AP U.S. History
Apush 4.2 era of jefferson frq
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11 questions. Write your answer, then check it against the rubric and score yourself.
Sample questions
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Answer all parts. Use a specific historical fact, name, or piece of evidence in each part. (a) Name and explain ONE specific example from the 1790s of the Federalists using a loose interpretation of the Constitution to build up the national economy. (b) Name and explain ONE specific example from the 1790s or early 1800s of disagreements over France or Great Britain deepening the split between the first political parties. (c) Name and explain ONE specific example between 1803 and 1820 of the Louisiana Purchase leading Americans to argue over the expansion of slavery. (d) Name and explain ONE specific Supreme Court case decided between 1803 and 1824 that protected federal power over state governments.
Sample answer: (a) Hamilton argued that the Bank of the United States (1791) was constitutional under the necessary and proper clause, even though the Constitution does not mention banks. The bank held federal money, made loans, and created a stable national currency, building the national economy. (b) Jay's Treaty (1794) avoided war with Britain but did not stop impressment. Federalists supported it to protect British trade, while Democratic-Republicans called it a betrayal of France, and the fight over ratifying it hardened the two parties. (c) Missouri, carved from the Louisiana Purchase, asked to join the Union as a slave state in 1819. The Tallmadge Amendment to phase out slavery there passed the House but failed in the Senate, and the Missouri Compromise (1820) admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and banned slavery in the rest of the purchase north of 36 degrees 30 minutes. (d) In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Marshall Court ruled that Congress had the implied power to create the Second Bank of the United States and that Maryland could not tax it, because "the power to tax involves the power to destroy." Federal law was supreme over state law.
(a) Briefly explain why Thomas Jefferson called the election of 1800 the "Revolution of 1800." (b) Briefly explain why the election of 1800 was significant for the American political system. (c) Briefly explain ONE problem the election of 1800 revealed in the Constitution and how it was fixed.
Sample answer: (a) Jefferson saw his victory as a revolution because control of the government moved from the Federalists, whom he accused of creating a too-powerful government with the Alien and Sedition Acts, to the Democratic-Republicans, who promised limited government and the protection of liberty. (b) John Adams and the Federalists gave up power peacefully after losing. It was the first transfer of power between opposing parties, showing that the Constitution could survive bitter party conflict without violence. (c) Jefferson and Aaron Burr each received 73 electoral votes because electors cast two votes without separating president and vice president, so the House of Representatives had to break the tie after 36 ballots. The Twelfth Amendment (1804) fixed this by having electors vote separately for president and vice president.
Read the excerpt, then answer (a), (b), and (c). "We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." (Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801) (a) Briefly describe the historical situation in which Jefferson gave this address. (b) Briefly explain ONE purpose of Jefferson's statement. (c) Briefly explain ONE way Jefferson's policies as president either supported or contradicted this statement.
Sample answer: (a) Jefferson gave the address in March 1801 after the bitter election of 1800, in which Federalists called him a dangerous radical and Democratic-Republicans attacked the Alien and Sedition Acts. It was the first time power passed from one party to another. (b) Jefferson wanted to calm the anger of the campaign and reassure Federalists that he would not punish them or overturn the government, so that the country would stay united. (c) Jefferson supported his statement by acting pragmatically. He left the Bank of the United States in place until its charter ran out in 1811 instead of tearing down Hamilton's financial system. At the same time, he and the Democratic-Republican Congress repealed the Federalists' Judiciary Act of 1801, showing party conflict continued.
(a) Briefly describe Thomas Jefferson's view of how the Constitution should be interpreted. (b) Briefly explain how the Louisiana Purchase (1803) challenged that view. (c) Briefly explain ONE other example of Jefferson acting pragmatically as president.
Sample answer: (a) Jefferson was a strict constructionist. He believed the federal government could use only the powers specifically written in the Constitution, with the rest left to the states and the people. (b) The Constitution does not give the president the power to buy land from a foreign country. Jefferson even thought about a constitutional amendment, but he feared Napoleon would change his mind, so he went ahead and bought Louisiana for $15 million because it doubled the nation's size, secured New Orleans and the Mississippi River, and gave land to the farmers he saw as the backbone of the republic. (c) Jefferson had opposed Hamilton's national bank, but as president he left the Bank of the United States in place because it kept the nation's finances stable.
(a) Briefly explain the "midnight judges" and the Judiciary Act of 1801. (b) Briefly explain the Supreme Court's decision in Marbury v. Madison (1803). (c) Briefly explain the long-term significance of Marbury v. Madison.
Sample answer: (a) After the Federalists lost the presidency and Congress in 1800, the lame-duck Federalist Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, creating new federal judgeships. John Adams filled them with Federalists until his final night in office, so they were called the midnight judges. It was an attempt to keep Federalist control of the courts. (b) William Marbury, one of the appointees, did not get his commission because Jefferson's Secretary of State James Madison refused to deliver it. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Marbury deserved the commission, but that the section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 allowing him to sue directly in the Supreme Court was unconstitutional, so the Court could not order it delivered. (c) The case established judicial review, the Court's power to declare a law unconstitutional. This made the Supreme Court a much stronger, equal branch of the federal government.