Compromise and Conflict

Identifications (4 Points)

• 1.Popular Sovereignty

Stephen Douglas

Answer One

• Popular Sovereignty was a solution to the problem of slavery that allowed voters in a territory to decide for themselves if they wanted to be a free or slave territory. This solution was favored by the south and disliked by the north.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 2.Free Soil Party

Answer Two

• This party was in favor of “Free soil, free speech, free labor and free men”. Although they received no electoral votes in the election of 1848, they did take away enough votes from the Democrats to elect Zachary Taylor, a Whig.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 3.Wilmot Proviso

Answer Three

• Wilmot Proviso was a solution passed by the House of Representatives to outlaw slavery in the territories. It was defeated in the Senate and failed to pass. This solution to the slavery problem in the territories was hated by the south.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 4.Henry Clay

Answer Four

• Henry Clay was a former Speaker of the House from Kentucky. He devised the Compromise of 1850 and helped convinced both the north and the south that it should pass.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 5.Zachary Taylor

Answer Five

• Zachary Taylor was elected President in 1848. He was a slaveholding Whig who focused his campaign on his military accomplishments rather than the issue of slavery.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 6.Know Nothings

Answer Six

• Know Nothings was a secret society that sought to prevent recent immigrants from holding public office. They also wanted to restrict immigration and increase the period of Naturalization to 21 years.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 7.John Deere

Answer Seven

• John Deere invented a much improved version of the plow made of steel rather than iron. This was important because it allowed farmers to plant more land than they could harvest.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 8.Elias Howe

Answer Eight

• Elias Howe invented the sewing machine. This invention reduced the time needed to make a shirt from 14 hours to little more than an hour.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 9.Harriet Beecher Stowe

Answer Nine

• Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. This book was extremely popular and influenced many people in the North to join the abolitionist movement.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 10.Roger Taney

Answer Ten

• Roger Taney was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court that issued the infamous Dred Scott Decision. This decision reaffirmed the rights of slaveholders to possess slaves.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 11.Republican Party

Answer Eleven

• Republican Party was a new party formed in the 1850’s. They believed in keeping slavery out of the territories.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 12."Bleeding" Kansas

Answer Twelve

• Due to popular sovereignty in the territory of Kansas, both supporters of slavery and abolitionists flooded the state to vote for their cause. This caused a disaster as violence broke out as both sides fought for their beliefs.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 13.Kansas- Nebraska Act

Answer Thirteen

• Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the region the trans-Missouri region into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. It also allowed for popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery in these two new territories.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 14.John Brown

Answer Fourteen

• John Brown was a fiery, abolitionist who regarded himself as sent from God to free the slaves. He led armed struggles to achieve this goal in Kansas and Virginia.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 15.Secession

Answer Fifteen

• Secession is withdrawal from the Union. The south based their right to secede on “state’s rights”, the belief that the Union was a voluntary association of states. The North believed that the Union was a contract between states and that no state had a right to unilaterally dissolve that contract.

Identifications (4 Points)

• 16.Stephen A. Douglas

Answer Sixteen

• Stephen A. Douglas was an influential Senator from Illinois who defeated Abraham Lincoln. He was the architect of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and was later defeated for the Presidency by Abraham Lincoln.

Short Answer One (8 Points)

• List and define the 4 provisions of the Compromise of 1850 and be sure to indicate which provisions favored the south and which provisions favored the north.

Henry Clay

Answer

• The Compromise of 1850 was proposed by Henry Clay the Great Compromiser from Kentucky. The provisions that favored the south were the establishment of a stronger Fugitive Slave Law and the land gained in the war with Mexico (Utah and New Mexico) would decide the issue of slavery by popular sovereignty. The provisions that favored the north were the entry of California to the union as a free state and the abolition of slave trade in the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.).

Short Answer Two (7 Points)

• Explain the significance of the railroads to the economic growth of the United States.

Wedding of the Lines

Answer

• Railroads tied the agricultural midwest to cities and ports in the east. They also hastened the expansion to the west. Railroads were able to reach places which could not be accessed by riverboat. Railroads were also privately financed and very expensive to build but the owners of these new railroads became fabulously well-off.

Short Answer Three (15 Points)

• Summarize the "Dred Scott Decision" and explain its impact.

Dred Scott

Answer

• The Dred Scott decision stated that a slave had no right to sue since, constitutionally, he was not a citizen. It also stated that the outlawing of slavery in the territories was unconstitutional. This case reaffirmed that slaves were property and that a slave holder maintained all rights normally associated with the holding of property.

• The impact of this decision served to show that the issue of slavery could not even be decided by the Supreme Court as Republicans did not believe the decision legitimate while the South supported the decision wholeheartedly.

Short Answer Four (6 Points)

• List and explain three of the issues the Republican Party used to its' advantage in the election of 1860.

Abe Lincoln

Answer

• The issues that the Republicans featured in the election of 1860 were:

• Slavery should be left where it existed but not expanded to new territories. This was a compromise position on slavery designed to please both sides to a certain degree.

• They called for protective tariffs. This appealed to business interests in the Northeast.

• They wanted free Homesteads for settlers. This appealed to westerners.

• They asked for Federal Funds for internal infrastructure. This appealed to both westerners and business interests.

• They renounced the xenophobia of the Know-Nothings . This appealed to recent immigrants.