Sources for America’s History: Printed Page 421
How would you examine and evaluate the multiple perspectives on American politics for evidence of the values guiding the political system during the Civil War era?
How did arguments over the meaning and interpretation of the nation’s founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, affect American politics in the period from the Mexican War through Reconstruction?
What do you discover when you compare the interpretation of federal power as defined by Lincoln and Stephens with earlier appraisals from Alexander Hamilton (Document 7-1), Andrew Jackson (Document 10-3), and John C. Calhoun (Document 13-3)?
How would you assess the long-term legacy of the constitutional debates from the mid-nineteenth century? Are the underlying issues they struggled to define relevant to contemporary political discussion?