Deck 14: The Impending Crisis

Question 1

The Wilmot Proviso,passed by the House but rejected by the Senate,would have

A) banned slavery in any place where it did not at that time exist.
B) prohibited slavery in all of the territories that the United States had won from Mexico.
C) prohibited slavery in any territory that the United States might win from Mexico.
D) forced the president to declare that his real reason for desiring a war with Mexico was to gain territory.
E) prohibited anyone from owning over 1,000 acres in any new territories.

Answer 1

prohibited slavery in any territory that the United States might win from Mexico.

Question 2

The death of America's second two-party System can be attributed,in part,to

A) the Missouri Compromise.
B) the Compromise of 1850.
C) the implementation of popular sovereignty.
D) the rise of the Know-Nothing Party.
E) the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Answer 2

the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Question 3

The Kansas-Nebraska Act upheld all of the following except

A) popular sovereignty.
B) the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
C) slavery.
D) the development of new territories.
E) the establishment of new states.

Answer 3

the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

Question 4

Congress found itself debating slavery once again in 1854,this time as it tried to settle the issue of

A) where to build a transcontinental railroad.
B) what to do about runaway slaves.
C) whether Maine could become a state.
D) whether to allow popular sovereignty in Kansas.
E) whether to outlaw the freeing of slaves by their masters.

Question 5

Many northerners believed that if slavery were allowed in Texas and other areas in the West,most new land

A) would become small farms worked by slaves.
B) would be bought by those without decent values.
C) would be bought by wealthy plantation owners, making it impossible for small farmers to find good land on which to settle.
D) would be given to the railroad magnates to encourage them to build rail lines into the West.
E) would be fought over by pro-slavery and anti-slavery individuals.

Question 6

The author of the Compromise of 1850 was

A) Daniel Webster.
B) John C. Calhoun.
C) Henry Clay.
D) Zachary Taylor.
E) Millard Fillmore.

Question 7

Personal Liberty Laws were designed to

A) allow slave owners to free their slaves in their wills.
B) protect northern slaves who hired themselves out in the cities and worked independently.
C) protect escaped slaves who made it into the North.
D) protect free blacks in the North.
E) end slave auctions in the nation's capital.

Question 8

Under popular sovereignty,who would decide whether a territory accepted slavery?

A) The Territorial Legislature
B) The Congress
C) The Territorial Governor
D) The majority vote of settlers in that territory
E) The Supreme Court

Question 9

In the presidential election of 1848,which of the following did not occur?

A) Disaffected Democrats established the Free Soil Party.
B) Former president Martin Van Buren led the Free Soil Party.
C) Slave owner Zachary Taylor won under the Whig banner.
D) Northern Whigs disliked Zachary Taylor and joined the Free Soil Party.
E) Southern Democrats called for "free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men."

Question 10

The Know-Nothing Party was strong in all of the following places except

A) Pennsylvania.
B) Ohio.
C) New York.
D) Texas.
E) Massachusetts.

Question 11

The Free Soil Party

A) was understood as the proper heir to the Federalist Party.
B) argued that southern slave owners were blocking northern progress.
C) was the first party in national politics committed to the abolition of slavery.
D) embraced women's right to vote.
E) opposed westward migration to avoid conflict with Native American tribes.

Question 12

When California applied for statehood,the major question was:

A) Did California still have large gold reserves?
B) Would California disrupt the economic equilibrium of the country?
C) Would California enter the Union as a slave state or a free state?
D) Was the country's transportation system prepared to deal with the needs of a state that far from the others?
E) Where could they find another potential state to balance out whatever California decided about slavery?

Question 13

Fort Sumter is significant because

A) The U.S. attempted to force the South back into the Union.
B) Its surrender to the Confederacy led to war between the North and South.
C) Rebel states fell to the Union forces.
D) Nearly one hundred Union soldiers were killed by the Confederate Army in the first battle of the Civil War.
E) None of these choices.

Question 14

As the Senate debated the Compromise of 1850,which of the following did not take place?

A) John C. Calhoun wrote his last speech in support of slavery.
B) The Senate heard arguments from the three great orators of the day-John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay-together for the last time.
C) President Taylor attended the proceedings, ready to defend the compromise.
D) The debates lasted several months.
E) The first truly sincere discussions on possible secession took place.

Question 15

What was Lincoln's position on secession?

A) He was eager to fight to save the Union.
B) He did not believe that any state had the right to leave the Union.
C) He believed the southern states did not follow the proper procedures for leaving the Union.
D) He wanted the seceding states to return Union funds and property.
E) He considered secession illegal and the seceding states' leaders to be traitors to the Union.

Question 16

Many white northern Democrats who opposed slavery

A) hoped that when the slaves were freed they would come North for industrial work, where they would finally find acceptance.
B) agreed to disagree with southern Democrats on the slavery issue, for the sake of party unity.
C) believed, as southern whites did, in the legitimacy of white supremacy.
D) thought slavery in the western territories would be acceptable, so long as the practice did not spread northward.
E) did not understand how southern whites could stand to spend so much time around blacks.

Question 17

During the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858,Abraham Lincoln articulated his position on slavery,which was that

A) he did not seek to end slavery in the South, but did not want it extended to the West.
B) slavery was an evil institution and he wanted to see it come to a swift end.
C) slavery had no place in the North, but was vital to the agricultural development of the South and West.
D) the Fugitive Slave Law should be repealed since it infringed on northern states' rights.
E) he favored popular sovereignty in matters regarding slavery.

Question 18

The Know-Nothing Party wanted tougher laws on dealing with

A) fugitive slaves.
B) immigration.
C) popular sovereignty.
D) Native Americans.
E) slavery in general.

Question 19

The main goal of the new Republican Party was

A) ending slavery.
B) preventing slavery from expanding further into the West.
C) getting Abraham Lincoln elected president.
D) a protective tariff.
E) ensuring that the election in Kansas was fair.

Question 20

Which of these was not a part of the Compromise of 1850?

A) California would join the Union as a free state.
B) Slave auctions would be banned in the nation's capital.
C) Congress passed a tougher Fugitive Slave Law.
D) Texas would get $10 million but would have to stop trying to sway New Mexico toward adopting slavery.
E) New Mexico and Utah could have slaves as long as they remained territories, but when they became states, slavery would end.

Question 21

After the first seven southern states seceded from the U.S.,the new Confederate States of America elected this man president of the new southern slave republic:

A) Robert E. Lee
B) Jefferson Davis
C) Stonewall Jackson
D) P.G.T. Beauregard
E) John C. Calhoun, Jr.

Question 22

All of the following were part of the Republican party platform in the 1856 presidential election except

A) Deeming slavery a relic of barbarism.
B) Giving free black men the opportunity to establish homesteads in the West.
C) Admitting Kansas to the Union as a free state.
D) Expanding the Market Revolution.
E) Promoting free labor.

Question 23

Describe the events in the Kansas Territory that led to Kansas receiving the label "Bleeding Kansas."

Question 24

The original name of the Know-Nothing Party was the Federal Party.

Question 25

After several southern states seceded from the Union,the Crittenden Compromise attempted to bring them back by

A) offering to resurrect the Missouri Compromise of 1820's boundaries regarding slavery.
B) reinstating the sale of slaves in the District of Columbia.
C) allowing slave owners to establish slavery in the West.
D) promising to reimburse plantation owners for the cost of each slave that they freed.
E) agreeing to put the major hub of the transcontinental railroad in the South.

Question 26

In the Dred Scott decision,the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger Taney asserted that

A) by virtue of having been moved temporarily to a free state, Dred Scott had become a free man.
B) the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional; Congress had no right to prohibit slavery anywhere in the United States.
C) since whites considered blacks property, they could never be found guilty of murdering a slave.
D) Dred Scott was guilty of running away from his mistress.
E) Dred Scott had never set up residence personally in either Illinois or Wisconsin, so he was not free.

Question 27

What argument in Congress led to the Compromise of 1850? What were its main provisions?

Question 28

John Brown carried out a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry,Virginia in order to

A) show his resistance to slavery.
B) show his solidarity with local slaves.
C) spark a slave revolt among the local slaves.
D) avenge the deaths of several anti-slavery people in Lawrence, Kansas.
E) seize ammunition held at the federal arsenal there so that he could return to Kansas and lead a slave revolt.

Question 29

As the settlers of Kansas prepared to hold an election to set up their territorial government,

A) abolitionists entered the territory to hold protests against slavery.
B) Missouri moved slave-holding families into Kansas so they could vote for slavery.
C) the people of Kansas became so disgusted with the outsiders that they threw everyone out.
D) the territory experienced a pre-election bloodbath as the two sides raged against each other.
E) it appeared that most legal residents of the territory were pro-slavery.

Question 30

What were the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854?

Question 31

How and when was the Know-Nothing Party established? For what purpose?

Question 32

The Free Soil Party slogan was "Free soil,free speech,free labor,and free men."

Question 33

Which three national events in the 1850s catapulted the nation into the Civil War? Do you think the war could have been prevented otherwise? Explain.

Question 34

Senator David Wilmot proposed that slavery be kept out of the new territories the country might acquire so that small farmers would have the chance to get in on the opportunities there.

Question 35

"The Crime Against Kansas" speech was delivered by ____ in the ____.

A) David Wilmot; House Chamber
B) John C. Calhoun; Senate Chamber
C) Charles Sumner; Senate Chamber
D) Andrew P. Butler; House Chamber
E) Thaddeus Stevens; House Chamber

Question 36

John Brown led the massacre at Pottawatomie Creek,Kansas,in order to avenge

A) the victory of Free-Soilers in the election.
B) the fact that anti-slavery individuals had been killed in several different places throughout the territory.
C) the burning down of the Free Soil town Lawrence, Kansas, by pro-slavery advocates.
D) what God told him was a great sin against the black population.
E) the deaths of his son and son-in-law in the Lawrence raid.

Question 37

Discuss the impact of the Wilmot Proviso.How did it contribute to the escalation of the sectional conflict over the issue of slavery?

Question 38

Abraham Lincoln won the presidency in 1860

A) with a landslide victory in the electoral college.
B) with a plurality in the popular vote.
C) by carrying two southern states along with all northern states.
D) without carrying a single southern state.
E) at the same time that the Republicans gained control of Congress.

Question 39

The Lecompton Constitution written by Kansas representatives was controversial because it

A) ignored the question of slavery and left it to popular sovereignty.
B) allowed slavery in the territory and refused to let citizens accept or reject the constitution.
C) forbade slavery in the territory.
D) required that a two-thirds majority of the citizens vote to approve it before it could be adopted.
E) said the people needed to hold another election to decide about slavery.

Question 40

Discuss the reasons for the death of the second two-party system and consider the tensions in both the Whig and the Democratic parties.

Question 41

After John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry,Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed him a "saint."

Question 42

According to Republican political rhetoric,the "Slave Power" conspiracy intended to outlaw free speech and make all Americans accept proslavery principles.

Question 43

Dred Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that once his master moved him to a free state,he was,from that point on,a free man.

Question 44

The Crittenden Compromise would have added an "unamendable amendment" to the U.S.Constitution,one that would guarantee the preservation of slavery where it already existed.

Question 45

In the 1860 election,Lincoln polled a majority of the popular vote and handily beat the other three candidates in the race.

Question 46

In his inaugural address in March of 1861,Abraham Lincoln assured southern states that he would not interfere with slavery in the states where it already existed.

Question 47

The first state to secede from the Union was South Carolina,which took the fateful step just before Christmas in 1860.