AP U.S. History: Period 4 (1800–1848) (Drill 24)

Question 1. O'Sullivan's comparison of American expansion to 'the right of the tree to the space of air and earth' most directly serves to

• A) invoke scientific naturalism to argue that territorial expansion was a biological imperative for a growing nation, analogous to natural laws governing all living organisms
• B) suggest that American expansion was as natural and inevitable as plant growth, thereby dismissing competing territorial claims as obstacles to a force of nature ✓
• C) argue that the United States had a legal right to western lands based on the natural law tradition of Enlightenment political philosophy
• D) counter European colonial claims to North American territory by arguing that natural growth required more space than European nations could legitimately occupy

Explanation: Choice B is correct. The tree metaphor naturalizes American expansion, a political and military process, by likening it to the uncontroversial growth of a living organism. If expansion is as natural as a tree growing toward sunlight, then resistance to it becomes as futile and misguided as trying to stop a tree from growing. The metaphor rhetorically eliminates the need to justify expansion through legal or moral argument by presenting it as simply natural. Choice A is incorrect. While the tree metaphor does invoke natural processes, O'Sullivan is not making a scientific argument about biological imperatives. He is making a rhetorical argument that naturalizes expansion, the distinction matters because scientific naturalism carries different claims than simple analogy. Choice C is incorrect. O'Sullivan actually dismisses legal arguments ('Away with all these cobweb tissues of rights') rather than grounding his claim in legal tradition. His argument is the opposite of a legal one. Choice D is incorrect. The tree metaphor does not specifically target European colonial claims. It is a general naturalization of American expansion, not a comparative argument about European vs. American claims.

Question 2. O'Sullivan's declaration 'Away, then, with all these cobweb tissues of rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, prior history' most directly reveals his attitude toward

• A) the Mexican government's legal claims to Texas and California, which O'Sullivan dismissed as products of a corrupt and declining Spanish colonial system
• B) Indigenous peoples' prior occupancy and sovereignty claims, which O'Sullivan characterized as irrelevant obstacles to American expansion ✓
• C) British diplomatic arguments for joint occupation of Oregon Territory, which O'Sullivan believed the United States had already resolved through superior settlement
• D) the legal precedents established by the Louisiana Purchase and Adams-Onís Treaty, which O'Sullivan felt had unnecessarily constrained American territorial ambitions

Explanation: Choice B is correct. O'Sullivan's dismissal of 'rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, prior history', and his specific reference to 'wandering tribes' in the same passage, is aimed most directly at Indigenous peoples' territorial claims. His phrase 'cobweb tissues' dismisses these claims as fragile and antique, and his characterization of Indigenous peoples as 'wandering tribes' denies their sovereignty and settled occupation of the land. Choice A is incorrect. While O'Sullivan did address Texas annexation (the essay's subject is the annexation of Texas), the specific dismissal of historical legal claims in this passage is directed at Indigenous peoples rather than at Mexico's specific legal position. Choice C is incorrect. British claims to Oregon were based on the same categories O'Sullivan dismisses (discovery, exploration, settlement), but the passage's reference to 'wandering tribes' makes clear that Indigenous peoples are his primary target here. Choice D is incorrect. O'Sullivan is not attacking American treaty precedents. His dismissal of 'prior history' and discovery rights is aimed at the claims of others, specifically Indigenous peoples, not at the legal framework of American territorial acquisition.

Question 3. The ideology of Manifest Destiny expressed by O'Sullivan most directly shaped which of the following political developments of the mid-1840s?

• A) the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the subsequent Mexican-American War, which extended American territory to the Rio Grande and then to the Pacific coast ✓
• B) the resolution of the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain in 1846 at the 49th parallel, which peacefully extended American territory to the Pacific Northwest
• C) the passage of the Wilmot Proviso in the House of Representatives, which sought to ban slavery from any territory acquired from Mexico
• D) the Compromise of 1850, which admitted California as a free state and organized the remaining Mexican Cession territories under popular sovereignty

Explanation: Choice A is correct. O'Sullivan coined 'Manifest Destiny' in the very essay arguing for the annexation of Texas; his ideology directly provided the rhetorical justification for the annexation that occurred in 1845 and for the expansionist war with Mexico that followed in 1846–1848. The Mexican-American War was the primary political consequence of the Manifest Destiny ideology O'Sullivan articulated. Choice B is incorrect. While the Oregon settlement also reflected expansionist sentiment, it was negotiated diplomatically with Britain rather than through military conquest. It also resulted in accepting a compromise (49th parallel) rather than the 'whole of the continent' O'Sullivan demanded, not the fullest expression of Manifest Destiny ideology. Choice C is incorrect. The Wilmot Proviso (1846) was a response to the territorial expansion Manifest Destiny justified, not a direct product of the ideology itself. It addressed the sectional consequences of expansion, specifically whether acquired territories would allow slavery, rather than the expansion itself. Choice D is incorrect. The Compromise of 1850 was another response to the sectional tensions generated by territorial acquisition, not a direct product of Manifest Destiny ideology. It came five years after O'Sullivan's essay and addressed the political crisis created by expansion.

Question 4. Which of the following groups most directly used arguments similar to O'Sullivan's to justify American territorial expansion in the 1840s?

• A) Northern Whigs, who supported territorial expansion as long as the acquired lands were organized as free territories that would be open to white settlers practicing free labor within the broader context the passage establishes
• B) Southern Democrats, who saw territorial expansion as essential to providing new lands for the expansion of the slave economy and maintaining Southern political power
• C) abolitionists, who argued that territorial expansion was a conspiracy by the slave power to extend slavery across the continent at the expense of free labor
• D) Jacksonian Democrats broadly, who embraced westward expansion as the fulfillment of republican ideals and the opportunity for ordinary white Americans to acquire land and independence ✓

Explanation: Choice D is correct. O'Sullivan was a Jacksonian Democrat, and Manifest Destiny ideology was most broadly embraced by the Jacksonian Democratic coalition that saw westward expansion as the natural fulfillment of the republic's democratic promise, providing land, opportunity, and independence for ordinary white Americans. This broad Jacksonian embrace of expansion is the most direct constituency for O'Sullivan's ideology. Choice A is incorrect. Northern Whigs were generally skeptical or opposed to territorial expansion, particularly if it meant acquiring territories where slavery might spread. The Whig Party's internal tensions over expansion contributed to its eventual collapse. Choice B is incorrect. While Southern Democrats did support expansion for slavery-related reasons, O'Sullivan's argument was framed in terms of democratic destiny and white republican expansion, not specifically as a defense of slavery. Using O'Sullivan's rhetoric to serve specifically Southern slave-power interests represents a narrowing of the ideology's appeal. Choice C is incorrect. Abolitionists rejected Manifest Destiny entirely, arguing that it was a slave-power conspiracy. They represent the opposition to O'Sullivan's ideology, not its users.

Question 5. O'Sullivan's dismissal of Indigenous peoples as 'wandering tribes' most directly reflected which of the following broader American cultural attitudes of the 1840s?

• A) the scientific racism of the antebellum period, which classified Indigenous peoples as racially inferior and used this classification to justify their dispossession
• B) the Social Darwinist belief that the strongest and most civilized societies had a natural right to displace weaker peoples who could not use land productively
• C) the widespread American belief that Indigenous peoples were nomadic hunter-gatherers who had not improved the land and therefore had no legitimate property rights to it ✓
• D) the Jeffersonian vision of Indigenous assimilation, which held that Native Americans could become full citizens if they adopted settled agriculture and European cultural practices

Explanation: Choice C is correct. O'Sullivan's 'wandering tribes' characterization reflects the Lockean theory of property that had justified dispossession since the colonial era: land could only be legitimately owned by those who improved it through labor. Indigenous peoples, characterized as nomadic wanderers who did not cultivate the land in the European agricultural sense, were therefore deemed to have no valid property claims. This argument conveniently ignored the extensive Indigenous agricultural systems, permanent settlements, and territorial governance that actually existed. Choice A is incorrect. While scientific racism did exist in the antebellum period, O'Sullivan's argument is primarily about land use and improvement rather than biological racial hierarchy. His dismissal of Indigenous claims is rooted in the labor theory of property, not in racial science. Choice B is incorrect. Social Darwinism as a formal ideology was not fully developed until the 1860s–1870s, decades after O'Sullivan's 1845 essay. While similar ideas existed, attributing them specifically to Social Darwinism is anachronistic. Choice D is incorrect. The Jeffersonian assimilation policy actually acknowledged Indigenous peoples' capacity for civilization and offered a path to incorporation, the opposite of O'Sullivan's dismissive 'wandering tribes' characterization, which denies any legitimate Indigenous claims regardless of cultural practice.