The Louisiana Purchase
U.S. acquisition of the Louisiana territory from France in 1803 for $15 million. The purchase secured American control of the Mississippi river and doubled the size of the nation.
The Lewis and Clark Expidition
Overland expedition to the Pacific coast lead by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Commissioned by President Jefferson, the expedition of the far west brought back a wealth of scientific data about the country and its resources. 1804-1806
Barbary War
President Jefferson sent a naval squadron to resolve the issue of the constant attacks on the trading vessels by pirates from the North African Barbary states (1801). After failing to acheive most of its military objectives, the administration signed an 1
Marbury V. Madison
In this 1803 decision, the Supreme Court first asserted the power of judicial review by declaring an act of congress, the Judiciary Act of 1789, unconstitutional.
Embargo Act
In response to British attack on American warship of the coast of Virginia, this 1807 law prohibited foriegn commerce.
War Hawks
Congressional leaders who in 1811/1812 called for war against Britain to respect America's maritime rights.
War of 1812
War between Britain and the U.S. America's justifications for war included British violations of American maritime rights, impressment of seamen, provocation of the Indians, and defense of national honor
Hartford Convention
An assembly of New England Federalists who met in Hartforf, conneticut in 1814 to protest Madison's foreign policy in the war of 1812, which undermined commercial interests in the North. They proposed amending the Constitution to prevent future presidents
Adams Onis Treaty
Signed by Secretary of State John Adams and Spanish minister Luis de Onis in 1819, this treaty allowed for US annexation of Florida.
Cherokee Pheonix
The first American Indian newspaper, published in Sequoyan in 1828.
preemption
the right of first purchase of public land. Settlers enjoyed this right even if they squatted on land in advance of government surveyors.
Internal Improvements
After the War of 1812, called for by President Madison, a federally supported program of 1815. Led to a revolution in transportation with the steamboat, toll roads, and canals.
The National Road (1811-1818)
The first federal transportation project. The road went from Comberland, Marlyand to Virginia and then to Ohio.
Turnpike
privatley owned toll road chartered by the states
The Steamboat
invented in 1807 by Robert Fulton. Allowed boats to travel both down and up rivers.
The Erie Canal
Construction began in 1818, went from the Atlantic to the Great lakes through Buffalo and Albany. Longest and most successful canal. Lowered costs of western goods
The Power Loom
Lowell discovered how to make the Power loom in 1810/1811 and returned to Boston to use it in Textile Mills
The Lowell Girls
Worked in textile mills in Lowell, Massachusettes where the work force was mainly youn and unmarried women. developed a factory system
Era of Good Feelings
a descriptive term for the era of President Monroe, who served two terms (1817-1823). During his presidency, partisian conflict abated and bold federal initiatives suggested increased nationalism.
American System
A national economic strategy championed by Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, the American System stressed high tariffs and internal improvments.
The Missouri Compromise
A sectional compromise in congress in 1820 that admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. It also banned slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase territory above the 36' 30'' line.
Dartmouth College v. Woodward
In this 1819 case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protected charters given to corporations by states.
Gibbens v. Ogden
In this 1824 case, the Supreme Court affirmed and expanded the power of the federal government to regulate interstate commerce.
McCulloch v. Maryland
Ruling on this banking case of 1819, the Supreme Court propped up the idea of "implied powers" meaning the Constitution could be broadly interpreted. The pivotal ruling also asserted the supremacy of federal power over state power.
The Monroe Doctrine
A key foreign policy made by President Monroe in 1823. It declared the western hemisphere off limits to new European colonization and in return, the US promised not to meddle in European affairs.
Jacksonian Democracy
The political culture of white male citizens in the 1820s and '30s. It celebrated the "self-made man" and rejected the idea that the leaders should be drawn from the intellectual and economical elite. Jackson, the first "people's president" exemplified th
The "Corrupt Bargain
In the election of 1824 when Jackson won the plurailty of electoral votes but lacked the necessary majority. Henry Clay, who did not make the final three, threw his support to Adams. This led to Adams victory and Clay was appointed the secretary of state,
The Tariff of Abominations
An 1828 protective tariff, or tax on imports, motivated by special interest groups. It resulted in a substantial increase in duties that angered many southern free traders.
The Spoils System
The Presidents replacement of the former cabinet members with his supporters. Jackson was a huge supporter, and used this more than any previous president.
The Peggy Eaton Affair
When President Jackson reappointed his entire cabinet because they refused to recieve Peggy Eaton socially because of gossip about her moral character.
Trail of Tears
In the winter of 1838-1839, the Cherokee were force to evacuate their lands in Georgia and travel under military guard to present day Oklahoma. Due to exposure and disease about 1/4 of the 16,00 indians died en route.
nullification
The supposed right of any state to declare a federal law inoperative within its boundaries. In 1832, South Carolina created a firestorm when it attempted to nullify the federal tariff.
the Bank War
Between 1832-1836, Jackson used his presidential power to fight and ultimately destroy the second bank of the US.
specie circular
In 1836, President Jackson issued this executive order that required purchasers of public land to pay in "specie," gold or silver coin, rather than paper money.
the Panic of 1837
a financial depression that lasted until the 1840s
second party system
The national two party rivalry between the Democrats and the Whigs. It began in th e1830's and ended with the demise of the Whig part and the rise of the Republican party.
Old South
refers to the slaveholding states between 1830 and 1860, when slave labor and cotton production dominated the economies of the southern states. (antebellum era)
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
Founded in 1816 by Richard Allen as the first independent black-run Protestant church in the US. It was active in the promotion of abolition and the founding of educational institutions for free blacks.
Task System
Used mainly on rice farms, this slave system gave the slaves more control over their place of labor by assigning tasks to complete by the end of a day.
Gang System
Used in the Cotton Belt, slaves worked in 'gangs' with white overseers and sometimes black 'drivers' from sun up to sun down, six days a week, all year
the Invisible Institution
An adaptation of Christianity by the slaves that incorporated their African Culture. Called 'invisible' because cermonies took place in secret, late at night in the woods.
the Vesey Conspiracy
A plot to burn Charleston, South Carolina, and thereby initiate a general slave revolt, led by a free African American, Denmark Vesey, in 1822. The conspirators were betrayed before the plan was carried out. Vesey and 34 others were hanged.
Underground Railroad
A network of safehouses orgabized by abolitionists (usually free blacks) to aid slaves in their attempt to escape slavery in the North or Canada.
Yeoman
Southern small landholders who owned no slave, and lived primarily in the backcountry. They were self-reliant farmers and usually did not produce enough to sell in the market.
American colonization society
Founded in 1817, this abolitionist group hoped to provide a mechanism by which slavery could gradually be eliminated. It adovocated the relocation of blacks to Liberia.
Cotton gin
Eli Whitney, 1793, this machine seperated the seeds from the fibers of short-staple cotton, enabling a slave to clean fifty times more cotton than by hand. Reduced cotton costs, incresed cotton production, and gave a new life to slavery in the south.
Interchangable Parts
Invented by Eli Whitney, a huge development in the production of guns and was a huge factor in a revolution in industry.
Second Great Awakening
A series of evangelical revivals that swept over America in the early 1800s.
Temperance Movement
Temperance (moderation or abstention in the use of alcholic beverages) attracted many advocates in the early 1800s. This grew out of the Second Great Awakening and was a powerful social and political force.
Cult of Domesticity
Term used to characterize the dominant gender role for white women in the antebellum period. The ideology of domesticity stressed teh virtue of women as guardians of the home, which was considered their proper sphere.
Dorthea Dix (1802-1887)
Worked on improving the inhumane treatment of those in prisons, asylums, and almshouses. Shge lobbyed for corrective action, and as a result 15 states opended new hospitals for the insane and improved the supervision in aylums and prisons.
The Liberator
A journal published in Boston in 1831 by William Lloyd Garrison that was a radical move in the anti-slaver movement. He called for immediate and unconditional emancipation.
the Liberty Party
America's first antislavery political party, formed in 1840. When the party ran a presidential candidate in the 1844 election, it split the Republican vote and inadvertently tipped the 1844 election in favor of Democrat James Polk.
Seneca Falls Convention
The first womens rights convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, co-sponseered by Stanton and Mott. Delegates at the convention drafted the "Declaration of sentiments" which was modeled after the Constitution but applied to women as well.
utopianism
Between 1830s and 40s hopes for social perfection - utopia - were widespread among evangelical Christians as well as secular humanists. These hopes found expression in various utopian communities and spiritual movements.
Shakers
A religious group (United Society of Believers) that advocated strict celibacy, communal ownership, and gender equality.
Oneida Community
FOunded in 1848 in Oneida, New York, this Christian utopian community earned notoreity for insitutionalizing a form of "free love.
transcendentalism
An American version of the idealist and romantic thought that emerged in Europe in the early 1800s, this literary and philosophical movement held that individuals could rise about materialism and ordinary understanding.
Brook Farm
This transcendentalist commune, founded in Massachusettes in 1841, attracted many leading creative figures during its breif existence.
Young America
A term used in 18302 and '40s by mostly Democrats to describe a movement that advocated territorial expansion and industrial growth in the name of patriotism.
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
This 1842 agreement with Britain resolved the boundary dispute between Main and New Brunswick, Canada, setting the Northeastern US boreder.
Alamo
in 1835, Americans living in the Mexican state of Texas fomented a revolution. Mexico lost the conflict, but not before its troops defeated and killed a group of American rebels at the Alamo fort in San Antonio.
Manifest Destiny
Coined in 1845, this term referred to a doctrine in support of territorial expansion based on the beliefs that population growth demanded territorial expansion, that God supported it, and that it would expand freedom.
Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
Conflict between the US and Mexico that after the US annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered its own. As victor, the US aqcuired vast new territories from Mexico through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Signed in 1848, this treaty ended the Mexican-American War. Mexico relinquished its claims to Texas and ceded an additional 500,000 square miles to the US for $15 million
the Wilmot Proviso
in 1846, shortyl after the Mexican-American war, Congressman Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced this controversial amendment stating that any lands won from Mexico would be closed to slavery.
popular sovereignty
The concept that the settlers of a newly organized territory have the right to decide through voting wether or not to accept slavery. Promoted as a solution to the slavery question, becoming a fiasco in Kansas in the 1850s.
the Compromise of 1850
This series of 5 congressional statutes temporarily calmed the sectional crisis. Among other things, the compromise made California a free state, ended the slave trade in D.C., and strengthened the Fugitive slave law.
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.
the Fugitive Slave Law
Passed in 1850, this federal law made it easier for slaveholders to recapture runaway slaves; it also made it easier for kidnappers to take free blacks. The law became an object of hatred in the North.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
This 1854 act repealed the Missouri Compromise, split the Louisiana Purchase into 2 territories, and allowed it settlers to accept or reject slavery based on popular soveriegnity. THis act enflamed the slavery issue and led to opponents to form the Republ
Republicans
Members of this party established following the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. THey were opposed to the extension of slavery into the western territories.
Know-nothing party
After the Whig party collapsed, this anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic party rose to national prominence. Though the party enjoyed some success in local and state elections, it failed to sustain it sxistence and quickly disappeared.
Ostend Manifesto
Written by American officials in 1854, this secret memo urged the acquisition og Cuba by any means necessary. When it became public, northerners claimed it was a plot to extend slavery and it was disavowed.
Lecompton constitution
In 1857, a fraudulently-elected group of pro-slavery delegates met in Lecompton, Kansas, and drafted a state constitution. After bitter debate, Congress narrowly denied Kansas's entry into the Uninon under this constitution.
Dred Scott v. Stanford
A decision of the Supreme Court in 1857, ruling against Dred Scott to make slavery legal in all territories, the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, and Congress powerless to prohibit slavery.