Government Policies During the Civil War (College Board AP® US History): Exam Questions

“The earliest attacks simply condemned “the silly remarks of the President,” but abler critics recognized the importance of Lincoln’s argument. Accusing the President of “gross ignorance or willful misstatement," the New York World sharply reminded him that “This United States” was not the product of the Declaration of Independence but “the result of the ratification of a compact known as the Constitution,” a compact that said nothing whatever about equality. Similarly, Wilbur F. Storey of the Chicago Times recognized that in invoking the Declaration of Independence Lincoln was announcing a new objective in the war. Calling the Gettysburg address “ a perversion of history so flagrant that the most extended charity cannot regard it as otherwise than wilful,” Storey insisted that the officers and men who gave their lives at Gettysburg died “to uphold this constitution, and the Union created by it,” …The bitterness of these protests was evidence that Lincoln had succeeded in broadening the aims of the war from Union to Equality and Union.”

Lincoln, David Herbert Donald, 1995

The views expressed in the excerpt were mostly supported by 

“The earliest attacks simply condemned “the silly remarks of the President,” but abler critics recognized the importance of Lincoln’s argument. Accusing the President of “gross ignorance or willful misstatement," the New York World sharply reminded him that “This United States” was not the product of the Declaration of Independence but “the result of the ratification of a compact known as the Constitution,” a compact that said nothing whatever about equality. Similarly, Wilbur F. Storey of the Chicago Times recognized that in invoking the Declaration of Independence Lincoln was announcing a new objective in the war. Calling the Gettysburg address “ a perversion of history so flagrant that the most extended charity cannot regard it as otherwise than wilful,” Storey insisted that the officers and men who gave their lives at Gettysburg died “to uphold this constitution, and the Union created by it,” …The bitterness of these protests was evidence that Lincoln had succeeded in broadening the aims of the war from Union to Equality and Union.”

Lincoln, David Herbert Donald, 1995

Most historians would argue that the Gettysburg Address had a significant influence on which of the following?

“The earliest attacks simply condemned “the silly remarks of the President,” but abler critics recognized the importance of Lincoln’s argument. Accusing the President of “gross ignorance or willful misstatement," the New York World sharply reminded him that “This United States” was not the product of the Declaration of Independence but “the result of the ratification of a compact known as the Constitution,” a compact that said nothing whatever about equality. Similarly, Wilbur F. Storey of the Chicago Times recognized that in invoking the Declaration of Independence Lincoln was announcing a new objective in the war. Calling the Gettysburg address “ a perversion of history so flagrant that the most extended charity cannot regard it as otherwise than wilful,” Storey insisted that the officers and men who gave their lives at Gettysburg died “to uphold this constitution, and the Union created by it,” …The bitterness of these protests was evidence that Lincoln had succeeded in broadening the aims of the war from Union to Equality and Union.”

Lincoln, David Herbert Donald, 1995

 Which of the following quotes from the extract most directly supports the historian David Herbert Donald’s claim that President Lincoln had “succeeded in broadening the aims” of the Civil War?