American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 13: THE IMPENDING CRISIS

Multiple Choice Quiz

1
The settlement of the western territories
A)united the North and South with a common feeling of nationalism.
B)divided the North and the South over the issue of slavery in the territories.
C)eliminated the need for debate over the issue of slavery.
D)facilitated effective compromises over the increasingly divisive issue of slavery.
E)created more slave states than free states.
2
By the end of the 1840s, the territory of the United States included
A)all of the nation's current territory.
B)the entire territory of the current continental United States.
C)nearly the entire territory of the current continental United States.
D)the entire continental United States east of the Rockies.
E)included the Gadsden Purchase.
3
The idea that God and history had selected America to expand its boundaries over the continent of North America was known as
A)Manifest Destiny.
B)divine right.
C)white supremacy.
D)nativism.
E)imperialism.
4
When the new republic of Texas requested annexation by the United States,
A)the American government quickly agreed.
B)Americans in the North opposed acquiring a large new slave territory.
C)Southerners, led by President Jackson, pushed for annexation.
D)Mexico gave up all claims to Texas.
E)Mexico declared war on the U.S.
5
American immigrants into Oregon
A)did not outnumber the British until after the Civil War.
B)had little impact on the few Native Americans there.
C)outnumbered the British by 1850.
D)were mostly fur trappers.
E)drove the Indians into Canada.
6
Immigrants going west on the great overland trails faced the least danger from
A)hostile Indians.
B)diseases.
C)mountain and desert terrain.
D)hunger.
E)brutal winter weather.
7
Which of the following was NOT part of President Polk's policy regarding New Mexico and California?
A)sending troops to the Nueces River in Texas
B)informing Americans in California that the United States would respond sympathetically to a revolt against Mexico
C)instructing the Pacific naval commander to seize California ports if Mexico declared war
D)ceasing all diplomatic contact with Mexico
E)All these answers are correct.
8
By combining the Oregon and the Texas issue in 1844, Democrats hoped to
A)start a war with Mexico and Great Britain.
B)attract John Tyler to the Democratic Party.
C)divert attention from the slavery issue.
D)get Van Buren to support Polk.
E)appeal to both Northern and Southern expansionists.
9
Travelers on the Overland Trail
A)experienced significantly higher death rates than the general population.
B)experienced constant and deadly attacks by Indian tribes along the trail.
C)was a highly individualized experience.
D)often migrated as families that practiced traditional gender divisions of labor.
E)were often loners who preferred a vagabond lifestyle.
10
The war with Mexico was criticized
A)by Southerners who believed Polk deliberately maneuvered the country into the conflict on behalf of Northern interests.
B)by Northerners who believed it was part of a slaveholders' plot to bring in more slave states.
C)by businessmen who believed it would hurt commerce with England and Mexico.
D)by Democrats from all sections of the nation.
E)by Texas Mexicans who favored reunification with Mexico.
11
The Wilmot Proviso
A)went into law without the president's signature.
B)was supported by Southern militants.
C)was a compromise acceptable to the South and the North but not the West.
D)drew very little attention outside of Congress.
E)passed the House by not the Senate.
12
The "overlord" of the Sacramento River Valley and the man on whose land gold was discovered was
A)John C. Fremont.
B)John A. Sutter.
C)Nicholas Trist.
D)Lewis Cass.
E)Stephen W. Kearny.
13
The Compromise of 1850 included all of the following EXCEPT
A)California would come in as a free state.
B)in the rest of the lands acquired from Mexico, territorial governments would be formed without restrictions on slavery.
C)the national government would not pay the Texas debt.
D)the slave trade, but not slavery, would be abolished in the District of Columbia.
E)None of these answers is correct.
14
Who of the following did NOT support the Compromise of 1850?
A)Henry Clay
B)Zachary Taylor
C)John C. Calhoun
D)Daniel Webster
E)Millard Fillmore
15
The new leaders emerging in Congress after the Compromise of 1850 were
A)less able politicians.
B)more concerned with narrow interest of self-promotion.
C)as skilled at compromise as the older leaders.
D)interested in broad national issues.
E)less pragmatic than their predecessors.
16
The "Young America" movement
A)was a movement to garner support for abolition among the youth of America.
B)was a movement to garner support for slavery among the youth of America.
C)was intended to divert young Americans' interests toward nationalism and expansion and away from the "transitory" issue of slavery.
D)was part of President Franklin Pierce's efforts to further expand the nation's territories to pacify the slavery interests.
E)was an unsuccessful diplomatic attempt to acquire Cuba.
17
The question of statehood for Kansas and Nebraska became a critical issue because
A)of the rivalry between Chicago and St. Louis as the location of the eastern terminus.
B)of Southern fear that a transcontinental railroad would be built through them.
C)of Northern concern over new wheat states and depressed grain prices.
D)many believed that they could never support a population sufficient to justify statehood.
E)of the question of whether they would be slave or free states.
18
Northerners who accepted the concepts of "free soil" and "free labor" believed
A)slavery was dangerous not because of what it did to blacks but because of what it did to whites.
B)slavery opened the door to economic opportunity for whites.
C)slavery was what made the South a glorious civilization and one that should be admired.
D)slave labor would work in Northern factories and should be allowed to expand.
E)slavery closed the door to economic opportunity for whites.
19
Through personal liberty laws, Northern states attempted to
A)use state authority to interfere with the deportation of fugitive slaves.
B)force industries to recognize labor unions.
C)allow women to own property.
D)extend the right to vote to all tax-paying adults.
E)legalize the "underground railroad."
20
Southerners who believed in the "positive-good" theory argued
A)slavery was good for blacks.
B)slavery should be maintained, even though it was not profitable for whites.
C)Northern factory workers were better off than slaves, but they deserved to be because they were white.
D)blacks were not biologically inferior, they just needed time to catch up culturally.
E)slavery enhanced the over-all American economy.
21
American efforts to buy or seize Cuba failed because
A)international pressure was put on President Pierce.
B)there was little nationalism in the nation by the 1850s.
C)antislavery forces in the North opposed it.
D)it was believed we had more territory than we could use.
E)established Southern planters feared Cuban competition.
22
The Dred Scott decision
A)affirmed Missouri law.
B)was a victory for the antislavery movement.
C)declared Scott a free man.
D)outlawed the interstate slave trade.
E)affirmed the South's argument that the Constitution guaranteed the existence of slavery.
23
Abraham Lincoln
A)believed slavery was morally wrong but was not an abolitionist.
B)had been a Democrat before he became a Republican.
C)believed the expansion of slavery would hurt the spread of free labor.
D)tried to avoid the slavery issue in his debates with Douglas.
E)believed slavery was morally wrong but was not an abolitionist, and had been a Democrat before he became a Republican.
24
The single event that did the most to convince white Southerners they could not live safely in the Union was
A)the election of Lincoln.
B)the Pottawatomie Massacre.
C)John Brown's raid.
D)the Dred Scott decision.
E)the split of the Democratic Party at the 1860 convention.
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