Period 5: 1844–1877

"What the South now needs is peace, and peace can be secured by a policy of local self-government... The people of the South must be permitted to manage their own affairs in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."

— President Rutherford B. Hayes, Inaugural Address, 1877

Which of the following historical developments was a direct result of the policy advocated in the excerpt?

"We are in a state of terror here. The White League rides through our county every night, threatening the lives of all who vote the Republican ticket. On election day, armed men stood at the polls, and many of our people were too frightened to cast their ballots. The state government cannot protect us, and the federal troops have been withdrawn from our town."
— Letter from an anonymous African American citizen in Louisiana, 1876

Which of the following historical developments is best illustrated by the letter?

"We are to be subjected to the rule of our former slaves, directed by Northern adventurers. The acts of Congress dismantle our state governments and force us to ratify amendments that subvert the natural order of society by granting political equality to those who are completely unprepared for it."
— Editorial, *The Richmond Enquirer*, 1867

Which of the following Reconstruction-era measures was the author of the editorial most directly responding to?

Read the following excerpt from the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854:

'...when admitted as a State or States, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission...'

Which of the following principles was established by this legislation to determine the status of slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska territories?

Read the excerpt below and answer the question that follows.

"Remember Denmark Vesey of Charleston; remember Nathaniel Turner of Southampton... and remember that the stars and stripes are now the symbols of liberty and your only hope... Get an eagle on your button, a musket on your shoulder, and the spirit of God in your hearts, and success is yours."
— Frederick Douglass, "Men of Color, To Arms!", March 1863

The mobilization effort described in the excerpt was most directly enabled by which of the following federal actions?

"The Southern institution of slavery is not a system of oppression, but a paternal one. The master feels a natural interest in the welfare of his laborer, whom he must support in infancy, sickness, and old age. The Northern manufacturer, on the contrary, dismisses his workmen when they are sick or when business is dull, leaving them to starve or rely on public charity. Our system protects the laborer from the uncertainties of the market and ensures his lifelong security."
— From a Southern essay defending the institution of slavery, 1855

The ideas expressed in the passage best reflect which of the following arguments used by Southern defenders of slavery in the 1850s?

Read the excerpt below.

"I. The islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. Johns river, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States.
II. ...on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter to be established, no white person, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside..."
— Major General William T. Sherman, Special Field Orders No. 15, January 1865

Which of the following was a primary purpose of the military order excerpted above?

Read the excerpt below and answer the following question.

"Our country is a theater, which exhibits, in full operation, two radically different political systems; the one resting on the basis of servile or slave labor, the other on the basis of voluntary labor of freemen... The two systems are at once incongruous and incompatible... It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation."
— Senator William H. Seward, "The Irrepressible Conflict" speech, 1858

The opposing viewpoints described in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following developments in the 1850s?

“The treaty which shall terminate the war [with Mexico]... will introduce new territories into the Union... My opinion is, that the question of slavery in these territories should be left to the people who inhabit them. They are the ones who will be affected by its decision.”

— Lewis Cass, letter to Alfred P. Nicholson, 1847

Which of the following best describes the method proposed in the excerpt to address the sectional tensions arising from the Mexican-American War?

"We, the colored people of Kentucky, do most respectfully petition your honorable body. We are now free, by the power of the government and the victories of the Union armies. Yet we are still subject to the hostility of our former masters, who refuse to recognize our new status. We ask that the government which gave us freedom shall now secure to us the rights of citizens, including the right to testify in courts, to acquire property, and to vote. Without these protections, our freedom is but a shadow, and we remain at the mercy of those who held us in chains."
— Petition of colored citizens of Kentucky to the United States Congress, 1866

Which of the following developments during the immediate aftermath of the Civil War is most directly reflected in the petition?

"A claim for the immediate admission of senators and representatives from the so-called Confederate States... is based upon the assumption that the states lately in rebellion have never ceased to be states of the Union... But the committee are of the opinion that... the states which rebelled... forfeited all civil and political rights under the Constitution, and can only be restored upon such terms as Congress may prescribe."
— Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Majority Report, 1866

Which of the following was the most direct consequence of the perspective expressed in the excerpt?

"We, the colored citizens of South Carolina, in convention assembled, respectfully represent that a state of terror exists in this State... Armed clubs of the Democratic party ride through the country by day and night, threatening our lives and our livelihoods if we dare to vote the Republican ticket. The state authorities are unable or unwilling to protect us. We appeal to the federal government to execute the laws and protect us in the exercise of our constitutional rights."

— Petition of the Colored Citizens of South Carolina to the President and Congress, 1876

Which of the following developments in the post-Civil War South most directly contributed to the conditions described in the petition?

"Resolved, That the territories of the United States belong to the several States composing this Union, and are held by them as their joint and common property.

Resolved, That Congress, as the joint agent and representative of the States of this Union, has no right to make any law, or do any act whatever, which shall, directly or by its effects, make any discrimination between the States of this Union, by which any of them shall be deprived of its full and equal right in any territory of the United States acquired or to be acquired."

— John C. Calhoun, resolutions submitted to the United States Senate, 1847

Which of the following historical developments of the 1850s most directly reflected the constitutional principles advocated in the excerpt?

"We hear much of 'manifest destiny' in these days... If by this phrase is meant that we are to go on extending our borders, and expanding our territory, by force or by fraud, until we shall cover the whole continent... I, for one, must dissent... But if it means that our free institutions, our republican government, and our principles of liberty are to spread, not by the sword, but by the silent influence of example... then I heartily subscribe to the doctrine."

— Representative Robert C. Winthrop, Speech on the Oregon Question, 1846

Which of the following historical developments of the 1840s most directly contradicted the peaceful, example-based spread of American institutions advocated by Winthrop in the excerpt?

"We tell you, gentlemen of the South, that if you slide this platform [requiring a federal slave code] upon us, we will be defeated in every Northern State... You have had the administration, you have had the laws, you have had the court, and now you demand of us that we shall declare that to be right which we have always declared to be wrong. We will not do it. If you force this, you split the party and deliver the government to the Black Republicans."
—Delegate George E. Pugh of Ohio, speech at the Democratic National Convention, Charleston, South Carolina, April 1860

Which of the following historical developments in the year 1860 is best explained by the speech excerpted above?

Read the following excerpt from a Southern newspaper editorial published in November 1860:

"The election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency is a fact of the gravest significance... For the first time in our history, a political party, organized upon a single sectional principle and committed to the restriction of our domestic institutions, has succeeded in capturing the executive branch of the government. The South now stands in a position of permanent minority in a Union dominated by a Northern majority that has demonstrated its determination to ignore our constitutional rights."
—Editorial, *The Charleston Mercury*, November 1860

Which of the following historical developments of the 1850s most directly contributed to the anxieties expressed in the editorial?

President Ulysses S. Grant, Special Message to Congress, March 30, 1870:

'A measure of such importance the like of which has not occurred since the foundation of the Government has been completed. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States... completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life... It makes frame-work for a new empire of freedom, in which all men, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude, are placed upon an equality before the law.'

Which of the following was a direct political consequence of the ratification of the amendment described in the excerpt?

“The war... is a war against the free States, as well as against Mexico. It is a war to extend the slave power, to increase the number of slave States, and to give the South a permanent ascendancy in the councils of the Nation... The Whigs and Democrats have vied with each other in voting men and money for its prosecution... The people must speak out, and demand the immediate withdrawal of our troops.”

— Frederick Douglass, *The North Star*, January 21, 1848

The arguments expressed in the excerpt most directly led to which of the following political developments in the late 1840s?

Consider the following data from the United States presidential election of 1860:

The data in the table best supports which of the following conclusions about the political landscape on the eve of the Civil War?

"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."
— Frederick Douglass, speech in Philadelphia, 1863

Which of the following post-Civil War developments most directly realized the goal expressed by Douglass in the excerpt?