You may write an essay on one of the following topics. (Please remember that you must write three papers for the course; you may opt not to do this one, but then you must write both of the two remaining assignments.) Continue to follow the paper guidelines and observe the standard formatting rules listed there. Cite properly and fully all material taken from the texts. These questions are designed to be answered using class readings and you will be expected to employ them where appropriate Due: Monday, April 16th, at the beginning of class. The late penalty will be one full letter grade for each day the paper is late, beginning on the afternoon of the 8th. No papers will be accepted after April 18th without a documented, acceptable excuse.

1. Some American political thinkers in the early national period initially embraced the emergence of manufacturing but by the Jacksonian period writers began to question the effects of industrialization. Explain the political-economic visions of Alexander Hamilton and Orestes Brownson, and discuss how each might have criticized the other's argument.

2. Alexis de Tocqueville both praised and criticized the America he observed, holding it up against the standard of contemporary European societies. Explain how he thought the United States superior to Europe and discuss those aspects of Europe he found more admirable. Did he believe it possible for each to learn from and copy the better features of the other?

3. You are Frederick Douglass and it is late 1858. Write a letter to Abraham Lincoln in which you explain your views on race and slavery, explain his views, identify the differences between your perspectives, and critique his position.

4. Is the political thought of Abraham Lincoln racist?

5. From the founding era through the Civil War, American political thinkers and serious observers of the American scene wrestled with racial differences and the problem of what to do with African-Americans after emancipation. Compare and contrast (1) the views of Jefferson, Tocqueville, and Lincoln on how whites and blacks differed and (2) their prescriptions for how best to deal with blacks once they had been freed.

6. For Americans before the Civil War, the Declaration of Independence became something of a "sacred text" - something that, while itself beyond criticism, might be used as a tool to challenge contemporary political practices. Explain how the Seneca Falls Declaration, Frederick Douglass's Fourth of July Oration, and Abraham Lincoln's speeches during the 1850s make use of the Declaration of Independence, and identify the differences in their approaches toward the Declaration.