AMH 2010

Question 1

Articles of Confederation - Successes

Answer 1

• gives states rights
• Northwest Ordinance(slavery banned in this Ordinance) accomplished
• American Revolution fought and won with the Articles of Confederation as its government
• method of creating/organizing new territory/states

Question 2

Articles of Confederation- Failures

Answer 2

• Don’t have the power to compel the states to do anything
• They don’t have the power to tax or levy the states, they have to ask for money and support to supply the troops during the war
• No structure for authority in the Articles
• No federal reserve

Question 3

Marbury v. Madison ( Supreme Court Case)

Answer 3

• about the power of the president to appoint officers
• about the relationship between the executive and legislative branches
• Marbury should have been appointed but the Supreme Court couldn’t provide a remedy or satisfaction to either party

Question 4

Marbury v. Madison ( Supreme Court Case) - Significance

Answer 4

• Congress assumes the power of Judicial review but it wasn’t stated in the Constitution
• Supreme court argues judicial review is necessary or else they can’t do its job; the power of the review must exist explicitly in the power of the court

Question 5

Failed Annexation of Cuba

Answer 5

Lopez invaded Cuba and claimed its an independent country; Spain refuses to sell Cuba to America and threatens they will give Cuba to the slave

Question 6

Compromise of 1820

Answer 6

• Everything north of the Kansas line is slave free, anything under the line can be slave-owning states
• Southerners supported the Mexican-American war because it meant more land in the south for slaveholding states
• California needs to be cut because slave states want the territory, but enough people in California because of gold rush it can be its own state

Question 7

Compromise of 1850

Answer 7

• Allows California to be a free state and the south gets the Fugitive Slave Act - California will not get full representation in Congress for 2 years
• Popular sovereignty in Mexican Session, meaning territories like Arizona and Mexico will become slave states if enough people move there
• Big win is the Fugitive Slave Act and only the hope enough people will move to the territories to become states; people don’t more to Arizona because it’s desert and people cant farm and make money, plus plantation owners would be the minority and they were scared of an uprising from slaves

Question 8

Wilmot Proviso

Answer 8

Never a law, a suggestion to the annexation of territory from Mexico; during Mexican-American war and says if the US takes territory from Mexico, it should be free soil before it becomes a territory; part of the series of considerations the south is looking at on the road to the Compromise of 1850

Question 9

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Answer 9

Says only future states will be able to vote if they want to be a free state or a slave-owning state; these new territories will decide by vote if they will be a free or slave state; destroyed the Whig Party

Question 10

Bleeding Kansas

Answer 10

1855-1856; period of violence where pro and anti-slavery supporters rush into Kansas to ensure their side wins the election; John Brown- leader of a pro abolition group in Kansas; arm slaves in the Harper Ferry Revolt to rebel against their owners

Question 11

Free Soil Party

Answer 11

The party of western abolitionists who wanted to get rid of slavery because they wanted African Americans out of America altogether; ultimately merges with Republican Party; they back Lincoln; delivered the mid-west to the republicans

Question 12

Federal Vs State powers

Answer 12

The exclusive powers of the federal government help the nation operate as a unified whole.
The states retain a lot of power, however. States conduct all elections, even presidential elections, and must ratify constitutional amendments. So long as their laws do not contradict national laws, state governments can prescribe policies on commerce, taxation, healthcare, education, and many other issues within their state.

Question 13

Separation of Federal Powers

Answer 13

Separation of powers is a doctrine of constitutional law under which the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) are kept separate. This is also known as the system of checks and balances, because each branch is given certain powers so as to check and balance the other branches

Question 14

Legislative

Answer 14

• Legislative—Makes laws (Congress, comprised of the House of Representatives and Senate)
• The president can veto legislation created by Congress and nominates heads of federal agencies.

Question 15

Executive

Answer 15

• Executive—Carries out laws (president, vice president, Cabinet, most federal agencies)
• Congress confirms or rejects the president’s nominees and can remove the president from office in exceptional circumstances.

Question 16

Judicial

Answer 16

• Judicial—Evaluates laws (Supreme Court and other courts)
• The Justices of the Supreme Court, who can overturn unconstitutional laws, are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Question 17

The Great Compromise (Connecticut Plan)

Answer 17

The Great Compromise was a solution where both big and small states would be fairly represented by creating two houses of the senate. The House of Representatives would be according to a state’s size. The Senate would give each state 2 delegates regardless of their size

Question 18

Slave Trade Compromise

Answer 18

• slave trade would not be banned for twenty years but could be taxed.
• Georgia NC, SC were the states

Question 19

Three-Fifths Compromise

Answer 19

three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

Question 20

Commerce Compromise

Answer 20

• The compromise was to allow tariffs only on imports from foreign countries and not exports from the United States.
• Congress shall have the power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce.

Question 21

Electoral College

Answer 21

• When voting you are casting a vote for presidential electors, collectively known as the Electoral College. The elector then votes for the same candidate on their behalf.
• the Constitution assigns each state a number of electors that are equal to the total number of members in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Question 22

Bill Of Rights

Answer 22

• The Bill of Rights protects citizens’ civil liberties from the federal government’s infringement.
• The Bill of Rights protects civil liberties that are innately possessed by people.

Question 23

Dred Scott v Sandford ( Supreme Court Case)

Answer 23

the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories.

Question 24

13th Amendment

Answer 24

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery

Question 25

14th Amendment

Answer 25

Granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids states from denying any person “life, liberty or property, without due process of law” or to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Question 26

15th Amendment

Answer 26

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote

Question 27

Louisiana Purchase

Answer 27

The Louisiana Purchase was the purchase of imperial rights to the western half of the Mississippi River basin from France by the United States in 1803. The deal granted the United States the sole authority to obtain the land from its indigenous inhabitants, either by contract or by conquest

Question 28

Annexation of Florida

Answer 28

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams achieved a diplomatic coup with the signing of the Florida Purchase Treaty, which officially put Florida into U.S. hands at no cost beyond the U.S. assumption of some $5 million of claims by U.S. citizens against Spain.

Question 29

Annexation of Oregon

Answer 29

The Oregon Treaty was an agreement between Britain and the United States. It formalized the border between the United States and British North America west of the Rocky Mountains.

Question 30

Annexation of Texas

Answer 30

Texas entered the United States as a slave state, broadening the irrepressible differences in the United States over the issue of slavery and setting off the Mexican-American War.

Question 31

Mexican Cession

Answer 31

• The Mexican Cession is the region in the modern-day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S.
• The treaty also gave the United States Mexico’s northern provinces of California and New Mexico. The United States thus acquired vast mineral wealth, especially gold, and extended its border to the Pacific Ocean.

Question 32

Gadsden Purchase

Answer 32

• An agreement between the United States and Mexico in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico.
• Gadsden’s Purchase provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War.