Social Sciences and History / Unit 16 SSH 1501 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Sample Question One: Clay's Three Compromises
The idea
The stem names the Missouri Compromise of eighteen twenty, the Compromise Tariff of eighteen thirty-three and the Compromise of eighteen fifty and asks who crafted all three. The options are John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, James K. Polk, Stephen Douglas and John C. Calhoun; the board's key is B, Henry Clay. Entry 0032 works it: Missouri paired a slave state with a free one and drew a line; the tariff crisis ended with rates lowered over time and South Carolina's ordinance withdrawn; eighteen fifty admitted California free and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act. The distractors are men present at one crisis or none. Adams was president in the eighteen twenties and authored no compromise. Polk was the president of the Mexican Cession that made eighteen fifty necessary. Douglas carried the eighteen fifty bills after Clay stepped aside, and was not in Congress in eighteen twenty. Calhoun stood on the nullifying side in eighteen thirty-three.
In practice
Eliminate by presence: who was at all three tables as the broker. Only Clay.
Where people slip
The course's record is thinner than the key. The anchor credits Clay with leading eighteen fifty; his authorship of eighteen twenty and eighteen thirty-three is stated by the witness, the American Yawp, and 0032 says so. The exam's key stands; the course reports its sourcing.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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