Answer:
1- The correct answer is A. John Brown was executed for his attempt to seize the arsenal at Harper's Ferry.
2- The correct answer is B. Kansas became a battleground for the issue of slavery because the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the territory to be organized according to popular sovereignty.
3- The correct answer is C. In his inaugural address, Lincoln declared that no state could lawfully leave the Union by its own action.
4- The correct answer is B. In the election of 1848, the major parties were forced to take a stand on slavery because of the rise of the Free Soil Party.
5- The correct answer is B. The Compromise of 1850 allowed slavery to continue in Washington DC, but slave trading was banned.
Explanation:
1- Brown rented a farm near Harpers Ferry (Virginia, now in West Virginia) with the aim of conquering an American army weapons repository. With only 21 men, much less than Brown had hoped, the group attacked the warehouse on October 16, 1859 and seized the town of Harpers Ferry. His plan was to distribute weapons and ammunition to slaves in the store, and to unleash an uprising, starting in Virginia. News of the attack reached Washington D.C. the following day, after which a unit of Marines under Robert E. Lee's command and local militia surrounded Brown and his men. A short meeting followed in which ten of Brown's men (including 2 of his sons) were killed. Seven others, including Brown himself, were imprisoned.
John Brown was then tried and found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging on December 2, 1859.
2- The events later known as Bleeding Kansas were a response to the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act motion that overturned the Missouri Compromise and sought to implement the concept of popular sovereignty. The inhabitants of each territory or state had to decide whether it would be a free or slave state, however, this resulted in the mass immigration to Kansas of activists on both sides. At one point, the territory of Kansas came to have two separate governments, each with its own constitution, although only one was recognized by the federal government.
3- Lincoln was elected on November 6, 1860, and before he took office, on March 4, 1861, seven Southern States had left the federation. In his inaugural address, Lincoln spoke directly to the secessionist states: “In your hand, my fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors". In the same speech he made clear his position regarding slavery in the South, stating that he didn't want to end slavery.
4- The Free Soil Party was a political party in the United States before the Civil War. The party took part in the US presidential election in 1848 and 1852. The party joined the Republican Party when it was formed in 1854.
5- The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five laws, adopted by the Congress, that pertained to slavery and territories that had fallen into American hands during the Mexican-American War. The sale of slaves, although not slavery, was banned in the capital as part of the Compromise.
