Unit 2 Flashcards
- WEAKNESSES OF THE ARTCILES OF CONFEDERATION
The government established in 1781, was a confederation; each state was its own powerful entity and had its own tariffs and currencies, making it harder for interstate commerce to occur. The federal government lacked the power to tax and form a militia without the approval of all the states.
- STRENGTHS OF THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
The Articles protected against an oppressive central government, such as a monarchy or oligarchy, by placing power within the fragmented states.
- Land Ordinance of 1785:
It established that the settlement of a town would be six square miles and would contain land set aside for schools, setting a precedent for the public education system in the United States.
- Northwest Ordinance, 1787
It applied to the lands north of the Ohio River which had been established as the Northwest Territory.
- Shays’ Rebellion
A group of Massachusetts farmers led by Daniel Shays protested after taxes were raised to pay for Revolutionary debts in 1786.
- PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION
The convention ultimately scrapped the Articles and came up with the much more effective Constitution, in which various compromises were made to pacify sectional differences.
- VA Plan, NJ Plan
The Virginia Plan called for an executive branch with two houses of Congress which were both based on population.
- Slavery and the constitution: slave trade, three-fifths clause, Fugitive Slave law
the three-fifths clause, which lessened the power of the voting south by making the votes of three slaves equal that of five white votes; the Fugitive Slave Law, which captured and returned runaway slaves who fled into free territories,
- Checks and balances—examples
Examples of checks and balances in the Constitution are the congressional power to impeach the president and the presidential power to appoint his cabinet.
- George Mason, Bill of Rights
Mason was a delegate at the Constitutional Convention and helped draft the Constitution
- GREAT COMPROMISE
It provided for a presidency, a senate with states represented with two senators each, and a House of Representatives with representation according to population. The plan resolved the dilemma of using only one of the two self-serving documents in the Constitution.
- The ratification fights:
The fight in Virginia ended after the addition of the Bill of Rights, defeating Mason and Henry, and affected the decision in New York, where Hamilton won the fight using the “Federalist Papers.”
- The Federalist Papers, Jay, Hamilton, Madison:
The Federalist papers were written by Jay, Hamilton, and Madison in 1788, during the Philadelphia Convention as a response to Antifederalist objections to the Constitution.
- Implied powers, elastic clause, necessary and proper clause:
An implied power is one not granted in a job description, yet is meant to be taken. The elastic clause was included into the Constitution to allow flexibility.
- Upper and Lower House
The senate was seen as the upper house because there were less delegates, the age requirement was higher, and the term limits were six years as opposed to two for the House of Representatives.
- RESERVED AND DELEGATED POWERS
The delegated powers of Congress included the ability to tax, issue currency, borrow money, declare war and sustain an army. All powers not stated specifically in the Constitution were reserved to the states as stated in the Tenth Amendment.
- Electoral College
In order to protect the interests of the elite, land owning class, the framers of the Constitution added the electoral college as a safeguard against the majority opinion.
- President George Washington
George Washington was elected president in 1788 and again in 1792.
- Bank of the U.S.:
The bank successfully established a national currency, but the charter ended in 1811, for economic and political reasons.
- Judiciary Act, 1789:
The Congress passed the Judiciary Act in 1789, in an effort to create a federal-court system and replace the old system, in which the courts varied from state to state.
- XYZ Affair, Talleyran
agents X, Y, Z, three officials who did not take the process seriously, would only negotiate for a lend of $10 million to the French government.
- Whiskey Rebellion
An organized resistance in 1794, to the excise tax on whiskey in which federal revenue officials were tarred and feathered, riots were conducted, and mobs burned homes of excise inspectors.
- Undeclared naval war with France
In the conflict, the United States managed to capture ninety-three French ships while France captured just one U.S. ship.
- Jay’s Treaty:
Negotiated between the United States and France in 1794, the treaty evacuated British posts in the West
- Washington’s Farewell Address
Washington’s farewell address asked the citizens of the United States to avoid involvement in political problems between foreign nations.
- Barbary Pirates:
the Barbary pirates began to raid the ships of the United States.
- Battle of Fallen Timbers:
At the Battle of Fallen Timbers, in 1794, Anthony Wayne defeated a coalition of Native American tribes as the major general and commander in chief of the troops
- Federalists
The Federalist party was the starting point of the movement to draft and later ratify the new Constitution. It urged for a stronger national government to take shape after 1781.
- Democratic-Republicans:
It arose to power in the 1790s and opposed the Federalist party, while advocating states rights and an agricultural society.
- Second Great Awakening:
Occurring mainly in the frontier states, the Second Great Awakening began in the 1790s and was characterized by “camp meetings,” or open air revivals which lasted for weeks at a time where revivalists spoke of the second coming of Jesus.
- Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien Enemies Act allowed the President to export aliens during times of war and the Sedition Act made it a criminal offense to plot against the government.
- Fugitive Slave Law:
This law indicated tightening racial tensions, as well as stripped slaves of the right to trial by jury or presentation of evidence of freedom.
- JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRACY
Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory from the French, though a Constitutional violation.
- LOUISIANA PURCHASE
Jefferson obtained the territory for $15 million, and was ratified as a treaty by the Senate, though purchasing the territory was Constitutionally illegal and going beyond his presidential rights.
- Hamilton-Burr duel
Election of 1800 Between Jefferson and Burr, had turned to the House of Representatives for the decision of the next president Burr’s election in 1804, for the governor of NY State, where Hamilton opposed him, again. Dueled Hamilton on July 11, 1804, where Hamilton was killed.
- Lewis and Clark:
They explored the vast territory west of the Mississippi River by the US, when they were commissioned by Jefferson.
- War against Great Britain
For the most part, the Napoleonic Wars were played out in Europe, and the French accepted the United States merchant marine neutrality by the Berlin and Milan Decrees.
- Tecumseh
A Shawnee leader, who fought against the United States expansion into the Midwest.
- Impressment:
Used by the British to regain deserters from the Royal Navy to American vessels during 1790 to 1812.
- War Hawks
A group of militants in Madison’s Democratic-Republican party, who wanted more aggressive policies toward the hostile British and French.
- Results of the War of 1812
. The Treaty of Ghent secured US maritime rights and peace around Europe and the Americas.
- Jackson’s victory at New Orleans
Jackson captured New Orleans with a small army against the British army
- Treaty of Ghent:
This was an agreement between the United States and Great Britain, in Belgium, on December 24, 1814.
- Adams-Onis Treaty
It was the treaty in 1819 that purchased eastern Florida to establish the boundary between Mexico and the Louisiana territory.
- MONROE DOCTRINE:
President Monroe’s message to Congress on Dec. 2, 1823, it consisted of 3 principles
- Era of good feelings
This phrase exemplifies both of Monroe’s presidencies, from 1816-1824.
