Deck 12: Manifest Destiny, 1836-1848

Question 1

What concept suggested that one day the United States would dominate the North American continent?

Answer 1

Manifest destiny.

Question 2

What political party accused President Andrew Jackson of ruling like a monarch?

Answer 2

Whigs.

Question 3

What most distinguished the administration of President William Henry Harrison?

Answer 3

He was the first president to die in office.

Question 4

Who did President Martin Van Buren want to have custody of the government's money and pay its bills?

Question 5

What body of American art celebrated the grandeur of nature?

Question 6

Congressmen who voted against a treaty to add Texas to the Union in 1844 did so because of what?

Question 7

What promise got James K. Polk elected in 1844?

Question 8

Who commanded American troops at the Nueces River in 1846?

Question 9

What was Stephen Kearny's contribution in the Mexican-American War?

Question 10

What treaty ended the war between the United States and Mexico?

Question 11

What set Elias Boudinot apart from Cherokee tribal chief John Ross?

A) He was not fully Cherokee like Ross.
B) Unlike Ross, he held tightly to the views of the people.
C) He refused to leave western Georgia under any circumstances.
D) Unlike Ross, he complied with removal before it became forced.

Question 12

What was a major consequence of each new stage of American expansion?

A) European nations became more cautious.
B) More tax revenue enabled expanded government service.
C) It reignited the controversy over slavery.
D) The U.S. Army was less able to defend the nation.

Question 13

By the end of Andrew Jackson's administration

A) A new Republican Party had assumed the role of Loyal Opposition.
B) Federalists returned to power.
C) The Democratic Party had grown too diverse to remain stable.
D) The Virginia dynasty resumed control of the presidency.

Question 14

What was Congress's response when President Andrew Jackson refused to show them papers he had shared with cabinet members?

A) A committee of the Senate held hearings.
B) Congress censured Jackson.
C) Daniel Webster asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether Jackson had to open his papers to public scrutiny.
D) Henry Clay initiated impeachment proceedings in the House.

Question 15

To what did the term "Whig" refer when used by Jackson's opponents?

A) It called attention to the way they wore their hair.
B) It poked fun at their old-fashioned dress.
C) It revealed their aristocratic tendencies.
D) It suggested that Jackson ruled like a king instead of an elected official.

Question 16

For what purposes did Whigs want to enhance the strength of the federal government?

A) For national defense.
B) For crime prevention.
C) For moral legislation.
D) For economic development.

Question 17

Who said that the United States was a "singularly happy" nation?

A) President Andrew Jackson in his farewell address in 1836.
B) President John Tyler when he succeeded Harrison as president.
C) President Martin Van Buren in his inaugural address in 1837.
D) President William Henry Harrison after defeating Democrats in 1840.

Question 18

President Martin Van Buren agreed with President Andrew Jackson that

A) Only westerners were qualified to serve as president.
B) Scotsmen were untrustworthy.
C) Slavery should be extended into new states and territories.
D) The federal government should not manage currency.

Question 19

Which of the following did not play a role in the Panic of 1837?

A) Crop failures.
B) Collapse of credit.
C) Specie shortages in Europe and the United States.
D) Excessive government debt.

Question 20

What was at stake in the Aroostook War?

A) Fishing rights on the Great Lakes.
B) Whether timber in the Aroostook Valley belonged to Canada or the United States.
C) The border between New York and Ontario.
D) Trade agreements between England and the United States.

Question 21

What was the policy of the United States regarding a Canadian rebellion against Great Britain in 1836-1837?

A) Official neutrality.
B) Strong support of Canadian rebels because Canada had aided our own revolution.
C) Strong support of Great Britain, our new North Atlantic partner.
D) Watchful waiting until one side or the other won.

Question 22

What brought Britain and the United States to the brink of war in 1837?

A) A Canadian rebellion.
B) The murder of an American by a Canadian in Detroit in 1840.
C) Disagreement over the settlement of the border between Canada and the Oregon Territory.
D) England's claim on the Republic of Texas.

Question 23

What term suggests the belief of white Americans that by right they should occupy the North American continent?

A) E pluribus unum.
B) Manifest destiny.
C) Pax Americana.
D) White man's burden.

Question 24

Americans thought of manifest destiny along all of the terms listed below except

A) Race.
B) Politics.
C) Class.
D) Territory.

Question 25

What role had craftsmen played in Jefferson's vision of Americans' relationship with the land?

A) A primary role.
B) No role at all.
C) A secondary role.
D) An important role behind farmers, government, and merchants.

Question 26

Landscape paintings by Hudson River School artists rarely contained human figures except

A) Horsemen.
B) Hunters and trappers.
C) Native Americans.
D) Soldiers.

Question 27

Hudson River School painters suggested sadness at the passing of wilderness and

A) Also celebrated the coming development of farms.
B) Bewilderment about why anyone wanted to change it.
C) Joy over the preservation of some wilderness in the new national park system.
D) Regret for the plight of Indians forced from their territory.

Question 28

James Fenimore Cooper's theme in Leatherstocking Tales is that

A) American wilderness merely awaited transformation by pioneers.
B) Fur trappers and traders were the only true pioneers.
C) Noble savages should be left alone in the wilderness.
D) The United States was destined to rule the hemisphere.

Question 29

When the poet William Cullen Bryant described the vacant Illinois prairie in the 1830s, he envisioned

A) Gardens and cultivated fields.
B) Pristine wilderness to be preserved from human contamination.
C) Rail splitter Abraham Lincoln just beginning his public life.
D) U. S. Grant preparing to leave for the Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Question 30

According to those who envisioned total development of the continent in the nineteenth century, America would eventually become what?

A) An arsenal of democracy.
B) A highway for transporting goods and culture.
C) The last great hope of mankind.
D) The leader of the free world.

Question 31

What prediction did Governor DeWitt Clinton make regarding the Erie Canal?

A) Chicago would become the largest city located on the Great Lakes.
B) New York City would become the emporium of the world.
C) Pittsburgh would become headquarters for the nation's steel industry.
D) The center of commerce in New York would shift to Buffalo.

Question 32

Under the Mexican plan for the development of Texas, the Mexican government agreed to place immigration in the hands of what group?

A) Empresarios.
B) Filibusters.
C) Real estate agents.
D) Tejanos.

Question 33

Who developed the first Anglo colony in Mexican Texas?

A) Lorenzo de Zavalla.
B) Sam Houston.
C) Stephen F. Austin.
D) Sterling Robertson.

Question 34

By 1830, the number of Americans in Texas had reached

A) 20,000.
B) 25,000.
C) 50,000.
D) 100,000.

Question 35

Sam Houston led Texas revolutionaries to victory in the decisive battle of

A) Anahuac.
B) Goliad.
C) Nacogdoches.
D) San Jacinto.

Question 36

Following the battle at San Jacinto, Texans made Sam Houston their first president and

A) Celebrated what they hoped would be a long-lived republic.
B) Called for Texas to be annexed to the United States.
C) Invited John Quincy Adams to represent their cause for annexation in the Congress.
D) Deported Santa Anna.

Question 37

What was Mexico's policy toward slavery in Texas?

A) Consistently abolitionist.
B) Disinterest, as with most aspects of the colonization of Texas.
C) Enthusiastic support of the institution because of profits it ensured.
D) Erratic, sometimes permitting slavery and then banning it.

Question 38

What kind of economy developed rapidly in Texas in the 1820s?

A) An animal husbandry economy based on cattle drives to eastern markets.
B) A cotton economy dependent on slavery.
C) A maritime economy based on trade via the Gulf of Mexico.
D) A mineral economy based on petroleum production.

Question 39

What was the major cause of tension between the Mexican government and Texas colonists?

A) Attempts to stem immigration from the United States.
B) Discrimination against natives of Mexico.
C) Efforts to enforce religious laws.
D) Regulations banning slavery.

Question 40

The rise to power of what leader focused the unhappiness with government in Mexico for American colonists in Texas?

A) Alvar Nunez, Cabeza de Vaca.
B) Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
C) Gomez Farias.
D) Vicente de la Garza.

Question 41

What policy did the new Republic of Texas follow with regard to its status among nations?

A) It wanted annexation to the United States as soon as possible.
B) It was determined to remain independent and competitive with the United States for control of manifest destiny.
C) It hoped for reconciliation with Mexico if the Constitution of 1824 was restored.
D) It wanted to join the British Empire for trade advantages.

Question 42

What was the greatest impediment to the annexation of Texas to the United States?

A) The fear that annexation would produce tension with England and France.
B) The fear that annexation would cause a war with Mexico.
C) Slavery.
D) The belief that Texans were not ready for statehood.

Question 43

What prompted a stream of religious missionaries to Oregon Territory in the 1830s?

A) A plan to establish a separate Jewish state in the Willamette Valley.
B) Competition between Protestants and Catholics.
C) Instructions from an angel to Joseph Smith.
D) Rumors that Indians in Oregon had expressed an interest in Christianity.

Question 44

Who was the first missionary to reach Oregon?

A) Baptist Harry Emerson Fosdick.
B) Methodist Jason Lee.
C) Presbyterian Peter Marshall.
D) Roman Catholic Father Pierre de Smet.

Question 45

Most immigrants who followed missionaries to Oregon Territory were

A) Farm families of modest means.
B) Fishermen following the annual salmon runs.
C) Miners hoping to find gold and other precious metals.
D) Religious separatists seeking isolation in the West.

Question 46

Where did migrants gather to begin their journey westward on the Oregon Trail?

A) East St. Louis, Illinois.
B) St. Francisville, Louisiana.
C) St. Genevieve, Missouri.
D) St. Joseph, Missouri.

Question 47

The western trail that departed from Independence, Missouri, near Kansas City was the

A) Bozeman Trail.
B) California Trail.
C) El Camino Real.
D) Santa Fe Trail.

Question 48

How did most people reach their destinations in the West?

A) On horseback.
B) Riding in wagons on wagon trains.
C) Riding steamboats or railroads, depending on their route.
D) Walking beside wagons carrying precious cargo.

Question 49

More than 250,000 settlers crossed the plains between 1840 and 1860; how many were killed by hostile Indians?

A) 400.
B) 4,000.
C) 12,000.
D) 16,000.

Question 50

The completion of the last of the eastern Indian "removals" marked the beginning of a federal policy toward

A) Reservations.
B) Extermination.
C) Segregation.
D) Rehabilitation.

Question 51

What was the most significant cause of decline in the population of Indians after the arrival of white Europeans in their area?

A) Casualties of battles.
B) Diseases to which Indians had no immunity.
C) Loss of confidence in their ability to sustain Indian culture.
D) Voluntarily emigration to avoid unwanted contact.

Question 52

The loss of territory to whites caused western Indians to

A) Abandon their heritage in favor of Americanization.
B) Accept technology.
C) Learn new ways of living on less land.
D) Shift from agriculture to a more nomadic way of life.

Question 53

What stood at the center of the economy for all Plains Indians?

A) Bison.
B) Horses.
C) Skilled labor.
D) Water supply.

Question 54

What slogan characterized the presidential campaign of 1840?

A) "A Chicken in Every Pot."
B) "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight."
C) "Reoccupation of Oregon and Reannexation of Texas."
D) "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too."

Question 55

Why did the presidency of John Tyler throw the Whig Party into chaos?

A) He reverted back to his Democratic roots.
B) His maneuvers toward a war with Mexico worried most party members.
C) His economic policies were far ahead of his time.
D) He only stayed in office for a month or so before he died unexpectedly.

Question 56

Which of the following was not true about William Henry Harrison?

A) He was a wealthy Virginian.
B) He offered a vague hope of a better time.
C) He was a military hero.
D) He remained popular through his first term.

Question 57

What agreement was reached in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty?

A) It confirmed the boundary between the United States and Great Britain from Maine to the Rocky Mountains.
B) It established the Rio Grande as the U.S. border with Mexico.
C) It provided for joint occupation of California with Mexico.
D) Slavery would not be permitted in any territory formerly occupied by Great Britain.

Question 58

"His Accidency" was a reference to what about President John Tyler?

A) His clumsiness.
B) His method of decision making.
C) His personality.
D) His succession to the presidency.

Question 59

What did John Slidell bring to Mexico on orders of President Polk in 1846?

A) A gun, to assassinate General Santa Ana.
B) A declaration of war.
C) A purchase offer in the value of $30 million.
D) The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Question 60

What agreement ended the war between the United States and Mexico in 1848?

A) Peace of Paris, 1848.
B) Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
C) Treaty of San Juan.
D) Treaty of Versailles.

Question 61

Explain the origins of the second American party system.

Question 62

What motivated the great migration of Americans across the continent from 1840 to 1860, and what problems did they encounter on their journey?

Question 63

How did the annexation of Texas affect American politics?

Question 64

Discuss the causes and consequences of the United States' war with Mexico.