History Test3 People

Question 1

Martin Van Buren

Answer 1

1. The 8th president of 1836
2. During his presidency the union faced great economic downturn, in which he on speculators and bankers.
3. He passed the Independent Treasury Act (government would keep its funds in its own vaults and do business entirely in hard money)
4. Was nominated as President of the Free-Soil party

Question 2

Joseph Smith

Answer 2

1. Founder of the Mormons
2. When he ordered Mormons to destroy an opposition newspaper, he was arrested and charged with treason.
3. On June 27 1844, an anti-mormon mob stormed the jail and killed Joseph along with his brother

Question 3

Nat Turner

Answer 3

1. He was a black overseer and a preacher
2. He led a revolt starting with a small group of slaves, killing owners of his own house, he then set off repeating the process at other farms, where other slaves joined
3. 57 whites had been killed (most women and children)
4. He was captured, tried and then hung
5. the Nat Turner’s Rebellion led to a Virginia legislature restricting the ability of slaves to learn to read and write and gather for religious meetings

Question 4

William Lloyed Garrison

Answer 4

1. The most prominent abolition from Massachusetts
2. Launched an anti-slavery newspaper “The Liberator” which outraged slave owners as well as some whites in the north
3. In 1835 he was dragged through the streets of Boston at the end of a rope by a mob of angry whites
4. Helped organize the American Anti-Slavery Society

Question 5

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Answer 5

1. A white woman from the north who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (published 1 chapter at a time in magazines, and becomes the #2 best seller of the 19th century)

Question 6

William H. Harrison

Answer 6

1. 9th President of 1841 ( Whig Party)
2. Nick named “Old Tippecanoe” for winning that 1818 battle
3. Was the first president to die in office; Served only 1 month - died from pneumonia
4. His vice president (John Tyler) served all of his term

Question 7

John Tyler

Answer 7

1. Served 1841-1845; was nick named “His Accidency” or “Acting President”; was a Whig
2. accomplishes the fact that when a president dies the vice president does take over the role of the president and all its powers
3. Turns out he was not a loyal Whig; he opposed to most of Whig’s “american system”; He vetoed the national bank’s charter (Whigs decided to kick him off the political party)
4. he promoted the idea of annexing Texas as well as other western territories - On March 1, 1845 (months before his presidency ended) he signed the resolution admitting Texas to the Union
5. because he does not belong to any party, he does not get re-elected
6. 15 years later he was the only Ex-president that was pro confederacy (but he died before even getting sworn in)

Question 8

James Polk

Answer 8

1. Democratic President 11th from 1845-1849 who served only 1 term on purpose (nick name Young Hickory)
2. His goal was only to accomplish 4 things:
   - lower the tariff on imports
   - create treasury system: stabilize gov. money by reestablishing Van Buren’s independent Treasury (NOT national banks)
   - resolve the Territory of Oregon: 54’ 40” or fight (slogan) Land disagreement with Britain, no war, was peacefully solved by splitting equally California
   - complete the Texas annexation (while aquiring cali and new mex): offered 40million for Texas and California, but Mexico said NO; Polk provoked Mexico by sending troops; he signed a declaration of war on Mexico on May 13 1846 and convinced Congress to authorizes 50,000 soldiers

Question 9

Winfield Scott

Answer 9

1. A general in chief of the army (during the Mexico War) and a Whig
2. Polk originally named him to be in charge of the southern Texas font, but after some disagreements, Polk withdrew the offer and gave it to Zachary Taylor
3. He fought the Battle at Veracruz and won (veracruz surrendered after a week); then went to Mexico City and wont victory
4. responsible for the ANACONDA PLAN

Question 10

Zachary Taylor

Answer 10

1. Was General of the Mexican War; attacked Mexican forces near Buena Vista, where he met Santa Anna (Mexican general) a battle broke out in which No One claimed victory (but still increased Taylor’s popularity)
2. Later became the 12th President of 1849 (turned out to be a southern man who stood behind Union principles; wanted California and New Mexico to be free states)
3. After serving 1 year of presidency, he dies of natural causes and his vice president (Millard Fillmore) takes his place

Question 11

Lewis Cass

Answer 11

1. A Democrat from Michigan who ran for president against Taylor in 1848 (and lost)
2. he gives the idea of “Popular Sovereignty”

Question 12

Henry Clay

Answer 12

1. Runs for presidency 4 different times (and lost)
2. A Whig big on economic nationalism - protective tariffs, national bans, and internal improvements at national expense
3. A supporter of the American Colonization Society (return free slaves to africa)
4. Did not get along with a lot of people including president Harrison and Tyler; when Tyler vetoed his project for a new national bank, he convinced Tyler’s entire cabinet to resign
5. Put together the first draft of the Compromise of 1850 (he had also drafted the Missouri Compromise) and presented it in congress (hugely debated); he was devoted to the preservation of the Union and debated that if a comprise was not met, a civil war would transpire-Taylor Opposed, but after his death and Douglas’s suggestions to tweak the compromise, New president Fillmore signed it into law

Question 13

Millard Fillmore

Answer 13

1. Vice President of Zachary Taylor, who died after a year and took his Presidency as the
2. Was part of the “secret society”, the “I know nothing” group

Question 14

Stephen Douglas

Answer 14

1. a senator from Illinois of the Democratic party
2. rescued Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850; argued that given everybody’s objections to one or another provision, the best solution as to break it up into separate measures
3. ran against Lincoln in 1860 as the Northern Democrat
4. introduced the Kansas Nebraska Act

Question 15

Dread Scott

Answer 15

1. a slave in Missouri whose owner took with to Illinois (a free state) then back to Missouri, after his owner’s death he tried to buy his freedom
2. was involve in the case of Dread Scott v. Sanford, his legal argument was that claiming residence in Illinois made him a free man (filed with the Missouri Courts)
3. A guy decided in his favor, but the state supreme court ruled against him; Chief Justice Roger Taney (supporter of slavery) ruled that Scott lacked legal standing b/c he lacked citizenship, as did all former slaves; at the time the constitution was adopted, blacks no rights which the white man was bound to respect”

Question 16

John Brown

Answer 16

1. An abolitionist who had a history of mental instability; fought and died to free slaves
2. Responsible for “John Brown’s Raid”: planed that him and 20 members will take over Harper’s Ferry, Virginia Arsenal for weapons, then go from plantation to another freeing slaves and killing slave holders; he was captured, tried for treason, murder, and “conspiring with Negroes to produce insurrection”, and hanged in 1859

Question 17

Franklin Pierce

Answer 17

1. 14th president of 1853-1857 was a Democrat elected to endorse the Compromise of 1850 (fought in the Mexican war)
2. By the end of his 1st year in office, the leaders of his own party had decided he was a failure (was a northern Democrat that was for slavery to exist only in the south)
3. May have been the most hated person in the nation by 1856, and remains the only elected president to be denied renomination by his party

Question 18

James Buchanan

Answer 18

1. 15th president form 1856-1861 (first unmarried president)
2. Labled as the worst president of all time because he did nothing; Republicans charged that he lacked the backbone to stand up to the southerners who dominated the democratic majorities in congress
3. During the first 6 months of his presidency:
   - supreme court decision in the Dred Scott Case
   - new troubles in strife-torn Kansas: he endorsed the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution and Kansas voters reject it om August 2 1858
   - a financial panic of 1859 that sparked a widespread economic depression
   (he failed to handle these and other key issues in a statesmanlike manner)

Question 19

John Fremont

Answer 19

1. nick named “the Pathfinder” for mapping the eastern half of the Oregon trail and played a crucial role prompting mass migration of American settlers to Oregon and California
2. Involved in the annexation of California; 1854 recruited men and headed to California’s Sacramento Valley encouraging Americans to mimic their Texas counterparts and declare their independence from Mexico
3. He was arrested when he refused to transfer his title of military governor; eventually convicted of mutiny, but President Polk commuted his sentence of a dishonorable discharge (he resigned anyway)
4. Ran for president in 1856 as the first Republican party and Lost to Buchanan

Question 20

Jefferson Davis

Answer 20

1. Became the 1st Confederate President 1861-1865 (same dates at civil war); the capitol set up in Montgomery Alabama; Alexander Stephens as his vice President

Question 21

Robert E. Lee

Answer 21

1. Most beloved Confederate General
2. Became a greatest confederate General; he was asked to be a General for the Union, but ultimately decided to fight for the Confederate since he was from Virginia and could not turn his back on his state
3. Fought Battle at Antietam: summer of 1862 decided to invade the North into Maryland to Pennsylvania; the Union met then at Antietam Creek in Maryland (the bloodiest day); Rebels lost but Lee got away
4. Fought Battle at Gettysburg; lost due to his decision for Pickett’s charge
5. Surrender to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse

Question 22

Stonewall Jackson

Answer 22

1. Confederate General
2. Killed at battle of Chace
3. Was present during the Gettysburg Battle

Question 23

James Longstreet

Answer 23

1. A Confederate General that was present during most of the major battles including Gettysburg, Anietam, and the 2nd bulls run

Question 24

George McClellan

Answer 24

1. Northern General who led troops during Antietam, (won the battle) but failed capture the fleeing confederates including Lee. Due to that Lincoln, relieved him of his command of the army of Potomac and assigned to recruiting duty
2. Later he was chosen as the Democratic candidate to run against Lincoln in 1864

Question 25

William Sherman

Answer 25

1. Was a Union General during the civil war, MOST famous for ‘Sherman’s march to the sea’

Question 26

John Wilkes Booth

Answer 26

1. The actor and confederate sympathizer who shot Lincoln at the Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865
2. He was shot in the neck by troops about 2 weeks later in Virginia (there was a $100,000 reward for him and his 2 accomplice)

Question 27

Andrew Johnson `

Answer 27

1. 17th president, (Lincoln’s Vice president)
2. Was a big southern man (who was for slavery) who was prejudice and began giving pardons to the south easily; felt “restoration” was necessary and that all that was needed was “restoration b/c the south had been part of the Union
3. was opposed to Freedman voting and allowed the south to pass black codes (restricting freedom of blacks, in a sense, restoring slavery in a different guise)
4. Congress finally steps in and tries to impeach him and he gets tried
5. he survives by one vote, but he gets ignored for the rest of the term and congress continously overrides his vetos

Question 28

Frederick Douglas

Answer 28

1. A black slave who flees to the north for freedom, he actually moved to England for 2 years and gets help to gather money to buy his freedom
2. he becomes the second most famous abolitionist by writing books and giving speeches
3. Convinces Lincoln to form a regiment allowing African as troops

Question 29

Ulysses S Grant

Answer 29

1. Fought in the Mexican war
2. Became one of the greatest General for the Union (also know to smoke and drink a lot)
3. Fought huge battles during the civil war, during the last few battles he outnumbers Lee and wins
4. Becomes the 18th president 1869 and serves 2 terms, thought about running a 3rd term but decided not to
5. He was actually known to be corrupted (or at least the the people in his cabinets) took bribes and the gold scandal
6. He did stand up for the Freedman by passing 3 enforcement acts

Question 30

Abraham Lincoln

Answer 30

1. became the 16th president served a full term and was re-elected for a 2nd term but assassinated 5 months later
2. during his first inauguration speech, he mentions
   - not abolish slavery b/c he cant, it would mean a constitution amendment and he felt he didn’t have the authorization to do it
   - not going to let any state secede
3. Created the Emancipation Proclamation (sept 22 1862) stating that some slaves needed to be free in the south
4. Known for the Gettysburg Address speech during National Cemetery opening
5. Lincoln’s 2nd inauguration speech was revolving “reconciliation” he want to be generous with the south; his 10% plan where states can be admitted if 10% of those who voted in 1860 pledge loyalty to the union, but he dies before could start