Choose one question and write an essay of 750 to 1000 words. Do not use outside sources.
1. The issues of race and slavery in America were dealt with through political compromise for almost a hundred years. Discuss the major compromises regarding race and slavery in American politics from 1776 to 1877. Why did compromise fail in 1860? How was the compromise of 1877 similar or dissimilar to the series of compromises that preceded it?
2. When South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1860, itās leaders claimed legal and constitutional grounds for their decision. What evidence could they point to from the late eighteenth century to 1860 to support their view? Lincoln argued that the Union could not be broken. What did he base his position on?
3. āā¦slavery is not only lawful, reasonable and good, but ā¦ it is also necessary.ā — Brother Joseph Moberly, S. J. Slavery or Cham (1823)
4. Together with Thomas Dew, John C. Calhoun and George Fitzhugh, Moberly advanced a variety of arguments presenting slavery as a positive good. Describe three of these theories or arguments. How were these arguments a departure from earlier southern defenses of slavery? What caused this change? How did Northerners respond to this strengthening of the Southās commitment to the institutions of slavery?
5. In what ways did Whig and Democratic ideologies influence the Constitution of 1787? Was the Constitution more or less democratic than the state constitutions and the Articles of Confederation? Outline the position of the federalists and anti-federalists regarding the constitution. What do New Jersey voting laws in the early republic reveal about the notion of political citizenship?
