Chapter 13: A House Divided, 1840-1861

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."

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 (1.). Scott sued for his freedom, claiming that residence on (2.) made him free. But the Supreme Court ruled that (3.) could be citizens of the United States and, as a result, the Dred Scott decision declared the entire Republican platform (4.) for (5.) slavery's expansion into the western United States.

(1.) illegal (2.) free soil (3.) only whites (4.) unconstitutional (5.) restricting

As the Union unraveled, most political leaders sought for possible solutions to resolve the crisis. Among them, Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky offered a widely supported compromise plan. Identify the elements of Crittenden's plan to save the Union.

- It guaranteed slavery in states where it already existed. - It would extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, dividing territory "now held, or hereafter acquired" between slavery and free soil states.

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.

Slavery had a disruptive impact on the traditional political parties and immediately caused political transformation in the mid-1850s. Identify the 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

The Texas Revolt of 1835 was a chaotic affair that eventually led to the independent Republic of Texas in 1836. Identify the main battles and protagonists in relation to the Texas Revolt.

Battle of the Alamo: - Mexican victory over the forces of Texas Battle of San Jacinto: - Texan victory over Santa Anna General Antonio López de Santa Anna: - president and general of the Mexican Republic Sam Houston: - first president and general of the Republic of Texas

The first part of Mexico to be settled by large numbers of Americans was Tijuana.

False

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.

Flase

What does the map reveal about 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.

Senator Stephen Douglas hoped to apply the principle of popular sovereignty to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Identify what "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.

The Know-Nothing Party seemed to be one of contradictions: they wanted to limit the rights of immigrants, while promoting an (1.) 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 (2.), it was mainly because these groups didn't support the same ideals for which they stood, including abolition and (3.). Ultimately, the Know-Nothings actually accomplished very little in limiting the rights of immigrants. All European immigrants benefited from being (4.). These groups had the advantage of being able to (5.), while free blacks could not.

(1.) antislavery (2.) Catholics (3.) temperance (4.) white (5.) vote

Texas annexation was not at the forefront of American politics until President John Tyler used it as a rallying cry for his bid for reelection in 1844. Identify the 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.

Identify the statements that describe westward migration and the factors that contributed to the movement in the 1840s.

- A severe economic depression in 1837 sparked a large migration westward in search of opportunity. - It is estimated that by 1860 nearly 300,000 men, women, and children had emigrated to Oregon and California.

John Brown raided the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in the hopes of starting a slave revolt. Brown became a public figure and conducted himself with great courage and dignity, winning admiration even from those who opposed his violent deeds. Which of the following statements about John Brown are true?

- During the Kansas civil war, Brown murdered five proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek in revenge for the attack on free soil. - 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.

In June of 1858, Abraham Lincoln accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination to run against Senator Stephen Douglas. The Senate race turned the unknown Lincoln into a national political figure as he challenged, arguably, the most powerful senator in the United States. Which of the following statements describe Lincoln and his platform?

- Lincoln hated slavery but was not an abolitionist. - While Lincoln did not think blacks were the equal of white men, he believed they deserved to enjoy the fruits of their labor. - 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.

Identify the statements that describe the U.S. railroad system in the 1850s.

- Most of the new construction in the 1850s occurred in Ohio, Illinois, and other states in the Old Northwest Territory. - By 1860, 60 million bushels of western wheat passed through Buffalo, New York, on the railroad on its way to eastern and world markets. - Between 1848 and 1860, railroad workers added more than 25,000 miles of new tracks.

Identify the statements that describe the population at the time of Mexican independence from Spain in 1821.

- New Mexico consisted of 30,000 persons of Spanish origin, 10,000 Pueblo Indians, and an indeterminate number of nomadic Indians. - In California, there were around 20,000 Indians living and working on land owned by religious missions.

The Republican Party of the 1850s stood for "free labor" and "free soil." Which of the following statements 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.

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?

- 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. - Slavery spawned a social order only consisting of degraded slaves, poor whites with no hope of advancement, and idle aristocrats. - "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.

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.

Which of the following 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

Identify the statements that describe the results of the election of 1860.

- Stephen Douglas, running as a northern Democrat, won the second-largest share of the popular vote. - Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge carried most of the South with 18 percent 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.

The Free Soil Party wanted to stop the expansion of slavery into the West. Identify the reasons people supported the Free Soil Party platform.

- 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. - 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 Compromise of 1850 removed the slavery question from congressional debate. Yet, the new Fugitive Slave Act made further controversy inevitable. Which of the following 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.

What does this map reveal about the 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.

In 1846, Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed a resolution that came to be known as the Wilmot Proviso. Identify the statements that describe the Wilmot Proviso.

- The failure of the Wilmot Proviso led to the creation of the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery. - It proposed that slavery be prohibited in the territories acquired from Mexico.

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.

The Free Soil Party opposed the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired territories from Mexico. Previous attempts had been made to limit slavery. Which of these efforts provided the Free Soil Party with a strong basis to argue for congressional action?

- the Missouri Compromise - the Northwest Ordinance

The Mexican-American War was the first war fought by the United States entirely on foreign soil, leading to the occupation of a foreign capital. The war was seen by its detractors as a war of aggression. Identify why the following American public figures opposed the Mexican War.

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." 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."

Read this excerpt from the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Lincoln: Douglas says, "Why can't this Union endure permanently, half slave and half free? Why can't we let it stand as our fathers placed it?" . . . . Judge Douglas assumes that we have no interest in them—that we have no right to interfere. . . . Do we not wish for an outlet for our surplus population, if I may so express myself clear? Do we not feel an interest in getting to that outlet with such institutions as we would like to have prevail there? Now irrespective of the moral aspect of this question as to whether there is a right or wrong in enslaving a negro, I am still in favor of our new territories being in such a condition that white men may find a home. I am in favor of this not merely for our own people, but as an outlet for free white people everywhere, the world over—in which Hans and Baptiste and Patrick, and all other men from all the world, may find new homes and better their conditions in life. 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.

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

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

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

Identify the arguments made by these American political figures during the Great Debate that led to the Compromise of 1850.

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 Daniel Webster: - wanted to abandon the Wilmot Proviso if it meant sectional peace John C. Calhoun: - rejected any idea of compromise on slavery

How were the outcomes of the gold rushes in California and Australia similar?

outcome of the gold rush: - The diverse populations of gold rush towns resulted in racial tensions. - They led to the massive influx of people from all over the world to Australia and California. 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.

Match the terms relating to the territorial expansion of the United States in the 1840s to their correct definitions.

the Gadsden Purchase: - parcel of land purchased from Mexico in 1853 Sam Houston: - president and military leader of the Republic of Texas Commodore Matthew Perry: - opened Japan to American trade Gold Rush: - caused a massive influx of settlers to California