APUSH Ch 15 Essays
Nicholas Alamillo
Mr. Woolsey
APUSH P.2
1. Compare and contrast Lincoln’s views on the federal Union with nullification theory found in Document B. Chapter 10, page 189.
In this document, Lincoln argued that the Founders in 1776 created a single nation and not thirteen independent sovereign states. This did not give any state the legal authority to leave the union on its own. His adversary on this point was John C. Calhoun. Calhoun took the opposite position by declaring that the Declaration of Independence created thirteen “free and independent states”. This stated that the states having created the union therefore had the right to nullify unconstitutional laws. This also gave them the right to even secede from the union. Both sides of the argument could find justification for their points in the history of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution. This is part of the reason why it took a civil war to settle the issue. Lincoln saw both sides of the argument, but he still believed that the Founders wrote the Declaration of Independence with the idea of a single growing nation. This did not give states the right to leave or secede from the Union on their own will.
2. How do the events detailed in Mary Chestnut’s diary reflect the growing difficulties of the Confederacy in 1864?
In the selections of Mary Chestnut’s diary, she recorded the growing sense of defeat and despair among soldiers, civilians, and even the clergy. The men she describes in her first excerpt on March 24 are of men at the capitol grounds. She says there were men that had strange looks in their eyes, and how others were so restless and wild looking. She even describes men that had placid and vacant looks in their eyes, as if they had been dead to the world for years. In her second excerpt on September 21, she went to hear a Protestant minister. She writes that despair was his only word and martyrdom. She also describes how he sees that slavery
Mr. Woolsey
APUSH P.2
1. Compare and contrast Lincoln’s views on the federal Union with nullification theory found in Document B. Chapter 10, page 189.
In this document, Lincoln argued that the Founders in 1776 created a single nation and not thirteen independent sovereign states. This did not give any state the legal authority to leave the union on its own. His adversary on this point was John C. Calhoun. Calhoun took the opposite position by declaring that the Declaration of Independence created thirteen “free and independent states”. This stated that the states having created the union therefore had the right to nullify unconstitutional laws. This also gave them the right to even secede from the union. Both sides of the argument could find justification for their points in the history of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution. This is part of the reason why it took a civil war to settle the issue. Lincoln saw both sides of the argument, but he still believed that the Founders wrote the Declaration of Independence with the idea of a single growing nation. This did not give states the right to leave or secede from the Union on their own will.
2. How do the events detailed in Mary Chestnut’s diary reflect the growing difficulties of the Confederacy in 1864?
In the selections of Mary Chestnut’s diary, she recorded the growing sense of defeat and despair among soldiers, civilians, and even the clergy. The men she describes in her first excerpt on March 24 are of men at the capitol grounds. She says there were men that had strange looks in their eyes, and how others were so restless and wild looking. She even describes men that had placid and vacant looks in their eyes, as if they had been dead to the world for years. In her second excerpt on September 21, she went to hear a Protestant minister. She writes that despair was his only word and martyrdom. She also describes how he sees that slavery