Unit 5 Vocab (1844-1877)

Question 1

Manifest Destiny

Answer 1

The idea that the destiny of the US was to overspread and dominate the continent, with free settlement for their multiplying population - coined by John L. O’Sullivan

Question 2

Californios

Answer 2

The elite Mexican ranchers of California who had huge lang grants and controlled society - many American agents intermarried into these families

Question 3

“Fifty-four forty or fight”

Answer 3

James K. Polk’s presidential slogan, it meant that the US should ignore British claims and occupy the entire territory of Oregon, all the way to Alaska - declared his support for expansion

Question 4

Conscience Whigs

Answer 4

Whigs who used conscious arguments and opposed slavery on moral grounds - accused Polk of waging a war of conquest in Mexico to expand the South and they refused the support the war

Question 5

Wilmot Proviso

Answer 5

A proposition to congress, created by David Wilmot in 1846, to ban slavery in any territories gained from the Mexican war - it wasn’t accepted

Question 6

Free-soil Movement

Answer 6

The movement that slavery was an aristocratic institution that was a great threat to the ordinary masses - thousands of northerners joined it to oppose slavery

Question 7

Squatter Sovereignty

Answer 7

The idea that Congress would allow the settlers of territories to determine their states as free of slave - originally proposed by Senator Lewis Cass
Forty-niners: The term for the people (mostly men) who came seeking wealth in 1849 during the Gold Rush in California

Question 8

Forty-niners

Answer 8

The term for the people (mostly men) who came seeking wealth in 1849 during the Gold Rush in California

Question 9

Compromise of 1850

Answer 9

A plan by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster to solve the California crisis, it won the passage of 5 separate laws - 1) A new, harsher Fugitive Slave Act that gave more support to slavecatchers, 2) California was admitted as a free state, 3) Resolved Texas/New Mexico boundary dispute in favor of New Mexico, 4) Abolished slave trade in District of Columbia, 5) Organized rest of conquered lands into territories and invoked popular sovereignty - these laws were intended to placate the North and the South and create a long-lasting compromise

Question 10

Personal Liberty Laws

Answer 10

Laws that guaranteed all residents the right to a jury trial - in response to new Fugitive Slave Act, it deterred slavecatchers

Question 11

Gadsden Purchase

Answer 11

A treaty that gave the US a small slice of Mexican land, now part of Arizona and New Mexico - opened the way for a southern transcontinental railroad

Question 12

“Slavery follows the flag”

Answer 12

An idea by John C. Calhoun that Congress didn’t have authority to stop planters from taking their slaves into new territories since it was their property - won support in Deep South

Question 13

Ostend Manifesto

Answer 13

A petition organized by Secretary of State William L. Marcy that urged Pierce to seize Cuba

Question 14

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Answer 14

A proposal by Stephen A. Douglas to destroy Indian Territory and open the land to settlement - so the US could build a transcontinental railroad through it. Formed 2 territories, Kansas and Nebraska, and organized on popular sovereignty

Question 15

American, or Know-Nothing Party

Answer 15

A new party which had origins in anti-immigration and anti-Catholic movements - wanted to mobilize Protestants against the “alien menace” - wanted to prohibit immigration, and institute literacy tests for voting - northern members were antislavery

Question 16

“Bleeding Kansas”

Answer 16

A term used to label Kansas in 1856, as the pro and anti slavery citizens clashed repeatedly and fought a guerilla war with each other

Question 17

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Answer 17

case where Dred Scott, a slave, proclaimed his freedom after having lived in a free state. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where they declared that blacks couldn’t be citizens, so they didn’t have the right to sue. Also, that Congress couldn’t prevent slaveowners from moving slaves into free states. (Thus made Missouri Compromise/Northwest Ordinance invalid), and that Congress couldn’t prohibit slavery in any territories - only once the state adopted an antislavery Constitution could that happen - very controversial proslavery decision

Question 18

Freeport Doctrine

Answer 18

The idea by Douglas that a territories resident could exclude slavery by not adopting laws to protect it - didn’t please either pro or anti slave advocates

Question 19

Crittenden Compromise

Answer 19

A proposed compromise to end secession by Senator John J. Crittenden - had 2 parts: 1) A constitutional amendment to protect slavery in states where it already existed; 2) Westward expansion of the Missouri Compromise line. IT was rejected - there would be no compromise

Question 20

Total War

Answer 20

Tee term for when a side devotes ALL of their resources - political, economic, cultural - to win the war. Also tried to win at all costs, and destroy all of the enemies resources - burn crop fields and towns, target cities, etc.

Question 21

Draft (conscription)

Answer 21

Forced military service, usually for young men - first one was during the Civil War

Question 22

Habeas Corpus

Answer 22

Legal instruments used to protect people from arbitrary arrest - Lincoln suspended this during the Civil War, so he could keep people in jail without a trial

Question 23

King cotton

Answer 23

The leading American export and a crucial staple of the economy - term was used to show the power cotton had

Question 24

Greenbacks

Answer 24

The term for the paper money issued in the Legal Tender Act - it was printed on green paper, and the public was forced to accept it. First national paper currency, but it was slightly inflated as Congress printed $150 million to pay for war

Question 25

“Contrabands”

Answer 25

The term created by Benjamin Butler for the escaped slaves who used the wartime chaos to flee the South - the North was legally supposed to return them, but they didn’t. Soon thousands were camping with the Union armies for protection

Question 26

Radical Republicans

Answer 26

Members of the party who had bitterly opposed “Slave Power” since the 1850s - argued for emancipation, and eventually pressured Lincoln to make the Emancipation Proclamation

Question 27

Emancipation Proclamation

Answer 27

By Lincoln, it legally abolished slavery in all states that remained out of the Union by January 1, 1863. The Proclamation was politically astute - it didn’t end slavery in border states that were a part of the Union, so they would continue supporting the war. Thus, it didn’t actually free a single slave, but had pushed slavery to the “edge of the Niagara”, where it would soon be swept off the brink

Question 28

Scorched-Earth Campaign

Answer 28

The practice of destroying grain, barns, and other resources useful to the enemy - practiced by the North, and changed the previous norms of warfare which had treated civilians as noncombatants. Turned the enemy land into a “scorched Earth”

Question 29

War and Peace Democrats

Answer 29

The splitting of the Democrat Party - war Democrats vowed to continue fighting till the end of the war, and Peace Democrats advocated for an armistice and a convention to negotiate peace

Question 30

“Hard war”

Answer 30

The philosophy that ALL the people of one nation are enemies of the other when they are at war with each other

Question 31

March to the Sea

Answer 31

Sherman’s march across the South towards the sea, where his army consumed or demolished everything in their path, and generally caused havoc. Huge success, demoralized the South a LOT - burned Atlanta and Columbia. Total war

Question 32

Ten Percent Plan

Answer 32

A potential plan offered by Lincoln during wartime that would allow each rebellious state to return to the Union after 10% of their voters had taken a loyalty oath, and they had accepted the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. But even amid defeat, Confederates rejected this plan

Question 33

Another proposition for how to allow CSA states to reenter the Union, although harsher - it required an oath of allegiance by a majority of voters, new governments of people who had never taken up arms, and disenfranchisement of CSA leaders. But Lincoln defeated it with a pocket veto

Answer 33

Wade-Davis Bill

Question 34

Black Codes

Answer 34

Laws enacted during Reconstruction that aimed to restore slavery in all but name - designed to force new freemen back to plantation labor

Question 35

Freedmen’s Bureau

Answer 35

Established in March 1865 by Congress to aid displaced blacks and other war refugees - in early 1866, Congress extended the bureau and gave them real funding. One of the only successful institutions of Reconstruction, it aided many

Question 36

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Answer 36

Declared formerly enslaved people to be citizens and granted them equal protection and rights of contract, with full access to the courts - provoked bitter conflict

Question 37

Fourteenth

Answer 37

1868, declared that anyone born in the US was a citizen, and no state could abridge the privileges granted to US citizens - declared when peoples essential rights were at stake, national citizenship took priority

Question 38

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Answer 38

Divided the South into 5 military districts - to rejoin the Union, they had to grant vote to freedmen and take it away from ex-Confederates, and ratify 14th Amendment to guarantee black suffrage

Question 39

Fifteenth Amendment

Answer 39

February 1869, it protected male citizens’ right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous servitude. Despite that, it still left room for a poll tax and literacy requirements

Question 40

American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)

Answer 40

One organization formed after the rift in women’s’ movements, it was the majority - this group reconciled themselves to disappointment, and remain loyal to Republicans with hopes that after REconstruction it would be womens’ turn

Question 41

National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA)

Answer 41

A new group led by Stanton and Anthony, they saw that once Reconstruction was over womens’ suffrage was unlikely in near future - focused EXCLUSIVELY on womens’ rights

Question 42

Minor v. Happersett

Answer 42

1875, ruled that suffrage rights were NOT inherent in citizenship - women were citizens but states could deny them the right to vote if they wished

Question 43

Sharecropping

Answer 43

The new system of cotton agriculture, where freedmen worked as renters, exchanging labor for use of land, house, and implements, typically turned over half their crop. Effective but unequal relationship

Question 44

Union League

Answer 44

Late 1960s, black and white Republicans joined forces in a secret fraternal association. Formed in border states, became a powerful political face as it spread through Confederacy - grassroots Radical Republicanism

Question 45

Scalawags

Answer 45

The term for southern whites who supported Reconstruction - created by ex-Confederates

Question 46

Carpet-baggers

Answer 46

Another term, this one was used to describe northern whites as self-seeking interlopers in southern society, looking for personal gain

Question 47

Convict Leasing

Answer 47

The system where Southern Reconstruction governments hired out prisoners for labor in the race for economic development - horrid conditions, and rife with corruption

Question 48

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Answer 48

Required “full and equal” access to jury service and to transportation and public accommodations, irrespective of race

Question 49

Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company

Answer 49

A private bank founded in 1865 that had worked closely with Freedmen’s Bureau - associated with party of Lincoln, and thousands of African Americans brought their savings to their nearest branch - but it failed in June 1874

Question 50

Classical Liberalism

Answer 50

The ideas of free trade, small government, low property taxes, and limitation of voting rights to men of education and power

Question 51

Laissez Faire

Answer 51

The liberal response to the massive increase of federal power - argued that the government should “let alone” business and economy

Question 52

Crédit Mobilier

Answer 52

A sham corporation set up by shareholders in Union Pacific Railroad to secure government grants at enormous profits - protected it from investigation by giving gifts of stock to powerful members of Congress

Question 53

“Redemption”

Answer 53

The term for the force ex-Confederates used to terrorize Republicans and blacks, often taking lives - called themselves “Redemptioners”

Question 54

Ku Klux Klan

Answer 54

A white supremacist group formed in late 1865 or early 1866, they unleashed a murderous campaign of terror - burned freemens schools, beat teachers, attacked Republican gatherings, and murdered political opponents and African Americans

Question 55

Enforcement Laws

Answer 55

Designed to protect freedmen’s rights, these laws authorized federal prosecutions, military intervention and martial law to suppress terrorist activity

Question 56

Slaughter-house cases

Answer 56

A group of decisions beginning in early 1873 by the Supreme Court that began to undercut the power of the 14th Amendment

Question 57

US v. Cruikshank

Answer 57

1876, the justices argued the 14th Amendment only offered a few trivial federal protections to citizens - if private groups violated former slaves right to vote, it wasn’t federal jurisdiction - could only act if the STATE violated rights. Said federal government could do nothing against Ku Klux Klan and other groups forcing blacks to not vote

Question 58

Civil Rights Cases

Answer 58

1883, the court struck down Civil Rights Act of 1875, paving the way for other legislation that would legalize segregation

Question 59

Transcontinental Railroad

Answer 59

The term for a single railroad that goes across the entire country - first one was finished on May 10, 1869 by the Union and Central Pacific companies

Question 60

Protective Tariff

Answer 60

A tariff on manufactured goods that helped promote American manufacturing, because it made products from other countries more expensive so people would buy American versions

Question 61

Treaty of Kanagawa

Answer 61

An 1854 treaty by Commodore Matthew Perry that allowed US ships to refuel at 2 Japanese ports - led to Japan opening borders to trade by 1858

Question 62

Burlingame Treaty

Answer 62

A treaty in 1868 by William Seward with China that guaranteed the rights of US missionaries in China and set terms for the emigration of Chinese laborers

Question 63

Munn v. Illinois

Answer 63

1877, the Supreme Court affirmed that states could regulate key businesses that were “clothed in public interest”. But they feared too many regulations would impede business, so they interpreted the “due process” clause of the 14th Amendment as shielding corporations from excessive regulation

Question 64

Gold Standard

Answer 64

The idea that paper notes could be backed in gold held in the bank’s vaults. A new standard monetary value, the US switched over in the 70s and 80s, which limited the nations money supply

Question 65

Crime of 1873

Answer 65

A critics term for the 1873 law that switched the US to the gold standard - sharply limited the nations money supply

Question 66

Homestead Act

Answer 66

1862, it gave 160 acres of federal land for free to any applicants who occupied and improved the property - Republicans hoped it would help build up the interior West

Question 67

Morrill Act

Answer 67

A federal act that set aside 140 million federal acres that states could sell to raise money for public universities

Question 68

Land-grant Colleges

Answer 68

The term for the colleges created by the Morrill Act - the goal of them was to broaden educational opportunities and foster technical and scientific expertise

Question 69

Comstock Lode

Answer 69

A huge silver load found in Nevada in 1859, it built the boomtown Virginia City and caused many to move there to work as miners

Question 70

Long Drive

Answer 70

When ranchers from Texas hired cowboys to herd cattle hundreds of miles north to the new rail lines that extended into Kansas, where those same cattle were worth SIGNIFICANTLY more

Question 71

“Rain follows the plow”

Answer 71

The idea by Americans that settlement in the arid Great Plains was increasing rainfall. Some attributed it to soil cultivation, and others credited God. There were many proposed explanations, but nobody complained about the wet cycle from 1878 to 1886

Question 72

Exodusters

Answer 72

The term African Americans who emigrated to Kansas from the South called themselves. They did this to escape poverty and violence, with most carrying little more than the clothes on their backs and their faith in God

Question 73

Yellowstone National Park

Answer 73

The first national park - railroad tourism and lobbying was a strong motive in creating it. But the process had lots of complications - nobody knew what a national park was or how to operate it

Question 74

US Fisheries Commission

Answer 74

1871, it was created to stem the decline in wild fish. By the 1930s, it merged with other federal wildlife bureaus to form the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Question 75

Sand Creek Massacre

Answer 75

Cheyenne chief Black Kettle was told to settle along the banks of Sand Creek until a treaty could be signed. But Chivington’s Colorado militia attacked the camp while most men were hunting, slaughtering more than 100 women and children. It led the northern plains to EXPLODE in conflict

Question 76

Fetterman Massacre

Answer 76

December 1866, 1,500 Sioux warriors executed a perfect ambush, luring Captain William Fetterman and 80 soldiers and wiping them out completely. The Sioux succeeded in closing the Bozeman trail, a private road that served as a major route into Montana

Question 77

Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock

Answer 77

1903, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could make whatever Indian policies they wanted, ignoring all existing treaties

Question 78

Dawes Severalty Act

Answer 78

1882, it was the most sweeping effort to assimilate Indians - divided tribal lands, hoping to force Indians into individual homesteads, and Dawes hoped that landownership would encourage assimilation. But it was a complete disaster, and played perfectly into the hands of those who wanted native land, outraging Dawes

Question 79

Battle of Little Bighorn

Answer 79

Lieutenant Colonel Custer had led 210 men in an ill-considered assault on a native camp, and the assault force was killed to the last man. Long after the war was over, it was romanticized as Custer’s “last stand” and the Battle of Little Bighorn, justifying the US Armies attacked against Native Americans

Question 80

Ghost Dance Movement

Answer 80

Late 1880s and early 90s, it fostered native hopes that they could resurrect the bison and call a great storm to drive whites back across the Atlantic, through sacred dancers. The US was fearful of this, like most native movements, and they persecuted the Ghost Dancers

Question 81

Wounded Knee

Answer 81

1890, a group of Lakota Sioux Ghost Dancers left their reservation and were pursued by the US army. On december 29, the army caught up with them and killed 150-310. It could’ve been avoided, and stands as a final indictment of decades of relentless US expansion, white ignorance and greed, chaotic and conflicting policies, and bloody mistakes