to sue the federal government.
b. the Second Bank of the United States was constitutional.
c. Catholics could not be barred from political office.
d. the American System was unconstitutional.
e. states could nullify federal laws with congressional permission.
39. What does the period known as the “Era of Good Feelings” indicate about American politics in the nineteenth century?
a. Andrew Jackson’s spoils system became a rallying cry for political reformers.
b. Single-party rule did not result in the easing of sectional rivalries.
c. The War of 1812 had created political tensions that were unresolved thirty years later.
d. The Monroe Doctrine was successful in creating short-term harmony between Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
e. The issue of slavery had ceased to be a central cause of tension within the American political system.
40. The term “Era of Good Feelings” refers to the period of American history when
a. the Federalist Party was at its strongest.
b. there seemed to be political harmony during the Monroe administration.
c. Americans united across party lines to declare war on Great Britain in the War of 1812.
d. slavery was gradually abolished in all the states.
e. Democrats and Whigs cooperated to solve the nation’s financial crisis.
41. Under the Missouri Compromise of 1820,
a. the remaining Louisiana Purchase territory was divided into slave and free zones.
b. Congress banned slavery in any new territory that might ever be added to the United States.
c. Missouri agreed to gradual emancipation of slavery in exchange for admission to the Union.
d. Ohio became a free state to balance the admission of Missouri as a slave state.
e. slave states gained a two-seat advantage in the U.S. Senate.
42. Why was a second Missouri Compromise necessary?
a. Maine’s state constitution allowed slavery to continue until 1840.
b. Missouri’s state constitution barred free blacks from entering the state.
c. Henry Clay refused to vote for the first Missouri Compromise.
d. Texas wished to enter the Union as a slave state at the same time.
e. Missouri’s state constitution prohibited wage labor.
43. What significant issue did the Missouri Compromise aim to resolve?
a. giving land to Native Americans
b. the protective tariff
c. slaves being treated as property
d. the extension of slavery
e. the abolition of slavery
44. As part of the Missouri Compromise, what free state was admitted to the Union?
a. Arkansas
b. Maine
c. California
d. Louisiana
e. Oregon
45. Both Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams suggested that the Missouri controversy of 1820–1821
a. demonstrated the wisdom of the founding fathers in adopting the three-fifths clause.
b. should have been solved by adoption of the Tallmadge Amendment.
c. was not as dangerous as President Monroe made it out to be.
d. resulted from overly ambitious proslavery politicians seeking to score political points.
e. revealed a sectional divide that potentially threatened the Union.
46. The independence movements in Latin America between 1810 and 1822
a. led Spain to crack down and succeed in consolidating its power in the Americas.
b. gained very little sympathy in the United States because of atrocities committed by revolutionaries.
c. created thirteen different nations, each headed by a person of Indian ancestry.
d. paralleled in some ways the independence movement that created the United States.
e. created new nations that economically developed at a very fast rate.
47. What were Spain’s only remaining American colonies in 1825?
a. Mexico and Peru
b. Ecuador and Chile
c. Puerto Rico and Cuba
d. Guatemala and El Salvador
e. Venezuela and Colombia
48. How did Latin American republics established between 1810 and 1822 differ from the United States?
a. Latin American constitutions extended the right to vote to Indians and free blacks.
b. Latin American independence wars were generally shorter than the U.S. Revolutionary War.
c. Economic development was easier to achieve in Latin American republics than in the United States.
d. No Latin American republic ever had a civil war.
e. Most Latin American countries denied suffrage to Indians and free blacks.
49. Which was a component of the Monroe Doctrine?
a. The United States vowed to oppose efforts by European powers to establish any new colonies in the Americas.
b. The United States and France signed a mutual assistance treaty, agreeing to aid one another in case of attack by a foreign
power.
c. The United States pledged financial support for the establishment of industry in the newly independent nations of South
America.
d. The United States formally declared its intention of claiming territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
e. The United States declared its intention to adopt the metric system for official weights and measures by 1850.
50. The Monroe Doctrine
a. was the idea that all white men should have voting rights.
b. secured Florida from Spain.
c. declared the Americas off-limits to further European colonization.
d. stated that the United States would be neutral in all international conflicts.
e. settled the nullification crisis favorably for South Carolina.
51. What would have been an accurate assessment of the Monroe Doctrine at the time?
a. The Latin American revolutions had little in common with American ideals.
b. It was more talk than action, as the United States was weak militarily.
c. The United States had battle plans drawn to attack Europe to prevent further colonization.
d. This was a plan to gain Canada from the British.
e. It failed in helping the United States gain Florida.
52. The 1823 Monroe Doctrine
a. was inconsistent with the idea of manifest destiny.
b. was not a significant aspect of U.S. foreign policy until the twentieth century.
c. declared that all republics in the Western Hemisphere were equal, and no republic should dominate another.
d. was primarily aimed at preventing trade with new Latin American nations.
e. reflected a rising sense of U.S. nationalism.
53. What political quality did Andrew Jackson and George Washington share?
a. a strong mistrust of banks
b. a fear that states’ rights would threaten the unity of the nation
c. a commitment to securing Native American land for white settlement
d. a refusal to use the veto power
e. an appeal to voters based at least partly on a history of military leadership
54. What argument does “The Memorial of the Non–Freeholders of the City of Richmond” make against the policy of granting the
right to vote only to those who own property?
a. Men do not have the right to limit or restrict the God-given freedom and liberty that all Americans are born with.
b. Refusing those who do not own land the right to vote will create potentially violent class conflict.
c. A robust democracy requires the participation of men from all social classes.
d. Land ownership is not evidence of superior intelligence or moral judgement.
e. The Constitution implies that the right to vote should be granted to all free men, without restriction.
55. In the document “The Memorial of the Non–Freeholders of the City of Richmond,” what were the freeholders claiming?
a. A majority of white males were not allowed to vote.
b. Immigrants should be granted suffrage.
c. Poor farmworkers should be granted free plots of land.
d. The voting age needed to be lowered to fifteen.
e. Women should be allowed to vote in local elections.
56. What is the document “Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disenfranchisement” protesting?
a. a New Jersey law taking away women’s right to vote
b. Rhode Island’s refusal to honor the constitution ratified by the People’s Convention.
c. an amendment to the Pennsylvania constitution restricting voting rights to whites
d. the practice, in New York State, of requiring voters to pass a literacy test
e. the possibility that Maine would limit the right to vote to white males
57. What did the citizens appeal to in the “Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disfranchisement”?
a. violence.
b. abolition of slavery
c. the conscience of white males
d. the hard work of white women in the home
e. workers who had no protection on the job
58. Why was Henry Clay charged with orchestrating a “corrupt bargain” during the 1824 election?
a. He campaigned for the right to vote for free blacks in Pennsylvania in a bid to increase his own electability.
b. He defected from the Whig Party in 1828 in order to support Jackson’s presidential bid.
c. He cast his vote for Adams in the presidential election in return for a cabinet post.
d. He leaked a story to the press regarding Peggy Eaton to reduce the power of a political rival.
e. He supported the Bank of American as a legislator, only to become its president in 1832.
59. In the presidential election of 1824, who received the most votes but failed to win a majority of either the popular or electoral
votes, thus requiring the House of Representatives to select a president?
a. Andrew Jackson
b. Henry Clay
c. John Quincy Adams
d. James Monroe
e. Nicholas Biddle
60. Which president’s vision for America most resembled Alexander Hamilton’s plans?
a. Andrew Jackson’s
b. James Monroe’s
c. Martin Van Buren’s
d. John Quincy Adams’s
e. William Henry Harrison’s
61. What did critics of the John Quincy Adams presidency accuse him of?
a. making a “corrupt bargain” with the Whigs in order to win the election
b. encouraging dissension between the northern and southern states to distract attention from his failures
c. hurting the economy by undermining the American System of economic development
d. allowing the states to pass laws that threatened the unity of the nation
e. leading the federal government to overstep the bounds of what was constitutionally allowed
62. Which is true of John Quincy Adams?
a. He believed that a strong federal government enhanced personal liberty.
b. As a Federalist senator, he had vehemently opposed Jefferson’s embargo policy.
c. He felt that the acquisition of new territory went beyond the powers granted the federal government by the Constitution.
d. He strongly opposed the American System of economic development.
e. He believed that America’s strength lay in its economic independence from global markets.
63. What idea did John Quincy Adams promote that was not accepted in his presidency and is still rejected in today’s United States?
a. building national roads
b. a publicly funded astronomical observatory
c. congressional aid for farming
d. official adoption of the metric system
e. legislation promoting manufacturing
64. What future vision did John Quincy Adams have for the United States?
a. The Indian Tribes would establish small, independent nations in the far West, which would serve as allies to the United
States.
b. The United States would peacefully split into two nations, one with slavery and one without.
c. The United States would be a nation without slavery by the year 1900.
d. The United States would annex Canada following a third war with Britain.
e. All of North America would eventually be part of the United States.
65. Which of the following statements about Martin Van Buren is true?
a. By 1832, he had established the political machinery of the Whig Party.
b. He wanted to see competition between political parties.
c. Based on his strong intellectualism, he promoted the idea of a national university.
d. He emphasized sectionalism over party loyalty.
e. In the 1820s, he wanted politicians to focus more on ending slavery.
66. Which statement is true about the electoral college?
a. By 1828, voters chose the presidential electors in every state except South Carolina.
b. By 1828, the legislature chose the presidential electors in every state except Virginia.
c. By 1828, voters chose the presidential electors in about half of the states.
d. The electoral college was abolished in 1820.
e. In states where voters chose the presidential electors, there was little campaigning and low voter turnout.
67. Which occurred during the election of 1828?
a. Adams fired most of the federal employees who openly campaigned for Jackson.
b. One campaign slogan declared, “Adams can fight, but Jackson can write.”
c. Adams’s supporters questioned the morality of Andrew Jackson’s wife, Rachel.
d. Andrew Jackson accused John Quincy Adams of being a murderer.
e. Andrew Jackson challenged Henry Clay to a duel because of 1824’s “corrupt bargain.”
68. By the time of Jackson’s presidency, politics
a. remained very much the province of the elite.
b. was centered on the congressional elections held every other year.
c. focused on organization, with the public refusing to tolerate showmanship or flowery oratory.
d. often emphasized individual politicians with mass followings and popular nicknames.
e. was completely under the control of Martin Van Buren.
69. Which of the following characterizes the practice of politics in America during the Age of Jackson?
a. a mass spectacle that served as a kind of public entertainment
b. a divisive issue that turned neighbor against neighbor and even broke up families
c. a rigorous, intellectual undertaking, truly understood by only the most educated of America’s citizens
d. a minor interest in the lives of people consumed by the tasks of raising families and earning a living
e. an obsession of those living in urban areas, but little discussed by those living rural existences
70. What was Andrew Jackson’s stance on African-American slaves?