Deck 18: Renewing the Sectional Struggle, 1848-1854

Question 1

The debate over slavery in the Mexican Cession  

A) threatened to split national politics along North-South lines.
B) nearly resulted in the return of the territory to Mexico.
C) resulted in the formation of the Republican party.
D) resulted in strong hostility to further expansionism.
E) caused clashes between proslavery and antislavery settlers in California.

Answer 1

threatened to split national politics along North-South lines.

Question 2

Locate the following places by reference number on the map: 
The United States and Its Territories (Free and Slave) following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

____ Nashville

Answer 2

10

Question 3

Locate the following places by reference number on the map: 
The United States and Its Territories (Free and Slave) following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

____ California

Answer 3

2

Question 4

In order to maintain the two great political parties as vital bonds of national unity, party leaders in the late 1840s  

A) called for thebanning of slavery from all United States territories.
B) called for allowing slavery into all United States territories.
C) avoided a full public discussion of and debate about slavery.
D) banished abolitionists from membership in either national party.
E) worked to make the creation of third parties almost impossible.

Question 5

The Free Soilers condemned slavery because  

A) of the harm it did to blacks.
B) it violated their strongly held moral principles about the equality of all races.
C) it destroyed the chances of free white workers to rise from wage-earning to self-employment.
D) it was the only way they had of combating the appeal of the Democratic party.
E) it damaged the national economy.

Question 6

Locate the following places by reference number on the map: 
The United States and Its Territories (Free and Slave) following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

____ Gadsden Purchase

Question 7

Locate the following places by reference number on the map: 
The United States and Its Territories (Free and Slave) following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

____ Nebraska Territory

Question 8

In 1848, the Free Soil party platform advocated all of the following except  

A) support of the Wilmot Proviso.
B) federal aid for internal improvements.
C) free government homesteads for settlers.
D) opposition to slavery in the territories.
E) permitting slavery in selected western territories acquired through the Mexican War.

Question 9

Locate the following places by reference number on the map: 
The United States and Its Territories (Free and Slave) following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

____ Washington, D.C.

Question 10

With the discovery of gold near Sutter's Mill, California, in 1848, all of the following took place except  

A) miners and adventurers from around the world came to California.
B) most of the first wave of miners struck it rich in California with lucrative, easy, and plentiful discoveries of gold.
C) many travelers to California faced illness and deadly fevers.
D) the most reliable profits in the California gold rush were made by those who provided personal services, such as laundry services and clothing, for the miners.
E) crime soared in California due to the large number of lawless men and virtueless women who arrived there.

Question 11

The Free Soilers were most concerned that one of the adverse long-term effects of extending slavery in the western territories would  

A) be an indefinite delay in the admission of western territories as states in the union.
B) cause costly wage labor to wither away and, thus, close the opportunity for the American worker to own property.
C) enable, through enhanced profits, and permit small farmers to purchase more land.
D) be to undermine the moral case against slavery.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 12

In the 1848 presidential election, the Democratic and Whig parties  

A) lost to the Free Soil party.
B) addressed the issue of slavery.
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.

Question 13

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 14

Of those people going to California during the gold rush  

A) the majority had come from foreign nations.
B) slaves constituted a sizable minority.
C) the majority gained considerable financial rewards.
D) most were interested in free-soil farming.
E) a distressingly high proportion were lawless men.

Question 15

The Wilmot Proviso, if adopted, would have  

A) prevented the taking of any territory from Mexico.
B) required California to enter the Union as a slave state.
C) overturned the Fugitive Slave Law.
D) prohibited slavery in any territory acquired in the Mexican War.
E) authorized slavery in any territory acquired in the Mexican War.

Question 16

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

A) an elected territorial governor.
B) a national referendum of all citizens of states and territorial residents in America.
C) congressional legislation.
D) a Supreme Court decision.
E) the self-determination of people in any given territory.

Question 17

Locate the following places by reference number on the map: 
The United States and Its Territories (Free and Slave) following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

____ Kansas Territory

Question 18

The event that threatened to destroy the longstanding balance 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 and its bid for statehood.

Question 19

The United States' victory in the Mexican War resulted in all of the following except  

A) renewed controversy over the issue of extending slavery into the territories.
B) a possible split in the Whig and Democrat parties over slavery.
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) acquisition of the Oregon territory.

Question 20

The two major parties kept the focus on 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 poor state of the economy and protective tariffs.

Question 21

For the political views he expressed in his Seventh of March speech, Daniel Webster was viciously condemned by  

A) northern Unionists.
B) northern banking and commercial interests.
C) abolitionists and Free-Soilers.
D) Henry Clay.
E) John C. Calhoun.

Question 22

The issue of runaway slaves was important to most southerners because  

A) the South was losing a significant and irreplaceable portion of its labor force.
B) the overwhelming success of the Underground Railroad posed critical and immediate threat to the southern way of life.
C) while the overall loss of property was relatively insignificant,the loss of honor and the passing of moral judgments by northerners were felt more.
D) escaped slaves would likely organize a black army to stage armed rebellions against white southern planters and their plantations.
E) escaped slaves would travel North or to Canada and quickly undermine the legitimacy of southerners' racial superiority theories among political leaders of the North and the South.

Question 23

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 as a political concession to the South.
C) advocated a congressional ban on slavery in all the western territories.
D) became a hated figure in the South.
E) All of these choices are correct.

Question 24

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 25

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

A) to be banned.
B) protected by federal law.
C) to be decided by popular sovereignty.
D) to be ignored until either territory applied for admission to statehood.
E) to be decided by the Supreme Court.

Question 26

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

A) Senator Daniel Webster proposed a highly coercive fugitive slave law which was an acceptable concession to the South.
B) John C. Calhoun's compromise plan must be adopted to preserve the Union.
C) Christian legislators must obey God's moral law.
D) compromise must be achieved to preserve the Union.
E) African Americans should be granted their own territory.

Question 27

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.

Question 28

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 an advocate of the Fugitive Slave Law.
E) by urging white women to oppose slavery.

Question 29

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) a movement to draft him for the presidency.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 30

The Young Guard, composed of certain Senators and Representatives from the North,  

A) regarded preserving the Union as their top priority.
B) agreed fully with the Old Guard on the issue of slavery.
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 most interested in purging and purifying the Union than in preserving it.

Question 31

The Underground Railroad consisted of  

A) an informal network of homes where slaves could hide on their escape to freedom.
B) a train that hid slaves in cargo areas and carried them to freedom in the north.
C) a vehicle for capturing and returning runaway slaves back to the south.
D) a radical new transportation design.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 32

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

A) plan southern secession.
B) develop a series of compromise political proposals over slavery to preserve the Union.
C) propose a series of constitutional amendments to protect the legality of slavery.
D) denounce Daniel Webster as a traitor to the South.
E) condemn the political compromises over slavery being worked out in Congress.

Question 33

By 1850, the South  

A) was experiencing serious economic difficulties.
B) feared that slavery might be abolished in states where it already existed.
C) remained concerned about its weak voice in national government.
D) was relatively well off, politically and economically.
E) recognized that slavery's expansion was over.

Question 34

The most alarming aspect of the Compromise of 1850 to northerners was the concession to the South concerning  

A) slavery in the District of Columbia.
B) slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories.
C) the revised, more stringent and coercive Fugitive Slave Law.
D) settlement of the Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute.
E) continuation of the interstate slave trade.

Question 35

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

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

Question 36

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 penalty of imprisonment for northerners who helped slaves to escape.
E) a higher payment to the federal official responsible for determining the case of a fugitive if the official determined that the fugitive was a slave and not a free black person.

Question 37

The South grew increasingly worried about the future of slavery because  

A) the Wilmot Proposal was likely to be revived and enacted by Congress after the congressional elections of 1850.
B) the admission of California might permanently tip the political balance against them.
C) the Supreme Court was increasingly likely to issue a decision abolishing slavery everywhere in the United States.
D) President Taylor was the first president openly critical of slavery.
E) popular sovereignty would almost certainly prevent the spread of slavery.

Question 38

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

A) maintain the legality of slavery where it existed in states and certain western territories.
B) return runaway slaves back to their slaveowners in the South.
C) an impractical, unwieldy political scheme of electing two presidents, one from the North and one from the South, each possessing an executive veto.
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 39

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 40

An event that helped prompt the congressional enactment of the Compromise of 1850 was when President Zachary Taylor  

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 a conciliatory Millard Fillmore became president.
D) resigned the presidency and a conciliatory James Buchanan became president.
E) decided not to run for re-election.

Question 41

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

A) favored high tariffs.
B) had wanted all of Oregon up to the 54° 40' line.
C) condemned slavery as immoral.
D) wanted to keep slavery out of the territories.
E) believed that slavery harmed white labor.

Question 42

All of the following were results of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 except  

A) many people were drawn into the antislavery movement.
B) Northerners who aided slaves in escaping faced heavy fines and jail sentences.
C) federal commissioners handling the cases of runaways received twice as much in a bonus if the slave was returned.
D) Northerners protested the capture of individual runaway slaves.
E) the Underground Railroad scaled back its efforts.

Question 43

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

A) Panama.
B) Nicaragua.
C) Cuba.
D) Hawaii.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 44

Presidential candidates in the 1848 election included  

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

Question 45

The fatal split in the Whig party in 1852 occurred over  

A) the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.
B) slavery.
C) the Gadsden Purchase.
D) homestead laws.
E) the transcontinental railroad route.

Question 46

For a short time in the 1850s, William Walker, an American adventurer, seized political and military control of  

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

Question 47

In light of future evidence, it seems apparent that in the Compromise of 1850 the South made a tactical blunder and exacerbated sectional tensions 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 48

A southern route for the transcontinental railroad seemed the best because  

A) northern areas were all organized territories.
B) slave labor could be used to construct it.
C) the railroad would be easier to build along the proposed southern route because of the topography and the proposed southern route would pass through either existing states or organized territories.
D) Mexican leader Santa Anna agreed to contribute money for the project.
E) it would firmly tie southern California to the Union.

Question 49

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

A) not securing the transcontinental railroad for the North.
B) overestimating the protest to the bill.
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 50

The election of 1852 was significant because it  

A) saw the victory of a pro-South northerner.
B) marked the return of issues-oriented campaigning.
C) saw the rise of purely national parties.
D) marked the end of the Whig party.
E) saw the considerable reduction of popular support for the Free Soil party in the North.

Question 51

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

A) Compromise of 1850.
B) Fugitive Slave Act.
C) Wilmot Proviso.
D) Northwest Ordinance.
E) Missouri Compromise.

Question 52

The American military leader whose strategic military and diplomatic mission opened Japan up to the United States in 1853-1854 was  

A) William Walker.
B) Winfield Scott.
C) Lafcadio Hearn.
D) Clayton Bulwer.
E) Matthew Perry.

Question 53

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

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

Question 54

Many northern states passed personal liberty laws in response to the Compromise of 1850's provision regarding  

A) legally authorizing slavery in the District of Columbia.
B) expansion of slavery in the territories.
C) restrictions on free blacks.
D) the interstate slave trade.
E) the facilitation of the return of runaway slaves to slaveowners.

Question 55

On July 3, 1844, the first formal diplomatic agreement between the United States and China was the  

A) Ostend Manifesto.
B) Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.
C) Chinese Open-Door Treaty.
D) Treaty of Wanghia.
E) Hong Kong/Chinese Treaty.

Question 56

Historians have attributed all of the following to Douglas's motives for championing the Kansas-Nebraska Act except  

A) a possible presidential bid in 1856.
B) political recklessness and impulsivity on the part of Douglas.
C) his inability to recognize and appreciate that Northerners did feel deeply about extending slavery into the western territories.
D) he had financially invested in railroad stock that would appreciate with the construction of a transcontinental railroad passing through Kansas and Nebraska territories to be organized following enactment of this law.
E) his deep passion and long-standing commitment to addressing and solving the vexing slavery issue in the United States.

Question 57

Most American leaders believed that the only way to keep the new Pacific Coast territories from breaking away from United States control was to  

A) allow slavery in these areas.
B) build a canal across Central America.
C) grant the territories quick statehood.
D) construct a transcontinental railroad.
E) establish large naval bases in San Diego and Seattle.

Question 58

Some Southerners felt Cuba would be an enticing prospect for annexation for all of the following reasons except it  

A) was not controlled by any European power and would be easily acquired by welcoming Cuban population living on the Caribbean island.
B) was a sugar-rich and economically productive territory.
C) already had a large population of enslaved blacks.
D) could be carved into several states, restoring political balance in the Senate.
E) was located just off the nation's southern doorstep.

Question 59

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 60

Northerners feared that the Fugitive Slave Act threatened to set a dangerous constitutional precedent for white Americans because it  

A) prohibited antislavery demonstrations and protests.
B) denied fleeing slaves a trial by jury.
C) forced slaves to be returned to masters.
D) confined those who aided escaping slaves to house arrest
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 61

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

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

Assess the validity of the following statement, "The Compromise of 1850 and the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska of 1854 made the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 inevitable."

Question 64

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 65

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

Question 66

The text's authors observe that during the debate in 1850 on slavery and newly acquired territories from the Mexican War, 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," particularly in light of the contemporary political conflict over slavery, its westward territorial expansion, the strong political support for slavery's indefinite legal perpetuation in the South, and the fierce debate in the country overall concerning foreign policy issues related to Manifest Destiny.

Question 67

You will recall that in Chapter 16, The South and the Slavery Controversy, 1793-1860, abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass argued that a higher law than the Constitution demanded the immediate end of slavery across America, which they termed an "evil institution." Do you believe that there is a higher law than the Constitution? If so, would the expansion or the maintained legal status of slavery qualify as prompting antislavery statesman to invoke a higher law than the Constitution during this era of American history? Why did some prominent statesmen of that era such as John Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster find this concept of a higher law than the Constitution dangerous to republican government? Do you share their republican and constitutional fears about politicians adhering to a "higher law" over vexing political issues such as slavery?

Question 68

To what extent was there a reassertion of Manifest Destiny in the 1850s? What were the goals of America's foreign policy at the time? What were the diplomatic and military strategies and tactics employed by the U.S.government to achieve these foreign policy goals?

Question 69

The impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to  

A) bring a final solution to the question of slavery in the territories.
B) give the North the upper hand in the debate on slavery.
C) enrage the antislavery abolitionists.
D) lessen the prospects for future political compromises between the North and South and hasten the outbreak of the Civil War.
E) make Stephen Douglas the most controversial national politician.

Question 70

Explain the popularity of the concept of popular sovereignty in certain regions of the country as a way to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories.Which stakeholders in the slavery debate supported and which stakeholders opposed the concept of popular sovereignty to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories? Then, explain why popular sovereignty ultimately failed to resolve the debate of slavery in the territories.

Question 71

Write your definition of compromise.Then use this definition to argue that popular sovereignty was or was not a reasonable compromise among the different and competing stakeholders in America during the 1850s on the issue of expanding slavery into the nation's territories.Use specific examples of the strengths or weaknesses of popular sovereignty to support your argument.

Question 72

To what extent was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 a serious mistake for southern interests?

Question 73

The political consequences of the Kansas-Nebraska Act included the  

A) organization of the Know-Nothing party.
B) splitting of the Democratic party.
C) revival of a unified Whig party in the North and South.
D) swift organization and popular rise of the Republican party in the North and West.
E) rise of the Free Soil party.

Question 74

Compare and contrast the views of Senator Henry Clay, Senator Daniel Webster, and Senator Calhoun in the congressional debate that produced the Compromise of 1850.Why did the Compromise of 1850 prove not to be able to hold the Union together?