2006 ALIEF HISTORY CHALLENGE ESSAY QUESTIONS
GRADE 8
*****************PART 1: DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION:*****************
Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your
interpretation of Documents A-H and your knowledge of the period 1820-1860. You should cite key
pieces of evidence from the documents and outside knowledge of the period.
TASK A: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of social studies, answer the
questions that follow each document. Your answers to the questions will help you write the essay
(Task B)
TASK B: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of social studies, write an
essay that answers the following question:
In the early 1800’s (1820-1860), Americans tried to resolve their political disputes through
compromise, yet by 1860 this no longer seemed possible. Analyze the reasons for this
change.
Detailed Instructions for the essay:
1. Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs, and a
conclusion.
2. Use evidence from the documents to support your response, which should:



Identify and explain the sectional disputes occurring in America in the early and middle
1800s.
Describe the efforts to resolve these disputes through compromise.
Analyze why compromise became increasingly difficult and failed completely by 1860.
3. Include specific related outside information.
4. Use black or dark ink to write your essay.
Document A
United States Constitution
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be
included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by
adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of
Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. (Later removed by
Amendment 13, Section 2.)
Article 1, Section 2
The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper
to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred
and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for
each Person.
Article 1, Section 9
What issues did these provisions of the Constitution attempt to address?
What compromises did they provide?
Document B
Source: Senator Henry Clay, speech to the Senate, February 12, 1833
I merely throw out these sentiments for the purpose of showing you that South Carolina,
having declared her purpose to be this, to make an experiment whether, by a course of
legislation, in a conventional form, or legislative form of enactment, she can defeat the
execution of certain laws of the United States, I for one, will express my opinion that I believe
it is utterly impracticable, whatever course of legislation she may choose to adopt, for her to
succeed. . . . I say it is impossible that South Carolina ever desired for a moment to become
a separate and independent state.
How was South Carolina attempting to “defeat the execution of certain laws of the United
States?”
In 1833, why would Henry Clay think it was “impossible that South Carolina ever desired for a
moment to become a separate and independent state?”
Document C
Source: Resolution of the Pinckney Committee, House of Representatives, May 18, 1836
And whereas (since) it is extremely important and desirable, that the agitation of this subject
should be finally arrested (ended), for the purpose of restoring tranquility (peace) to the public
mind, your committee respectfully recommend the adoption of the following additional resolution:
All petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers relating in any way or to any extent
Whatsoever, to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall without being either printed
or referred, be laid on the table (set aside) and that no further action whatever shall be had
thereon.
Document D
What was the “agitation” referred to in first paragraph of the Committee’s resolution?
Why did the committee recommend the House of Representatives adopt the resolution in the
second paragraph?
Source: Senator Daniel Webster, speech to the Senate, March 7, 1850
Mr. President, I wish to speak today, not as a Northern man, but as an American. . . .
I will state. . . one complaint of the South. . . that there has been found at the North, among
individuals and among the legislatures of the North, a disinclination (unwillingness) to perform fully
their constitutional duties in regard to the return of persons bound to service (slaves) who have
escaped into the free states. In that respect, it is my judgment that the South is right and the North
is wrong. . . .
I hear with pain and anguish the word “secession,” especially when it falls from the lips of those
who are emminnently [sic] patriotic, and known to the country, and known all over the world for
their political services. Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, your eyes and mine are never
designed to see that miracle. . . . I hold the idea of a separation of these states-- those that are
free to form one government and those that are slaveholding to form another--as a moral
impossibility. We could not separate the states by any such line if we were to draw it. We could
not sit down here today and draw a line of separation that would satisfy any five men in the
country.
What law was Senator Webster referring to in the second paragraph? What was the South’s
“complaint?”
Why did the Senator believe that secession was impossible?
Document E
Illustration by J.L. Magee, 1856
What type of event was portrayed in this cartoon?
The date of the cartoon is 1856. What does it infer about how attempts to compromise were
working by that date?
Document F
Source: Muscogee, Georgia, Herald, quoted in the New York Tribune, September 10, 1856
Free society! We sicken at the name. What is it but a conglomeration of greasy mechanics, filthy
operatives, small-fisted farmers, and moon-struck theorists? All northern, and especially the New
England, states are devoid of society fitted for well-bred southern gentlemen. The prevailing class
one meets with is that of mechanics struggling to be genteel, and small farmers who do their own
drudgery, and yet are hardly fit for association with a southern gentleman’s body servant.
In what section of the nation was this quotation published?
What opinion is it expressing?
Document G
Source: Abraham Lincoln, speech at Alton, Illinois, October 15, 1858
You may say. . . that all of this difficulty in regard to the institution of slavery is the mere agitation
of office seekers and ambitious Northern politicians. . . . But is it true that all of the difficulty and
agitation we have in regard to this institution of slavery springs from office seeking--from the mere
ambition of politicians? . . . . How many times have we had danger from this question? . . . .[D]oes
not this question make a disturbance outside of political circles? Does it not enter into the
churches and rend them asunder? . . .Is it not this same mighty, deep-seated power that somehow
operates on the minds of men, exciting and stirring them up in every avenue of society--in politics,
in religion, in literature, in morals, in all manifold relations in life? Is this the work of politicians?
Did Lincoln believe slavery was simply a political issue that didn’t really concern the citizens of the
United States? What evidence supports your conclusion?
Document H
What conclusions can be drawn from the election results shown on the map?
What do the results suggest about the relationship between the North and South in 1860?
2006 ALIEF HISTORY CHALLENGE ESSAY QUESTIONS
GRADE 8
***************** PART 2:
FREE RESPONSE ESSAY
*****************
Directions: This question requires you to construct a coherent essay that addresses the prompt
below. You should use relevant historical evidence in support of your conclusions and present your
arguments clearly and logically. Use black or dark ink to write your essay.
To what extent was the United States Constitution a radical departure from the Articles of
Confederation?