American History CH 13
What was a source of conflict between the Mexican government and American settlers in Texas in the 1820s and 1830s?
Mexico had abolished slavery, but many American settlers were practicing slavery in Texas.
From 1848 to 1860, most of the railroad construction was in which region?
Midwest
What enabled the Californios to establish large cattle ranches in California?
the dissolution of mission landholdings by the Mexican government
Which states did the Constitutional Unionist candidate John Bell win in the 1860 election?
three states of the Upper South
In the first half of the nineteenth century, the United States gained the most territory through
wars with Mexico.
Which statement is true regarding Americans' reactions to the Mexican War of 1846 -1848?
A majority of Americans were inspired by the expansionist fervor of manifest destiny to support the war.
Which statement is true regarding free labor ideology?
According to free labor ideology, slavery must be kept out of the territories so that free laborers could move up to the status of landowning farmers and independent craftsmen.
By what means did the first Americans establish landholdings in Texas?
legal purchase of land, as long as they became Mexican citizens
In 1846, Congressman David Wilmot proposed to
prohibit slavery from all territory acquired from Mexico.
The Lecompton Constitution was the
proslavery constitution proposed for Kansas.
According to John L. O'Sullivan's Democratic Review, what was the key to the history of nations and the rise and fall of empires?
race
During the secession winter of 1860-1861, who offered the most widely supported compromise plan in Congress, which allowed the westward extension of the Missouri Compromise line?
John Crittenden
In 1854, the Know-Nothings won all the congressional races as well as the governorship in
Massachusetts.
Why did Democratic and Whig Party lines crumble in 1846?
Northerners, regardless of party, supported the Wilmot Proviso, while southerners opposed it.
Which statement is true about the concept of race in the United States in the nineteenth century?
Race was a vague notion; for example, the "Anglo-Saxon race" was defined largely as the opposite of being black, Hispanic, Indian, or Catholic.
Which is true of Texas during its time as an independent nation?
Relations between Anglos and Tejanos deteriorated.
Which is true of the Wilmot Proviso?
Response to the measure was determined by geography, with the North supporting it and the South opposing it.
In 1860, which state became the first to pass an ordinance of secession and declare itself separated from the Union?
South Carolina
In the 1860 election, who was the presidential candidate to have significant support in all parts of the country?
Stephen Douglas
In the Texas borderland in the years after 1836,
Tejanos were increasingly confined to unskilled agricultural and urban labor.
The Wilmot Proviso, admission of California into the Union, and the Missouri Compromise revealed what?
The extension of slavery was a volatile issue.
Which statement is true regarding the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
The treaty ceded California and present-day New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah to the United States.
The famous Lincoln-Douglas debates took place during the campaign for
U.S. senator from Illinois in 1858.
Stephen Douglas's motivation for introducing the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to
boost efforts to build a transcontinental railroad.
The Dred Scott decision of the U.S. Supreme Court
declared that Congress could not ban slavery from territories.
The Free Soil Party
demonstrated that antislavery sentiment had spread far beyond the abolitionist ranks.
When Democrats demanded the "reannexation" of Texas in 1844, they
implied that Texas had once been part of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase.
What do the authors of the 1850 "Letter to the Middletown Sentinel and Witness" claim to be more important than the Union?
individuals' freedom to act according to their consciences
What was a key provision of the Compromise of 1850?
The New Mexico and Utah Territories would use popular sovereignty to decide on slavery.
In the late 1850s, a white slaveholder living in Mississippi most likely voted for candidates from which political party?
Democratic
Who questioned President Polk's right to declare war by introducing a resolution to Congress requesting that the president specify the precise spot where blood had first been shed?
Abraham Lincoln
Which represents Abraham Lincoln's views on race in the 1850s?
Black men should have economic opportunities to better themselves.
In the Dred Scott decision, what was the primary reason given by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney for refusing to consider blacks American citizens?
Blacks had been considered inferior in America for more than a century, including by the founding fathers.
The American Civil War began in April 1861, when
Confederate forces fired upon and captured Fort Sumter.
What effect did the establishment of an extensive railway system have on the American economy?
It created economic connections between the Northwest and the Northeast.
How did the Confederate Constitution differ from the federal Constitution?
It explicitly guaranteed the right to own slaves.
Which is true of the Texas revolt?
It resulted in the creation of the independent Republic of Texas.
Which statement is true about the Mexican War of 1846 -1848?
It was opposed by a significant minority in the North.
Why did Mississippi politician Jefferson Davis object in the 1850s to the original design of the Statue of Freedom that now adorns the U.S. Capitol dome?
Its use of an ancient Roman liberty cap on "Freedom" raised a touchy matter about slaves' longing for freedom.