AMSCO AP US HISTORY LATEST EXAM TEST 2026/2027
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔Henry Clay - ✔✔He proposed the Compromise of 1850. (p. 249)
✔✔Zachary Taylor - ✔✔The twelfth president of the United States from 1849 to 1850.
He was a general and hero in the Mexican War. He was elected to the presidency in
1848, representing the Whig party. He died suddenly in 1850 and Millard Fillmore
became the president. (p 248, 249)
✔✔Compromise of 1850 - ✔✔Henry Clay proposed and it was signed into law by
President Millard Fillmore. It proposed:
* Admit California to the Union as a free state
* Divide the remainder of the Mexican Cession into New Mexico and Utah (popular
sovereignty)
* Give land in dispute between Texas and New Mexico to federal government in return
for paying Texas' public debt of 10 million
* Ban slave trade in D. C., but permit slaveholding
* New Fugitive Slave Law to be enforced
(p. 249)
✔✔Stephen A. Douglas - ✔✔In 1854, he devised the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which in
effect overturned the Missouri Compromise, and allowed the South the opportunity to
expand slavery.
In 1858, he debated Abraham Lincoln in a famous series of seven debates in the
campaign for the Illinois senate seat. He won the campaign for reelection to the Senate,
but he alienated Southern Democrats.
In 1860, he won the Democratic presidential nomination, but Southern Democrats
nominated their own candidate, John Breckinridge. He was easily defeated by Abraham
Lincoln in the presidential election that year. (p. 252, 256, 258)
✔✔Millard Fillmore - ✔✔The thirteenth president of the United States, serving from
1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold that office. He was the
second Vice President to become president upon the death of a sitting President,
succeeding Zachary Taylor. As vice president he helped pass the Compromise of 1850.
(p. 249, 255)
✔✔Kansas-Nebraska Act - ✔✔This 1854 act, sponsored by Senator Stephen A
Douglas, would build a transcontinental railroad through the central United States. In
order gain approval in the South, it would divide the Nebraska territory into Nebraska
and Kansas and allow voting to decide whether to allow slavery. This increased regional
tensions because it effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had already
determined that this area would not allow slavery. (p. 252)
,✔✔Crittenden compromise - ✔✔In the winter of 1860-1861, Senator John Crittenden
proposed a constitutional amendment to appease the South. He proposed that slavery
would be allowed in all areas south of the 36 30 line. The Republicans rejected the
proposal because it would allow extension of slavery into the new territories. (p. 260)
✔✔Franklin Pierce - ✔✔The fourteenth President of the United States from 1853 to
1857. A Democrat from New Hampshire, he was acceptable to Southern Democrats
because he supported the Fugitive Slave Law. (p. 252)
✔✔Know-Nothing party - ✔✔This political party started in the mid-1850s. Also known as
the American party, they were mostly native-born Protestant Americans. Their core
issue was opposition to Catholics and immigrants who were entering Northern cities in
large numbers. (p. 254)
✔✔Republican party - ✔✔This political party formed in 1854, in response to the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It was composed of a coalition of Free-Soilers,
antislavery Whigs, and Democrats. Although not abolitionist, it sought to block the
spread of slavery in the territories. (p. 254)
✔✔John C. Fremont - ✔✔In the presidential election of 1856, this California senator
was the Republican nominee. The Republican platform called for no expansion of
slavery, free homesteads, and a probusiness protective tariff. He lost the election to
James Buchanan, but won 11 of the 16 free states, which foreshadowed the emergence
of a powerful Republican party. (p. 255)
✔✔James Buchanan - ✔✔The fifteenth President of the United States from 1857 to
1861. He tried to maintain a balance between proslavery and antislavery factions, but
his moderate views angered radicals in both North and South, and he was unable to
forestall the secession of South Carolina to December 20, 1860. During his term:
"Bleeding Kansas" (1856), Caning of Senator Sumner (1856), Lecompton Constitution
(1857), Dred Scott case (1857) (p. 255)
✔✔election of 1860 - ✔✔In this presidential election, the Republican candidate,
Abraham Lincoln won. Lincoln won all the northern states, while John C. Breckinridge, a
South Democrat won all the southern states. The South felt like it no longer had a voice
in national politics and a number of states soon seceded from the Union. (p. 258)
✔✔sucession - ✔✔The election of Abraham Lincoln was the final event that caused the
southern states to leave the Union. In December 1860, South Carolina voted
unanimously to secede. Within the next six weeks Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas had all seceded. In February 1861, representatives of
seven states met in Montgomery, Alabama to create the Confederate States of
America. (p. 259)
, ✔✔Fugitive Slave Law - ✔✔Congress passed a second version of this law in 1850. The
law's chief purpose was to track down runaway slaves who had escaped to a Northern
state, capture them, and return them to their Southern owners. Enforcement of the law
in the North was sometimes opposed even though there were penalties for hiding a
runaway slave or obstructing enforcement of the law. (p. 250)
✔✔Underground Railroad - ✔✔A network of people who helped thousands of enslaved
people escape to the North by providing transportation and hiding places. (p. 250)
✔✔Harriet Tubman - ✔✔Born a slave, she escaped to the North and became the most
renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading more than 300 slaves to
freedom. (p. 250)
✔✔Dred Scott v. Sandford - ✔✔An 1857 Supreme Court case, in which Chief Justice
Roger Taney ruled that African Americans (free or slave), were not citizens of the
United States, that Congress could not exclude slavery from any federal territory, and
that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The ruling delighted Southern
Democrats and infuriated Northern Republicans. (p. 255)
✔✔Roger Taney - ✔✔He was a Southern Democrat and chief justice of the Supreme
Court during the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. (p. 255)
✔✔Abraham Lincoln - ✔✔He was elected president of the United States in 1860. He
was a Republican, who ran on a platform that appealed to those in the North and the
West. It called for the exclusion of slavery in the new territories, a protective tariff for
industry, free land for homesteaders, and a railroad to the Pacific. (p. 258)
✔✔Lincoln-Douglas debates - ✔✔In 1858, Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln had
seven debates in the campaign for the Illinois senate seat. Lincoln was not an
abolitionist, but he attacked Douglas's seeming indifference to slavery as a moral issue.
Although Lincoln lost the election to Douglas, he emerged as a national figure and
leading contender for the Republican nomination for president. (p. 256)
✔✔house-divided speech - ✔✔The speech given by Abraham Lincoln when accepting
the Republican nomination for the Illinois senate seat. He said, "This government
cannot endure permanently half slave and half free". (p. 256)
✔✔Freeport Doctrine - ✔✔Doctrine developed by Stephen Douglas that said slavery
could not exist in a community if the local citizens did not pass laws (slave codes)
maintaining it. This angered Southern Democrats. (p. 257)
✔✔Sumner-Brooks incident - ✔✔This incident took place in 1856, when Congressman
Preston Brooks severely beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. The attack
occurred in the Senate chamber, after Sumner gave a vitriolic speech, "The Crime
Against Kansas". (p. 254)
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔Henry Clay - ✔✔He proposed the Compromise of 1850. (p. 249)
✔✔Zachary Taylor - ✔✔The twelfth president of the United States from 1849 to 1850.
He was a general and hero in the Mexican War. He was elected to the presidency in
1848, representing the Whig party. He died suddenly in 1850 and Millard Fillmore
became the president. (p 248, 249)
✔✔Compromise of 1850 - ✔✔Henry Clay proposed and it was signed into law by
President Millard Fillmore. It proposed:
* Admit California to the Union as a free state
* Divide the remainder of the Mexican Cession into New Mexico and Utah (popular
sovereignty)
* Give land in dispute between Texas and New Mexico to federal government in return
for paying Texas' public debt of 10 million
* Ban slave trade in D. C., but permit slaveholding
* New Fugitive Slave Law to be enforced
(p. 249)
✔✔Stephen A. Douglas - ✔✔In 1854, he devised the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which in
effect overturned the Missouri Compromise, and allowed the South the opportunity to
expand slavery.
In 1858, he debated Abraham Lincoln in a famous series of seven debates in the
campaign for the Illinois senate seat. He won the campaign for reelection to the Senate,
but he alienated Southern Democrats.
In 1860, he won the Democratic presidential nomination, but Southern Democrats
nominated their own candidate, John Breckinridge. He was easily defeated by Abraham
Lincoln in the presidential election that year. (p. 252, 256, 258)
✔✔Millard Fillmore - ✔✔The thirteenth president of the United States, serving from
1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold that office. He was the
second Vice President to become president upon the death of a sitting President,
succeeding Zachary Taylor. As vice president he helped pass the Compromise of 1850.
(p. 249, 255)
✔✔Kansas-Nebraska Act - ✔✔This 1854 act, sponsored by Senator Stephen A
Douglas, would build a transcontinental railroad through the central United States. In
order gain approval in the South, it would divide the Nebraska territory into Nebraska
and Kansas and allow voting to decide whether to allow slavery. This increased regional
tensions because it effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had already
determined that this area would not allow slavery. (p. 252)
,✔✔Crittenden compromise - ✔✔In the winter of 1860-1861, Senator John Crittenden
proposed a constitutional amendment to appease the South. He proposed that slavery
would be allowed in all areas south of the 36 30 line. The Republicans rejected the
proposal because it would allow extension of slavery into the new territories. (p. 260)
✔✔Franklin Pierce - ✔✔The fourteenth President of the United States from 1853 to
1857. A Democrat from New Hampshire, he was acceptable to Southern Democrats
because he supported the Fugitive Slave Law. (p. 252)
✔✔Know-Nothing party - ✔✔This political party started in the mid-1850s. Also known as
the American party, they were mostly native-born Protestant Americans. Their core
issue was opposition to Catholics and immigrants who were entering Northern cities in
large numbers. (p. 254)
✔✔Republican party - ✔✔This political party formed in 1854, in response to the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It was composed of a coalition of Free-Soilers,
antislavery Whigs, and Democrats. Although not abolitionist, it sought to block the
spread of slavery in the territories. (p. 254)
✔✔John C. Fremont - ✔✔In the presidential election of 1856, this California senator
was the Republican nominee. The Republican platform called for no expansion of
slavery, free homesteads, and a probusiness protective tariff. He lost the election to
James Buchanan, but won 11 of the 16 free states, which foreshadowed the emergence
of a powerful Republican party. (p. 255)
✔✔James Buchanan - ✔✔The fifteenth President of the United States from 1857 to
1861. He tried to maintain a balance between proslavery and antislavery factions, but
his moderate views angered radicals in both North and South, and he was unable to
forestall the secession of South Carolina to December 20, 1860. During his term:
"Bleeding Kansas" (1856), Caning of Senator Sumner (1856), Lecompton Constitution
(1857), Dred Scott case (1857) (p. 255)
✔✔election of 1860 - ✔✔In this presidential election, the Republican candidate,
Abraham Lincoln won. Lincoln won all the northern states, while John C. Breckinridge, a
South Democrat won all the southern states. The South felt like it no longer had a voice
in national politics and a number of states soon seceded from the Union. (p. 258)
✔✔sucession - ✔✔The election of Abraham Lincoln was the final event that caused the
southern states to leave the Union. In December 1860, South Carolina voted
unanimously to secede. Within the next six weeks Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas had all seceded. In February 1861, representatives of
seven states met in Montgomery, Alabama to create the Confederate States of
America. (p. 259)
, ✔✔Fugitive Slave Law - ✔✔Congress passed a second version of this law in 1850. The
law's chief purpose was to track down runaway slaves who had escaped to a Northern
state, capture them, and return them to their Southern owners. Enforcement of the law
in the North was sometimes opposed even though there were penalties for hiding a
runaway slave or obstructing enforcement of the law. (p. 250)
✔✔Underground Railroad - ✔✔A network of people who helped thousands of enslaved
people escape to the North by providing transportation and hiding places. (p. 250)
✔✔Harriet Tubman - ✔✔Born a slave, she escaped to the North and became the most
renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading more than 300 slaves to
freedom. (p. 250)
✔✔Dred Scott v. Sandford - ✔✔An 1857 Supreme Court case, in which Chief Justice
Roger Taney ruled that African Americans (free or slave), were not citizens of the
United States, that Congress could not exclude slavery from any federal territory, and
that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The ruling delighted Southern
Democrats and infuriated Northern Republicans. (p. 255)
✔✔Roger Taney - ✔✔He was a Southern Democrat and chief justice of the Supreme
Court during the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. (p. 255)
✔✔Abraham Lincoln - ✔✔He was elected president of the United States in 1860. He
was a Republican, who ran on a platform that appealed to those in the North and the
West. It called for the exclusion of slavery in the new territories, a protective tariff for
industry, free land for homesteaders, and a railroad to the Pacific. (p. 258)
✔✔Lincoln-Douglas debates - ✔✔In 1858, Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln had
seven debates in the campaign for the Illinois senate seat. Lincoln was not an
abolitionist, but he attacked Douglas's seeming indifference to slavery as a moral issue.
Although Lincoln lost the election to Douglas, he emerged as a national figure and
leading contender for the Republican nomination for president. (p. 256)
✔✔house-divided speech - ✔✔The speech given by Abraham Lincoln when accepting
the Republican nomination for the Illinois senate seat. He said, "This government
cannot endure permanently half slave and half free". (p. 256)
✔✔Freeport Doctrine - ✔✔Doctrine developed by Stephen Douglas that said slavery
could not exist in a community if the local citizens did not pass laws (slave codes)
maintaining it. This angered Southern Democrats. (p. 257)
✔✔Sumner-Brooks incident - ✔✔This incident took place in 1856, when Congressman
Preston Brooks severely beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. The attack
occurred in the Senate chamber, after Sumner gave a vitriolic speech, "The Crime
Against Kansas". (p. 254)
