Causes of Civil War Events Review

The people of the west needed a new railroad. Some wanted a southern route that would start in New Orleans and cross the southwest through the newly acquired Gadsden Purchase. Others wanted a more northern route. The leader of those favoring the northern route was Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. Douglas wanted the new railroad to start in Chicago, in his home state, and cross some yet-unorganized territory in the Louisiana Purchase. Douglas proposed a bill in Congress that would organize the land in question into two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska. In order for his bill to pass he needed to gain the support of southern members of Congress.
Douglas proposed in this bill that “popular sovereignty” be used to decide whether or not slavery would be allowed in these new territories. When this bill passed it meant that slavery could then be allowed in land where it had been banned by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, because both Kansas and Nebraska were above the 36º 30’ line! In effect, then, Douglas’ plan overturned the Missouri Compromise and opened more land to slavery.  

• Bloody Kansas
• Compromise of 1850
• Missouri Compromise
• Kansas-Nebraska Act

Two men from Illinois were hoping to be elected to the Senate of the United States. One was already in office and running for reelection. He was a well-known Senator who had proposed the idea of allowing “popular sovereignty” to decide whether or not slavery would be allowed in territories organized from the Louisiana Purchase. The other man was a relatively unknown lawyer from Springfield, Illinois, who had served one term in the House of Representatives.
Before the election the two men held a series of debates. Slavery was the main issue they discussed. While the first man won the election, the second man won national fame with his belief that slavery was a “wrong,” and his desire to limit slavery to those areas of the U.S. where it already existed. Two years later, the second man would be elected President of the United States.  

• John Brown's Raid
• Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Wilmost Proviso
• None of these are correct

This man was a member of the Republican Party, a party that was made up of people who wanted to abolish slavery or limit it to areas where it already existed. When he was elected President, the people of the South saw it as an attack by the North on their way of life.  

• Abraham Lincoln
• John C. Breckenridge
• John Brown
• Stephen Douglas

A radical abolitionist wanted to start a major slave revolt. He planned to arm slaves and help them win their freedom by killing their masters. To accomplish his goal he needed weapons, so he and his followers attacked and seized a government arsenal (a place where weapons are stored) in Virginia. The man hoped that slaves would hear of his attack and join him. He was wrong. No slave uprising took place, and the man and his followers were soon killed or captured. the man was put on trial, found guilty, and hanged. Abolitionists in the North looked on this man as a hero who gave his life for his cause. People in the South looked on this man, and anyone who supported him, as a villain. 

• Angeline Grimke
• John Brown
• Nat Turner
• Frederick Douglas

The Kansas-Nebraska Act angered many Northerners. They were unhappy with the two main political parties of the time, the Whigs and the Democrats, because neither party had taken a strong stand against allowing slavery in land that had previously been closed to slavery. They joined together to form a new political party. One of the main goals of moderates in this new party was to limit slavery to where it already existed. Some radical members of this party called for the complete abolition of slavery.  

• Constitutional Union
• Free-Soilers
• Know Nothings
• Republicans

Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act many people from both North and South began to move into the new territory of Kansas. Both sides, pro-slavery and anti-slavery, hoped to be able to gain a majority and win the vote as to whether or not Kansas would allow slavery when it became a state. The people on one side of this question obviously disliked people who held the opposite view. Eventually, fighting broke out between the two sides. In 1861 Kansas entered the Union as a “free” state, but in the meantime many people had been killed in the fighting.  

• Bloody Kansas
• John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry
• Nat Turner's Rebellion
• None of there are correct

Lincoln had been elected President. This meant that the people of the North, using their larger population, had elected a person who was a member of a party that was openly against slavery. To many people in the South this was unacceptable. Rather than accept this situation the government of South Carolina voted to secede from, or “quit,” the United States. Other southern states soon did the same thing.  

• Confederate States of America formed by seceding southern states 
• Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter
• Civil War begins
• None of these is correct.

A slave sued his owner hoping to win his freedom. He argued that since he had lived with his owner for a period of time in a territory that did not allow slavery, he should be a free person.
The case eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States. That court ruled that because he was a slave he was not a citizen of the U.S. and had none of the rights of a citizen. Because he was not a citizen he had no right to sue his owner, and so he must remain a slave
The Supreme Court went even further. It said that slaves were “property,” just like a cow or a wagon. It ruled that the government had no right to deny citizens of their property, and therefore slave owners could not be forbidden to take their slaves into any territories belonging to the United States. The individual states could outlaw slavery within their borders, but the territories of the U.S. must be open equally to all citizens. 

• Dred Scott v. Sanford
• Gibbons v. Ogden
• Marbury v. Madison
• McCulloch v. Maryland

California wanted to become a free state. People in the North wanted this, while people in the South were against it.
Finally, a solution was found. In return for allowing California to enter the Union as a “free” state, Congress passed a stronger Fugitive Slave Act to help the slave owners in the South. The remainder of the Mexican Cession was divided into two large territories, Utah and New Mexico. The people of these territories were to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery when their territories became states. This idea was called “popular sovereignty.”  

• Compromise of 1850
• Dred Scott Case
• Lincoln Douglas Debates
• Missouri Compromise

A book, a work of fiction, further divided North and South. The book portrayed slavery as an evil, and all slave owners as evil people who mistreated their slaves. Southerners were outraged by this book. Northerners mostly believed it gave a true picture of slavery. During the Civil War President Lincoln was introduced to Harriet Beecher Stowe, the person who wrote the book. He greeted her with the words, “...so this is the little lady who caused this great big war.”  

• The Liberator
• The North Star
• Roots
• Uncle Tom's Cabin