AP U.S. HISTORY
Chapter 15 Reading Guide – The Gathering Storm
1. Drawing upon the events of the 1850s defend the assertion that “The
Wilmot Proviso . . . politicized slavery once and for all.
David Wilmot
Calhoun Resolutions
Fifth Amendment
Thomas Hart Benton
Popular Sovereignty
Lewis Cass
Stephen A. Douglas
Free-Soil coalition
2. In what way(s) does the formation of the Free-Soil Coalition suggest
the Civil War was not simply about the abolition of slavery?
Liberty Party
Barnburners
Hunkers
Conscience Whigs
3. Outline the provisions of the Compromise of 1850. Why was coincidence
a key factor in the success of this last plan by the “Great Compromiser?”
Millard Fillmore
Stephen A. Douglas
omnibus bill
Texas & New Mexico Act
Utah Act
Fugitive Slave Act
4. Why was the Fugitive Slave Law a Pyrrhic victory for the South?
5. What common theme runs through the foreign policy of the Pierce
Administration? How does U.S. diplomacy of the period reflect the
turmoil beneath the surface of our domestic affairs?
Young America
Ostend Manifesto
William Walker
Treaty of Wanghsia
Treaty of Tientsin
Matthew C. Perry
Treaty of Kanagawa
Townsend Harris
6. How did a plan for the construction of a transcontinental railroad revive
the controversy over slavery and provoke the Kansas-Nebraska crisis?
Gadsden Purchase
Stephen A. Douglas
popular sovereignty
Kansas-Nebraska Act
American Party
Republican Party
Bleeding Kansas
New England Emigrant
Aid Society
Beecher’s Bibles
“sack of Lawrence”
Pottawatomie Massacre
Charles Sumner
Preston S. Brooks
7. Why was the election of 1856 an ominous one for the future of the
Union?
John C. Fremont
James Buchanan
doughface democrat
8. How did the Dred Scott Case almost assure a civil war?
Roger B. Taney
Missouri Compromise
Alabama Platform
Compromise of 1850
9. Why did the Lecompton constitution have national political
implications?
Robert J. Walker
James Buchanan
10. How did the Panic of 1857 exacerbate the polarization of political opinion
in the U.S.?
11. Outline the events of 1858-60 which provoked a final break between North
and South. At what point did a civil war become inevitable?
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Freeport Doctrine
Ableman v. Booth
John Brown
Harper’s Ferry
12. What factors contributed to the election of Abraham Lincoln to the
presidency in 1860?
Helperism
Jefferson Davis
William Yancey
John C. Breckinridge
Constitutional Union
Party
John Bell
Stephen Douglas
13. Why were the last ditch efforts at compromise unsuccessful?
John Crittenden
Thomas Corwin