History 201 Chapter 14

How did the 1857 Dred Scott decision increase sectional tension?

It lent credence to the belief in the North that a slave power conspiracy existed.

Why did Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), influence northern attitudes toward slavery?

It put forth a stirring moral indictment of slavery.

Why did the slave states of the Upper South initially reject secession?

They did not have as great a stake in slavery as the states in the Lower South.

How did more moderate southern Democrats respond to the choice of John C. Breckenridge as presidential nominee in 1860?

They organized the Constitutional Union Party.

Which statement describes the fate of most fugitive enslaved people once they were captured after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was enacted?

They were returned to their masters.

Which senator argued that when it came to ending slavery, the law of God was higher than the Constitution?

William Seward

The American Party, or Know-Nothings, appeared in the mid-1850s as

a reaction to large numbers of Roman Catholics coming to the United States.

Per the Compromise of 1850, which state entered the union as a free state?

California

How did Stephen A. Douglas respond in 1857 when proslavery forces in Lecompton, Kansas, drafted a constitution that many felt was fraudulent?

Douglas came out against the proslavery constitution.

In 1854, Stephen A. Douglas sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act and included a section repealing the Missouri Compromise because

Douglas needed southern support to pass his legislation.

What did the Supreme Court rule in its 1857 Dred Scott decision?

Dred Scott was not a citizen of the United States.

Why did the Democrats remain a national organization after 1854?

Gains in the South offset losses in the North.

How did James Buchanan respond as the secession crisis loomed over the final weeks of his presidential administration?

He remained in Washington and did nothing.

What made Abraham Lincoln an attractive candidate for the Republican nomination?

He represented the crucial state of Illinois.

Why were southerners angry when Zachary Taylor was elected president in 1849?

He urged Congress to admit California and New Mexico to the Union as free states.

What happened to John Brown after his raid on Harper's Ferry?

He was executed.

How did the Mexican-American War affect American politics?

It divided the nation based on the issue of slavery in the territories.

Which statement describes the result of the meeting of the first territorial legislature in Kansas?

It enacted tough proslavery laws.

How did the increasingly confident Republican Party prepare for the election of 1860?

It expanded its platform to address issues beyond slavery.

What was the result of Preston Brooks's caning of Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner in 1856?

It further inflamed sectional passions over the institution of slavery.

In his first inaugural address in March 1861, Abraham Lincoln:

reassured the South that he had no right to interfere with slavery where it existed.

Women who joined the Republican Party focused on which two issues?

slavery and women's suffrage

The presidential election of 1856 revealed the

strength of the new Republican Party.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president because he had:

strong support in the more populous free states.

Southerners felt so much hostility toward the Republican Party during the presidential election of 1860 that

ten states refused to allow Lincoln's name to appear on the ballot.

What effect did the shift to "geographic" parties have on political debate in the United States?

The shift increased polarization.

Which southerner argued that he "consider[ed] slavery much more secure in the Union than out of it" immediately after Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in 1860?

Alexander Stephens

What was a requirement of the Fugitive Slave Act, part of the Compromise of 1850?

All citizens were expected to assist officials in apprehending runaway slaves.

Whom did the Republicans nominate as their presidential candidate in the election of 1856?

John C. Frémont

Which statement describes the historical significance of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates?

Lincoln became nationally known.

What did the Whigs do in an attempt to reunite their party during the presidential campaign of 1848?

Remain silent on the issue of slavery

Which statement describes Stephen A. Douglas's argument in what became known as the Freeport Doctrine?

Settlers could ban slavery by not passing the laws necessary to protect slave property

Which statement reflects Abraham Lincoln's personal beliefs about slavery in the 1850s?

Slavery was morally wrong.

What did the Wilmot Proviso of 1846 propose?

Slavery would be prohibited throughout the entire area ceded by Mexico.

The first state to secede from the Union following Abraham Lincoln's 1860 election as president was:

South Carolina.

How did American politics change in the aftermath of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act?

The Whig Party disintegrated.

Which issue in the debate of 1849-1850 led to the Compromise of 1850?

The balance of power between the North and the South in Congress

What did the federal government do to the Plains Indians who lived in what became Nebraska?

The federal government pushed them farther west.

How did a Nashville convention of southern businessmen shock the nation in 1860?

The meeting called for the reopening of the African slave trade.

What happened when Democrats met to choose a presidential candidate in Charleston, South Carolina?

The party divided into southern and northern factions.

During the debates, Stephen A. Douglas depicted Abraham Lincoln as

an abolitionist who loved blacks.

Early in the struggle to win Kansas, proslavery supporters:

invaded Kansas to control the election through fraud and intimidation.

Northern women supported the Republican Party by

marching in Republican parades.

Who supported the 1846 Wilmot Proviso?

northerners who wanted to reserve new lands for free labor

In the mid-1850s, Abraham Lincoln's search for a political home was based on his:

opposition to the extension of slavery in the United States.

Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan proposed the doctrine of popular sovereignty, a measure that would allow

people who settled the territories to decide whether or not they wanted slavery.

Which common thread wove together northern men to form the Republican Party in 1854?

the opposition to the extension of slavery into any territory of the United States.

Why did the United States negotiate the Gadsden Purchase in 1853?

to support the dream of a southern route for the transcontinental railroad.

In March 1861, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens declared that the Confederacy's "cornerstone" was "the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition." Stephen's words make it clear that the South seceded in 1860 and 1861 mainly to protect:

white supremacy.