2nd Semester Exam(Documents)

Below are documents, maps, and primary sources that you will be tested on… please analyze their contents, research each topic identified, and define words that you do not know in order to become more familiar with the materials used for this exam.

Text 1: Washington’s Farewell Address “In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as a matter of serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western… I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to founding them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you, in the most solemn manner, against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.”

Text 2: National Bank Source: Alexander Hamilton, Report on a National Bank (December13, 1790).

"The following are among the principal advantages of a Bank.“First. The augmentation of the active or productive capital of a country. Gold and Silver...when deposited in Banks, to become the basis of a paper circulation...they can acquire...an active and productive quality....”“Secondly. Greater facility to the Government in obtaining pecuniary aids, especially in sudden emergencies....”"Thirdly. The facilitating of the payment of taxes....”"Considerations of public advantage suggest a further wish, which is that the Bank could be established upon principles, that would cause the profits of it to redound to the immediate benefit of the State. This is contemplated by many, who speak of a National Bank, but the idea seems liable to insuperable objections. To attach full confidence to an institution of this nature, it appears to be an essential ingredient in its structure, that it shall be under a private not a public Direction, under the guidance of individual interest, not of public policy...It would indeed be little less, than a miracle, should the credit of the Bank be at the disposal of the Government, if in a long series of time, there was not experienced a calamitous abuse of it."

Text 3: Embargo Act To Thomas Jefferson from John Page, 12 July 1807MY DEAR Sir,….  I have heard it repeatedly said “that an immediate Embargo is necessary, because before the usual meeting of Congress all the british Ships &c will have left us, & even our own Vessels, & Sailors, who will be impressed or detained in british Ports throughout their Empire: & that their Ships of War & Privatiers without further Notice will sweep our vessels which may be at Sea, from the Surface of the Seas”; “that an immediate stop to all intercourse with Britain is indispensibly necessary, to retrieve our lost honor, & to bring the mad King to his senses, & that that measure alone would be of more consequence than any naval & military preparations we can ever make.” I confess that when I recollect the hatred which G.3d. bears to you, & our Country & his low Cunning, abominable perfidy, & execrable practice of issuing secret Instructions, through Channels of Communication unknown to his ostensible Ministers, by which means he began & by which alone he did begin & carry on his former War with the U.S., I am nearly of the same opinion, & fear that you will lose by delay, as it is evidently certain that he is bent on a War with the U.S., relying on the support of federal partizans, avowd Tories, his own Subjects here, & Burr’s Choice Spirits,...I am my dear Sir with the highest respect & Esteem Your most obedt. Servant JOHN PageP.S. July 18th. I have been so often interrupted during my writing this letter that I could not finish it till this day—

Text 4: Monroe Doctrine Political Cartoon

Text 5: Missouri Compromise Map

Text 6: Manifest Destiny Painting

Text 7: Election Map

Text 8: Worcester v. GeorgiaExcerpt from the Supreme Court’s Ruling in the case of Cherokee RemovalThe Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community, occupying its own territory, with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can have no force, and which the citizens of Georgia have no right to enter but with the assent of the Cherokees themselves, or in conformity with treaties and with the acts of Congress. The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation is, by our Constitution and laws, vested in the Government of the United States.The act of the State of Georgia under which the plaintiff in error was prosecuted is consequently void, and the judgment a nullity.The acts of the Legislature of Georgia interfere forcibly with the relations established between the United States and the Cherokee Nation, the regulation of which, according to the settled principles of our Constitution, is committed exclusively to the Government of the Union.They are in direct hostility with treaties, repeated in a succession of years, which mark out the boundary that separates the Cherokee country from Georgia; guaranty to them all the land within their boundary; solemnly pledge the faith of the United States to restrain their citizens from trespassing on it; and recognize the preexisting power of the Nation to govern itself.

Text 9: Mexican-American War Transcript of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

“The United States of America and the United Mexican States animated by a sincere desire to put an end to the calamities of the war which unhappily exists between the two Republics and to establish Upon a solid basis relations of peace and friendship…”ARTICLE III“Immediately upon the ratification of the present treaty by the Government of the United States, orders shall be transmitted to the commanders of their land and naval forces, requiring…immediately to desist from blockading any Mexican ports and requiring…to commence…withdrawing all troops of the United States then in the interior of the Mexican Republic…”ARTICLE V“The boundary line between the two Republics shall commence in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande…” ARTICLE VIII“Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, and which remain for the future within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever. Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States…”

Text 10: Civil WarThe Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln –November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Text 11: The Reconstruction Amendments The 15th Amendment to the Constitution from the Library of Congress website

The 15th Amendment states the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.