Chapter 13 questions

What was "Slave Power," and why did many northerners feel threatened by it?

"Slave Power" was what Republicans called the South's proslavery political leadership system. Republicans claimed that slavery prohibited social mobility, leaving poor whites poor, aristocrats idle at the top, and slaves laboring. Northerners feared losing factory and labor jobs to slaves if slavery were to spread North and West.

Explain the justifications for the doctrine of manifest destiny including material and idealistic motivations.

Americans justified manifest destiny with their belief in racial and gender superiority demonstrated through history, which fuelled Americans' motivations to continue to conquer and spread influence.

How did the market revolution contribute to the rise of the Republican Party? How did those economic and political factors serve to unite groups in the Northeast and the Northwest, and why was that unity significant?

Because of the market revolution, areas of industrialization along the East coast and the Great Lakes were connected through railroads that united the major areas of rapid political and social change. Republicans glorified the North as the home of progress, opportunity, and freedom, which rested in the hearts of immigrants, free blacks, and lower class industrial workers or farmers.

Why did many Americans criticize the Mexican War? How did they see expansion as a threat to American liberties?

Critics of the Mexican War and American expansion feared that those who supported the expansion only wanted to expand slavery. Others believed the U.S. was becoming more like an over-powering European monarchy, rather than a democratic republic. Abraham Lincoln, a major critic of the war, believed that the President was beginning to have the power to "make war at pleasure."

Why did Stephen Douglas, among others, believe that "popular sovereignty" could resolve sectional divisions of the 1850s? Why did the idea not work out?

Douglas believed popular sovereignty allowed people to choose for themselves if slavery would be legal in their state, and that if a state didn't want slavery at all they could create laws that prohibited or restricted the institution. This didn't work because most people either didn't care about slavery, or really wanted slavery, so only proslavery people would come out to vote, often visiting from other states and skewing the results of what the actual state's population wanted.

Based on the Lincoln-Douglas debates, how did the two differ on the expansion of slavery, equal rights, and the role of the national government? (pp 498-499 for reference)

Douglas believed that people should choose for themselves on the issue of the expansion of slavery through popular sovereignty which "guarantees to each state and territory the right to do as it pleases on all things local and domestic instead of Congress interfering." Lincoln was opposed to the expansion of slavery and believed that the idea of popular sovereignty would only lead to the eventual spread of slavery throughout the country even though the founding fathers had put slavery on the path to "ultimate extinction." Both candidates did not believe in equal racial rights with Lincoln even saying "I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position," though Lincoln did not use racist rhetoric to gain votes and believed that blacks deserved the unalienable human rights put forth in the Declaration of Independence. Douglas supported self-government and states' rights, letting the people decide on slavery and how to protect or prevent it and believed that Congress could not impose moral standards on society. Lincoln supported federal law that restricted slavery because the new territories were to be an outlet for the growing population and wished for better conditions for everyone.

How did the concept of "race" develop by the mid-nineteenth century and how did it enter into the manifest destiny debates?

Some people believed that the successful expansion achieved in the past was evidence of "Anglo-Saxon race" superiority. Race in the mid-nineteenth century involved color, culture, origin, class, and religion. Some people feared expansion and total annexation because they did not believe the United States could assimilate so many non-white and Catholic people who were supposedly unfit for citizenship.

Explain how sectional voting patterns in the 1860 presidential election allowed southern "fire-eaters" to justify secession.

Southerners believed that Lincoln's win solely in the North would lead to a Republican era of power that was anti-slavery. Southerners believed their entire way of life was at stake and subject to Northern control, similar to how Great Britain had controlled the colonies as if they were one in the same.

What do the California gold rush and the opening of Japan reveal about the United States involvement in a global economic system?

The Japanese had been concerned about European power and influence and as a result closed the country to foreigners. The American's success in opening the country to trade showed American power and also allowed Americans to establish full diplomatic relations that gave the Americans an advantage in Pacific and Asian trading. The gold rush in California not only opened up a new land of opportunity for Americans, but also for many immigrants who came also searching for gold. Combined with gold mined in Australia, these two regions produced 80% of the gold across the globe.

How did western expansion affect the sectional tensions between North and South?

The question of whether newly acquired land should be free or not split parties and deepened the sectional divide because neither party could come to a consensus on the position of slavery.