Deck 14: The House Divided, 1846-1861

Question 1

Why did Zachary Taylor anger southerners when he became president in 1849?

A) He proposed a ten-year program to phase out slavery throughout the nation.
B) He introduced a new tariff bill that would affect cotton plantation owners.
C) He unveiled a new railroad-building plan that favored the North over the South.
D) He urged Congress to admit California and New Mexico to the Union as free states.

Answer 1

He urged Congress to admit California and New Mexico to the Union as free states.

Question 2

In 1854, Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act and included a section repealing the Missouri Compromise because

A) he had never supported the Missouri Compromise in the first place.
B) he needed southern support to pass his legislation.
C) he pocketed bribes from southern legislators in return for supporting their causes.
D) he did not think the plan would cause controversy.

Answer 2

he needed southern support to pass his legislation.

Question 3

Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan proposed the doctrine of popular sovereignty, a measure that would allow

A) the Supreme Court to decide whether or not territories might sanction slavery.
B) a national referendum on the issue of slavery expansion.
C) people who settled the territories to decide whether or not they wanted slavery.
D) a special congressional commission to decide slavery's fate in the territories.

Answer 3

people who settled the territories to decide whether or not they wanted slavery.

Question 4

Which Senator argued that, when it came to ending slavery, there was "a higher law than the Constitution"-the law of God?

A) William Seward
B) Henry Clay
C) Daniel Webster
D) John C. Calhoun

Question 5

Why did the Whigs lose the election of 1852?

A) Their "doughface" leaders were unpopular in the South.
B) They insisted on going with the unpopular incumbent, Millard Fillmore, for president.
C) They were less successful than the Democrats in bridging differences between northern and southern views.
D) They tried to avoid controversy by having no real platform.

Question 6

Why did the United States negotiate the Gadsden Purchase in 1853?

A) To secure mining rights in the Southwest
B) To remove troublesome Native Americans from the area ceded by Mexico
C) To support the dream of a southern route for the transcontinental railroad
D) To establish James Gadsden as a territorial governor

Question 7

What did the federal government do to the Plains Indians who lived in what became Nebraska?

A) It concentrated Indians on reservations in Nebraska and Kansas.
B) It deported the Indians to Canada.
C) It relocated the Indians in Iowa.
D) It pushed them farther west.

Question 8

How did the Mexican-American War affect American politics?

A) It allowed Congress to avoid the slavery issue for another decade.
B) It divided the nation based on the issue of slavery in the territories.
C) It gave rise to a new political party, the Know-Nothings.
D) It ended the era of military heroes as presidential candidates.

Question 9

Who supported the Wilmot Proviso?

A) Northerners who wanted to reserve new lands for white settlers
B) Southerners who had concluded that slavery could not flourish in the West
C) Northerners and southerners who were morally opposed to slavery
D) Southerners who could not afford to relocate their plantations to the West

Question 10

What happened to most fugitive slaves once they were captured after the Fugitive Slave Act was enacted?

A) They were peacefully returned to their masters.
B) Abolitionists broke them out of jail.
C) Commissioners granted them freedom.
D) Masters declined to obtain them.

Question 11

Which issue in the debate of 1849-50 led to the Compromise of 1850?

A) The balance of power between the North and the South in Congress
B) Whether or not the nation should engage in a civil war
C) Stricter interstate commerce regulations
D) Whether or not Congress should raise taxes on imports

Question 12

The American party, or Know-Nothings, appeared in the mid-1850s as

A) a reaction to large numbers of Roman Catholics coming to the United States.
B) a political organization designed to include all Americans.
C) part of the movement to unite Americans in support of slavery.
D) an organization advocating equal rights for all immigrants.

Question 13

How did American politics change in the aftermath of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act?

A) The Democratic party ceased to exist.
B) The Whigs gained new strength and vitality.
C) Democrats came to dominate northern politics.
D) The Whig party disintegrated.

Question 14

Why did Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) influence northerners' attitudes toward slavery?

A) It included scientific evidence of the effects of slavery on those enslaved.
B) It put forth a stirring moral indictment of slavery.
C) Stowe argued that the North was not responsible for the institution of slavery.
D) It suggested that northerners should pay for slaves to be sent to Africa.

Question 15

What did the Wilmot Proviso of 1846 propose?

A) Slavery would be allowed to expand only into the area below the southern boundary of Missouri.
B) Any slaves taken in the area ceded by Mexico would be freed at age twenty-eight.
C) People living in the area ceded by Mexico could choose for themselves whether or not to permit slavery.
D) Slavery would be prohibited throughout the entire area ceded by Mexico.

Question 16

What was a requirement of the Fugitive Slave Act, part of the Compromise of 1850?

A) Any runaway slave who reached the North would be considered free.
B) Slave commissioners received $10 for setting a slave free and $5 for returning a slave to his or her master.
C) Slave owners needed three witnesses in order to claim a runaway.
D) All citizens were expected to assist officials in apprehending runaway slaves.

Question 17

Per the Compromise of 1850, which state entered the union as a free state?

A) New Mexico
B) Utah
C) California
D) Arizona

Question 18

Why did the Democrats remain a national organization after 1854?

A) They made inroads into the North.
B) Gains in the South offset losses in the North.
C) They abandoned popular sovereignty in favor of a free-soil platform.
D) They welcomed former Whigs into their ranks.

Question 19

What did the Whigs do in an attempt to reunite their party during the presidential campaign of 1848?

A) Denounce abolitionists
B) Remain silent on the issue of slavery
C) Nominate a wealthy southerner who opposed slavery
D) Nominate a northerner who advocated popular sovereignty

Question 20

What effect did John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry have on the South?

A) It reassured southerners about the safety of slavery.
B) It convinced the southern states that secession was necessary.
C) It indicated that abolitionists would use violence to overthrow slavery.
D) It demonstrated the shortcomings of popular sovereignty.

Question 21

What happened to John Brown after his raid on Harper's Ferry?

A) He escaped to Massachusetts.
B) He was deported to Canada.
C) He was pardoned by the Republican governor.
D) He was executed.

Question 22

What did Abraham Lincoln personally believe about slavery?

A) It would be acceptable with a few humane modifications.
B) It should be abolished immediately.
C) It was morally wrong.
D) It was dangerously misunderstood by most northerners.

Question 23

What was the result of the Lincoln-Douglas debates?

A) The Democrats shunned Douglas.
B) Douglas scored a landslide victory against Lincoln.
C) Lincoln became nationally known.
D) Lincoln defeated Douglas and became a U.S. senator.

Question 24

Early in the struggle to win Kansas, proslavery supporters

A) invaded Kansas to control the election through fraud and intimidation.
B) initiated the first orderly implementation of popular sovereignty.
C) saw that the cause was lost and retreated from the contest.
D) got no support from the presidential administration of Millard Fillmore.

Question 25

How did more moderate southern Democrats respond to the choice of John C. Breckenridge as presidential nominee?

A) They joined Republicans in an effort to preserve the Union.
B) They attempted to revive the Whig party.
C) They backed Breckenridge once he offered support for a federal slave code.
D) They organized the Constitutional Union party.

Question 26

What did Douglas argue in what became known as the Freeport Doctrine?

A) The Dred Scott decision would very likely be reversed in the near future.
B) Settlers could ban slavery by not passing the laws necessary to protect slave property.
C) The Supreme Court could not supersede the implementation of popular sovereignty.
D) Halting slavery would cause dire financial consequences for the United States.

Question 27

How did the Dred Scott decision increase sectional tension?

A) It lent credence to the belief in the North that a slave power conspiracy existed.
B) It indicated that the issue of slavery could be determined in any territory long before the moment of statehood.
C) It strengthened the Democratic party by unifying its northern and southern branches.
D) It precipitated the resignation of Supreme Court justices from the North.

Question 28

What happened when Democrats met to choose a presidential candidate in Charleston, South Carolina?

A) They agreed unanimously on Stephen A. Douglas.
B) They divided into southern and northern factions.
C) They selected Jefferson Davis as their candidate.
D) Their delegates agreed to reject popular sovereignty.

Question 29

What was the result of Preston Brooks's caning of Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner in 1856?

A) It settled a longstanding personal grievance between the men.
B) It further inflamed sectional passions over the institution of slavery.
C) It ended Sumner's long career in the Senate.
D) It resulted in Brooks becoming an outcast in his home state of South Carolina.

Question 30

Who, according to Lincoln, had the responsibility to stop the spread of slavery?

A) Southern planters
B) The Democratic party
C) Congress
D) State governments

Question 31

During their senatorial campaign debates, Douglas depicted Lincoln as

A) an abolitionist who loved blacks.
B) uninformed on key issues.
C) an avid supporter of the Fugitive Slave Act.
D) a political chameleon who changed his opinions to get votes.

Question 32

Who did the Democrats nominate as their presidential candidate in the election of 1856?

A) James Buchanan
B) John C. Frémont
C) Stephen Douglas
D) Millard Fillmore

Question 33

What led to the demise of the Know-Nothing party in the mid-1850s?

A) It endorsed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, alienating northerners.
B) It ended its opposition to immigration from Ireland and Germany.
C) It called for the enfranchisement of women.
D) It had consistently failed to win offices at the state level.

Question 34

What did the Supreme Court rule in its 1857 Dred Scott decision?

A) Dred Scott was not a citizen of the United States.
B) The Missouri Compromise was constitutional.
C) Slaves were free once they visited northern states.
D) Congress had the power to prohibit slavery in the territories.

Question 35

How did Stephen A. Douglas respond in 1857 when proslavery forces in Lecompton, Kansas, drafted a constitution that many felt was fraudulent?

A) He stood solidly behind southern Democrats in supporting the document.
B) He demanded that the votes be recounted before he would take a stand on that issue.
C) He came out against the constitution.
D) He ignored the issue because he feared it would ruin his career.

Question 36

The presidential election of 1856 revealed the

A) weakness of the Democratic party in the South.
B) strength of the new Republican party.
C) indifference of southern voters.
D) fundamental flaws in the electoral college system.

Question 37

In the mid-1850s, Abraham Lincoln's search for a political home was based on his

A) commitment to the abolition of slavery throughout the United States.
B) belief that nothing short of war would settle the slavery issue in the country.
C) desire to fight the Dred Scott decision.
D) opposition to the extension of slavery in the United States.

Question 38

What happened when the first territorial legislature in Kansas met?

A) It voted to settle the slavery issue peacefully.
B) It voted to secede from the Union.
C) It enacted tough proslavery laws.
D) It voted to repeal the Fugitive Slave Act.

Question 39

What common thread wove together northern men to form the Republican party in 1854?

A) The conviction that the federal government should increase social reform efforts
B) The belief that Congress should move quickly to abolish slavery where it existed
C) The belief that citizenship was too easily achieved by ill-prepared foreigners
D) The opposition to the extension of slavery into any territory of the United States

Question 40

Northern women supported the new Republican party in the 1850s by

A) voting for Republican candidates.
B) sending letters to sympathetic southern women.
C) silencing their support of abolition.
D) marching in Republican parades.

Question 41

Explain the process by which Stephen A. Douglas engineered the passage of the Compromise of 1850, and what was contained in this collection of bills.

Question 42

Cite the key economic and political factors that motivated Stephen A. Douglas to propose the Kansas-Nebraska Act in the way he did.

Question 43

In his first inaugural address, how did President Abraham Lincoln seek to assure southerners that they had nothing to fear from a Republican administration?

Question 44

Identify the chief factors that prompted Republicans to select Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for Illinois senator in 1858.

Question 45

In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln

A) reassured the South that he had no right to interfere with slavery where it existed.
B) threatened to declare war if any more southern states seceded from the Union.
C) promised he would not allow the South to fire the first shot in a civil war.
D) declared that he did not have the power to execute the law in states that had seceded.

Question 46

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president because he had

A) a majority of the popular vote.
B) strong support in the more populous free states.
C) enough popularity to carry two crucial slave states.
D) three opponents who split the southern vote.

Question 47

Which was the first state to secede from the Union after Lincoln's election?

A) Virginia
B) Mississippi
C) South Carolina
D) Texas

Question 48

Which southerner argued that "I consider slavery much more secure in the Union than out of it"?

A) Jefferson Davis
B) Howell Cobb
C) John Smith Preston
D) Alexander Stephens

Question 49

How did the increasingly confident Republican party prepare for the election of 1860?

A) It expanded its platform to address issues beyond slavery.
B) It focused on the slavery issue with more intensity than ever.
C) It nominated John Bell for president.
D) It focused on gaining votes in the South.

Question 50

How did James Buchanan respond as the secession crisis loomed over the final weeks of his presidential administration?

A) He called several ineffective special sessions of Congress.
B) He remained in Washington and did nothing.
C) He urged the Supreme Court to rule on secession before Lincoln took office.
D) He prodded Congress to beef up the military in case there was a war.

Question 51

What made Abraham Lincoln an attractive candidate for the Republican nomination?

A) He supported high tariffs.
B) He represented the crucial state of Illinois.
C) His extreme racial views appealed to antislavery southerners.
D) He was good friends with powerful Democrats.

Question 52

Explain the provisions of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and the reaction to it in both North and South.

Question 53

Who became the president of the new Confederate States of America?

A) Howell Cobb
B) John Smith Preston
C) Jefferson Davis
D) Alexander Stephens

Question 54

Why did Republican John C. Frémont's showing in the presidential election of 1856 worry southerners?

Question 55

Explain why southern Democrats walked out of the Democratic nominating convention in Charleston in 1860. What did this example of the Lower South Democrats "voting with their feet" say about the nation's sectional party configuration?

Question 56

Why did the slave states of the Upper South initially reject secession?

A) They believed the North would quickly send invading armies to the Upper South.
B) They had great difficulty in getting together a quorum of legislators to debate the issue.
C) They feared that secession would lead to a great slave rebellion.
D) They did not have as great a stake in slavery as the states in the Lower South.

Question 57

Southerners felt so much hostility toward the Republican party during the presidential election of 1860 that

A) they burned Lincoln in effigy in most major areas of the South.
B) they boycotted the polls in numerous states.
C) ten states refused to allow Lincoln's name to appear on the ballot.
D) states passed laws allowing women to vote in order to defeat the Republicans.

Question 58

Why were southerners so angry with President Zachary Taylor's position on the admission of California to the Union?

Question 59

Why was John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, so significant to both northerners and southerners in America?

Question 60

Explain the basic northern arguments for and southern arguments against the Wilmot Proviso.

Question 61

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Antislavery party formed in 1854 following passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Members attempted to unite all those who opposed the extension of slavery into any territory of the United States.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 62

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Enormously popular 1852 antislavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It helped to solidify northern sentiment against slavery and to confirm white southerners' sense that no sympathy remained for them in the free states.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 63

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Proposal put forward in August 1846 to ban slavery in territory acquired from the Mexican-American War. It enjoyed widespread support in the North, but southerners saw it as an attack on their interests.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 64

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
1857 Supreme Court decision that ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. The decision denied the federal government the right to exclude slavery in the territories and declared that African Americans were not citizens.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 65

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
1854 law that divided Indian Territory into Kansas and Nebraska, repealed the Missouri Compromise, and left the new territories to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. The measure led to bloody fighting in Kansas.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 66

Although morally opposed to slavery, Abraham Lincoln held the same opinion of African Americans as most white Americans did in the 1850s. Discuss how Lincoln was able to separate his personal feelings about African Americans from his convictions about slavery. How did he believe these views could keep the Union from breaking apart?

Question 67

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Term referring to work conducted free from constraint and according to the laborer's own inclinations and will.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 68

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Term for the bloody struggle between proslavery and antislavery factions in Kansas following its organization in the fall of 1854. Corrupt election tactics led to a proslavery victory, but free-soil Kansans established a rival territorial government and violence quickly ensued.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 69

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
A law included in the Compromise of 1850 to help attract southern support for the legislative package. Its strict provisions for capturing runaway slaves provoked outrage in the North and intensified antislavery sentiment in the region.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 70

The Compromise of 1850 began to come apart almost immediately, and the most contentious issue was the new Fugitive Slave Act. Discuss its effects on fugitive slaves as well as reactions to it in the North and South.

Question 71

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
The idea that government is subject to the will of the people. Applied to the territories, this idea meant that the residents of a territory should determine, through their legislatures, whether to allow slavery.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 72

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Laws meant to resolve the dispute over the spread of slavery in the territories. Key elements included the admission of California as a free state and the Fugitive Slave Act.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 73

Explain how America's political parties realigned between the late 1840s and mid-1850s. What were the most important issues behind this realignment?

Question 74

By 1856, the Republican party had organized around the premise that the South was a profound threat to "free soil, free labor, and free men." Discuss how Republican fears were reflected in the violence in Kansas and the Senate as well as in decision-making in the Supreme Court.

Question 75

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Series of debates during the 1858 Illinois senatorial race concerning slavery and freedom.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 76

Use the following to answer questions
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Government formed by Lower South states on February 7, 1861, following their secession from the Union. Secessionists argued that the election of a Republican to the presidency imperiled slavery and that the South no longer had political protection within the Union.

A)"Bleeding Kansas"
B)Compromise of 1850
C)Confederate States of America
D)Dred Scott decision
E)free labor
F)Fugitive Slave Act
G)Kansas-Nebraska Act
H)Lincoln-Douglas debates
I)popular sovereignty
J)Republican Party
K)Uncle Tom's Cabin
L)Wilmot Proviso

Question 77

What was the relationship between westward expansion and slavery? How did the Mexican-American War contribute to the sectional conflict, and what compromises were created?