Deck 26: The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution

Question 1

To assimilate Indians into American society, the Dawes Act did all of the following except

A) dissolve many tribes as legal entities.
B) try to make rugged individualists of the Indians.
C) wipe out tribal ownership of land.
D) promise Indians U.S. citizenship in twenty-five years.
E) outlaw the sacred Sun Dance.

Answer 1

outlaw the sacred Sun Dance.

Question 2

Prior to the coming of the whites after the Civil War, the American Indians of the Great Plains

A) had maintained their nomadic hunting way of life for thousands of years.
B) were thoroughly familiar with change, migration, and conflict.
C) lived in peace and harmony with one another.
D) relied primarily on agriculture for their sustenance.
E) were under the control of highly organized tribal governments.

Answer 2

were thoroughly familiar with change, migration, and conflict.

Question 3

The Indians battled whites for all the following reasons except to

A) rescue their fellow tribal members who had been exiled to Oklahoma.
B) avenge savage massacres of Indians by whites.
C) punish whites for breaking treaties.
D) defend their lands against white invaders.
E) preserve their nomadic way of life against forced settlement.

Answer 3

rescue their fellow tribal members who had been exiled to Oklahoma.

Question 4

A Century of Dishonor (1881), which chronicled the dismal history of Indian-white relations, was written by

A) Harriet Beecher Stowe.
B) Helen Hunt Jackson.
C) Chief Joseph.
D) Jim Thorpe.
E) William F. Cody.

Question 5

One problem with the Homestead Act was that

A) public land was sold for revenue.
B) 160 acres were inadequate for productive farming on the rain-scarce Great Plains.
C) midwestern farmers had to give up raising livestock because of stiff competition with the West.
D) the railroads purchased most of this land.
E) it required farmers to actually live on the land for five years.

Question 6

In the warfare that raged between the Indians and the American military after the Civil War, the

A) Indians were never as well armed as the soldiers.
B) American cavalry quickly learned how to defeat the Indians.
C) Indians' superb horsemanship often defeated U.S. soldiers.
D) Americans' Civil War experience gave them a great advantage.
E) Indians were careful not to attack whites unless they had to.

Question 7

The mining frontier played a vital role in

A) bringing law and order to the West.
B) attracting population to the West.
C) influencing the government to switch from the gold to the silver standard.
D) enabling westerners to resist the power of large corporations.
E) forcing the Indians off the Great Plains.

Question 8

The United States government's outlawing of the Indian Sun (Ghost) Dance in 1890 resulted in the

A) Battle of Wounded Knee.
B) Sand Creek massacre.
C) Battle of Little Big Horn.
D) Battle of Bear Paw Mountain.
E) Carlisle Indian School.

Question 9

Match each Indian chief below with his tribe (includes photo caption).

A) A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4
B) A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2
C) A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1
D) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1
E) A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3

Question 10

Arrange the following events in chronological order: (A) Congress passes Dawes Severalty Act; (B) Oklahoma land rush; (C) Indians are granted full American citizenship; (D) Congress restores the tribal basis of Indian life in the Indian Reorganization Act.

A) A, B, C, D
B) B, A, C, D
C) A, D, B, C
D) D, C, A, B
E) C, B, D, A

Question 11

The struggle against violence and outlaw behavior in the West was often led by

A) Civil War military veterans.
B) business corporations and mining engineers.
C) evangelical churches.
D) vigilantes practicing "lynch law."
E) territorial conventions seeking statehood.

Question 12

The Dawes Severalty Act was designed to promote Indian

A) prosperity.
B) tribal government.
C) assimilation.
D) reservation policy.
E) education.

Question 13

The Nez Percé Indians of Idaho were goaded into war when

A) the Sioux sought their land.
B) American authorities tried to herd them onto a reservation.
C) gold was discovered on their land.
D) the Americans objected to their planned migration to Canada.
E) their alliance with the Shoshones required it.

Question 14

The buffalo were nearly exterminated

A) as a result of being overhunted by the Indians.
B) by the trains racing across the Great Plains.
C) when their meat became valued in eastern markets.
D) by disease.
E) through wholesale butchery by whites.

Question 15

As a result of the defeat of Captain William Fetterman's command in 1866,

A) the government built new forts on the Bozeman Trail.
B) the federal government abandoned the Bozeman Trail.
C) the Sioux considered that they had gained revenge for the Sand Creek massacre.
D) white settlers abandoned the Dakota Territory.
E) the Sioux War came to an end.

Question 16

Out West women found many opportunities that earned them a kind of equality, which earned them the right to vote in all of the following states except

A) Wyoming.
B) Utah.
C) Wisconsin.
D) Colorado.
E) Idaho.

Question 17

The Plains Indians were finally forced to surrender

A) by their constant intertribal warfare.
B) after Captain Fetterman strategically defeated them.
C) after such famous leaders as Geronimo and Sitting Bull were killed.
D) when the army began using artillery against them.
E) by the virtual extermination of the buffalo.

Question 18

The wild frontier towns where the three major cattle trails from Texas ended were

A) Kansas City, Kansas; Pueblo, Colorado; and Laramie, Wyoming.
B) Tulsa, Oklahoma; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Denver, Colorado.
C) Topeka, Kansas; Omaha, Nebraska; and Casper, Wyoming.
D) Abilene, Kansas; Ogalalla, Nebraska; and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
E) Atchison, Kansas; Greeley, Colorado; and Bozeman, Montana.

Question 19

The humanitarians who asserted their benevolent intentions toward the Indians

A) had little respect for traditional Indian culture.
B) advocated allowing the Ghost Dance to continue.
C) opposed passage of the Dawes Act.
D) believed that Indians should not be forced to "walk the white man's way."
E) advocated improving the reservation system.

Question 20

The enormous mineral wealth taken from the mining frontier

A) was the fundamental cause of the Indian wars.
B) solved the currency problem.
C) led to strong federal government involvement in the West.
D) profited individual prospectors but not corporations.
E) helped to finance the Civil War.

Question 21

Western cities like Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle served as a major "safety valve" by providing

A) a home for new immigrants.
B) new recreational outlets for stressed easterners.
C) a home for failed farmers and busted miners.
D) a home to talented inventors and entrepreneurs.
E) centers of the new environmental movement.

Question 22

The root cause of American farmers' problems after about 1880 was

A) loss of political power.
B) foreign competition.
C) the class conflict between wealthy farmers and tenants.
D) the high cost of farm machinery.
E) overproduction of agricultural goods.

Question 23

The original purpose of the Grange was to

A) lobby for farmers' interests with the state governments.
B) support an inflationary monetary policy.
C) stimulate self-improvement through educational and social activities.
D) lay the basis for a farmers' political party.
E) support renewal of the Homestead Act.

Question 24

In the decades after the Civil War, the large majority of American farmers

A) obtained their land through the Homestead Act.
B) diversified their crops.
C) became increasingly self-sufficient.
D) were forced to become tenant farmers.
E) grew a single cash crop.

Question 25

"Sooners" were settlers who "jumped the gun" to

A) pan gold in California.
B) stake claims in the Comstock Lode in Nevada.
C) claim land in Oklahoma.
D) drive the first cattle to Montana and Wyoming.
E) grab town sites in the Dakotas.

Question 26

American farmers' economic condition was particularly precarious because

A) they had to compete in a highly competitive and unprotected world market.
B) they were unable to purchase the capital equipment necessary to sustain growth.
C) it was impossible to grow grain on the arid Great Plains.
D) they faced continuous inflation of prices for consumer goods.
E) they had trouble shipping their crops to urban markets.

Question 27

Financially, American grain and cotton farmers suffered severely from

A) the instability of American currency.
B) excessively low rates on loans to purchase farm equipment.
C) deflation of the currency and a static money supply.
D) railroad land sales and loans to immigrant farmers.
E) excessive rates charged by farm auctioneers.

Question 28

Which of the following is not among the factors that have made the West a unique region of the United States?

A) It was the region where the federal government had the least impact on ordinary settlers and citizens.
B) It was where the Indians made their last stand against white encroachment and where most Indians still live.
C) It was the region where Anglo-American culture collided and mixed with Hispanic peoples.
D) Its window on Asia meant that it became the home of most Asian American immigrants.
E) It posed the greatest environmental challenges and shaped the American environmental imagination.

Question 29

Which of the following provides the least valid support for the theory that the frontier served as a "safety valve" for American social discontent and economic conflict?

A) Free western land attracted many immigrant farmers who might have crowded urban job markets.
B) The possibility of westward migration encouraged eastern employers to pay higher wages.
C) Farmers frequently migrated further west after earning a profit from the sale of land.
D) Eastern city dwellers headed west to obtain free homesteads during depressions.
E) Western cities became places of opportunity for failed farmers and easterners alike.

Question 30

A major problem faced by settlers on the Great Plains in the 1870s was

A) the high price of land.
B) the low market value of grain.
C) the scarcity of water.
D) overcrowding.
E) battles with cattle and sheep herders.

Question 31

The Homestead Act signaled that the fundamental goal of federal land policy was now to

A) raise government revenue.
B) conserve natural resources.
C) expand agricultural production.
D) guarantee shipments for the railroads.
E) promote frontier settlement.

Question 32

Which of the following was not among the serious problems faced by American farmers in the late nineteenth century?

A) deflationary prices and a static money supply
B) inability to borrow money from eastern banks and loan companies
C) very high mortgage interest rates
D) natural disasters and insects like the boll weevil
E) high state and local taxes on their land

Question 33

In the long run, the group that did the most to shape the modern West was the

A) trappers.
B) miners.
C) federal marshals.
D) cowboys.
E) hydraulic engineers.

Question 34

Among the following, the least likely to migrate to the cattle and farming frontier were

A) eastern city dwellers.
B) Hispanics.
C) recent immigrants.
D) blacks.
E) midwestern farmers.

Question 35

In several states, farmers helped to pass the "Granger Laws," which

A) raised tariffs.
B) lowered mortgage interest rates.
C) allowed them to form producer and consumer cooperatives.
D) prohibited bankruptcy auctions.
E) regulated railroad rates.

Question 36

The Homestead Act

A) enabled genuine farmers rather than land promoters to acquire land.
B) was a drastic departure from previous federal public land policy.
C) meant that most land on the Great Plains was acquired for free.
D) avoided the fraud and corruption that plagued many government programs.
E) was criticized as a federal government giveaway.

Question 37

In 1890, when the superintendent of the census announced that a frontier line was no longer visible,

A) the Homestead Act was repealed.
B) the "Indian problem" had been solved.
C) Americans were disturbed that the open and free land of the West was gone.
D) many people looked to Alaska as "the last frontier."
E) Congress rushed to admit all the remaining territories as states.

Question 38

Farmers were slow to organize and promote their own interests because they

A) were not well educated.
B) did not possess the money necessary to establish a national political movement.
C) were divided by the wealthier, more powerful manufacturers and railroad barons.
D) had little time to spare for political organization.
E) were by nature independent and individualistic.

Question 39

The first major farmers' organization was the

A) National Grange (Patrons of Husbandry).
B) Populists (People's party).
C) Greenback Labor party.
D) Farmers' Alliance.
E) American Farm Bureau Federation.

Question 40

The real "safety valve" in the late nineteenth century was

A) the western city.
B) the Western frontier.
C) expansion into Hawaii and the South Pacific.
D) Alaska.
E) the lumber mills of the Pacific Northwest.

Question 41

After their bursting on the national scene in the 1892 presidential campaign, the Populists hoped to

A) gain complete political control of the western farming and mining states.
B) forge a closer alliance of midwestern and southern farmers.
C) reach out to urban workers and assault the northeastern citadels of power.
D) displace the Democrats as America's second major party.
E) persuade Congress to pass their program of government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephones.

Question 42

The Democratic party nominee for president in 1896 was ____; the Republicans nominated ____; and the Populists endorsed ____.

A) William McKinley; Mark Hanna; William Jennings Bryan
B) William Jennings Bryan; William McKinley; James B. Weaver
C) William Jennings Bryan; William McKinley; William Jennings Bryan
D) Mark Hanna; William Jennings Bryan; Eugene V. Debs
E) William Jennings Bryan; Theodore Roosevelt; William Jennings Bryan

Question 43

Labor unions and Populists saw in the brutal Pullman episode

A) proof of an alliance between big business, the federal government, and the courts.
B) the way that a national railroad strike could bring the whole economy to a halt.
C) the need for a socialist party in the United States.
D) the potential of the federal government as a counterweight to big business.
E) the crucial role of middle class public opinion in labor conflicts.

Question 44

The Populists

A) were the only third party in the nineteenth century to win electoral votes.
B) gained most of their electoral votes from the South.
C) received substantial support from industrial workers.
D) refused to look to the federal government for assistance.
E) elected a number of congressmen in the election of 1892.

Question 45

Which one of the following was not among influential Populist leaders?

A) William "Coin" Harvey
B) Ignatius Donnelley
C) Mary Elizabeth Lease
D) James B. Weaver
E) Eugene V. Debs

Question 46

In a bid to win labor's support, the Populist party

A) supported restrictions on immigration.
B) nominated Samuel Gompers for president.
C) opposed injunctions against labor strikes.
D) endorsed workmen's compensation laws.
E) proposed a law guaranteeing the right to organize and strike.

Question 47

The Populist party's presidential candidate in 1892 was

A) James B. Weaver.
B) William Jennings Bryan.
C) Mary Elizabeth Lease.
D) Adlai Stevenson.
E) William "Coin" Harvey.

Question 48

Jacob Coxey and his "army" marched on Washington, D.C., to

A) demand a smaller military budget.
B) protest the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
C) demand that the government relieve unemployment with a public works program.
D) try to promote a general strike of all workers.
E) demand the immediate payment of bonuses to Civil War veterans.

Question 49

William Jennings Bryan gained the presidential nomination of the Democratic party primarily because he

A) had already gained the nomination of the Populist party.
B) had the support of urban workers.
C) possessed a brilliant political mind.
D) fervently supported the unlimited coinage of silver.
E) was backed by the Democratic party establishment.

Question 50

President Grover Cleveland justified sending federal troops to break the Pullman strike of 1894 on the grounds that

A) the union's leader, Eugene V. Debs, was a socialist.
B) strikes against railroads were illegal.
C) the strikers were engaging in violent attacks on railroad property.
D) shutting down the railroads threatened American national security.
E) the strike was preventing the delivery of U.S. mail.

Question 51

The Farmers' Alliance was formed to

A) establish farm marketing cooperatives.
B) establish land grant colleges and extension services to aid farmers.
C) end the rise of tenant farming.
D) help farmers obtain loans for seeds and machinery.
E) break the railroads' strangling grip on the farmers.

Question 52

All of the following characteristics describe William Jennings Bryan in 1896 except

A) he had a brilliant mind.
B) he was very youthful.
C) he was an energetic and charismatic campaigner.
D) he was an excellent orator.
E) he radiated honesty and sincerity.

Question 53

The Farmers' Alliance was especially weakened by

A) political ineptitude.
B) the exclusion of black farmers.
C) corrupt leadership.
D) the failure to target landowners.
E) regional concentration in the South.

Question 54

The Depression of the 1890s and episodes like the Pullman Strike made the election of 1896 shape up as

A) a battle between down-and-out workers and farmers, and establishment conservatives.
B) a conflict between the insurgent Populists and the two established political parties.
C) a sectional conflict with the Midwest and West aligned against the Northeast and South.
D) a contest over the power of the federal government to manage a modern industrial economy like the United States.
E) a "culture war" between the values of ordinary middle-class Americans and European-influenced radicals and anarchists.

Question 55

Mark Hanna, the masterful Republican political organizer, believed that the prime function of government was to

A) represent the interests of ordinary Americans.
B) keep its hands completely off the economy.
C) provide selective legal regulation of corporate activity.
D) suppress farmers and working class unrest.
E) provide assistance to big business that would "trickle down" to workers.

Question 56

Match each individual with his role in the Pullman strike:

A) A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
B) A-2, B-1, C-3, D-4
C) A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2
D) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-l
E) A-2, B-4, C-l, D-3

Question 57

The Populist party arose as the direct successor to

A) the Greenback Labor party.
B) the Farmers' Alliance.
C) the Grand Army of the Republic.
D) the Liberal Republican party.
E) the Grange.

Question 58

Which of the following was not among the qualifications that helped William McKinley earn the Republican presidential nomination in 1896?

A) He came from the key electoral swing state of Ohio.
B) He had gained a national reputation by sponsoring the high McKinley Tariff Bill.
C) He was a likable, experienced congressman and Civil War veteran.
D) He was backed by the skilled political manager and fund raiser Mark Hanna.
E) He was an energetic and charismatic campaigner.

Question 59

Which one of the following was least sympathetic to workers and farmers hard pressed by the Depression of the 1890s?

A) John P. Altgeld
B) Richard Olney
C) Eugene V. Debs
D) Jacob Coxey
E) William Jennings Bryan

Question 60

The Pullman strike created the first instance of

A) management recognition of the right of workers to organize and strike.
B) government use of federal troops to break a labor strike.
C) violence during a labor strike.
D) a united front between urban workers and agrarian Populists.
E) government use of a federal court injunction to break a strike.

Question 61

The decline of the long drive and the cattle boom resulted from

A) the settlement of homesteading farmers on range land.
B) a series of extraordinarily severe winters.
C) overgrazing and overproduction.
D) widespread cattle rustling.
E) barbed-wire fencing.

Question 62

Late-nineteenth-century Populist farmers held grievances against

A) railroads.
B) state governments.
C) banks.
D) grain-elevator operators.
E) the two major political parties.

Question 63

The 1896 presidential election marked the last time in American history that

A) the values of rural and small-town America dominated those of the cities.
B) the South remained solid for the Democratic party.
C) a third-party candidate had a serious chance at the White House.
D) a majority of urban workers voted for the Republicans.
E) a presidential candidate tried to win the White House with mostly agrarian votes.

Question 64

The 1896 victory of William McKinley ushered in a long period of Republican dominance that was accompanied by

A) diminishing voter participation in elections.
B) strong party machines and boss rule.
C) greater concern over civil-service reform.
D) Republican gains in the once-solid Democratic South.
E) sharpened conflict between business and labor.

Question 65

The Populists' political program called for

A) a graduated income tax.
B) federal government ownership of the railroads and telephones.
C) protective tariffs.
D) free and unlimited coinage of silver in the ratio of 16 to 1.
E) loans to farmers based on crops stored in government warehouses.

Question 66

In the presidential election of 1896, McKinley carried

A) the upper Midwest.
B) most urban workers.
C) the South.
D) the West.
E) New England.

Question 67

The consolidation of Republican power and eclipse of the Populists after the 1896 elections can be attributed to

A) the fading of issues like free-silver currency inflation.
B) the return of general economic prosperity.
C) the decline of middle-class values.
D) the relative decline of rural America in relation to the cities.
E) increasing levels of voter participation in national elections.

Question 68

The strongest ally of Mark Hanna and the Republicans in the 1896 presidential election was

A) the return of prosperity just prior to the election.
B) McKinley's vigorous campaigning.
C) fear of William Jennings Bryan as a dangerous prosilver radical.
D) international investors' warning that America should never abandon the gold standard.
E) the divisions in the Democratic party.

Question 69

Pro-farmer and Populist leaders of the 1880s and 1890s included

A) Eugene V. Debs.
B) John P. Altgeld.
C) Ignatius Donnelley.
D) James B. Weaver.
E) Mary Elizabeth Lease.

Question 70

The monetary inflation needed to relieve the social and economic hardships of the late nineteenth century eventually came as a result of

A) the Gold Standard Act.
B) McKinley's acceptance of the need for silver and paper money.
C) an increase in the international gold supply.
D) Populist fusion with the Democratic party.
E) the creation of the Federal Reserve Board.

Question 71

As president, William McKinley can best be described as

A) conservative and cautious.
B) Mark Hanna's puppet.
C) an active reformer.
D) an aggressive nationalist and imperialist.
E) a skillful negotiator.

Question 72

Factors eventually leading to the defeat of the Plains Indians included

A) the arrival of the railroads in the West.
B) disease.
C) near-extermination of the buffalo.
D) warfare with the U.S. army.
E) extinction of Indian religious beliefs.

Question 73

One key to the Republican victory in the 1896 presidential election was the

A) support of farmers.
B) huge amount of money raised by Mark Hanna.
C) split between the Democrats and the Populists.
D) William McKinley's effective campaign speeches.
E) ability of Republicans to disrupt the solid South.

Question 74

Populists and labor unions charged that there was a conspiracy between the government and big business because the federal courts

A) declared an income tax unconstitutional.
B) issued an injunction against the Pullman strikers.
C) ruled the coinage of silver money unconstitutional.
D) upheld campaign laws that benefited the two major parties.
E) restricted the civil liberties of Populist and union organizers.

Question 75

In the election of 1896, the major issue became

A) restoration of protective tariffs.
B) federal regulation of the economy.
C) government programs for those unemployed as a result of the depression.
D) the rights of farmers and industrial workers.
E) free and unlimited coinage of silver.

Question 76

Frontier towns where cattle were shipped east after being driven north on the "Long Drive" from Texas included

A) Dodge City, Kansas.
B) Deadwood, South Dakota.
C) Abilene, Kansas.
D) Guthrie, Oklahoma.
E) Cheyenne, Wyoming.