3rd EXAM Flashcards
Will of the People
Jefferson believed that the WILL OF THE PEOPLE, expressed through elections, provided the most appropriate guidance for directing the republic’s course.
Notes on the State of Virginia 1785 Agrarian
Jefferson explained “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.” Since farmers were an overwhelming majority in the American republic, one can see how his belief in the value of agriculture reinforced his commitment to democracy.
(a deep appreciation of farming, in his mind the most virtuous and meaningful human activity.)
Democracy
a way of governing which depends on the will of the people.
Jefferson’s grand vision
Jefferson also committed his presidency to the protection of civil liberties and minority rights
Jefferson’s vision was not anti-modern, for he had too brilliant a scientific mind to fear technological change. He supported INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE to benefit farmers and wanted to see new TECHNOLOGY widely incorporated into ordinary farms and households to make them more productive.
Jeffersonian Democracy & flaws
First, his hopes for the incorporation of technology at the household level failed to grasp how poverty often pushed women and children to the forefront of the new industrial labor. Second, an equal place for Native Americans could not be accommodated within his plans for an agrarian republic. Third, Jefferson’s celebration of agriculture disturbingly ignored the fact that slaves worked the richest farm land in the United States. Slavery was obviously incompatible with true democratic values. Jefferson’s explanation of slaves within the republic argued that African Americans’ racial inferiority barred them from becoming full and equal citizens.
Furthermore, his Declaration of Independence had eloquently expressed America’s statement of purpose “that all men are created equal.” Still, he owned slaves all his life and, unlike Washington, never set them free.
Gabriel’s Rebellion
An 1800 uprising planned by Virginia slaves to gain their freedom
Toussaint L’Ouverture
Followed in the footsteps of the French in abolishing slavery when he became leader of the Haitian Revolution in 1792.
Napoleonic Wars
(1802-1815) were a continuation of the conflict begun in the 1790s when Great Britain led a coalition of European powers against Revolutionary France, though France was now led by the brilliant military strategist Napoleon Bonaparte.
Embargo of 1807
prevented U.S. ships from any trade with Europe in the belief that dependence on American goods would soon force France and England to honor American neutrality.
The plan backfired, however, as the Republican leaders failed to understand how deeply committed the superpowers were to carrying on their war despite its high costs.
War Hawks
a group of westerners and southerners in Congress called “WAR HAWKS,” who were led by HENRY CLAY of Kentucky.
Fort McHenry
is considered the “Home of the National Anthem” because it was here, during a battle in the War of 1812, that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write his famous poem.
Hartford Convention
Beginning in December 1814, 26 Federalists representing New England states met at the HARTFORD CONVENTION to discuss how to reverse the decline of their party and the region.
Americans anger toward the British (reasons)
- The British didn’t withdraw from American territory in the Great Lakes region as they agreed to in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
- Britain kept aiding Native Americans.
- Britain would not sign favorable commercial agreements with the U.S.
- Impressment: Britain claimed the right to take any British sailors serving on American merchant ships. In practice, the British took many American sailors and forced them to serve on British ships. This was nothing short of kidnapping.
- In 1807, The British ship Leopard fired on the American frigate Chesapeake. Other American merchant ships came under harassment from the British navy.
- War Hawks in Congress pushed for the conflict.
Battle of Bladensburg
So weak was American military opposition that the British sashayed into Washington D.C. after winning the BATTLE OF BLADENSBURG and burned most of the public buildings including the White House.
Treaty of Ghent
Negotiations began in August 1814 and on Christmas Eve the TREATY OF GHENT was signed in Belgium. The treaty called for the mutual restoration of territory based on pre-war boundaries and with the European war now over, the issue of American neutrality had no significance.
Democratization
Van Buren perceptively responded to the growing DEMOCRATIZATION of American life in the first decades of the 19th century by embracing mass public opinion.
Martin Van Buren
was the first U.S. President to serve as a bachelor; his wife died before he was elected.
Missouri Compromise Kansas
HENRY CLAY, a leading congressman, played a crucial role in brokering a two-part solution known as the MISSOURI COMPROMISE. First, Missouri would be admitted to the union as a slave state but would be balanced by the admission of MAINE, a free state, that had long wanted to be separated from Massachusetts. Second, slavery was to be excluded from all new states in the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri.
