Period 5: 1844–1877

“We are poor men, and we are told that this is a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight. . . . The conscription law exempts the owners of twenty negroes, while it drags us from our small farms and families, leaving them to starve. We are fighting to protect the property of the wealthy slaveholder, who remains at home making fortunes off our necessities.”

— Petition from citizens of central North Carolina to Confederate Governor Zebulon Vance, 1863

The sentiments expressed in the petition most directly reflect which of the following developments within the Confederacy during the Civil War?

"Our title to the country of the Oregon is 'clear and unquestionable,' and already are our people preparing to perfect that title by occupying it with their wives and children. . . . To us belongs the duty of protecting them adequately wherever they may be upon our soil. . . . [Similarly], foreign powers should look to the annexation of Texas, not as the conquest of a nation, but as the peaceful acquisition of territory."

— President James K. Polk, Inaugural Address, 1845

Which of the following historical developments is most directly reflected in the ideas expressed in the excerpt?

Read the following excerpt from the platform adopted by the Southern faction of the Democratic Party in 1860:

'[A]ll citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their property in the Territory without their rights, either of person or property, being destroyed or impaired by congressional or territorial legislation.'

Which of the following political positions is most clearly represented in this excerpt?

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

—Excerpt from the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 1868

Which of the following was a primary goal of the constitutional amendment excerpted above?

"The committee are of the opinion that the State of Mississippi is now governed by a minority of its people, and that this minority has obtained power by violence, intimidation, and fraud. . . . The colored people of the State are, with few exceptions, Republicans. . . . [but] the Democratic party of the State, by a system of organized violence, intimidation, and fraud, has succeeded in obtaining control of the State government. . . . In this campaign, the Democratic party adopted a policy known as the ‘peace line’ or ‘white line’ policy. . . . Under this policy, the colored voters were threatened with discharge from employment, and with starvation, if they voted the Republican ticket."
— Report of the Senate Select Committee to Inquire into the Mississippi Election of 1875 (Boutwell Report), 1876

The political tactics described in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following developments by the late 1870s?

Read the excerpt below from a speech by John C. Calhoun in 1849 and answer the question that follows.

"We have acquired a vast territory by our common blood and treasure. Yet, the non-slaveholding States are attempting to exclude us, the slaveholding States, from any share in this common property, by asserting that slavery shall not be permitted there. If they succeed, it will destroy the balance of power between the sections..."
— John C. Calhoun, Address of the Southern Delegates in Congress, 1849

The debate described in the excerpt was most directly triggered by which of the following events?

"The Republican party, then, is a party of progress, but not of radical destruction. It does not propose to abolish slavery where it exists, for it respects the constitutional rights of the States. But it does propose to prevent the further expansion of slavery into the Territories, because it believes that the expansion of slavery is a crime against humanity and a danger to the Union. In this, the Republican party represents the true national sentiment, while the pro-slavery faction of the Democratic party seeks to sectionalize the government for the benefit of a single class."

— Carl Schurz, Republican politician, speech in St. Louis, Missouri, August 1860

Based on the excerpt, which of the following best explains the political strategy of the Republican Party regarding slavery during the election of 1860?

“I never before saw children so eager to learn, although I had had several years' experience in New-England schools. The older people also are very eager to learn. Many of them are learning their letters at night, after a hard day's work in the fields... Their principal ambition is to learn to read. It is a great pleasure to teach them.”
— Charlotte Forten, Northern teacher in South Carolina, *The Atlantic Monthly*, 1864

The experiences described in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following social developments during the Civil War?

"The Fifteenth Amendment does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one. It prevents the States, or the United States, however, from giving preference, in this particular, to one citizen of the United States over another on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Before its adoption, this could be done. It was as much within the power of a State to exclude citizens of the United States from voting on account of race... as it was on account of age, property, or education. Now it is not."

—United States Supreme Court, *United States v. Reese* (1876)

Based on the passage, which of the following was a direct historical consequence of the Supreme Court's ruling?