Chapter 15: The Coming Crisis, the 1850s

Self-Study Quiz: Pretest

To receive instant feedback for this self-study quiz, click the Check Answers button. Self-study quizzes are not recorded in your course gradebook, and you may take them as many times as you like. These questions are specific to your textbook and have been provided to reinforce chapter materials.

This activity contains 15 questions.

Between 1800 and 1850, the United States had:

doubled in size.tripled the number of states.doubled real per capita income.tripled in population.

Disagreements over slavery split all of the following into northern and southern groups except:

the Presbyterians.the Catholics.the Methodists.the Baptists.

The doctrine of states' rights was based on:

the legitimate rights on a minority were protected in a democracy.equal participation in the expansion of the United States.the idea that the rights of the states were greater than that of the federal government.states could nullify federal laws.

The Compromise of 1850:

admitted California to the Union as a free state.required Texas to cede land to Indian Territory.prohibited slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase Territory north of the Missouri Compromise line.ended slavery in the District of Columbia.

The architect of the passage of the Compromise of 1850 was:

John C. Calhoun.Daniel Webster.Henry Clay.Stephen Douglas.

	The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 guaranteed captured African Americans an opportunity to testify in their own defense at a federal hearing.

	True False

Who proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

James BuchananJohn C. BreckinridgeJohn BrownStephen A. Douglas

In 1856, the Free Soilers and the Border Ruffians fought over the issue of:

the right of citizens to openly criticize their government.popular sovereignty over slavery.the ability of the federal government to decide the slavery issue.the rights of foreign immigrants.

What political party formed in 1850 to give political expression to anti-immigrant feeling?

American PartyFree-Soil PartyWhig PartyLiberty Party

	President James Buchanan ran into political trouble for openly breaking with the Southern wing of the Democratic Party.

	True False

President Buchanan's most disastrous mistake was:

endorsing the proslavery constitution.pressuring a Supreme Court judge to support the majority in the Dred Scott decision.ignoring the panic of 1857.endorsing the free-soil constitution in Kansas.

All of the following were used by northerners to show that a "slave power" conspiracy against free men existed except:

Keeping power in the Senate balanced with equal numbers of slave and free states.The Secret Six.The Fugitive Slave Law.The Dred Scott decision.

	Neither Lincoln's northern Republicans nor Breckenridge's southern Democrats campaigned outside their own sections of the country.

	True False

Which candidate in the 1860 election is NOT correctly paired with his position on slavery?

Douglas: Popular sovereignty decides where slavery shall exist in the territories.Bell: Extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific.Lincoln: Exclusion of slavery from the territories.Breckinridge: Extension of slavery into the territories.

	Seven states from the Lower South seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama in early 1861.

	True False

The Submit Answers for Grading feature requires scripting to function. Your browser either does not support scripting or you have turned scripting off.

So, the Submit Answers for Grading button below will not work.

The following Submit Answers for Grading button is provided in its place and will clear your answers:
The Clear Answers and Start Over feature requires scripting to function. Your browser either does not support scripting or you have turned scripting off.

So, the Clear Answers and Start Over button below will not work.

The following Clear Answers button is provided in its place and will clear your answers:

Your browser either does not support scripting or you have turned scripting off. Because of this, the answer choices will NOT appear in a different order each time the page is loaded, though that is mentioned below. Note that you do not need this feature to use this site.

Answer choices in this exercise appear in a different order each time the page is loaded.