Period 5 review

"Mr. President, it was solemnly asserted on this floor, some time ago, that all parties in the non-slaveholding States had come to a fixed and solemn determination upon two propositions. One was that there should be no further admission of any States into this Union which permitted, by their constitutions, the existence of slavery; and the other was that slavery shall not hereafter exist in any of the territories of the United States, the effect of which would be to give to the non-slaveholding States the monopoly of the public domain. . . . The subject has been agitated in the other House [of Congress], and they have sent up a bill 'prohibiting the extension of slavery . . . to any territory which may be acquired by the United States hereafter.' At the same time, two resolutions which have been moved to extend the compromise line from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, during the present session, have been rejected by a decided majority. "Sir, there is no mistaking the signs of the times; and it is high time that the Southern States—the slaveholding States—should inquire what is now their relative strength in this Union, and what it will be if this determination is carried into effect hereafter." John C. Calhoun, senator, speech in the United States Senate, 1847 Which of the following can be concluded based on the situation in which Calhoun gave this speech?

Americans debated how to integrate conquered territories into the United States.

The Fourteenth Amendment emerged from which of the following contexts?

Republican concerns that African Americans would be denied citizenship rights

"There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say: You desire peace; and you blame me that we do not have it. But how can we attain it? . . . "But to be plain, you are dissatisfied with me about the Negro. . . . You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional—I think differently. I think the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief, with the law of war, in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is there—has there ever been—any question that by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever taking it, helps us, or hurts the enemy? . . . "You say you will not fight to free Negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you. . . . I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. . . . Why should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive—even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept." President Abraham Lincoln, letter to James Conkling explaining why he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 Lincoln's rhetoric in the excerpt would most likely have been interpreted as promoting which of the following arguments?

Changing the purpose of the war would strengthen the Union cause.

"I know not how to thank you for the deep and lively interest you have been pleased to take in the cause of . . . the emancipation of a people, who, for two long centuries, have endured, with the utmost patience, a bondage, one hour of which . . . is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose. "It is such indications on the part of the press—which, happily, are multiplying throughout all the land—that kindle up within me an ardent hope that the curse of slavery will not much longer be permitted to make its iron foot-prints in the lacerated [deeply cut] hearts of my . . . brethren. . . . I am called, by way of reproach, a runaway slave. As if it were a crime—an unpardonable crime—for a man to take his inalienable rights! "But why [you,] a New-York editor, born and reared in the State of Maine, far removed from the contaminated . . . atmosphere of slavery, should pursue such a course [supporting abolition], is not so apparent. I will not, however, stop here to ascertain the cause, but deal with fact. . . . "The object . . . is simply to give such an exposition of the degrading influence of slavery upon the master and his [supporters] as well as upon the slave—to excite such an intelligent interest on the subject of American slavery—as may react upon that country, and tend to shame her out of her adhesion to a system which all must confess to disagree with justice. . . . "I am earnestly and anxiously laboring to wipe off this foul blot from the . . . American people, that they may accomplish in behalf of human freedom that which their exalted position among the nations of the earth amply fits them to do." Frederick Douglass to New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, 1846 Ideas in the excerpt would most likely have influenced which of the following?

Efforts at assisting enslaved people in escaping from the South

"Mr. President, it was solemnly asserted on this floor, some time ago, that all parties in the non-slaveholding States had come to a fixed and solemn determination upon two propositions. One was that there should be no further admission of any States into this Union which permitted, by their constitutions, the existence of slavery; and the other was that slavery shall not hereafter exist in any of the territories of the United States, the effect of which would be to give to the non-slaveholding States the monopoly of the public domain. . . . The subject has been agitated in the other House [of Congress], and they have sent up a bill 'prohibiting the extension of slavery . . . to any territory which may be acquired by the United States hereafter.' At the same time, two resolutions which have been moved to extend the compromise line from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, during the present session, have been rejected by a decided majority. "Sir, there is no mistaking the signs of the times; and it is high time that the Southern States—the slaveholding States—should inquire what is now their relative strength in this Union, and what it will be if this determination is carried into effect hereafter." John C. Calhoun, senator, speech in the United States Senate, 1847 The excerpt best provides evidence about which of the following historical situations in the late 1840s?

Growing sectional tensions caused by the Mexican-American War

Which of the following groups would most likely have supported secession from the United States after the 1860 presidential election?

Southern Democrats

"There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say: You desire peace; and you blame me that we do not have it. But how can we attain it? . . . "But to be plain, you are dissatisfied with me about the Negro. . . . You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional—I think differently. I think the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief, with the law of war, in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is there—has there ever been—any question that by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever taking it, helps us, or hurts the enemy? . . . "You say you will not fight to free Negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you. . . . I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. . . . Why should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive—even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept." President Abraham Lincoln, letter to James Conkling explaining why he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 The phrase in the excerpt "Some of them seem willing to fight for you" could most likely be interpreted as having which of the following purposes?

Highlighting the enlistment of formerly enslaved people into the Union army

"There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say: You desire peace; and you blame me that we do not have it. But how can we attain it? . . . "But to be plain, you are dissatisfied with me about the Negro. . . . You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional—I think differently. I think the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief, with the law of war, in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is there—has there ever been—any question that by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever taking it, helps us, or hurts the enemy? . . . "You say you will not fight to free Negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you. . . . I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. . . . Why should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive—even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept." President Abraham Lincoln, letter to James Conkling explaining why he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 The excerpt could best be used by historians studying which of the following?

How Lincoln used executive powers to initiate wartime policy

"It was not automatically apparent how any of the filibustering targets of the post-1848 period could 'fit' into an American republic, or even into an American empire. . . . While it seemed only logical to some to simply take all of Mexico as booty [spoils] of the war, cut Mexico up, and turn it into new territories and states, most Americans rejected this idea. They did so because central Mexico was densely populated. . . . Many Americans feared the result of the integration of Mexico's people into the United States. Critics also doubted whether Americans could be happy in the alien landscape of central and southern Mexico." Amy Greenberg, historian, Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire, 2005 "American settlers had eclipsed the Mexicans in Texas and, with ample aid from southern Whites, had rebelled and won their independence. . . . A small band of Americans, many of them merchants, lived in Mexican California when war broke out in 1846. This dispersion of hardy migrants inspired observers to insist that pioneers and not politicians won the West. . . . "Pioneers played a role in expansion, but the historical record points to politicians and propagandists as the primary agents of empire. Racial, economic, social, and political factors coalesced [combined] to make territorial and commercial expansion enticing to American leaders. . . . "Denying any parallels between earlier empires and their own, expansionists insisted that democracy and dominion were complementary, not contradictory. Since leaders intended to transform [territorial] cessions into states and their inhabitants (at least Whites) into citizens, they scoffed at misgivings about governing a vast domain." Thomas Hietala, historian, Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire, 2003 Which of the following arguments about the Mexican-American War do the excerpts best support?

It generated debates over citizenship.

"Forces committed to restoring White supremacy launched a ruthless, bloody campaign of terror and intimidation against freedpeople and their White allies in the South. As young southern units of the Republican Party broke under those blows and the Republicans of the North retreated and grew more conservative, Reconstruction collapsed. With it went many . . . gains. A resurgent southern elite once again set about imposing White supremacy and tyrannical labor discipline while stripping freedpeople of many of their civic and political rights." Bruce Levine, historian, The Fall of the House of Dixie, 2013 "For many poor Whites throughout the South, Jim Crow laws alone could not ease their most persistent fear. In regions like northern Louisiana, with little but pine trees rising from its barren soil, White men found themselves competing with [formerly enslaved people], and during the dozen years of Reconstruction they had not known which race would prevail. "Such men had dropped away from the Ku Klux Klan after President Grant's crackdown, but their simmering resentments had grown. With control of the South passing again to the Democrats, powerless Whites were joining plantation owners to ensure that Black workers remained without their basic rights." A. J. Langguth, historian, After Lincoln, 2014 Which of the following claims is supported by the arguments made by both Levine and Langguth?

Local political tactics served to deny African Americans their rights.

"Forces committed to restoring White supremacy launched a ruthless, bloody campaign of terror and intimidation against freedpeople and their White allies in the South. As young southern units of the Republican Party broke under those blows and the Republicans of the North retreated and grew more conservative, Reconstruction collapsed. With it went many . . . gains. A resurgent southern elite once again set about imposing White supremacy and tyrannical labor discipline while stripping freedpeople of many of their civic and political rights." Bruce Levine, historian, The Fall of the House of Dixie, 2013 "For many poor Whites throughout the South, Jim Crow laws alone could not ease their most persistent fear. In regions like northern Louisiana, with little but pine trees rising from its barren soil, White men found themselves competing with [formerly enslaved people], and during the dozen years of Reconstruction they had not known which race would prevail. "Such men had dropped away from the Ku Klux Klan after President Grant's crackdown, but their simmering resentments had grown. With control of the South passing again to the Democrats, powerless Whites were joining plantation owners to ensure that Black workers remained without their basic rights." A. J. Langguth, historian, After Lincoln, 2014 Levine's argument about Reconstruction in the excerpt differs from that of Langguth in that Levine argues

Northern Republicans gradually withdrew their support for Reconstruction policies

"No roads marked the way to the traveler in California then: but, guided by the sun and well-known mountain peaks, we proceeded on our journey. . . . Some forty or fifty men were at work with the cradle machines, and were averaging about eight ounces [of gold] per day to the man. But a few moments passed before I was knee deep in water, with my wash-basin full of dirt, plunging it about endeavoring to separate the dirt from the gold. After washing some fifty pans of dirt, I found I had realized about four bits' worth of gold. Reader, do you know how [one] feels when the gold fever heat has suddenly fallen to about zero? I do. . . . The Indians who were working for Capts. Sutter and Weber gave them leading information, so that they were enabled to know the direction in which new discoveries were to be made. . . . "The morals of the miners of '48 should here be noticed. No person worked on Sunday at digging for gold. . . . We had ministers of the gospel amongst us, but they never preached. Religion had been forgotten, even by its ministers, and instead of their pointing out the narrow way which leads to eternal happiness . . . they might have been seen, with pick-axe and pan, traveling untrodden [untraveled] ways in search of . . . treasure . . . or drinking good health and prosperity with friends." James H. Carson, describing life in the early California gold fields, 1848 Which of the following developments resulted most directly from the gold rush described in the excerpt?

People from America, Europe, and Asia migrated to the region.

"What fault has there been on the part of the General Government of the United States? Why break up this Union? Will any gentleman be so kind as to particularize a single instance worthy of debate, in which the Federal Government has been derelict [negligent] in the discharge of its duty, or has failed to accomplish the purposes of its organization? . . . "I am not here . . . to defend the election of Abraham Lincoln. I believe that his election was virtually a fraud upon the people of the United States . . . nominated, as he was, by a sectional party, and upon a sectional platform, with no representation in the body which nominated him from the South; but he was nominated and elected according to the forms of law. . . . "Let us look . . . at the evils that must result from secession. The first, in my opinion, would be that our country would not only be divided into a Northern Confederacy and into Southern Confederacy, but, soon or later it would be divided into sundry [several] petty Confederacies. We would have a Central Confederacy, a Confederacy of the States of the Mississippi Valley, a Pacific Confederacy, a Western Confederacy, an Eastern Confederacy, a Northern and a Southern Confederacy. ". . . It is easy perhaps to break down this Government; but, sir, when we break it down it will not be so easy a matter to build it up. . . . Gentlemen cry out against the tyranny of their own government, and yet denounce [those opposed to secession] because we hesitate to allow ourselves to be thrust into the embraces of such a military dictatorship." Waitman T. Willey, addressing the Virginia State Secession Convention, March 4, 1861 Which of the following conclusions can best be reached based on the sentiments expressed in the excerpt?

Sectional tensions erupted because most Southerners did not support Abraham Lincoln.

"What fault has there been on the part of the General Government of the United States? Why break up this Union? Will any gentleman be so kind as to particularize a single instance worthy of debate, in which the Federal Government has been derelict [negligent] in the discharge of its duty, or has failed to accomplish the purposes of its organization? . . . "I am not here . . . to defend the election of Abraham Lincoln. I believe that his election was virtually a fraud upon the people of the United States . . . nominated, as he was, by a sectional party, and upon a sectional platform, with no representation in the body which nominated him from the South; but he was nominated and elected according to the forms of law. . . . "Let us look . . . at the evils that must result from secession. The first, in my opinion, would be that our country would not only be divided into a Northern Confederacy and into Southern Confederacy, but, soon or later it would be divided into sundry [several] petty Confederacies. We would have a Central Confederacy, a Confederacy of the States of the Mississippi Valley, a Pacific Confederacy, a Western Confederacy, an Eastern Confederacy, a Northern and a Southern Confederacy. ". . . It is easy perhaps to break down this Government; but, sir, when we break it down it will not be so easy a matter to build it up. . . . Gentlemen cry out against the tyranny of their own government, and yet denounce [those opposed to secession] because we hesitate to allow ourselves to be thrust into the embraces of such a military dictatorship." Waitman T. Willey, addressing the Virginia State Secession Convention, March 4, 1861 Evidence in the excerpt most strongly suggests which of the following?

Southern voters viewed the presidential election with contempt.

"No roads marked the way to the traveler in California then: but, guided by the sun and well-known mountain peaks, we proceeded on our journey. . . . Some forty or fifty men were at work with the cradle machines, and were averaging about eight ounces [of gold] per day to the man. But a few moments passed before I was knee deep in water, with my wash-basin full of dirt, plunging it about endeavoring to separate the dirt from the gold. After washing some fifty pans of dirt, I found I had realized about four bits' worth of gold. Reader, do you know how [one] feels when the gold fever heat has suddenly fallen to about zero? I do. . . . The Indians who were working for Capts. Sutter and Weber gave them leading information, so that they were enabled to know the direction in which new discoveries were to be made. . . . "The morals of the miners of '48 should here be noticed. No person worked on Sunday at digging for gold. . . . We had ministers of the gospel amongst us, but they never preached. Religion had been forgotten, even by its ministers, and instead of their pointing out the narrow way which leads to eternal happiness . . . they might have been seen, with pick-axe and pan, traveling untrodden [untraveled] ways in search of . . . treasure . . . or drinking good health and prosperity with friends." James H. Carson, describing life in the early California gold fields, 1848 Which of the following developments most directly led to the activities described in the excerpt?

The acquisition of significant territory following the Mexican-American War

"It was not automatically apparent how any of the filibustering targets of the post-1848 period could 'fit' into an American republic, or even into an American empire. . . . While it seemed only logical to some to simply take all of Mexico as booty [spoils] of the war, cut Mexico up, and turn it into new territories and states, most Americans rejected this idea. They did so because central Mexico was densely populated. . . . Many Americans feared the result of the integration of Mexico's people into the United States. Critics also doubted whether Americans could be happy in the alien landscape of central and southern Mexico." Amy Greenberg, historian, Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire, 2005 "American settlers had eclipsed the Mexicans in Texas and, with ample aid from southern Whites, had rebelled and won their independence. . . . A small band of Americans, many of them merchants, lived in Mexican California when war broke out in 1846. This dispersion of hardy migrants inspired observers to insist that pioneers and not politicians won the West. . . . "Pioneers played a role in expansion, but the historical record points to politicians and propagandists as the primary agents of empire. Racial, economic, social, and political factors coalesced [combined] to make territorial and commercial expansion enticing to American leaders. . . . "Denying any parallels between earlier empires and their own, expansionists insisted that democracy and dominion were complementary, not contradictory. Since leaders intended to transform [territorial] cessions into states and their inhabitants (at least Whites) into citizens, they scoffed at misgivings about governing a vast domain." Thomas Hietala, historian, Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire, 2003 Both authors would most likely suggest that the historical situation described in the excerpts contributed to which of the following?

The continued alteration of Native American culture and society

The industrial resources of the North during the Civil War most likely accounted for which of the following?

The disadvantage of the Confederacy in access to arms, munitions, and other supplies

"Mr. President, it was solemnly asserted on this floor, some time ago, that all parties in the non-slaveholding States had come to a fixed and solemn determination upon two propositions. One was that there should be no further admission of any States into this Union which permitted, by their constitutions, the existence of slavery; and the other was that slavery shall not hereafter exist in any of the territories of the United States, the effect of which would be to give to the non-slaveholding States the monopoly of the public domain. . . . The subject has been agitated in the other House [of Congress], and they have sent up a bill 'prohibiting the extension of slavery . . . to any territory which may be acquired by the United States hereafter.' At the same time, two resolutions which have been moved to extend the compromise line from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, during the present session, have been rejected by a decided majority. "Sir, there is no mistaking the signs of the times; and it is high time that the Southern States—the slaveholding States—should inquire what is now their relative strength in this Union, and what it will be if this determination is carried into effect hereafter." John C. Calhoun, senator, speech in the United States Senate, 1847 The speech given by Calhoun relates to which of the following?

The effect of regional attitudes on federal policy making

Which of the following developments was most directly connected to the collapse of the Whig Party in United States politics during the 1850s?

The escalation of tensions between proslavery and antislavery factions

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was intended to resolve debates about which of the following issues in the 1850s?

The expansion of slavery

"I know not how to thank you for the deep and lively interest you have been pleased to take in the cause of . . . the emancipation of a people, who, for two long centuries, have endured, with the utmost patience, a bondage, one hour of which . . . is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose. "It is such indications on the part of the press—which, happily, are multiplying throughout all the land—that kindle up within me an ardent hope that the curse of slavery will not much longer be permitted to make its iron foot-prints in the lacerated [deeply cut] hearts of my . . . brethren. . . . I am called, by way of reproach, a runaway slave. As if it were a crime—an unpardonable crime—for a man to take his inalienable rights! "But why [you,] a New-York editor, born and reared in the State of Maine, far removed from the contaminated . . . atmosphere of slavery, should pursue such a course [supporting abolition], is not so apparent. I will not, however, stop here to ascertain the cause, but deal with fact. . . . "The object . . . is simply to give such an exposition of the degrading influence of slavery upon the master and his [supporters] as well as upon the slave—to excite such an intelligent interest on the subject of American slavery—as may react upon that country, and tend to shame her out of her adhesion to a system which all must confess to disagree with justice. . . . "I am earnestly and anxiously laboring to wipe off this foul blot from the . . . American people, that they may accomplish in behalf of human freedom that which their exalted position among the nations of the earth amply fits them to do." Frederick Douglass to New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, 1846 The excerpt could best be used by historians studying which of the following?

The growth of the abolition movement in the United States

"I know not how to thank you for the deep and lively interest you have been pleased to take in the cause of . . . the emancipation of a people, who, for two long centuries, have endured, with the utmost patience, a bondage, one hour of which . . . is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose. "It is such indications on the part of the press—which, happily, are multiplying throughout all the land—that kindle up within me an ardent hope that the curse of slavery will not much longer be permitted to make its iron foot-prints in the lacerated [deeply cut] hearts of my . . . brethren. . . . I am called, by way of reproach, a runaway slave. As if it were a crime—an unpardonable crime—for a man to take his inalienable rights! "But why [you,] a New-York editor, born and reared in the State of Maine, far removed from the contaminated . . . atmosphere of slavery, should pursue such a course [supporting abolition], is not so apparent. I will not, however, stop here to ascertain the cause, but deal with fact. . . . "The object . . . is simply to give such an exposition of the degrading influence of slavery upon the master and his [supporters] as well as upon the slave—to excite such an intelligent interest on the subject of American slavery—as may react upon that country, and tend to shame her out of her adhesion to a system which all must confess to disagree with justice. . . . "I am earnestly and anxiously laboring to wipe off this foul blot from the . . . American people, that they may accomplish in behalf of human freedom that which their exalted position among the nations of the earth amply fits them to do." Frederick Douglass to New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, 1846 Rhetoric in the excerpt would most likely have been interpreted as promoting which of the following?

The immediate end to the practice of slavery through legal reform

Which of the following developments most directly related to the increased sectional strife immediately prior to the election of 1860?

The legal ruling that denied African Americans rights of citizenship

"No roads marked the way to the traveler in California then: but, guided by the sun and well-known mountain peaks, we proceeded on our journey. . . . Some forty or fifty men were at work with the cradle machines, and were averaging about eight ounces [of gold] per day to the man. But a few moments passed before I was knee deep in water, with my wash-basin full of dirt, plunging it about endeavoring to separate the dirt from the gold. After washing some fifty pans of dirt, I found I had realized about four bits' worth of gold. Reader, do you know how [one] feels when the gold fever heat has suddenly fallen to about zero? I do. . . . The Indians who were working for Capts. Sutter and Weber gave them leading information, so that they were enabled to know the direction in which new discoveries were to be made. . . . "The morals of the miners of '48 should here be noticed. No person worked on Sunday at digging for gold. . . . We had ministers of the gospel amongst us, but they never preached. Religion had been forgotten, even by its ministers, and instead of their pointing out the narrow way which leads to eternal happiness . . . they might have been seen, with pick-axe and pan, traveling untrodden [untraveled] ways in search of . . . treasure . . . or drinking good health and prosperity with friends." James H. Carson, describing life in the early California gold fields, 1848 The excerpt best reflects the development of which of the following?

The widely held belief that the United States had a right to expand westward

"Forces committed to restoring White supremacy launched a ruthless, bloody campaign of terror and intimidation against freedpeople and their White allies in the South. As young southern units of the Republican Party broke under those blows and the Republicans of the North retreated and grew more conservative, Reconstruction collapsed. With it went many . . . gains. A resurgent southern elite once again set about imposing White supremacy and tyrannical labor discipline while stripping freedpeople of many of their civic and political rights." Bruce Levine, historian, The Fall of the House of Dixie, 2013 "For many poor Whites throughout the South, Jim Crow laws alone could not ease their most persistent fear. In regions like northern Louisiana, with little but pine trees rising from its barren soil, White men found themselves competing with [formerly enslaved people], and during the dozen years of Reconstruction they had not known which race would prevail. "Such men had dropped away from the Ku Klux Klan after President Grant's crackdown, but their simmering resentments had grown. With control of the South passing again to the Democrats, powerless Whites were joining plantation owners to ensure that Black workers remained without their basic rights." A. J. Langguth, historian, After Lincoln, 2014 Which of the following arguments about Reconstruction policies would both authors most likely disagree with?

With Republicans in retreat, Southern Democrats grew more supportive of Reconstruction policies.

"What fault has there been on the part of the General Government of the United States? Why break up this Union? Will any gentleman be so kind as to particularize a single instance worthy of debate, in which the Federal Government has been derelict [negligent] in the discharge of its duty, or has failed to accomplish the purposes of its organization? . . . "I am not here . . . to defend the election of Abraham Lincoln. I believe that his election was virtually a fraud upon the people of the United States . . . nominated, as he was, by a sectional party, and upon a sectional platform, with no representation in the body which nominated him from the South; but he was nominated and elected according to the forms of law. . . . "Let us look . . . at the evils that must result from secession. The first, in my opinion, would be that our country would not only be divided into a Northern Confederacy and into Southern Confederacy, but, soon or later it would be divided into sundry [several] petty Confederacies. We would have a Central Confederacy, a Confederacy of the States of the Mississippi Valley, a Pacific Confederacy, a Western Confederacy, an Eastern Confederacy, a Northern and a Southern Confederacy. ". . . It is easy perhaps to break down this Government; but, sir, when we break it down it will not be so easy a matter to build it up. . . . Gentlemen cry out against the tyranny of their own government, and yet denounce [those opposed to secession] because we hesitate to allow ourselves to be thrust into the embraces of such a military dictatorship." Waitman T. Willey, addressing the Virginia State Secession Convention, March 4, 1861 The excerpt best serves as evidence that, in 1861...

citizens in the Southern states were deeply divided over secession

"It was not automatically apparent how any of the filibustering targets of the post-1848 period could 'fit' into an American republic, or even into an American empire. . . . While it seemed only logical to some to simply take all of Mexico as booty [spoils] of the war, cut Mexico up, and turn it into new territories and states, most Americans rejected this idea. They did so because central Mexico was densely populated. . . . Many Americans feared the result of the integration of Mexico's people into the United States. Critics also doubted whether Americans could be happy in the alien landscape of central and southern Mexico." Amy Greenberg, historian, Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire, 2005 "American settlers had eclipsed the Mexicans in Texas and, with ample aid from southern Whites, had rebelled and won their independence. . . . A small band of Americans, many of them merchants, lived in Mexican California when war broke out in 1846. This dispersion of hardy migrants inspired observers to insist that pioneers and not politicians won the West. . . . "Pioneers played a role in expansion, but the historical record points to politicians and propagandists as the primary agents of empire. Racial, economic, social, and political factors coalesced [combined] to make territorial and commercial expansion enticing to American leaders. . . . "Denying any parallels between earlier empires and their own, expansionists insisted that democracy and dominion were complementary, not contradictory. Since leaders intended to transform [territorial] cessions into states and their inhabitants (at least Whites) into citizens, they scoffed at misgivings about governing a vast domain." Thomas Hietala, historian, Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire, 2003 Greenberg's argument most differs from Hietala's in that Greenberg claims that...

most Americans believed that Mexicans in the new territories could not assimilate