Period 4 Pass-off Flashcards
Revolution of 1800
First peaceful transfer of power between parties, though Federalists appoint “midnight judges”—including Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall—to maintain influence through the Judiciary branch.
The Pragmatic President
Jefferson stays true to his strict constructionist beliefs (eliminates Whiskey Tax and Alien/Sedition Acts) but also completes Louisiana Purchase without constitutional authority.
Marbury v. Madison
Chief Justice John Marshall asserts that the Supreme Court has the power of “Judicial Review” to decide whether federal laws are constitutional or not.
Babary States (Tripoli, Tunisia, Algiers)
Jefferson rejects their demands for tribute (“millions for defense, not one cent for tribute”) and the American navy and marines defeat them in battle.
Embargo Act (1807)
Jefferson stops all trade with Europe, hoping “peaceable coercion” will get England and Napoleon to stop impressing American sailors and seizing cargoes. It fails.
“War Hawks”
Young nationalist politicians who vote to declare war on Great Britain in the War of 1812 to end British alliances with Indians out west and invade Canada.
War of 1812
Ends in stalemate, but Andrew Jackson’s victory at Battle of New Orleans boosts American nationalism, leading some to call it the “2nd War for Independence”.
(short-lived) Era of Good Feelings
Federalists fade away after Hartford Convention scandal, leaving only the Republicans.
Tallmadge Amendment
proposes that Missouri must ban slavery to become a state. It passes the House but not the Senate, leading South to suspect a Northern conspiracy to limit slavery.
Missouri Compromise
Henry Clay temporarily preserves free-state slave-state balance – Maine enters as a free state, Missouri as a slave state and slavery is banned in the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30′.
Monroe Doctrine
Announcement that the Western Hemisphere is off limits to further European colonization, marking a more assertive American foreign policy, even though it doesn’t have the military to enforce it.
“Corrupt Bargain” of 1825
Jackson wins popular vote, but no candidate wins majority of electoral vote, so election is decided in the House of Representatives. Speaker Henry Clay swings vote towards JQA, who then names Clay Secretary of State. JQA’s presidency is tainted by scandal and Jackson wins 4 years later.
Universal white male suffrage
shift from elite property owners to mass politics and political machines explains “Old Hickory” war hero Andrew Jackson’s popularity.
“King Andrew”
President Jackson expands the power of the presidency, vetoing more bills than predecessors combined and using the “spoils system” to reward supporters
1830 Indian Removal Act
forces remaining Indians east of the Mississippi River to move to Oklahoma territory, ignoring Supreme Court decision in Worcester v. Georgia. Florida Seminoles (under chief Osceola) and Sauk and Fox (under Chief Blackhawk) are temporarily successful in resisting.
Nullification Crisis
Calhoun’s South Carolina Exposition and Protest declares the state can “nullify” the “Tariff of Abominations.” Jackson’s Force Bill threatens war, but Clay negotiates a new lower tariff.
Bank Battle
Nicholas Biddle applies to renew the National Bank charter. Jackson vetoes it and transfers federal money to “pet banks” , causing the Panic of 1837. All anti-Jackson factions coalesce into the Whig Party
“Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”
Whigs copy Democrats by portraying war hero Harrison as “log cabin and hard cider” common man
Lewis and Clark expedition
Called the “Corps of Discovery”, sent to map Louisiana Purchase, look for all-water route to Pacific, establish good relations with Indians, and stake claim to Oregon.
Pan-Indian Resistance Movement
spiritual leader the “Prophet” urges Indians to stop assimilating into white society and return to their traditional beliefs, while military leader Tecumseh tries to get tribes to stop fighting each other and unite in battle against Americans. Defeated in the War of 1812.
(1821) Newly-independent Mexico
struggles to control fringe states of California, New Mexico, & Texas. At first, “empresarios” like Stephen Austin are allowed to recruit American settlers into Texas, but Mexico cracks down.
General Sam Houston
Texan independence from Mexico is recognized in 1836, but southern border is dispute. Texas claims it is the Rio Grande. Mexico says it is the Rio Nueces.
Lone Star Republic
Texas waits to be annexed by the U.S. - President Jackson is hesitant to upset the balance of free states and slave states. Lame duck President Tyler finally annexes Texas after Polk wins the “Manifest Destiny” election of 1844.
New technologies
John Deere’s Steel Plow opens up the Great Plains to agriculture. McCormick Reaper frees up farm labor to work in cities. Eli Whitney’s manufacturing of muskets with interchangeable parts demonstrates benefits of mass production.
Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin
makes large scale cotton cultivation profitable by removing the bottleneck of removing seeds by hand. A labor-saving device that ironically increased the demand for slave labor. Instead of slowly dying out, slavery expands westward.
Market Revolution
Each region specializes in products it can sell nation-wide after transportation innovations like turnpikes (the National Road), steamboats that sail upriver (Robert Fulton’s Clermont), canals, and railroads (The Baltimore and Ohio).
Erie Canal
completed between Albany on Hudson River and Buffalo on Lake Erie, tying the West closer to New York City than New Orleans.
The American System
Proposed by Henry Clay to strengthen the economy. Contains 3 parts: (1) a National Bank, (2) a protective tariff to help local industry, and (3) federally-funded internal improvements (roads, canals) to promote trade.
The Lowell System
Fast-moving New England rivers that don’t freeze in winter make the region ideal for water wheel-powered textile mills. The Lowell Textile Mill is an experiment to hire farmer’s daughters to work in wholesome work environment. As mill girls tire of tedious factory work and pay cuts, new Irish immigrants are cheaper labor source.
2nd Great Awakening
strongest in the newly-settled West (first tent revival meeting at Cane Ridge, Kentucky) and market towns along the Erie Canal (“burned over district”). “Evangelicalism” teaches that everyone can be saved through an emotional born-again experience, and social reform is necessary to prepare for the millennium.
Cult of Domesticity
The Market Revolution led to more distinct gender roles in middle class families. A husband’s sphere was work and politics, while a wife, because of her innate purity and natural weakness, was the moral guardian of the home.
Seneca Falls Convention
Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, women challenge the “cult of domesticity” by getting involved in temperance and abolition movements. Men reject this participation, inspiring this first women’s rights meeting and the writing of the “ Declaration of Sentiments.”
Transcendentalists
Social movement that stressed the individual’s ability to connect with divine truth through spiritual communion with nature, rejecting organized religion. Famous members included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau (author of “Walden”).
Utopian communities
Perfectionist impulses led to various social experiments: the Mormons in Nauvoo, the Transcendentalists at Brook Farm, the celibate Shakers, and the “complex marriage” Oneidans.
Antebellum social reformers
Pre-Civil War, Horace Mann standardizes public education in Massachusetts and Dorothea Dix advocates for humane treatment and rehabilitation in mental asylums.
Spectrum of Abolitionist beliefs
from gradual, compensated, ‘back to Africa” recolonization (American Colonization Society founded Liberia w/ freed slaves) to immediate, uncompensated, abolition AND equality (William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator)
Slave Revolts
Denmark Vesey, Gabriel Prosser, and Nat Turner lead Southerners to restrict rights of free blacks and pass laws against teaching slaves how to read.
Southern defense of slavery
Upset by growing abolitionism, southerners push back: (1) censor mail to stop abolition pamphlets (2) pass “gag” rule to silence abolitionist petitions in congress, (3) call slavery a “positive good” rather than a “necessary evil”
