History 1301
Students Name
Institution of Affiliation
Date
Question 1: Document 1 and 2
Daniel Webster was a nationalist who defended the federal government’s power to formulate laws that applied to all states in the union. Robert Hayne on the other side, supported states’ rights to protect their liberties through resisting federal laws to which were deemed unconstitutional. Webster declared that freedom and the union went together, claiming that all the origin of the government and of the foundation on which it starts is erected by the people while those who minister it, are responsible to the people and can only modify the constitution just as the people make sure it to be modified.
The Southerners thought that the reduced rate of tariffs was still too high. South Carolina threatened that the tariffs of 1828 and 1830 were not abolished they would withdraw from the union if the federal government tried to correct the tariffs. According to the southerners, the two acts enacted were an authorized by the United States constitution. The tariffs violated the true meaning of democracy, therefore were null and void at the new law. Abiding upon this state, its officers, citizens, and all contracts, promises, and applications made all for the purpose of securing the duties imposed by the act, as well as all the judicial proceedings would be held utterly null and void.
In my view, the most effective primary document is that of the South Carolina. It defends the people and is against the rise of the tariffs on raw materials as well as the manufactured goods and this affects the production and the income of the producers and manufacturers of the United States. According to the southerners, the old tariffs had to be abolished to give room for new tariffs to be enacted through new legislation.
Question 2: Document 3 and 4
In the 1851 political cartoon, they southerners are protesting against the north of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, passed by the Congress on Sep 18, 1850, as part of 1850 compromise between the Northern Free Soilers and the Southern slaveholding interest. In the cartoon, the national government to whom enacted the slave act takes away the slave as they are named fugitive, but the states have its own rules that prohibit and oppose the national law. The states claim that they have a higher law and that they don’t recognize any law from the national government of the United States. The political cartoon also applies to the document one and two as it argues that both the national government and that of the state are different and that the national government law does not with any effect affect the state law.
The 1856 political cartoon document 4 relates to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed by the Congress on May 30, 1854. The Act allowed the people within Kansas and Nebraska’s territories to make their own decisions as whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. According to the cartoon, the national government allowed the individual states to make their own decisions on onto whether they could retain slavery or abolish it. The black men were considered to be slaves, and the act of leaving the decision to the individual states would only encourage the white to continue oppressing the blacks. In the picture senator, Stephen Douglas, President Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan and Levies Cars who all are running to be the Democratic Party nominees for president in the 1856 elections are seen forcing a black man against his will an intimidating action, indicating how the whites are racist.
From the picture, the background of making the decisions on whether the states will vote against slavery is made to be seen as democratic, but in the other side, the grounds to which democracy is to be practiced is limited as the black people have no room to express themselves.
Question 3: Document 5 and 6
Dred Scott was one of the many slaves who needed to seek freedom through the American judicial system, to which emanated with the worst ruling ever. The 1857 decision by the US Supreme Court on Dred Scott’s case implies that no ‘Negro’ the term which used to describe people of African blood could never be American citizens. The Supreme Court decision also invalidated the 1820 Missouri compromise which are the anti-slavery in certain US territories.
Frederick Douglas in document #6 asked whether the great principles of natural justice and those of political freedom were incorporated in the declaration of independence are equally represented to the blacks as well. The speech on 4th of July was directed to the American slavery where Douglas condemns the Americans for not being true nation’s founding principles, past and present. Americans must fulfill what the founding fathers advocated for, Douglas tells the audience that the 4th of July was just but a shame, as the slave tends to boast of liberty. Besides, the shouts of equality and liberty are a just hollow mockery.
Dred Scott decision during the case of nullification of the Missouri act, confirms Frederick Douglass arguments that the Africans were just considered useless, worthless and treated as slaves and the call for equality was just an active form of mockery to the African population. According to the decision by Dred Scott, any person of African origin could never be an American citizen by birth or immigration, and that’s the call for the natural justice that is embedded in the declaration of independence does not apply to the Negros.
Question 4: Document 7, 8 and 9
According to William H. Seward, irresponsible conflict refers to the collision of the socio-economic institutions of both North and South America. According to William, in states which have a slave system that prevents the slave masters to indirectly or directly gain all political power and compose a loading aristocracy while in countries where they is a free labor system, prevents universal suffrage atomically obtains adverse state inevitably becoming a democracy or republic sooner or later.
The definition of the Confederacy by Alexander Stephens is based on the idea that; the new American government was founded in contrast to ideas of which its foundations are set. The confederacy cornerstone rests upon the great truth and that the slavery subordination to their masters is the normal and natural condition and as well that the Negro is at no point equal to the white man. The Confederate states, according to Alexander Stephens were formed specifically to safeguard the expanding institution of slavery.
President Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg 1863 claims that the forefathers brought for the American continent, a new nation that was formulated in liberty and to which was dedicated to the proposition of equality of all men. And that now that they were involved in great civil war, they were being tested whether the nation conceived and dedicated to equality could long maintain the equality. It is through this equality that erupted the full scale of civil war due to the peculiar institution regarded as slavery that was present at the creation of the republic.
Question 5
In thinking about the primary documents, the states have the power to nullify federal laws if they disagree with them. The reason behind is because the state government originate from the individual countries and form the national government and the will of the people lies in the states. Also, each of the states has a representative to whom addresses the problems of its people. Just like the case of southern Carolina, the tariffs had been raised to a higher cost making their manufacturers pay more, thus reducing the productivity.
It would have resorted to financial losses contributing to the economic fall to the country, and it is to this situation that the state’s government came to the rescue nullifying the act that was formed by the government. They further warned that any act of the judiciary to rule over cases regarding the act would not be respected and would be treated as null and void. In the event where the nullification would not be successful, then the government would take that opportunity to exploit the manufacturers as well as producers of all products. And this would lead to the collapse of their businesses as well as the gross domestic product of the country which has an overall effect on low income as well as a low standard of living. On the other side the nullification of the Missouri act in Dred’s case showed the American viewed the people of African origin and how they saw them as subjects doomed to slavery and can never attain the American citizenship nor freedom despite the call for equality.
References
1. Excerpt of Daniel Webster’s “Liberty and Union” Speech (January 26, 1830)
2. South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification (November 24, 1832)
3. Political Cartoon “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander” (1851)
4. Political Cartoon “Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler” (1856)
5. Excerpt of Majority Decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford (March 6, 1857)
6. Frederick Douglass “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro” (July 5, 1852)
7. William Henry Seward’s “On the Irrepressible Conflict” (October 25, 1858)
8. Alexander Stephen’s “Cornerstone Speech” (March 21, 1861)
9. Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” (November 19, 1863)
