Download Unit 9 Pulse Check

Unit 9 “Pulse Check” Sample Items
1. Which of the following quotes best reflects the eras of Sectionalism?
A. “The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterityunlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.
B. “For the benefit of the whole country we need to focus on our nation’s interests instead of what is best for our
region.”
C. “The people are the government, administering it by their agents; they are the government, the sovereign power.
D. “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we
destroyed ourselves.”
1.
2.
3.
4.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Missouri Compromise
Compromise of 1850
Nullification Crisis
2. Which sequence correctly orders the events chronologically?
A.
B.
C.
D.
1,2,3,4
3,2,1,4
2,4,3,1
4,3,2,1
3. How did U.S. tariff policies contribute to sectionalism prior to the Civil War?
A. Northern states benefited from tariffs, while Southern states considered them an economic burden.
B. Western states wanted tariffs to pay for improved infrastructure, while Northern states wanted to reduce the
national debt.
C. Northern states gained European investment in industry, while Southern plantations had to rely on trade with
Latin America.
D. Southern states benefited from tariffs on raw materials, while Northern and Western states disapproved of
higher prices for imports.
4. How did both the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 contribute to differences between free and
enslaved African Americans?
A. The institution of slavery was allowed in some new states while other states allowed freedom for African
Americans.
B. Both compromises expanded rights for enslaved African Americans, but limited the rights of free African
Americans in new free states.
C. Free African Americans gained new rights to vote and hold office in new free states while enslaved African
Americans lacked any rights.
D. Both compromises limited the spread of slavery to east of the Mississippi River, allowing enslaved African
Americans who escaped slavery to gain their freedom and political rights in free states.
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Unit 9 “Pulse Check” Sample Items
5. These data could be used to support which conclusion?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Gulf Coast states had to rely on steamboats to transport goods.
States in the lower South had more land devoted to plantations.
Border states had to import needed raw materials.
States in the upper South were heavily industrialized.
6. Which of the following was a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Fighting broke out between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups in Kansas.
Kansas entered the Union as a slave state through popular sovereignty in 1856.
Nebraskan settlers who supported abolition moved to Kansas.
The boundary established by the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was extended farther South.
The great and leading principle is, that the General Government emanated from the people of the several States,
forming distinct political communities, and acting in their separate and sovereign capacity, and not from all of the
people forming one aggregate political community; that the Constitution of the United States is, in fact, a compact, to
which each State is a party, in the character already described; and that the several States, or parties, have a right to
judge of its infractions; and in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of power not delegated, they
have the right, in the last resort, to use the language of the Virginia Resolutions, “to interpose for arresting the
progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties
appertaining to them.”
-Vice President John C. Calhoun, “The Fort Hill Address,” July 1831
7. How did the ideas expressed by Vice President Calhoun contribute to the outbreak of the Civil War?
A.
B.
C.
D.
He claims the Constitution only applies to the national government.
He claims the state government has the right to reject federal laws.
He claims the federal government does not have the power to regulate slavery.
He claims individuals formed the national government and they can vote to change the rights and liberties the
government protects.
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Unit 9 “Pulse Check” Sample Items
8. Which constitutional issue was President Lincoln addressing in this excerpt?
A.
B.
C.
D.
The right of citizens to choose representatives
The power of states to organize militias
The unalienable rights of citizens
The legal ability of states to secede
9. Which of the following reversed the Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford?
A.
B.
C.
D.
The Dawes Act
The Fourteenth Amendment
The Compromise of 1877
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
10. Which of the following was a result of the Missouri Compromise?
A.
B.
C.
D.
The slave trade ended.
Slavery was declared unconstitutional.
Only slave states were admitted into the Union.
Political power was balanced between slave and free states.
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Unit 9 “Pulse Check” Sample Items
11. These headlines refer to the decision in which Supreme Court case?
A.
B.
C.
D.
McCulloch v. Maryland
Gibbons v. Ogden
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Worcester v. Georgia
12. These speakers are debating an issue that eventually became known as theA.
B.
C.
D.
Monroe Doctrine
Missouri Compromise
Nullification Crisis
Three-Fifths Compromise
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13. Which statement best explains the changes shown in this table?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Slaves from the Upper South were moved to the Lower South to work on cotton plantations.
The Upper South experienced an agricultural labor shortage in the antebellum period.
Slaves were transferred from the Lower South to the Upper South to work in newly built factories.
The Lower South lost population as settlers migrated west to establish new plantations.
14. Based on the headline from this Kansas territory newspaper in 1855, what is the territory trying to decide?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Whether they will become a “Dry State” per the Kansas Nebraska Act.
Whether they will become an “Industrial State” per the Kansas Nebraska Act
Whether they will become a “Free/Slave” per the Kansas Nebraska Act
Whether they will become a “New Country” per the Kansas Nebraska Act
15. How did many Southern slaveholders view the issue of slavery?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Slavery was an economic issue and necessary to maintain the South’s way of life.
Slavery was considered immoral and should be abolished.
Slavery was considered a historical tradition that should be maintained to keep cultural ties with the past.
As a source of controversy, slavery was considered a political problem the federal government should solve.
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Unit 9 “Pulse Check” Sample Items
”He has been the great compromiser of those political agitations and opposing opinions which
have, in the belief of thousands, at different times, endangered the perpetuity of our Federal
Government and Union.”
Senator Joseph Underwood,
Speech before the Senate on the occasion of Sentaro Henry Clay’s death,
July 1852
16. How did the actions of Henry Clay influence national policy?
A. He endangered the Union through letters to newspapers, advocating the abolition of slavery.
B. He increased tensions between Northern and Southern states, boldly advocating states’ rights.
C. He reduced sectional conflict through legislation that balanced the concerns of people on both sides of the
issue of slavery.
D. He developed a process for admitting territories into the Union allowing democracy to spread quickly across
western states.
17. Which of the following quotes best represents John C. Calhoun’s opinion on states’ rights?
A. “I feel in the depths of my soul that it is the highest, most sacred, and most irreversible part of my obligation to
preserve the union of these states, although it may cost me my life.”
B. “The Constitution and the laws are supreme and the Union indissoluble.”
C. “The Union is older than any of the states, and in fact, it created them as States. Not one of them ever had a
State constitution independent of the Union.”
D. “The great and leading principle is, that the General Government [came] from the people of several States,
forming distinct political communities, and acting in their separate sovereign capacity.”
We think they [people of African ancestry] are . . . not included, and were
not intended to be included, under the word “citizens” in the Constitution,
and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that
instrument provided for and secures to citizens of the United States.
18. This excerpt is taken from the landmark U.S. Supreme Court caseA.
B.
C.
D.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Marbury v. Madison
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Gibbons v. Ogden
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19. What was one result of the law described above?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Northerners who believed the law was unfair began to support the abolitionist movement.
Religious groups left the abolitionist movement to avoid political controversy
Southerners used the law to challenge the constitutionality of abolitionist goals
Abolitionist societies began to focus their efforts on promoting women’s suffrage
20. What as the primary goal of the Missouri Compromise?
A.
B.
C.
D.
to maintain the balance of power between “industrial” and “agrarian” states in Congress.
to maintain the balance of power between “free” and “slave” states in Congress.
to make the number states in the United States even.
to ensure there was enough land to create an American Indian reservation.
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