APUSH Chapter 18 Celebration of Knowledge Rollinson

1. What were the advantages and disadvantages of popular sovereignty?

Popular sovereignty had many advantages; the public liked it because it accorded with self-determination, and politicians liked it because it seemed to be a comfortable compromise between an outright ban or allowance of slavery in the territories. Advocates, in turn, hoped to dissolve the national issue by making it a local issue. However, this line of thought had one main drawback; it might serve to spread the blight of slavery.

14. What were the effects of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

The Kansas-Nebraska Act had all of the following effects: it angered antislavery northerners who condemned the action as an act of bad faith by the "Nebrascals" and their "Nebrascality"; it wrecked the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, specifically repealing the former and indirectly repealing the latter via "northern opinion"; it shattered the proud democrats, who, after electing a president in 1856, would not elect another for 28 years. Lastly, and perhaps most notably, the Act would lead to the spontaneous uprising of the Republican Party in the Midwest; in response, the party wasn't allowed South of the Mason/Dixon line, ensuring that a sectional rift was to fork in the United States.

8. Explain the quote, "No single irritant of the 1850's was more consistently galling to both sides...."

The irritant spoken of was the Fugitive Slave Law. A bill, passed in 1850, the Law declared that fleeing slaves couldn't testify on their own behalf, and would be denied a jury trial. Also, it gave federal commissioners who oversaw these cases five dollars if a run away were freed, and ten dollars if not. Northerners reacted in a rage, collecting the support of many former moderates who were until then passive. The Underground Railroad was forced to step-up it's timetable, and Northern mobs rescued slaves from pursuers. These reactions, coupled with a loss of the passive middle for the South, are what made this law the most irritant to both sides in the 1850s.

13. Why were northerners so opposed to popular sovereignty?

The northerners were so opposed to the idea of popular sovereignty because it would've required the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; the free-soil northerners saw that pact as sacred as the Constitution itself. If the compromise were repealed, the North felt this to be an intolerable breach of faith, and said they would resist southern demands until the last trench.

5. What effect did Webster's speech have?

Webster's speech turned the tide in the North toward compromise. His words visibly strengthened Union sentiment, and were especially pleasing to the Northern banking and commercial centers, who had stood to lose millions of dollars to secession.

6. How did William Seward contribute to the tension between North and South in 1850?

William Seward contributed to tensions in 1850 by coming out unequivocally against concession. He argued earnestly that Christian legislators must obey God's moral law, as well as man's mundane law, and then appealed to a so-called "higher law" than the Constitution. Because of his words, Congress nearly reached deadlock, and President Taylor became bent on vetoing any compromise, having fallen for the words of men like Seward. Had President Taylor continued his course of action, the civil war may have occurred in 1850.

2. Why was the Free-Soil party formed? Was it important? Explain.

The Free-Soil Party was formed because many antislavery northerners distrusted the unusually silent Democratic and Whig parties in regards to the issue of slavery. In regards to the election as a whole, the party was indeed important; it provided a party for many disparate groups, and it's fielding of former President Martin Van Buren would divert votes in New York to themselves, giving the state to Zachary Taylor, ensuring a Whig victory.

12. What was the reason for the Gadsden Purchase?

The Gadsen Purchase was made because the campaigns of the recent war in Mexico had shown the most desirable route for a railroad through the Southern Pacific to cross slightly south of the then-Mexican border. Armed with this knowledge, the Senate approved the purchase, shifting the railroad to the South's favor, as the territory there was organized, whereas any Northern railroad would've been forced through the unorganized Nebraska territory, which was filled with Natives and buffalo herds.

9. What was important about the election of 1852?

The election of 1852 was important for several reasons: it marked the effective end of the Whig Party, which saw its death in 1854. That party's demise saw the end of national political parties and the rise of purely sectional alignments. However, the election of 1852 also had the Whig Party upholding the idea of Union in the South via Webster and Clay, whom both perished in the 1852 campaign; despite that, both men would be powerful contributors to the eventual preservation of a united United States.

7. What factors led to the acceptance of the Compromise of 1850?

The factors that led to the acceptance of the Compromise were: the death of then-President Taylor, possibly by an intestinal disorder, an assist to Unionists delivered by the warm glow of prosperity, and the reluctant acceptance of the Congressional verdict allowed for the Compromise of 1850 to be accepted in full.