Period 5: Expansion and Sectional Crisis

Question 1

coined by John O’Sullivan; rhetoric that Anglo-American cultural and racial superiority would expand across the continent, moving westward

Answer 1

Manifest Destiny

Question 2

between 1821 and 1835; led by the Austin family; promoted slavery and cotton expansion

Answer 2

Settlement of Texas

Question 3

1836; slavery abolished by Mexico; the Alamo; Battle of San Jacinto

Answer 3

Texas War of Independence

Question 4

1836-1845; President Van Buren refused annexation, fearing a war with Mexico; thus this period

Answer 4

Republic of Texas

Question 5

the route that led from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette Valley; 1830s-1860s

Answer 5

Oregon Trail

Question 6

a system devoted to raising livestock; allowed Plains Indians groups to thrive prior to the Civil War

Answer 6

pastoral system

Question 7

James K. Polk’s campaign slogan in 1844; called for American sovereignty over the Oregon Territory

Answer 7

“Fifty-four forty or fight!”

Question 8

annexing Texas; seizure of San Francisco Bay; invasion of Mexican territories; Rio Grande dispute

Answer 8

Polk’s Expansionist Program

Question 9

lands taken by the United States after the war with Mexico, 1846-48; modern-day California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas

Answer 9

Mexican Cession

Question 10

Whig politicians that opposed the war with Mexico on moral grounds; argued the war expanded control of the federal government

Answer 10

“conscience” Whigs

Question 11

proposal to ban slavery in any territories gained from the war with Mexico; supported by Whigs and antislavery Democrats; a divided Congress did not pass it

Answer 11

Wilmot Proviso

Question 12

the argument made by abolitionists, free soilers, and Republicans prior to 1861; southern slaveholders were using their representative advantage to demand proslavery policies

Answer 12

“slave power” conspiracy

Question 13

political opposition of slavery’s expansion; new party in 1848; gained support from white farmers; promoted Jeffersonian ideals

Answer 13

free soil movement

Question 14

a principle that ultimate power lies in the hands of the electorate; plan promoted by Democrats to allow settlers in new territories to determine its status as free or slave

Answer 14

popular sovereignty

Question 15

laws that were meant to resolve the dispute over the status of slavery in the territories; California joins as a free state; a new Fugitive Slave Act is instituted

Answer 15

Compromise of 1850

Question 16

response to the new Fugitive Slave Act by northern states; guaranteed all residents, including alleged escapees from slavery to a jury trial

Answer 16

personal liberty laws

Question 17

urging President Pierce to seize Cuba for the purpose of expanding slavery; when exposed, Whigs, northern Democrats, and Free Soilers forced its cancellation

Answer 17

Ostend Manifesto

Question 18

hostility towards immigrants; in the antebellum period, was mostly anti-Catholic and anti-Irish

Answer 18

nativism

Question 19

a political group that opposed Irish/German immigration; wanted literacy testing for voting; primarily drew former Southern Whigs, leading to that party’s collapse

Answer 19

“Know-Nothing” Party

Question 20

1854 law that divided Indian Territory; repealed the 1850 Missouri Compromise; left new territories to decide the issue of slavery

Answer 20

Kansas-Nebraska Act (definition)

Question 21

1854 law; expansion of slavery was not solidified, as violent conflicts erupted between pro- and anti-slavery groups; “Bleeding Kansas”

Answer 21

Kansas-Nebraska Act (effects)

Question 22

1857 Supreme Court decision that ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional; slave that traveled into free territories did not make him free; denied the federal government the right to exclude slavery; slaves were not citizens

Answer 22

Dred Scott decision

Question 23

abolitionist who led a free-state militia; after a failed attack on Harper’s Ferry, was hanged; became a martyr for the abolitionist movement

Answer 23

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Question 24

winning only 39% of the popular vote, Lincoln manages to win 180 electoral votes; final straw to the southern secession

Answer 24

Election of 1860

Question 25

the period following Lincoln’s election in which southern states left the union

Answer 25

Secession Winter