History Midterm

Question 1

Purpose of Checks and Balances

Answer 1

One branch does not dominate the other

Question 2

Three-Fifths Compromise

Answer 2

Slaves are 3/5ths of a person in terms of the number of representatives in the house

Question 3

15th Amendment

Answer 3

• Gave protection of the right to vote for everyone regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
• Didn’t mention women, so they got angry

Question 4

Role of the Supreme Court (Article 3)

Answer 4

Their contitutional power to act on decision appealed from lower courts

Question 5

Republicanism

Answer 5

• Supreme power rests with the citizens and is exercised by their elected representatives
• People are expected to be educated enough so as to make informed choices when electing representatives
• People are expected to have an understanding as to the scope of their sovereignty and how it impacts others

Question 6

Laissez-faire

Answer 6

It means “Let them be” in French. It is the attitude the government maintained towards big business (they did not get involved)

Question 7

“A seat at the table of the nation” - who gets a say in the new nation?

Answer 7

• Despite fighting in the war, not everyone gets a say in the nation (Reconstruction)
• I.e. immigrants, indians, women, blacks, former confederates, northern republicans

Question 8

Anti Federalists

Answer 8

• Founders against a strong federal government

- Greatest contribution was the Bill of Rights

Question 9

Judiciary Act of 1789

Answer 9

• Created the Federal Court System

- A written law that created federal laws; including the senate, house of representatives, and the president

Question 10

Patronage and the “Spoils System”

Answer 10

Office holders reward their supporters with federal jobs

Question 11

Wealth distribution in the GIlded Age

Answer 11

• Wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few industrialists
• The relationship between the government and people lead to wealth distribution

Question 12

Capitalism vs. Socialism

Answer 12

Captialism: The means of production are privately owned by individuals through vertical or horizontal integration

Socialism: The means of production (land, labor, and capital) are owned by the people as a whole (take all the work and divide it equally between the owners)

Question 13

Social Darwinism

Answer 13

• the application fo “survival of the fittest” to human affairs
• the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals; law of competition
• the belief that wealth comes from hard work, and that the poor are lazy

Question 14

US as a federal system

Answer 14

Both national and state governments exist within the nation

Question 15

Andrew Johnson vs. Republicans

Answer 15

• Political disagreement between Johnson and government

- Led to first impeachment trial of a president

Question 16

Attitude of the American government towards the Indians by 1900

Answer 16

They wanted to get rid of Indian culture and “Americanize” them

Question 17

13th Amendment

Answer 17

Abolished slavery

Question 18

Hull House

Answer 18

• part of larger, national movement
• provided day care
• provided education to women

Question 19

Presidential Powers (Article 2)

Answer 19

Has specific executive, legislative, and military powers

Question 20

Charles Guiteau

Answer 20

He assasinated President Garfield in hopes that Chester A. Arthur would give him a job (spoils system)

Question 21

James Garfield vs. Roscoe Conkling

Answer 21

• They were politcal opponents in the Republican party
• The government should be for all poeple not just the rich
• Rapid generation of wealth limited oppurtunities for everyone

Question 22

Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances

Answer 22

• Separation of powers separated the powers whereas checks and balances gives each branch the ability to check the power of the other branches
• Example: in the Mexican War of 1848 is because the President asked Congress for a declaration of war

Question 23

Importance of Railroads

Answer 23

Type of infrastructure that rapidly transported people and goods across the continent

Question 24

First Women’s Movement

Answer 24

• Susan B. Anthony and Julia Ward Howe advocated for national participation
• Mothers Day became part of American tradition because of it
• It led to the passage and ratification of the 19th amendment
• Not all women agreed upon the goals of the suffrage movement

Question 25

Implied Powers

Answer 25

- The Constitution implies branches of government to have powers not stated

Question 26

Popular Sovereignty in US History to 1865

Answer 26

- Undermined the role of Congress in the new territories - Led to violencce in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas") - Significantly escalated tension between the states over the issue of slavery

Question 27

Effects of the Industrial Revolution

Answer 27

Child labor, strikes, socialism, and labor unions

Question 28

Industrialized Mass Production

Answer 28

- The large scale production of goods - Benefits: Faster production, larger quantity of goods produced, cheaper products - Disadvantages: lower quality, less variety of designs and colors

Question 29

End of Reconstruction

Answer 29

- Foner sets the date at 1876 | - Reconstruction is not over and modern historians are arguing that America is still reconstructing to this day

Question 30

Domestic System

Answer 30

- The production of work at home - Benefits: more variety of designs and colors, better quality - Disadvantages: Less production efficiency, less items produced

Question 31

Major themes in US History to 1865

Answer 31

- The clash between “old world”(the US and Europe) and “new world”(indians) - The tension between liberty (freedom) and slavery - What was the Role of the federal government?

Question 32

The Declaration of Independence

Answer 32

- "Declared life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to be universal and inalienable rights - Created tension in American society because it promised unalienable rihts in a nation with an institution of slavery - The unalienable rights are the rallying cry of Americans whose rights continue to be denied, by presidents right up into the present

Question 33

Urbanization

Answer 33

- rapid immigration and huge increases in city populations - population shifts from rural to urban areas - it is the ways in which society adapts to these changes

Question 34

Populist Party

Answer 34

Appealed to Western Farmers

Question 35

Progressives

Answer 35

- Movement of the "people" against the special interests; social justice - They fought to expand the "we" in "We the people" and to reform America

Question 36

Role of the federal government

Answer 36

- Used its power to protect those it went to war to defend - Distributed public lands from coast to coast - Provided a national currency

Question 37

Theodore Roosevelt and the end of the Gilded Age

Answer 37

Roosevelt's first term as president signaled the end of the Gilded Age

Question 38

14th Amendment

Answer 38

Articulated citizenship and equal protection under the law