The Rise and Fall of the American Nation – Week 2

Question 1

The American Civil War:

Answer 1

Armageddon – Sherman: “We are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war”

America’s bloodiest war

Question 2

America: The New Nation

Answer 2

Founded in optimism: The preamble to the Constitution

A model republic

A new example for mankind

Question 3

Casus Belli: What Kind of Labour

Answer 3

The Confederacy: 
- A justification for slavery 
- Vice President of the Confederacy – Alexander Stephens: “It’s foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the black man is not equal to the white man” 
The North: 
- Lincoln not an abolitionist 
- The Cult of Free Labour

Question 4

The Confederacy:

Answer 4

The Confederacy:

• A justification for slavery
• Vice President of the Confederacy – Alexander Stephens: “It’s foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the black man is not equal to the white man”

Question 5

The North:

Answer 5

• Lincoln not an abolitionist

- The Cult of Free Labour

Question 6

Lincoln & Cult of Free Labour

Answer 6

The Cult of Free Labour
– ideas of American Dream
– self-sufficiency and reliance through ideas of liberty

Question 7

The South I

Answer 7

The Planters: A Powerful Elite Destroyed 
4 million African Americans emancipated 
At the barrel of a gun 
No compensation 
Overall = complete defeat

Question 8

The South II

Answer 8

Powerful ideas defeated 
The Union as a compact of states 
States rights 
Not slavery per se?
Anti-Modernity

Question 9

The North

Answer 9

Gettysburg Address
His armies delivered = the North won
1/5 of Northern Army = African Americans

Question 10

A Clash of Civilisations?

Answer 10

Modernising North versus Backward South
Inevitable?
Resolved?

Question 11

How could it come to a Civil War?

Three Reasons:

Answer 11

1. The Federal Government versus the States
2. Democratisation
3. Expansion

Question 12

The Constitution:

Answer 12

Three branches of government
Powers not delegated reserved to the states
Necessary and Proper Cause – Congress can make and unmake any necessary laws

Question 13

Strict Interpretation: (South)

Answer 13

Tries to limit power of government

If it isn’t written, its not allowed

Question 14

Broad Interpretation: (North)

Answer 14

Tries to expand power of government

If implied by principle stated in Constitution – allowed

Question 15

Slavery: The Politics

Answer 15

3/5 Clause = African Americans defined as 3/5 human beings
Added to political weight of the South
4 of 5 Presidents were from Virginia – all slaveholders
1808 – end of the international slave trade
Slavery protected under States rights

Question 16

The First Party System:

Answer 16

Federalists – Alexander Hamilton

Republicans – Jefferson

Question 17

The Second Party System:

Answer 17

Democrats

Whigs

Question 18

The Rise of the Republican Party:

Answer 18

Lincoln only second candidate which ran for party

Question 19

Interposition:

Answer 19

Gov. George Wallace (Alabama) = “Segregation Forever”

Question 20

Competing Legacies:

Republicans

Answer 20

Broad Interpretation
Strong State
Channelled through the idea of the Union
Prevent expansion

Question 21

Competing Legacies:

Confederates

Answer 21

Strict Interpretation
States could nullify federal law
Right to leave Union

Question 22

Regionalisation
The two traditions became regional:
North

Answer 22

State/Individual partnership

Building a new world

Question 23

Regionalisation
The two traditions became regional:
South:

Answer 23

State a threat to its institutions

Question 24

Democratisation:

1830s

Answer 24

All white men enfranchised

Women, Native Americans and African Americans excluded

Question 25

South

Answer 25

Slaveholding politicised

Representatives sent to Washington to defend it

Question 26

North

Answer 26

Was an affirmation of superiority?

The American Dream