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Difficulty: EasyMexican-American War and Sectional Tension

“Sir, the day that the balance between the two sections of the country—the slaveholding States and the non-slaveholding States—is destroyed, is a day that will not be far distant from the dissolution of the Union.”
— Senator John C. Calhoun, speech in the Senate, 1847

Which of the following historical developments during the late 1840s best explains the anxiety expressed by Calhoun in the excerpt?

  1. A
    The passage of federal protective tariffs that Southern leaders argued was the primary threat to the Union's survival
  2. B
    The belief that the executive branch held the sole constitutional power to decide the slave status of new territories
  3. The acquisition of new territory from the Mexican-American War, which reopened debates over the expansion of slaveryAnswer
  4. D
    The immediate collapse of the Southern plantation economy due to the growth of Northern industrial manufacturing

Answer

The acquisition of new territory from the Mexican-American War, which reopened debates over the expansion of slavery
The correct answer is correct because the acquisition of territory from the Mexican Cession after the Mexican-American War reopened the intense political debate over whether slavery would be allowed to expand westward, directly threatening the balance between free and slave states in the Senate.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the context of the quote, noting the speaker and the date.
Identify that the statement reflects Southern anxieties about losing political balance and power in the federal government in 1847.
Understanding the timeline helps narrow down the specific historical event driving the sectional tension.
2
Evaluate the major historical events occurring around 1847 related to territorial expansion.
Recognize that the Mexican-American War was ending, leading to the acquisition of the Mexican Cession.
The acquisition of new land forced the nation to address whether new states would enter the Union as free or slave states.
3
Connect the acquisition of territory to the concept of sectional balance.
Conclude that the prospect of adding new free states threatened the equal representation of slave states in the Senate, which Calhoun feared would lead to the dissolution of the Union.
This directly matches Calhoun's concern about the destruction of the balance between the two sections.

Key Concept

The acquisition of territory from the Mexican-American War escalated sectional tensions by reopening debates over the expansion of slavery and the political balance in Congress.
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Mexican-American War and Sectional Tension

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