Download Document Based Question on President Lincoln

Document Based Question on President Lincoln.
Document based question essays (DBQ’s) are required of students by the College Board on the Advanced Placement US
History exam. They are also good practice for student-historians. Students analyze a variety of documents to answer a
focus question. For more information on the AP US History exam, please visit the College Boards’ website at:
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/home.
The following is a DBQ essay assessment to use with the theme of Lincoln: the Great Communicator.
Focus Question: To what extent was Lincoln a great communicator?
Document A: Running the Machine, by John Cameron, 1864, found at www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org.
Document B: House Divided Speech (excerpted), A. Lincoln, October 16, 1854.
“Much as I hate slavery, I would consent to the extension of it, rather than see the Union dissolved, just as I would
consent to any GREAT evil, to avoid a GREATER one. It still will be the abundance of man’s heart, that slavery extension
is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak…”
Document C: Clement Vallandigham, Speeches, Arguments, and Letters (New York: J. Walter and Company, 1864), pp.
418-437.
“Soon after the war began the reign of the mob was… supplanted by the iron domination of arbitrary power.
Constitutional limitation was broken down; habeas corpus fell; liberty of the press, of speech, of the person, of the
mails, of travel, of one’s own house, and of religion; the right to bear arms, due process of law, judicial trial, trial by jury,
trial at all; every badge and muniment of freedom in republican government or kingly government–all went down at a
blow; and the chief law-officer of the crown…Whatever pleases the President, that is law! hus was CIVIL WAR
inaugurated in America. Can any man to-day see the end of it? And now, sir, I recur to the state of the Union to-day.
What is it? Sir, twenty months have elapsed, but the rebellion is not crushed out; its military power has not been
broken; the insurgents have not dispersed. The Union is not restored; nor the Constitution maintained; nor the laws
enforced. But slavery is the cause of the war. Why? Because the South obstinately and wickedly refused to restrict or
abolish it at the demand of the philosophers or fanatics and demagogues of the North and West. Then, sir, it was
abolition, the purpose to abolish or interfere with and hem in slavery, which caused disunion and war. Slavery is only the
subject, but Abolition the cause of this civil war. “
Document D: Attributed to General Grant, 1864, found in Donald Phillips’ book, Lincoln on Leadership.
“The President has more never than any of his advisors!”
Document E: Cooper Union Speech, A. Lincoln, February 27, 1860
“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of
destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN
THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.”
Document F: Telegram to General George McClellan by A. Lincoln, April 9, 1862.
“And, once more, let me tell you, it is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I beg to assure you that I have never
written you, or spoken to you, in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you, so far as
in my most anxious judgment, I consistently can. But you must act.”
Document G: Horace Greeley, The Prayer of Twenty Millions, published in New York Tribune, August 19, 1862.
“Dear Sir: I do not intrude to tell you… that a great proportion of those who triumphed in you election…are sorely and
deeply pained by the policy…with regard to the slaves of the Rebels. We require of you…to EXECUTE THE LAWS. …We
think you are…remiss in the discharge of your official…duty with regard to the emancipating provisions of the new
Confiscation Act. Those provisions were designed to fight Slavery with Liberty. We think you are unduly influenced by
the counsels…hailing from Border Slave States.”
Document H: A. Lincoln’s response to Grace Bedell’s letter asking him to grow a beard, October 19, 1860
“I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters. I have three sons…As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do
you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now? Your very sincere well wisher.”
Document I: excerpt from Tom Wheeler’s book, Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails, 2006.
“...the first time a national leader had ever used telecommunications as a regular part of his leadership…thus allowing
coordination among disparate forces and between the national leadership and those forces…the telegraph changed the
nature of executive leadership and provided Abraham Lincoln with a tool that helped him win the Civil War.”
Document J: Letter to General Joseph Hooker to inform him of his new position as Commander of the Army of the
Potomac, January 26, 1863.
“I have heard…your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator…of course it was in spite
of this I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes, can set up dictators. What I now ask of
you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.”