What Opponents Of Early American Expansion Were Federalists

Document A
1. Document Information
a) Three northeastern members of the Federalist Party had doubts about the Louisiana Purchase in 1803
b) The constitution didn’t authorize territorial acquisition, thought the United States was no safer acquiring this large territory, for fear the eastern states would become less important as the country expanded
c) The United States purchased the Louisiana in 1803
d) The U.S. constitution does not state ways the federal government may acquire territory
e) A standing army represented a threat
2. Document Inferences
a) The opponents of early American expansion were Federalists
b) Opposition to expansion rested on several premises, including constitutional considerations, national security and self-interest
Document Information
a) The U.S House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly for war on June 4, 1812
b) More than two-thirds of the House of Representatives voted for war on June 4, 1812, with most of the supporters coming from the South and West and most opponents coming from the Northeast, along with some from Virginia and Maryland
c) All congressmen from Pennsylvania, Georgia, and South Carolina and from the west of the Appalachian Mountains (Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee) voted for war
2. Document Inferences
a) In this “Second War for Independence,” the U.S. went to war with Britain in 1812, chiefly to force the British out of the U.S. territory and thus clear the way for American Expansion
b) The British had never respected Americans sovereignty over the area all the way to the Mississippi River, which was called for in the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution
3. Potential Outside Information
a) Battle of New Orleans
b) Burning of Washington
c) Impressment

Document C
1. Document Information
a) In an 1829 report on American aborigines, Lewis Cass expressed a belief that the Cherokee Nation had made no progress in improving its society despite 200 years of “contact with a civilized