AP US History Unit 5 Study Packet
The Age of Jackson
Directions: Follow this sheet daily. The date next to the assignment indicates the night the
homework must be done—all assignments are due the following class meeting. Make sure to do
your IDs on a set of index cards and answer your discussion questions on notebook paper or
typed. You must write both the question and the answer when responding to the discussion
questions.
ALL ID RESPONSES AND DISCUSSION QUESTION ANSWERS MUST BE IN YOUR
OWN WORDS—NOT COPIED VERBATIM FROM THE BOOK!
IN ADDITION, BE SURE YOUR ID NOT ONLY IDENTIFIES THE GIVEN PERSON,
PLACE, OR EVENT, BUT ALSO EXPLAINS ITS IMPORTANCE.
Checklist of Assignments
Assignment
IDs
Discussion Questions
Multiple Choice Packet
Zinn Notesheet
Daily in-Class Cornell Notes
Due Date
Friday 10/26 and Monday 11/5
Friday 10/26 and Monday 11/5
Thursday 11/1
Friday 10/26
Friday 10/26 and Monday 11/5
Points Possible
53
45
20
10
10 each
Other Unit Assignments
Reading Quizzes—Tue 10/30
In-class DBQ—Friday 11/2 (45 project points)
In-class Test—Monday 11/5
10/22 (but not due until Tuesday Wednesday 10/24) Politics in the Jacksonian Age pp. 246256
IDs
The Spoils System
The Tariff of Abominations
Discussion Questions
1. In what ways was the election of 1824 a “corrupt bargain”? How did the Jacksonians
respond?
2. Why was John Quincy Adams in some ways a misfit for the White House? How did this
make his presidency difficult?
3. In what ways was the election of 1828 different from past elections?
4. Why does Bailey describe Jackson as “unique”?
5. What were the negatives of the spoils system? What does Bailey see as its positive
effect?
6. Who supported the tariffs? Who was against them?
7. How did South Carolina respond to the tariffs?
8. How was the nullification crisis solved?
10/24 Native Americans in the Jacksonian Age, pp. 256-258 and Jacksonian Politics pp. .
258-265 and pp.270-274
IDs
pp. 256-258
Five Civilized Tribes
Trail of Tears
pp. 258-265 and 270-274
Nicholas Biddle
Specie Circular
“King Andrew”
Divorce Bill
William Henry Harrison
Discussion Questions
pp. 256-258
1. In what ways did Jackson’s policies of Western expansion encroach upon the cultures and
lives of Native Americans?
pp. 258-265 and 270-274
1. Why did Jackson dislike the bank?
2. What factors led to the Bank War? What were the consequences of Jackson’s actions
during the Bank War?
3. In what ways was the Election of 1832 memorable? What was its’ result?
4. How did Jackson try to destroy the Bank of the US once and for all? What was the result?
5. What led the Whig party to develop in the 1830s? What was their main platform? What
were their feelings about Jackson?
6. In what ways was Jackson behind Van Buren’s election in 1836?
7. In what ways was Van Buren’s presidency doomed from the start?
8. What were the causes of the Panic of 1837? What were the effects?
9. What were the benefits of Van Buren’s plans for an independent treasury? What were the
setbacks?
10. Why does Bailey call the Whig campaign of 1840 “a masterpiece of inane hoopla”? What
was the result?
11. What was the difference in the economic goals of the Whigs and the Democrats?
12. Identify and EXPLAIN the two major changes in American politics demonstrated by the
election of 1840.
13. What were the main differences between the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs?
14. Describe at least two of the differing historical interpretations of Jacksonian democracy.
10/25 Zinn Reading—Complete reading, notesheet and 2 questions for Socratic Seminar
10/26 (but not due until Tuesday 10/30) Manifest Destiny and the Mexican American War
pp. 265-270 and pp. 360-376
IDs
Stephen Austin
Sam Houston
Santa Anna
The Alamo
The Lone Star Rebellion
Manifest Destiny
John C. Fremont
General Zachary Taylor
The Wilmot Proviso
Discussion Questions
1. What agreement did Stephen Austin make with the Mexican government in the 1820s?
How was it violated?
2. How did frictions between Texans and Mexicans begin? What winded up happening to
Stephen Austin?
3. In what ways was the US government in a sticky situation during the Lone Star
Rebellion? How did it respond?
4. What was the issue in admitting Texas to the union?
(From Mexican or Texican? Section)
5. Why did the Mexican government recruit American settlers at first?
6. How did the struggles of the Texans resemble the struggle of the British colonists during
the Revolution?
7. What does Bailey believe was at the heart of the conflict between Texans and the
Mexican government?
From pp. 360-376
8. How did John Tyler become president? In what ways was he out of sync with his own
party?
9.Why was anti-British sentiment rising up again in the 1840s?
10. How did the Americans and British work out their differences over the Maine border?
11. In what ways was Texas in an uncertain position in the 1840s?
12. Why did Texas become more of an issue in the presidential election of 1844? What did
Tyler decide to do?
13. What do you think of Bailey’s argument that America did not despoil Mexico of Texas
“for the area was no longer Mexico’s to be despoiled of?”
14. Why did the US start to become discontent with the joint occupation of Oregon?
15. Why did Polk determine that the election of 1844 was a mandate for manifest destiny?
What did this prompt him to do?
16. How did the US and Britain finally agree to the boundaries of Oregon?
17. Why did Polk want California? How did this cause tensions with the Mexican
government?
18. What was the course of events leading Polk to declare war on Mexico?
19. Based on Bailey’s info—who do you think is more responsible for starting the MexicanAmerican war? Why?
20. Why does Bailey call the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo “breathtaking?”
21. What were some of the lasting impacts of the Mexican-American war?
22. Why does Bailey argue that “the opening shots of the Mexican-American War were the
opening shots of the Civil War”?
Unit 5: The Age of Jackson
Zinn Notesheet pp. 124-146
Quote p. 128: “The leading books on the Jacksonian period, written by respected historians (The
Age of Jackson by Arthur Schlesinger; The Jacksonian Persuasion by Marvin Meyers), do not
mention Jackson’s Indian policy, but there is much talk in them of tariffs, banking, political
parties, political rhetoric. If you look through high school textbooks and elementary school
textbooks in American history you will find Jackson the frontiersman, soldier, democrat, man of
the people—not Jackson the slaveholder, land speculator, executioner of dissident soldiers,
exterminator of Indians.”
With this quote in mind, what sorts of things should we know about Jackson? Fill in the
following chart with key examples from the reading for each category.
Wars
Treaties
Indian Removal
Multiple Choice Practice
Directions: The following multiple choice questions are meant to give you exposure to the
format, style and type of multiple choice questions you will see on the AP US History exam. In
addition, they are meant to help you review the content from the last unit.
You can work individually, or with your study group, to find the answers to the questions below.
I recommend waiting until you’ve studied the content until you work on the related questions
below—that way you can check your understanding of the material you’ve studied.
Turn in your answers to me on a sheet of notebook paper with the question number and the
letter of the correct answer.
Due: Thursday 11/1/12
1. The Wilmot Proviso stipulated that
a. Slavery should be prohibited in the lands acquired as a result of the Mexican War.
b. No lands should be annexed to the United States as a result of the Mexican War.
c. California should be a free state while the rest of the Mexican Cession should be
reserved for the formation of slave states.
d. The status of slavery in the Mexican Cession should be decided on the basis of
“Popular Sovereignty”
e. The Missouri Compromise line should be extended through the Mexican Cession to the
Pacific, lands north of it being closed to slavery.
2. The Whig Party turned against President John Tyler because
a. He was felt to be ineffective in pushing the Whig agenda through Congress
b. He spoke out in favor of annexation of Texas.
c. He opposed the entire Whig legislative program.
d. He criticized Henry Clay’s handling of the Nullification Crisis.
e. He aggressively favored the expansion of slavery.
3. In coining the phrase “Manifest Destiny,” journalist John L. O’Sullivan meant that
a. The struggle for racial equality was the ultimate goal of America’s existence.
b. America was certain to become an independent country sooner or later.
c. It was the destiny of America to overspread the continent.
d. America must eventually become either all slave or free.
e. America should seek to acquire an overseas empire.
4. All of the following were causes of the Mexican War EXCEPT
a. American desire for California
b. Mexican failure to pay debts and damages owed to the US
c. US annexation of the formerly Mexican-held Republic of Texas
d. Mexican desire to annex Louisiana
e. The disputed Southern boundary of Texas.
5. Andrew Jackson’s Specie Circular stipulated that
a. Inefficient employees of the federal government should be immediately dismissed
regardless of their political affiliations.
b. Federal government deposits should be withdrawn from the Second Bank of the United
States
c. No federal funds should be spent on internal improvements.
d. Paper money should not be accepted in payment for federal government lands sold.
e. The government would use force if necessary to collect the tariff in South Carolina.
6. The term “Trail of Tears” refers to
a. The Mormon migration from Nauvoo, Illinois to what is now Utah.
b. The forced migration of the Cherokee tribe from the southern Appalachians to what is
now Oklahoma.
c. The westward migration along the Oregon Trail.
d. The migration into Kentucky along the wilderness road.
e. The migration of German settlers southward from Pennsylvania into the Shenandoah
Valley of Virginia.
7. The most forceful Southern protest against high protective tariffs during the first half of the
nineteenth century was the
a. Hayne-Webster Debate
b. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
c. Nullification Controversy
d. Resignation of Vice President John C. Calhoun
e. Imposition of the congressional “gag rule.”
8. All of the following were among President Andrew Jackson’s objections to the First Bank of
the United States EXCEPT
a. It allowed the economic power of the government to be controlled by private
individuals.
b. It threatened the integrity of the democratic system.
c. It was preventing the government from achieving its policy of creating inflation.
d. It could be used irresponsibly to create financial hardship for the nation,
e. It benefited a small group of wealthy and privileged persons at the expense of the rest
of the country.
9. The slogan “Fifty-four forty or fight” had to do with
a. The so-called Aroostook War involving a boundary dispute between Maine and New
Brunswick.
b. The demand for the annexation of the Oregon country.
c. The demand for the readjustment of the boundary with Mexico.
d. The demand by free-soil Northerners that some limit be placed on the spread of slavery
in the territories.
e The demands by Southerners that the Missouri Compromise line be extended through
the Mexican Cession.
10. The most significant influence of the Mexican-American War on the United States during the
20 years following the war was that it
a. Led to the development of the idea of “passive resistance” among those who
opposed the war.
b. Ended years of hostility between the United States and Mexico
c. Reignited the slavery conflict in regards to all the territories newly acquired from
Mexico.
d. Gave America undisputed control over Mexican foreign policy for the next 20
years
e. Revealed the shocking ineptitude of American military forces, leading to massive
reforms in military training and procedures throughout the 1850s.
11. In the 1830s and 1840s, the primary difference between the Whigs and the Democrats was
that
a. The Whigs favored economic expansion while the Democrats favored a stable but
retracted economy
b. The Democrats favored the abolition of slavery while the Whigs favored retaining
the current system of slavery being allowed in the Southern states that desired it,
but no further expansion of slavery north of the Mason-Dixon line
c. The Whigs favored an expanded, activist federal government while the Democrats
favored a limited non-interventionist federal government.
d. The Democrats were strongly supported by Evangelical Christians and supported
a wide range of moral reforms while the Whigs were supported by Westerners
who favored individual choice over morally based restrictions on behavior.
e. The Whigs favored limitations on westward expansion while the Democrats
favored the concept of “manifest destiny” and expansion to the Pacific Ocean.
12. The Nullification Crisis of 1832 revolved around
a. States’ rights to overrule of disallow any federal legislation they found
unacceptable
b. The federal government’s right to nullify any antislavery legislation passed by the
territories west of the Mississippi
c. The Supreme Court’s right to nullify Congressional legislation deemed
unconstitutional
d. The refusal of state militias to submit themselves to federal control in a time of
war.
e. The right of Congress to override a presidential veto on matters of foreign policy.
13. The Wilmot Proviso was most likely to be supported by
a. Jacksonian Democrats
b. Advocates of nullification
c. Secessionists
d. Free-soilers
e. Advocates of popular sovereignty
14. The prominent issue in national politics in the 1840s was
a. The abolition of slavery
b. The temperance movement
c. The westward expansion of US territory
d. The creation of a national bank
e. Women’s rights