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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nCauses of the Civil War<\/em> has been rereleased and is available in our bookstore today!\u00a0 Interested in purchasing <\/strong>classroom bundles<\/strong><\/a>?\u00a0 Discounted pricing is available for teachers<\/strong><\/h2>\nTeaching American History\u2019s<\/a> philosophy is that the best way to learn American history is to read the words of those who lived it. That\u2019s why we maintain an extensive database of original documents. This approach also drives the content in our graduate courses<\/a>, One Day Seminars<\/a>, Online Teacher Webinars<\/a>, and Weekend Teacher Seminars<\/a>. TAH scholars don\u2019t discuss specific teaching strategies in these programs, but teachers often discuss them within the context of the topic.<\/p>\nIt was in one such conversation that I learned a method of teaching Abraham Lincoln\u2019s Fragment on the Constitution and Union,<\/a> which asks students to apply the principles of the Declaration of Independence<\/a>, its relationship to the Constitution of the United States<\/a>, and the purpose of the Union over the course of an entire year.<\/p>\n\n![\"making](\"https:\/\/teachingamericanhistory.org\/content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-4.png\")
A golden apple in a silver frame: Lincoln\u2019s explanation of the relationship between the Constitution and Declaration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nLincoln received a letter from his former congressional colleague, Alexander Stephens, during the long secession winter of 1860\u201361. Stephens quoted Proverbs 25:1, \u201cA word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver\u201d (KJV). He wrote that a word of reassurance to the Southern slave states from President-elect Lincoln would be \u201cthe word fitly spoken.\u201d It might temper the secession movement and avert civil war.<\/p>\n
Though Lincoln never replied to Stephens, he seized on the biblical verse but asserted that the nation already possessed the \u201capple of gold\u201d provided by \u201cthe word fitly spoken.\u201d It was the principle of \u201cliberty to all\u201d which \u201cclears the path for all\u2014gives hope to all\u2014and by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all\u2026.\u201d Still, Lincoln went further. The apple of gold, the principle of liberty to all, was protected by the Constitution and the Union, he noted. Indeed, the most fundamental purpose of the Constitution and the Union was to protect that principle, that \u201capple of gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
My fellow seminar participant told us she used a cardboard apple of gold on a bulletin board in her classroom and challenged students to discuss whether a policy, concept, political speech, or law faithfully represented the \u201cApple of Gold.\u201d The freedoms in the Bill of Rights, for example, or American exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, social and political equality for women and racial minorities, and immigration policy.<\/p>\n
I thought this idea was brilliant and couldn\u2019t wait to use it with my students. I convinced my principal to purchase a large bulletin board for my classroom and persuaded a talented art student to create a cardboard Apple of Gold, which I placed in the center of the board. We pretended the aluminum sides of the bulletin board comprised the frame of silver, the Constitution, and the Union that protected the Apple of Gold, the principle of liberty to all found in the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n
I taught this lesson on the first day of class in my AP US History classes. I taught it in my regular courses when teaching the American Revolution. And I used it repeatedly when discussing the events of the 1850s that culminated in secession and the Civil War. And I have evidence that it works! One year, I overheard students leaving my class after this lesson saying to one another, \u201cThat was the best lesson ever!\u201d Music to a teacher\u2019s ears.<\/p>\n
Over the course of the year, the board became an interactive bulletin board. We might discuss Manifest Destiny, for example, and I would ask the students whether that concept aligns with the Apple of Gold or violates it. Students took a Post-it note, wrote \u201cManifest Destiny\u201d on it, initialed their note, and placed it either on or off the Apple of Gold. Some students said it fit because it encouraged settlement of the West by the citizens of the United States, the people the government was sworn to protect. Other students argued it violated the liberty of indigenous people, so it did not belong on the Apple of Gold.<\/p>\n
Causes of the Civil War<\/em>: A Classroom Resource<\/h2>\nTeaching American History re-released its Core Document Collection volume, Causes of the Civil War,<\/em><\/a> in early September 2025. This volume of original documents, curated by Dr. Jason W. Stevens<\/a>, includes an introduction, 26 significant documents from the antebellum era, a Thematic Table of Contents, and Study Questions for each document. Like most teachers, I wish I had the time to discuss every one of these primary sources with my students. Given the time constraints we all face, I assigned Thomas Jefferson\u2019s letter to John Holmes<\/a> when teaching the Missouri Compromise. For insight into the debate over slavery, I assigned Frederick Douglass\u2019s speech \u201cWhat to the Slave is the Fourth of July?\u201d<\/a> and excerpts from the \u00a0Dred Scott<\/em><\/a> decision. These three documents are in the CDC Causes of the Civil War<\/em> volume.<\/p>\nHowever, I always assigned two documents to teach about secession: the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina, <\/a>\u00a0and Abraham Lincoln\u2019s First Inaugural Address<\/a>. My South Carolina students were interested in the state\u2019s justifications for seceding from the Union. Many of them anxiously defended their home state after reading its claim that the northern anti-slavery states had violated the \u201ctwo great principles asserted by the colonies\u201d during the American Revolution, \u2026 \u201cnamely; the right of the state to govern itself; and the right of the people to abolish a government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s missing, I asked them. Are these the only two principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence when we told King George III, \u201cEnough is enough, it\u2019s time for the colonies to become an independent nation?\u201d Are there any other \u201cself-evident truths?\u201d Sometimes, it took a few minutes, and sometimes I wandered over to my bulletin board and pointed to the Apple of Gold before someone said, \u201cAll men are created equal, that\u2019s what\u2019s missing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next, the students considered Lincoln\u2019s assertion in his First Inaugural Address that \u201cplainly, secession is the essence of anarchy.\u201d Many students are perplexed by Lincoln\u2019s decision to resist secession militarily. They wonder why Lincoln didn\u2019t simply let the Southern slave states leave the Union. Why try to preserve a Union with people unwilling to abandon the enslavement of another race of people? I challenged those students to consider the presidential oath of office and Lincoln\u2019s perspective on the relationship between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Each president swears to \u201cpreserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.\u201d Would Lincoln be abandoning forever the cause of the four million enslaved people in the South, the promise of the Apple of Gold the Declaration offered them if he did not fight to preserve the Union?<\/p>\n
Of course, my take on the documents Dr. Stevens included in Teaching American History\u2019s Core Document Collection, Causes of the Civil War<\/em><\/strong> is just one teacher\u2019s opinion. The volume\u2019s Thematic Table of Contents <\/strong>suggests other topics that teachers should consider, such as P<\/em>ro and Anti-slavery Arguments<\/em>, the Compromises of 1820 and 1850<\/em>, and Popular Sovereignty<\/em>. Whichever of these themes a teacher chooses to pursue, the Apple of Gold classroom activity could be used with every document in Stevens\u2019s well-considered collection.<\/p>\n
It was in one such conversation that I learned a method of teaching Abraham Lincoln\u2019s Fragment on the Constitution and Union,<\/a> which asks students to apply the principles of the Declaration of Independence<\/a>, its relationship to the Constitution of the United States<\/a>, and the purpose of the Union over the course of an entire year.<\/p>\n Lincoln received a letter from his former congressional colleague, Alexander Stephens, during the long secession winter of 1860\u201361. Stephens quoted Proverbs 25:1, \u201cA word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver\u201d (KJV). He wrote that a word of reassurance to the Southern slave states from President-elect Lincoln would be \u201cthe word fitly spoken.\u201d It might temper the secession movement and avert civil war.<\/p>\n Though Lincoln never replied to Stephens, he seized on the biblical verse but asserted that the nation already possessed the \u201capple of gold\u201d provided by \u201cthe word fitly spoken.\u201d It was the principle of \u201cliberty to all\u201d which \u201cclears the path for all\u2014gives hope to all\u2014and by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all\u2026.\u201d Still, Lincoln went further. The apple of gold, the principle of liberty to all, was protected by the Constitution and the Union, he noted. Indeed, the most fundamental purpose of the Constitution and the Union was to protect that principle, that \u201capple of gold.\u201d<\/p>\n My fellow seminar participant told us she used a cardboard apple of gold on a bulletin board in her classroom and challenged students to discuss whether a policy, concept, political speech, or law faithfully represented the \u201cApple of Gold.\u201d The freedoms in the Bill of Rights, for example, or American exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, social and political equality for women and racial minorities, and immigration policy.<\/p>\n I thought this idea was brilliant and couldn\u2019t wait to use it with my students. I convinced my principal to purchase a large bulletin board for my classroom and persuaded a talented art student to create a cardboard Apple of Gold, which I placed in the center of the board. We pretended the aluminum sides of the bulletin board comprised the frame of silver, the Constitution, and the Union that protected the Apple of Gold, the principle of liberty to all found in the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n I taught this lesson on the first day of class in my AP US History classes. I taught it in my regular courses when teaching the American Revolution. And I used it repeatedly when discussing the events of the 1850s that culminated in secession and the Civil War. And I have evidence that it works! One year, I overheard students leaving my class after this lesson saying to one another, \u201cThat was the best lesson ever!\u201d Music to a teacher\u2019s ears.<\/p>\n Over the course of the year, the board became an interactive bulletin board. We might discuss Manifest Destiny, for example, and I would ask the students whether that concept aligns with the Apple of Gold or violates it. Students took a Post-it note, wrote \u201cManifest Destiny\u201d on it, initialed their note, and placed it either on or off the Apple of Gold. Some students said it fit because it encouraged settlement of the West by the citizens of the United States, the people the government was sworn to protect. Other students argued it violated the liberty of indigenous people, so it did not belong on the Apple of Gold.<\/p>\n Teaching American History re-released its Core Document Collection volume, Causes of the Civil War,<\/em><\/a> in early September 2025. This volume of original documents, curated by Dr. Jason W. Stevens<\/a>, includes an introduction, 26 significant documents from the antebellum era, a Thematic Table of Contents, and Study Questions for each document. Like most teachers, I wish I had the time to discuss every one of these primary sources with my students. Given the time constraints we all face, I assigned Thomas Jefferson\u2019s letter to John Holmes<\/a> when teaching the Missouri Compromise. For insight into the debate over slavery, I assigned Frederick Douglass\u2019s speech \u201cWhat to the Slave is the Fourth of July?\u201d<\/a> and excerpts from the \u00a0Dred Scott<\/em><\/a> decision. These three documents are in the CDC Causes of the Civil War<\/em> volume.<\/p>\n However, I always assigned two documents to teach about secession: the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina, <\/a>\u00a0and Abraham Lincoln\u2019s First Inaugural Address<\/a>. My South Carolina students were interested in the state\u2019s justifications for seceding from the Union. Many of them anxiously defended their home state after reading its claim that the northern anti-slavery states had violated the \u201ctwo great principles asserted by the colonies\u201d during the American Revolution, \u2026 \u201cnamely; the right of the state to govern itself; and the right of the people to abolish a government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s missing, I asked them. Are these the only two principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence when we told King George III, \u201cEnough is enough, it\u2019s time for the colonies to become an independent nation?\u201d Are there any other \u201cself-evident truths?\u201d Sometimes, it took a few minutes, and sometimes I wandered over to my bulletin board and pointed to the Apple of Gold before someone said, \u201cAll men are created equal, that\u2019s what\u2019s missing.\u201d<\/p>\n Next, the students considered Lincoln\u2019s assertion in his First Inaugural Address that \u201cplainly, secession is the essence of anarchy.\u201d Many students are perplexed by Lincoln\u2019s decision to resist secession militarily. They wonder why Lincoln didn\u2019t simply let the Southern slave states leave the Union. Why try to preserve a Union with people unwilling to abandon the enslavement of another race of people? I challenged those students to consider the presidential oath of office and Lincoln\u2019s perspective on the relationship between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Each president swears to \u201cpreserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.\u201d Would Lincoln be abandoning forever the cause of the four million enslaved people in the South, the promise of the Apple of Gold the Declaration offered them if he did not fight to preserve the Union?<\/p>\n Of course, my take on the documents Dr. Stevens included in Teaching American History\u2019s Core Document Collection, Causes of the Civil War<\/em><\/strong> is just one teacher\u2019s opinion. The volume\u2019s Thematic Table of Contents <\/strong>suggests other topics that teachers should consider, such as P<\/em>ro and Anti-slavery Arguments<\/em>, the Compromises of 1820 and 1850<\/em>, and Popular Sovereignty<\/em>. Whichever of these themes a teacher chooses to pursue, the Apple of Gold classroom activity could be used with every document in Stevens\u2019s well-considered collection.<\/p>\nCauses of the Civil War<\/em>: A Classroom Resource<\/h2>\n
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