Quiz on The Mid-19th Century and Causes of the Civil War : 10 Multiple Choice Questions

The 1823 Monroe Doctrine was issued as part of James Monroe’s seventh State of the Union Address. John Quincy Adams, Monroe’s secretary of state, was one of the main authors. The doctrine was partly a response to the creation of the Holy Alliance in Europe, which consisted of Spain, France, and Russia. At the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, Spain and France wished to reclaim lost lands in the Western Hemisphere, and Russia sought to increase its holdings in the Pacific Northwest extending into Oregon Country. Prior to this, the United States had already recognized the independence of many of the former colonies. Hoping to retain the United States’ position as the leading power within the Western Hemisphere, Monroe issued the doctrine as a symbolic closing of the Americas to future European colonization or control. The Monroe Doctrine would be cited by James K. Polk as a reason to annex Texas over 20 years later, after it was discovered Britain might be interested in incorporating the territory. This widened the Monroe Doctrine to allow preemptive measures against perceived threats of European involvement in the Western Hemisphere.

Starting in the early 1800s, immigrants to the United States began leaving Europe in hopes of better opportunity and wages. Furthermore, crop failures throughout Europe, especially in Ireland, and politically repressive governments increased the number of people coming into the United States. The Industrial Revolution offered many factory jobs. Since the new arrivals to the country were often willing to work for lower wages, tensions began to grow with established workers. Nativist groups began to form and eventually formed a national party called the Know-Nothings.

While it is a commonly held myth that baseball was invented by Abner Double- day in New York, the sport actually can be traced back to an earlier English sport called rounders. The sport had been played in America since colonial times but evolved over time into new incarnations such as town ball. Alexander Cartwright further adjusted the rules to create the basis for what is now the modern game. Sports such as baseball became increas- ingly popular during the antebellum period as more people had access to leisure time. The popularity of sporting events was also increased by innovations such as the telegraph, which allowed newspapers to report on events from around the nation more quickly.

Internal improvements following the War of 1812 helped promote commerce among the various regions of the United States. The National or Cumberland Road con- nected the Ohio River Valley to the Eastern Seaboard. Canals and riverboats allowed west- ern goods to reach eastern markets more efficiently. Furthermore, agricultural goods could make it to cities, allowing urban areas to keep up with their growing size, while the northern cities could sell their manufactured goods to the West and South. Also, more raw materials could be supplied to northern factories.

Transcendentalism emerged during the early 19th century as an intellectual, philo- sophical, and literary movement (see chapter 7 question 199). Pragmatism was an intellec- tual movement that focused on practical approaches to understanding of knowledge. It was introduced by C. S. Peirce and William James during the late 19th century. The social gospel, an intellectual movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, applied Christian ideals to address social problems of the time period. “The Gospel of Wealth” was an essay written by Andrew Carnegie in 1889 describing the role of philanthropy within the new American upper class. Social Darwinism was a theory developed by philosophers such as Herbert Spen- cer in the late 19th century. It applied Darwinian theories to human society.

When Brigham Young and his followers first arrived in the area that is now Salt Lake City, it was a desolate region surrounded by mountains. The Great Salt Lake was useless as a water supply for drinking or irrigation. The Mormons had to build massive systems of irrigation from the surrounding mountains to be able to establish agriculture in the region. This made the area unlikely to attract future settlers, which was positive, since the Mormons had been chased from numerous locations in the East and the church’s founder had been killed by an angry mob when the church attempted to establish itself in Illinois.

The personal-liberty laws were established by several Northern states to help free blacks in the face of the Fugitive Slave Act, which was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. The laws limited use of prisons to hold accused fugitives, forcing bounty hunters to provide evidence that their captives were in fact fugitives, as well as providing for the rights of the accused. This was done so the Northern states would not have to invoke the notion of nullification.

The Compromise of 1850 was introduced by Henry Clay after tensions arose with the acquisition of new territories from Mexico. Under the Compromise of 1850, Texas gave up its claims to the land that is now New Mexico. The state was compensated with $10 million, which it could use to pay off debts it still owed from its separation from Mexico. Furthermore, the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would decide on slavery through popular sovereignty. The compromise also outlawed the slave trade in the District of Colombia, and California was admitted into the Union as a free state. The Fugitive Slave Act was also enacted as part of the legislation forcing citizens to assist in the return of runaway slaves seeking freedom in the North.

In 1846, a slave named Dred Scott attempted to sue his owner for freedom. He argued that his master took him to Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was illegal; Scott maintained that if he lived in a free state, he should gain the status of a free man. The court had to consider two key points: whether Scott was a citizen in the first place and whether residence in a free territory would gain Scott his freedom. The decision, written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, stated that blacks were not considered citizens and therefore did not have legal protection, including the right to sue. The ruling also stated that being in a free territory did not make a slave free, because it would violate the owner’s right to property, causing the Missouri Compromise to be deemed unconstitutional.

The Dred Scott decision, which was handed down in 1857 by Chief Justice Roger Taney, stated that African-Americans were not considered citizens under the Constitution and therefore did not have legal protection. See the asnswer to question 244 for more information on this case.