United States History: Unit Eight Worksheet
Fully answer the following using the course outline, your textbook, and your class notes.
1. Using the Wilmot Proviso and the Calhoun Resolutions, explain how the Mexican War precipitated the crisis of the
Union. What fundamental issue underlay this crisis?
2. How did the territorial issue influence the presidential election of 1848? What political parties were involved? Who
were the candidates? Who won?
3. How did President Zachary Taylor propose to settle the issue of slavery in the territories?
4. Describe the major components in Henry Clay’s Omnibus Bill. Who were the sectional winners and losers on each
point?
5. How was the crisis of 1850 resolved? (Be sure to give the specifics of Stephen A. Douglas’ strategy.)
6. Did the South make a good deal in the so called Compromise of 1850? Why?
7. Identify the following:
a) Popular/Squatter Sovereignty:
b) free-soil:
c) Fugitive Slave Law:
d) Georgia Platform:
e) filibustering expeditions:
8. Describe the origins of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. What state did Douglas represent in the Senate?
9. Describe the origins of the Republican Party.
10. Why is the term “Bleeding Kansas” applied to the events in Kansas Territory? (Be specific.) How did the violence in
Kansas spread to Washington?
11. Describe the candidates and platforms in the election of 1856. What did this contest say about the condition of
political parties in the United States in the late 1850s?
12. Explain the chief components in Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case. How did the North, particularly
Republicans, react? How did the South react?
13. How did northern reactions to John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry impact southern views of the North?
14. Identify the following:
a) Pottawatomie Creek Massacre:
b) Lecompton Constitution:
c) Charles Sumner:
d) “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men”:
e) John Brown:
15. Describe the Republican platform of 1860.
16. Describe the outcome of the election of 1860.
17. Why did southerners believe secession was a necessity? What role did Lincoln’s election play in increasing these
concerns?
18. Describe the main points in Lincoln's inaugural address.
19. Describe the events leading up to the conflict at Fort Sumter.
20. How did Lincoln respond to the firing on Fort Sumter? What impact did this have on the actions of the Upper South?
21. Describe Lincoln’s actions in his effort to hold on to the border states? Was he justified by circumstances in taking
these actions? What about constitutional restrictions on such actions?
22. Identify the following:
a) Abraham Lincoln:
b) Jefferson Davis:
c) William H. Seward:
d) Edwin M. Stanton:
23. What advantages did the North possess in its struggle with the South?
24. What advantages did the South possess in its struggle with the North?
25. Identify the following:
a) “Anaconda Strategy”:
b) Conscription Acts:
c) General Robert E. Lee:
d) General Ulysses S. Grant:
e) Antietam:
26. Trace the evolution of emancipation from the beginning of the war to the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment.
What role did the battle of Antietam play in this process? What was the role of war fatigue? Could it be said that the
Civil War began as a war against secession and ended as a war against slavery? Was the North morally more justified in
its war aims at the beginning of the war or at the end?
27. Identify the following:
a) Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation:
b) Emancipation Proclamation:
c) Radical Republicans:
28. Describe the impact of the Civil War on civil liberties in the North.
29. Describe the election of 1864 in the North.
30. Compare and contrast the governmental policies of the Lincoln and Davis administrations.
31. Identify the following:
a) Trent Affair:
b) General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson:
c) Gettysburg:
d) Vicksburg:
e) Sherman’s March to the Sea:
f) Appomattox: