Causes of the Civil War

Why did the Mexican Cession intensify debates about slavery in the United States?

• Slavery was already permitted in these new territories, which went against the Missouri Compromise.

• The nation needed to decide whether slavery would be allowed in these new territories.

• The Wilmot Proviso allowed slavery in all territories gained by the Mexican Cession.

• The people in the Mexican Cession territories wanted slavery while the rest of the nation did not.

What was the main goal of the Free-Soil party?

• to abolish slavery

•  to ban slavery in farming regions

• to ban slavery in new western lands

• to allow slavery in new western lands

What did California’s request for admission to the Union as a free state cause John Calhoun to

threaten?

•  the secession of southern states

• the re-emergence of state nullification

• to ban slavery in new western lands

• to allow slavery in new western lands

What was one purpose of the Compromise of 1850?

•  to end the forced return of runaway enslaved African Americans

•  to allow California to enter the Union as a free state

•  to extend the slave trade in Washington, D.C.

•  to ban the slave trade between slave states

How did Uncle Tom’s Cabin affect attitudes toward slavery?

• It made southerners reflect upon how they treated enslaved people.

• t convinced northerners they could no longer ignore the moral issue of slavery.

• It made northerners more supportive of the Compromise of 1850.

• It made southerners more determined to secede from the Union.

The main reason that the South supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act was that the South

• supported Stephen Douglas.

• approved of popular sovereignty.

• hoped that Kansas would become a slave state.

• knew the act would not be enforced.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford stated that Congress did not have the power to

• protect free African Americans.

• outlaw slavery in the territories.

• outlaw the Missouri Compromise.

• return escaped enslaved African Americans.

The main goal of the new Republican Party in the 1850s was to

• eliminate slavery.

• replace the Whig Party.

• stop the spread of slavery.

• be a voice for the common person.

How did losing the Senate race in 1858 help Lincoln most?

• It drew attention to him and his views.

• It taught him how to conduct a campaign.

• It made it clear that he was a talented speaker.

• It allowed him to concentrate on a run for the presidency.

How did people react to John Brown’s raid?

• Most northerners supported his cause, but southerners thought he was dangerous.

• Most northerners and southerners thought his idea to lead a slave revolt was insane.

• Most southerners sympathized with his cause, but northerners thought he was insane.

• Both northerners and southerners sympathized with his cause, but thought the idea of a

  slave revolt was not practical.