Cracking the AP U.S. History Exam, 2020 Edition by The Princeton Review

Author:The Princeton Review
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2020-02-10T16:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 9

Toward the Civil War and Reconstruction (1844–1877)

POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL ACTIVITY BEFORE THE WAR

The election of 1844 pitted James Polk against Whig leader Henry Clay. Though the differences between the Whig and Democratic platforms may seem hazy by modern standards, and there was more than a little overlap, in one respect the two parties were sharply opposed. Above all else, the Whigs stood for a policy of internal improvements: building bridges, dredging harbors, digging canals, and in short civilizing the lands the United States already possessed. Democrats tended to be expansionists, set on pushing the nation’s borders ever outward. They also felt that it was not the government’s place to do anything with newly added land, and it should instead be kept in private hands, even if that meant living in a country of meandering dirt roads instead of railways. Compare Whig-dominated New England, dotted with bustling towns and busy factories, to the heavily Democratic South with its isolated plantations, and you have a sense of the two parties’ disparate visions for America. The election was close, but Polk won.

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