Chapter 18

Question 1

California gold rush

Answer 1

Inflow of thousands of miners to Northern California after news reports of the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in January of 1848 had spread around the world by the end of that year. The onslaught of migrants prompted Californians to organize a government and apply for statehood in 1849.

Question 2

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

Answer 2

Signed by Great Britain and the United States, it provided that the two nations would jointly protect the neutrality of Central America and that neither power would seek to fortify or exclusively control any future isthmian waterway. Later revoked by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which gave the United States control of the Panama Canal.

Question 3

Compromise of 1850

Answer 3

Admitted California as a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law. Widely opposed in both the North and South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery.

Question 4

Free Soil Party

Answer 4

Antislavery party in the 1848 and 1852 elections that opposed the extension of slavery into the territories, arguing that the presence of slavery would limit opportunities for free laborers.

Question 5

Gadsden Purchase

Answer 5

Acquired additional land from Mexico for $10 million to facilitate the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad.

Question 6

Opium War

Answer 6

War between Britain and China over trading rights, particularly Britain’s desire to continue selling opium to Chinese traders. The resulting trade agreement prompted Americans to seek similar concessions from the Chinese.

Question 7

Ostend Manifesto

Answer 7

Secret Franklin Pierce administration proposal to purchase or, that failing, to wrest militarily Cuba from Spain. Once leaked, it was quickly abandoned due to vehement opposition from the North.

Question 8

popular sovereignty

Answer 8

(in the context of the slavery debate) Notion that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery. Seemingly a compromise, it was largely opposed by Northern abolitionists who feared it would promote the spread of slavery to the territories.

Question 9

Underground Railroad

Answer 9

Informal network of volunteers that helped runaway slaves escape from the South and reach free-soil Canada. Seeking to halt the flow of runaway slaves to the North, Southern planters and congressmen pushed for a stronger fugitive slave law.

Question 10

Lewis Cass

Answer 10

Named father of “popular sovereignty.” Ran for president in 1848 but Gen. Taylor won. The north was against Cass because popular sovereignty made it possible for slavery to spread.

Question 11

Election of 1848

Answer 11

Candidates: 1. Zachary Taylor-winner, honest, ignorant (whig- popular because he was the hero of Mexican War, north: he was a whig, south: owned many slaves) 2. Martin Van Buren (Free Soil Party- made slavery an issue) 3. Lewis Cass-father of popular sovereignty (Democrat). Zachary Taylor became president, died in office, making his vice president Millard Fillmore president

Question 12

zachary taylor

Answer 12

General that was a military leader in Mexican-American War and 12th president of the United States. Was a Whig. Sent by president Polk to lead the American Army against Mexico at Rio Grande, but defeated. Died in 1850

Question 13

Fire-eaters

Answer 13

The term “Fire Eaters” refers to a group of pro-slavery, extremist. Often politicians, Fire Easters were from the South and urged the separation of southern states into a new nation. This later became known as the Confederate States of America. POLITICAL.

Question 14

“Immortal trio”

Answer 14

Twilight of the “immortal trio” The congressional debate of 1850 was called to address the possible admission of California to the Union and threats of secession by southerners. Known as the “immortal trio,” Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Daniel Webster spoke at the forum.

Question 15

Millard Fillmore

Answer 15

successor of president zachary taylor after his death on july 9th 1850. he helped pass the compromise of 1850 by gaining the support of northern whigs for the compromise. became the 13th president when taylor died. he was largely self-educated, he had made his own way in the profession of a law and the rough-and-tumble world of ny politics, he was ready to make peace and used extreme caution, he support the compromise of 1850 and helped it pass.

Question 16

Election of 1852

Answer 16

In this, the Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce, and the Whigs nominated Winfield Scott. Pierce won the presidency because of the division in the whig party

Question 17

Franklin Pierce

Answer 17

an American politician and the fourteenth President of the United States. Pierce’s popularity in the North declined sharply after he came out in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repealing the Missouri Compromise and reopening the question of the expansion of slavery in the West. (North felt betrayed and South could not trust him)

Question 18

william walker

Answer 18

• American adventurer who tried repeatedly to grab control of Nicaragua, backed by a Southern armed force
• Installed himself president of Nicaragua in 1856 and promptly legalized slavery

Question 19

Caleb Cushing

Answer 19

American diplomat who negotiated theTreaty of Wanghia with China in 1844

Question 20

Matthew Perry

Answer 20

American naval commander who opened Japan to the West in 1854

Question 21

Gadsden Purchase

Answer 21

The Gadsden Purchase was the 1853 treaty in which the United States bought from Mexico parts of what is now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico. Southerners wanted this land in order to build southern transcontinental railroad. The heated debate over this issue in the Senate demonstrates the prevalence of sectional disagreement.

Question 22

Stephen A. Douglas

Answer 22

Senator from Illinois who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln. Wrote the Kansas-Nebreaska Act and the Freeport Doctrine
- “Little Giant” > third great compromise

Question 23

Kansas/Nebraska Act

Answer 23

Sen. Douglas wanted to divide the territory into the Nebraska Territory and the Kansas Territory; to gain support of the South, he decided slavery could be decided by popular sovereignty

Question 24

The theory of popular sovereignty was that the people of each territory should decide for themselves whether or
not to have slavery. True or False

Answer 24

True

Question 25

The Whig Party’s official endorsement of the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law doomed its political
future in the North. True or False

Answer 25

True

Question 26

The North approved the Gadsden Purchase in exchange for the South’s agreement to organize Nebraska as a free
territory. True or False

Answer 26

False

Question 27

The Pierce administration’s expansionist efforts in Central America, Cuba, and the Gadsden Purchase were
basically designed to serve southern proslavery interests. True or False

Answer 27

True

Question 28

Senator Stephen Douglas’s KansasNebraska
Act repealed the Missouri Compromise by opening those territories
to popular sovereignty regarding slavery. True or False

Answer 28

True

Question 29

6. The Free Soil Party condemned the expansion of slavery primarily because it

Answer 29

destroyed opportunities for white workers to rise from wageearning
dependence to independent ownership.

Question 30

All of the following were true of the Free Soil party EXCEPT it

a. broadened its appeal by advocating federal aid for internal improvements and by urging free government homesteads for settlers.
b. came out foursquare for the Wilmot Proviso and against slavery in the territories.
c. was organized by ardent antislavery men in the North who distrusted both Cass and Taylor.
d. approved of the conspiracy of silence in the Democratic and Whig platforms.

Answer 30

d. approved of the conspiracy of silence in the Democratic and Whig platforms.

Question 31

8. All of the following were true of the California Gold Rush EXCEPT
   a. a fortunate few of the bearded miners “struck it rich” at the diggings.
   b. the least reliable profits were made by those who charged outrageous rates for laundry and other personal services.
   c. the luckless many probably would have been money well ahead if they had stayed at home unaffected by gold fever.
   d. a horde of adventurers poured into the valleys of California.

Answer 31

b. the least reliable profits were made by those who charged outrageous rates for laundry and other personal services.

Question 32

9. The “Great Compromiser” who helped to make the Compromise of 1850 his last great achievement was

Answer 32

a. Henry Clay.

Question 33

10. All of the following were true of the Compromise of 1850 EXCEPT
    a. it was unaffected by the success of the Underground Railroad.
    b. Southerners rested their argument on the Constitution, which protected slavery, and on the laws of Congress, which provided for
    slavecatching.
    c. it was forged in the face of threats by southern fireeaters
    to secede from the Union if the South did not achieve key concessions.
    d. it was in response to the fact that the South in 1850 was losing perhaps 1,000 runaways a year out.

Answer 33

a. it was unaffected by the success of the Underground Railroad.

Question 34

11. The scheme to seize Cuba and turn it into several new slave states

Answer 34

d. urged that the administration offer $120 million for Cuba.

Question 35

12. Under the terms of the Compromise of 1850

Answer 35

California was admitted to the Union as a free state, and slavery in Utah and New Mexico territories would be left up to popular
sovereignty.

Question 36

13. The immediate effect of the Compromise of 1850 was to

Answer 36

calm the national crisis and create a brief period of good feeling.

Question 37

All of the following were true of the Opium War EXCEPT
a. President Tyler dispatched Caleb Cushing to secure comparable concessions for the United States from China.
b. it was fought almost entirely by U.S. forces against the Chinese.
c. Cushing’s four warships arrived at Macao, in southern China, in early 1844, bearing gifts that included a weathervane and a pair
of sixshooters.
d. Britain gained free access to five socalled
treaty ports, as well as outright control of the island of Hong Kong.

Answer 37

b. it was fought almost entirely by U.S. forces against the Chinese.

Question 38

Commodore Matthew C. Perry was best known for

Answer 38

opening Japan to U.S. trade.

Question 39

The primary purpose of the Gadsden Purchase of 1854 was to

Answer 39

provide land for a proslavery southern railroad route to California.

Question 40

The essential approach of the Whig Party to the slavery issue in the election of 1848 and after was to

Answer 40

avoid discussing the issue in hopes that it would eventually go away.

Question 41

The 1849 gold rush did all of the following EXCEPT
a. completely discourage robbery, claim jumping, and murder through rough vigilante justice.
b. thrust the question of admitting California directly into the Union as a free state into the national debate.
c. bring a distressingly high proportion of lawless men to California, accompanied or followed by virtueless women.
d. pour tens of thousands of people into the future Golden State, completely overwhelming the onehorse
government.

Answer 41

a. completely discourage robbery, claim jumping, and murder through rough vigilante justice.

Question 42

19. In 1850, the south seemed very well off for all of the following reasons EXCEPT
    a. it boasted a majority in the cabinet and on the Supreme Court.
    b. it outnumbered the North in the House and the Senate.
    c. its cotton fields were expanding, and cotton prices were profitably high.
    d. it had seated in the White House the war hero Zachary Taylor, a Virginiaborn,
    slaveowning planter from Louisiana.

Answer 42

b. it outnumbered the North in the House and the Senate.

Question 43

20. All of the following were problems facing the South prior to the Compromise of 1850 EXCEPT
    a. potential slave territory under the American flag was running short, if it had not in fact disappeared.
    b. agitation had already developed in the territories of New Mexico and Utah for admission as nonslave
    states.
    c. the fate of California had already established a freesoil
    precedent for the rest of the Mexican Cession territory.
    d. the admission of California would destroy the delicate equilibrium in the Senate, perhaps forever.

Answer 43

c. the fate of California had already established a freesoil

precedent for the rest of the Mexican Cession territory.

Question 44

21. Senator Daniel Webster’s role in the debates leading up to the Compromise of 1850 was to

Answer 44

urge compromise and acceptance of the principle of popular sovereignty in the West.

Question 45

The idea that a divinely ordained higher law than the Constitution prohibited the expansion of slavery was
vigorously promoted by Senator

Answer 45

William Seward.

Question 46

Northerners

Answer 46

b. generally accepted the compromise suggested in Daniel Webster’s famed Seventh of March speech of 1850.

Question 47

All of the following were true of the Republican Party EXCEPT it
a. included disgruntled Whigs, Democrats, FreeSoilers,
KnowNothings,
and other foes of the KansasNebraska
Act.
b. was generally south of the MasonDixon
line.
c. was a purely sectional party.
d. sprang up spontaneously in the Middle as a moral protest against the gains of slavery.

Answer 47

b. was generally south of the MasonDixon

line.

Question 48

25. Senator Stephen Douglas’s fundamental attitude toward the expansion of slavery into new western territories was

Answer 48

c. believed that slave labor would be needed, at least temporarily, to build railroads through the West.