American History Chap 13
not an outcome of the gold rush
Immigrant populations were able to improve their social standing because of the wealth acquired quickly during these gold rushes.
describe the population at the time of Mexican independence from Spain in 182
In California, there were around 20,000 Indians living and working on land owned by religious missions. New Mexico consisted of 30,000 persons of Spanish origin, 10,000 Pueblo Indians, and an indeterminate number of nomadic Indians.
describe westward migration and the factors that contributed to the movement in the 1840s
It is estimated that by 1860 nearly 300,000 men, women, and children had emigrated to Oregon and California. A severe economic depression in 1837 sparked a large migration westward in search of opportunity.
statements that describe the Wilmot Proviso
It proposed that slavery be prohibited in the territories acquired from Mexico. The failure of the Wilmot Proviso led to the creation of the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery.
elements of Crittenden's plan to save the Union.
It would extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, dividing territory "now held, or hereafter acquired" between slavery and free soil states. It guaranteed slavery in states where it already existed.
Why does Lincoln believe the nation cannot exist forever half slave and half free?
Lincoln believed that the United States needed to serve as a model for the world to ensure that all men could find homes and improve their lives.
Why did Abraham Lincoln oppose Crittenden's plan to save the Union?
Lincoln feared that Crittenden's reference to land "hereafter acquired" offered the South a thinly veiled invitation to demand the acquisition of Cuba, Mexico, and other territory suited to slavery. Lincoln refused to compromise on the issue of the expansion of slavery.
Battle of the Alamo
Mexican victory over the forces of Texas
continual expansion through 1853
Northern Maine was acquired from Great Britain in 1842. The territory of Texas extended beyond the contemporary state boundaries into present-day New Mexico and Colorado when it was annexed in 1845. Florida was purchased in 1819. It became a territory of the United States in 1822 and a state by 1845.
reasons people supported the Free Soil Party platform.
Northerners saw moving West as a form of economic betterment, so if the Free Soil Party blocked slavery's expansion, ordinary Americans wouldn't have to compete with plantations to have access to the land. The Free Soil Party would create more free states, which would break southern domination of the federal government. The Free Soil platform appealed to racist thinking in the North as it did not include emancipation or equal rights.
popular sovereignty" means and how it was used in Douglas's reasoning.
Popular sovereignty is the principle that people should rule, and as such the status of slavery should be determined by the votes of local settlers and not Congress. Popular sovereignty was seen as a political middle ground on the issue of slavery.
describe the Republican stance on slavery and labor
Republicans acknowledged that it was difficult for some white northern laborers to improve their lives and promised to help create more opportunities for them. Republicans were not abolitionists; they focused on preventing the spread of slavery, not attacking it where it already existed.
The Dred Scott decision challenged the very heart of the Republican Party platform. What events occurred as a result of the Dred Scott decision?
Slavery, according to President Buchanan, henceforth existed in all the territories "by virtue of the Constitution." Dred Scott was bought by a new master and immediately emancipated along with his family.
events that took place between 1855 and 1856 helped fuel the rise of the Republican Party
Stephen Douglas's policy of "popular sovereignty" was discredited by "Bleeding Kansas." the brutal caning of Charles Sumner
results of the election of 1860
Stephen Douglas, running as a northern Democrat, won the second-largest share of the popular vote. The Constitutional Union Party, which was quickly organized prior to the election, managed to come in third in the electoral college vote. Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge carried most of the South with 18 percent of the popular vote.
Battle of San Jacinto
Texan victory over Santa Anna
How did the Confederate States of America's constitution differ from the Constitution of the United States of America?
The Confederate constitution explicitly guaranteed slave property in both the states and in any newly acquired territory.
provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act proved controversial
The Fugitive Slave Act now prohibited state and local governments from intervening on behalf of fugitive slaves within their jurisdictions. Fugitive slaves who were apprehended in the North were now subject to federal commissions that decided their fate outside the control of local and state laws.
describing the Know-Nothing Party's political stance on immigration
The Know-Nothing Party seemed to be one of contradictions: they wanted to limit the rights of immigrants, while promoting an antislavery agenda. Why would a political party argue for limiting the rights of one group, but expanding the rights of another? While they did rally against certain groups, like Catholics, it was mainly because these groups didn't support the same ideals for which they stood, including abolition and temperance. Ultimately, the Know-Nothings actually accomplished very little in limiting the rights of immigrants. All European immigrants benefited from being white. These groups had the advantage of being able to vote, while free blacks could not.
U.S. railroad network in the 1850s
The North had the highest concentration of railroad mileage in the United States. Four trunk lines linked eastern industrial centers with western farming and commercial centers.
passage describing the Dred Scott decision.
The Supreme Court ruling Dred Scott vs. Sandford held out hope of settling the slavery controversy once and for all. Scott had accompanied his owner to Illinois and Wisconsin where slavery was illegal. Scott sued for his freedom, claiming that residence on free soil made him free. But the Supreme Court ruled that only whites could be citizens of the United States and, as a result, the Dred Scott decision declared the entire Republican platform unconstitutional for restricting slavery's expansion into the western United States.
outcome of the gold rush
They led to the massive influx of people from all over the world to Australia and California. The diverse populations of gold rush towns resulted in racial tensions.
What arguments did southerners advocating secession from the Union put forth?
They were concerned that Republicans would extend their party into the South by appealing to non-slaveholders. They were concerned about a Republican-dominated government and what it would mean for the South.
Abraham Lincoln
This freshman congressman was disgusted by the behavior of the administration
Ulysses S. Grant
This leader served with distinction in the Mexican War but referred to the conflict as "one of the most unjust (wars) ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker nation."
Henry David Thoreau
This public figure was jailed for refusing to pay his taxes in protest of the war and later wrote an essay defending his actions entitled "On Civil Disobedience."
describe Lincoln and his platform
While Lincoln did not think blacks were the equal of white men, he believed they deserved to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Lincoln hated slavery but was not an abolitionist. Lincoln began running for public office at the age of twenty-one and served four terms as a Whig in the state legislature and one term in Congress.
William H. Seward
argued that a "higher law" than the Constitution—the law of morality—condemned slavery, and so southerners had no right to claim that abolition was a violation of their constitutional rights
Gold Rush
caused a massive influx of settlers to California
Before Lincoln assumed office on March 4, 1861, seven northern states had formed the Confederate States of America, adopted a constitution, and chosen a new president.
false
The first part of Mexico to be settled by large numbers of Americans was Tijuana.
false
Sam Houston
first president and general of the Republic of Texas
economic and social changes that led to the rise of the Republican Party.
industrial economy mass immigration from Europe completion of the market revolution and industrialization
Commodore Matthew Perry
opened Japan to American trade
the Gadsden Purchase
parcel of land purchased from Mexico in 1853
General Antonio López de Santa Anna
president and general of the Mexican Republic
Sam Houston
president and military leader of the Republic of Texas
John C. Calhoun
rejected any idea of compromise on slavery
efforts provided the Free Soil Party with a strong basis to argue for congressional action
the Missouri Compromise the Northwest Ordinance
When John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry failed and he was tried for treason, his last words before he was executed on December 2, 1859, were, "I . . . am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood." What did his quotation foreshadow?
the civil war
In 1836, Texas won its independence from Mexico. Texas joined the United States as a slave state in 1845.
true
In 1850, California applied to join the Union as a free state. This resulted in a crisis that led to the Compromise of 1850.
true
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was so controversial that in the North the Democratic Party split into two camps during the election of 1858 (pro-Douglas and pro-Buchanan) and ran two candidates against the Republican contender.
true
The Know-Nothing Party believed that only native-born Americans should hold office and the "aggression" of the Catholic Church needed to be halted.
true
Daniel Webster
wanted to abandon the Wilmot Proviso if it meant sectional peace
By 1856, the Republican Party was a coalition of antislavery Democrats, northern Whigs, Free Soilers, and Know-Nothings. The Republicans were a mixed group, but they all opposed the further expansion of slavery and quickly rose as the major alternative to the Democratic Party throughout the North. What was the Republican Party's platform and beliefs regarding slavery?
"Free labor" northern society offered opportunity to move up in life by allowing the laborer to move up to the status of landowner or craftsman. Slavery spawned a social order only consisting of degraded slaves, poor whites with no hope of advancement, and idle aristocrats. Republicans believed that "the Slave Power," the proslavery political leadership of the South, posed a greater danger to American liberty and aspirations than immigrants and Catholicism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson predicted what the future of the United States would look like if the country tried to take over part of Mexico. Which of the following quotes resonates with his ideas?
"It will be as the man who swallows arsenic . . . Mexico will poison us."
statements that describe the reactions of the nation to the annexation of Texas
A letter by Secretary of State John C. Calhoun to President Tyler was leaked to the press and linked the idea of absorbing Texas directly to the goal of strengthening slavery in the United States. Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren, the prospective presidential candidates from both the Whig and Democratic parties, met and agreed to reject the immediate annexation of Texas on the grounds it might lead to war with Mexico.
describe the U.S. railroad system in the 1850s.
Between 1848 and 1860, railroad workers added more than 25,000 miles of new tracks. By 1860, 60 million bushels of western wheat passed through Buffalo, New York, on the railroad on its way to eastern and world markets. Most of the new construction in the 1850s occurred in Ohio, Illinois, and other states in the Old Northwest Territory.
statements about John Brown
Brown's force that attacked Harper's Ferry on October 16, 1859, numbered only twenty-one men, five of whom were black. Brown was executed by the state of Virginia. During the Kansas civil war, Brown murdered five proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek in revenge for the attack on free soil.
