Study Guide Sixteen

Increasing Sectional Crisis: the 1850s

FINAL EXAM

NOTE: If you can answer these questions satisfactorily, you should do well on this section of the second exam. The material below consists of important material from the lecture. Questions on the test will be largely taken from this material.

Terms (definition and significance):

California Gold Rush

David Wilmot/Wilmot Proviso (1946)

“Squatter Sovereignty”

Lewis Cass

Zachary Taylor

William Seward

Compromise of 1850

Stephen A. Douglas

Milliard Fillmore

Fugitive Slave Law

Franklin Pierce

Free Soil Party

Winfield Scott

Abelman v. Booth

Filibusterers

William Walker

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Bleeding Kansas

Sack of Lawrence

Pottawatomie Massacre

Brooks-Sumner Incident

James Buchanan

Native American Party

John Fremont

Depression of 1856

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Roger Taney

Lecompton Constitution

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Freeport Doctrine

Questions to Think About:

How did the territories acquired as a result of the Mexican War increase animosities the North and the South? What did the North want for the new territories? What did the South want for the new territories?

What were the various compromises that were proposed to solve the problem posed by the new territories?

What were the politics involved in permitting or denying statehood to California?

What were the issues that divided Northern and Southerners in 1850?

Where did President Zachary Taylor stand on the conflicts between the free and the slave states?

What were the five provisions of the Compromise of 1850?

What did Northerners like about the Compromise of 1850 and what did they dislike?

What did Southerners like about the Compromise of 1850 and what did they dislike?

Who were the Filibusterers and how were they a threat to peace between the sections of the US during the 1850s?

What was the purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and why was it controversial?

What caused the fall of the Whig Party and the rise of the Republican Party?

Who were the factions in the conflict over Kansas statehood and what did they do to win the conflict for their respective causes?

Describe the election of 1856 and what was its significance?

What was the nature of the Dred Scott Decision and how did the North and the South react to it?

Describe President Buchanan’s actions as president. How did he affect the coming of the Civil War?

What was the political program of the new Republican Party?

What did the Lincoln-Douglas Debates reveal about the important political issues of the 1850s?