Nullification and Secession (8-4.3 & 8-4.4)

Each time a new state was added to the United States prior to the Civil War, it was debated whether it would allow slavery or be a free state. Which of the following best describes why South Carolina was so interested in these new states?

• If the government outlawed slavery in the new states, it wouldn’t be long before the government made the practice illegal in SC.

• SC felt that it could help the new states thrive economically.

• SC did not want the new states taking away its supply of slaves.

• Many people in SC were planning to head west and move to the new states.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 established the southern boundary of Missouri as an important political divider. According to the compromise, what did this line divide?

• Agricultural and industrial states.
• Established states and unorganized territories.
• Confederate states and Union states.
• New slave states and new free states.

Written by John C. Calhoun in 1828, the South Carolina Exposition and Protest fueled the Nullification Crisis by arguing that a state could:

• Void (veto) a federal law.

• Maintain its own armed forces.

• Pass its own tariff laws.

• Establish its own schools.

In 1828, Andrew Jackson supported a tariff (or tax) on materials arriving from Europe. This tariff sparked the Nullification Crisis because it helped the industrial states in the North, but hurt the economy of the South.

Which of the following describes Vice-President John C. Calhoun’s view on the Nullification Crisis?

• Calhoun believed that it was okay for an individual state to nullify (or void) a law, so long as the state had received approval from the federal government before the law was passed.

• Calhoun believed that individual states should be able to nullify (or void) federal laws if the laws were damaging to the state.

• Calhoun believed that the public should be able to vote on certain laws, and the law should be nullified (or voided) if the majority was against it.

• Calhoun believed that it would break apart the Union if one state decided that it was going to nullify (or void) a federal law.

During the Nullification Crisis of the 1830s, South Carolinians were divided into two groups—“the Nullifiers” and “the Unionists.” What was the major difference between the two groups?

• The Nullifiers wanted to abolish slavery; the Unionists wanted to continue to use slave labor.

• The Nullifiers wanted to support President Andrew Jackson; the Unionists wanted to support Vice-President John C. Calhoun.

• The Nullifiers wanted to opposed the federal government; the Unionists wanted to support the federal government.

• The Nullifiers wanted South Carolina to become an industrial state; the Unionists wanted South Carolina to remain an agricultural state.

Historians often note that the Compromise of 1850 delayed the Civil War in the United States for an entire decade. The Compromise eased tensions dealing with which of the following issues?

• Border disputes with Mexico.

• Rising industry in the North.

• Declining agriculture in the South.

• The institution of slavery.

One of the most controversial parts of the Compromise of 1850 was the Fugitive Slave Law. South Carolinians supported this law, but it angered people in the North because it did which of the following?

• Protected the right of southern slave owners to travel north into the free states to recover a runaway slave.

• Forced citizens in the North to provide housing and assistance to a slave who had run away from his home in the South.

• Allowed southern slave owners to expand the use of slavery into the northern states.

• Provided southern slave owners a new slave (paid for mainly by taxes collected in the North) if one of his slaves ran away to a free state.

Which of the following best describes the way the leaders of South Carolina felt about the issue of States’ Rights in the decades prior to the Civil War?

• They didn’t want the federal government to interfere with the laws of the state.

• They believed that the laws in one state should apply to the rest of the states in the nation.

• They believed that the state government should keep tight control over its citizens.

• They believed that the nation’s more populated states should make all of the major decisions.

One of the most controversial parts of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was that it allowed the public in a certain area to vote on whether or not to allow slavery. This concept, introduced by Senator Stephen Douglas, was known as:

• Popular Sovereignty.

• Lincoln-Douglas Debate.

• Ordinance of Secession.

• The Dred Scott Decision.

In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that a slave could not sue for his own freedom, even if he lived in a free state. This was because a slave was not considered an American citizen and had no protection under the law.

This historical Supreme Court case is known as:

• Roe vs. Wade.

• Plessy vs. Ferguson.

• Dred Scott vs. Sanford.

• Brown vs. Board of Education.