HIST 1301 CHAPTER 13
What happened with Texas after Polk's election?
Believing the election a mandate for annexation, outgoing President Tyler won congressional approval for Texas statehood.
Which of the following statements regarding Clay's proposed compromise are true?
Clay took several measures and combined them into a single piece of legislation. Clay's proposal resulted in a months-long debate in Senate.
Where did President Buchanan stand on the issue of Kansas?
He supported its admission as a slave state.
Why was President Polk initially angry at Nicholas Trist for the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
He wanted to acquire additional territory in Mexico itself.
Who of the following national leaders spearheaded the effort that would become the Compromise of 1850?
Henry Clay
Why was breaking up the omnibus bill into its constituent parts essential for the Compromise of 1850?
It allowed representatives from different sections to support some proposals and not others.
Which of the following are true of the disputed area of New Mexico?
It was a multiracial society of Spanish and Indian residents. After the Mexicans invited American traders into the region, it became more American than Mexican.
Democrat ______ narrowly won the 1856 election by beating out the first Republican presidential candidate.
James Buchanan
Abolitionist ______ led the Pottawatomie Massacre.
John Brown
The southern Democrats nominated ______ for president in the 1860 election.
John C. Breckinridge
The Kansas-Nebraska Act effectively repealed the
Missouri Compromise.
Which of the following is correct of the parties' presidential nominations of 1852?
Only the Free-Soil Party nominated a clearly antislavery presidential candidate. Neither party chose a candidate that was known for championing sectional passions.
The ______ Trail was a 2,000-mile route west from Independence, Missouri, across the Great Plains and through the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains.
Oregon
Which of the following did President Polk do to try to prevent the war with Mexico?
Polk turned to diplomacy and tried to buy the disputed territories from the Mexicans.
After gaining independence from Mexico, Texas did not immediately join the United States because
President Andrew Jackson thought such an action would add to sectional tensions.
The ______ Party was created in 1854 when "Anti-Nebraska" members of both major parties combined forces.
Republican
As a part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico agreed to acknowledge the ______ as the boundary of Texas.
Rio Grande
Texans claimed that the border between Texas and Mexico was the ______, while Mexico claimed it was the ______.
Rio Grande; Nueces River
What happened after Americans in Texas declared their independence from Mexico in 1835?
Santa Anna led a large army into Texas.
Which of the following were defenses of slavery put forth by The Pro-Slavery Argument?
Slavery was the only way in which the two races could live together in peace. Slaveholders gave blacks better working conditions than did northern factories. The southern slave-based economy was the economic driver of the nation.
Which of the following ideas did free-soil northerners believe about the South?
Southerners wanted to replace northern open societies with aristocratic ones. The South had stagnated because it rejected values of progress and individualism. The South was a closed, static society in which slavery preserved an entrenched aristocracy.
One of the strongest supporters of western economic growth during the second phase of debate over the Compromise of 1850 was ______, a young senator from Illinois.
Stephen A. Douglas
The 1858 U.S. Senate race in Illinois was between ______ and Abraham Lincoln.
Stephen A. Douglas
The northern Democrats nominated ______ for president in the 1860 election.
Stephen A. Douglas
Which of the following were among the reasons some Americans opposed the Mexican War?
The American public became aware of the casualties and expense of the war. Critics charged that Polk deliberately provoked the skirmish that started the war.
What happened to the Mexican residents of Texas after Texas won its independence?
The Americans did not trust them, and many of them were forced out of the new republic.
How did sectional differences affect the election of 1852?
The Democrat Franklin Pierce won thanks to divisions in the Whig party over slavery. Both major parties endorsed the Compromise of 1850 and selected candidates that weren't linked to sectional passions.
How did southerners view the northern way of life?
The northern factory system was inhumane. The North was filled with a spirit of greed, debauchery, and destructiveness.
Which of the following were provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
The residents in the two new territories would be allowed to decide whether or not to permit slavery. The territory known as Nebraska would be broken into two territories—Kansas and Nebraska.
Which of the following are true of racial and ethnic relations in California in the 1850s?
The treatment of Indians was akin to slavery. It was a heterogeneous society that was rife with racial and ethnic tensions.
How did the depression of the late 1850s affect northerners' political views?
They became more antislavery, and many northerners embraced the Republican Party.
How did the Forty-niners change California?
They created an unusually fluid and volatile society in California.
How were the Forty-niners different from other western migrants?
They did not bring families with them.
Which of the following is true of the Chinese who came to California during the gold rush?
They had similar aspirations as the American participants.
How did intellectual southerners respond to abolitionist attacks on slavery?
They produced The Pro-Slavery Argument.
How did southern whites react to the Dred Scott decision?
They were elated because the Supreme Court had validated parts of their argument.
True or false: In the mid-1840s, President Polk decided to acquire both New Mexico and California for the United States.
True
True or false: The South opposed any effort to acquire new territory that did not allow for slavery.
True
Which of the following accurately describe the journey west as experienced by most overland migrants?
Very few expeditions experienced Indian attacks. Most travelers walked for the majority of the arduous journey.
Southerners reacted to the raid at Harpers Ferry by
becoming convinced that it was unsafe to remain in the Union.
After England and France began courting Texas, President Tyler persuaded Texas to apply for statehood. Texas was
blocked by northern senators who feared the admission of a slave state.
The Mexican lands that made up the 1853 Gadsden Purchase originally were bought to
create a southern route for the transcontinental railroad.
What campaign tactic did Abraham Lincoln use to increase his visibility to voters?
debates
As a result of the gold rush, California
had a serious labor shortage.
Democratic leaders chose James Buchanan to run for president because
he had recently been a minister to England and so had avoided most of the recent sectional tensions.
Americans justified expansion in the 1800s with the ideology known as "
manifest destiny
Which of the following best describes the participants at Kansas's 1857 constitutional convention in Lecompton?
pro-slavery forces
The Wilmot Proviso sought to
prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico.
Which of the following was not a direct political response to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
reelection of President Pierce
When the Lecompton constitution was put to a vote for the first time in 1857, Kansas residents
rejected it by more than 10,000 votes.
Northerners accused southerners of engaging in a "______" to impose aristocratic, agrarian ideals on the rest of the nation.
slave power conspiracy
The purpose of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry had been to
spark a slave uprising.
American settlers in "Oregon country" in the mid-1840s wanted the U.S. government to
take full possession of Oregon country.
Which of the following had control of Oregon in the 1820s and 1830s?
the United States and Britain
Following John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, many southerners assumed that
the raid had the support of the Republican Party.
In the 1840s, critics of territorial expansion by the United States
warned it would increase the controversy over slavery.
The 1856 beating of Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate
was retribution for an antislavery speech he had given several days earlier.
Americans who traveled west on the overland trails between 1840 and 1860 were generally
young people who traveled in family groups.
Who won the presidential election of 1848?
Whig Zachary Taylor
Which of the following was not a provision of Henry Clay's legislative proposal presented to the Senate in January 1850?
abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia
During the few years following the Compromise of 1850, which element that had been considered a victory by white southerners soon appeared to become meaningless in the face of northern defiance?
acceptance of a new fugitive slave law
The ______ sought to use the expansion of American democracy into other parts of the world as a way to distract from sectional tensions.
"Young America" movement
During the Mexican War, the Bear Flag Revolt resulted in the
successful conquest of California.
President Polk's plan for deciding the fate of slavery in the new territories was the extension of
the Missouri Compromise line.
On the Oregon question, the United States and Great Britain agreed to fix the Oregon boundary at the ______ parallel.
49th
What happened in the years after the 1818 "joint occupation" of Oregon began?
A measles epidemic struck the Indian tribes in the area. Many white settlers arrived from the United States and soon outnumbered British settlers.
Which of the following best reflects ways in which regional economic activities affected where Americans tended to settle in the West?
Areas known for mining and lumber mostly drew men.
As a result of the intense conflicts between pro-slavery and free-state settlers in Kansas, the territory earned the nickname
Bleeding Kansas.
How did building the transcontinental railroad intensify regional struggles between the North and South?
Both sides clashed over where to build the railroad's eastern terminus.
Why didn't the kingdom of Hawaii join the United States in 1854?
Congress refused entry to Hawaii because the Hawaiian statehood treaty prohibited slavery.
Which of the following compelled southerners to support the pro-slavery argument?
Expansion of the cotton economy The Nat Turner uprising in 1831 Uncle Tom's Cabin and other abolitionist writings
True or false: Northern states were dismayed because the Dred Scott decision invalidated the right of individual states to prohibit slavery within their borders.
False
True or false: The Dred Scott decision was considered a major success for the antislavery movement.
False
Which of the following best characterizes Stephen A. Douglas's position on slavery?
He didn't care if it was voted up or down.
What did Stephen A. Douglas do to get southerners to agree to the organization of the territory known as Nebraska?
He divided it into two territories and allowed its residents to decide on the issue of slavery.
How did General Antonio López de Santa Anna's rise to power lead to conflict with American settlers in Mexico?
He increased the power of the national government over regional governments, causing settlers to worry.
How did President Polk respond to the border dispute between Texas and Mexico?
He sent troops to Texas to protect the region against a Mexican invasion.
On what legal basis did Dred Scott argue for his freedom in Dred Scott v. Sandford?
His master had taken him from Missouri to the free states of Illinois and Wisconsin.
Which of the following helped James K. Polk win the 1844 presidential election?
His platform combined the Oregon and Texas questions, which appealed to northern and southern expansionists.
Which of the following towns served as a major departure point for migrants traveling west on the overland trails?
Independence, Missouri
Which of the following are correct regarding Manifest Destiny?
It was based on the idea that America was destined by God to expand its boundaries. It was an idealistic vision of the United States expanding its borders to become a giant empire. The spreading of the idea of Manifest Destiny was helped by "penny press" publicity.
Which of the following preceded the treaty in which Mexicans granted Texas its independence?
Sam Houston's force defeated the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto. Sam Houston took Santa Anna prisoner. Mexican forces annihilated the Alamo, an American garrison in San Antonio.
Which of the following are true of the conflict that occurred between Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks?
Sumner became a hero throughout the North for calling attention to the "barbarism" of the South. Brooks was a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina. Brooks attacked Sumner in the Senate chamber.
True or false: When President Polk's administration proposed the U.S.-Canadian border be placed at the 49th parallel, the British rejected the proposal, and President Polk asserted American claim of all of Oregon.
True
Which of the following best describes the significance of the 1848 election results?
The impressive number of votes received by the Free-Soil Party indicated the slavery issue could not be contained.
What prompted thousands of Americans to move into Texas, which was still a part of the Republic of Mexico?
They came pursuant to a Mexican colonization law that offered cheap land and a tax exemption.
Which of the following was most key to Mexico's finally conceding defeat in the Mexican War?
Winfield Scott's seizure of Mexico City
Which of the following precipitated the congressional declaration of war against Mexico in 1846?
a disputed American account that Mexican forces crossed the Rio Grande and attacked American soldiers
The admission of California into the United States was a divisive national issue because it would
add to the number of free states and the northern majority in Congress.
Zachary Taylor's solution for the issue of slavery in the territories was to
allow the territories to become states.
Kansas entered the United States
as a free state at the end of Buchanan's administration.
As the result of a speech that he gave in the Senate, in which he singled out a pro-slavery senator from South Carolina, Charles Sumner was
beaten with a cane by the senator's nephew, a member of the House of Representatives.
Which of the following groups was not a significant part of the California population in the mid-1840s?
free blacks and escaped slaves
As a result of his 1858 debates with Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln
gained many new supporters outside of Illinois.
Dred Scott sued his master's widow for his freedom on the grounds that
his residence in free territory had liberated him from slavery.
Which of the following best describes Buchanan's presidential leadership?
indecisive
Poor individuals who wanted to afford the trip west were most likely to
join established groups as laborers, servants, or teachers.
Victory in the war against Mexico was
not as quick as Polk had hoped.
The plan to allow the people of each territory to decide the status of slavery in their territory was known as
popular sovereignty.
Northern merchants and workers believed the depression of the late 1850s was the result of
the unsound policies of southern-controlled Democratic administrations.
True or false: By 1830, more than twice the number of Americans lived in Texas than Mexicans.
true
In 1844, Whig Party candidate Henry Clay lost the presidential election because he
was noncommittal toward annexing Texas.