Ch. 13: A House Divided
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?
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. During the Kansas civil war, Brown murdered five proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek in revenge for the attack on free soil.
What does the map reveal about continual expansion through 1853?
Florida was purchases in 1819. It became a territory of the United States in 1822 an da state by 1845. 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.
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?
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. The Fugitive Slave Act now prohibited state and local governments from intervening on behalf of fugitive slaves within their jurisdictions.
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.
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. 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.
Identify the statements that describe the population at the time of Mexican independence from Spain in 1821.
In california, thee were around 20,000 indians living and working on land owned by religious missions. In 1821, there were around 3200 missionaries, soldiers, and settlers living in California.
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.
It proposed that slavery be prohibited in the territories acquired from Mexico. The failure of the Ailment Proviso led to the creation of the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery.
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.
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 the congress. popular sovereignty was seen as a political middle ground on the issue of slavery.
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 were not abolitionists; they focused on preventing the spread of slavery, not attacking it where it already existed. Republicans acknowledged that it was difficult for some white northern laborers to improve their lives and promised to help create more opportunities for them.
Identify the statements that describe the results of the election of 1860.
Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge carried most of the South win 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. Stephen Douglas, running as a northern Democrat, won the second-largest share of the popular 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 platform appealed to racist thinking in the North as it did not include emancipation or equal rights. The Free Soil Party would create more free states, which would break southern domination of the federal government. 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.
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.
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 truck lines linked eastern industrial centers with western farming and commercial centers.
In what ways do the painting and engraving provide different viewpoints of the nation on the verge of civil war?
The painting of the three women represents a harmonious balance between two very different regions-the North and the South. The engraving of the rally in Savannah shows an uncompromising souther crowd demanding rights for their slave states.
What arguments did southerners advocating secession from the Union put forth?
They were concerned that Republicans would l 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.
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.
false
The first part of Mexico to be settled by large numbers of Americans was Tijuana.
false
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 slaery 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.
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.
mass immigration from Europe. completion of the market revolution and industrialization. industrial economy.
Which of the following events that took place between 1855 and 1856 helped fuel the rise of the Republican Party?
the brutal caning of Charles Sumner. Stephen Douglass' policy of "popular sovereignty" was discredited by "bleeding Kansas.
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 were the outcomes of the gold rushes in California and Australia similar?
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
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
The Know-Nothing Party seemed to be one of contradictions: they wanted to limit the rights of immigrants, while promoting an antislavery 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 Catholics, it was mainly because these groups didn't support the same ideals for which they stood, including abolition and temperance. Ultimately, the Know-Nothings actually accomplished very little in limiting the rights of immigrants. All European immigrants benefited from being white. These groups had the advantage of being able to vote, while free blacks could not.
true
The Supreme Court ruling Dred Scott vs. Sandfordheld out hope of settling the slavery controversy once and for all. Scott had accompanied his owner to Illinois and Wisconsin where slavery was illegal. Scott sued for his freedom, claiming that residence on free soil made him free. But the Supreme Court ruled that only whites could be citizens of the United States and, as a result, the Dred Scott decision declared the entire Republican platform unconstitutional for restricting slavery's expansion into the western United States.
true
Identify the arguments made by these American political figures during the Great Debate that led to the Compromise of 1850.
wanted to abandon the Wilmot Proviso if it meant sectional peace: Daniel Webster rejected any idea of compromise on slavery: John C. Calhoun 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: William H. Seward
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?
"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. Slavery spawned a social order only consisting of degraded slaves, poor whites with no hope of advancement, and idle aristocrats. 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.
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"
