Review Questions

1. Question

   How might the Compromise of 1850 have eased sectional tensions? (“The Bitter Fruits of War”)

2. Question

   Why did the Compromise of 1850 fail to achieve sectional peace? (“The Sectional Balance Undone”)

3. Question

   Why did the Whig Party disintegrate in the 1850s? (“Realignment of the Party System”)

4. Question

   Why did the Dred Scott decision strengthen northern suspicions of a “Slave Power” conspiracy? (“Freedom under Siege”)

5. Question

   Why were the states of the Lower and Upper South divided on the question of secession during the winter of 1860–61? (“The Union Collapses”)