Westward Expansion DBQ #2 (2014)

Document-Based Question

Suggested reading period: 10 minutes/Suggested writing period: 45 minutes

Directions: The prompt below is based on the accompanying documents. The documents have been edited for
the purpose of this exercise. You are advised to spend 10 minutes reading and planning and 45 minutes
writing your answer.

* Write your responses on the paper provided. In your response you should do the following:
* State a relevant thesis that directly addresses all parts of the question.
* Support the thesis or a relevant argument with evidence from all, or all but one, of the

documents.
* Incorporate analysis of all, or all but one, of the documents into your argument.
* Focus your analysis of each document on at least one of the following: intended audience,

purpose, historical context, and/or point of view.
* Support your argument with analysis of historical examples outside the documents.
* Connect historical phenomena relevant to your argument to broader events or processes.
* Synthesize the elements above into a persuasive essay.

Analyze the impact of westward expansion on the social, political and cultural
development of the United States between 1820 and 1877. Use the documents

and your outside knowledge of the period to answer the question.

Document 1

Source: Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to John Holmes Concerning the Missouri Compromise, April 22,
1820

I had for a long time ceased to read newspapers, or pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were in
good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore from which I am not distant. But this
momentous [Missouri Compromise] question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.
I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve
only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once
conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will
mark it deeper and deeper. . . as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let
him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.

Document 2

Source: George Catlin, (The Light) Going to and Returning from Washington (1837–39)

Document 3

Source “Mr. Polk’s Land of Liberty,” Punch Magazine (London), December 4, 1847

Document 4

Source: You Who Don't Believe It, Songs of the California Gold Rush, San Francisco : D.E. Appleton &
Co., 1858

There is no land upon the earth,
Contains the same amount of worth;

And he that could not here reside,
Had ought to freeze the other side!

We've got more gold than all the world,
A flag that wins whene'er unfurled,
And smarter men to help us through,
Than England, France or Mexico.

CHORUS

You who don't believe it,
You who don't believe it,
You who don't believe it,
Come yourselves and see!

We've got the highest mountains here,
Taller trees and faster deer,

And travel more, at higher rates,
Than people in the Eastern States.

To one and all, both young and old,
You're welcome to the land of gold;

So come along, be not afraid,
We guarantee you all well paid!

CHORUS

Document 5

Source: Excerpts from the Republican Party Platform, 1860

7. [T]he new dogma that the Constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the territories of
the United States, is a dangerous political heresy . . . and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country .

..

8. [T]he normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom . . . and we deny the
authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any

territory of the United States . . .

13. [W]e demand the passage by Congress of the complete and satisfactory homestead measure which has
already passed the House . . .

14. [T]he Republican party is opposed to any change in our naturalization laws or any state legislation by
which the rights . . . accorded to immigrants from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired . . .

16. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country; that
the federal government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction . . .

Document 6

Source: Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,” The Atlantic, June 1862

Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free. Thither no business leads me. It is hard for me to believe
that I shall find fair landscapes or sufficient wildness and freedom behind the eastern horizon. I am not excited
by the prospect of a walk thither; but I believe that the forest, which I see in the western horizon, stretches
uninterruptedly toward the setting sun, and there are no towns nor cities in it of enough consequence to disturb
me. Let me live where I will . . .

[E]ver I am leaving the city more and more, and withdrawing into the wilderness. I should not lay so much
stress on this fact, if I did not believe that something like this is the prevailing tendency of my countrymen. I
must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that
mankind progress from east to west . . . We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and
literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and
adventure . . .

Document 7

Source: Fannie Flora Palmer for Currier and Ives, Pioneer's Home on the Western Frontier, 1867

END OF DOCUMENTS FOR THIS EXAM