1. Compare and contrast the Democratic and Republican parties of the late 1800s as to

a. their leadership.

b. their position on issues.

c. the constituencies to whom they appealed.

2. Why did late-nineteenth-century presidential elections tend to focus on the personalities of the candidates rather than on "real" issues?
3. List what appears to you to have been the requirements for election to high political office in the 1870s and 1880s.
4. For one of only a few times in its history, the treasury showed a surplus in the 1880s. Why was this a problem?
5. American politics in the late nineteenth century has been referred to as the "politics of equilibrium." Why? List some consequences of this equilibrium in the party system.
6. The presidents of the late nineteenth century have been referred to as merely "custodial"—that is, nonassertive. Is this true? If so, why?
7. Who do you think was the best president in the Gilded Age? Why?
8. Which of the following do you think was the most important issue of the late nineteenth century:

the "bloody shirt," tariffs, civil-service reform, currency? Why?

9. Explain the seeming paradox that at a time when successful presidential candidates were usually "bland" and forgettable," public enthusiasm for election campaigning was at an all-time high.
10. One historian claims that in the Gilded Age, "Democrats were separated from Republicans more by accident of national origin, geography, history, and emotion than by economic issues." Elaborate.