CHAPTER 13 A House Divided, 1840–1861
TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1. Identify the major factors contributing to U.S. territorial expansion in the 1840s.
2. Explain why the expansion of slavery became the most divisive political issue in the 1840s and 1850s.
3. Identify the combination of issues and events that fueled the creation of the Republican Party in the 1850s.
4. Explain what enabled Lincoln to emerge as president from the divisive party politics of the 1850s.
5. Describe the final steps on the road to secession.
Multiple Choice
1. What enabled the Californios to establish large cattle ranches in California?
a. the collapse of native populations due to epidemic disease
b. the American victory in the Mexican War
c. the creation of railroad lines linking California and Chicago
d. the dissolution of mission landholdings by the Mexican government
e. the affordability of black slaves in Mexico-controlled California
2. Why did Mississippi politician Jefferson Davis object in the 1850s to the original design of the Statue of
Freedom that now adorns the U.S. Capitol dome?
a. He disliked the fact that the sculptor was a former slave, thus suggesting that blacks were as gifted as
whites.
b. The use of a soldier as the key figure made the nation appear too militaristic.
c. It portrayed “Freedom” as a nude woman, which he saw as inappropriate.
d. Its use of an ancient Roman liberty cap on “Freedom” raised a touchy matter about slaves’ longing for
freedom.
e. He believed using “freedom” in the statue’s name was a subtle attack on slave states, so he preferred using
“justice” instead.
3. In the early 1840s, a large increase in the migration of American settlers west of the Mississippi River was
sparked by
a. the abolition of slavery in the Deep South.
b. Indian tribes regaining land east of the Mississippi River.
c. the economic depression that began in 1837.
d. a widespread rejection of the concept of manifest destiny.
e. Mexico’s sale of California to the United States in 1840.
4. Between 1840 and 1845, how did most emigrants travel to new lands in Oregon?
a. They used wagon trains.
b. They rode in coal-powered trains.
c. They traveled entirely on foot.
d. They traveled on horseback.
e. They used riverboats.
5. By what means did the first Americans establish landholdings in Texas?
a. illegal squatting in borderlands that were considered disputed territory
b. legal purchase of land, as long as they became Mexican citizens
c. land grants to Catholics from American Catholic missionaries in the region
d. management of ranches owned by absentee Mexican landlords
e. as terms of a treaty signed following the Texas revolt
6. Why did slavery become more central to American politics in the 1840s?
a. The Methodist Church, the nation’s largest denomination, called on all its members to free their slaves.
b. Territorial expansion raised the question of whether new lands should be free or slave.
c. Members of the abolitionist Republican Party, formed in 1844, insisted on debating slavery.
d. President John Tyler’s antislavery policies caused a major proslavery backlash led by John C. Calhoun.
e. As the 1848 constitutional deadline for ending the African slave trade drew near, Americans became
obsessed with slavery.
7. When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821,
a. it was much smaller in area than the United States at the time.
b. California became a major American trading partner within half a decade.
c. it was nearly as large as the United States with only two-thirds of the population.
d. its leaders founded new missions in California to ensure continued Catholic power.
e. Americans immediately began settling in California in large numbers.
8. In 1821, the opening of the Santa Fe Trail between Santa Fe and ________ led to a reorientation of New
Mexico’s commerce from the rest of Mexico to the United States.
a. Houston, Texas,
b. San Diego, California,
c. New Orleans, Louisiana,
d. Omaha, Nebraska,
e. Independence, Missouri,
9. The term “Californios” referred in the 1830s and 1840s to ________ in California.
a. Mexican cattle ranchers
b. the Indian inhabitants
c. U.S.-born immigrants
d. any individual
e. American merchants
10. Which is true of the Texas revolt?
a. It resulted in the creation of the independent Republic of Texas.
b. It was the first time that the U.S. Army fought on foreign soil.
c. The battle for the Alamo was a surprising Mexican defeat.
d. It consisted of sporadic but vicious battles between American and Tejano settlers.
e. It was sparked by the Mexican government seizing the slaves of American settlers.
11. What was a source of conflict between the Mexican government and American settlers in Texas in the 1820s
and 1830s?
a. Mexico had abolished slavery, but many American settlers were practicing slavery in Texas.
b. The number of Tejanos in Texas was increasing faster than the number of American settlers.
c. The settlers were abolitionists, but Mexico legalized slavery.
d. Mexico would not allow American settlers to become Mexican citizens.
e. Mexico forced American settlers to convert to Catholicism.
12. Which did Southern leaders hope to gain by making the Texas territory part of the United States?
a. Cotton mills could be built along Texas’s rivers, decreasing reliance on the North.
b. Southern industrialists would gain access to valuable oil reserves.
c. Forests in northern Texas could help to revive a flagging shipbuilding industry.
d. It would enable a land route to ports on the Pacific Ocean.
e. The territory could potentially be turned into several slave states.
13. American settlement in Texas in the 1820s and 1830s
a. took place without approval from the Mexican government.
b. did not exceed the Mexican population there until the United States annexed Texas in 1845.
c. led Stephen Austin to demand more autonomy from Mexican officials.
d. included no slaves, because Mexico had banned slavery in its territory.
e. was in communities whose American-born residents were called Tejanos by their Mexican neighbors.
14. President Martin Van Buren rejected adding Texas to the United States because
a. the Texas Republic’s congress opposed joining the United States, preferring to stay independent.
b. the Mexican army’s resounding victory at the Alamo made him fearful of antagonizing a powerful
government.
c. the population of Texas was too small to justify it.
d. Henry Clay wanted to add it and, as the Whig leader, he was Van Buren’s sworn enemy.
e. the presence of slaves there would reignite the issue of slavery, and he preferred to avoid it.
15. Which is true of James K. Polk?
a. He opposed annexation of Texas.
b. He defeated Martin Van Buren in the election of 1844.
c. He was a “benevolent” slave owner, who taught his slaves how to read.
d. He feuded with Andrew Jackson for most of his political career.
e. He is considered the first “dark horse” presidential candidate.
16. Which political faction was most upset when the United States and Britain split territory in Oregon at the forty–
ninth parallel?
a. southern Democrats
b. northern Democrats
c. Liberty Party members
d. northern Whigs
e. southern Whigs
17. Which of the goals of the Polk administration resulted in war?
a. reducing the tariff
b. settling the slavery dispute
c. settling the dispute over ownership of Oregon
d. acquiring California
e. reestablishing the Independent Treasury system
18. Which two political figures agreed to keep the issue of annexing Texas out of the 1844 presidential campaign
if possible?
a. John Tyler and John C. Calhoun
b. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster
c. Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren
d. Henry Clay and James Polk
e. Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams
19. Which of the following was a critic of the Mexican War?
a. Zachary Taylor
b. James K. Polk
c. Ulysses S. Grant
d. John C. Calhoun
e. John C. Frémont
20. When Democrats demanded the “reannexation” of Texas in 1844, they
a. implied that Texas had once been part of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase.
b. were consciously appealing to northern Whigs.
c. were seeking to take the slavery issue out of the presidential campaign.
d. neglected to say anything about the status of Oregon.
e. realized their stand would not be very popular in the South.
21. “Fifty–four forty or fight” referred to demands for American control of
a. Texas.
b. Oregon.
c. California.
d. Mexico.
e. Kansas and Nebraska.
22. During the Mexican War
a. Mexican troops occupied much of Texas after winning at the Alamo.
b. the bulk of the fighting occurred in California.
c. for the first time, U.S. troops occupied a foreign capital.
d. an American revolt in California led briefly to a monarchy.
e. Whigs strongly supported Polk’s policies.
23. Why did President James K. Polk initiate military action against Mexico in April 1846?
a. Mexico had invaded Louisiana.
b. Polk claimed God had instructed him to free his “brethren to the south.”
c. He sought to end slavery in New Mexico.
d. Polk wanted to purchase California, but Mexico refused to negotiate.
e. The United States was helping Spain to reconquer lost colonies.
24. Which statement is true regarding Americans’ reactions to the Mexican War of 1846–1848?
a. A majority of Americans were inspired by the expansionist fervor of manifest destiny to support the war.
b. Ulysses S. Grant led his troops in defecting from the American army.
c. Abraham Lincoln supported the war.
d. Henry David Thoreau showed his support by volunteering to fight in the war.
e. Many northerners dissented against the war because they believed the Polk administration’s real aim was to
abolish slavery.
25. Which statement is true about the Mexican War of 1846–1848?
a. Mexico was still a Spanish colony when the war started.
b. Mexico won the war and regained Texas.
c. It was opposed by a significant minority in the North.
d. Mexico lost the war but ceded only about 10 percent of its territory in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
e. The war is largely forgotten in Mexico.
26. Who wrote On Civil Disobedience as a response to the U.S. war with Mexico?
a. Abraham Lincoln
b. Ralph Waldo Emerson
c. David Walker
d. David Wilmot
e. Henry David Thoreau
27. Who questioned President Polk’s right to declare war by introducing a resolution to Congress requesting that
the president specify the precise spot where blood had first been shed?
a. Daniel Webster
b. John C. Calhoun
c. Stephen Douglas
d. Abraham Lincoln
e. Charles Sumner
28. Which is true of Texas during its time as an independent nation?
a. Tejanos were encouraged to keep their Mexican customs.
b. Relations between Anglos and Tejanos deteriorated.
c. Catholicism became the dominant religion.
d. Protestant missionaries established Spanish-language schools.
e. Tejanos owned most of the land and dominated local politics.
29. Which was the dominant group in the disputed territory in southern Texas until the 1870s?
a. Apaches
b. Comanches
c. Mexico
d. Spain
e. the United States
30. Which statement is true regarding the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
a. The treaty was designed to prevent the separation of families and the interruption of established trade
routes.
b. The treaty protected the rights of Indians in the ceded territory to maintain their homelands and hunting
grounds.
c. The treaty had little impact on Mexican citizens because only about 10,000 people lived in the Mexican
Cession.
d. The treaty nullified the property rights of large Mexican landholders in California.
e. The treaty ceded California and present-day New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah to the United States.
31. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the United States gained the most territory through
a. purchasing territory from Russia.
b. a treaty with Great Britain.
c. purchasing territory from France.
d. wars with Mexico.
e. purchasing territory from Spain.
32. What role did attitudes toward race have in the territory acquired from the Mexican War?
a. White superiority was challenged by the accomplishments of Tejano residents.
b. Only people classified as whites gained full rights.
c. The Texas Constitution adopted the Mexican practice of considering people of all backgrounds equal before
the law.
d. Free blacks were offered free land in hopes of boosting the American-born population.
e. An underclass of destitute whites came to be viewed as a separate racial category.
33. Which was true of the constitution of independent Texas?
a. It imposed a five-year ban of the importation of slaves.
b. It denied rights to people of color that they had enjoyed when Mexico controlled Texas.
c. It offered voting rights to free blacks who met property qualifications.
d. It included provisions for an independent Comanche tribal government.
e. Land sales by private sellers were prohibited.
34. One aspect of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 provided for what?
a. the transfer of Montana to the United States
b. payment of $15 million to the Mexican citizenry in the United States
c. Mexicans to still govern themselves in Texas and New Mexico
d. U.S. control of all of the Oregon Country
e. protection of large Mexican landowners in California
35. How did the California gold rush affect the California economy?
a. It drew workers away from its rich farmlands.
b. It created economic opportunities for women in special women-only mines.
c. It created a sense of competition between American and “foreign” miners.
d. It created a robust upper-middle class of self-made men.
e. It hurt the development of San Francisco as residents moved to mining areas outside of town.
36. How did the California gold rush affect the California population?
a. Tens of thousands of workers from Japan created the first significant Asian population in the United States.
b. Foreign miners controlled most of the mine leases and most of the wealth in the territory.
c. Treasure seekers from around the world created a population with remarkable ethnic diversity.
d. The Native American population grew as tribes gained wealth through leases on mines.
e. A rapid influx of young married couples resulted in an explosion in the number of young white children.
37. In the Texas borderland in the years after 1836,
a. Comanche Indians ceded their lands and assimilated into American culture.
b. Tejanos were increasingly confined to unskilled agricultural and urban labor.
c. the Catholic Church became more powerful.
d. most Tejanos converted to Protestantism.
e. relations between Anglos and Tejanos who had fought together for independence remained harmonious
because the Anglos respected Tejano culture.
38. Which is true of California in the 1850s?
a. Thousands of Indian children were bought and sold as slaves.
b. Thousands of free blacks were paid minimal wages to work the worst jobs in the mining camps.
c. Voting rights were extended to all “white” men, including immigrants from Asia, but denied to Indians and
free blacks.
d. Indian communities prospered by renting land and selling supplies to gold miners.
e. Wealthy Mexican landowners dominated the new state government.
39. Which was a result of the United States’ victory in the Mexican War?
a. Mexico imposed a trade embargo against the United States.
b. Native Americans seized control of ports in Southern California.
c. Control over valuable trading ports on the West Coast created a trading boom with the Far East.
d. Tensions with Great Britain arose over control of Pacific trade routes.
e. The U.S. Army suffered significant losses of men and equipment.
40. According to John L. O’Sullivan’s Democratic Review, what was the key to the history of nations and the rise
and fall of empires?
a. race
b. democracy
c. economic freedom
d. slavery
e. printing
41. Which statement is true about the concept of race in the United States in the nineteenth century?
a. Race was a vague notion; for example, the “Anglo–Saxon race” was defined largely as the opposite of
being black, Hispanic, Indian, or Catholic.
b. U.S. aggression against Mexico, a sovereign republic, led most Americans to reject the idea that Anglo–
Saxon Protestants were an innately liberty-loving race.
c. The concept of manifest destiny held that all races and cultures are equal.
d. The concept of race did not yet exist in the nineteenth century.
e. The concept of race had largely been discredited as merely a social construct.
42. The California gold rush turned ________ into perhaps the world’s most diverse city.
a. San Diego
b. Los Angeles
c. Malibu
d. Sacramento
e. San Francisco
43. Which is true of the Wilmot Proviso?
a. Its passage into law nullified the Missouri Compromise.
b. Democrats opposed it and Whigs supported it.
c. Opponents of the measure organized the Free Soil Party.
d. It was declared illegal by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dred Scott case.
e. Response to the measure was determined by geography, with the North supporting it and the South
opposing it.
44. What two meanings did the term “free soil” have, in regard to the Free Soil Party?
a. freedom from the existence of slavery in the new territories and government-provided free homesteads for
white settlers in these territories
b. freedom from actual slavery for blacks living in the South and freedom from “wage slavery” for whites
living in the North
c. freedom from the gag rule and from the Fugitive Slave Act
d. freedom from government intervention in the economy, both in the form of tariffs and through attempts to
limit slavery
e. freedom for all southerners to own slaves and freedom for all northerners to hire low-paid immigrant labor
45. What was the significance of the argument concerning the extension of slavery into territory acquired
following the Mexican War?
a. It became a public debate over the question of outlawing slavery throughout the entire United States.
b. It represented a struggle between the North and South for control of the federal government.
c. It inspired a series of political compromises that resulted in the United States gaining more territory in the
Caribbean.
d. It created an opportunity for the Democrats to consolidate their power.
e. It undermined membership in Protestant churches throughout the North.
46. Which American naval officer negotiated a treaty that opened two Japanese ports to U.S. ships in 1854?
a. Oliver H. Perry
b. John Paul Jones
c. Alfred Mahan
d. Chester Nimitz
e. Matthew Perry
47. The opening of Japan to U.S. trade led to what?
a. Japan creating its own minstrel shows.
b. Other nations wanting to carve up Japanese territory.
c. Japan becoming a modernized military power.
d. The United States becoming much less interested in China.
e. Japan attacking Russia.
48. The Wilmot Proviso, admission of California into the Union, and the Missouri Compromise revealed what?
a. The slaves should be freed immediately.
b. Popular sovereignty needed to be used.
c. Ex-slaves should be sent to another part of the world.
d. A slave should be counted as three-fifths of a person.
e. The extension of slavery was a volatile issue.
49. Why did Democratic and Whig Party lines crumble in 1846?
a. Democrats and Whigs agreed that the United States shouldn’t invade Mexico.
b. The Methodist and Baptist churches divided into northern and southern branches.
c. Northerners, regardless of party, supported the Wilmot Proviso, while southerners opposed it.
d. They disagreed over U.S. policy toward Japan.
e. Neither party could settle internal disputes over immigration policy, prompted by the gold rush.
50. In 1846, Congressman David Wilmot proposed to
a. prohibit slavery from all territory acquired from Mexico.
b. allow voters to decide the status of slavery in new territories.
c. divide the Oregon Country between Great Britain and the United States.
d. annex Cuba to avoid southern secession.
e. allow slavery to expand into California and New Mexico.
51. The Free Soil Party
a. demonstrated that antislavery sentiment had spread far beyond the abolitionist ranks.
b. cost Henry Clay the presidency by siphoning votes from him in New York.
c. was powerful enough to convince James Polk not to seek reelection.
d. strongly opposed the Wilmot Proviso but agreed to let it pass as part of a compromise.
e. nominated Zachary Taylor for president.
52. The Free Soil Party
a. only appealed to radical abolitionists and free blacks.
b. appealed to opponents of protective tariffs and government aid for internal improvements.
c. was concerned with ending racism throughout the western states and territories.
d. appealed to Americans who resented the northern domination of the federal government.
e. appealed to northern working-class Americans who saw access to homesteads on western lands as the only
possibility for economic independence.
53. What occurred in 1848 in Europe?
a. There were revolutions against monarchies.
b. Germany was united.
c. Italian kingdoms reunified.
d. Napoleon escaped, created an army, and attacked England.
e. The Chartist movement renounced democracy.
54. What was a key provision of the Compromise of 1850?
a. California would enter the Union as a slave state.
b. Slavery would be abolished in Washington, D.C.
c. The Oregon Territory would be created.
d. The Fugitive Slave Act gave runaway slaves more protection and guaranteed them a lawyer in court.
e. The New Mexico and Utah Territories would use popular sovereignty to decide on slavery.
55. What was the purpose of the Appeal of the Independent Democrats?
a. convince residents of Kansas to vote in favor of allowing slavery in the state
b. rally opposition to the bill that became the Kansas-Nebraska Act
c. portray Abraham Lincoln as a threat to the rights of southern states
d. protest the Fugitive Slave Act as an example of executive overreach
e. argue that popular sovereignty was the only constitutional way to decide whether new states should be slave
or free
56. The northern opponents of the Compromise of 1850
a. included key Whig leaders Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.
b. received a boost from President Zachary Taylor.
c. were surprised when John C. Calhoun spoke in favor of the Compromise.
d. argued that California must become a free state, which the Compromise did not allow.
e. were thrilled to have the support of influential Vice President Millard Fillmore.
57. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
a. won the grudging support of Ralph Waldo Emerson as a necessary compromise.
b. gave new powers to federal officers to override local law enforcement.
c. was declared unconstitutional in the Dred Scott case.
d. angered southerners by weakening an earlier law on fugitive slaves.
e. convinced Abraham Lincoln to retire briefly from political life.
58. What was ironic about the Fugitive Slave Act?
a. Only ten slaves were returned to the South.
b. Abolitionists endorsed this federal legislation.
c. Ex-slaves who gained their freedom before 1850 resented the law.
d. The South promoted states’ rights, but with this law agreed to strong federal action.
e. It resulted in the North and South gaining more respect for each other’s way of life.
59. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
a. required that runaway slaves have a trial by jury.
b. allowed individual citizens to refuse to assist federal agents in capturing runaway slaves.
c. allowed local authorities to protect runaway slaves from capture by federal agents.
d. allowed federal commissioners to determine the fate of fugitives without a jury trial.
e. was a betrayal of the Compromise of 1850.
60. What became a key component of the Underground Railroad in the 1850s?
a. Abolitionists finally agreed to participate in hiding and moving slaves to freedom.
b. Slave catchers also employed the Underground Railroad to return slaves to the South.
c. The Erie Canal became the primary means to get slaves to freedom in Canada.
d. Ships bound for Africa were added to allow slaves to return to their homelands.
e. Trains were used more frequently to take slaves to Canada and freedom.
61. As a result of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,
a. sectional divisions eased.
b. Ralph Waldo Emerson counseled northerners to cooperate with federal authorities regardless of what their
consciences told them.
c. the thousands of black refugees that sought safety in Canada challenged the image of the United States as an
asylum for freedom.
d. only border states like Virginia and Kentucky were affected.
e. the Underground Railroad shut down for the next decade.
62. Which was a factor in the rise of the Republican Party?
a. a decline in immigration from Europe
b. a shift of the northern population to large cities.
c. the opening of the major ports in San Diego and San Francisco
d. integration of the northern economy following the completion of the railroad network
e. a decline in coal mining and iron manufacturing
63. What effect did the establishment of an extensive railway system have on the American economy?
a. It encouraged rapid urbanization, so that by 1850 the majority of Americans in the North lived in cities.
b. It made Chicago America’s financial and commercial center during the nineteenth century.
c. It created an economic bubble that led to a depression beginning in 1843.
d. It created economic connections between the Northwest and the Northeast.
e. It significantly increased the costs paid by farmers to transport their goods to market.
64. Which was a component of the Know-Nothing Party?
a. support for universal white male suffrage
b. opposition to temperance
c. opposition to the public school system
d. support for slavery
e. anti-Catholicism
65. Stephen Douglas’s motivation for introducing the Kansas–Nebraska Act was to
a. boost efforts to build a transcontinental railroad.
b. spread slavery to as many regions as possible.
c. win the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives.
d. pacify southerners who strongly supported the idea of popular sovereignty.
e. help Franklin Pierce win a second term as president.
66. Which of the following is an example of the political impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
1856.
e. The new Free Soil Party strongly endorsed the Act and won new congressional seats in several Upper South
districts.
67. In the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
a. the Whig Party became a southern party.
b. the North became solidly Democratic.
c. the unity of the Democratic Party was shattered.
d. the Democratic Party became more united than ever.
e. Stephen A. Douglas retired from politics.
68. The controversy over the arrest of escaped slaves in the North shows
a. the problematic nature of the Dred Scott decision.
b. that abolitionists were definitely declining in influence.
c. the unpopularity of the Fugitive Slave Act in parts of the North.
d. the popularity of the Whig Party in the South.
e. that the gag rule had serious consequences well into the 1850s.
69. From 1848 to 1860, most of the railroad construction was in which region?
a. Northeast
b. Southeast
c. Southwest
d. Midwest
e. West Coast
70. In 1854, the Know-Nothings won all the congressional races as well as the governorship in
a. Louisiana.
b. South Carolina.
c. Ohio.
d. Massachusetts.
e. Georgia.
71. The Know-Nothing Party
a. opposed the temperance movement.
b. supported slavery.
c. prevented foreign-born people from voting after 1860.
d. supported equal political rights for all religious groups.
e. was dedicated to reserving political office for native-born Americans.