Download Hist 1301 Final Exam Study Guide Page 1

Hist 1301 Final Exam Study Guide
John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay all ran for the presidency of the United States in 1824. As you may know, John
Quincy Adams won. Adams was president when the first Anglos began settling the Mexican province of Tejas under Stephen F. Austin. You
might also want to know that in 1824, the United States did not have many controls on immigration. Anyone who came to America and stayed
for seven years was automatically a citizen. In fact, from this period until the Civil War period, many jurisdictions allowed all white males to
vote without regard to their citizenship status. Letters written to Sweden in the 1840s indicate that even those Swedes just visiting what is now
Minnesota (what we would call tourists) were permitted to vote.
In the wake of the Civil War, some plantations were divided up among the former slaves who had worked the land. This program was quickly
brought to a halt, and Freedmen were ordered to return lands they had acquired. The Freedmen of Edisto Island, South Carolina resisted,
claiming that they knew how to farm, and had farmed that land their entire lives, while the former owner knew nothing of farming and had
relied entirely on their expertise to provide his own living. When forced to choose between racism and punishing those who had taken up arms
against the US government, President Johnson chose racism. He returned the land to former rebels and dispossessed the former slaves.
In 1844, the Democratic Party nominated James K. Polk. Polk’s platform was simple. The United States must expand to the Pacific Ocean,
and specifically, must obtain San Francisco Bay. As a result he pursued a very aggressive policy with Mexico, which at that time included all
of the area south of Oregon and west of Texas that is now part of the United States. Polk alternately threatened Mexico with war, and
attempted to persuade them with money to part with California. Under his administration the United States annexed the Republic of Texas,
claiming that the southern border of Texas was the Rio Grand. Mexico claimed that the border was actually the Rio Nueces, and maps
produced by the Mexican government in the 1820s confirm that Rio Nueces was in fact the southern border of Texas. When a group of Texas
outlaws pillaged a Mexican village north of the Rio Grand, the Mexican Army went in to restore order. The United States claimed that it had
been invaded, and attacked Mexico. Interestingly, The United States Army was already in position near San Antonio. Historians believe that
President Polk desperately wanted to annex California primarily in order to obtain San Francisco Bay, and had decided that, since the
Mexican government would not sell it, the only way to get it was war.
Although his reelection had been in doubt earlier in his term, Abraham Lincoln easily won the election of 1864. This was mainly due to the fact
that people had very positive feelings about the course war as the US Army was clearly winning against the rebels.
In seven days of battles (June 25-July 1, 1862) in Virginia, Robert E. Lee commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, ferociously attacked
Union troops under George McClellan as they were approaching Richmond. Many of the fiercest battles of the war centered around each
side’s attempt to capture the other’s capital. The cities of Washington and Richmond were, and still are, very close to one another. Had either
side captured the other’s capital it would have a severe blow to the losing side, and a great public relations coup for the victor.
By the time of the election of 1824, eighteen of the twenty-four states of the Union held popular elections to choose members of the Electoral
College. In the remaining states, the Electors were still chosen by the state legislature. The constitution leaves it up to each state to determine
how electors are selected. In some states, the electors names appear on the ballot, while in most, your vote for president is actually a vote for
a set of electors who promise to vote for your candidate. Since the electors are selected in a winner-take-all election, it is possible to win the
popular vote and still not be elected President. This has happened several times in American history, the most recent being the election of
George W. Bush in 2000. All attempts to eliminate the elector college through constitutional amendment have failed, and this is for several
reasons. Average American voters are reluctant to tamper with a process that works (at least, most of the time) In addition, politicians benefit
from the present system in that it creates a certain set of rules and strategies that well known and understood. Creating a new system would
also create uncertainty, which politicians generally try to avoid.
After Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued in September 1862, the Democrats made emancipation the primary issue in the
Congressional elections of 1862, claiming that African Americans were not “worth a civil war.” Although appealing to racism is often a
successful election tactic, by 1862 most Americans regarded the main issue of the war to be about saving the nation and not necessarily
freeing slaves.
During the early 1840s, southern planters' fears intensified that the British intended to acquire Cuba from Spain, encourage Texas to remain
independent, and block American expansion to the south and west by urging Mexico to cede California to Britain to protect it from the ever
expanding Anglos. Although this notion may have been more fantasy than reality, it illustrates the desire of the South to expand its economy
and culture into new regions, such as Cuba, California, and even Mexico. Several political clubs of the era advocated the conquest of Mexico
and the expansion of Southern ideals to the south.
Freedmen resisted the wage system that began in 1865 and 1866 by cultivating their own garden plots, moving to towns and cities in the
South, and refusing to submit to the gang system that had characterized labor under slavery.
In the congressional campaigns and elections of 1866 President Andrew Johnson suffered a humiliating defeat as Republicans gained a
three-to-one margin in Congress.
President Lincoln was assassinated in April of 1865. The reaction was intense. Southerners reacted with dread. Although he was reviled
throughout the white South, Lincoln had offered terms for the restoration of the Union that would have been fairly painless to most white
Southerners. Although slavery would have been abolished, white control of the South would not have been challenged. Lincoln’s death meant
that those forces who wanted to punish the South for its rebellion would be in power in Washington. Northerners also reacted intensely.
Lincoln was quickly elevated to cult status. Reverence for Lincoln would carry on in the North for the next 60 years. Towns were named for
him, toys (such as Lincoln Logs), and even an automobile. Lincoln was even the first American to be honored on a US coin. As Lincoln came
to be regarded as a saint in the North, Northern anger toward the South grew, and Northerners desired to punish the South for the war. This
hostility resulted in the policies known collectively as Reconstruction.
Page 1
In the 1820s, a New York man named Joseph Smith claimed he had been visited by an angel of God. This angel led him to some golden
tablets written in a strange language that the angel taught to Smith. According to Smith, it was the story of a lost tribe of Israel that had
wondered to North America about three thousand years earlier. It contained a visit by Jesus to the New World shortly after his resurrection.
This was the Book of Mormon. Smith became the leader of this new religion and soon had many converts. The Mormons taught, among other
things, that, like the Biblical Patriarchs, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, a man should have as many wives as he can afford. This idea, and many
others that the Mormons had, angered the wider community and led to the Mormons being pushed from their homes. After being forced to
move from place to place, they eventually settled in the Mexican province of Alta California where they established Salt Lake City, safely
isolated from anti-Mormon elements. In 1848, as a result of the Mexican War, that area, now called Utah fell into the hands of the US
government. The Mormons desired to create a state that stretched from Utah to San Diego. This, and their perceived moral shortcomings, led
President Buchanan to send troops into Utah to abolish polygamy and ensure American control over the territory. Eventually, the Mormons
adopted a series of reforms. Today Mormons dominate politics in several western states, like Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 allowed slave owners to pay bounty hunters to search for missing slaves in free territories. These bounty
hunters were essentially paid kidnappers who often attacked and carried away free blacks back into Southern slavery. Northerners, even
those who supported slavery, strongly disliked the Fugitive Slave Law. As a result, Northerners awoke to the reality of slavery, and for the first
time in American history, slavery became a major political issue. To capitalize on this climate, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's
Cabin, a book that seized the public imagination and made slavery the talk of American politics. Frederick Douglass abandoned his previous
stance of pacifism and began to tell audiences that only a civil war could destroy slavery. Riots broke out across the North as ordinary citizens
intervened against bounty hunters in the act of kidnapping African Americans off the streets of Northern cities. One such place was Christiana,
Pennsylvania. The scuffle between citizens and bounty hunters turned into a riot that was only be quelled when President Fillmore sent in
federal troops. In 1790 Americans North and South agreed that slavery was a “necessary evil.” By 1850, Northerners had come to regard
slavery as a corrupting influence, while Southerners had adopted the idea that slavery was a positive good.
Although the South had many early victories in the Civil War, it did not have the man power or the industrial base to withstand a long conflict.
By the end of 1863, when the US Army had cleared the Mississippi valley of Confederate forces, cutting the South in two, it had become clear
that the South would eventually lose.
In the election of 1824, Andrew Jackson was the candidate most associated with nationalist pride. That should be easy to remember.
The part of the North that was most hostile to the abolition of slavery was the Ohio Valley. Much of the Ohio Valley, especially in southern
Illinois, was settled by Southerners, and the people there had deep cultural and family ties to the South. Although slavery was illegal in these
areas, the people shared a broad range of cultural similarities with Southerners and generally supported slavery and southern notions of racial
hierarchy.
By 1850, perhaps 10 percent of the northern public had embraced abolitionism, while another 20 percent was sympathetic to the cause.
At Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox , General Grant allowed Lee’s enlisted men take their horses home for spring planting. As
Southerners returned home they found the situation bleak. In many places crops had gone untended for two or three years. The constant play
of armies back and forth across broad areas of the South, and the North’s policy of total war had left southern agriculture devastated. Small
acts of kindness, such as allowing these men to have their horses, help mitigate the hardship felt by Southerners in the years immediately
following the war.
From 1818 until the early 1840s, the Oregon Territory was under the joint occupancy of Britain and the United States. Originally, the area was
claimed by Britain, France, and Spain. With Louisiana, the US bought France’s claim to the Oregon Country. A treaty in 1819 also gave
Spain’s claim to the US. This left only Britain and the US. The two countries agreed to a joint occupation of the territory beginning in 1818. In
1848, the two powers agreed to split the territory 50-50. The US divided their side into Oregon and Washington State, while the British named
their half British Columbia.
From the late eighteenth century until the 1820s, California was devastated by European diseases. After Mexico gained independence from
Spain, the state of Alta California became one of Mexico’s richest territories. By the 1840s, the US desire to posses the riches of California
had become acute, eventually resulting in the Mexican-American War. The belief held by many Americans that they were destined to
overspread the continent was known as Manifest Destiny. In many ways, the ideals of Manifest Destiny continue to drive American public
opinion and foreign policy even today. In the 19th century this was an effort to bring American ideals of religion and government to the entire
continent. Today, it is still common to hear politicians speak of spreading American ideals to other countries.
The Mormons ultimately prevailed in their conflict with the federal authorities in the 1850s and 1860s primarily because the US government
had more important problems to deal with (for example: slavery and the Civil War) than polygamy and Mormon rule in Utah territory. After the
end of the Civil War, the US government turned its attention to conquering the West. The US Army, large, well equipped and battle tested was
unleashed on the Western Indians. The ongoing struggle to remove Indians from their land to facilitate Anglo settlement, which had been
underway for three hundred years, was brought to an end over the course of about twenty years in the late 18th century.
Under Johnson's amnesty plan, ex-Confederates were allowed to recover their land and freedmen were forced to either work for them or
leave. Although Johnson had a strong desire to preserve the Union, he could not accept the idea of racial equality. His hopes for the
reconstruction of the Union rested on the idea of making white men more equal to one another in a way they had not been before the Civil
War when wealthy planters dominated all aspects of life in the South. His vision did not include equality for minorities or women.
Black Hawk was the leader of the Sauk and Fox tribes who in 1832 resisted removal from his people's lands in western Illinois.
For political advice, President Jackson relied on an informal group of advisors, called the Kitchen Cabinet. Americans, at the time, thought that
“Kitchen Cabinet” was a very funny play on words. Today, whenever a president relies on his old friends and cronies who are not officially part
of the government we still call that a Kitchen Cabinet.
And what would the exam be without a literature question? Henry David Thoreau's book Walden was a record of his spiritual search for
meanings beyond the artificialities of daily life.