Deck 18: Renewing the Sectional Struggle

Question 1

Which of the following was not among the issues that concerned southerners in 1849-1850?

A) The political balance in the Senate might tip against them.
B) The admission of California as a free state might set a precedent for Utah and New Mexico.
C) Northern abolitionists were agitating against slavery in the District of Columbia.
D) The loss of runaway slaves through the "Underground Railroad"
E) There was a growing chance that a constitutional amendment would abolish slavery.

Answer 1

There was a growing chance that a constitutional amendment would abolish slavery.

Question 2

The public liked popular sovereignty because it

A) offered a way to stop the spread of slavery without attacking slaveholders.
B) fit in with the democratic tradition of self-determination.
C) provided a national solution to the problem of slavery.
D) would speed the entry of new states into the Union.
E) upheld the principles of white supremacy.

Answer 2

fit in with the democratic tradition of self-determination.

Question 3

In his Seventh of March speech, Daniel Webster

A) attacked Henry Clay's compromise proposals.
B) called for a new, more stringent fugitive-slave law.
C) advocated a congressional ban on slavery in the territories.
D) proposed a scheme for electing two presidents, one from the North and one from the South.
E) became a hated figure in the South.

Answer 3

called for a new, more stringent fugitive-slave law.

Question 4

According to the principle of "popular sovereignty," the question of slavery in the territories would be determined by

A) the state legislature after a territory was admitted to the Union.
B) a national referendum of the Electoral College.
C) congressional legislation.
D) the Supreme Court.
E) the vote of the people in the given territory.

Question 5

Daniel Webster was viciously condemned for his Seventh of March speech by

A) northern Unionists.
B) southern "fire-eaters."
C) abolitionists.
D) Henry Clay.
E) John C.Calhoun.

Question 6

By 1850, the South was losing perhaps ____ runaways a year out of its total of some 4 million slaves.

A) 200
B) 500
C) 800
D) 1,000
E) 2,000

Question 7

In the 1848 presidential election, the Democratic and Whig parties

A) were seriously challenged by the Free Soil party.
B) each nominated slaveholders for the presidency.
C) remained silent on the issue of slavery.
D) abandoned the tactic of nominating military leaders.
E) were divided on the issue of admitting California as a free state.

Question 8

The issue of runaway slaves was important because

A) the South was losing a significant portion of its labor force.
B) the Underground Railroad might encourage a slave rebellion.
C) the loss of property was significant, but the loss of honor was felt more.
D) escaped slaves might establish free colonies in the West.
E) free blacks demonstrated that the racist theory of slavery was wrong.

Question 9

The Free Soil party of 1848 harbored many northerners who stood squarely against slavery in the territories primarily on the grounds that

A) further expansion of slavery might break up the Union.
B) it destroyed the chances of free white workers to rise up from wage-earning dependence.
C) slavery was a moral evil contrary to American principles.
D) slave labor would be unproductive in the West.
E) the southern fire-eaters were already planning further expansion into Central America.

Question 10

The United States' victory in the Mexican War resulted in

A) renewed controversy over the issue of extending slavery into the territories.
B) threatened splits over slavery in both the Whig and Democratic parties.
C) the cession by Mexico of an enormous amount of land to the United States.
D) a rush of settlers to new American territory in California.
E) all of these.

Question 11

During the 1850s, slaves gained their freedom most frequently by

A) running away.
B) being emancipated in their masters' wills.
C) rebellion.
D) appeal to the courts.
E) self-purchase or voluntary emancipation.

Question 12

Harriet Tubman gained fame

A) by helping slaves to escape to Canada.
B) in the gold fields of California.
C) as an African American antislavery novelist.
D) as a public opponent of the Fugitive Slave Law.
E) by urging white women to oppose slavery.

Question 13

The event that threatened to destroy the longstanding equality of free and slave states in the United States Senate was the

A) passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
B) potential admission of Oregon as a free state.
C) attempt to acquire Cuba as a slave state.
D) proposed building of a southern transcontinental railroad.
E) discovery of gold in California.

Question 14

The two major parties kept the focus of the 1848 presidential election campaign on

A) the personalities of Senator Cass and General Taylor.
B) addressing the slavery issue through popular sovereignty.
C) further expansion into Cuba and Central America.
D) Indian removal and homesteading.
E) the economy.

Question 15

Daniel Webster's famed Seventh of March speech in 1850 resulted in

A) the celebration of Webster as an antislavery leader.
B) visibly strengthened Union sentiment and especially pleased northern banking and commercial centers.
C) condemnation by northern commercial interests.
D) charges that he had accepted bribes from proslavery interests.
E) a movement to draft him for the presidency.

Question 16

In order to maintain the two great political parties as vital bonds of national unity, early-nineteenth-century politicians

A) decided to ban slavery from all United States territories.
B) hoped to divide the West into free and slave territories.
C) avoided public discussion of slavery.
D) banished abolitionists from membership in either national party.
E) worked to make third parties almost impossible.

Question 17

The Wilmot Proviso, if adopted, would have

A) prevented the taking of any territory from Mexico.
B) admitted California directly into the Union as a free state.
C) permitted settlers to decide whether to permit slavery in New Mexico and Utah.
D) prohibited slavery in any territory acquired in the Mexican War.
E) all of these.

Question 18

The debate over slavery in the Mexican Cession

A) threatened to split national politics along North-South lines.
B) raised the question of refusing to annex the territory at all.
C) resulted in the formation of the Republican party.
D) caused clashes between proslavery and antislavery settlers in the West.
E) all of these.

Question 19

John C.Calhoun's plan to protect the South and slavery involved all of the following except to

A) leave the issue of slavery alone.
B) return runaway slaves back to the south.
C) give the South its rights as a minority.
D) restore the political balance in the Senate of free states and slave states.
E) prevent the spread of slavery in the California territory.

Question 20

The South grew increasingly worried about the future of slavery because

A) it was unsuited to the West.
B) the admission of California might permanently tip the political balance against them.
C) the Supreme Court might issue rulings against slavery.
D) President Zachary Taylor was the first president openly critical of slavery.
E) popular sovereignty would almost certainly prevent the spread of slavery.

Question 21

The presidential election of 1852 was significant because it

A) saw the victory of a pro-South northerner, Franklin Pierce.
B) marked the return of issues-oriented campaigning.
C) saw the rise of purely sectional parties.
D) marked the end of the Whig party.
E) saw the emergence of the antislavery Republican party.

Question 22

In the Compromise of 1850, Congress determined that slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories was to be

A) banned until the territory applied for statehood.
B) legal in New Mexico but prohibited in Utah.
C) decided by popular sovereignty.
D) decided upon by Congress after a ten year cooling off period.
E) decided by the Mormon Church.

Question 23

The Whig party committed a fatal blunder in 1852 by

A) nominating General Winfield Scott on an antislavery platform.
B) failing to nominate President Fillmore or Senator Webster as shapers of the Compromise of 1850.
C) nominating a proslavery candidate on an antislavery platform.
D) conducting a proslavery campaign in the South and a proslavery campaign in the North.
E) failing to denounce the southern secessionist "fire-eaters."

Question 24

The most alarming aspect of the Compromise of 1850 to northerners was the law providing for

A) the continuation of slavery in the District of Columbia.
B) the possible expansion of slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories under "popular sovereignty."
C) the new Fugitive Slave Law.
D) the payment of $10 million to slaveholding Texas.
E) continuation of the interstate slave trade.

Question 25

For a short time in the 1850s, a proslavery American adventurer seized control of

A) Nicaragua.
B) Cuba.
C) Japan.
D) Honduras.
E) Puerto Rico.

Question 26

Southern delegates met at a convention in Nashville in the summer of 1850 to

A) plan southern secession.
B) plan ways to acquire more slave territory.
C) propose a series of constitutional amendments to protect slavery.
D) organize filibustering expeditions into Central America.
E) condemn the Compromise of 1850.

Question 27

In light of future evidence, it seems apparent that in the Compromise of 1850 the South made a tactical blunder by

A) allowing a ban on the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
B) demanding a strong fugitive slave law.
C) not insisting on federal protection of slavery in the territories.
D) allowing the admission of California as a free state.
E) allowing popular sovereignty in Nebraska territory.

Question 28

Stephen A.Douglas proposed that the question of slavery in the Kansas-Nebraska Territory be decided by

A) popular sovereignty.
B) making Kansas a slave territory and Nebraska a free territory.
C) the Supreme Court.
D) Congress at the time of application for statehood.
E) the winner of the next presidential election.

Question 29

In the debates of 1850, Senator William H.Seward, as a representative of the northern Young Guard, argued that

A) the Constitution must be obeyed even if slavery was morally wrong.
B) John C.Calhoun's compromise plan must be adopted to preserve the Union.
C) Christian legislators must obey God's moral law above human law.
D) "a house divided against itself cannot stand."
E) African Americans should be granted their own territory.

Question 30

Many northern states passed "personal liberty laws" in response to the Compromise of 1850 that

A) offered asylum to slaves fleeing the District of Columbia.
B) set up state-sponsored "stations" on the Underground Railroad.
C) prohibited their citizens from identifying runaway slaves.
D) guaranteed personal liberty to all runaway slaves.
E) interfered with federal enforcement of the fugitive slave laws.

Question 31

The Pierce administration's secret scheme to gain control of Cuba was stopped when

A) Spain threatened a pre-emptive war against the United States.
B) the secret Ostend Manifesto was leaked to the public.
C) U.S.leaders signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.
D) Spain declared that it would abolish slavery in Cuba.
E) U.S.adventurers bungled their invasion.

Question 32

The primary objective of Manifest Destiny expansionists in the 1850s was

A) Panama.
B) Nicaragua.
C) Cuba.
D) Hawaii.
E) the Dominican Republic.

Question 33

The Young Guard from the North

A) regarded preserving the Union as their top priority.
B) were ready to attack slavery in the South.
C) saw expansionism as a solution to the slavery question.
D) gave support to John C.Calhoun's plan for rescuing the Union.
E) were more interested in purifying the Union than saving it.

Question 34

The man who opened Japan to the United States was

A) William Walker.
B) Franklin Pierce.
C) Lafcadio Hearn.
D) Clayton Bulwer.
E) Matthew Perry.

Question 35

A southern route for the transcontinental railroad seemed the best because

A) northern areas were organized territories.
B) slave labor could be used to construct it.
C) the railroad would be easier to build in this area.
D) there were fewer hostile Indian tribes in southern New Mexico.
E) it would firmly tie southern California to the Union.

Question 36

The most brazen scheme for territorial expansion in the 1850s was contained in the

A) Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.
B) Wilmot Proviso.
C) Kansas-Nebraska Act.
D) Gadsden Purchase.
E) Ostend Manifesto.

Question 37

During the debate of 1850, ____ argued that there was a "higher law" than the Constitution that compelled him to demand the exclusion of slavery from the territories.

A) William H.Seward
B) Henry Clay
C) Daniel Webster
D) Stephen A.Douglas
E) Zachary Taylor

Question 38

President Zachary Taylor unknowingly helped the cause of compromise in 1850 when he

A) led an invasion of Texas to halt its attempts to take part of New Mexico.
B) supported fellow southerner John C.Calhoun's plan for union.
C) died suddenly and Millard Fillmore became president.
D) ushered in a second Era of Good Feelings.
E) decided not to run for re-election.

Question 39

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 included all of the following provisions except

A) the requirement that fugitive slaves be returned from Canada.
B) denial of a jury trial to runaway slaves.
C) denial of fleeing slaves' right to testify on their own behalf.
D) the requirement that northerners might be ordered to help catch runaway slaves.
E) a higher payment if officials determined blacks to be runaways.

Question 40

Most American leaders believed that the only way to maintain control of the new Pacific Coast was to

A) establish naval bases at San Diego and Puget Sound.
B) build a canal across Central America.
C) grant the territories quick statehood.
D) construct a transcontinental railroad.
E) build a string of military forts across the West.

Question 41

Was popular sovereignty a reasonable compromise between the sections on the slavery expansion issue? Could it have worked under any circumstances?

Question 42

Undoubtedly the most durable offspring of the Kansas-Nebraska blunder was

A) the resurgence of the Whig political party.
B) the new Republican political party.
C) a constitutional amendment banning slavery in any new territories.
D) rejection of popular sovereignty.
E) the death of the Democratic political party.

Question 43

How successful was the Compromise of 1850? Why was the North, which gained the most from the Compromise, also the most disillusioned with it?

Question 44

Why did Stephen Douglas prod "the snarling dog of slavery" when it had more or less fallen asleep after the Compromise of 1850? Does Douglas deserve blame for setting in motion the chain of events that led to the Civil War?

Question 45

Why were the two great national political parties, which had arranged so many compromises on the slavery issue, unable to remain united (the Democrats) or even survive (the Whigs) in the early 1850s?

Question 46

Explain the relationship between the Ostend Manifesto and the slavery controversy in the United States.

Question 47

In 1850, the South was deeply worried because

A) the Underground Railroad was carrying away hundreds of slaves each year.
B) the price of cotton was low.
C) the Supreme Court had a northern majority.
D) California sought admission as a free state.
E) U.S.presidents were favoring the North.

Question 48

Southerners insisted that the first transcontinental railroad should run through the Southwest because

A) construction would be less difficult there.
B) the railroad would pass through the already organized New Mexico Territory.
C) it was too expensive to use camels for transcontinental transport.
D) southern states were prepared to pay the full cost of construction.
E) it would guarantee the area against possible Mexican efforts to take it back.

Question 49

To what extent was there a resurgence of Manifest Destiny in the 1850s? What were the goals of America's diplomacy at the time?

Question 50

Assess the validity of the following statement, "the Compromise of 1850 contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War."

Question 51

What was the relationship between southern fears about the future of slavery and the attempts at expansion into Central America and the Caribbean in the 1850s? If these schemes had succeeded, how would they have affected the fate of the Union?

Question 52

The consequences of the Kansas-Nebraska Act included the

A) organization of the Know-Nothing party.
B) splitting of the Democratic party.
C) demise of the Whig party.
D) organization of the Republican party.
E) rise of the Free Soil party.

Question 53

The impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to

A) open the door to compromise on the question of slavery in the territories.
B) encourage thousands of planters to migrate to Kansas and Nebraska.
C) enrage the antislavery abolitionists.
D) open the door to slavery where it had been prohibited by the Missouri Compromise.
E) ruin Stephen Douglas's chances of gaining the Democratic presidential nomination.

Question 54

Stephen A.Douglas's plans for deciding the slavery question in the Kansas-Nebraska scheme required repeal of the

A) Compromise of 1850.
B) three-fifths provision of the Constitution.
C) Wilmot Proviso.
D) Northwest Ordinance.
E) Missouri Compromise.

Question 55

Presidential candidates in the 1848 election included

A) Martin Van Buren.
B) Henry Clay.
C) Lewis Cass.
D) Zachary Taylor.
E) Winfield Scott.

Question 56

The new Free Soil party in 1848 found major support from those who

A) favored the Wilmot Proviso.
B) wanted to abolish slavery in the South.
C) thought that slavery destroyed the value of free labor.
D) wanted to keep slavery out of the territories.
E) thought that popular sovereignty was the best approach to slavery.

Question 57

One of Stephen Douglas's mistakes in proposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act was

A) not providing sufficient incentives to the North.
B) not preparing sufficiently persuasive arguments in the Senate.
C) allowing slavery to spread into new territory.
D) underestimating the depth of northern opposition to the spread of slavery.
E) believing that slavery could not survive in Kansas.

Question 58

Explain the widespread popularity of the concept of popular sovereignty as a way to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories.Then explain why it ultimately failed.

Question 59

Some abolitionists believed that there was a "slave power conspiracy" at work within the U.S.federal government in the 1850s.What might have led them to such a view? Was there any justification for their fears?

Question 60

Why did the Fugitive Slave Law stir many ordinary northerners into antislavery feeling in a way that no other proslavery policies or actions did?

Question 61

To what extent was the Kansas-Nebraska Act a serious mistake for southern interests?

Question 62

It has been said that "the historian who searches for examples of intelligent and tolerant statesmanship in the period 1850-1854 seeks almost in vain." Citing the "statesmanship" of men like Clay, Douglas, Webster, Calhoun, Pierce, and Fillmore, demonstrate that this argument is or is not supportable.

Question 63

The text's authors observe that during the debate of 1850, John C.Calhoun, hoping to save the Union, proposed "an utterly unworkable scheme of electing two presidents, one from the North and one from the South, each wielding a veto." Explain why such an arrangement would have been "utterly unworkable."

Question 64

Compare and contrast the views of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun in the congressional debate that produced the Compromise of 1850.

Question 65

To what extent did the building of the first transcontinental railroad linking the East and the West contribute to the wrenching apart of the North and the South?

Question 66

The authors argue that the North "got the better of the Compromise of 1850." Do you agree? Why or why not?

Question 67

Do you think that by the end of 1854 the two sections had reached an impasse and that Civil War was inevitable sooner or later? Why or why not?