Deck 15: The Union Broken

Question 1

The chapter introduction tells the stories of Lawrence and Pottawatomie, Kansas, to make the point that

A) westward migration continued despite the distractions of sectional strife.
B) it was deliberate, violent acts by an extremist minority that sucked Americans into civil war.
C) the ability of settlers in Kansas to disagree, yet still get along, shows that the Civil War was not necessarily inevitable.
D) violence in Kansas discredited popular sovereignty, the only remaining compromise solution to the growing sectional split.

Answer 1

violence in Kansas discredited popular sovereignty, the only remaining compromise solution to the growing sectional split.

Question 2

Who invented a sharp-cutting steel plow that could slice through the thick tangle of prairie grass roots without the soil sticking to the blade?

A) John Deer
B) Cyrus McCormick
C) Edmund Flagg
D) Eli Whitney

Answer 2

John Deer

Question 3

Which of the following was an unintentional consequence of railroads in the urban environment?

A) the economic survival of urban communities becoming less dependent on rail links
B) living near the tracks becoming a marker of social and economic divisions
C) increased traffic in fashionable neighborhoods and shopping areas
D) None of these answers is correct.

Answer 3

living near the tracks becoming a marker of social and economic divisions

Question 4

Southerners voiced many concerns and complaints in the 1850s, including all the following EXCEPT

A) that the North was making the South into its economic colony.
B) that the immigrant influx strengthened the North's dominance in the House of Representatives.
C) that only the expansion of slave states could overcome the South's isolation and decreasing political clout.
D) that the threats against slavery had led to a sharp drop in the market value of slaves.

Question 5

Stephen Douglas pushed for the organization of territorial governments in the Louisiana Purchase for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A) to hasten the opening of the West for the sake of economic development.
B) to accelerate the process of bringing the Plains Indians under federal control.
C) to insure that Chicago became the eastern terminus of any transcontinental railroad.
D) to help fulfill the aims of the Young America movement, of which Douglas was a typical representative.

Question 6

Which of the following was NOT an issue driving the collapse of the Jacksonian party system?

A) religion
B) alcohol
C) slavery
D) economics

Question 7

What turned the 1854 elections in Kansas from routine territorial organization into a referendum on slavery?

A) popular sovereignty
B) the Freeport Doctrine
C) the Dred Scott decision
D) the Lecompton constitution

Question 8

Which statement about the southern economy in the later 1850s is true?

A) A sense of crisis grew in the region as the price of slaves jumped and the price of cotton remained relatively stagnant.
B) The progress of transportation development reoriented western trade toward New Orleans.
C) Although cotton's importance as an export crop declined, it remained the primary driver of domestic economic growth.
D As they converted to the new agricultural machinery, southern planters found themselves deeply in . debt in a time of declining profits.

Question 9

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was significant for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A) that it provoked bloody retaliation against antislavery voters in Kansas.
B) that it intensified southern fears of slave insurrection.
C) that it intensified southern suspicions about the Republican party.
D) that it added to the southerners' belief that their interests could not be protected within the Union.

Question 10

By 1860, the forces that divided North from South were stronger than those that unified the two regions. Which of the following is NOT true?

A) Formerly but no longer, a national transportation network had bound the nation together, especially the
upper Mississippi valley to the South.
B) Formerly but no longer, both North and South had been prejudiced against African Americans.
C) Formerly but no longer, the political system had offered the stability of two national parties.
D) Formerly but no longer, the sections had shared a common romantic vision of America's destiny.

Question 11

Explain how changes in three of the following areas heightened sectional tensions: the new commercial agriculture, the growth of a railroad economy, rising industrialization, and immigration.

Question 12

Identify four major sectional events of the period 1854-1856. Which of these events aided the Republican party?

Question 13

Why did the Know-Nothing party arise when it did? Why did the Republican party eventually surpass it?

Question 14

How did the violence in Kansas and the caning of Charles Sumner help the Republicans?

Question 15

What did the Supreme Court rule in the Dred Scott decision? Why did the decision fail to settle the slavery expansion issue?

Question 16

"Ever since the Revolution, when Americans accused the king and Parliament of deliberately plotting to deprive them of their liberties, Americans were on the watch for political conspiracies."
Give examples of the way in which northerners feared that the Slave Power was conspiring against them, and southerners worried about the plots of the Black Republicans.

Question 17

How did economic and social developments of the 1850s contribute to the growing sectional strain between North and South? Do you feel that these factors were more or less important than the political events of the decade? Explain why.

Question 18

Why did southern anxiety increase in the 1850s? What contributed to the South's sense of being beleaguered?

Question 19

What were the provisions of the Crittenden Compromise? Did these deal with the causes of secession? Would this compromise have ended the crisis over secession?

Question 20

What arguments did southern radicals advance in urging secession? Were there effective rebuttals to these arguments?

Question 21

Which of the following issues do you feel was most central to provoking civil war: the debate over slavery, the debate over states' rights, or the growing economic and social differences between North and South? Defend your position by discussing specific events from the 1850s.