APUSH
December 2004

Essay questions for Chapters 13, 14, 15

1. When the Mexican War began, Ralph Waldo Emerson predicted, “Mexico will poison us.” To what extent did events prove him right?

2. In the late 1850s, Secessionists argued that the Union betrayed the ideals of the Founding Fathers. Unionists argued that white secessionists betrayed these same ideals. Which claim has greater validity?

3. To what extent did the Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution (13th, 14th, 15th) achieve their intended results?

4. Given its crushing military defeat in 1865, how was the White South able to regain as much power as it did by 1877?

5. From the perspective of 1900, had the Compromise of 1877 proven to be a success or a failure? Your answer must take into account the different points of view of different people in 1900 (e.g., Booker T. Washington, a southern Klansman, Notherners who were Conservatives, Northerners who were Radicals….three is enough).