US History I Flashcards
The Line of Demarcation
The line by the Pope to dived the world in half. Giving one half to Spain and the other the Portugal. The Spanish convinced to Pope to do this because both countries wanted to colonize but Portugal was the super power of the sea.
Treaty of Tordesillas
A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, moving the Line of Demarcation farther west.
Signed by Spain and Portugal, dividing the territories of the New World. Spain received the bulk territory in the Americas, compensating Portugal with titles to lands in Africa and Asia.
Republican-Democratic Party
political party that believed the people should have political power, favored strong state governments, emphasized agriculture, favored strict interpretation of the constitution, were pro-French, opposed national bank. Led by Jefferson and Madison.
The Federalist Party
The Federalist policies called for a national bank, tariffs, and good relations with Britain as expressed in the Jay Treaty negotiated in 1794. (The only Federalist president was John Adams)
The Whig Party
This party wanted expanding power of the federal government, encouraged industrial and commercial development, and was cautious about westward expansion because they feared it would produce instability. It encouraged rising to commercial and manufacturing power and was found favorable to the merchants and manufacturers of the Northeast, the wealthy planters of the South, and the farmers of the West. This party also attracted Evangelical Protestants.
Henry Hudson
An English explorer employed by the Dutch East India Company. Disregarding orders to sail northeast, he ventured into Delaware Bay and New York Bay in 1609 and then ascended the Hudson River, hoping that at last he had chanced upon the coveted shortcut through the continent. But, as the event proved, he merely filed a Dutch claim to a magnificently wooded and watered area.
William Bradford
Leader of the Pilgrims
John Winthrop
He became the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A successful manor lord in England, Winthrop eagerly accepted the offer to become governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, believing that he had a “calling” from God to lead the new religious experiment. He served as a governor or deputy governor for nineteen years. He helped Massachusetts prosper as fur trading, fishing, and shipbuilding.
Opposed religious toleration
The Missouri Compromise of 1820
This maintained the balance of slave and free states by bringing in Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. It sought to diffuse slavery as an issue in westward expansion by prohibiting slavery north of latitude 36°30’, but it said nothing about popular sovereignty south of that line.
“We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”
Was said by?
Thomas Jefferson, following the heated elections of 1800.
The Treaty of Paris 1783 (four main parts)
Peace treaty signed by Britain and the United States ending the Revolutionary War. The British formally recognized American independence and ceded territory east of the Mississippi while the Americans, in turn, promised to restore Loyalist property and repay any debts to British creditors.
Britain recognizes independence of the U.S.; boundaries of the new nation are established; American ships are given unlimited fishing rights; creditors of either side would be unimpeded in the collection of lawful debts; the U.S. would compensate loyalists whose property had been confiscated
John Smith
Took over Jamestown in 1608, he whipped the gold-hungry people in to line with the rule, “He who shall not work shall not eat.” He was kidnapped by Indians and put on a fake execution in which the chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas put herself between John Smith and death. This was a symbol to show that they wanted to have peace between then and the Virginians. Still many colonists died.
John White
Roanoke’s colony leader who returned to England for more food and tools–when he finally returned to Roanoke the colony had vanished.
Giovanni da Verrazzano
An Italian explorer in the service of France. In 1524, he sailed to North America in search of the NW Passage
Francis Drake
He swashbuckled and looted his way around the planet, returning in 1580 with his ship heavily ballasted with Spanish booty. The venture netted profits of about 4,600 percent to his financial backers, among whom, in secret, was Queen Elizabeth. Defying Spanish protest, she brazenly knighted Drake on the deck of his barnacled ship.
Vasco Nunez de Dalboa
Hailed as the discoverer of the Pacific Ocean, he waded into the foaming waves off Panama in 1513 and boldly claimed for his kind all the lands washed by that sea.
Jaun Ponce de Leon
In 1513 and 1521, Juan Ponce de Leon explored Florida, which he at first thought was an island. Seeking gold, most likely not the mythical fountain of youth, he instead met death by an Indian arrow.
Wanted gold and fountain of youth, made first spanish settlement in america. He explored and established his settlement in Florida.
Giovanni Cobato (John Cabot)
Italian-born navigator explored the coast of New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland looking for the NW Passage. Gave England a claim in North America. (1497-1498)
King George’s War
The third War fought between Britain and France and Spain. It took place not only in Europe but also in North America with American colonists supporting the British with thousands of troops. In the end, Britain gained lands in India but lost Louisburg, which embittered the American colonists relations with the Mother Country .
The Act of Religious Toleration
Passed in Maryland, it guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed the death penalty for those, like Jews and atheists, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Ensured that Maryland would continue to attract a high proportion of Catholic migrants throughout the colonial period.
King William’s War
The first of the four wars fought between France, Spain, England and France’s indian allies for control of North America. No major battles fought or major land change but brought terrifying indian raids.
War fought largely between French trappers, British settlers, and their perspective Indian allies from 1689-1697. The colonial theater of the larger War of the League of Augsburg in Europe.
Queen Anne’s War
Second in a series of conflicts between the European powers for control of North America, fought between the English and French colonists in the North, and the English and Spanish in Florida. Under the peace treaty, the French ceded Acadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay to Britain.
Maria Mitchell
An astronomer who discovered a comet and was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Embargo Act of 1807
This act issued by Jefferson forbade American trading ships from leaving the U.S. It was meant to force Britain and France to change their policies towards neutral vessels by depriving them of American trade. It was difficult to enforce because it was opposed by merchants and everyone else whose livelihood depended upon international trade.
Roger Williams
A personable and popular Salem minister who was a young man with radical ideas and an unrestrained tongue. An extreme Separatist, he hounded his fellow clergymen to make a clean break with the corrupt Church of England. He also challenged the legality of the Bay Colony’s charter, which he condemned for expropriating the land from the Indians without fair compensation. He also denied the authority of civil government to regulate religious behavior-a seditious blow at the Puritan idea of government’s very purpose.
Started Rhode Island
William Lloyd Garrison
1805-1879. Prominent American abolitionist, journalist and social reformer. Editor of radical abolitionist newspaper “The Liberator”, and one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
A reformer. A spiritual child of the Second Great Awakening, Garrison published in Boston the first issue of his militantly antislavery newspaper, The Liberator. With this, he triggered a thirty-year war of words and in a sense fired one of the opening barrages of the Civil War.
Horace Mann
As secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, he campaigned effectively for more and better schoolhouses, longer school terms, higher pay for teachers, and en expanded curriculum. His influence radiated out to other states, and impressive improvements were chalked up.
Sojourner Truth
A freed black woman in New York who fought tirelessly for black emancipation and women’s rights.
Walt Whitman
Highly romantic, emotional, and unconventional, he dispensed with titles, stanzas, rhymes, and at times even regular meter. He handled sex with shocking frankness.
Considered the quintessential American “common man”
James Fenimore Cooper
The first American novelist, as Washington Irving was the first general writer, to gain world fame and to make New World themes respectable. His novels had wide sale among Europeans, some of whom came to think all American people as born with tomahawk in hand.
First American novelist, meaning he used American themes.
Romanticism
A movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization
Transcendentalism
Literary and intellectual movement that emphasized individualism and self-reliance, predicated upon belief that each person possesses an “inner light” that can point the way to truth and and direct contact with God.
late 1830s
Freeport Doctrine
In a Douglas vs. Lincoln debate, this was Stephen Douglas’s said that slavery could be prevented from any territory by the refusal of the people living in that territory to pass laws favorable to slavery. Likewise, if the people of the territory supported slavery, legislation would provide for its continued existence. He didn’t want to go against the Supreme Court and say it couldn’t be continued into the territories but he also didn’t want to anger southerners.
The Triangular Trade
The trade route across the Atlantic Ocean that involved Europe, the Eastern coast of America, and Africa. African slaves were shipped over to the American colonies, where they worked on plantations and farms to produce tobacco and grain. These were then shipped to England and processed into fabrics and other goods which were traded to Africa for more slaves.
The pattern of trade that connected Europe, Africa, Asia, and the American continents. They traded rum, slaves, sugar, and tobacco .
+ West Inies and molasses
Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses Grant at…
The Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865
The Judiciary Act of 1789
Organized the federal legal system, establishing the Supreme Court, federal district and circuit courts, and the office of the attorney general.
Congress provided for a Supreme Court of six members and a system of lower district courts and courts of appeal, also giving the Supreme Court the power to make the final decisions in cases involving the constitution or state laws.
Alexander Hamilton’s Legislative Program
Promoted the Bank of the United States, assumption of Confederation and state debts, excise taxes, and manufacturing
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Defined the process by which new states could be admitted into the Union from the Northwest Territory. It forbade slavery in the territory but allowed citizens to vote on the legality of slavery once statehood had been established.
The Specie Circular of 1836
An executive order issued by U.S. President Andrew Jackson in 1836 and carried out by President Martin Van Buren. It required payment for government land to be in gold and silver.
U.S. treasury decree requiring that all public lands be purchased with “hard”, or metallic, currency. Issued after small state banks flooded the market with unreliable paper currency, fueling land speculation in the West.
Anne Bradstreet
The first published American poet
Phillis Wheatley
The first African American poet to be published.
House of Burgesses
The first lawmaking body in the English colonies
It was the representative assembly in Virginia. Election to a seat was limited to voting members of the charter colony, which at first was all free men; later rules required that a man own at least 50 acres of land to vote. It was the first representative house in America. It instituted private ownership of land and maintained the rights of the colonists.
Massachusetts General Court
Passed the first set of laws in the English colonies.
King Philip’s War
Series of assaults by Metacom, King Philip, on English settlements in New England. The attacks slowed the westward migration of New England settlers for several decades. The war inflicted a lasting defeat on New England’s Indians. Drastically reduced in numbers, dispirited, and disbanded, they thereafter posed only sporadic threats to the New England colonists.
Royal Colonies
Colonies that were under the direct control of the English crown
Proprietary Colonies
Colonies owned by persons who had been given a royal charter to own the land
Charter Colonies
Colonies based on a grant of land by the British Crown to a company or a group of settlers
Mercantilism
The theory that a country should sell more goods to other countries than it buys
Salutary Neglect
Unofficial policy of relaxed royal control over colonial trade and only weak enforcement of Navigation Laws. Lasted from the Glorious Revolution to the end of the French and Indian War in 1763.
Stamp Act of 1765
A stamp tax was a widely unpopular tax on an array of paper goods, repealed in 1766 after mass protests erupted across the colonies. Colonists developed the principle of “no taxation without representation” which questioned Parliament’s authority over the colonies and laid the foundation for future revolutionary claims.
Declaratory Act of 1766
Act passed in 1766 just after the repeal of the Stamp Act.
Stated that Parliament had the power to make laws binding on the colonies. Eg. taxes.
The Intolerable Acts
Series of punitive measures passed in 1774 retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, closing the Port of Boston, revoking a number of rights in the Massachusetts colonial charter, and expanding the Quartering Act to allow for the lodging of soldiers in private homes. In response, colonists converted the First Continental Congress and called for a complete boycott of British goods.
Quartering Act of 1765
Required colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops. Many colonists resented the act, which they perceived as an encroachment on their rights.
Townshend Acts of 1767
External, or indirect, levies on glass, white paper, lead, paint and tea, the proceeds of which were used to pay colonial governors, who had previously been paid directly by colonial assemblies. Sparked another round of protests in the colonies.
The Homestead Act
1862 - A federal law that gave settlers 160 acres of land for about $30 if they lived on it for five years and improved it by, for instance, building a house on it. The act helped make land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward-moving settlers, but many people also found disappointment when their land was infertile or they saw speculators grabbing up the best land.
A clear evidence of Lincoln’s democratic beliefs.
The vast majority of settlers returned East after failing as farmers.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
It would create 2 new territories to allow the government to build a railroad. It split Nebraska into the territories of Nebraska and Kansas and allowed for popular sovereignty there, thus nullifying the Missouri Compromise.
Benjamin Rush
Patriot and doctor; signer of the Declaration of Independence and strong supporter of the Constitution. He was the first to diagnose insanity as an illness and wrote curriculum for course in psychiatry.
Tenure of Office Act
Required the president to secure consent of the Senate before removing appointees once they had been approved
Copperheads
This was a group Northern Democrats who wanted Lincoln to negotiate peace with the South. They were so named because they identified themselves by showing the head of the copper penny.
The Trent Affair
- 2 Confederate diplomats slipped through the Union blockade near Cuba, where they boarded an English steamer, the Trent, set for England.
- The American frigate stopped the English vessel without authorization, arrested the diplomats, and carried them back to Boston.
- As a result, the British government demanded the release of the prisoners, reparations, and an apology.
Ostend Manifesto
A document drafted by three proslavery diplomats in support of buying Cuba from Spain to expand the United States’ slave territory
Secret Franklin Pierce administration proposal to purchase or, that failing, to wrest militarily Cuba from Spain. Once leaked, it was quickly abandoned due to vehement opposition from the North.
Attempt to buy Cuba from Spain for $20 million - not carried out. 1854. Pierce. “Young America.”
Stephen A Douglas
Politician from Illinois who supported popular sovereignty and basically destroyed his political career with the Freeport Doctrine. Strongly supported the compromise of 1850. Engineered different coalitions to pass each part of the compromise separately.
He longed to break the North-South deadlock over westward expansion and stretch a line a settlements across the continent. Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska scheme flatly contradicted the Missouri Compromise of 1820. President Pierce supported the bill. Douglas acted somewhat impulsively and recklessly. He did not care much one way or the other for slavery.
The Free Soil Party
Organized in 1848, this third party proposed the exclude slavery from federal territories and nominated former President Van Buren in the election that year. Most became Republicans.
Antislavery party in the 1848 and 1852 elections that opposed the extension of slavery into the territories, arguing that the presence of slavery would limit opportunities for free laborers.
The Know Nothing Party
Supported natural-born American opportunities and opposed immigration. When asked about the party they would say “I know nothing.”
Hudson River School
A well-known group of landscape painters in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Dorothea Dix
A physically frail woman afflicted with persistent lung trouble. She was dedicated to improving conditions for the mentally ill. She led movement to build new mental hospitals and improve existing ones.
New England teacher and author who was a pioneer in the movement for better treatment of the mentally ill
_____ were “The great equalizer” in American society
Public Schools
Treaty of Greenville
Under the terms of the treaty, the Miami Confederacy agreed to cede territory in the Old Northwest to the United States in exchange for cash payments, hunting rights, and formal recognition of their sovereign status.
Cleared the Ohio territory of Indian tribes upon General Anthony Wayne’s victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.
Panic of 1837
- destruction of 2nd Bank of US
- overextension of bank credit
- poor wheat crop
- Specie Circular of 1836 (by Jackson)
Van Buren inherited Jackson’s financial issues.
A world wide depression that began in the United States when one of the nation’s largest banks abruptly declared bankruptcy, leading to the collapse of thousands of banks and businesses. The crisis intensified debtors’ calls for inflationary measures such as the printing of more paper money and the unlimited coinage of silver. Conflicts over monetary policy greatly influenced politics in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
John Jay
First Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court
Wrote 5 of the Federalist papers
He perceived that the French could not satisfy the conflicting ambitions of both Americans and Spaniards. He saw signs indicating that the Paris foreign office was about to betray America’s trans-Appalachian interests to satisfy those of Spain. He therefore secretly made separate overtures to London, contrary to his instructions from Congress. The hard-pressed British, eager to entice one of their enemies from the alliance, speedily came to terms with the Americans.
First Amendment
Freedoms: speech, press, religion, assembly, petition.
Second Amendment
Right to bear arms.
Third Amendment
No forced quartering of soldiers in private homes.
Fourth Amendment
No search and seizure without a search warrant.
“Don’t come through my door, I’m protected by the four.”
Fifth Amendment
- No double jeopardy.
- Can not be forced to be witness against himself/herself. 3. Right to due process of law.
- No property taken without fair compensation.
Sixth Amendment
Confirms the accused right to a quick and public trial, right to be faced by accusing witnesses, and right to be represented by a lawyer.
Seventh Amendment
Civil trial by jury.
Eight Amendment
Prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail or fines.
Ninth Amendment
Safety net - rights not listed are retained by the people.
Tenth Amendment
All powers not given to the fed gov default to the states.
Eleventh Amendment
States may not be sued by individuals.
Twelfth Amendment
Election procedures for president and vice president.
Thirteenth Amendment
Abolished slavery (1865).
Fourteenth Amendment
1868-made “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” citizens of the country. All former Confederate supporters were prohibited from holding office in the U.S.
Fifteenth Amendment
Extended voting rights to blacks.
Sixteenth Amendment
Legalized the income tax.
Seventeenth Amendment
Direct election of senators.
Eighteenth Amendment
Prohibition of alcohol.
Nineteenth Amendment
Voting rights for women.
Twentieth Amendment
Inauguration changed from March to January.
Twenty-first Amendment
Nulls the prohibition.
Twenty-second Amendment
Limits the president to two terms in office.
Twenty-third Amendment
Electoral votes extended to Washington D.C.
Twenty-fourth Amendment
Prohibited poll taxes.
Twenty-fifth Amendment
Defines the process of presidential succession.
Twenty-sixth Amendment
Voting rights to 18-year-olds.
Twenty-seventh Amendment
Congress can’t give itself a pay raise.
Lousiana Purchase
1803 event that DOUBLES size of U.S. - - - Thomas Jefferson = President (from FRENCH for 15 million)
Guaranteed Wester farmers access to the Mississippi River as an avenue of trade.
Presented Jefferson with a constitutional dilemma since he was a “strict” constitutionist.
Gave the US control of the port of New Orleans.
Essex Junto
A group of New England Federalists who wanted to secede from the U.S. because they thought northern states would have less power after the Louisiana Purchase. Aaron Burr supported.
Burr Conspiracy
After Burr killed Hamilton and fled, he and James Wilkerson planned to take over the LA Purchase and start a new country. Wilkerson backed out and told Jefferson. Burr was tried for treason but acquitted.
Non-intercourse Act and Macon’s Bill No. 2
Opened trade with all nations except France and Britain, later gave the president power to prohibit trade with any nation that violated our neutrality.
War of 1812
“America’s Second War for Independence” against Britain. Started because of Britain’s wars with Napoleon, The Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts, the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, and Britain instigating the Indians.
Under James Madison.
Treaty of Ghent
Treaty that ended the War of 1812. British and Americans return to pre-war status quo. Christmas Eve 1814
George Washington
1789-1797
Federalist
VP: John Adams
1st President
Supported the 1st Bank of the United States
Served 2 Terms
John Adams
1797-1801
Federalist
VP: Thomas Jefferson
Federalist Sedition Acts Alien Laws XYZ Affair Served 1 Term
Thomas Jefferson
1801-1809
Democratic-Republican
VP: Aaron Burr, George Clinton
Democratic-Republican (Jeffersonian) Embargo Act - Non-Intercourse Act Wanted Small Military John Marshall Louisiana Purchase James Monroe, Robert Livingston Meriwether Lewis, William Clark Served 2 Terms
He was a delegate from Virginia at the Second Continental Congress and wrote the Declaration of Independence and he later served as the third President of the United States.
“We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. One heart, one mind, common good.” Party strife should be forgotten once the will of the people has been expressed in election.
James Madison
1809-1817 Democratic-Republican VP: George Clinton, Eldbridge Gerry Democratic-Republican Macon's Bill No. 2 War of 1812 - Treaty of Ghent (1814) Tariff of 1816 Rejected Nationally-Funded Roads Served 2 Terms
“The Father of the Constitution.” Talented politician sent to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. His notable contributions to the Constitution helped to convince the public to ratify it.
James Monroe
1817-1825
Democratic-Republican
VP: Daniel D. Tompkins
He was nominated for the presidency in 1816 by the Republicans. He was an intellect and personal force the least distinguished of the first eight presidents. Monroe was an experienced, levelheaded executive, with an ear-to-the-ground talent for interpreting popular rumblings. Era of Good Feelings.
John Quincy Adams
1825-1829
Democratic-Republican
VP: John C. Calhoun
He ranks as one of the most successful secretaries of state, yet one of the least successful presidents. Fewer than one third of the voters had voted for him. He did not possess many of the usual arts of the politician and scorned those who did. He had achieved high office by commanding respect rather than by courting popularity. In an earlier era, and aloof John Adams had won the votes of propertied men by sheer ability. During his entire administration he removed only 12 public servants from the federal payroll. Adam’s nationalistic views gave him further woes. Adam’s land policy antagonized westerners.
He was the sun of John Adams. He headed a group of five men who were peacemakers that were sent to the quaint Belgian city of Ghent in 1814.
Andrew Jackson
1829-1837 Democratic VP: John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren Reliant on: -the veto -the "kitchen cabinet" -the spoils system -public opinion
He ran in the 1824 election. Military Hero. He lost to John Quincy Adam’s even though he won popular vote because Henry Clay was not a fan of him at all.
The seventh President of the United States and who as a general in the War of 1812 defeated the British at New Orleans.
Martin Van Buren
1837-1841
Democratic
VP: Richard M. Johnson
Democratic Divorce Bill Independent Treasury Bill His delayed actions to end the Panic of 1837 caused the economic downturn to continue for many years. Served 1 Term
Jackson’s vice president who was appointed as Jackson’s successor in 1836. Van Buren was supported by the Jacksonites without wild enthusiasm, even though he had promised to tread generally in the military booted footsteps of his predecessor. He became the eighth president and was the first to be born under the American flag. He was resented by many Democrats.
William Henry Harrison
1841
Whig
VP: John Tyler
Whigs wanted him to run for office, they thought he would be able to generate many votes. He was known for his successes against Indians and the British at the Battle of Tippecanoe and the Thames. Harrison’s views on current issues were only vaguely known. He was nominated primarily because he was issueless and enemyless.
Died of pneumonia 31 days into term, first president to die in office
John Tyler
1841-1845 Whig VP: NONE State's rights Southerner Strict Constitutionalist Whig in name-only Expelled from the Whig party, attempted impeachment
First president to have veto overridden by Congress.
He could not stand the dictatorial tactics of Jackson. “Democrat in Whig clothing.” Tyler had been put on the ticket partly to attract the vote of this fringe group, many of whom were influential southern gentry. He hated a centralized bank. He received numerous letters threatening him with death. His entire cabinet resigned in a body. He was also formally expelled from his party.
James K. Polk
1845-1849 Democratic VP: George M. Dallas Staunch Jacksonian Low revenue-only tariff
Democrat
Oregon Country w/Britain
Mexican-American War
Served 1 Term
From Tennessee. America’s first “surprise” candidate. Speaker of the House of Representatives for four years and governor of Tennessee for two terms, he was determined, industrious, ruthless, and an intelligent public servant. Friends with Andrew Jackson. He was hated by the Whigs.
Zachary Taylor
1849-1850 Whig VP: Millard Fillmore Underground Railroad Gold Rush Congressional Debate of 1850 Died in Office on July 9, 1850 Served 1 Term**
Under the orders of Polk, Taylor led four thousand men to march from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande, provocatively near Mexican forces. He thought Mexico would react and fighting would occur but when it did not he declared war. “Old Rough and Ready.”
Mexican American War Hero
Priority of upholding the Union
Millard Fillmore
1850-1853
Whig
VP: NONE
Franklin Pierce
1853-1857
Democratic
VP: William R. King
"Young America" Expansionist Cuba/Nicaragua Transcontinental Railroad Kansas-Nebraska Act Lecompton Constitution with Kansas Served 1 Term
An unrenowned lawyer-politician. He was a weak and indecisive figure. He was a prosouthern northerner and was acceptable to the slavery wing of the Democratic party. His platform revived the Democrats’ commitment to territorial expansion as pursued by President Polk and emphatically endorsed the Compromise of 1850.
James Buchanan
1857-1861 Democratic VP: John C Breckinridge Dred Scott Case Panic of 1857 John Brown Served 1 Term
Chosen by the Democrats to run for president. He had been serving as a minister in London during the recent Kansas-Nebraska uproar. He was therefore Kansas-less and hence relatively enemy-less.
Abraham Lincoln
1861-1865
Republican
VP: Hannibal Hamlin, Andrew Johnson
ONLY gathered 40% of the popular vote, but won with electoral majority.
One of the most skillful politicians in Republican party. Lawyer. He gained national exposure by debates with Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln’s attacks on slavery made him nationally known. He thought slavery was very wrong. He felt there was not an alternative to slavery and blacks were not prepared to live on equal terms as whites. He won the presidency in November election.
Andrew Johnson
1865-1869 Republican, War Democrat VP: NONE IMPEACHED and came within one vote of being removed from office. Tenure of Office Act violated. Civil War
A loyal War Democrat from Tennessee who had been a small slaveowner when the conflict began. He was placed on the Union Party ticket to “sew up” the election by attracting War Democrats and the voters in the Border States and with no proper regard for the possibility that Lincoln might die in office.
Ulysses S. Grant
1869-1877
Republican
VP: Schuyler Colfax, Henry Wilson
Republican Political Corruption i. Credit Mobilier Scandal Panic of 1873 Served 2 Terms
General of the Union army who successfully lead the Union to many victories over the Confederacy. He trained at West Point and he proved to be a better General than president.
Ruthorford B. Hayes
1877-1881
Republican
VP: William A. Wheeler
Republican candidate who was obscure enough to be dubbed “The Great Unknown.” His foremost qualification was the fact that he hailed from the electorally doubtful but potent state of Ohio, where he had served three terms as governor.
Adams-Onis Treaty
Treaty of 1819
Florida Purchase Treaty.
Under the agreement, Spain ceded Florida to the United States, which, in exchange, abandoned its claims to Texas.
Preemption Act
Squatters get first dibs on unsurveyed federal lands, at low prices.
Oregon Treaty
Signed with Great Britain in 1846, allowing the US to acquire peacefully what is now Oregon, Washington, and parts of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.
Under POLK
Townshend Duties of 1767
Charles Townshend’s chance to prove that he could successfully tax the colonies - occurred BEFORE the Boston Massacre.
John C. Calhoun
Leader in the state’s rights movement and believed states could secede whenever they wanted to.
After 1830, his views evolved and he became a greater proponent of states’ rights, limited government, nullification and free trade; as he saw these means as the only way to preserve the Union. He is best known for his intense and original defense of slavery as something positive, his distrust of majoritarianism, and for pointing the South toward secession from the Union.
One of the few topflight political theorists ever produced by America. He was a South Carolinian educated at Yale. Beginning as a strong nationalist and Unionist, he reserved himself and became the ablest of the sectionalists and disunionists in defense of the south and slavery. As a foremost nullifier, he died trying to reconcile strong states’ rights with a strong Union. In his last years, he advocated a Siamese-twin “dual presidency”, probably unworkable, with one president for the north and one for the south. His former plantation home is now the site of Clemson University.
Henry Clay and Daniel Webster
Upholders of the Union.
The Compromise of 1850
Admitted California as a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law. Widely opposed in both the North and the South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery.
Henry Clay
- Cali admitted as a free state.
- NM and UT decided by pop sovereignty
- slave trade abolished in D.C., but not slavery itself
- Fugitive Slave Law
- Texas’ debt paid
- Congress declares NO jurisdiction over the interstate slave trade
Roger Sherman
Came up with the Great Compromise at the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia 1788.
Federalist
Favored strong national government; supported Constitution.
Examples: Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison
Jay Treaty
Treaty w/ British to attempt to settle the conflict at sea. Failed.
1794
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
In 1828 the Georgia legislature declared the Cherokee tribal council illegal and asserted its own jurisdiction over Indian affairs and Indian lands. The Cherokees appealed this move to the Supreme Court, which thrice upheld the rights of the Indians. Chief Justice Marshall rejected the Cherokee nation’s argument that they existed as a “nation within a nation”, but ruled that they could not be legally removed from their lands.
But President Jackson, who clearly wanted to open Indian lands to white settlement, refused to recognize the Court’s decision. “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” The remaining tribes beyond the Mississippi were removed. Jackson said that the Indians could preserve their native cultures in the West.
Market Economy (1820)
The rise of commercial agriculture. Reform Movements of the 1830's -Temperance -Revivalism -Women's Rights -Education
NOT LABOR UNIONS
Antifederalist critique
- lack of a written Bill of Rights
- lack of a popular vote for presidency
- powers of the Supreme Court
- large territory of the US
Stanley Elkins
Published the controversial “Slavery” in 1960, viewing slavery as crushing African-Americans into a “sambo personality.”
George Fitzhugh
1850s - most ardent defender of Southern slavery as a “positive good.”
Dred Scott Decision (1857)
Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that the Missouri Compromise (fed regulation of slavery) was unconstitutional. Scott is property and therefore cannot sue.
Supreme Court decision that extended federal protection to slavery by ruling that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory. Also declared that slaves, as property, were not citizens of the United States.
Missouri Compromise
Over the issue of slavery in Missouri. It was decided Missouri entered as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state and all states North of the 36th parallel were free states and all South were slave states.
Allowed Missouri to enter as a slave state but preserved the balance between North and South by carving free-soil Maine out of Massachusetts and prohibiting slavery from territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, north of the line of 36˚30’.
Emancipation Proclamation
Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States. The Proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee the Union lines.
Issued by Lincoln in Jan 1863, but did not actually free any slaves because it only applied to the territories “in rebellion against the US”, which Lincoln had no authority over.
Slaves were officially freed nationwide with the 13th Amendment in 1865.
Articles of the Confederation
First American constitution passed in 1777 which created a loose alliance of 13 independent states. Weak central government. Later, the Confederate States modeled after this.
Unicameral.
Northern Reconstruction
Major failure: inability to provide economic independence to ex-slaves.
Know-Nothing Party
Anti-Catholic and Anti-Foreign. 1855
“Nativists” who were anti-foreigner. The created a party named for its secretiveness, and in 1856 nominated the lackluster ex president Millard Fillmore. “Americans must rule America. They threatened to cut into Republican strength.
Nativist political party, also known as the American party, which emerged in response to an influx of immigrants, particularly Irish Catholics.
Roger Williams
A dissenter who clashed with the Massachusetts Puritans over SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE and was banished in 1636, after which he founded the colony of Rhode Island to the south.
Middle Colonies
Delaware
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania
French and Indian War
Nine-year war between the British and the French in North America. It resulted in the expulsion of the French from the North American mainland and helped spark the Seven Years’ War in Europe.
Key British victory: Louisburg
1754-63
Transferred Canada from France to Britain.
AKA Seven Year’s War
Middle Passage
Transatlantic voyage slaves endured between Africa and the colonies. Mortality rates were notoriously high. Terrified survivors were eventually shoved onto auction blocks in New World ports like Newport, Rhode Island, or Charleston, South Carolina, where a giant slave market traded in human misery for more than a century.
Nathaniel Greene
A quaker-reared tactician who distinguished himself by his strategy of delay. Standing and then retreating, he exhausted his foe, General Charles Cornwallis, in vain pursuit. By losing battles but winning campaigns, the “Fighting Quaker” finally succeeded in clearing the most of Georgia and South Carolina of British troops.
Constitutional Convention
A meeting in Philadelphia in 1787 that produced a new constitution.
Alexander Hamilton
Thirty-one years old and from New York. He brilliantly saved the convention form complete failure by engineering the adoption of his report. It called upon Congress to summon a convention to meet in Philadelphia the next year, not to deal with commerce alone, but to bolster the entire fabric of the Articles of Confederation.
"Report on Public Credit" - assume the state debts. First Bank of US Founder of Federalist party. Huge proponent of the Constitution Friendly trade relations with British.
American System
Economic program advanced by Henry Clay that included support for a national bank, high tariffs, and internal improvements; emphasized strong role for federal government in the economy.
Henry Clay’s three-pronged system to promote American industry. Clay advocated a strong banking system, a protective tariff, and a federally funded transportation network.
Tenure of Office Act
1867 - Proposed by Radical Republicans in Congress, it forbade the president from removing civil officers without consent of the Senate. It was meant to prevent Johnson from removing Radicals from office. Johnson broke this law when he fired a Radical Republican from his cabinet, and he was impeached for this “crime”.
Civil War
1861-1865
Reconstruction
Lincoln and Johnson - saw the Civil War as a rebellion of individuals and stressed presidential pardon.
Radical Republicans - the South is conquered provinces or unorganized territory and believed that Congress had power over reconstruction.
Southern states - passed the Black Codes.
Johnson’s Plan
- Recommending that the vote be extended to freed slaves.
- Required ratification of the 13th amendment.
- Required renunciation of secession.
- Required repudiation of the Confederate debt.
American Renaissance
A burst of American literature during the 1840s, highlighted by the novels of Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne; the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller; and the poetry of Walt Whitman. Emphasized emotion and inner feeling and created a more democratic literature, accessible to everyone. Women also contributed literary works.
Virginia
Founded as a joint-stock company in 1607.
Panic of 1857
Over-speculation in railroad stocks. James Buchanan.
Financial crash brought on by gold-fueled inflation, overspeculation in railroad stocks, and excess grain production. Raised calls in the North for higher tariffs and for free homesteads on western public lands.
Treaty of Paris 1763
Spanish obtained New Orleans and Louisiana.
Ended the French and Indian War.
Treaty of Ghent
Ended the War of 1812. Restoration of territory taken during the war.
Following…disarmament of the Great Lakes.
Iroquois Confederation
The Iroquois Confederation developed the political and organization skills to sustain a robust military alliance that menaced its neighbors, Native American and European alike, for well over a century. The Iroquois were one of the greatest empires in North America.
Mohawk Valley of what is now New York
Formed in 1500s: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk. NOT SIOUX.
Samuel Adams
A second cousin of John Adams, he contributed a potent pen and tongue to the American Revolution as a political agitator and organizer of the rebellion. He was the leading spirit in hosting the Boston Tea Party. A failure in the brewing business, he was sent by Massachusetts to the First Colonial Congress of 1774. He signed the Declaration of Independence and served in Congress until 1781.
Declaration of Independence
Formal pronouncement of independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and approved by Congress. The declaration allowed Americans to appeal for foreign aid and served as an inspiration for later revolutionary movements worldwide.
1776
1) Reasons for separation
2) A theory of government
3) Announcement of the state of war
Jay Treaty (1794)
Evacuation of English troops from their posts along the Great Lakes. Facilitating peaceful trade w/ the British even in the midst of the French Revolution.
XYZ Affair
Led to the Quasi-War of 1798-99. Undeclared. No trade with French, and authorization to attack and capture armed French vessels.
Diplomatic conflict between France and the United States when American envoys to France were asked to pay a hefty bribe for the privilege of meeting with the French foreign minister. Many in the U.S. called for war against France, while American sailors and privateers waged an undeclared war against French merchants in the Caribbean.
Aaron Burr
VP between 1801 and 1804
Involved in a conspiracy to separate the western states from the Union.
Nicholas Biddle
President of the Second Bank of the United States.
He held an immense amount of power over the nation’s financial affairs. He was arrogant and he and the Bank of the United States were hated by many. The bank was a private institution, accountable not to the people, but to its elite circle of money investors.
Four Early Wars of the Empire
1) King William’s War (1689-97) no major territorial changes
2) Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) sporadic fighting against Spain and France. Ended with the Treaty of Utrecht, which gave Britain major territorial gains and trade advantages.
3) King George’s War (1739) - US accompanied British on several expeditions
4) American capture of Louisbourg in 1745, but was given back to France in exchange for land in India.
Early Explorers
Francisco Coronado
Robert La Selle
Samuel de Champlain
Jacques Marquette
Gold Rushes
California: 1849
Colorado + Nevada: 1859
South Dakota: 1874
Alaska: 1880 + 1896
Unitarianism
Most influential of the organized religious philosophies produced by 18th century rationalism and humanism.
Alien and Sedition Acts
1798 - Law passed during John Adam’s presidency. Later deemed unconstitutional.
1) Increased residency requirement from 5-14 years.
2) Allowed president to deport aliens who were “dangerous”.
3) Restricted speech which was critical of the federal gov.
Republican response: Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
Hartford Convention
Federalists. 1814
Primary goal= to assert a doctrine of STATE’S RIGHTS.
Demanded a series of constitutional amendments.
1) Require a 2/3 vote of Congress to declare war, impose commercial restrictions, and admit new states
2) Omit slaves from the census used to apportion representation in Congress
3) Restrict presidents to a single term and prohibit successive presidents from the same state.
Convention of the Federalists from five New England states who opposed the War of 1812 and resented the strength of Southern and Western interests in Congress and in the White House.
John Peter Zenger/Zenger decision
A newspaper printer. The Zenger trial arose in New York, reflecting the tumultuous gave-and-take of politics in the middle colonies, where so many different ethnic groups jostled against one another. Charged with seditious libel, the accused was hauled into court, where he was defended by a former indentured servant, now a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, Andrew Hamilton. Zenger argued that he printed the truth, but the bewigged royal chief justice instructed the jury not to consider the truth or falsity of Zenger’s statements; the mere fact of printing, irrespectible of the truth, was enough to convict.
Daniel Webster
All about keeping the union together.
Premier orator and statesman, Webster served many years in both houses of Congress and also as secretary of state. Often regarded as presidential timber, he was somewhat handicapped by an overfondness for good food and drink and was frequently in financial difficulties. His devotion to the Union was inflexible. “One country, one constitution, and one destiny,” he proclaimed in 1837. He expounded his Federalistic and nationalistic philosophy before the supreme bench.
Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842
Daniel Webster’s last hurrah before resigning from the Tyler cabinet. Compromise and forbearance brought to US - British relations.
Was concerned in part with joint Anglo-American efforts to suppress the African slave trade.
Helped create an atmosphere of compromise and forbearance in US-British relations.
1) Canada-Maine boundary settled.
2) British apologized for destruction of the Caroline.
3) British promised to avoid interference in freeing slaves.
4) Cooperation in patrolling the African coast to prevent slave-smuggling.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
- Stephen Douglas’ bill. Reopened the intense sectional controversy over the question of slavery in the territories.
Missouri Compromise repealed. Outrage in the North.
Popular sovereignty granted to both states. Corruption in influx of pro-south individuals to skew the results. Guerrilla warfare ensued.
Rotation in Office
Andrew Jackson.
1) A man should serve a term in office then return to the status of private citizen.
2) Men who held office too long became corrupted by power.
3) Political appointments by newly elected officials promoted democracy.
Quebec Act
Allowed the French residents of Quebec to retain their traditional political and religious institutions, and extended the boundaries of the province southward to the Ohio River. Mistakenly perceived by the colonists to be part of Parliament’s response to the Boston Tea Party.
Extended region of Quebec to the Ohio River.
Established Roman Catholicism as the religion.
Americans = not happy.
Linked with the Coercive Act to become the Intolerable acts.
1774
Reasons for Western European Expansion
Desire to break the monopoly of the Italian states on trade with Asia.
Advances in navigational knowledge and ship design.
Emergence of nation-states.
Ideology of superiority for Europeans and inferiority for other peoples.
Mercantilism
Goal= to limit foreign imports and to encourage a favorable balance of trade.
The pursuit of economic power through national self-sufficiency.
Marbury v. Madison
(1803) Marbury was a midnight appointee of the Adams administration and sued Madison for commission. Chief Justice Marshall said the law that gave the courts the power to rule over this issue was unconstitutional. Supreme court had power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.
Henry Clay
Ran for president but was not in the top three, but because he was Speaker of the House, he presided over the very chamber that had to pick the winner. He was in a position to throw the election to the candidate of his choice. He had much in common politically with Adams and so Clay supported him.
“We prefer war to the putrescent pool of ignominious peace.” during the War of 1812
“War Hawks”
Senator who persuaded Congress to accept the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Maine into the Union as a free state, and Missouri as a slave state.
Era of Good Feelings
A name for President MONROE’s two terms, a period of strong nationalism, economic growth, and territorial expansion. Since the Federalist party dissolved after the War of 1812, there was only one political party and no partisan conflicts.
Shattered by the Missouri Compromise.
The term obscures bitter conflicts over internal improvements, slavery, and the national bank.
1820-1850
Population surged from 9 mil to 23 mil.
Ideal American Family in the 1820’s
Home served as a refuge from the hostile world.
Children = center.
Separate spheres for men and women.
Mother primarily responsible for raising children.
American Colonization Society
Reflecting the focus of early abolitionists on transporting freed blacks back to Africa, the organization established Liberia, a West-African settlement intended as a haven for emancipated slaves.
Antislavery.
Advocated the forced shipment of freed slaves to Africa.
Formed by Benjamin Lundy.
Largely Christian ministers, believed slavery was morally wrong, but still extremely racist.
Wanted no black men on American soil.
Secret Six
Financial supporters of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859.
Stamp Act Congress of 1765
The stamp Act Congress was an assembly of delegates from nine colonies who met in New York City to draft a petition for the repeal of the Stamp Act. Helped ease sectional suspicions and promote intercolonial unity.
Popular Sovereignty
Lewis Cass originated the idea. Favorite policy of Democrats. Central in the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Championed by Stephen Douglas. NOT successful in solving the impasse over status of slavery in territories.
Notion that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery. Seemingly a compromise, it was largely opposed by Northern abolitionists who feared it would promote the spread of slavery to the territories.
Bacon’s Rebellion
Led by Nathaniel Bacon.
Uprising of Virginia backcountry farmers and indentured servants led by planter Nathaniel Bacon; initially a response to Governor William Berkley’s refusal to protect backcountry settlers from Indian attacks, the rebellion eventually grew into a broader conflict between impoverished settlers and the planter elite. The rebellion was suppressed, but the tensions remained.
Newburgh Conspiracy
The use of the Continental Army to create a more centralized Union of the States.
Wilmot Proviso
Amendment that sought to prohibit slavery from territories acquired from Mexico. Introduced in 1846 by Pennsylvania congressman David Wilmont, the failed amendment ratcheted up tensions between North and South over the issue of slavery.
Whigs turned on President John Tyler because…??
He opposed their entire legislative program.
Mexican War
American desire for Cali.
Mexican failure to pay debts.
US annexation of Texas.
Disputed Texas border.
Jamestown
The first permanent English settlement in North America founded by the Virginia Company. Forty colonists perished in the initial voyage there. Once ashore settlers died form various diseases. Captain John Smith took over the town in 1608.
Primary motive - economic gain.
Ten Percent Plan
1863, when 10 percent of the voters of a state took an oath of loyalty to the Union, the State could form a government and adopt a new constitution that banned slavery.
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Barred slavery from the territories.
Creation of the NW territory - first organized territory of the US.
AKA Freedom Ordinance.
Whig Party
An American political party formed in the 1830s to OPPOSE ANDREW JACKSON and the Democrats, stood for protective tariffs, NATIONAL BANKING, and federal aid for internal improvements.
- opposed tyranny
- promoted rapid economic and industrial growth
- proposed prohibition
- created public schools and colleges
“Opposition to the monarchy”. The Whigs first emerged as a identifiable group in the Senate where Clay, Webster and Calhoun joined forces in 1834 to pass a motion censuring Jackson for his single-handed removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. The Whigs evolved into a potent national political force by attracting other groups alienated by Jackson. Whigs thought of themselves as conservatives, yet they were progressive in their support of active government programs and reforms.
Thomas Paine
Radical author. Wrote the pamphlet Common Sense. , which turned people towards the American Revolution. He began his incendiary tract with a treatise on the nature of government and eloquently anticipated Thomas Jefferson’s declaration that the only lawful states were those that derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
“These are the times that try men’s souls.”
Denounced monarchy.
Benjamin Franklin
American intellectual, inventor, and politician He helped to negotiate French support for the American Revolution.
Often called “the first civilized American”. He was best known to his contemporaries for Poor Richard’s Almanack which he edited from 1732 or 1758. Ben Franklin was perhaps the only first-rank scientist produced in the American colonies. Franklin’s spectacular but dangerous experiments, including the famous kite-flying episode proving that lighting was a form of electricity, won him numerous honors in Europe. Among his numerous inventions were bifocal spectacles and the highly efficient Franklin stove.
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Battle of Antietam
(1862) a Union victory in the Civil War that marked the bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. military history.
September 1862, Landmark battle in the Civil War that essentially ended in a draw but demonstrated the prowess of the Union army, forestalling foreign intervention and giving Lincoln the “victory” he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
Francis Willard
American educator, temperance reformer, and suffragist.
Influenced the passing of the 18th and 19th amendments.
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
Ended the Mexican-American War in 1848, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million.
Mexico agreed to cede territory reaching northwest from Texas to Oregon in exchange for $18.25 million in cash and assumed debts.
Battle of San Jacinto
(1836) Final battle of the Texas Revolution; resulted in the defeat of the Mexican army and independence for Texas.
Grimke Sisters
19th-century American Quakers, educators and writers who were early advocates of abolitionism and women’s rights and civil rights. South Carolina.
King Cotton
Slogan used by the southerners to support succession.
Antebellum
Before the Civil War.
Minstrel shows were popular then.
Slave states that did NOT secede
Border states:
Kentucky, Delaware, Missouri, and Maryland.
Think, “Miss Mary Kendel.”
Pueblo Revolt (Popé’s Rebellion)
1680 - Uprising of the Pueblo people against the Spaniards. Caused in part by famine and also Spaniard intolerance of the native religion.
Catholic mission became the became the central institution in colonial New Mexico until the missionaries’ efforts to suppress native religious customs provoked and Indian uprising called Pope’s Rebellion in 1680. The Pueblo rebels destroyed every Catholic church in the province and killed a score of priests and hundreds of Spanish settlers. In a reversal of Cortes’s treatment of Aztec temples, more than a century earlier, the Indians rebuilt a kiva, or ceremonial religious chamber, on the ruins of the Spanish plaza at Santa Fe.
Hopewell Indians
Built burial mounds to worship their dead. Hunters and farmers.
The second group of Indians that settled in Michigan; also called the Moundbuilders.
Major Civil War Battles
Bull Run - Confederate victory. First major battle. July 1861
Battle of Shiloh - Union victory. Under Grant. Bloodiest.
Chancellorsville - Confederate victory. Stonewall Jackson accidentally shot. Added to rising hope in the South.
Gettysburg - Union victory. Longest battle of the war (3 days)
Fall of Atlanta - Sherman took Atlanta.
Sherman’s Burning - Destruction north through until Savannah, GA and planned to continue on to VA.
Appomattox - Lee surrenders to Grant at the Courthouse. April 1865
Custer’s Last Stand
Great Sioux War of 1876. Overwhelming defeat for the 7th Cavalry. Battle of Little Bighorn against the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes.
Senate must ratify treaties…
…after negotiation by the president.
Native American Population in 1492
80-100 million.
1700’s population Doubled every 25 years.
William Bradford
A Pilgrim, the second governor of the Plymouth colony, 1621-1657. He developed private land ownership and helped colonists get out of debt. He helped the colony survive droughts, crop failures, and Indian attacks.
Yorktown
(1781) British general Cornwallis surrenders here to American and French forces; initiates the Treaty of Paris, 1783: recognition of American Independence and gives Americans control of western territory.
Shot heard around the world.
Phrase given to the shots fired at Lexington and Concord, MA, the first battles between the colonial minutemen and the British in the Revolutionary War
First Bank of US
1791 by Hamilton. had power to issue notes, make loans and had profits. However, did not survive. Joint private-public.
Patroons
Wealthy landowners in the New Netherlands who got large estates by bringing 50 settlers.
Habeus Corpus
Cannot hold a prisoner without just cause. ONLY Congress can suspend.
Great Compromise
Popular term for the measure which reconciled the New Jersey and Virginia plans at the constitutional convention, giving states proportional representation in the House and equal representation in the Senate. The compromise broke the stalemate at the convention and paved the way for subsequent compromises over slavery and the Electoral College.
Bicameral. ROGER SHERMAN
Judiciary Act
1789
- 6 judge Supreme Court
- 13 district courts
- 3 circuit courts
- office of attorney general
- Supreme Court gets power to review state laws when in conflict with federal statues.
Salutatory Neglect
A hands-off policy of England toward its American colonies during the first half of the 1700’s. Did not enforce the Navigation Acts.
Navigation Acts
YOU WILL ONLY TRADE WITH ENGLAND. 1651
Laws that governed trade between England and its colonies. Colonists were required to ship certain products exclusively to England. These acts made colonists very angry because they were forbidden from trading with other countries.
Series of laws passed , beginning in 1651, to regulate colonial shipping; the acts provided that only English ships would be allowed to trade in English and colonial ports, and that all goods destined for the colonies would first pass through England. Those laws reflected the intensifying colonial rivalries of the seventeenth century.
Proclamation of 1763
Decree issued by Parliament in the wake of Pontiac’s uprising
NO SETTLING WEST OF THE APPALACHIANS. Come back home if you’re already there.
McGuffy Readers
Series of 4 readers emphasized spelling, vocab, and public speaking.
1836-1870 these were used by schools to expose children to a common curriculum that preached honesty, industry (hard work), and patriotism.
Immigrants
Germans in the rural Midwest.
Irish in East Coast cities.
Dorothea Dix
American activist on behalf of the mentally insane. Helped create first asylums. Superintendent of the Army nurses during the Civil War.
Noah Webster
A Yale-educated Connecticut Yankee who was known as the “Schoolmaster of the Republic.” His “reading lessons,” used by millions of children in the nineteenth century, were partly designed to promote patriotism. Webster devoted many years to his famous dictionary, published in 1828, which helped to standardize the American language.
Blue backed speller?
Redeemers
White Democrats that reassumed political power in the South and exercised it ruthlessly. Blacks who tried to assert their rights faced unemployment, eviction, and physical harm.
Sought to oust the Republican coalition of freedmen, carpetbaggers, and scalawags.
Carpetbaggers
A northerner who went to the South immediately after the Civil War; especially one who tried to gain political advantage or other advantages from the disorganized situation in southern states.
Scalawags
A derogatory term for Southerners who were working with the North to buy up land from desperate Southerners.
Jacksonian Elections
Democratic and Republican parties came about.
1828
Corrupt Bargain of 1824
Alleged deal between presidential candidates John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay to throw the election, to be decided by the House of Representatives, in Adams’ favor. Though never proven, the accusation became the rallying cry for supporters of Andrew Jackson, who had actually garnered a plurality of the popular vote in 1824.
William Crawford
He was originally from Georgia. Crawford ran in the 1824 election representing the south. He was forced to drop out of the race because he had a stroke.
Samuel Swartwout
Despite ample warnings of untrustworthiness, was awarded the lucrative post of collector of the customs of the port of New York. Nearly nine years later, he “Swartwouted out” for England, leaving his accountants more than a million dollars short-the first person to steal a million from the Washington government.
Tariff of 1828 (of Abominations)
Noteworthy for its unprecedentedly high duties on imports. Southerners vehemently opposed the tariff, arguing that it hurt southern farmers, who did not enjoy the protection of tariffs, but were forced to pay higher prices for manufactures.
Denmark Vesey/ Stono Rebellion
Southerners were distressed by possible federal interference with the institution of slavery. Denmark Vesey, a free black man, led an aborted slave rebellion in Charleston in 1822.
Tariff of 1832
It pared away the worst “abominations” of 1828, but it was still frankly protective and fell short of meeting southerners demands. Worse yet, to many southerners it had a disquieting air of permanence.
Tariff of 1833
Passed as a measure to resolve the nullification crisis, it provided that tariffs be lowered gradually, over a period of ten years, to 1816 levels.
The Force Bill
Passed by Congress alongside the Compromise Tariff, it authorized the president to use the military to collect federal tariff duties.
Society for Propagating the Gospel Among Indians
it was founded in 1787 as a means for civilizing and christianizing the Indians. Many denominations sent missionaries to Indian villages.
Five Civilized Tribes
Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles sided with the Confederacy. They were called civilized because they fought to keep slaves and they supplied the South with troops.
Indian Removal Act of 1830
Ordered the removal of Indian tribes still residing east of the Mississippi to newly established Indian Territory west of Arkansas and Missouri. Tribes resisting eviction were forcibly removed by American forces, often after prolonged legal or military battles.
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Government agency created in the 1800s to oversee federal policy toward Native Americans, to manage the Indian removal.
Trail of Tears
Forced march of 15,000 Cherokee Indians from their Georgia and Alabama homes to Indian territory. Some 4,000 Cherokee died on the arduous journey.
Seminole War
In Florida the Seminole Indians, joined by runaway black slaves, retreated to the swampy Everglades. For seven years, they waged a bitter guerrilla war that took the lives of some fifteen hundred soldiers. The spirit of the Seminole war was broken in 1837, when the American field commander treacherously seized their leader, Osceola, under a flag truce.
Bank War of 1832
Battle between President Andrew Jackson and Congressional supporters of the Bank of the United States over the bank’s renewal in 1832. Jackson vetoed the bank bill, arguing that the bank favored moneyed interest at the expense of western farmers.
Anti-Masonic Party
First founded in New York, it gained considerable influence in New England and the mid-Atlantic during the 1832 election, campaigning against the politically influential Masonic order, a secret society. Anti-Masons apposed Andrew Jackson, a Mason, and drew much of their support from evangelical Protestants.
Biddle’s Panic
Jackson proposed depositing no more funds with Biddle and gradually shrinking the existing deposits by using them to defray the day-to-day expenses of the government. By slowly siphoning off the government’s funds, he would bleed the bank dry and ensure it’s demise. A desperate Biddle called in his bank’s loans, evidently hoping to illustrate the bank’s importance by producing a minor financial crisis. “Biddle’s Panic”.
Divorce Bill
Convinced that some of the financial fever was fed by the injection of federal funds into private banks, Van Buren championed the principle of “divorcing” the government form banking altogether. By establishing a so-called independent treasury, the government could lock its surplus money in vaults in several of the larger cities. Government funds would thus be safe, but they would also be denied to the banking system as reserves, thereby shriveling available credit resources.
Independent Treasury Bill of 1840
It allowed for the Divorce Bill to be passed even though it was unpopular, and the Whigs repealed it the following year.
