The Union Peril: 1848-1861Chapter 13 AMSCO

"It being desirable for the peace, concord, and harmony of the Union of these states to settle and adjust amicably all existing questions of controversy between them arising out of the institution of slavery upon a fair, equitable, and just basis .... "We are told now ... that the Union is threatened with subversion and destruction ... If the Union is to be dissolved for any existing causes, it will be dissolved because slavery is interdicted or not allowed to be introduced into the ceded territories, because slavery is threatened to be abolished in the District of Columbia, and because fugitive slaves are not returned ... to their masters ...."I am for staying within the Union and fighting for my rights."

-Henry Clay, Resolution on the Compromise of 1850, 1850.

To which politicians is Clay directing the last line of the excerpt?

• Southerners who were threatening to secede

• Senators such as Daniel Webster who rejected any

  compromise

• Advocates of popular sovereignty

• The president, Zachary Taylor

Which of the following parts of the Compromise of 1850 was the most appealing to the South?

• Admitting California as a free state

• Passing a new Fugitive Slave Law

• Ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C.

• Using popular sovereignty in new territories

Which of the following parts of the Compromise of 1850 was the most appealing to the North?

• Admitting California as a free state

• Passing a new Fugitive Slave Law

• Ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C.

• Using popular sovereignty in new territories

"Mr. President ... I proposed on Tuesday last that the Senate should proceed to the consideration of the bill to organize the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. Now I ask the friends and the opponents of this measure to look at it as it is. Is not the question involved the simple one, whether the people of the territories shall be allowed to do as they please upon the question of slavery, subject only to the limitations of the Constitution? ..."If the principle is right, let it be avowed and maintained. If it is wrong, let it be repudiated. Let all this quibbling about the Missouri Compromise, about the territory acquired from France, about the act of 1820, be cast behind you; for the simple question is-Will you allow the people to legislate for them-

selves upon the subject of slavery? Why should you not?"

-Stephen A. Douglas, Defense of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 1854.

Which of the following ideas is Douglas appealing to when he says, "whether the people of the territories shall be allowed to do as they please upon the question of slavery"?

• The Crittenden Compromise

• Popular sovereignty

• The right of secession

• The distinction between a territory and a state

An increase in which of the following was the key part of the Kansas-Nebraska Act to attract Southern support?

• Transportation in the South

• Popular sovereignty

• Fugitive Slave Act

• Representation in Congress

"And upon full and careful consideration ... Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States and not

entitled as such to sue in its courts ...."Upon these considerations it is the opinion of the court that the act of

Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the United States north of the line therein mentioned is not warranted by the Constitution and is therefore void .... "That it is now firmly settled by the decisions of the highest court in the

state that Scott and his family, upon their return, were not free, but were, by the laws of Missouri, the property of the defendant; and that the Circuit Court of the United States has no jurisdiction when by the laws of the state, the plaintiff was a slave and not a citizen."

-Roger B. Taney, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857.

Which of the following political groups had its efforts to find a compromise over slavery effectively ended by Taney's decision in the Dred Scott case?

• Whigs

• Free-Soil Party

• Constitution Union Party

• Northern Democrats

Northerners were most upset by the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision because

• the Court included no Republican Justices

• the decision allowed slavery in the territories

• several justices were slave owners

• blacks and whites were not treated equally

Which of the following acts of Congress was declared unconstitutional in the Dred Scott decision?

• Missouri Compromise of 1820

• Compromise of 1850

• Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Fugitive Slave Law