United States History II Summer Reading Packet

Transcription

1 United States History II Summer Reading Packet Directions: In preparation for U.S. History II, students will read and analyze various primary source documents in this packet. At the conclusion of each document, students must answer the discussion questions in a 3-5 sentence paragraph. Note: In order to gain a full understanding of the documents, students must perform their own research on some of the historical figures and the time period in which the documents were produced. Documents: -The Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863) -Abraham Lincoln s Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1865) -Frederick Douglass on Voting Rights (April, 1865) Worse Than Slavery Political Cartoon by Thomas Nast (Harper s Weekly, October 24, 1874) Format: All responses must be typed or clearly written. Each response may vary in exact range, but should be at least 3-5 sentences per question/prompt. Due Date: These assignments are due the day that you get back to school from your summer vacation to your U.S. History II teacher. Good Luck!

2 Document 1: Abraham Lincoln s Gettysburg Address Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

3 Gettysburg Address Discussion Questions 1. In your own words, translate the Gettysburg Address to language you would use in your upcoming US History II class to better understand what Abraham Lincoln said in this famous speech. 2. What causes did Lincoln believe the soldiers were fighting for in the Civil War? 3. Why did Lincoln date the nation's birth or origin to the Declaration of Independence and not the ratification of the Constitution? 4. How does a nation ensure that free government "shall not perish from the earth"? What is "the great task remaining before" any free people that Lincoln is speaking about in this address? 5. How did Lincoln see the Civil War as an opportunity for the nation to bring forth a "new birth of freedom" (or liberty for all), and why was this necessary for the survival of American self-government?

4 Document 2: Abraham Lincoln s Second Inaugural Address AT this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

5 Discussion Questions Abraham Lincoln s Second Inaugural Address 1. Give a brief summary of the historical context that Lincoln faced as he prepared his second inaugural address. (Issues can include: The causes of the US Civil War, the role of slavery before the Civil War, which side was winning the Civil War, etc). 2. Summarize the main idea of each paragraph (5 total). 3. How did Lincoln use religion throughout the speech? Provide two examples. Do you feel it was effective to his overall theme? 4. The famous last 5 lines of the speech provide Lincoln s view towards the future of the United States. How did Lincoln want to treat the Confederacy following the war? What are the pros and cons of Lincoln s desired treatment? 5. In recent years, some Americans have called for a national apology for the use of slavery in the United States. Does Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address qualify as an apology for the use of slavery? 6. How does Lincoln s Second Inaugural Address reflect how Americans admire him today? What do you notice about Lincoln's character on the basis of what he wrote in his second inaugural address?

6 Frederick Douglass on Voting Rights (1865) Frederick Douglass delivered this speech at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in 1865, before the end of the war. As you read this excerpt, notice how Douglass counters objections to his argument. I am for the immediate, unconditional, and universal enfranchisement of the black man, in every State in the Union. [Loud applause.] Without this, his liberty is a mockery; without this, you might as well almost retain the old name of slavery for his condition; for in fact, if he is not the slave of the individual master, he is the slave of society, and holds his liberty as a privilege, not as a right. He is at the mercy of the mob, and has no means of protecting himself. It may be objected, however, that this pressing of the Negro s right to suffrage is premature. Let us have slavery abolished, it may be said, let us have labor organized, and then, in the natural course of events, the right of suffrage will be extended to the Negro. I do not agree with this. The constitution of the human mind is such, that if it once disregards the conviction forced upon it by a revelation of truth, it requires the exercise of a higher power to produce the same conviction afterwards. The American people are now in tears. The Shenandoah has run blood the best blood of the North. All around Richmond, the blood of New England and of the North has been shed of your sons, your brothers and your fathers. We all feel, in the existence of this Rebellion, that judgments terrible, wide-spread, far-reaching, overwhelming, are abroad in the land; and we feel, in view of these judgments, just now, a disposition to learn righteousness. This is the hour. Our streets are in mourning, tears are falling at every fireside, and under the chastisement of this Rebellion we have almost come up to the point of conceding this great, this all-important right of suffrage. I fear that if we fail to do it now, if abolitionists fail to press it now, we may not see, for centuries to come, the same disposition that exists at this moment. Hence, I say, now is the time to press this right. It may be asked, Why do you want it? Some men have got along very well without it. Women have not this right. Shall we justify one wrong by another? This is a sufficient answer. Shall we at this moment justify the deprivation of the Negro of the right to vote, because some one else is deprived of that privilege? I hold that women, as well as men, have the right to vote, and my heart and my voice go with the movement to extend suffrage to woman; but that question rests upon another basis than that on which our right rests. We may be asked, I say, why we want it. I will tell you why we want it. We want it because it is our right, first of all. No class of men can, without insulting their own nature, be content with any deprivation of their rights. We want it again, as a means for educating our race. Men are so constituted that they derive their conviction of their own possibilities largely from the estimate formed of them by others. If nothing is expected of a people, that people will find it difficult to contradict that expectation. By depriving us of suffrage, you affirm our incapacity to form an intelligent judgment respecting public men and public measures; you declare before the world that we are unfit to exercise the elective franchise, and by this means lead us to undervalue ourselves, to put a low estimate upon ourselves, and to feel that we have no possibilities like other

7 men. Again, I want the elective franchise, for one, as a colored man, because ours is a peculiar government, based upon a peculiar idea, and that idea is universal suffrage. Discussion Questions Frederick Douglass Speech 1. Why does Douglass feel that suffrage for the black man is so important? 2. Do you agree with Douglass that the time was right to press for suffrage for black men? Explain. 3. Frederick Douglass was a constant advocate for the education of African Americans. Do you think that there are any connections between the right to vote and education? Explain why or why not. 4. Do you think the right to vote in our time is as important as it was in Douglass s time? Why or why not? What would happen today if Americans lost the right to vote?

8 Worse Than Slavery (October 24, 1874) By Thomas Nast

9 Worse Than Slavery Discussion Questions 1. Research the life and career of Thomas Nast. Write a brief summary of his career as a political commentator and some of the issues that he especially focused on. (3 issues) 2. According to the cartoon, how did African Americans suffer from the partnership of the White League and the Ku Klux Klan? 3. How did the union of the White League and the Ku Klux Klan represent both legal and illegal barriers to African Americans? 4. Why do you think Thomas Nast included the phrase "The Lost Cause" in the cartoon? 5. This cartoon was meant to create controversy when it premiered 9 years after the official end of slavery. Do you feel that the title of the cartoon, "Worse Than Slavery" painted an accurate or false image of what African Americans went through following slavery? Explain with evidence.