And how did the nation feel about  expansion? Who wrote that it was the “manifest design of Providence” that the United States expand as far as it could? When was this statement written? What is its significance?

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated during the second year of the Civil War.

The Civil War is typically broken down into two regions:  The War in the West and the War in the East.  Battles in the West include Vicksburg and New Orleans.   Battles of the East include Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, and Antietam.

The upper south hesitated to secede at first.  What action by Abraham Lincoln drove most of them out of the United States?

One question about the Alamo is why did Santa Anna attack this outpost?  It was way out on the frontier with fewer than 300 men inside.  Why bother attacking and killing the defenders?  Why not just go around it?

BEGIN THE CUMULATIVE SECTION.  Cumulative questions are worth five points.  Remember, if you see A and B or All of the above as options, always pick one of those options.   If you were a southerner, a historian, and looking to the coming Civil War in 1861 (and of course had access to class lectures), which of the following factors in Northern history might raise concern that the South would be taking on a pretty ferocious enemy?  Why?

Discuss the Dred Scott ruling. 

John C. Calhoun had little political experience and no legal education in 1828.

Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, Zachary Taylor, George Washington.  One thing these four presidents share is war.  Each one either faced a war in office or got into office because of victorious leadership in combat.

The Mexican-American War made some politicians nervous because it added so much land to the United States.  Why were politicians so concerned about new land?  Wasn’t that a good thing?