TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1. Identify the issues that made the politics of the 1790s so divisive.
2. Explain how the competing views of freedom and global events promoted the political divisions of the 1790s.
3. Identify the achievements and failures of Jefferson’s presidency.
4. Explain the causes and significant results of the War of 1812.
Multiple Choice
1. When George Washington took office as the first president of the United States, American leaders believed that the new nation’s
success depended on
a. creating political parties as a means of channeling the people’s passions.
b. maintaining political harmony.
c. protecting all forms of freedom.
d. Washington’s willingness to serve until he died.
e. coining money.
2. Which element of our current political system did the founding fathers generally hope to avoid?
a. political parties
b. any involvement by the government in financial affairs
c. western expansion
d. state courts
e. the presidential cabinet
3. Why was political rhetoric so passionate and divisive during the 1790s?
a. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr joined forces in trying to form their own political party separate from the Federalists and
Republicans.
b. The United States would not have a national debt until the 1800s; all war debts following the Revolution remained squarely
with the states.
c. Americans feared that the ideals of the Revolution would be betrayed as America faced the realities of governance.
d. Religious tensions that had been a secondary concern during the War for Independence came to dominate all other concerns.
e. Prominent newspaper editors later found to be British agents deliberately sowed dissension and soon nearly sparked another
war.
4. Alexander Hamilton’s long-term goal was to
a. increase the Republican Party’s political power.
b. ensure that the United States would be a primarily agrarian nation.
c. promote the power of state governments.
d. make the United States a major commercial and military power.
e. succeed George Washington as president.
5. Which of the following was part of Alexander Hamilton’s financial program?
a. default on all debts prior to the ratification of the Constitution
b. the Bank of the United States, modeled on the Bank of England
c. a tax on wine producers as a means of raising revenue
d. taxes and subsidies to promote the growth of cotton
e. creating Washington, D.C., as a major trade port
6. What was the main source of the political divisions that surfaced in 1790 and 1791?
a. the election of George Washington as the nation’s first president
b. the Louisiana Purchase
c. slavery
d. the rights of women
e. a financial plan developed by Alexander Hamilton
7. What did Alexander Hamilton include in his economic proposal?
a. the creation of individual state banks
b. subsidies to whiskey producers
c. tariffs on exported goods
d. federal responsibility for outstanding Revolutionary War debts
e. the elimination of the national debt
8. Why did Thomas Jefferson and James Madison oppose Alexander Hamilton’s economic plan?
a. They believed the plan gave too much autonomy to independent farmers.
b. They believed that an alliance between commercial capitalists and a powerful federal government threatened freedom.
c. They thought the plan would make the nation too socially equal.
d. They thought the plan required too much westward expansion.
e. The plan did not include tariffs, which they supported.
9. What vision of America’s future guided Thomas Jefferson and James Madison?
a. a major commercial and military power under strong federal leadership
b. a bastion of freedom in which freed slaves would eventually enjoy equal rights with whites
c. a land of economic equality in which no one would be wealthy and no one would be poor
d. a rural republic of independent farmers freely selling their goods to a global market
e. an increasingly urban democracy, largely populated by educated businessmen and craftsmen
10. With regard to Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson’s debates in the 1790s, what aspect of their differences in opinion can
still be seen in today’s United States?
a. whether foreign policy in the United States should favor Great Britain or France
b. whether alcohol should be taxed
c. whether the United States should remain a nation of mostly farmers
d. whether the Constitution should be interpreted strictly or loosely
e. whether the capital should remain in Washington, D.C.
11. Opponents of Hamilton’s economic plan
a. included George Washington.
b. were mostly northerners who had supported ratification of the Constitution.
c. believed future growth was to be found through close ties with Britain.
d. agreed to a compromise that included placing the national capital in the South.
e. were simply jealous of Hamilton’s close relationship with Washington.
12. “Strict constructionists” believed that
a. Jay’s Treaty should be construed or interpreted to put more restrictions on Indians.
b. freedom of speech and of the press should be restricted if the president believed that to be necessar y.
c. the federal government could only exercise powers specifically listed in the Constitution.
d. the “general welfare” clause of the Constitution gave the federal government power to create a national bank.
e. the creation of new western settlements should be strictly limited to avoid Indian wars.
13. Pierre Charles L’Enfant is well known for
a. leading a slave rebellion in Saint Domingue.
b. designing Washington, D.C.
c. masterminding the XYZ Affair.
d. negotiating the Louisiana Purchase.
e. writing Letters from an American Farmer.
14. Benjamin Banneker was
a. a scientist who helped survey the new national capital.
b. the congressional leader of the opposition to Hamilton in the early 1790s.
c. the secretary of war who publicly disagreed with Washington over Indian policy.
d. an African-American slave whose capture inspired the Fugitive Slave Law.
e. the first black person elected to Congress when he won election in the “Revolution of 1800.”
15. How did Americans respond to the French Revolution?
a. Almost everyone supported it at first, because the French seemed to be following in the footsteps of Americans.
b. Hamilton supported the creation of a standing army to prepare the nation should French radicalism spread across the Atlantic.
c. Opponents of the French Revolution formed the Republican Party, headed by Thomas Jefferson.
d. They blocked passage of Jay’s Treaty, which showed preference for Great Britain.
e. President Washington immediately spoke out against French radicals and dispatched American warships to assist England.
16. What happened to King Louis XVI during the French Revolution?
a. He abdicated the throne and moved to Switzerland.
b. He successfully fled to Austria with his wife.
c. He ruled as a less powerful constitutional monarch after the Revolution.
d. He was executed, along with numerous aristocrats.
e. He was rescued from French imprisonment by British spies.
17. Which international partner did Alexander Hamilton think most important for the survival and prosperity of the United States?
a. the Indians
b. the Spanish
c. the French
d. the West Indians
e. the British
18. Edmond-Charles Genet was a French diplomat who
a. was also a British spy, which led to his arrest in the United States.
b. commissioned American ships to sail under the French flag and fight the British.
c. sought refuge in America as soon as the French Revolution began in 1789.
d. became a key adviser to President Washington on European affairs.
e. sought unsuccessfully to convince the Democratic-Republican Societies to support the French Revolution.
19. What was impressment?
a. the legal doctrine stating that a slave who traveled to free territory was still in bondage
b. the practice of kidnapping sailors and forcing them to serve in the British navy
c. the legal and economic rights held by an apprentice during his apprenticeship
d. the process through which an immigrant applied for citizenship prior to 1845
e. the legal doctrine that prevented widows from inheriting property upon their husbands’ deaths
20. Which of the following did Jay’s Treaty accomplish?
a. Britain abandoned the practice of impressment.
b. The United States no longer paid tribute to the Barbary states.
c. Britain paid millions of dollars in compensation to the United States for escaped slaves.
d. The United States guaranteed favored treatment of British imports.
e. France and Great Britain were no longer at war.
21. How did the French Revolution affect America?
a. It resulted in a rush of French immigrants and a strong French influence on American culture.
b. It deepened existing political differences in America.
c. It was the first time America sent troops to fight on foreign soil.
d. It inspired a series of slave revolts throughout the South.
e. It inspired the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
22. Which of the following led directly to the creation of the Republican Party in the 1790s?
a. the creation of the Bank of the United States
b. speculators profiting from the sales of government bonds
c. Shays’s Rebellion
d. the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions
e. Jay’s Treaty
23. What is true about the Federalists?
a. They were skeptical of Alexander Hamilton’s economic program.
b. They supported close ties to Britain.
c. They opposed George Washington’s administration.
d. They were mainly a mix of wealthy southern planters and ordinary farmers from across the territories.
e. They rooted their platform in a strong trust in democratic self-rule.
24. Which of the following is true of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794?
a. The “rebels” largely blamed the Republican Party for their troubles.
b. The rebellion ended after a battle in which the “rebel” leader, Rufus King, was killed.
c. It represented the first major challenge to the administration of President John Adams.
d. It was the only time in U.S. history that the president commanded an army in the field.
e. The rebellion demonstrated that sectional divisions over slavery could turn violent.
25. What was one of the ways in which Shays’s Rebellion differed from the Whiskey Rebellion?
a. Whereas Shays’s Rebellion featured wealthy participants, the Whiskey Rebellion was solely a revolt of the lower class
b. Whereas Shays’s Rebellion was put down by force, participants in the Whiskey Rebellion dispersed voluntarily.
c. Whereas the federal government intervened in the Whiskey Rebellion, it did not intervene in Shays’s Rebellion.
d. Whereas the Whiskey Rebellion involved deadly violence, Shays’s Rebellion was a peaceful protest
e. Whereas Shays’s Rebellion protested taxes, the Whiskey Rebellion opposed the prohibition of alcohol.
26. Which of the following statements accurately describes the Republican Party leaders of the late eighteenth century?
a. They were critical of the French Revolution.
b. They were stereotyped as the “rich, the able, and the well-born.”
c. They viewed social and economic inequality as inherent to civilized society.
d. They considered broad democratic participation to be essential to freedom.
e. Their platform reflected traditional eighteenth-century views of society as a fixed hierarchy.
27. In the 1790s, the public sphere
a. was mainly limited to debates among famous elites.
b. stagnated, because there were not yet post offices to circulate correspondence and newspapers.
c. contracted, because the Alien and Sedition Acts succeeded in delegitimizing the right to freedom of expression.
d. was celebrated by Federalists and condemned by Republicans.
e. expanded, as evidenced by the rapid growth of the American press.
28. Which of the following was true of newspapers in America during the period from 1790 to 1810?
a. The majority soon went bankrupt and ceased publication.
b. They were written only for an audience with a college education.
c. Their cost was prohibitive for practically all Americans.
d. They significantly grew in number.
e. The federal government consistently censored them.
29. The following statement was typical of a certain type of group that formed in the 1790s: “That all men are naturally free, and
possess equal rights. That all legitimate government originates in the voluntary social compact of the people.” Which of the
following individuals would have been most likely to agree with these ideas?
a. a delegate to the Hartford Convention
b. a member of a Democratic-Republic society
c. an employee of the Bank of the United States
d. a staunch supporter of the Alien and Sedition Acts
e. a defender of slavery
30. The Democratic-Republican Societies of the 1790s
a. criticized the Washington administration.
b. spoke out against the French Revolution.
c. formed only about a dozen chapters in various cities.
d. strongly supported Hamilton’s economic program.
e. broke up and created the Democratic and Republican Parties by 1797.
31. Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
a. was the first pamphlet published in the United States by an American woman.
b. was inspired by Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man.
c. won strong support from the Federalist Party.
d. strongly challenged traditional gender roles.
e. was based on her experiences as a cross-dressing soldier during the Revolutionary War.
32. Which of the following is true of American women’s role in political life in the 1790s?
a. The Constitution of 1787 expressly excluded women from voting.
b. Women were not counted in determining congressional representation.
c. The stirrings of women’s political consciousness broadened the democratization of public life.
d. By 1799, women had gained the right to vote in four New England states and in Pennsylvania.
e. There were several women-only Democratic-Republican Parties in the larger cities.
33. Mary Wollstonecraft and Judith Sargent Murray’s writings about women’s rights mainly called for women to
a. gain the right to vote.
b. access improved educational opportunities.
c. receive equal wages to men.
d. hold political office.
e. serve in the military.
34. What brought an end to Washington’s presidency in 1796?
a. his wish that the office not become a lifelong position
b. his death
c. ill health
d. a constitutional amendment establishing term limits
e. a plunge in popularity following Jay’s Treaty
35. Which of the following would represent a fulfillment of what Judith Sargent Murray argues for in her essays?
a. housewives forming a sewing group
b. men founding a public school
c. boys playing a role in local government
d. girls attending college
e. Native American men serving on a tribal council
36. Which of the following does Judith Sargent Murray argue in her essay “On the Equality of the Sexes”?
a. Although men and women should be given equal rights, their minds are inherently unequal.
b. The first step toward women achieving equal rights with men is winning the right to vote.
c. Women should aim to find meaning and fulfillment in their housework and families.
d. Women have as much right to defy American laws as the Patriots had to defy the Stamp Act.
e. Society, rather than nature, is responsible for the apparent superiority of men over women.
37. Which of the following rights or freedoms is the focus of the “Address of the Democratic–Republican Society of Pennsylvania”
of December 8, 1974?
a. freedom of assembly
b. freedom of religion
c. freedom of expression
d. the right to bear arms
e. the right to a trial by jury
38. The candidates in the 1796 election were Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr versus
a. James Madison and John Marshall.
b. John Adams and Thomas Pinckney.
c. John Adams and John Jay.
d. James Madison and Thomas Pinckney.
e. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.
39. In the 1790s, America was involved in what has been called a “quasi–war” with which nation?
a. England
b. Spain
c. the Netherlands
d. France
e. Canada
40. What was the significance of the XYZ Affair?
a. It soured public opinion toward the Washington administration.
b. It heightened concerns about mob rule destroying American liberty.
c. It led to the War of 1812.
d. It established the right of judicial review.
e. It created animosity between America and France.
41. Which of the following was true of the United States in 1797?
a. The two political parties were divided on the role of the government.
b. The Federalists dominated the South and Republicans controlled New England.
c. England respected American neutrality in regard to the war in Europe.
d. John Adams was willing to use the ideas of Thomas Jefferson.
e. Adams was eager to have Hamilton as his vice president.
42. The passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts was opposed by Thomas Jefferson on what grounds?
a. They were certain to lead to a war against France
b. They did not give enough power to the unelected judiciary.
c. They would stop immigration and, thus, slow population growth.
d. They represented a hysteria similar to that seen during the Salem witch trials
e. They emboldened newspapers to be too critical of the president.
43. Which statement is true about the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798?
a. They were an attempt by Republicans to silence their critics.
b. The Alien Act empowered federal authorities to deport immigrants they deemed “dangerous.”
c. The Sedition Act eliminated trials by jury for all those charged with criticizing the government.
d. Widespread opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts was a significant obstacle on Thomas Jefferson’s road to victory in the
1800 election.
e. The Sedition Act targeted mainly Federalist-friendly publications.
44. The Sedition Act targeted
a. Alexander Hamilton’s economic ideas.
b. Federalists.
c. the Republican press.
d. illegal immigrants.
e. British sympathizers.
45. Fries’s Rebellion
a. was an uprising in Massachusetts.
b. was provoked by heavy taxes on whiskey.
c. resulted in over 300 deaths and much property destruction.
d. resulted in the execution of John Fries for treason.
e. resulted in a loss of support for Federalists in southeastern Pennsylvania.
46. The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions were a response to
a. the election of 1800.
b. Hamilton’s economic plan.
c. the Alien and Sedition Acts.
d. Fries’s Rebellion.
e. impressments of American sailors.
47. Thomas Jefferson’s original Kentucky resolution served as an argument for what?
a. freedom of religion
b. states’ rights
c. the right to bear arms
d. immigration reform
e. free trade
48. The Sedition Act of 1798
a. targeted recent arrivals to the United States.
b. led to the jailing of Federalist editors.
c. was more stringent and oppressive than similar laws in Europe.
d. led Jefferson to argue that states, not the federal government, could punish seditious speech.
e. was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court two years later.
49. Which of the following was the deciding factor in Thomas Jefferson’s victory in the presidential election of 1800?
a. his admiration for the Haitian Revolution
b. Adam Burr’s duel with Alexander Hamilton
c. the decline of the Federalist Party
d. George Washington’s support for Jefferson
e. Alexander Hamilton advocating for his political rival Thomas Jefferson
50. Why did Thomas Jefferson call the Election of 1800 the “Revolution of 1800”?
a. He was willing to let John Adams remain as president.
b. He wanted to use force to maintain his victory in the election.
c. He was voicing criticism of Aaron Burr’s actions in the West.
d. He hoped to free many of the slaves in the South.
e. He was talking about freedom that secured America’s independence.
51. Who wrote a petition to Congress as the president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, calling for the end of slavery?
a. Mathew Lyon
b. Patrick Henry
c. Sarah Morton
d. Mary Wollstonecraft
e. Benjamin Franklin
52. Which of the following is true of the American response to the 1791 uprising in Saint Domingue?
a. The Adams administration discouraged the independence of black Haiti.
b. Thomas Jefferson celebrated it as another victory for liberty.
c. Most white Americans were glad to see France suffer the loss of its colony.
d. Most enslaved Americans opposed it for fear it would inspire a white crackdown on slave gatherings.
e. Many white Americans considered it evidence of blacks’ unfitness for republican freedom.
54. Which of the following was a crucial element of Gabriel’s Rebellion?
a. the support of white leadership
b. arms provided by Native Americans
c. the literacy of slave leaders and their relative autonomy
d. the enthusiastic support of most northern politicians
e. favorable weather conditions for the slaves
54. Which statement is true about the Haitian Revolution?
a. It failed to establish Haiti as an independent nation.
b. Jeffersonians who had celebrated the French Revolution similarly celebrated the Haitian Revolution as a further step toward
universal liberty.
c. It encouraged many white Americans to travel to Haiti.
d. It resulted in millions of Haitians fleeing to the United States.
e. It reinforced white Americans’ fears of possible insurrections by enslaved people in the United States.
55. Gabriel’s Rebellion
a. was doomed to fail because the African-American population of Richmond was so small.
b. demonstrated that the slaves were as aware of the idea of liberty as anyone else.
c. inspired Virginia to adopt a gradual emancipation law in 1803.
d. failed partly because its leaders were plantation slaves, who had less contact with the outside world and were unaware of how
little support they enjoyed.
e. prompted several states to pass laws requiring slaves to be educated about the Constitution and the importance of obeying the
law.
56. How did the Virginia legislature respond to Gabriel’s Rebellion?
a. It made it illegal for slaves to congregate without white supervision.
b. It provided financial compensation for those who voluntarily freed their slaves.
c. It repealed a new tax on distilled spirits.
d. It summoned Washington, who proceeded to command an army of thousands of militiamen.
e. It rescinded the right to vote for free blacks.
57. What is true about the plot known as Gabriel’s Rebellion?
a. Recruits were gathered mostly through passing secret coded messages.
b. The goal of the rebellion was to establish black superiority over whites.
c. The discovery of the plot resulted in new laws that increased white supervision of black Virginians.
d. Gabriel named Quakers, Methodists, and French people as his primary enemies.
e. Gabriel and his co-conspirators were plantation field workers who could not read or write.
58. After becoming president, how did Thomas Jefferson deal with the Federalists?
a. He followed through on his inauguration speech’s statement (“We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists”) and treated
them as equals.
b. He courted their support because he knew he could never win approval for his policies without them.
c. He tried to roll back almost everything they had done by cutting taxes and the size of government.
d. Until just before leaving office, he used the Sedition Act to shut down Federalist newspapers critical of his administration.
e. He led a successful effort to impeach and remove from office all Federalist judges, whom he then replaced with Republicans.
59. President Thomas Jefferson tried to minimize federal power by
a. buying Louisiana from France.
b. participating in the Barbary Wars.
c. urging Congress to pass the Embargo Act.
d. abolishing all taxes except the tariff.
e. establishing judicial review.
60. What was the significance of the case of Marbury v. Madison?
a. It was John Marshall’s first case as chief justice.
b. The Supreme Court asserted the power of judicial review.
c. The Supreme Court declared that presidential power was greater than congressional power.
d. The decision gave states important new powers to block a too-powerful federal government.
e. Marbury’s win meant that he became the new chief justice, a post he held for twenty –one years.
61. In its decision in the case of Fletcher v. Peck, the U.S. Supreme Court
a. exercised the authority to overturn a state law that the Court considered to be in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
b. declared that corruption involved in the making of a law automatically invalidated that law.
c. held that slaves who ran away from their masters had to be returned to them, even if the slaves had gone to a free state.
d. asserted that political parties were constitutional even though they were not mentioned in the 1787 document.
e. said that the purchase of land from a foreign power, as in the case of Louisiana, was constitutional.
62. Why did Jefferson purchase Louisiana from the French in 1803?
a. He wanted to prevent slavery from expanding west of the Mississippi.
b. He hoped it would ensure the nation’s agrarian character.
c. He wanted to return the land to the Indian tribes who lived there.
d. He knew the Constitution explicitly and fully authorized this land deal.
e. He wanted to sell it back to Spain for a profit.
63. The land involved in the Louisiana Purchase
a. had been claimed by France from the 1600s until the United States acquired it.
b. included all of what is now Texas and the American Southwest.
c. was considered by Jefferson to be practically worthless, yet he did not want it to fall into British hands.
d. stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.
e. consisted only of what is today the state of Louisiana and the southern half of Arkansas.
64. Which of the following was an aim of the Lewis and Clark expedition?
a. to discover the source of the Mississippi River
b. to explore the economic potential of the territory acquired through the Louisiana Purchase
c. to secure expanses of land for Indian reservations west of the Mississippi River
d. to bring needed supplies to military forts along America’s new western border
e. to order Spanish traders out of the territory acquired through the Louisiana Purchase
65. Which of the following is true about the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark?
a. They slaughtered two different Indian tribes.
b. They met Indian tribes accustomed to dealing with European traders.
c. Clark ended up staying in Montana to live with Indians on a permanent basis.
d. They brought back numerous plant and animal specimens.
e. They never reached the Pacific coast.
66. Sacajawea was
a. an elderly Indian woman whom Lewis and Clark enslaved during their journey.
b. born to a French-Canadian fur trapper and his native wife during Lewis and Clark’s journey.
c. a guide and interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition.
d. the only member of the Lewis and Clark expedition to return safely to St. Louis.
e. the young Shoshone woman whom William Clark married during his winter in North Dakota.
67. Which statement is true about the impact of the U.S. acquisition of New Orleans on African-Americans who lived in the city?
a. U.S laws restricted the freedom of free and enslaved African-Americans more harshly than French and Spanish laws did.
b. Under U.S. rule, slaves and free blacks had easy access to the court system.
c. U.S. laws recognized free blacks as equals to whites and, therefore, worthy of enjoying the privileges of citizenship.
d. It was much easier for slaves to gain their freedom under U.S. rule.
e. The United States quickly abolished the principle of “community property” within marriage that had been prevalent in
Spanish and French civil codes.
68. Which of the following statements is true of New Orleans under Spanish rule?
a. Men and women enjoyed complete legal equality, which was unheard of in the United States.
b. Slavery was illegal for any men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 18.
c. Slave women had the right to go to court for protection against cruelty or rape by their owners.
d. An owner could not free his or her slaves without special permission from the Spanish monarch.
e. Native Americans had been considered full citizens, with all of the rights and privileges associated with that status.