Multiple Choice
Identify the
choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
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The Nation ’s
First Parties
The beginnings of
the American two-party system can be traced to the battle over the ratification of the Constitution.
The conflicts of the time, centering on the proper form and role of government in the United States,
were not stilled by the adoption of the Constitution. Rather, those conflicts were carried over into
the early years of the Republic. They led directly to the formation of the nation ’s
first full-blown political parties.
The Federalist Party was the first to appear. It formed around
Alexander Hamilton, who served as secretary of the treasury in the new government organized by George
Washington. The Federalists were, by and large, the party of “the rich and the
well-born. ” Most of them had supported the Constitution.
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Hamilton, the Federalists worked to create a stronger national government. They favored vigorous
executive leadership and a set of policies designed to correct the nation ’s economic
ills. The Federalists ’ program appealed to financial, manufacturing, and commercial
interests. To reach their goals, they urged a liberal interpretation of the
Constitution. | | | |
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1.
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We can trace the first parties
back to
a. | the writing of the
Constitution | c. | the time of
Christopher Columbus | b. | the 1750’s | d. | the p;eriod just before the Civil
War |
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2.
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The first division in America
was between Federalists and anti-Federalists. What did the Federalists want?
a. | strong economy and strong state
power | c. | weak economy but strong national
government | b. | strong economy and strong national
government | d. | weak economy and weak national
government |
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| Thomas Jefferson, the nation’s first secretary of state, led the
opposition to the Federalists. Jefferson and his followers were more sympathetic to the “common
man” than were the Federalists. They favored a very limited role for the new government created
by the Constitution. In their view, Congress should dominate that new government, and its policies
should help the nation’s small shopkeepers, laborers, farmers, and planters. The Jeffersonians
insisted on a strict construction of the provisions of the Constitution. | | | |
Jefferson resigned from Washington’s Cabinet in 1793 to concentrate on
organizing his party. Originally, the new party took the name Anti-Federalist. Later it became known
as the Jeffersonian Republicans or the Democratic-Republicans. Finally, by 1828, it became the
Democratic Party.
These two parties first clashed in the election of 1796. John Adams, the
Federalists’ candidate to succeed Washington as President, defeated Jefferson by just three
votes in the electoral college. Over the next four years, Jefferson and James Madison worked
tirelessly to build the Democratic-Republican Party. Their efforts paid off in the election of 1800.
Jefferson defeated the incumbent or current officeholder, President Adams; Jefferson’s party
also won control of Congress. The Federalists never returned to power.
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3.
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What did the anti-Federalists
want?
a. | return to
monarchy | c. | focus on the
individual and strong state governments over the national
government | b. | focus on the economy and strong national
government | d. | weak state
governments |
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4.
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What does “strict
constructionist” mean?
a. | should interpret the Constitution
loosly and add your own meaning | c. | should be strict with your enemies | b. | should follow the Constitution exactly as iit is
written | d. | should ignore the
constitution |
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5.
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Which candidates will be facing
each other in the November 2012 elections?
a. | Obama Democrat and Romney
Socialist | c. | Obama Republican
and Romney Libertarian | b. | Obama Democrat and Romney Republican | d. | Obama Republican and Romney
Democrat |
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Multiple Response
Identify one
or more choices that best complete the statement or answer the question.
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Section 3 The Two Party
System in American History
Objectives
Understand the origins of political parties in the
U.S.
Identify and descrie the three major periods of single-party
domination
Why It
Matters
The origins and history of political parties in the United States help explain
how the two major parties work today and how they affect American
government.
Political
Dictionary
Incumbent The current officeholder
Faction A conflicting group
Electorate
All of the people entitled to vote in a given election
Sectionalism A narrow-minded concern
for, or devotion to, the interests of one section of a country
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6.
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What are the two main objetives
of this lesson? (pick 2)
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Matching
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a. | Faction | c. | Electorate | b. | Sectionalism | d. | Incumbent |
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7.
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A narrow-minded concern for,
or devotion to, the interests of one section of a country
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8.
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The current
officeholde
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9.
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All of the people entitled to
vote in a given election
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10.
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A conflicting
group
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a. | Federalist | b. | Anti-Federalist |
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11.
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George
Washington
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12.
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Thomas
Jefferson
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13.
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John
Adams
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14.
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Alexander
Hamilton
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Each party has taken turns
controlling the office of president though they may not have controlled the congress at the same
time. Which party controlled the office of president for the periods below?
American Parties: Four Major
Eras
The history of the
American party system since 1800 can be divided into four major periods. Through the first three of
these periods, one or the other of the two major parties was dominant, regularly holding the
presidency and usually both houses of Congress. The nation is now in a fourth period, much of it
marked by divided government.
In the first of these periods, from 1800 to 1860, the Democrats won
13 of 15 presidential elections. They lost the office only in the elections of 1840 and 1848. In the
second era, from 1860 to 1932, the Republicans won 14 of 18 elections, losing only in 1884, 1892,
1912, and 1916.
The third period,
from 1932 to 1968, began with the Democrats ’ return to power and Franklin
Roosevelt ’s first election to the presidency. The Democrats won seven of the nine
presidential elections, losing only in 1952 and 1956. Through the fourth and current period, which
began in 1968, the Republicans have won seven of ten presidential elections, and they hold the White
House today. But the Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress over much of this most recent
period although they do not do so today
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15.
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1800 to
1860
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16.
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1860 to
1932
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17.
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1932 to
1968
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18.
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1968 to
2008
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19.
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2008 to
present
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Short Answer
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The Era of the Democrats,
1800 –1860
Thomas
Jefferson’s election in 1800 marked the beginning of a period of Democratic domination that was
to last until the Civil War. As the time line on pages 128 –129 shows, the Federalists, soundly
defeated in 1800, had disappeared altogether by 1816.
For a time, through the Era of Good
Feeling, the Democratic-Republicans were unopposed in national politics. However, by the mid-1820s,
they had split into factions, or conflicting groups. By the time of Andrew Jackson’s
administration (1829 –1837), a potent National Republican (Whig) Party had arisen to
challenge the Democrats. The major issues of the day, conflicts over public lands, the Second Bank of
the United States, high tariffs, and slavery, all had made new party alignments inevitable
The
Democrats, led by Jackson, were a coalition of small farmers, debtors, frontier pioneers, and
slaveholders. They drew much of their support from the South and West. The years of Jacksonian
democracy produced three fundamental changes in the nation ’s political landscape: (1)
voting rights for all white males, (2) a huge increase in the number of elected offices around the
country, and (3) the spread of the spoils system —the practice of awarding public
offices, contracts, and other governmental favors to those who supported the party in power.
The
Whig Party was led by the widely popular Henry Clay and the great orator, Daniel Webster. The party
consisted of a loose coalition of eastern bankers, merchants and industrialists, and many owners of
large southern plantations. The Whigs were opposed to the tenets of Jacksonian democracy and strongly
supported a high tariff. However, the Whigs ’ victories were few. Although they were the
other major party from the mid-1830s to the 1850s, the Whigs were able to elect only two Presidents,
both of them war heroes: William Henry Harrison in 1840 and Zachary Taylor in 1848.
By the 1850s,
the growing crisis over slavery split both major parties. Left leaderless by the deaths of Clay and
Webster, the Whigs fell apart. Meanwhile, the Democrats split into two sharply divided camps, North
and South. During this decade, the nation drifted toward civil war.
Of the several groupings that
arose to compete for supporters among the former Whigs and the fragmented Democrats, the Republican
Party was the most successful. Founded in 1854, it drew many Whigs and antislavery Democrats. The
Republicans nominated their first presidential candidate, John C. Fr émont, in 1856; they
elected their first President, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860.
With Lincoln ’s election,
the Republican Party became the only party in the history of American politics to make the jump from
third-party to major-party status. As you will see, even greater things were in store for the
Republicans
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20.
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Summarize the party histories
from 1800 to 1860
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The Era of the Republicans,
1860 –1932
The
Civil War signaled the beginning of the second era of one-party domination. For nearly 75 years, the
Republicans dominated the national scene. They were supported by business and financial interests,
and by farmers, laborers, and newly freed African Americans.
The Democrats, crippled by the war,
were able to survive mainly through their hold on the “Solid South, ” after the era
of Reconstruction came to a close in the mid-1870s. For the balance of the century, they slowly
rebuilt their electoral base. In all that time, they were able to place only one candidate in the
White House: Grover Cleveland in 1884 and again in 1892. Those elections marked only short breaks in
Republican supremacy. Riding the crest of popular acceptance and unprecedented prosperity, the GOP
remained the dominant party well into the twentieth century.
The election of 1896 was especially
critical in the development of the two-party system. It climaxed years of protest by small business
owners, farmers, and the emerging labor unions against big business, financial monopolies, and the
railroads. The Republican Party nominated William McKinley and supported the gold standard. The
Democratic candidate was William Jennings Bryan, a supporter of free silver, who was also endorsed by
the Populist Party.
With McKinley’s victory in 1896, the Republicans regained the
presidency. In doing so, they drew a response from a broader range of the electrate, the people
eligible to vote. This new strength allowed the Republicans to maintain their role as the dominant
party in national politics for another three decades.
The Democratic Party lost the election of
1896, but it won on another score. Bryan, its young, dynamic presidential nominee, campaigned
throughout the country as the champion of the “little man. ” He helped
to push the nation ’s party politics back toward the economic arena, and away from the
divisions of sectionalism that had plagued the nation for so many years. Sectionalism emphasizes a
devotion to the interests of a particular region.
The Republicans suffered their worst setback of
the era in 1912, when they renominated incumbent President William Howard Taft. Former President
Theodore Roosevelt, denied the nomination of his party, left the Republicans to become the candidate
of his “Bull Moose” Progressive Party. Traditional Republican support was divided between
Taft and Roosevelt. As a result, the Democratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson, was able to capture the
presidency. Four years later, Wilson was reelected by a narrow margin.
Again, however, the
Democratic successes of 1912 and 1916 proved only a brief interlude. The GOP reasserted its control
of the nation ’s politics by winning each of the next three presidential elections:
Warren Harding won in 1920, Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and Herbert Hoover in 1928.
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21.
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Summarize the party histories
from 1860 to 1932
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The Return of the Democrats,
1932 –1968
The
Great Depression, which began in 1929, had a massive impact on nearly all aspects of American life.
Its effect on the American political landscape was considerable indeed. The landmark election of 1932
brought Franklin Roosevelt to the presidency and the Democrats back to power at the national level.
Also, and of fundamental importance, that election marked a basic shift in the public ’s
attitude toward the proper role of government in the nation ’s social and economic
life
Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats engineered their victory in 1932 with a new electoral
base. It was built largely of southerners, small farmers, organized labor, and big-city political
organizations. Roosevelt ’s revolutionary economic and social welfare programs, which
formed the heart of the New Deal of the 1930s, further strengthened that coalition. It also brought
increasing support from African Americans and other minorities to the Democrats.
President
Roosevelt won reelection in 1936. He secured an unprecedented third term in 1940 and yet another term
in 1944, each time by heavy majorities. Roosevelt ’s Vice President, Harry S Truman,
completed the fourth term following FDR ’s death in 1945. Truman was elected to a full
term of his own in 1948, when he turned back the GOP challenge led by Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New
York.
The Republicans did manage to regain the White House in 1952, and they kept it in 1956.
World War II hero Dwight Eisenhower led the Republicans to victory in these elections. Both times,
Eisenhower defeated the Democratic nominee, Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.
The
Republicans ’ return to power was short-lived, however. Senator John F. Kennedy of
Massachusetts recaptured the White House for the Democrats in 1960. He did so with a razor-thin win
over the Republican standard bearer, then Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Lyndon B. Johnson
succeeded to the presidency when Kennedy was assassinated in late 1963. Johnson won a full
presidential term in 1964, by overwhelming his Republican opponent, Senator Barry Goldwater of
Arizona.
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22.
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Summarize the party histories
from 1932 to 1968
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The Start of a New
Era
Richard Nixon made a
successful return to presidential politics in 1968. In that year ’s election, he defeated
Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey was the candidate of a Democratic Party torn apart by
conflicts over the war in Vietnam, civil rights, and a variety of social welfare issues. Nixon also
faced a strong third-party effort by the American Independent Party nominee, Governor George Wallace
of Alabama. The Republicans won with only a bare plurality over Humphrey and Wallace.
In 1972,
President Nixon retained the White House when he routed the choice of the still-divided Democrats,
Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. However, Nixon ’s role in the Watergate scandal
forced him from office in 1974.
Vice President Gerald Ford then became President and filled out
the balance of Nixon ’s second term. Beset by problems in the economy, by the continuing
effects of Watergate, and by his pardon of former President Nixon, Ford lost the presidency in 1976.
The former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, and the resurgent Democrats gained the White House that
year.
A steadily worsening economy, political fallout from the Iranian hostage crisis, and his
own inability to establish himself as an effective President spelled defeat for Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Led by Ronald Reagan, the former governor of California, the Republicans scored an impressive victory
that year. Reagan won a second term by a landslide in 1984, overwhelming a Democratic ticket headed
by former Vice President Walter Mondale.
The GOP kept the White House with a third straight win
in 1988. Their candidate, George H.W. Bush, had served as Vice President through the Reagan years. He
led a successful campaign against the Democrats and their nominee, Governor Michael Dukakis of
Massachusetts.
The Reagan and Bush victories of the 1980s triggered wide-ranging efforts to alter
many of the nation ’s foreign and domestic policies. President George H.W. Bush lost his
bid for another term in 1992, however. Democrat Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, defeated
him and also turned back an independent challenge by Texas billionaire Ross Perot. Mr. Clinton won a
second term in 1996 —defeating the Republican candidate, long-time senator from Kansas,
Bob Dole, and, at the same time, thwarting a third-party effort by Mr. Perot.
The GOP regained
the White House in the very close presidential contest of 2000. Their candidate, George W. Bush, was
then the governor of Texas, and is the son of the former Republican President. Mr. Bush failed to win
the popular vote contest in 2000, but he did capture a bare majority of the electoral votes and so
the White House. His Democratic opponent, Vice President Al Gore, became the first presidential
nominee since 1888 to win the popular vote and yet fail to win the presidency; see pages 379
–381.
The years since Richard Nixon ’s election in 1968 have been marked by
divided government. Through much of the period, Republicans have occupied the White House while the
Democrats have usually controlled Congress.6 That situation was reversed
in the midst of President Clinton ’s first term, however. The GOP took control of both
houses of Congress in 1994, and they kept their hold on Capitol Hill on through the elections of
2000.
Historically, a newly elected President has almost always swept many of his party
’s candidates into office with him. But the victories of several recent Presidents
—most recently, George W. Bush in 2000 —have not carried that kind of coattail
effect.
The Republicans lost seats in the House and Senate in 2000. They did manage to keep a
narrow hold on both chambers, however —by a nine-seat margin in the House and by virtue
of a 50-50 split in the Senate. But the Democrats reclaimed the upper house in mid-2001, when Senator
James Jeffords of Vermont bolted the Republican Party and became an independent.
Sparked by the
prodigious campaign efforts of President Bush, the Republicans won back the Senate and padded their
slim majority in the House in the off-year congressional elections of 2002. The GOP had not picked up
seats in both houses of Congress in a midterm election with a Republican in the White House in 100
years —not since Theodore Roosevelt ’s first term, in 1902.
The
Republicans continued their winning ways in 2004. Mr. Bush defeated his Democratic opponent, Senator
John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, in a bruising campaign —and, this time, he won a clear
majority of the popular vote. The President also led his party to substantial gains in both the House
and Senate. Has the era of divided government that began in 1968 now come to an end Only time
will tell.
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23.
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Summarize the party histories
from 1968 to 2008
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