The Country Splits

One way that “Bleeding Kansas,” the Dred Scott decision, and John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry had a similar effect on the United States was that these events

• Ended conflict over slavery in the territories
• Eased tensions between the North and South
• Contributed to the formation of the Whig Party
• Made sectional compromise more difficult

Passage of the Homestead Act and of legislation supporting the construction of transcontinental railroads demonstrated the federal government’s commitment to 

•  Limits on big business
• Settlement of Western territories
• Conservation of natural resources
• Equality for all immigrants

In the second half of the 1800’s, the federal government encouraged the building of transcontinental railroads by

• Giving land to the railroad companies
• Purchasing large amounts of railroad stock
• Forcing convicts to work as laborers
• Taking control of the railroad trust

The Missouri Compromise (1820), the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas – Nebraska Act (1854) were all efforts to

• End fighting between Midwestern farmers and Native American Indians
• Encourage manufacturing in the West
• Increase the number of people who voted in presidential elections
• Settle disputes over the spread of slavery to the western territories

Manifest Destiny was used to justify an American desire to

• Limit the number of immigrants entering the country
• Control the area located east of the Appalachian Mountains.
• Expand the US to the Pacific Ocean
• Warn European countries against colonizing Latin America

The foreign policies of President James Polk involving Texas, California and the Oregon Territory were all efforts to

• Remain neutral toward western territories
• Continue traditional American isolationism
• Weaken the Monroe Doctrine
• Fulfill the goal of Manifest Destiny

The Homestead Act (1862) attempted to promote development of western lands by

• Creating a system of dams for crops irrigation
• Providing free land to settlers
• Removing all restrictions on immigration
• Placing Native American Indians on reservations

In the mid – 1800s, the growth of the populations of California and the western territories was mainly a result of the

• Discovery of gold and silver
• Opening of the Panama Canal
• Migration of freedmen after the Civil War
• Secession of the Southern states

In the 1850’s, the phrase “Bleeding Kansas” was used to describe clashes between

• Proslavery and antislavery groups
• Spanish landowners and new American settlers
• Chinese and Irish railroad workers
• Native American Indians and white settlers

The publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, contributed to the start of the Civil War by

• Exposing the dangers of cotton manufacturing
• Intensifying Northern dislike of slavery
• Pressuring the president to support emancipation
• Convincing Congress to ban the importation of slaves