Period 4: 1800–1848

"The cotton of the South is transported to the factories of New England by Northern ships, where it is converted into cloth, much of which is sent back to the South or to the West to clothe the families of those who till the soil. In this manner, the different sections of our Union are bound together by the strong ties of mutual interest and dependence."

— New England industrial report, 1836

Which of the following historical processes from 1800 to 1848 best explains the economic relationship described in the excerpt?

“The Americans have applied to the relations of the sexes the great principle of political economy which governs the manufactures of our age, by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of woman, in order that the great work of society may be better carried on.��

— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1840

The social developments described in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following historical transformations during the early nineteenth century?

“It is our solemn conviction, that the time has come for physical, mental and moral energy, to be started into active exercise, to influence public opinion on the subject of slavery. . . . We are told that it is not our province to study these subjects, that they are political, and that women have nothing to do with politics. But to whom is the appeal made, when a petition is to be signed? To women. . . .”

— Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, *Appeal to the Women of the Nominally Free States*, 1837

Which of the following historical developments during the early nineteenth century is most directly reflected in the excerpt?

"I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed."
— President Andrew Jackson, Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, 1832

Which of the following historical developments during the Jacksonian era best represents the constitutional conflict described in the excerpt?

Read the following excerpt from a historical document:

"Article the First:
There shall be a firm and universal Peace between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, and between their respective Countries, Territories, Cities, Towns, and People of every degree without exception of places or persons. All hostilities both by sea and land shall cease as soon as this Treaty shall have been ratified by both parties... All territory, places, and possessions whatsoever taken by either party from the other during the war... shall be restored without delay..."
— Treaty of Ghent, 1814

Which of the following best explains a major domestic political consequence of the war concluded by this treaty?

"The progress of manufacturing has completely changed the character of our domestic life. Not long ago, every family spun and wove their own clothing, and the hearth was the center of all industrious labor. Now, the sound of the loom is rarely heard in our farmhouses. Our daughters go to the cities to work in the mills, and we purchase our cottons and woolens at the village store with money earned from selling our surplus crops."

—Letter from a New England farmer, 1835

Which of the following historical developments during the early nineteenth century is best illustrated by the changes described in the excerpt?

Source: Thomas R. Dew, president of the College of William & Mary, *Review of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature of 1831 and 1832*, 1832

"It is said, slavery is an evil... but we must look to the state of things as they are. ... The slaveholder is not only a republican in politics, but he is a conservative in feelings. The property which he possesses, the interest which he has at stake, makes him a lover of order and a supporter of law. In a slaveholding state, there is less of that wild, radical, and levelling spirit which is so dangerous to the stability of free institutions... The slaveholder is the natural guardian of the state, and the institution of slavery is the very cornerstone of our republican edifice."

Based on the excerpt, the contrast Dew draws between the stability of slaveholding societies and the "wild, radical, and levelling spirit" of free states was most directly shaped by Southern anxieties regarding which of the following?

“The decision which has thrown open our waters to the free competition of all citizens has already produced the most astonishing effects. Where lately but a single monopoly vessel groaned under the weight of passengers and freight at exorbitant rates, we now see a dozen steam-boats, constructed with the latest improvements in machinery, darting along our rivers and bays. The farmer of the interior now finds a ready and cheap market for his produce, and the merchant of the city can distribute his wares to the most distant settlements with a speed that would have seemed miraculous a decade ago.”

— Editorial, New York newspaper, c. 1825

Which of the following historical developments in the first half of the nineteenth century was the most direct consequence of the legal and technological shifts described in the excerpt?

"The Americans have a perfect passion for railroads; they love them... because they associate and bind together the most distant points of their country. In their eyes, a railroad is a bond of union, a means of communication which brings the North and South, the East and West, into close contact... This passion for internal improvements is the principal feature of the American character at the present day."
— Michel Chevalier, *Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States*, 1839

Which of the following historical developments during the first half of the nineteenth century is most directly reflected in the sentiments expressed in the excerpt?

Read the following newspaper editorial from *The Globe* (Washington, D.C.) in 1832:

"The charter of the Bank of the United States is an attempt to grant exclusive privileges to a wealthy few at the expense of the farmers and mechanics who form the bone and sinew of this republic. By vetoing this recharter, the President has stood as a shield between the people and a corporate monster that seeks to control our elections and monopolize our currency."

Which of the following political debates of the 1830s is most directly reflected in this excerpt?

"The day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low water mark. It seals the union of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation."

— Thomas Jefferson, letter to Robert Livingston, 1802

Which of the following best explains the geopolitical concern that prompted Jefferson to write this letter?

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the Market Revolution contributed to which of the following social changes in the northeastern United States?

Source: Governor George McDuffie, message to the South Carolina Legislature, 1835.

"Domestic slavery, therefore, instead of being an evil, is the corner-stone of our republican edifice. It supersedes the necessity of an order of nobility, and all the other appendages of a hereditary system of government. . . . [It] establishes a class of people to perform all the low and menial offices of society, thereby leaving the citizens to be free to cultivate their minds and participate in the government."

Which of the following developments in the South during the first half of the nineteenth century best explains the perspective expressed in the excerpt?

Read the excerpt below.

'Every white man, who is a citizen of the State, and has a common interest with us, ought to have a voice in the government. The right of suffrage is a natural right, and not a privilege attached to the soil. To restrict it to landholders is to declare that property, not men, should be represented, and is inconsistent with the fundamental principles of a republican government.'
— Richmond Non-Freeholders' Petition, Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1829

Which of the following best describes a major political consequence of the shifting view of suffrage described in the excerpt during the 1830s and 1840s?

"The Executive in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so much advances the good of their country, have done an act beyond the Constitution. The Legislature in casting behind them metaphysical subtleties, and risking themselves like faithful servants, must ratify and pay for it, and throw themselves on their country for doing for them unauthorized, what we know they would have done for themselves had they been in a situation to do it."

— Thomas Jefferson, letter to Senator John Breckinridge, August 1803

Based on the excerpt, which of the following best describes the constitutional dilemma Jefferson faced in acquiring the Louisiana Territory?

“The purchase of Louisiana is a subject of great importance... The possession of New Orleans and the Floridas was indeed essential to our peace and security... But as to the unlimited region west of the Mississippi, its acquisition is of very questionable utility. It will tend to scatter our population, to weaken our government, by making it more difficult to enforce the laws over so wide a space, and to accelerate the division of the Union.”
—Alexander Hamilton, *New-York Evening Post*, July 1803

Which of the following Jeffersonian principles is most directly challenged by Hamilton’s argument in the excerpt?

In the early nineteenth century, New England textile manufacturers developed the Lowell system to organize factory labor. Which of the following groups constituted the primary workforce under this system?

Read the excerpt below.

"It can require no argument to prove that the circumstances of this case constitute a contract. A charter of incorporation is a contract; and if the legislature of a State may, at its pleasure, repeal such a charter, or alter its terms without the consent of the corporation, then the provision of the Constitution which declares that no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts is reduced to a dead letter. . . . The judgment of the State Court must, therefore, be reversed."
—Chief Justice John Marshall, *Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward* (1819)

The ruling in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following developments during the early nineteenth century?

"In a country like ours, where the road to wealth and influence is open to all, a young man's success depends almost entirely on his own industry, frugality, and self-reliance. The old systems of patronage and inherited status are fast disappearing before the spirit of individual enterprise."

— William Alcott, *The Young Man's Guide*, $1833$

The ideas expressed in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following social developments resulting from the Market Revolution?

“Heaven has appointed to one sex the superior, and to the other the subordinate station; and this without any reference to the character or conduct of either. It is therefore as much for the dignity as it is for the interest of this sex, that they should conform to this relation... But the woman is to win every thing by peace and love; by making herself so much respected, esteemed and loved, that to yield to her opinions and to gratify her wishes, will be the free-will offering of the heart. But this is to be all accomplished in the domestic and social circle.”

— Catharine Beecher, An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism, 1837

Which of the following mid-nineteenth-century reform efforts developed primarily in opposition to the social expectations described in the excerpt?