In their campaign for the Senate in 1858, the incumbent Democrat Stephen Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln conducted seven extended debates in different Illinois towns. The topics were their differences over slavery, with Douglas having long championed Popular Sovereignty, the idea a new state could vote on whether to be allow slavery, and Lincoln arguing that slavery should be contained in the places where it existed. Douglas won the Senatorial election, but Lincoln's profile was raised so much nationally he was able to win the Republican Nomination and then the Presidency in 1860.

In 1791 Congress passed an excise tax on whiskey at the encouragement of Alexander Hamilton. Many of the frontiersmen, who relied on the sale of whiskey, refused to pay the tax. Hamilton mobilized the militia, and the Whiskey Rebellion died a very quick death. One very important consequence of the Whiskey Rebellion, however, was the complete reversal of popular support in the Western States for the Federalist Party. Instead, they flocked to the Democratic-Republicans and remained largely loyal supporters for several electoral campaigns. 

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the federal government began initiating a policy of placing Native American tribes on reservations, a process accelerated by the passage of the Dawes Act in 1887. The Dawes Act had a stated goal of integrating Native American populations into American society, but largely it had the opposite effect. Thanks to reservations, Native Americans were separated from society, with Native populations being reduced and restricted to impoverished areas. Frequently, reservationism produced violent reprisals from Native Americans who were being forced into reservations.

The 1876 was conducted in the shadow of Republican Ulysses S. Grant's disastrous second term and the serious economic troubles that accompanied it. The election pitted Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio against Democratic Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York.  Tilden won the popular vote, but the Electoral College vote was contested. A deal was put in place to elect Hayes, but on the condition that Reconstruction end. This pulled troops out of the former Confederate states, rolling back African-American rights, enforcing a white supremacist order, and enacting Jim Crow Laws.

This, like the “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824, involves a very inflammatory election with backroom dealing. Unfortunately, this requires a foray into political science issues in order to fully understand the history issues at hand. To begin with, remember that we the people do not *technically* elect the President: the Electoral College does. And, in broad strokes, the Secretary of State of each state generally tells the Electoral College how their state voted (that is, for which candidate) by “certifying” the votes for the candidate of popular choice. In other words, if Candidate X won the highest number of votes in California, California’s Secretary of State would “certify” the votes from California for Candidate X, instructing the requisite electors to vote accordingly. In close elections, those certifications can become hot-button issues.

The election of 1876 was incredibly close, with Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican, facing off against Samuel Tilden, the Democrat. Towards the end of the race, three states had not yet certified their votes for either candidate—Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana—for a total of 20 “unclaimed” electoral votes. Without getting into needlessly complicated detail, both parties—that is, the Democrats and the Republicans—claimed that the votes were certified for their respective candidate. Thus, the Electoral College was confronted with a set of conflicting votes. In order to discover the winner, Congress decided to establish an “electoral commission” made up of 5 Senators, 5 Representatives, and 5 members of the Supreme Court. All members of the electoral commission voted along party lines, and thus Rutherford B. Hayes “won” the election (by winning the disputed votes). Historians suspect that Hayes engaged in some backroom dealing in order to mollify the Democrats (who were, by all accounts, absolutely livid). In any event, Hayes is elected in 1876 and Reconstructions ends the next year, when he takes office. 

This question is fairly difficult in the abstract, but given the answer choices, it is less difficult here. The election of 1876 involved the disputed votes of 3 states, which in total were worth 20 Electoral College votes. They were disputed because both the Democrats and Republicans claimed them—in other words, the Electoral College was confronted with 20 votes, all of which were claimed by BOTH parties. In order to resolve the discrepancy, the government decided to create an “electoral commission” in order to determine which candidate, Tilden or Hayes, actually won the 20 votes.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act led directly to what we now call “Bleeding Kansas.” Basically, because the K-N Act opened up the two territories to popular sovereignty, it invited all of the radicals in from both sides to storm the two territories. Bleeding Kansas was small-scale guerilla warfare in between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces on the borders of (and within) Kansas, as each faction fought to control Kansas—or at least to have enough of their own within the borders to tip it pro- or anti-slavery.

This is a deceptive question. Although your first instinct is to think that the Emancipation Proclamation immediately freed the slaves, that would be incorrect. The immediate effect of the Proclamation was nothing—the Proclamation was only issued to effect rebellious territories (the Confederacy, essentially). Lincoln, of course, had no power over the Confederacy (it would be like your little cousin/sister/brother telling you to give them $5). That said, the Proclamation basically turned Lincoln’s armies into forces of liberation—wherever they marched and took power, the Proclamation took effect (because it could be enforced at that point). 

The 1796 Presidential election was the first one that was actually hotly contested, coming after George Washington's decision not to seek a second term. His Vice President John Adams and his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson stood as the two main candidates, with their supporters developing into two clear parties. Adams' supporters, who preferred stronger relations with Great Britain and appealed to the businesses community, became known as the Federalists; Jefferson's supporters, who sought closer ties to the French Republic and favored planters and farmers, were styled the Democratic-Republicans.

Charles Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield on July 2, 1881, at the Sixth Street Station as Garfield was boarding a train, because Guiteau was dissatisfied that he did not receive a job in the Garfield Administration. Garfield would survive for two more months, but in an incapacitated state, and was replace by his Vice President Chester A. Arthur. Although Arthur benefited and promoted the "spoils system," giving influential positions to political supporters, he encouraged the Congress to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Acts in response to Guiteau's motivations. The Act required open applications and civil service exams for government positions.