AP US History Document Based Question
Directions: The following question requires you to construct an essay that integrates
your interpretation of documents and your knowledge of the period referred to in the
question. In the essay you should strive to support your assertions both by citing key
pieces of evidence from the documents and by drawing on your knowledge of the period.
Using your knowledge of the time period 1820-1850, assess the validity of the
following statement. Although the Great Triumvirate worked for years to hold the
Union together, their actions and political ideas lead to the downfall of the Union.
Document A
Document B
Representative Henry Clay's ''On Internal Improvement'' Speech, 1824
“The conclusion of the gentleman is, that all internal improvements belong to the
State governments; that they are of a limited and local character, and are not
comprehended within the scope of the federal powers, which relate to external or general
objects. That many, perhaps most internal improvements, partake of the character
described by the gentleman, I shall not deny. But it is no less true that there are others,
emphatically national, which neither the policy, nor the power, nor the interests of any
State will induce it to accomplish, and which can only be effected by the application of
the resources of the nation. The improvement of the navigation of the Mississippi
furnishes a striking example.” Courtesy University of Kentucky, Margaret I. King
Library, Life and Speeches of Henry Clay, Vol. I, p. 162-184.
Document C
John C. Calhoun's Fort Hill Letter, 1832
“From the beginning, and in all the changes of political existence, through which
we have passed, the people of the United States have been united as forming political
communities, and not as individuals….. the conclusion is inevitable, that the Constitution
is the work of the people of the States, considered, as separate and independent political
communities—that they are its authors—their power created it—their voice clothed it
with an authority—that the Government it formed is in reality their agent—and that the
Union, of which it is the bond, is an Union of States, and not of individuals.” The Papers
of John C. Calhoun, Vol. XI, 1829-32, ed. Clyde N. Wilson, p. 613-649.
Document D
Senator Daniel Webster's ''Seventh of March'' Speech, 1850
“Peaceable secession!—peaceable secession! The concurrent agreement of all the
members of this great republic to separate! A voluntary separation, with alimony on one
side and on the other. Why, what would be the result? Where is the line to be drawn?
What States are to secede? What is to remain American? What am I to be? An American
no longer? Where is the flag of the republic to remain? Where is the eagle still to tower?
or is he to cower, and shrink, and fall to the ground? Why, sir, our ancestors—our fathers
and our grandfathers, those of them that are yet living amongst us with prolonged lives—
would rebuke and reproach us; and our children and our grandchildren would cry out
shame upon us, if we of this generation should dishonor these ensigns of the power of the
Government and the harmony of the Union, which is every day felt among us with so
much joy and gratitude.” Dartmouth College Library, ''Speech of the Hon. Daniel
Webster upon the Subject of Slavery.'' p. 1-36.
Document E
Document F
President Polk's Inaugural Address, March 4, 1845
“It will be my first care to administer the Government in the true spirit of that
instrument, and to assume no powers not expressly granted or clearly implied in its terms.
The Government of the United States is one of delegated and limited powers, and it is by
a strict adherence to the clearly granted powers and by abstaining from the exercise of
doubtful or unauthorized implied powers that we have the only sure guaranty against the
recurrence of those unfortunate collisions between the Federal and State authorities
which have occasionally so much disturbed the harmony of our system and even
threatened the perpetuity of our glorious Union. Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of
the United States, 1789-1965.”
Document G
Document H
Wilmot Proviso, 1846
Provided. That, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any
territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which
may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein
appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said
territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.” The
Congressional Globe of the 29th Congress. p. 77.
Document I
John C. Calhoun's Last Speech on the Slavery Question, 1850
The first question, then, presented for consideration, in the investigation I propose, in
order to obtain such knowledge, is: what is it that has endangered the Union?
To this question there can be but one answer, that the immediate cause is the almost
universal discontent which pervades all the states composing the Southern section of the
Union. This widely extended discontent is not of recent origin. It commenced with the
agitation of the slavery question, and has been increasing ever since….
The question then recurs: what is the cause of this discontent? It will be found in the
belief of the people of the Southern states, as prevalent as the discontent itself, that they
cannot remain, as things now are, consistently with honor and safety, in the Union.
Living Documents in American History (ed. John A. Scott, Vol. II, p. 502).
Document J
Document K
Senator Henry Clay's Compromise Speech, 1850
“Sir, I implore gentlemen, I adjure them, whether from the South or the North, by
all that they hold dear in this world—by all their love of liberty—by all their veneration
for their ancestors—by all their regard for posterity—by all their gratitude to Him who
has bestowed on them such unnumbered and countless blessings—by all the duties which
they owe to mankind—and by all the duties which they owe to themselves, to pause,
solemnly to pause at the edge of the precipice, before the fearful and dangerous leap be
taken into the yawning abyss below, from which none who ever take it shall return in
safety.
Finally, Mr. President, and in conclusion, I implore, as the best blessing which
Heaven can bestow upon me, upon earth, that if the direful event of the dissolution of this
Union is to happen, I shall not survive to behold the sad and heart-rending spectacle.
Courtesy University of Kentucky, Mary I. King Library. The Life, Correspondence and
Speeches of Henry Clay, Vol III, ed. Calvin Colton, p. 302-345.
Document L
“God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise! God grant that on
my vision never may be opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be turned to
behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and
dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on states dissevered, discordant,
belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let
their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic,
now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and
trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star
obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as "What is all this
worth?" nor those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first and Union afterwards";
but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds,
as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens,
that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart-Liberty and Union, now and
forever, one and inseparable!” Source: Daniel Webster's Second Reply to Hayne, 1830.
Document M
“I regard the existence of slavery as an evil. I regret it, and wish that there was not
one slave in the United States. But it is an evil which, while it affects the States only, or
principally, where it abounds, each State within which it is situated is the exclusive judge
of what is best to be done with it, and no other State has a right to interfere in it….
Congress possesses no power or authority to abolish it. Congress is invested with no
power relating to it, except that which assumes its legitimate and continued existence….
Although I believe slavery to be an evil, I regard it as a far less evil than would arise out
of an immediate emancipation of the slaves of the United States, and their remaining here
mixed up in our communities. In such contingency, I believe that a bloody civil war
would ensue, which would terminate only by the extinction of the black race.” Source:
Henry Clay, July 1842.
Document N
“How can the Union be saved? There is but one way by which it can with any
certainty; and that is, by a full and final settlement, on the principle of justice of all the
questions at issue between the two sections. But can this be done? Yes easily; not by the
weaker party, for it can of itself do nothing - not even protect itself - but by the stronger.
The North has only to will it to accomplish it - the South an equal right in the acquired
territory, and to do her duty by causing the stipulations relative to fugitive slaves to be
faithfully fulfilled and to cease the agitation of the slave question.” Source: John
Calhoun, speech in Senate, March 4th, 1850
Document O