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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The author claims that Lincoln's abolitionist policies may be hard to understand if one believes the concept to be ______________.
(a) Ill planned
(b) Mystical
(c) Frivolous
(d) Unfounded

2. According to Lincoln, if the Founding Fathers had failed, people would have referred to them as ______________.
(a) Fools
(b) Simpletons
(c) Idiots
(d) Over ambitious

3. To learn to write well, Lincoln studied Hugh Blair's work on what topic?
(a) Non-fiction writing
(b) Rhetoric
(c) Great political speeches
(d) Lyrical verse

4. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a big believer in what school of thought?
(a) Polymorphism
(b) Marxism
(c) Transcendentalism
(d) Totalitarianism

5. What type of community was Gettysburg?
(a) Mining
(b) Industrial
(c) Farming
(d) Service related

Short Answer Questions

1. Daniel Webster was born in what state?

2. Lincoln's depression was considered to be a sign of _________________.

3. With whom did Lincoln often attend plays?

4. Unlike Lincoln's words, many speeches of the day were considered to be _________________.

5. Wills says this about Lincoln, "He was a Transcendentalist without the ______."

Short Essay Questions

1. What habit of Lincoln's was worrisome to his family? Why were they worried?

2. What were the two flowery and overstated things Lincoln wrote in a letter to James Conkling?

3. What does the author say about the myth that Lincoln wrote his Gettysburg Address on the train from Washington to Gettysburg?

4. Why was Everett a desirable speaker at war memorials and cemeteries?

5. How did Lincoln's views on antislavery correspond to those of Theodore Parker?

6. Complete this quote from Lincoln: "I do not perceive," he said, "that because the white man is to have the superior position that the Negro should be denied everything."

7. What political positions did Henry Clay hold?

8. What did Lincoln claim was the founding document of the United States? Why?

9. Spiritualism was very popular in Lincoln's time. List at three forms of spirituality practiced at this time and explain each.

10. Many claim that Lincoln had a natural ability to speak plainly. Is this statement true or false? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

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