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AP®HistoryCollege BoardUS HistoryExam QuestionsPeriod 6: 1865-1898Controversies over the Role of Government in the Gilded Age

Controversies over the Role of Government in the Gilded Age (College Board AP® US History): Exam Questions

4 mins4 questions
11 mark

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution; and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit... the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government the Government should not support the people."

President Grover Cleveland, Veto Message to the House of Representatives, February 16, 1887

The excerpt most directly reflects which of the following developments during the Gilded Age?

  • The federal government’s role in regulating big business

  • Use of high protective tariffs to promote American industry

  • Appropriate level of government intervention in economic matters

  • Territorial expansion of the United States into the Pacific

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21 mark

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution; and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit... the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government the Government should not support the people."

President Grover Cleveland, Veto Message to the House of Representatives, February 16, 1887

The argument put forward by Grover Cleveland in the passage was later contradicted in which of the following federal decisions?

  • Passage of the Social Security Act during the New Deal

  • Ratification of the Sherman Antitrust Act to regulate monopolies

  • The U.S. government’s policy of laissez-faire capitalism during the 1920s

  • Establishment of the gold standard in the late 19th century

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31 mark

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution; and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit... the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government the Government should not support the people."

President Grover Cleveland, Veto Message to the House of Representatives, February 16, 1887

Which of the following groups would have been most likely to support Cleveland’s argument in the excerpt?

  • Populist farmers

  • Republican industrialists

  •  Progressives

  • Bourbon Democrats

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41 mark

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution; and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit... the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government the Government should not support the people."

President Grover Cleveland, Veto Message to the House of Representatives, February 16, 1887

The argument presented in the excerpt is most similar to which of the following earlier debates in U.S. history?

  • Debates over the annexation of Texas in the 1840s

  • Debates over federal funding for internal improvements

  • Debates over the abolition of slavery in the antebellum period

  • Debates over the interpretation of the Constitution

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