The text authors claim that “no important policy differences separated

The text authors claim that “no important policy differences separated the two major parties” in the Gilded Age between Reconstruction and the Election of 1896.

Use information from the text authors’ own account of politics in this period to demonstrate that their claim may be an exaggeration.

ANSWER
Democrats and Republicans did disagree over tariff policy after 1885. Democrats wanted to lower the tariffs to prevent a surplus in the federal treasury. Republicans continued to support high tariffs and enacted the record high McKinley Tariff in 1890.