Deck 19: Drifting Toward Disunion,1854-1861

Question 1

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Abraham Lincoln

Answer 1

Answers will vary.

Question 2

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
James Buchanan

Answer 2

Answers will vary.

Question 3

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
border ruffians

Answer 3

Answers will vary.

Question 4

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Charles Sumner

Question 5

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Stephen A.Douglas

Question 6

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Roger B.Taney

Question 7

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Preston S.Brooks

Question 8

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Hinton R.Helper

Question 9

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
John C.Breckinridge

Question 10

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Jefferson Davis

Question 11

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
John J.Crittenden

Question 12

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
"fire-eaters"

Question 13

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
John Brown

Question 14

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Lawrence,Kansas

Question 15

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
John C.Frémont

Question 16

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
William H.Seward

Question 17

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Dred Scott

Question 18

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
"Tom shows"

Question 19

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
John Bell

Question 20

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Harriet Beecher Stowe

Question 21

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Lincoln-Douglas debates

Question 22

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Dred Scott v.Sandford

Question 23

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Bleeding Kansas

Question 24

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
The Impending Crisis of the South

Question 25

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
free homesteads

Question 26

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Freeport Doctrine

Question 27

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
panic of 1857

Question 28

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
New England Emigrant Aid Company

Question 29

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Pottawatomie Creek massacre

Question 30

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Freeport question

Question 31

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Crittenden amendments

Question 32

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
"the despotic majority of numbers"

Question 33

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Confederate States of America

Question 34

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Lecompton Constitution

Question 35

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
American (Know-Nothing)Party

Question 36

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Uncle Tom's Cabin

Question 37

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Constitutional Union party

Question 38

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Tariff of 1857

Question 39

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
"Americans Must Rule America"

Question 40

Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Harpers Ferry

Question 41

Nativists in the 1850s were known for their

A) support of Native Americans (Indians).
B) support of slavery.
C) strong patriotism.
D) anti-Catholic and anti-foreign attitudes.
E) opposition to alcohol and Sabbath-breaking.

Question 42

The decision in Dred Scott v.Sandford was applauded by

A) the Buchanan administration.
B) Republicans.
C) popular-sovereignty proponents.
D) proslavery southerners.
E) conservative unionists.

Question 43

Hinton R.Helper's book The Impending Crisis of the South argued that those who suffered most from slavery were

A) African Americans.
B) southern planters.
C) free blacks.
D) southern merchants and businesspeople.
E) nonslaveholding southern whites.

Question 44

President James Buchanan's support for Kansas's Lecompton Constitution

A) hopelessly divided the Democratic party.
B) admitted Kansas to the Union as a free state.
C) admitted Kansas to the Union as a slave state.
D) convinced Stephen Douglas to challenge Buchanan for the 1860 presidential nomination.
E) turned the focus of controversy to Nebraska.

Question 45

In 1855,"border ruffians" poured into Kansas to

A) demand a southern route for the proposed transcontinental railroad.
B) help slaves escape to free-soil states.
C) harass Irish and German immigrants who were attempting to vote in territorial elections.
D) ensure a proslavery victory in elections for a territorial legislature.
E) join forces with John Brown after the Pottawatomie Creek massacre.

Question 46

The roots of Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery sentiments lay in

A) the evangelical religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening.
B) the rationalist theories of the Enlightenment.
C) the economic theories of Robert Owen and Karl Marx.
D) the ideas of the Free Soil party.
E) the feminist ideals of the Seneca Falls Convention.

Question 47

The Lecompton Constitution was written so that Kansas

A) could enter the Union as either a slave state or a free state.
B) would hold a popular referendum on slavery after admission to the Union.
C) would permit temporary residents like the abolitionists and "border ruffians" to vote.
D) would allow slavery but prohibit the slave trade.
E) could only apply for statehood by permitting slavery.

Question 48

Preston S.Brooks´s attack on Charles Sumner revealed

A) the impending breakup of the Democratic party.
B) the limitations of the rules of Congress.
C) the impossibility of solving the Kansas crisis.
D) the fact that passions over slavery were becoming dangerously inflamed in both North and South.
E) the split between the House of Representatives and the Senate over slavery.

Question 49

In May 1856, _____ provoked the massacre at Pottawatomie Creek.

A) proslavery riots in Topeka
B) the burning of Lawrence by a gang of proslavery raiders
C) the influx of a large number of slaves
D) the sale of "Beecher's Bibles" to antislavery settlers
E) Congressman Preston Brooks's assault on Senator Charles Sumner

Question 50

Southerners felt betrayed after the Kansas-Nebraska Act because

A) the new Lecompton Constitution of 1857 called for universal manumission in Kansas.
B) northern settlers were threatening to make both Kansas and Nebraska into free-soil states.
C) northern settlers were stealing slaves from southern settlers in Kansas.
D) northern "border ruffians" engaged in widespread voter fraud and set up a puppet government at Shawnee Mission.
E) northerners toting "Beecher´s bibles" destroyed the slaveholding stronghold of Lawrence in 1856.

Question 51

Along with the violence in Kansas,what other event inflamed sectional passions in May of 1856?

A) An attempt to assassinate Senator Charles Sumner by a slaver trader
B) A gathering of southern leaders in New Orleans to consider secession
C) The caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner by South Carolina Congressman Preston S. Brooks
D) Abraham Lincoln´s "House Divided" speech
E) A fist fight on the floor of the Senate between Stephen A. Douglas and Jefferson Davis

Question 52

Republicans proclaimed that they were not bound by the Dred Scott ruling because

A) Scott lacked standing to sue, as the Court determined, making the rest of the ruling null and void.
B) Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was no longer of sound mind.
C) the majority of the Supreme Court justices were southerners.
D) the Missouri Compromise had already been invalidated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
E) popular sovereignty had proven its worth in Kansas.

Question 53

Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin

A) dramatized the wickedness of slavery.
B) was prompted by passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
C) drew on her extensive personal experience with slavery.
D) was frequently compared to Dostoyevski's The Brothers Karamazov.
E) portrayed blacks as militant resisters to slavery.

Question 54

As a result of reading Uncle Tom's Cabin,many northerners

A) felt more sympathy for the plight of poor whites.
B) vowed to halt British and French efforts to help the Confederacy.
C) gained a more realistic picture of the South and slavery.
D) swore that they would have nothing to do with the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law.
E) sent guns to antislavery settlers in Kansas ("Beecher's Bibles").

Question 55

Uncle Tom's Cabin may be described as

A) a success in Europe, but not in the United States.
B) the most artistically accomplished novel ever written by an American.
C) the first successful novel published in America by a woman.
D) social realism at its finest.
E) the most important novel in American history in terms of its political impact.

Question 56

Whose slogan in the 1856 election was "Americans must rule America"?

A) The Colonization party
B) The Democratic party
C) The fire-eaters
D) The Republican party
E) The Know-Nothing (American) party

Question 57

Match each figure below with his role in the 1856 presidential campaign.

A) A-2, B-3, C-1, D-4
B) A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3
C) A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1
D) A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2
E) A-1, B-3, C-2, D-4

Question 58

Which two men were top leaders of the two major parties in the election year of 1856,but were passed over as presidential candidates because of their strong stands on the slavery issue?

A) Jefferson Davis and John C. Frémont
B) John Bell and John C. Breckinridge
C) Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln
D) James Buchanan and Millard Fillmore
E) Stephen A. Douglas and William H. Seward

Question 59

In ruling on the Dred Scott case,the United States Supreme Court

A) freed Dred Scott but upheld the Missouri Compromise.
B) denied Scott's appeal but held that slaves could not be taken into free territories.
C) essentially upheld the doctrine of popular sovereignty.
D) tried to settle the immediate issue on technical legal grounds.
E) argued that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the federal territories.

Question 60

In the presidential election of 1856,the Republicans

A) revealed astonishing strength for a brand-new party.
B) lost behind their most popular leader, Senator William Seward.
C) made their debut as the most successful third party in American history.
D) proved unable to present a clear platform on slavery expansion.
E) finished third behind the Democrats and the Know-Nothings.

Question 61

As a result of the Lincoln-Douglas debates,

A) Lincoln was elected to the Senate.
B) Lincoln became the favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination.
C) Douglas increased his chances of winning the presidency.
D) Illinois rejected the concept of popular sovereignty.
E) Douglas defeated Lincoln for the Senate.

Question 62

For a majority of northerners,the most outrageous part of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Dred Scott case was

A) that as a slave, Scott had no civil right to sue in federal court.
B) that Scott did not automatically become free when his owner took him through free states and territories.
C) that Congress had never had the power to prohibit slavery in any territory.
D) that Kansas and Nebraska would almost certainly become slave states.
E) that the Supreme Court was asserting its superiority to Congress and the president.

Question 63

As a result of the panic of 1857,the South

A) became more economically dependent on the North.
B) became hostile to Wall Street and the stock market.
C) believed that it was economically superior to the North.
D) began planning for an independent southern nation.
E) saw the need to develop manufacturing.

Question 64

In his raid on Harpers Ferry,John Brown intended to

A) call upon the slaves to rebel and establish a kind of black free state.
B) arouse the South to secede from the Union.
C) stir West Virginia to break away from Virginia as a free state.
D) demonstrate that blacks could fight for their freedom.
E) seize weapons to start a guerilla war against the federal government.

Question 65

The panic of 1857 was most significant in its

A) severity as the worst economic downturn of the century.
B) duration as the longest economic downturn of the 1800s.
C) sectional character and psychological impact, pushing the North and South further apart.
D) devastation in the plantation strongholds of the South.
E) promotion of national unity in the face of hardship.

Question 66

Which party in the election of 1860 defined its platform as "the Union,the Constitution,and the enforcement of the law"?

A) The Democratic party
B) The Republican party
C) The Constitutional Union party
D) The Know-Nothing (American) party
E) The Conscience Whig party

Question 67

The Democratic convention of 1860 in Charleston,South Carolina,was unusual in

A) choosing a presidential candidate with virtually no debate.
B) successfully avoiding slavery and any sectional strife.
C) not producing a presidential nominee.
D) the refusal of northerners to attend.
E) adopting a sectional pro-slavery platform.

Question 68

In declaring their independence,the Confederate States relied heavily on the example of

A) the nullification crisis in South Carolina.
B) the principles of self-determination in the Declaration of Independence.
C) the Texas declaration of independence from Mexico.
D) the French Revolution.
E) the Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church.

Question 69

After John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry,the South concluded that

A) there was imminent danger of a massive slave uprising.
B) the U.S. army could not protect slavery.
C) Brown should be put in an insane asylum.
D) all abolitionists should be criminally prosecuted as conspirators.
E) the North was dominated by "Brown-loving" Republicans.

Question 70

President James Buchanan´s inaction on southern secession was partly out of practical concerns,including

A) fear of southern military prowess.
B) the prospect that European powers would become involved.
C) the fact that America´s small standing army was scattered in the West, fighting Indians.
D) worry over his chances in the upcoming election.
E) the reality that the navy was already stretched thin in the Pacific defending American trade interests.

Question 71

"Lame-duck" President James Buchanan believed that

A) southern states had a legal right to secede from the Union.
B) his duty was to protect federal installations from assault.
C) firm political and economic pressure would bring an end to secession.
D) secession was just a political tactic to enhance southern power in Congress.
E) the Constitution did not authorize him to force southern states to stay in the Union.

Question 72

Who summed up Southern secessionist sentiment by declaring,"All we ask is to be let alone"?

A) Preston S. Brooks
B) John C. Breckinridge
C) John C. Calhoun
D) Robert E. Lee
E) Jefferson Davis

Question 73

Match each presidential candidate in the 1860 election below with his party's position on the slavery question.

A) A-3, B-2, C-1, D-4
B) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
C) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1
D) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3
E) A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2

Question 74

In the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858,Lincoln famously asked Douglas during the debate in Freeport whether

A) the state of Illinois was obliged to comply with the Fugitive Slave Law.
B) the Dred Scott ruling left it up to the people of a territory or the Court to decide the slavery issue.
C) he had ever owned, or desired to own, slaves.
D) slavery had a right to exist in the South.
E) the Dred Scott ruling deprived free blacks of all legal rights.

Question 75

Stephen A.Douglas argued in his Freeport Doctrine during the Lincoln-Douglas debates that

A) the Dred Scott decision was unconstitutional.
B) action by territorial legislatures could keep slavery out of the territories despite the Dred Scott decision.
C) the Supreme Court justices should be impeached.
D) slavery could not survive in the corn- and wheat-growing West.
E) the territories should immediately be brought into the Union as slave or free states.

Question 76

The results of the election of 1860 in the southern states

A) made clear that secession would soon sweep the South.
B) did not indicate strong secessionist sentiment.
C) showed a surprising apathy in poor voter turnout.
D) gave almost no support to the Democrats.
E) showed a small but surprising amount of votes for Lincoln as a write-in candidate.

Question 77

Abraham Lincoln firmly opposed the Crittenden Compromise because

A) it was really a return to Stephen Douglas's discredited popular sovereignty doctrine.
B) it permitted slavery in New Mexico territory.
C) it would restore an equal balance of slave and free states in the Senate.
D) it would make it impossible ever to end slavery in the South.
E) it could allow slavery to expand southward into Latin America.

Question 78

Abraham Lincoln´s political career could best be described as

A) a steady rise through the party ranks to power.
B) greatly aided by the political influence of his wife, Mary Todd.
C) fueled by his personal charisma more than his political beliefs.
D) undistinguished until his meteoric rise after 1854.
E) inspired by his elite upbringing.

Question 79

In the North,the panic of 1857 created calls for

A) an end to the gold standard and dependence on British investment.
B) the prohibition of slavery in the territories.
C) price supports for farmers.
D) federal regulation of land and stock speculation.
E) free homesteads and higher tariffs.

Question 80

When Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election,the people of South Carolina

A) declared that they would secede if other southern states joined them.
B) were upset and angry because their political power in the Union was gone.
C) looked to Senator James Crittenden as the last hope for compromise.
D) rejoiced because they now had a clear excuse to secede.
E) demanded new constitutional amendments to guarantee slavery.