Morrill (Land Grant) Act
1862. Each eligible state received a total of 30,000 acres (120 km2) of federal land, either within or contiguous to its boundaries. This land, or the proceeds from its sale, was to be used toward establishing and funding the educational institutions. After the war, however, the 1862 Act was extended to the former Confederate states; it was eventually extended to every state and territory, including those created after 1862. If the federal land within a state was insufficient to meet that state's land grant, the state was issued "scrip" which authorized the state to select federal lands in other states to fund its institution.
Pacific Railway Act
1862. a series of acts of Congress that promoted the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the United States in order to connect the economies of California and the western territories with the eastern states through authorizing the issuance of government bonds and the grants of land to railroad companies. It began federal government grant of lands directly to corporations instead of land grants made to the states, for the benefit of corporations.
Homestead Act
1862, Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government (including freed slaves and women), was 21 years or older (or the head of a family) could file an application to claim a federal land grant. There was also a residency requirement that you farm the land for 5 years. The grants consisted of grants totaling 160 acres of unappropriated federal land within the boundaries of the public land states.
Pike's Peak
The Colorado mountain area where gold was discovered in 1859 and "fifty-niners" flooded to the hills to dig. Most prospectors didn't find much or any gold, but many stayed to mine silver or to farm.
Comstock Lode
The discovery of silver and gold in Virginia City, Nevada shortly after Pike's Peak. Named for Henry ____. The jackpot was extremely productive: $340 million dollars worth of silver and gold was unearthed by 1890. It is responsible for Nevada becoming a state almost overnight in 1864. Virginia City boomed at this time but once the people could no longer find gold the city became a "ghost town.
Cowboys
During the decades following the Civil War, over 40,000 men were employed to herd cattle in the West. They were usually in their twenties and often Mexican or African American. They were hired to round-up and drive the ownerless Texas cattle on the "long drive," the slow, dangerous journey to the stations. Being a ___involved hard work, low pay, constant exposure to the elements, and a notable absence of many things we now consider necessities. These cattle drives came to an end in the 1880s though due to the blizzard and drought of 1885-1886 and the arrival of homesteaders, effectively "taming" the wild west.
Chisholm Trail
The ___ ____ was a trail used in the late 19th century to drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads. The portion of the trail marked by Jesse ___ went from his southern trading post near the Red River, to his northern trading post near Kansas City, Kansas. Texas ranchers using the _ ___ started on that route from either the Rio Grande or San Antonio, Texas, and went to the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railway in Abilene, Kansas, where the cattle would be sold and shipped eastward.
Oklahoma Land Rush
The land rush opened this territory that was previously set aside for Native Americans to occupation by white settlers in 1889. Guthrie was the first town created out of the initial rush. Oklahoma was the last great land rush in US history (1889 - opening) Sooners snuck over the border before the state opened and stated their claims. The next year, the US Census Bureau declared that the entire frontier, except for a few pockets, had been settled.
Helen Hunt Jackson
Author of the 1881 book A Century of Dishonor. The book exposed the U.S. governments many broken promises to the Native Americans, while generating support for ending Indian culture through assimilation. Her subsequent appointment to a federal commission investigating the plight of Indians on missions provided material for Ramona (1884), which aroused public sentiment but has been admired chiefly for its romantic picture of old California.
Sand Creek Massacre
Also called Chivington Massacre, (Nov. 29, 1864), controversial surprise attack upon a surrendered, partially disarmed Cheyenne Indian camp in southeastern Colorado Territory by a force of about 700 U.S. troops, under Col. John M. Chivington. The Cheyenne chief Black Kettle had been negotiating for peace and had camped near Fort Lyon with the consent of its commander, Maj. Scott Anthony. As the attack began, Black Kettle raised the U.S. flag as well as a white flag, but around 300 Indians were massacred, including many women and children. Chivington was at first acclaimed for his "victory," but he was subsequently discredited when it became clear that he had perpetrated a massacre. The incident was a chief cause of the Arapaho-Cheyenne war that followed and had far-reaching influence in the Plains Wars of the next decade.
Red Cloud
Determined to protect the Native Americans' prime hunting grounds, Red Cloud in 1866 led the opposition of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho in the two year harassment that became known as Red Cloud's War. The War a series of assaults on the forts on the Bozeman Trail, and by 1868 the United States government had agreed to the Fort Laramie Treaty (April 29, 1868), which mandated that the United States abandon its forts along the Bozeman Trail and guarantee the Lakota their possession of what is now the Western half of South Dakota.(April 29, 1868). In 1878 he and his people moved to Pine Ridge Agency where he and his people struggled over the distribution of government food and supplies and the control of the Indian police force throughout the 1880s. Yet, fearing the Army's presence on his reservation, Red Cloud refrained from endorsing the Ghost Dance movement, and unlike Sitting Bull and Big Foot, he escaped the Army's occupation unscathed.
1st & 2nd Sioux Wars
The first of these wars took place in 1866 when the army under Captain William Fetterman was wiped out by Sioux warriors. It is important because it's the only major victory for the Native Americans; it is the only moment in US history where the US sues for peace and gives in entirely to what the enemy wants. In the aftermath, treaties were made to isolate the Plains Indians on smaller reservations with government support. Yet, many clashes between the ___ Indians and white men were spurred by gold-greedy miners rushing to the land. This led to the second of these wars because the white men were breaking their treaty with the Indians. The Sioux Indians were led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and they ambushed and destroyed Colonel George Custer's command at Little Bighorn in 1876 before being defeated. Many of the Indian were finally forced into Canada, where they were forced by starvation to surrender.
Peace Commission in St. Louis
(1867) The government conference in __. ___ that attempted to make peace with the natives. Natives were told they would reserve for each tribe separate land where they will have to live and be confined to those areas. Also, the natives would receive clothing, food, farming implements, and government support if they moved into these reserves. The underlying motive was not only to isolate the natives, but also to change their way of life, ending their nomadic ways by giving them plots of land to settle and cultivate. In the end, under the leadership of Major Joel Elliot, the U.S. government signed treaties with the Cheyennes, Plains Apaches, Comanches, Arapahos, and Kiowas and three major reservations were established in present-day South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Later that year, a second series of treaties was signed that governed the southern plains.
Battle of the Little Bighorn
battle at the ___ ___ River in Montana Territory in 1876 between federal troops led by Lieut. Col. George A. Custer and Northern Plains (Sioux) Indians led by Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull was great at commanding guerilla warfare tactics and at this moment the Americans were outnumbered significantly. Custer leads his men into an indian settlement of a few thousand and the gunfire turned into a massacre where Custer and 250 or so of his 800 die. The outcome of the battle, though it proved to be the height of Indian power, so stunned and enraged white Americans that government troops flooded the area, forcing the Indians to surrender.
Sitting Bull
The Native American leader whom the Sioux tribes united in their struggle for survival on the North American Great Plains. He became a prominent Indian leader during the Sioux Wars from 1876-1877, which he led with Crazy Horse, where he was known for his guerilla warfare tactics. He led the successful battle of Little Bighorn, but after several years in Canada, he finally surrendered to U.S. forces with his people on the brink of starvation, and was finally forced to settle on a reservation. In 1890, he was shot and killed while being arrested by U.S. and Indian agents, fearful that he would help lead the growing Ghost Dance movement aimed at restoring the Sioux way of life.
Nez Perce
The Native American tribe that was led by Chief Joseph who staunchly resisted all efforts to force his band onto the small Idaho reservation. But in 1877 when General Oliver Otis Howard threatened a cavalry attack to force them onto the reservation, Joseph reluctantly led his people toward Idaho. Yet, they never got there, instead embarking on one of the most brilliant retreats in American history. In this retreat, this tribe attempted to retreat into Canada, but the US saw it as the natives messing with them so they decided to chase after them. The tribe made it 1500 miles, almost within sight of the border, but they couldn't hold out under the pressure of American troops and formally surrendered on October 5, 1877 and were taken to the Idaho Reservation.
Bison extermination
The paper written by William T. Hornady, the Superintendent of the National Zoological Park in Washington, DC, in 1889 that detailed the disappearance of the ___, a.k.a. American buffalo, from the North American continent. At the time of Hornady's writing, there were less than 200 bison living in the wild. Five years later, in 1894, the number was believed to be 25. While ninety years prior to Hornady's writing, more than 60 million bison roamed the plains and prairies of the American West. Most of the ____-- millions upon millions upon millions -- were killed between the 1830s and the 1870s due man's reckless greed, destructiveness, the inexcusable absence of protective measures and agencies, and the preference on the part of hunters for the cow over the ___, the stupidity of the animals, and the perfection of modern breech-loading rifles and other sporting fire-arms in general.
Ghost Dance
The religious movement that was started by the preachings of a Paiute shaman called Wobokathat was the last effort of American Indians to resist US government controls. Leaders of the movement believed it could return prosperity to American Indians. The movement was crushed after Sitting Bull and the Sioux were massacred in the Battle of Wounded Knee during the government's campaign to suppress the movement. The __ __ led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. This act tried to reform Indian tribes and turn them into "white" citizens. It did little good.
Battle of Wounded Knee
The massacre that took place on December 29, 1890. After hearing of Sitting Bull's death, Chief Big Foot attempted to lead his people (the Lakota people of the Sioux tribe) to protection at the Pine Ridge Reservation but was intercepted by the army, who had orders to arrest Big Foot, at the edge of the ___ ___. The next morning while the army was collecting the weapons and firepower of the natives from the women and children, and Big Foot and some warriors were conversing with the army officers, a shot went off (soldier tried to take a gun from a deaf Indian who didn't know what was going on or the command and a shot went off). Almost immediately, gunfire filled the air as soldiers shot rounds at the Indians and the Indians tried to retrieve their own rifles. When the smoke cleared, around 200-300 Sioux were dead, including Big Foot, along with 25 soldiers (from friendly fire). Whatever the motives, the massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement and was the last major confrontation in America's deadly war against the Plains Indians.
Dawes Act
(Feb. 8, 1887). The act that was designed to break up tribal organizations, which many felt kept American Indians from becoming "civilized." It divided the tribal lands into plots of up to 160 acres, depending on family size, and granted US citizenship to those who stayed on the land for 25 years and "adopted habits of civilized life." It granted 47 million acres to American Indians, yet 90 million acres, often the best of them, were sold to white settlers. Under the act, Indian life deteriorated: the social structure of the tribe was weakened; many nomadic Indians were unable to adjust to an agricultural existence; others were swindled out of their property; and life on the reservation came to be characterized by disease, filth, poverty, and despondency.
Frontier Thesis
A scholarly paper written in 1893 by Frederick Jackson Turner that put forth the idea that the west, not the east, was where distinctively American characteristics emerged. He argued that 300 years of frontier experience had shaped American culture by promoting independence and individualism. It also argued that the frontier was a powerful social leveler that broke down class distinctions and fostered social and political democracy while challenging americans to be inventive and practically minded (but also wasteful with natural resources). The essay continued by arguing that the closing of the frontier was trouble because the frontier was a safety valve for harmlessly releasing discontent in American society. It goes further to argue Turner's fear was that without the frontier the US would be condemned to follow the patterns of class division and social conflict that troubled Europe.Our entire political system is based on the fact that we have frontiers to explore.
Frederick Jackson Turner
(1861-1932) He grew up in Wisconsin, earned his Ph D from Johns Hopkins University. He taught at Wisconsin and then at Harvard. Married in 1889 and had three kids, only one survived childhood. He read his thesis before the American Historical Association in Chicago, arguing that the spirit and success of the United States is directly tied to its westward expansion. While some disagree with his thesis, it is widely accepted that the thesis had a profound effect on the American mind and American identity. He also wrote Sectionalism Essays which won him the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1933.
Thomas Edison
American inventor and physicist who took out more than 1,000 patents in his lifetime. His inventions include the telegraph (1869), microphone (1877), and light bulb (1879). He also designed the first power plant (1881-82), making possible the widespread distribution of electricity. He established a research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey in 1876; it was the first modern research lab.During World War I, he worked on a number of military devices, including flamethrowers, periscopes, and torpedoes.
Alexander Graham Bell
He is best remembered for his invention of the "electrical speech machine"—the telephone—which quickly became the industrialized world's only means of long-distance vocal communication. Along with this, he invented the cash register (1879), the calculating machine (1887), and the adding machine (1888). He also founded the National Geographic Society in 1888 and served as its president from 1896 to 1904.
Division of labor
Division of Labor was a new, more efficient, system used in manufacturing that assigned specific tasks to each worker. This new system, because it was more efficient, became the normal practice throughout manufacturing in the U.S. Although __ __ ____ greatly improved productivity, it also diminished morals among workers because there was no sense of achievement. (ECONOMIC)
Mass production
the production or manufacture of goods in large quantities, especially by machinery. Interchangeable parts became the basis for mass production methods in new northern factories.
Frederick Winslow Taylor
an inventor and engineer who became famous as the father of scientific management, also called Taylorism. The organization of modern industry, management, and much of daily life in industrial societies reflects his immeasurable influence. Taylor was the nineteenth century's most ardent champion of efficiency in industry. He ostensibly set out to raise both productivity and wages (and thereby ease the explosive tension between industrial labor and management). He believed that government too could be made more efficient if placed in the hands of experts and scientific managers. He objected to the corruption of political bosses because it was anti-democratic and partly because it was an inefficient way to run things. Yet Taylor's theories heavily skewed the benefits of increased productivity in favor of management. The theory of the differential rate, for example, "scientifically" linked backbreaking production quotas to supposedly "fair" wage increases that were rarely proportional. Thus, Taylor utterly lacked the ability to understand his workers as anything other than underperforming cogs in a great industrial machine. Once remarking that he couldn't "look any workman in the face without seeing hostility," he was every bit as personally resented by the men he supervised as he was famous with the captains of industry.
Robber Baron
Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits and personal fortunes by paying their employees extremely low wages (also utilized cheap immigrant labor). They also drove their competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it. Then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price. They were presented as ruthless exploiters who used unethical means to destroy competition. Any positive contributions were merely unplanned by-products. Also known for bribing government officials and treating workers poorly. Contributed to the national economy but also hugely abused their power. They held a lot of political influence and politics at the time widely benefitted the corporations and robber barons.
Corporation
A corporation is created (incorporated) by a group of shareholders who have ownership of the corporation, represented by their holding of common stock. Shareholders elect a board of directors (generally receiving one vote per share) who appoint and oversee management of the corporation. Although a corporation does not necessarily have to be for profit, the vast majority of corporations are setup with the goal of providing a return for its shareholders. When you purchase stock you are becoming part owner in a corporation.
Horizontal integration
A technique used by John D. Rockefeller. An act of owning as much of one step as possible by joining or consolidating with one's competitors to create a monopoly. Rockefeller was excellent with using this technique to monopolize certain markets. It is responsible for the majority of his wealth. Ex. One company controls all of oil refining. Benefits: Control Prices, no competition, not biting off too much.
Vertical integration
pioneered by tycoon Andrew Carnegie. Managing every stage of the production process from beginning to end. This made supplies more reliable and improved efficiency. It controlled the quality of the product at all stages of production. For example, oil traveled from the ground to the final consumer without ever leaving Rockefeller's Standard Oil control.
Pooling
A 'pool' is an informal agreement between a group of people or leaders of a company to keep their prices high and to keep competition low. The Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 made railroads publicly publish their prices and it outlawed the pool.
Trusts
somebody else has control of the company. Trust funds - somebody else is in charge of investing or controlling the money that later goes to someone else (same idea applies to businesses). a consortium of independent organizations formed to limit competition by controlling the production and distribution of a product or service. Trusts issued stock to fund new expansion. Rockefeller would claim that smaller companies were still owned by someone else, while he had a board of trustees to control the smaller companies (Rockefeller was chairman or the board). The public distrusted and despised trusts and legislation and the supreme court ordered the breakup of trusts such as Standard Oil with a decisions in 1911.
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie set the standard for new steel mills. He started as a poor immigrant and eventually was at the forefront of America's steel industry (which with his help, surpassed Britain's). Carnegie was an advocate of Social Darwinism and believed that unrestricted competition would eliminate weak businesses. He also thought that a concentration of wealth was a natural result of capitalism, but that it should be given back to society. ECONOMIC & CULTURAL. a Gilded Age industrialist, the owner of the Carnegie Steel Company, and a major philanthropist. He epitomized the Gilded Age ideal of the self-made man, rising from poverty to become one of the wealthiest individuals in the history of the world. Carnegie utilized the newest technologies, such as the Bessemer blast furnace, to expand his steel company. He also employed "vertical integration" to increase his control over the industry and the profitability of his firm. By the turn of the century, Carnegie Steel was the largest steel company in America. In 1901, financier J.P. Morgan acquired Carnegie Steel in the process of building U.S. Steel. Andrew Carnegie retired to Scotland and dedicated his time and money to various philanthropic causes consistent with the philosophy that he had advanced in an article he wrote, "The Gospel of Wealth." Among these philanthropies were the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He also paid for Carnegie Hall and Carnegie Mellon University.
U. S. Steel
J. P. Morgan and the attorney Elbert H. Gary founded U.S. Steel in 1901 by combining Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company with Gary's Federal Steel Company and William Henry "Judge" Moore's National Steel Company for $492 million. At one time, U.S. Steel was the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world. U.S. Steel maintained the labor policies of Andrew Carnegie, which called for low wages and opposition to unionization. The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers union that represented workers at the Homestead, Pennsylvania plant was, for many years, broken after a violent strike in 1892. Limited clash over contract negotiations in what has become known as The Homestead Strike.
J. P. Morgan
Banker who buys out Carnegie Steel and other steel companies and combines them into U.S. Steel. Was a philanthropist in a way; he gave all the money needed for WWI and was payed back. Was one of the "Robber barons
John D. Rockefeller
Robber Baron that utilized new transportation and communication to take control of an entire industry. Rockefeller was a man who started from meager beginnings and eventually created an oil empire. In Ohio in 1870 he organized the Standard Oil Company. By 1885, he controlled 90% of all of the refineries in the United States. The trust that he put together consisted of various companies that he had acquired, all managed by a board of trustees he controlled. (horizontal integration, joining companies to create a monopoly) It achieved important economies both home and abroad by it's large scale methods of production and distribution. He also organized the trust and started the Horizontal Merger.
Standard Oil
John D. Rockefeller's company, formed in 1870, which came to symbolize the trusts and monopolies of the Gilded Age. By 1877 this company controlled 95% of the oil refineries in the US. It was also one of the first multinational corporations, and at times distributed more than half of the company's kerosene production outside the US. By eliminating waste in the production of kerosene, it kept prices low for consumers. By the turn of the century it had become a target for trust-busting reformers, and in 1911 the Supreme Court ordered it to break up into several dozen smaller companies
Adam Smith
An 18th-century philosopher and free-market economist famous for his ideas about the efficiency of the division of labor and the societal benefits of individuals' pursuit of their own self-interest. In his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith proposed the idea of the invisible hand, or the tendency of free markets to regulate themselves by means of competition, supply and demand, and self-interest. Smith is also known for his theory of compensating wage differentials, meaning that dangerous or undesirable jobs will tend to pay higher wages to attract workers to these positions. Smith died in 1790.
Laissez
faire- This is an economy in which the government does not take any part in managing the economy. In such an economy, there would be no such things as, for example, minimum wage laws or workplace safety laws. All decisions would be made on a purely economic basis. However, the US economy has never been truly laissez-faire. Even in the allegedly laissez-faire period, the government intervened on behalf of companies (doing things like breaking up strikes) and did things (subsidizing railroads) to try to boost the economy.
Social Darwinism
An idea, popular in the Gilded Age, that people gained wealth by the "survival of the fittest." Therefore, the wealthy had simply won a natural competition and owed nothing to the poor, and indeed service to the poor would interfere with this organic process (against charity). Some also applied their theory to whole nations and races, explaining that powerful people were naturally endowed with gifts that allowed them to gain superiority over others. This theory provided one of the popular justifications for US imperial ventures like the Spanish-American War. It game some a "scientific" sanction for their racial intolerance.
Herbert Spencer
Developed the survival-of-the-fittest theories with William Graham Sumner. He coined the phrase "survival of the fittest," not Darwin. This social thinker emphasized the rigidity of natural law, while occasionally borrowing evolutionary jargon to engage contemporary audiences. He said: "These millionaires are a product of natural selection. What do social classes owe each other? Nothing." He led people who argued for social darwinism.
William Graham Sumner
He was an advocate of Social Darwinism claiming that the rich were a result of natural selection and benefits society. He, like many others promoted the belief of Social Darwinism which justified the rich being rich, and poor being poor. He argued that helping the poor was misguided because it interfered with the laws of nature and would only weaken the evolution of the species by preserving the unfit.
Henry George
Author of Progress and Poverty who said that poverty was the inevitable side-effect of progress. His book jolted readers to look more critically at the effects of laissez-faire economics. He believed that the pressure of a growing population with a fixed supply of land pushed up property values.The book proposes putting a single tax on land as the solution to poverty.
Edward Bellamy
rivaling Henry George, he wrote Looking Backward, a utopian novel, published in 1888, it described the experiences of a young Bostonian who went into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and awoke in 2000, finding a new social order in which want, politics and vice were unknown. The society had emerged through peace and evolution, and all of the trusts of the 1800s joined together form one government controlled trust, which distributed the abundance of the industrial economy equally among all people. Fraternal cooperation replaced competition, there were no class divisions, and there was great nationalism.
Gospel of Wealth
Essay written by Andrew Carnegie that argued that the wealthy had a God-given responsibility to carry out projects of civic philanthropy for the benefit of society. Still, he promoted Social Darwinism, believing that wealth among the few was the natural and most efficient result of capitalism
Horatio Alger
Puritan-reared New England writer; interested in New York newsboys; wrote more than a hundred volumes of juvenile fiction that sold over 100 million copies; his stock formula was that virtue, honesty, and industry are rewarded by success, wealth, and honor- a kind of survival of the purest, especially nonsmokers, nondrinkers, non-swearers, and non-liars; implanted morality and the conviction that there is always room at the top. Every novel portrayed a young man of modest means who becomes wealthy through honesty, hard work, and a little luck.
American Protective Association
a nativist society created in 1887; soon claimed a million members; urged voting against Roman Catholic candidates for office and sponsored the publication of slanderous materials against immigrants
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality. The basic exclusion law prohibited Chinese labourers—defined as "both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining"—from entering the country. Subsequent amendments to the law prevented Chinese labourers who had left the United States from returning. The passage of the act represented the outcome of years of racial hostility and anti-immigrant agitation by white Americans, set the precedent for later restrictions against immigration of other nationalities, and started a new era in which the United States changed from a country that welcomed almost all immigrants to a gatekeeping one. It lasted for 10 years and was extended for another 10 years by the 1892 Geary Act, which also required that people of Chinese origin carry identification certificates or face deportation. Later measures placed a number of other restrictions on the Chinese, such as limiting their access to bail bonds and allowing entry to only those who were teachers, students, diplomats, and tourists. Congress closed the gate to Chinese immigrants almost entirely by extending the Chinese Exclusion Act for another 10 years in 1902 and making the extension indefinite in 1904.
Dumbbell tenement
This was a style of tenement housing that became quite widespread in New York City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Dumbbell tenements were named for the shape of their floor plans; the buildings were as wide as their lots at the front and back, but narrower in the middle, leaving lightwells between neighboring tenements to allow a certain amount of fresh air to reach the interior of the structures. While the dumbbell tenements were supposed to be more healthy than their predecessors (which often filled their entire lots, leaving many apartments with no windows to access to light or fresh air), the dumbbell tenements often became badly overcrowded with immigrant tenants crowded into tiny living spaces in unsanitary conditions.
Jacob Riis
(1890) How the Other Half Lives American journalist who exposed the terrible conditions of immigrant neighborhoods in American cities. He was one of the first photojournalists.
Louis Sullivan
Chicago architect known for his steel framed skyscrapers and for coining the phrase 'form follows function' (1856-1924). He rejected historical styles. His buildings achieved a much-admire aesthetic unity. "Form follows function" was the hallmark of the Chicago School of architecture.
Social Gospel
In the 1880s and 1890s, a number of Protestant clergy espoused the cause of social justice for the poor--especially the urban poor. They preached this, or the importance of applying Christian principles to social problems. Leading the movement was a Baptist minister from New York, Walter Rauschenbusch, who worked in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of New York City called Hell's Kitchen, wrote several books urging organized religions to take up the cause of social justice. His preaching linked Christianity with the Progressive reform movement and encouraged many middle-class Protestants to attack urban problems. It was closely linked to the settlement house movement, which brought middle-class, Anglo-American service volunteers into contact with immigrants and working people.
Morrill Act
A second Morrill Act (The Agricultural College Act) in 1890 extended the land-grant provisions to the former Confederate states and eventually, to every state and territory. This further increased the number of U.S. colleges.
John Dewey
Theory:"Learning through Experience" Dewey is considered the "father" of progressive education practice that promotes individuality, free activity, and learning through experiences, such as project-based learning, cooperative learning, and arts integration activities. He theorized that school is primarily a social institution and a process of living, not an institution to prepare for future living. He believed that schools should teach children to be problem-solvers by helping them learn to think as opposed to helping them learn only the content of a lesson. He also believed that students should be active decision-makers in their education. Dewey advanced the notion that teachers have rights and must have more academic autonomy.
Yellow Press
Yellow journalism, or the yellow press, is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. The term was coined in the mid-1890s to characterize The sensational journalism that used some yellow ink in the circulation war between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. The battle peaked from 1895 to about 1898, and historical usage often refers specifically to this period. Both papers were accused by critics of sensationalizing the news in order to drive up circulation, although the newspapers did serious reporting as well. An English magazine in 1898 noted, "All American journalism is not 'yellow', though all strictly 'up-to-date' yellow journalism is American!
Henry Demarest Lloyd
A Chicago reporter who in 1881 wrote a series of articles for the Atlantic Monthly attacking the practices of the Standard Oil Company and the railroads. He was one of the earliest muckrakers. He later wrote the book "Wealth Against Commonwealth" in 1894. It was part of the progressive movement and the book's purpose was to show the wrong in the monopoly of the Standard Oil Company. However, he failed to suggest how to control the corruption and greed of the oil monopoly.
Pragmatism
William James and John Dewey were two leading American advocates of this new philosophy. They defined truth in a way that many Progressives found appealing. They argued that the "good" and the "true" could not be known in the abstract as fixed and changeless ideals. Rather, they said, people should take a pragmatic, or practical, approach to morals, ideals, and knowledge. They should experiment with ideas and laws and test them in action until they found something that would produce a well-functioning democratic society. This philosophy enabled pragmatic thinkers to challenge fixed notions that stood in the way of reform.
William James
one of America's most brilliant intellectuals who served for 35 years on the Harvard faculty; Principles of Psychology (1890) established modern discipline of behavioral psychology; The Will to Believe (1897) and Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) explored the philosophy and psychology of religion; Pragmatism (1907) colorfully described America's greatest contribution to the history of philosophy, most famous of his writings, held that the truth of an idea was to be tested by its practical consequences
Black lists
A list of people who had done some misdeed and were disliked by business. They were refused jobs and harassed by unions and businesses.
Yellow dog contract
A written contract between employers and employees in which the employees sign an agreement that they will not join a union while working for the company.
Lockout
a management action resisting employee's demands
Scabs
Strikebreakers hired by employers as replacement workers when unions went on strike
Company town
a town or city in which most or all real estate, buildings (both residential and commercial), utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, anbd other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company.
National Labor Union
Established in 1866 by William Sylvis, it was the first attempt to organize all workers in all states--both unskilled and skilled, both agricultural and industrial. It had some 640,000 members by 1868. Besides championing the goals of higher wages and the eight-hour day, the first national union also had a broad social program: equal rights for women and blacks, monetary reform, and worker cooperatives. Its chief victory was winning the eight-hour day for workers employed by the federal government. It lost support, however, after a depression began in 1873 and after the unsuccessful strikes of 1877. The problem with the union was they were optimistic with their workers and unrealistic with their practice/going about making change.
Knights of Labor
Began in 1869, this was the second national labor union. It started as a secret society to avoid detection by employers. Under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, it went public in 1881, opening its membership to all workers, including African Americans and women. The union grew rapidly and attained a peak membership of 730,000 workers in 1886. It declined just as rapidly, however, after the violence of the Haymarket riot in 1886 turned public opinion against the union.Their goals were the organization of the 8 hour day, aboltion of child labor, and equal pay for equal work. They are gone by 1893.
Terence Powderly
1870's-1890's, leader of the Knights of Labor, Powderly (an Irish American), won a number of strikes for requesting an eight hour work day, and organized many strikes that led to the eventual downfall of the organization. He advocated worker cooperatives to "make each man his own employer," abolition of child labor, and abolition of trusts and monopolies. He favored settling labor disputes by means of arbitration rather than resorting to strikes. Because his group was loosely organized, he couldn't control local units that decided to strike.
American Federation of Labor
Led by Samuel Gompers, the American Federation of Labor focused on higher wages and better working conditions. It concentrated on narrower economic goals. Gompers avoided political issues and the American Federation of Labor was a confederation of 25 craft unions. It was an association for self governing unions so no individual laborer could join. In order to become accepted into the American Federation of Labor one had to be considered a skilled worker. Because the federation was more simple and made up of skilled workers it was more successful. The American Federation of Labor methods were to boycott or walk out. Although it was a solid federation and composed of craftsmen trying to represent all workers, it did not include women, African Americans or unskilled workers. Had 1 million members by 1901.
Samuel Gompers
is responsible for the formation of one of the first labor unions. The American Federation of Labor worked on getting people better hours and better wages. The formation of this triggered the formation of various others that would come later.
Railroad Strike of 1877
A group of railroad workers on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad rose up and began to strike due to wage cuts due to the panic of 1873. This spread up and down the railroad line across the nation. Railroad roadhouses were torched in many cities. Pittsburgh faced $5 million dollars of damage. President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in troops to stop the strike. It broke up after 45 days. 100 people died in the strike
Haymarket Square
On May 4, 1886, In Chicago about 80,000 Knights of Labor (there for police brutality) and a few hundred anarchists (that wanted violent overthrow of the American government) were in _____ Square to meet about rising tensions. Chicago police were advancing on the meeting that had been called to protest brutalities by authorities when a dynamite bomb was thrown by an anarchist, killing or injuring several dozen people including seven police officers. The bomb thrower was never found. This was called the Haymarket Square Bombing. Horrified by the bomb incident, many Americans concluded that the union movement was radical and violent.
Homestead Strike
1892- steelworker strike protesting repeated wage cuts (by nearly 20%), near Pittsburgh against the Carnegie Steel Company. It was excessively violent and detrimental to the public view of labor unions. Frick used weapons of the lockout, private guards, and strikebreakers to defeat the walkout after five months. Its failure set back the union movement in the steel industry until the New Deal in the 1930s. Public support for the strike dissolves because an anarchist attempt to kill Henry Frick
Henry Frick
was Carnegie's supplier of coke to fuel his steel mills as well as his right hand man. He was very anti-union. He was in charge of the mills when the Homestead Strike occurred. His decision to use strikebreakers ignited the riot, and helped stain the image of unions.
Pullman strike
Led by Eugene Debs. This was a nonviolent strike that brought about a shutdown of western railroads. It took place against the Pullman Palace Car Company in a company town right outside of Chicago in 1894, because of a wage cut of Pullman workers who lived in a Pullman town, where prices increased. The company also fired the leaders of the workers' delegation who came to bargain. The workers appealed for help from the American Railroad Union. Debs directed workers not to handle any trains with Pullman cars. It tied up transportation across the country. It was ended by the president due to the interference with the mail system, so he called it a federal crime and he feels he can send in the national guards. The guards open fire on the group and most give in within a month and Debs is arrested. This strike brought a bad image of unions.
Eugene Victor Debs
Head of the American Railway Union and director of the Pullman strike; he was imprisoned along with his associates for ignoring a federal court injunction to stop striking. While in prison, he read Socialist literature and emerged as a Socialist leader in America in 1900.
Bossism
Political parties in major cities came under control of tightly organized groups of politicians, known as political machines. Each machine had its own boss, the top politician who gave orders to the rank and file and doled out government jobs to loyal supporters (spoils system). Successful bosses knew how to manage the competing social, economic, and ethnic groups in the city. They often brought modern services to the city, including a crude form of welfare. It would find jobs and apartments for immigrants. It could be greedy as well as generously often stealing from taxpayers in the form of graft and fraud.
Boss Tweed
William Tweed, head of Tammany Hall, NYC's powerful democratic political machine in 1868. Between 1868 and 1869 he led the Tweed Reign, a group of corrupt politicians in defrauding the city. Example: Responsible for the construction of the NY court house; actual construction cost $3million. Project cost taxpayers $13million. An estimated 65% of public building funds ended up in his pockets.
Tammany Hall
This was the Democratic political organization that dominated New York City politics from the mid-1850s through the 1920s. It drew much of its electoral strength from the city's immigrant population. Political bosses like George Washington Plunkitt cultivated political support by providing jobs and services to working-class immigrant voters. It started as a social club and later developed into a power center to coordinate the needs of businesses, immigrants, and the underprivileged.
Thomas Nast
A famous caricaturist and editorial cartoonist in the 19th century and is considered to be the father of American political cartooning. His artwork was primarily based on political corruption. He helped people realize the corruption of some politicians. He exposed Boss Tweed and brought about his arrest and imprisonment in 1871.
Pendleton Act
The Pendleton Act of 1883 was the federal legislation that created a system in which federal employees were chosen based upon competitive exams. This made job positions based on merit or ability and not inheritance or class. It also created the Civil Service Commission. ECONOMIC.
McKinley Tariff
1890 tariff that raised protective tariff levels by nearly 50%, making them the highest peacetime tariffs on imports in the United States history
Billion Dollar" congress
The Republicans controlled the presidency and both houses of the 51st Congress from 1888-90. The new Congress was the most active in years, passing the first billion-dollar budget in U.S. history. In enacted the McKinley tariff of 1890. It increased the monthly pensions to civil war veterans, widows, and children. It enacted the Sherman Antitrust Act, outlawing "combinations in restraint of trade". It also established the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which increased the coinage of silver, but too little to satisfy farmers and miners. FInally, it enacted a bill to protect the voting rights of African Americans, passed by the House but defeated in the Senate. Voters rushed back to Democrats in 1890. It was held by Harrison; responsible for passing the Land Revision Act of 1891, which created the national forests. Harrison authorized America's first forest reserve in Yellowstone, Wyoming, the same year; its lavish spending and, for this reason, it incited drastic reversals in public support that led to Cleveland's reelection in 1892.
Gold standard
all currency and the monetary system is based on a fixed quantity of gold (cash can be used too but it is all backed by gold)
Bland Allison Act
The Bland-Allison Act was an 1878 act of Congress requiring the U.S. Treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars. Vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes, the Congress overrode Hayes' veto on February 28, 1878 to enact the law.
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
1890 act that was a compromise between the western silver agitators and the eastern protectionists. The Westerners agreed to support a higher tariff and the protectionists, this bill. It ordered the Treasury to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver monthly.
The Grange
It was a farmers' movement involving the affiliation of local farmers into area "granges" to work for their political and economic advantages. The official name of the National Grange is the Patrons of Husbandry. The Granger movement was successful in regulating the railroads and grain warehouses
Greenback Party
The Greenback party (also called the National Greenback party) was organized in 1876 to campaign for expansion of the supply of paper money—"greenbacks"—first issued by the federal government in 1862 to help pay for the Civil War. The idea that maintaining a flexible supply of paper money served the interests of working people, whereas paper money backed by specie (hard money, like gold or silver) benefited only the rich, had been advanced by Edward Kellogg as early as 1841.
Farmers' Alliances
organization that united farmers at the statewide and regional level; policy goals of this organization included more readily available farm credits and federal regulation of the railroads.
Crime of '73
The term used to refer to the passage of the Coinage Act of 1873. It fully embraced the Gold Standard and demonetized silver. Western mining interests and others who wanted silver in circulation called the Act the "Crime of '73
Green backs
Name for Union paper money not backed by gold or silver. Value would fluctuate depending on status of the war (plural)
Free Silver
Silverites were in favor of silver over gold in terms of currency. States with a lot of silver wanted unlimited coinage of silver (no limits to the amount used), and the stated with a lot of gold wanted gold to be coined.
Bland Allison Act
1878 - Authorized coinage of a limited number of silver dollars and "silver certificate" paper money. First of several government subsidies to silver producers in depression periods. Required government to buy between $2 and $4 million worth of silver monthly. Created a partial dual coinage system referred to as "limping bimetallism." Repealed in 1900.
Sherman Silver Purchase Act (again?)
1890, passed by the U.S. Congress to supplant the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. It not only required the U.S. government to purchase nearly twice as much silver as before, but also added substantially to the amount of money already in circulation. Repealed 3 years later because it is such a disaster and causes economic issues (due to the lack of gold in the system it causes).
Munn vs. Illinois
1877; Munn, a partner in a Chicago warehouse firm, found guilty by an Illinois court of violating the state for fixing maximum charges for storage of grain. The Munn case allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders (intrastate), including railroads, and is commonly regarded as a milestone in the growth of federal government regulation.
Wabash v. IL
denies Munn vs Illinois. The result of the case was denial of state power to regulate interstate rates for railroads, and the decision led to creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1886. The decision narrowed earlier ones (see Munn v. Illinois) favorable to state regulation of those phases of interstate commerce upon which Congress itself had not acted. The court declared invalid an Illinois law prohibiting long- and short-haul clauses in transportation contracts as an infringement on the exclusive powers of Congress granted by the commerce clau
Interstate Commerce Act
1887- forced railroad companies to charge fair rates, to post their rates and give 10 days notice if they were changing the rate, and to make long trips more expensive than short ones
established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission)
monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices
Sherman Antitrust Act
stopping any combination that restrained free trade, First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions, making labor unions illegal
U.S. v. E.C. Knight
The Supreme Court ruled that since the Knight Company's monopoly over the production of sugar had no direct effect on commerce, the company couldn't be controlled by the government. It also ruled that mining and manufacturing weren't affected by interstate commerce laws and were beyond the regulatory power of Congress. Due to a narrow interpretation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Court undermined the authority of the federal government to act against monopolies.
People's Party
A political group which began to emerge in 1891. They gained much support from farmers who turned to them to fight political unfairness. They used a progressive platform. James B. Weaver ran as their presidential candidate in 1892. They had an impressive voter turnout. They were also known as the People's Party.
Election of 1892
James Weaver of Iowa, was the Populist candidate for President and won 1 million votes (also won electoral votes); lost badly in the South and failed to attack urban workers in the North; Harrison vs. Cleveland again and Cleveland won because of the unpopularity of the high-tax McKinley tariff (first president to serve two non consecutive terms)
James B. Weaver
former Civil War general who ran for president with the Greenback Party (1880) and the Populist Party (1892).
Depression of 1893
In the spring and summer of 1893, the stock market crashed as a result of over speculation, and dozens of railroads went into bankruptcy as a result of overbuilding. The depression continued for almost four years. Farm foreclosures reached new highs, and the unemployed reached 20 percent of the workforce. Many people ended up relying on soup kitchens and riding the rails as hoboes. President Cleveland, more conservative than he had been in the 1880s, dealt with the crisis by championing the gold standard and otherwise adopting a hands-off policy toward the economy. As the depression worsened and the number of jobless people grew, conservatives feared class war between capital and labor.
Jacob Coxey
A wealthy Ohio Populist who led a 500-strong "army" to Washington, D.C. in 1894 to demand a public works program to create jobs for the unemployed in the midst of a devastating four-year depression. Helped establish paper moneylead protest of unemployment from Panic of 1893. Also led a march on Washington DC in 1894 to seek government jobs for the unemployed.
Wilson Gorman Tariff
1894 act setting the tariff at 41.3%; not as low as Democrats wanted it to be. Cleveland was outraged that it did not go by his campaign pledges. He had to sign it to have a lower tariff, but he was annoyed with its ineffectiveness. It also was the first bill to introduce an income tax, but that was later struck down as unconstitutional.
Income tax
From the founding of the US, the main source of revenue for the government were tariffs and excise taxes. These kind of taxes are often referred to by economists as "regressive" because they take up a larger proportion of poor people's incomes than of wealthy people's. Tariffs and excise taxes caused the prices of goods to increase, hurting the poor more than the rich. Therefore, the Populists proposed a graduated (meaning increasing in steps or increments") income tax to take the place of tariffs. An income tax had been levied to attempt to pay for the Civil War (by both the Union and the Confederacy), but the Supreme Court in 1895 had declared an income tax unconstitutional. Therefore this would require a constitutional amendment to achieve. (16th amendment)
Pollock case
Income taxes are unconstitutional, as they are direct taxes that are not correctly divided among the states. The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 established an income tax of 2% on any income above $4,000. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company agreed to pay the tax (they didn't really have any choice). Charles Pollock sued the company in an effort to prevent them from paying the tax. The Supreme Court found that the tax was unconstitutional, as the Constitution called for such taxes to be apportioned among the states based on their Congressional representation. This decision was overturned with the ratification of the 16th Amendment, which legalized income taxes.
William Jennings Bryan
This Democratic candidate ran for president most famously in 1896 (and again in 1900). His goal of "free silver" (unlimited coinage of silver) won him the support of the Populist Party. Though a gifted orator, he lost the election to Republican William McKinley. He ran again for president and lost in 1900. Later he opposed America's imperialist actions, and in the 1920s, he made his mark as a leader of the fundamentalist cause and prosecuting attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial.
William McKinley
The 25th president (1897-1901) of the United States serving until his assassination six months into his second term. He led the U.S. to victory in the Spanish-American War, raised protective tariffs that promoted American industry, and maintain the gold standard. He was elected to Congress were he became an expert on the protective tariff. The ___ Tariff was controversial and received a lot of criticism. He secured his Republican nomination for his first election. He won his second election by campaigning with the focus of imperialism, prosperity, and free coinage of silver. He was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in 1901 leading to the take over by Theodore Roosevelt.
George Washington
A young militia officer sent by the governor of Virginia to expel the French from the upper Ohio. This was the first clash with the French in the Seven Years War. He had been forced to surrender. As his extensive military career continued, this would be known as his only surrender. He served as a general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolution, and later became the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. He was a very influential man both to public opinion and in the continental congress.
Cabinet
A body of executive department heads that serve as the chief advisors to the President. Formed during the first years of Washington's Presidency, the original members of included the Sec. of State, of the Tres. and of War. extremely important to the presidency, because these people influence the most powerful man in the nation.
Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution, containing a list of individual rights and liberties, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. This bill was put forth by Anti-Federalists, who feared forms of government intrusion on personal liberties.
Judiciary Act of 1789
organized the Supreme Court, originally with five justices and a chief justice, along with several federal district and circuit courts. It also created the attorney general's office.
Neutrality Proclamation
Issued by George Washington, established isolationist policy, proclaimed government's official neutrality in widening European conflicts also warned American citizens about intervening on either side of conflict
Citizen Genet
He was a representative of the French Republic who came to America in order to recruit Americans to help fight in the French Revolution. He went directly to the American people rather than the government because he knew the government wouldn't support him. He lands in South Carolina and makes his way North going town to town. He distributes privateering ships (agreeing to be a pirate for a country, mercenaries on water). This undermines Washington's authority: citizens deciding foreign affairs, and he just declared neutrality. He demands a personal meeting with Washington, calling himself an ambassador. If Washington receives him, he's signaling support for the Revolution.Adams meets with Citizen Genet while Washington reproclaims neutrality the same day.
(General) Anthony Wayne
A General, nicknamed "Mad Anthony" Beat Northwest Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794. Left British made arms on the fields of battle. After that, the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 led to the Indians ceding their claims to a vast tract in the Ohio Country.
Battle of Fallen Timbers
The final battle of the Northwest Indian war, which was over control of northwest territory between the Indians associated with the Western Confederacy and the United states.) The battle was over quickly when Gen. Anthony Wayne's men closed in on the Indians, winning a decisive victory for the united states that ended hostilities until Tecumseh's War and the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.
Treaty of Greenville
signed on August 3, 1795 at Fort Greenville, Ohio; it followed negotiations after the Indian's loss at the Battle of Fallen Timbers a year earlier. It ended the Northwest Indian War in the Ohio Country and limited strategic parcels of land to the north and west. It established what became known as the Greenville Treaty Line, which was for several years a boundary between Indian territory and lands open to European-American settlers. The latter frequently disregarded the treaty line as they continued to encroach on Indian lands. The treaty also established the "annuity" system: yearly grants of federal money and supplies of calico cloth to Indian tribes and thus institutionalized continuing government influence in tribal affairs, giving outsiders considerable control over Indian life.
Impressment
British practice of taking American sailors and forcing them into military service
Jay's Treaty
a treaty which offered little concessions from Britain to the U.S. and greatly disturbed the Jeffersonians.was able to get Britain to say they would evacuate the chain of posts on U.S. soil and pay damages for recent seizures of American ships. The British, however, would not promise to leave American ships alone in the future, and they decided that the Americans still owed British merchants for pre-Revolutionary war debts.• British have trading rights with the West Indies• US agrees to pay back the merchants it should have paid back 10 years beforeDoesn't resolve the issue of impressment.
Pinckney's Treaty
Treaty between Spain and America. Gave America "Free" navigation of the Mississippi, large area of north Florida (they split this land)
Alexander Hamilton
Secretary of the Treasury, he envisioned an economic and military power modeled on Britain, with a strong central government, a national bank, a standing army, and flourishing industry.
Report on Public Credit
The foreign debt borrowed from the French and Dutch was almost $12 million, domestic was $40 million, state was $25 million. This was the first of three major reports on economic policy issued by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton on the request of Congress. The report analyzed the financial standing of the United States. Hamilton proposed a remarkable set of policies for handling the debt problem. All debts were to be paid at face value. The Federal government would assume all of the debts owed by the states, and it would be financed with new U.S. government bonds paying about 4% interest.There was no opposition to funding the foreign debt because it needed to be repaid, but debtors and agrarians opposed funding the domestic debt at par. There was even more opposition to assuming the state debts.
Thomas Jefferson
Secretary of the State, he envisioned an agrarian society without a central bank, taxes, a standing army, or a large government bureaucracy. However upon entering the presidency, he was called the "great compromiser", as he combined many federalist ideals into his democratic-republican policies.
Funding and Assumption
Hamilton's proposition that the federal government pay its debt in full and assume the remaining debt of the states in order to place the government on sounder financial footing, part of Hamilton's financial plan was for the national government to assume state debt, so that instead of having 13 or 14 different tabs to pay off, they could only have one and pay it back at a better rate and make it more desirable for investment. The problem with his initial proposal was that it ignored the fact that the states owed very different amounts of money, and the ones that owed less typically had already had sharp taxes to do so. Before it could be passed, the obligation on each state had to be recalculated (Madison and Hamilton made this deal at Jefferson's dinner in exchange for putting the capitol on the Potomac River). Madison strongly opposed it because he felt that it would consolidate too much power in the national government and hurt farmers.
Washington DC
Located on the Potomac River and was built in the late 1700s according to the plans laid out by Pierre L'Enfant: New York, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C.Capital of the U.S. was moved here during Washington's presidenticy. The Secretary of Treasury, Hamilton assumed the 80 million dollar debt a national debt and guaranteed to pay everyone back= he nationalized the debt. The South was suspicious because the Southern states didn't owe that much debt. Hamilton promised the new capital would be built in the South so the Southerners could watch over affairs. This appeased them and the capital was established in D.C.
Whiskey excise tax
In order to address the federal debt (under assumption from the individual states), Hamilton proposed an excise tax on domestically distilled spirits. This was the first tax levied by the national government on a domestic products. Although the taxes were politically unpopular, Hamilton believed this was a luxury tax and would not be that objectionable. It became the law in 1791. Instead, it ended up hurting the farmers, which may have been a foreseeable consequence because they were all supporters of Thomas Jefferson.
Report on Manufactures
Hamilton reasoned that to secure American independence, the US needed to have a sound policy of encouraging the growth of manufacturing and secure its future as a permanent feature of the economy. He argued that this could be achieved through subsidies to industry, regulation of trade with moderate tariffs (not intended to discourage imports but to raise the revenue for the subsidies), and other government encouragement.
Protective tariffs
Taxes on products imported from other nations. Benefited the North because it allowed businesses to compete. The South did not like this because it was taxed on the goods it was buying.
Bank of the United States
Proposed by Alexander Hamilton as the basis of his economic plan. He proposed a powerful private institution, in which the government was the major stockholder. This would be a way to collect and amass the various taxes collected. It would also provide a strong and stable national currency. Jefferson vehemently opposed the bank; he thought it was unconstitutional. Nevertheless, it was created. This issue brought about the issue of implied powers. It also helped start political parties, this being one of the major issues of the day.
Strict construction
idea of following the constitution exactly, JeffersonA judicial philosophy that looks to the "letter of the law" when interpreting the constitution or a particular statute
Implied powers
refers to the powers of the government found in the constitution in unwritten forms. Although some situations, such as the creation of the National Bank, are not specifically referred to in the constitution through the elastic clause they are not illegal or unconstitutional.Eventually this became an issue contributing to the formation of political parties.
Loose construction
Constitution is broadly interpreted, recognizing that it could not possibly anticipate all future developments; relies on the idea of implied powers and the "necessary and proper" clause. Both views on how to interpret the Constitution came up during the debate on chartering the Bank of the United States in 1791.
Whiskey Rebellion
1794- A group of 500 Scots-Irish farmers of western Pennsylvania attacked the house of a tax collector in response to Hamilton's Whiskey Excise tax. Whiskey poles were erected similar to the Liberty poles of the Revolution and organized mobs kept the tax from being collected. Several federal officers were killed in the riots caused by their attempts to serve arrest warrants on the offenders. Finally, a 13,000 man army led by Washington was raised and 100 men were arrested. In the end, little was collected. The tax was lowered on small stills, and the tradition of illegal whiskey was established.The incident showed that the new government under the Constitution could react swiftly and effectively to such a problem, in contrast to the inability of the government under the Articles of Confederation to deal with Shay's Rebellion.
Federalists
A United States political party consisting of the more respectable citizens of the time; lived along the eastern seaboard in the 1790's; believed in advocating a strong federal government and fought for the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1787-1788. They enjoyed powerful figures such as Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. In order to extend the idea of the federalist philosophy, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote a collection of articles called, "The _____." They claimed that all three branches effectively represented the people.
Democratic-Republicans
1790s, this party follows a strict interpretation of the constitution and favors a small government. They want the US to be a nation of small, independent farmers. Madison and Jefferson are a part of this and it was not a party developed formally when Washington was in office. It reflected their strong belief in democracy and the republican system. It drew farmers and workers to it. Supported a limited national government with an economy mainly based on farming.
Washington's Farewell Address
Washington retired from office after his 2nd term in 1797. His Farewell Address is actually a letter. In it he reacted sharply to Republicans, by warning against international entanglements (more specifically, denouncing against the Republicans that had been conspiring with the French to frustrate the Federalist diplomatic program.and against the dangers of permanent alliances with foreign nations. (Ex. The Jay Treaty)Warned against sectionalism (Ex: put down the Whiskey Rebellion). Temporary alliances wouldn't be quite as dangerous, but they should be made only in "extraordinary emergencies". He also spoke against partisan bitterness. (Federalist and Republican parties) 1775-1825
Election of 1796
The person with the most electoral votes, John Adams, became President and the person with the second most electoral votes, Thomas Jefferson, became Vice President. A problem from this situation was that Adams and Jefferson belonged to different political parties, so political tensions were strong in the Executive Branch. In modern elections, presidential candidates choose their vice presidential candidates to run with them, so the situation in 1796 could not occur.
John Adams
Second president of the United States who preferred a strong central government, consulted his wife on almost everything, eventually isolated himself from his own federalist party and (in a very unpopular decision,) implemented the Alien and Sedition Acts.
XYZ Affair
1798 - A commission had been sent to France in 1797 to discuss the disputes that had arisen out of the U.S.'s refusal to honor the Franco-American Treaty of 1778. President Adams had also criticized the French Revolution, so France began to break off relations with the U.S. Adams sent delegates to meet with French foreign minister Talleyrand in the hopes of working things out. Talleyrand's three agents told the American delegates that they could meet with Talleyrand only in exchange for a very large bribe. The Americans did not pay the bribe, and in 1798 Adams made the incident public, substituting the letters "X, Y and Z" for the names of the three French agents in his report to Congress.
U.S. Navy, Marine Crops
One of Adams' first major decisions was to build a stronger US military. He reasoned that if the United States was to become a world power, it had to have a world-class military. This greatly upset the Democratic-Republicans who thought that it was giving the government too much control and worried that it would lead to war.
Alien and Sedition Acts
(1798) Sought to prevent political protestors and possible spies out of the United States at a time when war with France was expected. The ____ acts were aimed at Irish and French immigrants, who were mostly pro-French. ○ Naturalization Act- lengthen the period to be a citizen from 5 to 14 years ○ Alien Enemies Act-authorized the president to do the same to any male citizen of a hostile nation, above the age of 14, during times of war ○ Alien Act-allowed the president to imprison or deport aliens considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States" at any time ○ Sedition Act- restricted speech which was critical of the federal government, illegal to write, print, utter, or conspire in rebellion. § Went against the Bill of Rights § Punishable by jail □ Ex. Matthew Lyon
Virginia and Kentucky Resolves
Manifestos on states' rights [that were written by]...Madison and Jefferson" stating that state legislatures had the right to judge for themselves how constitutional certain actions enacted by the federal government were, the authority to protect their citizens' freedom (interposition), as well as the power to " 'nullify' federal laws to which they objected." These manifestos were passed and adopted in these particular states in 1798.
Matthew Lyon
Was the first person to be put to trial for violating the acts on charges of criticizing Federalist president John Adams and disagreeing with Adams' decision to go to war against France. Lyon was sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs. While in jail, Lyon won election to the Sixth Congress. In the election of 1800 Matthew Lyon cast the deciding vote for Jefferson after the election went to the House of Representatives because of an electoral tie.
Election of 1800
(Revolution of 1800) Jefferson and Burr tied in the number of electoral votes and then Hamilton (who despised Burr) supported Jefferson, which eventually won him the election. This was significant because political power was shifted between parties, peacefully. Also, it caused further conflict between Burr and Hamilton"Wacky Election" in which the Democratic-Republican candidates were Burr and Jefferson; the Federalist candidates were Adams and Pinckney. Pinckney dropped out and Adams lost the vote. This left Burr and Jefferson with a tie. After 35 different ballots (cast in the House) Jefferson wins by one vote (the vote of which was by Hamilton who hated Burr more than Jefferson). The election led to the 12th Amendment which called for the voting of Presidential and Vice-president candidates as a ticket.
Aaron Burr
An American politician and adventurer. He was a formative member of the Democratic-Republican Party in New York and a strong supporter of Governor George Clinton. He is remembered not so much for his tenure as the third Vice President, under Thomas Jefferson, as for his duel with Alexander Hamilton, resulting in Hamilton's death. He is also known for his trial and acquittal on charges of treason. Jefferson's vice-president for his first term; not voted into a second term because of radical ideas and ventures that threatened to break up the Union and resulted in the death of Alexander Hamilton.
Revolution of 1800
Jefferson's view of his election to presidency. Jefferson claimed that the election of 1800 represented a return to what he considered the original spirit of the Revolution. Jefferson's goals for his revolution were to restore the republican experiment, check the growth of government power, and to halt the decay of virtue that had set in under Federalist rule. The election was revolutionary because it was a transfer of power w/o violence or hatred. It was a peaceful shift of power from one party to the other.
12th Amendment
Brought about by the Jefferson/Burr tie, stated that presidential and vice-presidential nominees would run on the same party ticket. Before that time, all of the candidates ran against each other, with the winner becoming president and second-place becoming vice-president.
Naturalization Act of 1802
Extended the period of residence required to become a citizen from 5 to 14 years. Implemented by John Adams, this extended the amount of time you have to live in the country before becoming a citizen. If you're an immigrant to the country you're most likely to be a farmer, hence voting for the agrarian Jefferson. As a result of these acts, an immigrant must way 9 years to vote and this eliminated many threats to Adams re-election.
Repeal of Whiskey tax
Many residents of the western frontier petitioned against passage of the whiskey excise. When that failed, some western Pennsylvanians organized extralegal conventions to advocate repeal of the law. The whiskey tax was repealed after Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party, which opposed Hamilton's Federalist Party, came to power in 1800.
Albert Gallatin
This man was the secretary of the treasury under Thomas Jefferson. He was called the "Watchdog of the Treasury," and proved to be as able as Alexander Hamilton. He agreed with Jefferson that a national debt was a bane rather than a blessing. Using strict controls of the economy, he succeeded in reducing the debt, and he balanced the budget. He believed that to pay the interest on debt, there would have to be taxes. Taxes would suck money from industrious farmers and put it in the hands of wealthy creditors. STRICT ECONOMY
Judiciary Act of 1801
Passed by the Federalists after they had lost control of Congress in the election of 1800, the act reduced the size of the Supreme Court, created a new set of circuit courts, and increased the number of district court judges. The Jeffersonian Republicans repealed the act in 1801.
Midnight Judges
The 16 judges that were added by the Judiciary Act of 1801 that were called this because Adams signed their appointments late on the last day of his administration. Effort on part of the federalists to resolve the system that required the justices of the Supreme Court to "ride circuit" and reiterate decisions made in the appellate level courts. The Supreme Court justices had often voiced concern and suggested that the judges of the Supreme and circuit courts be divided.
John Marshall
Appointed by John Adams (1801) as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court- was a Virginia Federalist who was disliked by the state's rights Jeffersonians. (Served 30 days under Federalist administration and 34 years under the Jeffersonians and their successors) The Federalists died out but Marshall continued to hand down Federalist decisions. IMPORTANT ACT- Although he dismissed the Marbury suit ( 1801) to avoid direct political showdown, he said that part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, on which Marbury tried to base his appeal was unconstitutional.
Marbury v Madison (1803)
Supreme court case in which John Marshall declared that a law passed by congress was unconstitutional thereby establishing the principle of judicial review; Marbury was justice of the Peace who was a midnight appointment of Adams; Madison was the Secretary of state told by Jefferson not to give Marbury the job; Marbury sued for a writ of mandamus; Marshall says one part of Judiciary Act of 1789 unconstitutional - 1st time Supreme Court did its duty
Judicial Review
A crucial concept that empowered the Supreme Court to invalidate acts of Congress. Although not explicitly propounded in the US Constitution, Chief Justice John Marshall affirmed in Marbury v. Madison (1803) that the right of judicial review was implicit in the Constitution's status as "the supreme Law of the Land".
Samuel Chase
A prominent political leader during the American Revolution, he was the only U.S. Supreme Court justice ever impeached. Despite his record of outstanding accomplishment on the Supreme Court, Congress voted to impeach him in 1804. His support of the Federalist-backed Alien and Sedition Acts and his overly zealous handling of treason and sedition trials involving Jeffersonians caused him to anger the president and his backers in Congress. While spared by only a narrow margin, he was acquitted, with the result that his trial discouraged future attempts to impeach justices for purely political reasons.
Naval battles at Tripoli
The First Battle of Tripoli Harbor was a naval battle fought on May 16, 1802 in Tripoli harbor between a combined force consisting of the American frigate USS Boston and two Swedish frigates against several Tripolitian corsairs. The Swedish-American force was enforcing the blockade when an engagement broke out between it and Tripolitian forces. The Allied fleet damaged the Tripolitian squadron as well as the harbor fortifications before withdrawing and resuming the blockade.
Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800)
Treaty on October 1, 1800, in which Spain ceded the Louisiana territory to France, which was becoming a foremost military power. Threat of French expansion was the result of Jefferson's goal to obtain the territory, not for expansionism, but the opportunities of trade by New Orleans as a sea port.
Toussaint L'Ouverture
(1744 - 1803) Leader of the Haitian revolution. Under his military and political leadership, Haiti gained independence and abolished slavery, becoming the first black-ruled republic in the Americas. He died in exile in France
Louisiana Purchase
1803 - The U.S. purchased the land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains from Napoleon for $15 million. Jefferson was interested in the territory because it would give the U.S. the Mississippi River and New Orleans (both were valuable for trade and shipping) and also room to expand. Napoleon wanted to sell because he needed money for his European campaigns and because a rebellion against the French in Haiti had soured him on the idea of New World colonies. The Constitution did not give the federal government the power to buy land, so Jefferson used loose construction to justify the purchase.
Lewis and Clark
(May 1804-September 1806) The first American expedition to cross what is now the western portion of the United States, departing in May, 1804 from near St. Louis on the Mississippi River, making their way westward through the continental divide to the Pacific coast. The expedition was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, consisting of a select group of U.S. Army volunteers under the command of Captain ___ and his close friend Second Lieutenant ___. The primary objective was to explore and map the newly acquired territory, find a practical route across the Western half of the continent, and establish an American presence in this territory before Britain and other European powers tried to claim it. The campaign's secondary objectives were scientific and economic: to study the area's plants, animal life, and geography, and establish trade with local Indian tribes.
Zebulon Pike
As a United States Army captain in 1806-1807, he led the ______ Expedition, sent out by President Thomas Jefferson, to explore and document the southern portion of the Louisiana territory and to find the headwaters of the Red River, during which he recorded the discovery of what later was called _____ Peak. The _____ Expedition traveled through present-day Colorado after his party confused their location. This led to capture by Spanish, who sent Pike and his men to Chihuahua, present-day Mexico and questioned by the governor. They were released later in 1807 at the border of Louisiana. In 1810 Pike published an account of his expeditions. He later died in the Battle of York in the war of 1812.
Essex Junto
A powerful group of New England Federalist Party lawyers, merchants, and politicians. The term was coined by John Hancock in 1778 to describe the main opponents of a proposed constitution for the state of Massachusetts. Over the following years the group expanded to include politicians from other New England states who were opposed to Democratic-Republican Party policies that dominated national politics. They supported Alexander Hamilton and the Massachusetts radicals. When Hamilton declined their offer, the Essex Junto tried to vie support from Aaron Burr, who accepted the offer from the Junto to have a place in the plot to secede from the Union. After Hamilton's death, they became even more extreme, and during the War of 1812, they were called "Blue Lights.
Burr/Hamilton Duel
A duel between two prominent American politicians: the former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and sitting Vice President Aaron Burr, on July 11, 1804. At Weehawken in New Jersey, Burr shot and mortally wounded Hamilton. Hamilton was carried to the home of William Bayard in Manhattan, where he died at 8:00 p.m. the next day.
Burr Conspiracy
A suspected treasonous cabal of planters, politicians, and army officers allegedly led by former U.S. Vice President _____. According to the accusations against him, _____'s goal was to create an independent nation in the center of North America and/or present-day Southwest and parts of present-day Mexico. _______'s version was that he intended to take possession of, and farm, 40,000 acres (160 km²) in the Texas Territory leased to him by the Spanish Crown. U.S. President Thomas Jefferson ordered ______ arrested and indicted for treason. _______ was acquitted of treason, but the trial destroyed his already faltering political career.
Continental System (Berlin & Milan Decrees)
The Berlin Decrees forbade Napoleon's allies from importing British goods. The Milan Decree of 1807 tried to stop neutral nations from trading with Britain. Together with orders in council, this policy of economic warfare against Britain was designed to weaken Britain, since it was the only real remaining enemy of Napoleon's, at that point, in Europe. However, it was kind of a failure, since Britain had enough colonies and sea power to maintain a vibrant economy anyway- and it backfired on Napoleon, because smuggling and resentment went wild in his empire because of this harsh control of its economy.
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
One of the events leading up to the War of 1812. On 22 June 1807 off Hampton Roads, Virginia, the American frigate ___ was stopped by the British ship Leopard, whose commander demanded the surrender of four seamen alleged to have deserted from the British ships Melampus and Halifax. Upon the refusal of the American commander, Captain James Barron, to give up the men, the Leopard opened fire. The American vessel, having just begun a long voyage to the Mediterranean, was unprepared for battle, and to the repeated broadsides from the British replied with only one gun, which was discharged with a live coal from the galley. After sustaining heavy casualties and damage to masts and rigging, Barron surrendered his vessel (he was later court martialed for dereliction).The British boarding party recovered only one deserter. In addition, three former Britons, by then naturalized Americans, were removed by force and impressed into the British navy to help fight its war with France. The incident enflamed patriotic passions and spurred new calls for the protection of American sovereignty in neutral waters. Seeking to pressure England and France to respect American neutrality, President Thomas Jefferson pushed the Embargo Act through Congress in December 1807. The embargo, which prohibited exports to overseas ports, hurt the domestic economy and did little to alter British practices. Negotiations over the ____ incident continued until 1811 when England formally disavowed the act and returned two of the Americans—the third had died.
Embargo Act
passed Dec. 22, 1807, by the U.S. Congress in answer to the British orders in council restricting neutral shipping and to Napoleon's restrictive Continental System. The U.S. merchant marine suffered from both the British and French, and Thomas Jefferson undertook to answer both nations with measures that by restricting neutral trade would show the importance of that trade. The first attempt was the Nonimportation Act, passed Apr. 18, 1806, forbidding the importation of specified British goods in order to force Great Britain to relax its rigorous rulings on cargoes and sailors (see impressment). The act was suspended, but the ___ ___ of 1807 was a bolder statement of the same idea. It forbade all international trade to and from American ports, and Jefferson hoped that Britain and France would be persuaded of the value and the rights of a neutral commerce. In Jan., 1808, the prohibition was extended to inland waters and land commerce to halt the skyrocketing trade with Canada. Merchants, sea captains, and sailors were naturally dismayed to find themselves without income and to see the ships rotting at the wharves. All sorts of dodges were used to circumvent the law. The daring attempt to use economic pressure in a world at war was not successful. Britain and France stood firm, and not enough pressure could be brought to bear. Enforcement was difficult, especially in New England, where merchants looked on the scheme as an attempt to defraud them of a livelihood. When in Jan., 1809, Congress, against much opposition, passed an act to make enforcement more rigid, resistance approached the point of rebellion—again especially in New England—and the scheme had to be abandoned. On Mar. 1, 1809, the ____ was superseded by the Nonintercourse Act. This allowed resumption of all commercial intercourse except with Britain and France. Jefferson reluctantly accepted it. Not unexpectedly, it failed to bring pressure on Britain and France. In 1810 it was replaced by Macon's Bill No. 2 (named after Nathaniel Macon), which virtually ended the experiment. It provided for trade with both Britain and France unless one of those powers revoked its restrictions; in that case, the President was authorized to forbid commerce with the country that had not also revoked its offensive measures.
Non-Intercourse Act
1809 - Replaced the Embargo of 1807. Unlike the Embargo, which forbade American trade with all foreign nations, this act only forbade trade with France and Britain. It did not succeed in changing British or French policy towards neutral ships, so it was replaced by Macon's Bill No. 2.
Macon' Bill No. 2
law that lifted all embargoes with Britain or France. If either one of the two countries stopped attacks upon American shipping, the United States would cease trade with the other, unless that country agreed to recognize the rights of the neutral American ships as well. Napoleon immediately saw a chance to exploit this bill in order to further his Continental Plan, a form of economic warfare he believed would destroy Britain's economy. A message was sent to the United States, stating the rights of the American merchant ships as neutral carriers would be recognized. However, Napoleon had no intention of ever following through on his promise, and Madison soon realized this as well, ignoring the French promise. The British were still highly offended by the agreement and threatened force, thus motivating Napoleon to withdraw altogether. Still, the damage had been done and soon the U.S. and Britain were entangled in the War of 1812 due to the continued harassment of American ships and escalated tensions between the United States and the nations of Europe. A general consensus among historians is that this bill was effectively useless, as it was quickly seen that the European economies played upon the weaknesses this bill created. As a result, the bill's parameters were never enforced, due to Madison's correct interpretation of France's deviation.
War Hawks
A group of young Republican congressmen, most of them lawyers from the West and South, who in 1811-1812 were eager for war with British in order to legitimize attacks on Indians, end impressment, and avenge foreign insults. They hoped to acquire Britain's northwest ports. The War Hawks were led by Henry Clay from Kentucky and John C. Calhoun from South Carolina. They helped propel the United States in the War of 1812.
Tecumseh
(1763-1813) A Shawnee chief who, along with his brother, Tenskwatawa, a religious leader known as The Prophet, worked to unite the North Western Indian tribes. The league of tribes was defeated by an American army led by William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. He was killed fighting for the British during the War of 1812 at the Battle of Thames in 1813.
Tippecanoe
Battle of (1811), Resulted in the defeat of Shawnee chief Tenskwatawa, "the Prophet" at the hands William Henry Harrison in the Indiana wilderness. After the battle, the Prophet's brother, Tecumseh, forged an alliance with the British against the United States. (245)
William Henry Harrison
This man was made commander of the Army of the Northwest on September 17, 1812. Promoted to major general, he worked diligently to transform his army from an untrained mob into a disciplined fighting force. Unable to go on the offensive while British ships controlled Lake Erie, he worked to defend American settlements.In late September 1813, after the American victory at the Battle of Lake Erie, he moved to the attack. Ferried to Detroit by Master Commandant Oliver H. Perry's victorious squadron, heset off in pursuit British and Native American forces under Major General Henry Proctor and Tecumseh. Catching them on October 5, he won a key victory at the Battle of the Thames which saw Tecumseh killed and the war on the Lake Erie front effectively ended.
Battle of Horseshoe Bend
A battle fought during the War of 1812 in central Alabama. On March 27, 1814, United States forces and Indian allies under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Red Sticks, a part of the Creek Indian tribe inspired by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, effectively ending the Creek War.850 people killed, Jackson lost 50 people. Destroyed the Creek Nation, Jackson stops the Creek/British Alliance. Jackson oversees writing treaties to take Indian land (land seizure) War of 1812 expanded slavery cotton plantations.
War of 1812
A war between the U.S. and Great Britain caused by American outrage over the impressment of American sailors by the British, the British seizure of American ships, and British aid to the Indians attacking the Americans on the western frontier. Also, a war against Britain gave the U.S. an excuse to seize the British northwest posts and to annex Florida from Britain's ally Spain, and possibly even to seize Canada from Britain. The War Hawks (young westerners led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun) argued for war in Congress. The war involved several sea battles and frontier skirmishes. U.S. troops led by Andrew Jackson seized Florida and at one point the British managed to invade and burn Washington, D.C. The Treaty of Ghent (December 1814) restored the status quo and required the U.S. to give back Florida. Two weeks later, Andrew Jackson's troops defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans, not knowing that a peace treaty had already been signed. The war strengthened American nationalism and encouraged the growth of industry.
Oliver Hazard Perry
We have me the enemy, and they are ours." Naval hero during the War of 1812. Won battle on Lake Erie against the British. After the battle, he sent William Henry Harrison a note that said this famous quote.
Star Spangled Banner
Francis Scott Key, a United States lawyer and poet, observed the US battle of Fort McHenry against British (War of 1812) and wrote his thoughts down in a poem called the "Star Spangled Banner," which later became the national anthem.
Burning of Washington DC
British captured and burned Washington, D.C. With attention focused on the Canadian front, the Chesapeake Bay offered the British several inviting targets. To defend the capital, the Americans had a militia force of about 7,000. British burned the White House, the Capitol, and most other government buildings. Tornado compounded the damage. Thunderstorm dampened the fires and enthusiasm of the British forces.
Battle of New Orleans
Jackson led a battle that occurred when British troops attacked U.S. soldiers in New Orleans on January 8, 1815; the War of 1812 had officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in December, 1814, but word had not yet reached the U.S.General Andrew Jackson quickly rallied his troops and ambushed the British fleet; British army was forced to retreat; This battle was an overwhelming success for the Americans and made General Andrew Jackson a hero.
Andrew Jackson
During the War of 1812, he was appointed a Major General and sent to New Orleans to prepare the city's defenses against an impending British attack. His army of Tennessee and Kentucky volunteers defeated an invading British force of 7500 men and forced the British to withdraw from the region. The political future of the "Hero of New Orleans" was secured by this victory.
Treaty of Ghent
This treaty was signed on December 24, 1814 and was negotiated by JQ Adams and Henry Clay. Strangely enough, there was no mention of any of the issues that actually started the war - all the treaty did was restore the good 'ol status quo. This was acceptable to negotiators b/c Napoleon had been defeated, which meant impressment was no longer a concern. So what did the war do? It reaffirmed American independence [taught the British a second lesson] and further convinced the US to stay out of European politics. It destroyed Indian resistance [Tecumseh died], leading to American expansion to the South and West [but not into Canada]. It exposed American militarily weakness and made clear the importance of better transportation systems, which then made improving those two items nat'l priorities. In 1815 Madison centralized control of the military and began building a line of costal forts, and work on the National Road progressed into the West. It finished off the Federalist party. Although the Federalists made slight gains in the 1812 election, they were undermined by fanatics who met in the Hartford Convention and discussed possible session b/c NE was losing its political power to the South/West. This wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been timed right around the Battle of New Orleans, which made the whole thing look really stupid, not to mention treasonous. So that was the end of the Federalists.
Hartford Convention
December 1814 - A convention of New England merchants who opposed the Embargo and other trade restriction, and the War of 1812. They proposed some Amendments to the Constitution and advocated the right of states to nullify federal laws. They also discussed the idea of seceding from the U.S. if their desires were ignored. This convention turned public sentiment against the Federalists and led to the demise of the party.
Era of Good Feeling
(1816-1819) This was caused by the Fedaralist party fading and the Republican party dominating politics in every section. Although the Monroe years were marked by a spirit of nationalism, optimism and goodwill, it was also ridden with heated debates over tariffs, the national bank, internal improvements and public land sales.
Second Bank of the United States
This institution was chartered in 1816 under President Madison and became a depository for federal funds and a creditor for (loaning money to) state banks. It became unpopular after being blamed for the panic of 1819, and suspicion of corruption and mismanagement haunted it until its charter expired in 1836. Jackson fought against this institution throughout his presidency, proclaiming it to be an unconstitutional extension of the federal government and a tool that rich capitalists used to corrupt American society. Much like its predecessor of 1791 but with more capital; it could not forbid state banks from issuing notes, but its size and power enabled it to compel the state banks to issue only sound notes or risk being forced out of business.
Henry Clay
8th, 10th, and 13th speaker of the house of representatives, from Kentucky, it is commonly thought that he convinced congress to vote for John Quincy Adams over Jackson during the election of 1824 (Corrupt Bargain). He was a republican and a leader of the War hawks along with John C. Calhoun, emphasizing his favor for a war with Britain and his key role in the outbreak of the war of 1812. Known to be a "Great Compromiser" and settled many compromises about slavery and nullification. Was in fact a slave owner, but freed them in his Will.He helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent.
American System
An economic regime pioneered by Henry Clay which created a high tariff to support internal improvements such as road-building. This approach was intended to allow the United States to grow and prosper by themselves This would eventually help America industrialize and become an economic power.It included protective tariffs, a nat'l bank, and internal improvements. J.Q. believed that the gov't should play an active role in the economy, education, science, and the arts.
Rush-Bagot Agreement
The treaty laid the basis for a demilitarized boundary between the U.S. and British North America. This agreement was indicative of improving relations between the United States and Great Britain in the period following the War of 1812, treaty between the United States and Britain enacted in 1817 (signed April 28-29, 1817 in Washington, DC). The treaty provided for the demilitarization of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, where many British naval arrangements and forts still remained
Adams-Onis (Transcontinental) Treaty
Also known as the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819, it settled a border dispute in North America between the United States and Spain. The treaty was the result of increasing tensions between the U.S. and Spain regarding territorial rights at a time of weakened Spanish power in the New World. In addition to ceding Florida to the United States, the treaty settled a boundary dispute along the Sabine River in Texas and firmly established the boundary of U.S. territory and claims through the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean in exchange for the U.S. paying residents' claims against the Spanish government up to a total of $5,000,000 and relinquishing its own claims on parts of Texas west of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase.
Convention of 1818
A manifestation of President Monroe's "diplomatic nationalism." This group resolved several points of contention. It: established the norther boundary of the Louisiana Purchase along the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the crest of the Rocky Mountains; called for joint occupation of Oregon by the United States and Britain; acknowledged American fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
James Fenimore Cooper
(1789-1851) - 1st US novelist, The Leatherstocking Tales (which included The Last of the Mohicans which was popular in Europe). noted for his stories of American Indians and the frontier life.
Natty Bumpo
The protagonist of James Fenimore Cooper's pentalogy of novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Although the child of white parents, he grew up with Native Americans, becoming a near-fearless warrior skilled in many weapons, one of which is the long rifle. He respects his forest home and all its inhabitants, hunting only what he needs to survive. And when it comes time to fire his trusty flintlock, he lives by the rule, "One shot, one kill." He and his Mohican "brother" Chingachgook champion goodness by trying to stop the incessant conflict between the Mohicans and the Hurons.
Washington Irving
(1783-1859) The first American author to gain international recognition. Many of his short stories, including "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", combined both American and European themes, and Europeans were shocked that an American could write so well.
Hudson River School
A group of landscape painters originally known as simply "American" or "Native" painters, the ____ ____ ____acquired its present name because of its early focus on the dramatic landscape of the Hudson River Valley in New York. While Thomas Cole is usually considered the "father" of the Hudson River tradition, other important painters including Asher Durand, Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, and Martin Johnson Heade contributed to the development of this movement. Highlighting the awesome, monumental quality of the American landscape, these artists were fundamentally optimistic about westward expansion and the promise of democracy. In their quest for new and spectacular effects, the Hudson River artists journeyed far beyond the Hudson River by the mid-nineteenth century, traveling to the Rocky Mountains, California, and even South America to record the expanse and grandeur of the continents.
McCulloch v Maryland
The state of Maryland had attempted to impede operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland. The Second Bank of the United States was the only out-of-state bank than existing in Maryland, and the law was recognized in the court's opinion as having specifically targeted it. The Court invoked the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution. This case established two important principles in constitutional law. First, the Constitution grants to Congress implied powers for implementing the Constitution's express powers, in order to create a functional national government. Second, state action may not impede valid constitutional exercises of power by the Federal government.
Gibbons v Ogden
Aaron Ogden filed a complaint in the Court of Chancery of New York asking the court to restrain Thomas Gibbons from operating on these waters. Ogden's lawyer contended that states often passed laws on issues regarding interstate matters and that states should have fully concurrent power with Congress on matters concerning interstate commerce. Gibbons' lawyer, Daniel Webster, argued that Congress had exclusive national power over interstate commerce according to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States held that the power to regulate interstate commerce, granted to Congress by the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, encompassed the power to regulate navigation.
Dartmouth v Woodward
The case arose when the New Hampshire legislature attempted to force the college to become a public institution and thereby place the ability to appoint trustees in the hands of the governor of New Hampshire. This led to a decision from the United States Supreme Court dealing with the application of the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution to private corporations. The Supreme Court upheld the sanctity of the original charter of the college, stating that a charter is a contract and therefore a state can't alter it because it would be against the Constitution. The decision settled the nature of public versus private charters and resulted in the rise of the American business corporation and the American free enterprise system.
Fletcher v Peck
The Georgia legislature overwhelmingly approved the land grant: the Yazoo Land Act of 1795. However, it was revealed that the Yazoo Land Act had been approved in return for bribes; after the scandal was exposed, voters repealed the law and voided transactions made under it. Robert Fletcher, and especially John Peck, were speculators in the Yazoo lands. Fletcher bought a tract of land from Peck while the 1795 act was still in force. Fletcher later (1803) brought this suit against Peck, claiming that Peck had not had clear title to the land when he sold it. Both Fletcher's and Peck's land holdings would be secured if the Supreme Court decided that Indians did not hold original title—and so Fletcher set out to lose the case. The resulting case reached the Supreme Court which ruled that the state legislature's repeal of the law was void because it was unconstitutional. The first case in which the Supreme Court ruled a state law unconstitutional, the decision also helped create a growing precedent for the sanctity of legal contracts, and hinted that Native Americans did not hold title to their own lands.
James Monroe
The fifth President of the United States (1817-1825). ___ was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation. He gained experience as an executive as the Governor of Virginia and rose to national prominence as a diplomat in France, when he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. During the War of 1812, ____ held the critical roles of Secretary of State and the Secretary of War under President James Madison. The last president during the First Party System era of American politics. As president, he bought Florida from Spain and sought to ease partisan tensions. The Treaty of 1818 was passed during his time in office, securing the border of the United States along the 42nd Parallel to the Pacific Ocean and representing America's first determined attempt at creating an American global empire. In 1823, he announced the United States' opposition to any European intervention in the recently independent countries of the Americas with the ____ Doctrine, which became a landmark in American foreign policy.
Monroe Doctrine
(December 2, 1823) A US foreign policy regarding Latin American countries in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention. At the same time, the doctrine noted that the United States would neither interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. Its primary objective was to free the newly independent colonies of Latin America from European intervention and avoid situations which could make the New World a battleground for the Old World powers, so that the United States could exert its own influence undisturbed. The doctrine asserted that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence, for they were composed of entirely separate and independent nations.
Tariff of 1816
(April 27, 1816-June 1819) The first tariff passed by Congress with an explicit function of protecting U.S. manufactured items from foreign competition. Prior to the War of 1812, tariffs had primarily served to raise revenues to operate the national government. Another unique aspect of the tariff was the strong support it received from Southern states. The bill was conceived as part of a solution to the purely domestic matter of avoiding a projected federal deficit reported by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander J. Dallas. A tariff on manufactured goods, including war industry products, was deemed essential in the interests of national defense. Northern efforts to establish permanent protection in 1820, after tensions with Great Britain had eased, provoked a backlash among Southern legislators.
Samuel Slater
An early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution." He brought British textile technology to America, modifying it for United States use. He learned textile machinery as an apprentice to a pioneer in the British industry. Immigrating to the United States at the age of 21, he designed the first textile mills, and later went into business for himself, developing a family business with his sons.
Eli Whitney
An American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793. He also invented interchangeable parts. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Whitney's invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost many profits in legal battles over patent infringement for the cotton gin.
Oliver Evans
An American inventor, engineer and businessman. A pioneer in the fields of automation, materials handling and steam power; his accomplishments ranged from designing the first fully automated industrial process, to building the first high-pressure steam engine and first (albeit crude) automobile in America. Evans designed a continuous process of manufacturing that did not require human labor, a novel concept that would prove critical to the industrial revolution and the development of mass production. Later in life Evans turned his attention to steam power, and built the first high-pressure steam engine in the United States in 1801. Evans had dreamed of building a steam-powered wagon and would eventually construct and run one in 1805.
Interchangeable parts
Parts that are, for practical purposes, identical. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any assembly of the same type. Methods for industrial production of interchangeable parts in the United States were first developed in the nineteenth century. The term American system of manufacturing was sometimes applied to them at the time, in distinction from earlier methods. Within a few decades such methods were in use in various countries, so American system is now a term of historical reference rather than current industrial nomenclature.
Cotton gin
A machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. the first modern mechanical _____ was created by American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793, and patented in 1794. Whitney's ______ revolutionised the ______ industry in the United States, but also led to the growth of slavery in the American South as the demand for cotton workers rapidly increased. The invention has thus been identified as an inadvertent contributing factor to the outbreak of the American Civil War.
Lowell mill girls
Female workers who came to work for the textile corporations in Lowell, Massachusetts, during the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The women initially recruited by the corporations were daughters of propertied New England farmers, between the ages of 15 and 30. By 1840, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, the textile mills had recruited over 8,000 women, who came to make up nearly seventy-five percent of the mill workforce. As a result, while factory life would soon come to be experienced as oppressive, it enabled these women to challenge assumptions of female inferiority and dependence. As the nature of the new "factory system" became clear, however, many women joined the broader American labor movement, to protest the dramatic social changes being brought by the Industrial Revolution.
Cult of Domesticity/True Womanhood
A prevailing value system among the upper and middle classes during the nineteenth century in the United States and Great Britain. This value system emphasized new ideas of femininity, the woman's role within the home and the dynamics of work and family. "True women" were supposed to possess four cardinal virtues: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. The women and men who most actively promoted these standards were generally white, Protestant, and lived in New England and the Northeastern United States. The cult of domesticity revolved around the women being the center of the family; they were considered "The light of the home". Although all women were supposed to emulate this ideal of femininity, black, working class, and immigrant women did not fit the definition of "true women" because of social prejudice.
Robert Fulton
A colonial American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat. In 1800, he was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to design the "Nautilus", which was the first practical submarine in history. He is also credited with inventing some of the world's earliest naval torpedoes for use by the British Royal Navy. Due to his invention of the steamboat, the state of New York gave him a monopoly on trade in the canals. From here he sold rights to Ogden and this led to a later conflict with Gibbins, shown in the supreme court case.
Erie Canal
Proposed in 1808 and completed in 1825, the canal links the waters of Lake Erie in the west to the Hudson River in the east. In order to open the country west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlers and to offer a cheap and safe way to carry produce to a market.
National (Cumberland) Road
first federal highway in the United States and for several years the main route to what was then the Northwest Territory. Built (1811-37) from Cumberland, Md. (western terminus of a state road from Baltimore and of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal), to Vandalia, Ill., it forms part of the present U.S. Route 40. In April 1802 Congress appropriated land-sale funds to finance an overland link between the Atlantic Coast and the new state of Ohio.
Panic of 1819
(1819-1821) The first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States followed by a general collapse of the American economy persisting through 1821. It announced the transition of the nation from its colonial commercial status with Europe toward a dynamic economy, increasingly characterized by the financial and industrial imperatives of laissez-faire capitalism. It provoked popular resentment against banking and business enterprise, and a general belief that federal government economic policy was fundamentally flawed. Americans, many for the first time, became politically engaged so as to defend their local economic interests. The New Republicans and their American System- tariff protection, internal improvements and the BUS - were exposed to sharp criticism, eliciting a vigorous defense. This widespread discontent would be mobilized by Democratic-Republicans in alliance with Old Republicans, and a return to the Jeffersonian principles of limited government, strict construction of the constitution and Southern preeminence. It marked the end of the Era of Good Feelings and the rise of Jacksonian nationalism.
Tallmadge Amendment
A proposed amendment to a bill requesting the Territory of Missouri to be admitted to the Union as a free state. This amendment was submitted on February 13, 1819, by James _____, Jr., a Democratic-Republican from New York. In response to the debate in Congress regarding the admission of Missouri as a state and its effect on the existing even balance of slave and free states, _______ , an opponent of slavery, sought to impose conditions on Missouri that would extinguish slavery within a generation. Congress adjourned on March 4, 1819 without acting on Missouri's request for statehood. The southern members of Congress upheld that the Tallmadge amendment was unconstitutional because it put restrictions on states as a condition of admission to the Union and that the state should get to decide whether if slavery was legal within it's borders. The proponents of the Tallmadge Amendment argued that slavery was immoral and was tolerated in the Constitution only by necessity and ought to now be restricted.
Missouri Compromise
An act that was passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. The 1820 passage of ____ ___ took place during the presidency of James Monroe. It was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott v. Stanford case, stating that the 5th amendment barred any law that deprived someone of their property (in this case, their slaves).
Proclamation of 1763
A proclamation from the British government which forbade British colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains, and which required any settlers already living west of the mountains to move back east. They did this to lessen tensions between colonial settlers and Native Americans. It was bitterly resented by land speculators, squatters, frontiersmen, and others wanting to settle in the West.
Sugar Act
1764 cut the duty on foreign molasses in half so it wouldn't be prohibitive but still allow Britain to profit (important because of rum trade), and strengthened the enforcement of the law allowing prosecutors to try smuggling cases in a vice-admiralty court. It was the first one intended to make a profit for Britain. Both merchants and artisans view the act as a threat to their livelihoods, and there were public protests in many port towns. Boston boycotted many English goods, a tactic that many other port towns repeated.
Stamp Act
1765 British act that raised revenue from the American colonies by a duty on all newspapers and legal or commercial documents requiring that they have an official stamp put on them to prove they had paid the duty on the paper. The Americans reaction to this act during the summer and autumn of 1765 created a crisis of unprecedented proportions because it also came during a period of economic stagnation.
Andrew Oliver
merchant and public official, in 1765 he was the Massachusetts official commissioned to administer the unpopular Stamp Act in Massachusetts, which he privately opposed, but he had to tell people he was in favor of it which led colonists to rise against him, leading to august 14th when his effigy was burned and hung from Boston's Liberty Tree as well as later that night his house and offices were ransacked, a few days later he was forced to publicly resign and later on December 17, the Sons of Liberty again forced him to publicly swear that he would never act as a stamp distributor
Sons of Liberty
A radical political organization for colonial independence which formed in 1765 after the passage of the Stamp Act. They incited riots and burned the customs houses where the stamped British paper was kept. After the repeal of the Stamp Act, many of the local chapters formed the Committees of Correspondence which continued to promote opposition to British policies towards the colonies. The Sons' leaders included Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. Other notable memebers include John Adams, James Otis, and Patrick Henry.
Stamp Act Congress
A meeting of delegations from many of the colonies, the congress was formed to protest the newly passed Stamp Act It adopted a declaration of rights as well as sent letters of complaints to the king and parliament, and it showed signs of colonial unity and organized resistance.
Thomas Whately
Defended British rights to tax colonies, saying that the colonists had "virtual representation" (every member in Parliament was there to represent the whole empire). He also said that though the colonists were not actually represented in the house of Commons (they could not vote for representatives), neither could most British subjects at home.
Daniel Dulany
This man argued that virtual representation could not be applied to the whole empire but only to Great Britain where the people who had no right to vote had interests otherwise similar to those of the people who did not vote, basically since they live in Britain they have similar desires to those of the representatives in parliament even if they are unable to elect representatives to parliamentHe was a Maryland Loyalist politician, Mayor of Annapolis, and an influential American lawyer in the period immediately before the American Revolution. Although he would not go on to support the overthrow of British rule in Maryland, he was a noted opposer of the Stamp Act 1765. His pamphlet Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies, which argued against taxation without representation, has been described as "the ablest effort of this kind produced in America". Despite this open and articulate opposition to the Stamp Act, he remained a loyalist, and in that vein engaged in a famous newspaper discussion with Charles Carroll of Carrollton. He was not able to rebel against the Crown he and his family had served so long.
Declaratory Act
Passed in 1766 just after the repeal of the Stamp Act, the ____ __ stated that Parliament could legislate for the colonies in all cases. Most colonists interpreted the act as a face-saving mechanism and nothing more. Parliament, however, continually interpreted the act in its broadest sense in order to legislate in and control the colonies.
Quartering Act
______ __ is a name given to a minimum of two Acts of British Parliament in the 18th century. Parliament enacted them to order local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations or housing. It also required colonists to provide food for any British soldiers in the area.
Townshend Duties (Revenue Act)
A series of measures introduced into the English Parliament by Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend in 1767 that taxed glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea entering the colonies. The purpose of the ____ Act was to raise revenue in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges so that they would remain loyal to Great Britain, to create a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations, to punish the province of New York for failing to comply with the 1765 Quartering Act, and to establish the precedent that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies. The colonists objected to the fact that the act was clearly designed to raise revenue exclusively for England rather than to regulate trade in a manner favorable to the entire British Empire. Many Americans viewed the taxation as an abuse of power, resulting in the passage of agreements to limit imports from Britain. In 1770, Parliament repealed all the Townshend duties except the tax on tea, leading to a temporary truce between the two sides in the years before the American Revolution.
John Dickinson
Drafted a declaration of colonial rights and grievances, and also wrote the series of "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" in 1767 to protest the Townshend Acts. Although an outspoken critic of British policies toward the colonies, Dickinson opposed the Revolution, and, as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776, refused to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Letter from a PA Farmer
Letters that wanted to rile up Americans so they could unify against Britain, urged against violence but against taxes--- a series of essays written by the Pennsylvania lawyer and legislator John Dickinson (1732-1808) and published under the name "A Farmer" from 1767 to 1768. The twelve letters were widely read and reprinted throughout the thirteen colonies and were important in uniting the colonists against the Townshend Acts. The success of his letters earned Dickinson considerable fame.[1]While acknowledging the power of Parliament in matters concerning the whole British Empire, Dickinson argued that the colonies were sovereign in their internal affairs. He thus argued that taxes laid upon the colonies by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue, rather than regulating trade, were unconstitutional.
Board of Customs Commissioners
the Commissioners of Customs Act of 1767 established the American ___ __ _____ _____, which was modeled on the British Board of Customs. The American Customs Board was created because of the difficulties the British Board faced in enforcing trade regulations in the distant colonies. Five commissioners were appointed to the board, which was headquartered in Boston. The American Customs Board would generate considerable hostility in the colonies towards the British government
John Hancock
King of the Smugglers; Patriot leader and president of the Second Continental Congress; first person to sign the Declaration of Independence.On April 9, 1768, two customs employees (called tidesmen) boarded Hancock's brig Lydia in Boston Harbor. Hancock was summoned, and finding that the agents lacked a writ of assistance (a general search warrant), he did not allow them to go below deck. When one of them later managed to get into the hold, Hancock's men forced the tidesman back on deck.Customs officials wanted to file charges, but the case was dropped when Massachusetts Attorney General Jonathan Sewell ruled that Hancock had broken no laws. On June 10, customs officials seized another of his vessels, the sloop Liberty, on trumped up charges related to its cargo of Madeira wine. An order was given to the waiting warship Romney to tow the Liberty away from Hancock's dock to relative isolation in the harbor. The Sons of Liberty incited a mob that gathered on the wharf and vented its anger on the customs house. Later, some of Hancock's most ardent admirers would call this incident the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the colonies and credit Hancock with initiating the American Revolution.[39]
Lord North
Prime Minister of England from 1770 to 1782. Although he repealed the Townshend Acts, he generally went along with King George III's repressive policies toward the colonies even though he personally considered them wrong. He hoped for an early peace during the Revolutionary War and resigned after Cornwallis' surrender in 1781.----Most of ____'s government was focused first on the growing problems with the American colonies and later on conducting the American War of Independence which broke out in 1775, beginning with the Battle of Lexington. Following the Boston Tea Party in 1773, Lord North proposed a number of legislative measures which were supposed to punish the Bostonians. These measures were known as the Coercive Acts in Britain, while dubbed the Intolerable Acts in the colonies. By shutting down the Boston government and cutting off trade, he hoped it would keep the peace and dispirit the rebellious colonists. Instead, the acts further inflamed Massachusetts and the other colonies, eventually resulting in open war during the Boston campaign.
Boston Massacre
-The colonists blamed the British and the Sons of Liberty and used this incident as an excuse to promote the Revolution.-An incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. Amid ongoing tense relations between the population and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry, who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment. He was eventually supported by eight additional soldiers, who were subjected to verbal threats and thrown objects. They fired into the crowd, without orders, instantly killing three people and wounding others. Two more people died later of wounds sustained in the incident.
Thomas Hutchinson
believed the tea tax was unjust, but disagreed that the colonists had a right to rebel. He angered Bostons radicals when he ordered the tea ships not to clear the Boston harbor until they had unloaded their cargoes-A successful merchant and politician, he was active at high levels of the Massachusetts government for many years, serving as lieutenant governor and then governor from 1758 to 1774. Despite initial opposition to Parliamentary tax laws directed at the colonies, he came to be identified by John Adams and Samuel Adams as a proponent of hated British taxes. He was blamed by Lord North (the British Prime Minister at the time) for being a significant contributor to the tensions that led the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.
Samuel Adams
Founder of the Sons of Liberty and one of the most vocal patriots for independence; signed the Declaration of Independence- (September 27 1722 - October 2, 1803) A political philosopher and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a politician in colonial Massachusetts, he was a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and was one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was an influential official of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Boston Town Meeting in the 1760s and was a part of a movement opposed to the British Parliament's efforts to tax the British American colonies without their consent. In 1772 he and his colleagues devised a committee of correspondence system. He helped guide Congress towards issuing the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and helped draft the Articles of Confederation and the Massachusetts Constitution.
Committee of Correspondence
They were shadow governments organized by the Patriot leaders of the Thirteen Colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. They coordinated responses to Britain and shared their plans; by 1773 they had emerged as shadow governments, superseding the colonial legislature and royal officials.These served an important role in the Revolution, by disseminating the colonial interpretation of British actions between the colonies and to foreign governments. They rallied opposition on common causes and established plans for collective action, and so the group was the beginning of what later became a formal political union among the colonies. They promoted patriotism and home manufacturing, advising Americans to avoid luxuries, and lead a more simple life. They set up espionage networks to identify disloyal elements, displaced the royal officials, and helped topple the entire Imperial system in each colony.
Tea Act
was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. Its principal over objective was to reduce the massive surplus of tea held by the financially troubled British East India Company in its London warehouses and to help the struggling company survive. A related objective was to undercut the price of tea smuggled into Britain's North American colonies. This was supposed to convince the colonists to purchase Company tea on which the Townshend duties were paid, thus implicitly agreeing to accept Parliament's right of taxation. The Act granted the Company the right to directly ship its tea to North America and the right to the duty-free export of tea from Britain, although the tax imposed by the Townshend Acts and collected in the colonies remained in force.
East India Co.
this British based company was given a monopoly on all tea trade in the colonies -> British joint-stock company, formed to pursue trade with the East Indies. When they fell into financial hardship, the British Empire passed the Tea Act to reduce the massive surplus of tea held by the company. The Act granted the Company the right to directly ship its tea to North America and the right to the duty-free export of tea from Britain, although the tax imposed by the Townshend Acts and collected in the colonies remained in force.
Boston Tea Party
-A political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as American Indians, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the tea. This protest was made in response to Parliament's passing of the Tea Act. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution.
Coercive (Intolerable) Acts
1774 Applied only to Massachusetts to punish them for Boston Tea Party; The Boston Port Act the first, closed the port of Boston until the East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea and until the king was satisfied that order had been restored. punished all of Boston rather than just the individuals who had destroyed the tea, and that they were being punished without having been given an opportunity to testify in their own defense.The Massachusetts Government Act provoked even more outrage, unilaterally altered the government of Massachusetts to bring it under control of the British government. Almost all positions in the colonial government were to be appointed by the governor, parliament, or king. Severely limited the activities of town meetings in Massachusetts to one meeting a year, unless the Governor called for one. Colonists outside Massachusetts feared that their governments could now also be changed by the legislative fiat of Parliament.The Administration of Justice Act- allowed the Royal governor to order that trials of accused royal officials take place in Great Britain or elsewhere within the Empire if he decided that the defendant could not get a fair trial in Massachusetts. Although the act stipulated for witnesses to be reimbursed after having travelled at their own expense across the Atlantic, it was not stipulated that any reimbursment for lost earnings during the period for which they would be unable to work, leaving few with the ability to testify. George Washington called this the "Murder Act" because he believed that it allowed British officials to harass Americans and then escape justice.Many colonists believed the act was unnecessary because British soldiers had been given a fair trial following the Boston Massacre in 1770.The Quartering Act applied to all of the colonies, and sought to create a more effective method of housing British troops in America. In a previous act, the colonies had been required to provide housing for soldiers, but colonial legislatures had been uncooperative in doing so. The new Quartering Act allowed a governor to house soldiers in other buildings if suitable quarters were not provided. The Quartering Act allowed troops to be billeted in occupied private homes. Although many colonists found the Quartering Act objectionable, it generated the least protest of the Coercive Acts.
Quebec Act
Though passed at the same time as the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts, this act was considered separate because it wasn't made in direct response to the Boston Tea Party. It was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain setting procedures of governance in the Province of Quebec.The provisions of the Quebec Act were seen by the colonists as a new model for British colonial administration, which would strip the colonies of their elected assemblies.It gave Catholic French Canadians religious freedom and restored the French form of civil law; this law nullified many of the Western claims of the coast colonies by extending the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio River on the south and to the Mississippi River on the west. Americans viewed it as attack on American colonies, b/c it took land from them; feared would try to steal American gov't; resented recognition given to Catholicism.
First Continental Congress
a convention of delegates from twelve colonies (Georgia was not present) that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. The Congress met briefly to consider options, including an economic boycott of British trade; rights and grievances; and petitioned King George III for redress of those grievances. The Congress also called for another Continental Congress in the event that their petition was unsuccessful in halting enforcement of the Intolerable Acts. The delegates also urged each colony to set up and train its own militia.
Suffolk Resolves
A declaration made on September 9, 1774 by the leaders of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, of which Boston is the major city. The declaration rejected the Massachusetts Government Act and resolved on a boycott of imported goods from Britain unless the Intolerable Acts were repealed. The Resolves were recognized by statesman Edmund Burke as a major development in colonial animosity leading to adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence from Kingdom of Great Britain in 1776, and he urged British conciliation with the American colonies, to little effect. The First Continental Congress endorsed the Resolves on September 17, 1774.
Lexington and Concord
The first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War, which marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen of its colonies on the mainland of British America. Brief (and kind of terrible) Summary: Americans on a field when soldiers come by (THE BRITISH ARE COMING) to destory military supplies in concord. Originally, the minute men are fired upon and they disperse but later they fight again and the british are outnumbered and lose.April 8, 1775: Gage leads 700 soldiers to confiscate colonial weapons and arrest Adam, and Hancock; April 19, 1775: 70 armed militia face British at Lexington (shot heard around the world); British retreat to Boston, suffer nearly 300 casualties along the way (concord)
Second Continental Congress
They organized the continental Army, called on the colonies to send troops, selected George Washington to lead the army, and appointed the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence
George III
English monarch at the time of the revolution. He was the main opposition for the colonies due to his stubborn attitude and unwillingness to hear out colonial requests/grievances.
Olive Branch Petition
On July 8, 1775, the colonies made a final offer of peace to Britain, agreeing to be loyal to the British government if it addressed their grievances (repealed the Coercive Acts, ended the taxation without representation policies). It was rejected by Parliament, which in December 1775 passed the American Prohibitory Act forbidding all further trade with the colonies.
Thomas Paine & Common Sense
A British citizen, he wrote Common Sense, published on January 1, 1776, to encourage the colonies to seek independence. It spoke out against the unfair treatment of the colonies by the British government and was instrumental in turning public opinion in favor of the Revolution. He argued that the liberties the colonies desired would never be possibly under the rule of Great Britain.
Declaration of Independence
The document approved by representatives of the American colonies in Congress on July 4, 1776 that stated their grievances against the British monarch and formally declared their independence. It was drafted by Thomas Jefferson; it laid out the Enlightenment values (best expressed by John Locke) of natural rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" upon which the American Revolution was based. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was unanimously approved on July 2. A committee of five had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence. The term "____________" is not used in the document itself.
Gen William Howe
This military leader went against Washington in the Battle of Long Island, only slowly defeating the Americans and forcing their retreat to Manhattan Island. He was also the leader of the battle of Bunker Hill. As a professional soldier who had diminishing supplies for his army, he did not enjoy winter campaigning. Howe also had an affair with one of his soldier's wife, in which many American satirists made fun of. He was appointed to lead an invasion of American troops and capture NYC and seize control of the Hudson River. He opposed to the Coercive Acts and hoped for political compromise. His tactics reflected 18th century military practices- winning the surrender of the enemy rather than destroying them. His Saratoga campaign failed.
Saratoga
(September 19 and October 7, 1777) these two battles marked the climax of the _____ campaign giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. It was a great turning point of the war, because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory. British General John Burgoyne led a large invasion army up the Champlain Valley from Canada, hoping to meet a similar force marching northward from New York City; the southern force never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York. Burgoyne fought two small battles to break out. They took place eighteen days apart on the same ground, 9 miles (14 km) south of _____, New York. They both failed. Trapped by superior American forces, with no relief in sight, Burgoyne surrendered his entire army on October 17.
Gen John Burgoyne
A British army officer, politician and dramatist. He is best known for his role in the American Revolutionary War. He designed an invasion scheme and was appointed to command a force moving south from Canada to split away New England and end the rebellion. His slow movement allowed the Americans to concentrate their forces. Surrounded, he fought two small battles near Saratoga to break out. Trapped by superior American forces, with no relief in sight, he surrendered his entire army of 6200 men on October 17, 1777. It was a great turning point of the war, because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory.
French Alliance
1778 the French formed an alliance with America. The French promised the colonists independence and supplies, and gave the U.S. commercial privileges in French ports to avenge the British for the French defeat in the French and Indian war. In return, the US promised to continue fighting until France was ready for peace. Neither partner would sign a separate peace before the "liberty, sovereignty, and independence" of the United States were ensured. American governments pledged that their government would recognize any French conquests in the West Indies. As a result, this bolstered confidence of the Continental Congress and gave new life to the Patriot's cause.
Lord Cornwallis
A British Army officer and colonial administrator. He was one of the leading British generals in the American War of Independence. In 1780 he inflicted an embarrassing defeat on the American army at the Battle of Camden, though he surrendered his army at Yorktown in October 1781 after an extended campaign through the Southern states. His surrender in 1781 to a combined American and French force at the Siege of Yorktown ended significant hostilities in North America.
Yorktown
A decisive victory in ______, Virginia in October 1781 by a combined force of American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by British lord and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. The culmination of the _____ campaign, the siege proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War, as the surrender by Cornwallis, and the capture of both him and his army, prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the conflict. The battle boosted faltering American morale and revived French enthusiasm for the war, as well as undermining popular support for the conflict in Britain.
Peace of Paris (1783)
The set of treaties which ended the American Revolutionary War. These treaties are the Treaty of Paris and the Treaties of Versailles. The Treaty of Paris was between Britain and the United States and the Treaties of Versailles were between Britain and France/Spain, all of which were signed on September 3, 1783. There was also a preliminary treaty to end the fourth Anglo-Dutch war signed the previous day. The British lost their Thirteen Colonies and the defeat marked the end of the First British Empire. The United States gained more than it expected, thanks to the award of western territory. France won a propaganda victory over Britain after its defeat in the Seven Years' War, but its material gains were minor and its financial losses huge. The Dutch did not gain anything of significant value at the end of the war. The Spanish had a mixed result, but the new territory was of little or no value.
Loyalists
American colonists who remained loyal to Britain and opposed the war for independence. When their cause was defeated, about 15% of the Loyalists or 65,000-70,000 (of about 500,000) fled to other parts of the British Empire, in Britain or elsewhere in British North America. Most were compensated with Canadian land or British cash distributed through formal claims procedures.Typically, rich people were Loyalists. They opposed the Rebellion and refused to support the Continental Congress unless threatened. Though they opposed Parliament's claim to taxing the colonies like the Loyalists did, they did not believe that independence was the only way to preserve the colonies' constitutional rights. They believed seperation was illegal and would start a war. Failing to defend their king against the Loyalists caused a lose of personal honor.
State constitutions
Each state in the United States adopted their own one of these. The very first one was the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (October 25, 1780). Usually, they are longer than the 8,500-word federal Constitution and are more detailed regarding the day-to-day relationships between government and the people.
Articles of Confederation
an agreement between the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. Its drafting by the Continental Congress began in mid-1776, and an approved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777. The formal ratification by all 13 states was completed in early 1781. Even when not yet ratified, the Articles provided domestic and international legitimacy for the Continental Congress to direct the American Revolutionary War, conduct diplomacy with Europe and deal with territorial issues and Native American relations. Nevertheless, the weakness of the government created by the Articles became a matter of concern for key nationalists.
John Jay
An American statesman, Patriot, diplomat, Founding Father of the United States, signer of the Treaty of Paris, and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1789-95). He was born into a wealthy family of merchants and government officials in New York City. He joined the New York Committee of Correspondence and organized opposition to British rule, hoping to protect property rights and maintain the rule of law while resisting British violations of human rights. He served as the President of the Continental Congress (1778-79), an honorific position with little power. His major diplomatic achievement was to negotiate favorable trade terms with Great Britain in the Treaty of London of 1794 when he was still serving as Supreme Court Chief Justice. A proponent of strong, centralized government, he worked to ratify the new Constitution in New York in 1788 by pseudonymously writing five of the Federalist Papers, along with the main authors Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. As a leader of the new Federalist Party, Jay was the Governor of New York State (1795-1801), where he became the state's leading opponent of slavery.
Western land problem
there was all this land in the west and everybody had a different idea of what to do with it. Some were going off into the west and establishing themselves there without following any laws and therefore aggravating nearby states and Native American tribes. It seemed like each state wanted to expand its borders and was in major cahoots with all the other competing states. Spain also wanted to creep its way northward and gain some land.
Critical Period
This term, coined by John Quincy Adams, refers to the 1780's, a time right after the American Revolution where the future of the newly formed nation was in the balance. Large amounts of debt, high taxes, foreign affairs, domestic issues, and military concerns were some of the problems Americans faced shortly after the Revolution. These concerns prompted calls for a more vigorous national government that eventually resulted in the Constitution in 1787.
Basic Land Ordinance
Adopted by the United States Congress on May 20, 1785. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress did not have the power to raise revenue by direct taxation of the inhabitants of the United States; therefore, the immediate goal was to raise money through the sale of land in the largely unmapped territory west of the original states Land was to be subdivided according to a rectangular grid system; the basic unit of land grant was the township, which was a square area measuring six miles on each side. A township could then be subdivided into a number of rectangular parcels of individually owned land. The minimum land sale was set at one square mile (640 acres), and the minimum price per acre was one dollar. One section in each township was to be set aside for a school. These procedures formed the basis of American public land policy until the Homestead Act of 1862.
Northwest Ordinance
Enacted in 1787, it is considered one of the most significant achievements of the Articles of Confederation. It established a system for setting up governments in the western territories so they could eventually join the Union on an equal footing with the original 13 states § Until they have a certain number of people, the Congress will assign them their own leaders § 5,000 adult males in a territory, you can start electing people to a general assembly § Only an owner of 50 acres of land could vote § Population of 60,000, you could apply for statehood □ Relationship to other states will be equal § Even when you don't hit that mark, you still have freedom of religion, proportional representation in legislature, trial by jury, habeas corpus (right to know why you are being arrested, need a reason to arrest someone and bring them to court), privileges of common law, no slavery □ First place where slavery is abolished is not in the states at all § The territories have Bills of Rights in place before actual states
Barbary Pirates
Pirates who were blocking our entrance into the Mediterranean sea unless we paid them tribute. (money) U.S. went to war with them and won. Navy was built.
Navigation of the Mississippi
Spain closes off the Mississippi river to traders in 1784. This leads to a prevention in the movement of goods in a simple north-south fashion. Spain feared Americans were moving too much west and would start encroaching on their land and resources.
British forts in the NW
British forces still retained forts in the Northwest after the Revolutionary War: this exemplified the government's inability to enforce treaties which stemmed from the weak central government in the Articles of Confederation.
Shays' Rebellion
It highlighted the need for a strong national government just as the call for the Constitutional Convention went out.1786-87, armed insurrection by farmers in W Massachusetts against the state government. Debt-ridden farmers, struck by the economic depression that followed the American Revolution, petitioned the state senate to issue paper money and to halt foreclosure of mortgages on their property and their own imprisonment for debt as a result of high land taxes. Sentiment was particularly high against the commercial interests who controlled the state senate in Boston, and the lawyers who hastened the farmers' bankruptcy by their exorbitant fees for litigation. When the state senate failed to undertake reform, armed insurgents in the Berkshire Hills and the Connecticut valley, under the leadership of Daniel ____ and others, began (Aug., 1786) forcibly to prevent the county courts from sitting to make judgments for debt. In September they forced the state supreme court at Springfield to adjourn. Early in 1787, Gov. James Bowdoin appointed Gen. Benjamin Lincoln to command 4,400 men against the rebels. Before these troops arrived at Springfield, Gen. William Shepard's soldiers there had repelled an attack on the federal arsenal. The rebels, losing several men, had dispersed, and Lincoln's troops pursued them to Petersham, where they were finally routed. ____ escaped to Vermont. Most of the leaders were pardoned almost immediately, and ___ was finally pardoned in June, 1788. The rebellion influenced Massachusetts's ratification of the U.S. Constitution; it also swept Bowdoin out of office and achieved some of its legislative goals.
Annapolis Convention
A convention held in September 1786 to consider problems of trade and navigation, attended by five states and important because it issued the call to Congress and the states for what became the Constitutional Convention
Constitutional Convention
The meeting of state delegates in 1787 in Philadelphia called to revise the Articles of Confederation. It instead designed a new plan of government, the US Constitution.
Virginia (Randolph) Plan
Virginia delegate James Madison's plan of government, in which states got a number of representatives in Congress based on their population
New Jersey (Patterson) Plan
Opposite of the Virginia Plan, it proposed a single-chamber congress in which each state had one vote. This created a conflict with representation between bigger states, who wanted control befitting their population, and smaller states, who didn't want to be bullied by larger states.
Hamilton Plan
___ called for a bicameral legislature with the lower house serving three-year terms and the upper house serving life-time terms. The Legislature would institute courts in each state, but a supreme judiciary would have appellate jurisdiction. The officials in the executive and judicial branches would also serve life-long terms. The central government in Hamilton's plan is much stronger than that of the Virginia or New Jersey Plans, creating, in effect, an elected monarchy, and an aristocracy that would gain its power and status from the government.
Great (CT) Compromise
Plan to have popularly elected House based on state population and a state-selected Senate, with two members for each state.
Three-fifths Compromise
agreement at the constitutional Convention that 3/5 of the slaves in any state be counted in its population
Separation of Powers
the division of power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government
Checks and Balances
A system that allows each branch of government to limit the powers of the other branches in order to prevent abuse of power.
Electoral College
the body of electors who formally elect the United States president and vice-president
Charles Beard's thesis
framers had designed Constitution to safeguard the kind of property in which they had a pocketbook interest
Federalists
supporters of the stronger central govt. who advocated the ratification of the new constitution
Federalist Papers
(1787-1788) a series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton (51), James Madison (26), and John Jay (5) that tried to convince people to support the ratification of the constitution. In general, it went through different parts of the constitution and the _____'s position and explained why they were good for the United States.
Federalism
a system in which power is divided between the national and state governments
Republicanism
A philosophy of limited government with elected representatives serving at the will of the people. The government is based on consent of the governed.
Anti-federalists
opponents of a strong central government who campaigned against the ratification of the Constitution in favor of a confederation of independent states
Anti-federalist Papers
the antifederalist wrote a series of their own essays with their main argument that the new Constitution would take away liberties Americans had fought to win against Britain, this is why we have bill of rights
Sir Walter Raleigh
___ ____ ____ leads an English expedition of explorers and discovers the Roanoke area deserted in 1594. Sir Humphrey Gilbert's brother; tried another English attempt at colonization; landed in 1585 on North Carolina's Roanoke Island (this colony eventually vanished) He financially supported colonization in Virginia in 1587.
Roanoke
In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh helps establish this colony. This was the first British attempt at colonization. A failed "lost" colony. When Sir Walter Raleigh left in search of more supplies and returned in 1590, he found no sign of life. He saw the words CROATOAN on a tree trunk, an Indian village nearby.
John Smith
Leader of Jamestown: the first successful English settlement in Virginia. He cultivated a peaceful relationship with the natives upon his arrival to the new world which allowed his colony to flourish
Jamestown
First successful English settlement in the new world, located in modern day Virginia. Sponsored by Virginia company in 1607. (English men didn't want to work/build colony. It was a swampy area and hard to grow crops, causing them to rely on the Indians support. The Indians grew to resent this and stopped helping, causing many of the settlers in this colony to die. When more colonists were sent during the next year, they started a protracted war against the confederacy, ending after the capture of the Powhatan Chief's daughter forced the Powhatans to sign a peace treaty.)
Virginia (London) Co.
English joint-stock company comprised of investors and established by James I with the purpose of establishing settlements in North America and making profit off the gold they thought might be there (there wasn't any).
Powhatan
(Confederacy) The union of village communities in Chesapeake Bay that was made up of an estimated 14,000 people. It was led by Wahunsonacook, whom the Jamestown colonists liked to call "King Powhatan." They were eager to form an alliance to gain access to supplies of metal tools and weapons. The colonists only survived because of this group's help, but as more colonists arrived and demands increased, they stopped giving help and as a result, many colonists died that winter. Consequently, the Jamestown colonists led a protracted war against this group and captured King Powhatan's daughter ( Matoaka aka Pocahontas), forcing King Powhatan to sign a peace treaty.
Starving times
A period of starvation during the winter of 1609-1610 in which all but 60 of 500 English colonists in Jamestown died. The only saving factor for the colonist was the natives who gave them food and taught them to farm and fish in the spring.
Tobacco
Main cash crop for English colonies in North America. First cultivated in Virginia, but quickly spread to be grown over most of the southern united states. Important because it needed a lot of manual labor (yeah slaves!) and became popular in the old world as well as the new so farms could make a lot of $$$$
Indian attack of 1622
An Indian attack on English settlers in Jamestown Virginia. The attack was provoked by the English encroachment on the Indian's land (so they could grow tobacco)
Indentured servants
People, usually poor, who were brought to the New World to work for a set amount of time (usually five to seven years). Most were young, unskilled males. It wasn't slavery, but these people were treated as cruelly as slaves and 2/5 died during their fixed term. Many who survived and were able to raise the price of passage quickly returned to England. Those who remained became eligible for "freedom dues"--clothing, tools, a gun, or a spinning wheel to help them get started on their own.
House of Burgesses
The first elected legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony of Virginia in 1619, representative colony set up by England to make laws and levy taxes but England could veto its legislative acts. It was created in an attempt to encourage immigration. The property-owning colonists could vote to elect its representatives. The majority of all of the leaders of the House of Burgesses between 1720 and 1775 were related by blood or marriage to one or another of the dozen or so great clans. No less than 70 percent of the 110 leaders of the House were drawn from families resident in Virginia before 1690.
Headright
Sections of land (about 50 acres) which were given to colonists who brought indentured servants into America. They were used by the Virginia Company to attract more colonists.
Quitrent
A annual land tax paid by settlers to the King for the land granted to them by him (originating from the feudal system)
Power of the purse
The ability of one group to manipulate and control the actions of another group by withholding funding, or putting stipulations on the use of funds
Slavery
African vs. North American slavery-> part of the family in Africa with respect, worked almost same amount of time as ownersSlavery was way different in North America, slaves worked for nothing, long hoursCauses (why it became necessary): demand for cheap, constant labor for crops in coloniesEffectsSocial: Slavery altered the social system of colonial societyProfits of slavery lead to rich plantation ownersCreates a social hierarchyGrowing sense of white solidarity, racismPolitical: The growing need of slavery leads it to effect the policies of Europeans and colonies alikeVirginia Slave Code- need strict control of slavesRoyal African Company- monopoly on African slave tradeEconomic: Economically slaves cause high profits for merchants and plantation ownersTriangle Trade (merchants)MercantilismPlantation owners began making monster profits
Georgia (1.02)
Southern restoration colony made as a place where debtors could go to start anew. It also served as a barrier between the English colonies and Spanish Florida. It, like most southern colonies, was mostly agricultural relying economically on cash crops like tobacco and cotton BUT it had NO SLAVES on account of the purpose of the colony which was to let people who were supposed to be rotting in jail work off their debt in the new world. Religious toleration for prosecuted Protestants.
Lord Baltimore (Geo. & Cecilius Calvert)
A successful English politician who, after converting to Roman Catholicism, was given a tract of colony in the New World by the British crown. He named the Colony Maryland (after his wife) and dubbed it a sanctuary for Roman Catholics in a prominently Protestant England and colonies. He died in 1632, leaving Maryland to his son, Cecil. Son of George Calvert, Cecil Calvert set about making his father's dream come alive in Maryland (1634) He and Leonard are responsible for the founding of Maryland and its friendliness with Indians and policy of religious toleration.
Proprietary colony
English colony in which the king gave land to proprietors in exchange for a yearly payment. The benefit of this is that the colony is technically under the crown, but they can run the colony however they like. Maryland was the first example.
Maryland
A propriety colony started by Lord Baltimore in 1634 as a sanctuary for Roman Catholics and a source of income for Calvert. They grew mostly tobacco. It started with a feudal manor system, instead adopting Virginia's headright grant system. 3/4 of the immigrants to the colony were Indentured slaves and 7% were slaves, both were treated cruelly by their masters
Maryland Act of Toleration
A 1649 act passed in Maryland which declared the colony to be religiously tolerant (for Catholics mostly), but also sentenced to death anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus. Also, the act provided less toleration than had previously existed, but it extended uneasy protection to the Catholic minority. Once the colonial era ended, Maryland sheltered more Roman Catholics than any other English-speaking colony in the New World. This act might have influenced future legal protections for freedom of religion.
Bacon's Rebellion
1676!! An armed rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon of freed indentured servants who were demanding the land which had been promised to them after they had served their time as servants. It was initially an attack against the natives. It was also caused by farmers discontent against corruption in the colonial government. This rebellion was important because thereafter people relied more heavily on slaves and began to move away from indentured servant labor. Bacon dies and the rebellion falls apart, but to make sure poor whites, tenant farmers, and slaves don't work together again, THEORY OF RACE CREATED. WHITES INHERENTLY BETTER THAN ANY BLACK PERSON
Middle Passage
Middle segment of the forced journey that slaves made from Africa to America; it consisted of the dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean; many slaves perished on this segment of the journey. Ships carried a lot more slaves than they were designed, and the trip was torturous for these slaves. The stench and sanitation on board was terrible and many died of disease. Those that didn't die were often tortured for slight misconducts. Some chose to jump ship instead of be put to the torture of their unknown future. It was estimated that 1 in 6 perished during this voyage.
Separatists
A religious group that breaks apart from the larger dominate religion in their country, most likely because they disagree with the policies of the mainstream religious institution (Pilgrims)
Pilgrims
English separatists who sought refuge from religious persecution in the Netherlands and later the Americas. They formed the first English colony in NEW ENGLAND. They were backed by the Virginia Company. Rode on Mayflower, created Mayflower Compact, set up Plymouth. Half died during first winter, but the Pokanokets allied with them and helped them survive. They farmed and created revenue by selling fur + cod fishery.
Mayflower Compact
First document of self-governing in the Americas declared by the pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower. Drafted by William Bradford.
Puritans
The English followers of John Calvin who wished to purify and reform the English church from within. They appealed to merchants, entrepreneurs , and commercial farmers, those most responsible for the rapid economic and social transformation of England. They were also the most vocal critics of the disruptive effects of that change, condemning the decline of the traditional rural community and the growing number of men without work, produced by the enclosure of common lands. By the early 17th century they controlled many congregations and became influential at universities. James I prosecution of this religious group only stiffened their resolve and strengthened their political opposition. The campaign and political turmoil provided the context or the migration of thousands of these people to New England.
John Winthrop
The first governor of Salem, Massachusetts who called "a city on a hill," a New England model of reform for old England. In 1632, he and his advisers declared that all the male heads of house that were also church members were made freemen and could vote for delegates to represent the towns in drafting the laws of the colony.
City on a hill
The puritans, led by John Winthrop, hoped to establish a utopian ______, a New England model of reform for old England. They believed they could create this model of what a perfect society should look like and inspire the corrupt society of England to be like them.
Joint Stock Companies
The companies or groups of people that King James I, the English king, issued royal charters to for the colonization of the mid-Atlantic region, which the English called Virginia. They raised their capital by selling shares.
Selectmen
These men were chosen to run a town's affairs in a Puritan community. They were adult males who were full members of their church. One could gain full membership by giving evidence of being among the elect assured of salvation.
General Court
The court of Massachusetts that contained a governor (John Winthrop). In 1632, all male heads of house that were also church members were made freemen and could vote. It was a part of the procedures that provided the origins for democratic suffrage and the bicameral division of legislative authority in America.a Puritan representative assembly elected by the freemen; they assisted the governor; this was the early form of Puritan democracy in the 1600's
Town meeting
a town-wide meeting to decide on issues facing the village and choose a group of people to govern the town for the coming year, restricted to adult male residents
Harvard College
First University in the New World established to train ministers. It was established in 1636 and remained the only institution of higher education in British America until 1693, when Anglicans established the College of William and Mary. The curricula of the college gradually changed to curricula influenced by Enlightenment thinking
School laws
Laws in New England that required all children to go to school to learn to read and write (so they could read the bible) 50 families must have a school, and a town with 100 families must also have a grammar school (prep for university)
Halfway Covenant
Form of church membership which was more lient than it had been previously. It was created to increase church membership, which was on the decline. The Half-way Covenant applied to those members of the Puritan colonies who were the children of church members, but who hadn't achieved grace themselves. The covenant allowed them to participate in some church affairs. Women soon made up a larger portion of Puritan congregations.
Salem Witchcraft
Trials in Salem Massachusetts in 1691-1693, that led to the deaths of twenty people after young girls charged people with practicing witchcraft. It may have reflected social tensions that found their outlet through an attack perceived as outsiders, such as single women and those of different religions.
King Philip's War
The war that took place between the Pokanokets and the Puritans when Metacom refused to grant sovereign authority to the Puritan colonies. Metacom was the son of Massasoit who forged an alliance with the Puritans and was called King Phillip. The colonists decided they didn't have room for the Pokanokets and tried to get Metacom to relinquish control over their lands in 1671. He broke the half-century alliance and took up an armed resistance. The English arrested and executed 3 Pokanokets men, causing Metacom to try and appeal to the Narragansetts for a defensive alliance. The English sent men and burned a number of villages. Soon all of New England was in engulfed in the war. At first things went well for the Indians but by the beginning of 1676 their campaign was collapsing. They asked the Iroquois for help, but instead the Iroquois attacked and forced them back to their territory, where they were annihilated by the English in August 1676.
John Cotton
Head Puritan minister in the Massachusetts Bay Colony who led the colony in its early years.prominent Mass minister who criticized the Church of England, fled to Massachusetts Bay Colony, defended government's duty to enforce religious rules believed that only the spiritual "elect" should have any authority, to become "elect" they have a conversion experience, caused dissension in colony and would eventually lead to the founding of new colonies
Roger Williams
Outspoken supporter of religious tolerance and separation of church and state in the Massachusetts Bay Colony who was expelled from the colony for his views. He went on the found Road Island.
Anne Hutchinson
A Puritan woman who was well learned that disagreed with the Puritan Church in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her actions resulted in her banishment from the colony, and later took part in the formation of Rhode Island. She and her family were killed by Indians.
Antinomianism
The idea that faith alone is necessary for salvation (identified with Anne Hutchinson)that by faith and God's grace a Christian is freed from all laws including those moral standards of the culture
Thomas Hancock
A wealthy Boston merchant who smuggled and illegally traded with Holland in order to avoid the Navigation Acts.role model for what a Puritan should be. Puritan work ethic is successful. His father was a minister, but he was the third son, so he was in the middle of the social hierarchy. He had drive and ambition and expanded a bookselling business to be very profitable
Confederation of New England
Short military alliance in 1643 between Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. Its primary purpose was to unite the Puritan colonies in support of the church, and for defense against the Native Americans and the Dutch colonies. The confederation dissolved after the revocation of the members charters in the early 1680s.
Dominion of New England
Administrative alliance (1686-89) between most of the North American English colonies, but was short lived because no one wanted to give up their traditional rights.
New Netherland & New York
A Netherlands colony which started as a center of fur trading, but quickly expanded into one of the largest merchant center of the New World. It was renamed after it was taken over by the English in the 7 years war.
James, Duke of York (James II)
given New York by Charles II. He replaced his brother as king and abandoned his designs of more control of New York. When he produced a Catholic heir, he was chased out of England in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and replaced by William of Orange and Mary, Britain's political and religious leaders opposed him as too pro-French, too pro-Catholic, and too much of an absolute monarch
Carolinas
1665 - Charles II granted this land to pay off a debt to some supporters. They instituted head rights and a representative government to attract colonists. The southern region of the Carolinas grew rich off its ties to the sugar islands, while the poorer northern region was composed mainly of farmers. The conflicts between the regions eventually led to the colony being split into North and South Carolina.
Restoration Colonies
Colonies which King Charles gave to his supporters (restorers) to repay them for their support. The colonies include Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Quakers
The "Society of Friends" was a religious group known for their pacifism, religious tolerance, and early abolitionist beliefs. a Christian sect founded by George Fox about 1660. They wanted to abolish slavery.
William Penn
A Quaker who founed the colony Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
This colony was founded in English North America by William Penn on March 4, 1681 as dictated in a royal charter granted by King Charles II. The colonial government, established in 1682 by Penn's Frame of Government, consisted of an appointed Governor, the proprietor (Penn), a 72-member Provincial Council, and a larger General Assembly. The General Assembly, also known as the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, was the largest and most representative branch of government, but had little power. William Penn and his fellow Quakers heavily imprinted their religious values on the early government. The Charter of Privileges extended religious freedom to all monotheists and government was initially open to all Christians. Until the French and Indian War Pennsylvania had no military, few taxes and no public debt. They had made mandated fair dealings with Native Americans. This led to significantly better relations with the local Native tribes than most other colonies had.
Factionalism
a party or group (as within a government) that is often contentious or self- seeking (clique); Conflict within an organization or nation; internal dissensionTHE VIOLENCE OF _ , instability, atomistic
Pluralism
A theory of government that holds that open, multiple, and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group, A state in which people of all races and ethnicity are distinct but have equal social standing,a belief competition among interests produces balance and compromise - in other words no one group dominates
Great Awakening
A period of religious revival in the colonies in which hundreds of new Churches were founded, church membership went up, and religious fervor spread through the colonies. This was important because it was one of the first events to united the colonies (kind of)
George Whitefield
English evangelical preacher of the Great Awakening whose charismatic style attracted huge crowds during his preaching tours of colonies.
Jonathan Edwards
Great Awakening preacher who was part of the New Light movement. He thought we were all "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Enlightenment
A period of thought that started in Europe shortly after the Renaissance where people moved away from simply accepting what figures authority told them and towards thinking through things for themselves and coming to their own conclusions though logic and reason (had huge religious, political, and scientific ramification)
John Locke
Enlightenment thinker who is famous for his theory of the social contract. The social contract is the idea that people give up some of their rights so that they can be protected by some form of government. He also believed that people had natural rights to life liberty and property. If the government failed to uphold its end of the contract by protecting those rights, the people could rebel and institute a new government.
Benjamin Franklin
Enlightenment thinker, inventor, philosopher, businessman, diplomat, and important member of the group of founders who wrote the constitution. He wrote Poor Richard's Almanac. He was the most popular and successful American writer of the 18th century. He did work with electricity and developed bifocal eyeglasses.He developed the Albany Plan of Union
Thomas Jefferson
Enlightenment thinker, founder father, anti-federalist, founder of the democratic party, and president. He was most famous for his beliefs in small limited federal government, the idea that the only way to truly be free was to farm your own land, and "absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority." He wrote the declaration of independence and several of the anti-federalist papers. During his presidency he kept to his beliefs in some ways (reducing the navy, cutting taxes, etc.) but in others (fighting the Barbary pirates, and the Louisianan purchase).
Paxton Boys
They were a group of Scots-Irish men living in the Appalachian hills that wanted protection from Indian attacks. They made an armed march on Philadelphia in 1764. They protested the lenient way that the Quakers treated the Indians. Their ideas started the Regulator Movement in North Carolina.
N.C. Regulators
LED BY SCOTS IRISH Designation for two groups, one in South Carolina, the other in North Carolina, that tried to effect governmental changes in the 1760s. The colonial government was dominated by the eastern areas, and even county governments were controlled by the royal governor through his power to appoint local officers. Back-country (western) people who suffered from excessive taxes, dishonest officials, and exorbitant fees also became bitter about multiple office holdings. They formed an association called the Regulators, which sought vainly to obtain reforms. They then refused to pay taxes or fees, punished public officials, and interfered with the courts. Finally, the Regulator insurrection was crushed by Governor William Tryon at the Battle of Alamance (May 16, 1771).The North Carolina Regulators threatened to rebel and not pay taxes. The South Carolina Regulators, in 1767, opposed corrupt government and cleared their homeland of outlaw bands of terrorists. In South Carolina, the Regulator movement was an organized effort by backcountry settlers to restore law and order and establish institutions of local government.
Mercantilism
An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by having favorable trade agreements. The most popular way countries did this was through colonies (colonies produced raw materials and bought back the finished goods the industrialized nation made. Win-win!)There is a set amount of money in the world, you must take from others and you cannot add wealth to the world, tariffs money from new world to England, the theory that a country should sell more goods to other countries than it buys
Salutary neglect
An English economic policy in regards to their colonies where British crown allowed the colonies to be all but completely autonomous, only putting slight regulations on trade which the colonist ignored.
Albany Plan of Union
A plan proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 that aimed to unite the 13 colonies for trade, military, and other purposes. The plan was turned down by the colonies, which didn't want to give up their rights, and the Crown, who didn't want the colonies getting any funny ideas.
7 Years (French and Indian) War
A nine year war between France and England when the two powers were at their height in the colonial era. The war spread over several continents, with much of the fighting occurring in the colonies of the two empires. In the America's we call this the French and Indian war on account of the colonist fighting the French and their Indian allies in the region. England won the war and as a result gained all of the French territory in North America. This was a big thing for the colonist because it was the first time they had ever united successfully.
Navigation Acts
A British decree that certain goods could only be sold by the colonist to England, taxed goods sold to other nations besides England, and otherwise put restrictions on colonial trade. This was done in an effort to raise money to pay of the huge debt caused by the seven years war, but it really pissed off the colonist who were used to being basically completely independent form their mother country.
George Washington
English general in the French and Indian war who became a outspoken American Patriot and led the American Army during the revolution. He then went on to become the first president (unopposed by any other candidate due to his popularity). The big thing to remember about Washington was his foreign policy. Think about his farewell address where he warns American's to not get involved in worldly affairs (advice that would shape american policy for a long time)
Peace of Paris (1763)
The treaty which marked the end of the Seven Years War between France and England. France had to abandon all claim to North America, Great Britain received Canada and the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley, Spain got back the Philippine Islands and Cuba, but had to cede East and West Florida to England.
Alexis de Tocqueville
a French political thinker and historian best known for his works Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these, he analyzed the improved living standards and social conditions of individuals, as well as their relationship to the market and state in Western societies. Democracy in America was published after his travels in the United States, and is today considered an early work of sociology and political science.
Andrew Jackson
The seventh President of the United States (1829-1837). He gained national fame through his role in the War of 1812, where he won decisive victories over the Indians and then over the main British invasion army at the Battle of New Orleans. His victories led directly to the treaty which formally transferred Florida from Spain to the United States. Nominated for president in 1824, he narrowly lost to John Quincy Adams. Nominated again in 1828, he crusaded against Adams and the "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Henry Clay he said cost him the 1824 election. As president, he faced a threat of secession from South Carolina over the "Tariff of Abominations" which Congress had enacted under Adams. In contrast to several of his immediate successors, he denied the right of a state to secede from the union, or to nullify federal law. The Nullification Crisis was defused when the tariff was amended and he threatened the use of military force if South Carolina (or any other state) attempted to secede. Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of the ascendency of the "spoils system" in American politics. Also, he supported, signed, and enforced the Indian Removal Act, which unilaterally and forcibly relocated a number of native tribes to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). He faced and defeated Henry Clay in the 1832 Presidential Election, and opposed Clay generally.
Henry Clay
He represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He served three different terms as Speaker of the House of Representatives and was also Secretary of State from 1825 to 1829. He lost his campaigns for president in 1824, 1832 and 1844. Clay was a dominant figure in both the First and Second Party systems. As a leading War Hawk in 1812, he favored war with Britain and played a significant role in leading the nation to war in the War of 1812. In 1824, he maneuvered House voting in favor of John Quincy Adams, who made him secretary of state as the Jacksonians denounced what they considered a "corrupt bargain." He ran and lost again in 1832 and 1844 as the candidate of the Whig Party, which he founded and usually dominated. Clay was the foremost proponent of the American System and opposed the annexation of Texas. He also opposed the Mexican-American War and the "Manifest Destiny" policy of Democrats. He brokered important compromises during the Nullification Crisis and on the slavery issue. He was instrumental in formulating the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850.
William Crawford
American politician and judge during the early 19th century. He served as United States Secretary of War from 1815 to 1816 and United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1816 to 1825, and was a candidate for President of the United States in 1824. In 1816 in the congressional caucus which nominated James Monroe for the presidency Crawford was a strong opposing candidate, a majority being at first in his favor, but when the vote was finally cast 65 were for Monroe and 54 for Crawford. In 1824, when the congressional caucus was fast becoming extinct, Crawford, being prepared to control it, insisted that it should be held, but of 216 Republicans only 66 attended; of these, 64 voted for Crawford. Three other candidates, however, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay, were otherwise put in the field. During the campaign Crawford was stricken with paralysis, and when the electoral vote was cast Jackson received 99, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. It remained for the House of Representatives to choose from Jackson, Adams and Crawford, and through Clay's influence Adams became President. Crawford was invited by Adams to continue as Secretary of the Treasury, but declined.
John Quincy Adams
An American statesman who served as the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He also served as a diplomat, a Senator and member of the House of Representatives. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. He played an important role in negotiating key treaties, most notably the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. As Secretary of State, he negotiated with Britain over the United States' northern border with Canada, negotiated with Spain the annexation of Florida, and drafted the Monroe Doctrine. He is best known as a diplomat who shaped America's foreign policy in line with his ardently nationalist commitment to America's republican values. As president, he sought to modernize the American economy and promote education. He lost his 1828 bid for re-election to Andrew Jackson. Adams was elected a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts after leaving office, serving for the last 17 years of his life with far greater acclaim than he had achieved as president.
Corrupt Bargain
After the votes were counted in the U.S. presidential election of 1824, no candidate had received a majority of the Presidential Electoral votes, thereby putting the outcome in the hands of the House of Representatives. To the surprise of many, the House elected John Quincy Adams over rival Andrew Jackson. It was widely believed that Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House at the time, convinced Congress to elect Adams, who then made Clay his Secretary of State. Supporters of Jackson, a Senator from Tennessee at the time, who won a plurality of those popular votes which had been counted (though not necessarily of all votes) as well as the greatest number of electoral votes, denounced this as a "______". The "________" that placed Adams in the White House and Clay in the State Department launched a four-year campaign of revenge by the friends of Andrew Jackson.
Rise of the Common Man
The Age of Andrew Jackson, around the 1830s. Jackson claimed the president should do whatever it was that the people wanted. He looked to help others and glorified the role of the common man, to the point that he became known as "King Mob". To that point, politics was controlled by the wealthy, and there was a fear of the common man. Jackson, however, glorified the common man, and soon there were all sorts of changes in office holding and voting rights to get rid of property and religious requirements. Politicians changed too, as campaigns soon became geared towards winning the masses.
Nominating conventions
A political convention held every four years in the United States by most of the political parties who will be fielding nominees in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The formal purpose of such a convention is to select the party's nominee for President, as well as to adopt a statement of party principles and goals known as the platform and adopt the rules for the party's activities.
Spoils System
A practice where a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party —as opposed to a merit system, where offices are awarded on the basis of some measure of merit, independent of political activity. The term was derived from the phrase "to the victor belong the spoils" by New York Senator William L. Marcy, referring to the victory of the Jackson Democrats in the election of 1828, with the term spoils meaning goods or benefits taken from the loser in a competition, election or military victory.
Peggy Eaton Affair
When Margaret's first husband died unexpectedly, rumors abounded that he had committed suicide over his wife's alleged affair with Eaton. When Eaton and Margaret married shortly after her first husband's death, the ladies of Washington society ostracized the new couple. Jackson sympathized with and supported his friend Eaton because he supported Jackson when he had unwittingly married Rachel before her divorce from her first husband was final. People advised Jackson against making Eaton his secretary of war because of Margaret's reputation. For the rest of Jackson's first term, his opponents used the Eaton Affair or Petticoat Affair, as it was known, to attack the president's moral judgment and, by extension, his administration's policies and appointees. By 1831, the Eaton Affair had proved immensely divisive and politically damaging to Jackson. In response, Eaton and Van Buren resigned in order to give Jackson the opportunity to overhaul his cabinet with new members and protect his presidency from further scandal.
Kitchen cabinet
A term used by political opponents of President of the United States Andrew Jackson to describe his ginger group, the collection of unofficial advisers he consulted in parallel to the United States Cabinet (the "parlor cabinet") following his purge of the cabinet at the end of the Eaton affair and his break with Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1831. Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet included his longtime political allies Martin Van Buren, Francis Preston Blair, Amos Kendall, William B. Lewis, Andrew Jackson Donelson, John Overton, Duff Green, Isaac Hill, and his new Attorney General Roger B. Taney. As newspapermen, Blair and Kendall were given particular notice by rival papers.
Tariff of Abomination
Tariff of 1828" was a protective tariff passed by the Congress of the United States on May 19, 1828. It was labeled the __________ by its southern detractors because of the effects it had on the antebellum Southern economy. The major goal of the tariff was to protect industries in the northern United States which were being driven out of business by low-priced imported goods by taxing them. The South, however, was harmed directly by having to pay higher prices on goods the region did not produce, and indirectly because reducing the exportation of British goods to the U.S. made it difficult for the British to pay for the cotton they imported from the South. The reaction in the South, particularly in South Carolina, would lead to the Nullification Crisis that began in late 1832.
SC Exposition and Protest
A document written in December 1828 by John C. Calhoun, then vice president under John Quincy Adams and later under Andrew Jackson. Calhoun did not formally state his authorship at the time, though it was known. The document was a protest against the Tariff of 1828, also known as the Tariff of Abominations. The document stated that if the tariff was not repealed, South Carolina would secede. It stated also Calhoun's Doctrine of nullification, i.e., the idea that a state has the right to reject federal law, first introduced by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in their Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.
Webster-Hayne Debate
A famous debate in the United States between Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina that took place on January 19-27, 1830 on the topic of protectionist tariffs. The heated speeches stemmed from debate over a resolution by Connecticut Senator Samuel A. Foot calling for the temporary suspension of further land surveying until land already on the market was sold (this would effectively stop the introduction of new lands onto the market).
Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner
The annual fundraising celebration (dinner) held by Democratic Party organizations in the United States around February or March. It is named for Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. During presidential election campaigns, certain dinners are considered important venues for candidates to attend. Many state Democratic Parties have used the day to highlight local party leaders.
Tariff of 1832
A protectionist tariff in the United States. It was largely written by former President John Quincy Adams, who had been elected to the House of Representatives and appointed chairman of the Committee on Manufactures. It reduced the existing tariffs to remedy the conflict created by the tariff of 1828, but it was still deemed unsatisfactory by some in the South, especially in South Carolina. South Carolinian opposition to this tariff and its predecessor, the Tariff of Abominations, caused the Nullification Crisis. As a result of this crisis, the tariff was replaced by the Compromise Tariff of 1833.
Tariff of 1832
A protectionist tariff in the United States. It was largely written by former President John Quincy Adams, who had been elected to the House of Representatives and appointed chairman of the Committee on Manufactures. It reduced the existing tariffs to remedy the conflict created by the tariff of 1828, but it was still deemed unsatisfactory by some in the South, especially in South Carolina. South Carolinian opposition to this tariff and its predecessor, the Tariff of Abominations, caused the Nullification Crisis. As a result of this crisis, the tariff was replaced by the Compromise Tariff of 1833.
SC Ordinance of Nullification
A document that declared the Tariff of 1828 and 1832 null and void within the state borders of South Carolina. It began the Nullification Crisis. The protest that led to it was caused by the belief that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 favored the North over the South. This led to an emphasis on the differences between the two regions. Passed by the South Carolina state convention on November 24, 1832, it led, on December 10, to President Andrew Jackson's proclamation against South Carolina, the Nullification Proclamation of 1832, which sent a naval flotilla and a threat of sending government ground troops to enforce the tariffs. In the face of the military threat, and following a Congressional revision of the tariff, South Carolina repealed the ordinance.
Compromise Tariff of 1833
A compromise proposed by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun as a resolution to the Nullification Crisis. It was adopted to gradually reduce the rates after southerners objected to the protectionism found in the Tariff of 1832 and the 1828 Tariff of Abominations, which had prompted South Carolina to threaten secession from the Union. This Act stipulated that import taxes would gradually be cut over the next decade until, by 1842, they matched the levels set in the Tariff of 1816—an average of 20%. The compromise reductions lasted only two months into their final stage before protectionism was reinstated by the Black Tariff of 1842.
Nullification
On United States constitutional history, is a legal theory that a state has the right to ___, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional. The theory of ____has never been legally upheld by federal courts. Between 1798 and the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, several states threatened or attempted ____ of various federal laws, including the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves, the SC Ordinance of ____ , and Wisconsin's attempt to ___ the Fugitive Slave Act. None of these efforts were legally upheld.
Force Bill
Passed by Congress on March 2, 1833 at the urging of President Andrew Jackson, the ____ __ consisted of eight sections expanding presidential power and was designed to compel the state of South Carolina's compliance with a series of federal tariffs, opposed by John C. Calhoun and other leading South Carolinians. Among other things, the legislation stipulated that the president could, if he deemed it necessary, deploy the U.S. Army to force South Carolina to comply with the law.
Bank War
Jackson's opponents issue the bill to recharter the national bank during Jackson's term to force him take a stance on the National Bank so that Henry Clay would have a campaign issue to get people to side with him. Jackson vetoes the recharter, claiming it to be a rich man's way to get richer by the acts of Congress. During the next election, Jackson wins by a landslide and takes this as a mandate of the people to destroy the national banking system. After firing one secretary of treasury who wouldn't comply, he decided to divert federal revenue to selected state banks, known as "pet banks." He also believed the only sound currency was in gold and silver and began a crusade to end the use of paper bills, and in the Specie Circular made it mandatory to use silver and gold to buy lands. This "war" was a disaster to the economy and often Jackson was blamed for the Panic of 1837 because of this.
Nicholas Biddle
an American financier who served as the second and last president of the Second Bank of the United States. He is the one who, at the urging of Henry Clay, ordered the recharter of the bank early, hoping to force Jackson to take a side. Jackson vetoed the bank in return. He responded to Jackson's pet banks by reducing loans and calling in debts. Biddle was very stubborn and hated Jackson's effort to reduce the national bank, and said that Jackson will not have his way will the national bank.
Pet banks
After being re-elected, Jackson saw an opportunity to further reduce the power of the national bank that he hated. He ordered federal funds to be diverted from the national bank to selected state banks, that became known as Jackson's "__ ___". His action causes his opponents in the senate to declare his actions unconstitutional. Congress voted to deprive banks of federal deposits, and instead sent surplus funds to state for internal financial improvement
Specie Circular
(1836) The major component of Jackson's crusade against the national banking system and the use of paper money. In this crusade, Jackson decides that all sales of land needs to be through the use of gold or silver. Because of Jackson's crusades the people temporarily prospered while the state debt rose significantly and inflation increased dramatically, leading to the great financial depression in the Panic of 1837.
Panic of 1837
The economic depression that resulted because of Jackson's war on the banks and the Specie Circular, which involved a rapid increase in inflation. Some believed that Jackson was to blame because he removed vital banking policies that were necessary to check state-chartered banks. Others argue that it was out of Jackson's control because of the mass increase of cotton on the market, which aided in the depression. None the less, if Jackson wasn't completely to blame for this depression, his policies didn't aid America's recovery from it.
Martin Van Buren
Jackson's hand-picked successor as President. He responded to the depression in a doctrinaire way, following a Jeffersonian principle of limited government, and refused to give government aid to businesses. In 1840, he convinced Congress to adopt an independent treasury system, in which federal funds were locked up in sub-treasuries that were separate from the banking system.
Independent Treasury System
Also known as "Subtreasury," was a system in which govt. funds would be placed in an independent treasury in Washington and in subtreasuries. This way no private banks would have the govt's money or name to use as a basis for speculation. Van Buren called a special session of Congress in 1837 to consider this proposal, which failed in the House. In 1840, the administration finally succeeded in driving the measure through both houses of Congress.
Cherokee Nation v Georgia
(1831) Cherokees try to sue Georgia because white people keep coming in a selling their land and using it for their own purposes. They claim that because they are a foreign nation, they are not subject to Georgia's jurisdiction. Supreme court declares that the Cherokee Nation is not a foreign nation, and therefore the court has no jurisdiction so you are on your own against Georgia. They say the the Cherokees are dependent on the U.S.and are not independent
Worcester v. Georgia
(1832) Worcester is a white missionary who is supportive of the Cherokee people, he says that the states are encroaching on the national authority because Georgia is passing laws regulating what can happen on Native American land. Supreme court declared that states could not pass laws interfering with federal indian treaties, and that the federal government had a responsibility to exclude whites from Indian land. Cherokee indians are entitled to protection against individual state action, but following the decision President Jackson says to the supreme court to hell with you, disagree I'm siding with Georgia, so this decision is not enforced and is basically ignored. (Jacksons dad was killed by natives so... he hates them)
Johnson vs. McIntosh (1823)
(1823) The supreme court decides that the US has the right to give titles, or to sell any land within it's borders. Native americans cannot be citizens of the united states, they are only temporary residents, therefore they cannot own land. Private citizens cannot purchase land from native americans, because native americans do not have the right to own land. They would have to go to the government to receive the title.
Indian Removal Act
(1830), Jackson's aggressive policy against native americans. He 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.
Trail of Tears
Seminole, cherokee, creek, chickasaw, choctaw indian tribes are thought to be savages with a culture that can't be assimilated and contact with whites will only lead to violence. Whites want more land, so the government becomes more interested in removing Indian tribes. A quarter of them will die from disease or exhaustion as they are driven out of their land at gunpoint.
Seminole War
Seminole Indians (Florida) refused to be relocated west, launched raids throughout the new state of Florida. Cost $20 million and 1500 American lives, led to the resignation of 2/3 of Winfield Scott's officers. , For seven years the Seminole Indians, joined by runaway black slaves. Their spirit was broken in 1837, when the American field commander treacherously seized their leader, Osceola, under the flag of truce. The war dragged on for 5 more years, but the Seminole were defeated. There are 3 wars. White southerners hated the seminoles anyway because they had always encouraged the slaves to join them in resistance against USA. They are eventually pushed out as well
Black Hawk War
the chief of the sauk in illinois and wisconsin said that he had signed a treaty but wasnt aware that they would have to leave. They try to fight back and resist the trail of tears but most just run away, and they get crushed and massacred. They are forced to resettle further west.
William Grayson
He was a delegate to the Confederation Congress from 1785 to 1787. As an Anti-Federalist (one of the men who in Virginia called themselves "Republicans"), he joined George Mason, James Monroe, and Patrick Henry in opposing ratification of the United States Constitution at the Virginia Ratification Convention in 1788. In that Convention, he argued that the proposed constitution was neither fish nor fowl—neither strong enough for a national government nor decentralized enough for a federal one—and thus eventually would either degenerate into a despotism or result in the dissolution of the Union. Although the Anti-Federalists lost that battle, Patrick Henry, Virginia's leading Anti-Federalist, rewarded him by arranging his election to the first United States Senate. He served from 4 March 1789 until his death on 12 March 1790. He and Richard Henry Lee were the only members of the first Senate who had opposed ratification, and so the two of them were unhappy (but not surprised) when the Bill of Rights omitted any provisions making serious corrections to the division of powers between the central government and the states. He continued to believe that the Philadelphia Convention had struck precisely the wrong balance.
Thomas R. Dew
In 1832 he published a review of the celebrated slavery debate of 1831-32 in the Virginia General Assembly, under the title An Essay in Favor of Slavery, which went far towards putting a stop to a movement, then assuming considerable proportions, to proclaim the end of slavery in Virginia., Professor at William and Mary College who led the way for southern who refused to apologize about slavery. In his Review of the Debate of the Virginia Legislature of 1831 and 1832 (1832) he argued that: the natural increase of the slave population doomed any plan of gradual emancipation and the colonization to failure; the circumstances of southern life and conditions of human inequality (i.e. the innate inferiority of blacks) required the existence of slavery—BS; the Bible, Aristotle, and Edmund Burke all condoned slavery.
Gag Rule
1835 law passed by Southern congress which made it illegal to talk of abolition or anti-slavery arguments in Congress-silencing it was found unconstitutional because it violated freedom of speech.
Nat Turner
(8.2) a slave man born in in 1800 in Southampton County, VA. A gifted preacher, he believed that he had been chosen to lead his people out of bondage. In August 1831, he and 80 followers rebelled, attacking four plantations and killing almost 60 white inhabitants before being captured by state and federal troops. He was eventually tried and hanged. This rebellion strengthened the resolve of Southern whites to defend slavery and to control their slaves.
Second Great Awakening
A series of religious revivals starting in 1801, based on Methodism and Baptism. Stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects. The revivals attracted women, Blacks, and Native Americans. It also had an effect on moral movements such as prison reform, the temperance movement, and moral reasoning against slavery.
Charles Grandison Finney
Charismatic evangelist who brought the Second Great Awakening to its crest. He abandoned a promising career as a lawyer and became an itinerant preacher. His most success came during a series of revivals in towns along the Erie Canal, that Finney called "the burned-over district". He also made the "anxious bench" for sinners to pray and was was against slavery and alcohol. He preached that people chose to sin and had control of their own fate. He encouraged followers to join in moral reforms and spoke out against slavery.
American Colonization Society
Began in 1817. They argued slavery had to end, and Americans had to send black slaves back to Africa. It challenged slavery without challenging property rights of Southerners; Slave owners would be compensated through private charities or state legislatures; blacks would be shipped out of country to establish own country. In 1822, the society established the African-American settlement in Monrovia, Liberia. This proved impractical because between 1820 and 1860 only about 12,000 African Americans were settled despite the slaves population growing by 2.5 million in the US. It was altogether unsuccessful because it was too expensive, there were too many blacks to transfer, and many blacks and abolitionists opposed it.
American Anti-slavery Society
In 1833, William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionist founded this society. Before this starting in 1831, Garrison had been publishing The Liberator, an abolitionist movement, that started the radical abolitionist movement that led to the society's creation. The society advocated immediate abolition of slavery in every state and territory without compensating the slaveowners. Within the society, Garrison stepped up his attacks on slavery by condemning and burning the Constitution as a proslavery document and argued "no Union with slaveholders" until they repented for their sins by freeing the slaves.
Liberty Party
William Lloyd Garrison along with a group of northerners formed this party in 1840 that formed because of his radicalism spliting the Abolition Movement. This creation was a part of his moral crusade because he believed that political action was more practical to accomplish this. James Birney was their candidate for president in 1840 and 1844 and their one campaign pledge was to bring about the end of slavery.
Maysville Road Veto
(May 1830) One of Jackson's 12 vetoes in which he declined the use of federal money to construct ________ _______, because it was wholly within one state, Kentucky (along the Ohio River), the home state of his rival, Henry Clay. Publically, he declared that such bills violated the principle that the federal government should not be involved in local economic affairs. Jackson also pointed out that funding for these kinds of projects interfered with the paying off of the national debt.
Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge
a case regarding the _________ and the __________ of Boston, Massachusetts, heard by the United States Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. In 1785, the _______ Company had been granted a charter to construct a bridge over the Charles River connecting Boston and Cambridge. When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sanctioned another company to build the Warren Bridge, chartered 1828, the proprietors of the Charles River Bridge claimed that the Massachusetts legislature had broken its contract with the Charles River Bridge Company (reference to Dartmouth v Woodward) The owners of the first bridge claimed that the charter had implied exclusive rights to the Charles River Bridge Company. The Court ultimately sided with Warren Bridge.
Whigs
The party led by Henry Clay during the Two-Party system that arose during Jackson's presidency whom resembled the defunct Federalist Party of Hamilton. They supported the American system, which includes a national bank, federal funds for internal improvements, and a protective tariff. Their major concerns were the crimes associated with immigrants and their major base of voter support was in the NEw England and the Mid-Atlantic States, the Protestants of English heritage, and with urban professionals. In the election of 1836, they nominated 3 candidates from different regions for presidency hoping to send the election to the House of Representatives, but their strategy failed. In the election of 1840, they won by blaming the Democratic economic policy for the Panic of 1837, putting William Henry Harrison in office (for a whopping less than a month). John Tyler, the vice president, betrayed the party and vetoed a lot of their bills. By the 1856 election, the party was basically dispersed.
William Henry Harrison
The candidate of the Whig party in the 1840 election with the "Log Cabin and Hard Cider" campaign. He was a military hero whose humble backgrounds were emphasized for propaganda. This campaign also marked the start of name-calling as propaganda. His win was also partially due to the people's blame of democratic economic policies for the Panic of 1837 and he won the ballot with 53% of the vote. However, he died a month into office after catching pneumonia during his inauguration speech, being the first president to die in office, and his vice president John Tyler took over.
John Tyler
The vice president of William Henry Harrison who took over in 1841 after Harrison died a month into office because of pneumonia. He was not much of a Whig and was mainly put on the Whig's ballot to appeal to the Democratic voters.He vetoed the Whigs' national bank bills and other legislation, and favored southern and expansionist Democrats during the balance of his term (1841-1845).
Seneca Falls (1848)
The leading feminists met at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Some men also attended the conference (ex. Frederick Douglass). At the conclusion of the convention--the first woman's rights convention in American history--they issued a document closely modeled after the Declaration of Independence. Their "Declaration of Sentiments" declared that "all men and women are created equal" and listed women's grievances against laws and customs that discriminated against them. Following the Seneca Falls Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led the campaign for equal voting, legal, and property rights for women. In the 1850s, however, the issue of women's rights was overshadowed by the crisis over slavery.
William Lloyd Garrison
This man began publication of an abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, an event that marked the beginning of the radical abolitionist movement. He advocated immediate abolition of slavery in every state and territory without compensating the slaveowners. In 1833, he and other abolitionists founded the American Antislavery Society. He stepped up his attacks by condemning and burning the Constitution as a proslavery document. He argued for "no Union with slaveholders" until they repented for their sins by freeing their slaves.
The Liberator
I will be heard" Newspaper written by William Lloyd Garrison, one of the most controversial white abolitionists. Blacks should have civil equality with whites, no be freed and sent to Africa. Wanted immediate emancipation, but did not believe it was possible. Most subscribers were African-American.
Frederick Douglas
Born into slavery in Maryland and knew neither his father nor his exact age. Douglass was denied public education as a child because he was a slave. However, his mistress (Sophia Auld) did secretly teach him to read and write, and he later went on to even teach other slaves how to read. He was able to escape by train (2nd attempt at freedom) after meeting a free black woman (Ann Murray). Douglass disguised himself as a sailor carrying the papers of a free black friend, and succesfully escaped. He went on to become a preacher and became involved with abolitionists.He was an early follower of William Lloyd Garrison, he later advocated both political and direct action to end slavery and racial prejudice. In 1845, Douglass went to tour Britain, following the advice of his abolitionist colleagues, in order to be safer from his former owner and to gain international support for abolition. In 1847, he returned to the US and started the anti slavery journal The North Star. He gave firsthand accounts of the brutality of slavery. This journal not only spread the message supporting abolition, but also supported rights for all races and genders as well. At this point, he ideologically split from William Lloyd Garrison.
Elijah Lovejoy
Former Presbyterian minister; established a reform paper: St. Louis Observer; moved to Alton, IL. (Alton Observer); against slavery and injustices inflicted against blacks; is a martyr for the anti-slavery movement for he was killed by a mob in 1835.
Harriet Tubman
(c.1820-1913) American abolitionist who escaped slavery and assisted other enslaved Africans to escape; she is the most famous Underground Railroad conductor and is known as the Moses of her people.
Lucretia Mott
(1803-1880) Early feminist, who worked constantly with her husband in liberal causes, particularly slavery abolition and women's suffrage. Her home was a station on the underground railroad. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she helped organize the first women's rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848.
Grimke sisters
Abolitionists and suffragettes. The sisters came from South Carolina in an aristocratic family, with an Episcopalian judge who owned slaves father. Both sisters became abolitionists, and after converting to the Quaker faith, they joined Society of Friends. In 1835, Angela wrote an anti-slavery letter to Abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, who published it in, The Liberator. They spoke at abolitionist meetings. In 1837, Angelina was invited to be the first woman to speak at the Massachusetts State Legislature. Sarah and Angelina ___ wrote Letter on the Condition of Women and the Equality of the Sexes (1837) - objecting to male opposition to their anti-slavery activities.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
(1815-1902) A suffragette who, with Lucretia Mott, organized the first convention on women's rights, held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Issued the Declaration of Sentiments which declared men and women to be equal and demanded the right to vote for women. Co-founded the National Women's Suffrage Association with Susan B. Anthony in 1869.
Susan B. Anthony
(1820-1906) Women's rights crusader, also active in the Temperance and Abolition movements. Author of the Declaration of Sentiments at the Seneca Falls Convention.
Abby Kelley
Caused controversy in a committee that was previously all men when elected into the committee.Started as a Quaker teacher in Massachusetts, that began circulating anti-slavery petitions. Then gave an abolitionist speech to a convention of antislavery women. ___ left her teaching so she could fully devoted to anti-slavery and women's rights. She led the way for young women in unconventional ways of life.
Temperance
High rate of alcohol consumption prompted reformers to target alcohol as the cause of social ills. It began by using moral exhortation. Protestant ministers and others concerned founded the American Temperance Society. It tried to persuade drinkers to take a pledge of total abstinence. In 1840, a group of recovering alcoholics called the Washingtonians formed and argued that it was a disease that needed practical, helpful treatment. Various temperance societies had more than a million members. German and Irish immigrants largely opposed this movement, but lacked the political power to prevent government from passing reforms. Factory owners and politicians joined the reformers when they realized it could reduce crime and poverty and increase workers' output on the job.
Neal Dow
He was the prohibitionist mayor in Portland, Maine who opposed the sale and manufacturing of liquor in Maine. He supported the "Maine Law of 1851" and was criticized for the actions he took in the Portland Rum Riot.
John B. Gough
He was apart of the temperance movement. When he was young, he went through many things that caused him to become a drunkard. He was eventually asked to sign the pledge by a Quaker and he became one of the greatest temperance speakers of all time.
Prison reform
Changes in the mid-19th century aiming to transform prisoners into better people. The Auburn system (1816) separated prisoners at night but then kept them together during the day, while the Philadelphia system (1790) always kept prisoners separate so as to inspire self-reflection and reform. France began sending away its repeat offenders as the century went on.
Dorothea Dix
A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill, beginning in the 1820's, she was responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the U.S. and Canada. She succeeded in persuading many states to assume responsibility for the care of the mentally ill. She served as the Superintendant of Nurses for the Union Army during the Civil War.
Bronson Alcott
An American teacher, writer and philosopher who left a legacy of forward-thinking social ideas. His status as a well-publicized figure from the 1830s to the 1880s stemmed from his founding of two short-lived projects, an unconventional school and an utopian community known as "Fruitlands". A Transcendentalist writer and educator. In his schools he introduced art, music, nature study, field trips, and physical education into the curriculum, while banishing corporal punishment. He encouraged children to learn by asking questions. He was also an abolitionist and an advocate for women's rights. He advocated a vegan diet before it was popular. One of his daughters became a writer famous for her book Little Women.
Horace Mann
The leading advocated of the common (public school) movement. As secretary of the newly founded Massachusetts Board of Education, he worked for compulsory attendance for all children, a longer school year, and increased teacher preparation. The movement spread rapidly to other states in the 1840s. He and other educational reformers wanted children to learn not only basic literacy, but also moral principles.
Henry Barnard
U.S. educator who studied law and entered the state legislature, where he helped create a state board of education and the first teachers' institute (1839). With Horace Mann, he undertook to reform the country's common schools; he was an innovator in instituting school inspections, textbook reviews, and parent-teacher organizations. As Rhode Island's first commissioner of education (from 1845) he worked to raise teachers' wages, repair buildings, and obtain higher-education appropriations. In 1855 he helped found the American Journal of Education.
Samuel Gridley Howe
In 1832, he became the first director of the New England Institution for the Education of the Blind (now Perkins School for the Blind), the first such institution in the United States. Howe directed the school for the rest of his life
Shakers
One of the earliest religious communal movements, they had about 6,000 members in various communities by the 1840s. They held property in common and kept women and men strictly separate (forbidding marriage and sexual relations). For lack of new recruits, the ___ communities virtually died out by the mid-1900s.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons)
Founded by John Smith in 1823, NY. Based of the second coming of Jesus. The coming would happen in the United States. Supported the idea of polygamy, baptism of the dead, and eternal marriage. Once Joseph Smith was killed, Brigham Young lead the group to Utah. Believe that Jackson County, Missouri is the Garden of Eden. America is the lost tribes of Israel.
Joseph Smith
(1805-1844) founded the Mormon Church; in a series of religious experiences that began in 1820, Smith came to believe that God had singled him out to receive a special revelation of divine truth; in 1830 he published The Book of Mormon, & he proceeded to organize the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; he revived traditional social doctrines such as patriarchal authority within the family & encouraged practices that were central to individual success in the age f capitalist markets & factories-frugality, hard work, & entrepreneurial enterprise; his goal was a church-directed society that would inspire moral perfection; the Mormons eventually settled in Nauvoo, Illinois which, by the 1840's, had become the largest utopian community in the US; Smith refused to abide by any Illinois law of which he didn't approve, asked Congress to turn Nauvoo into a separate federal territory, & declared himself a candidate for president; Smith also claimed to have received a new revelation that justified polygamy; in 1844 Illinois officials arrested Smith & charged him with treason for allegedly conspiring with foreign powers to create a Mormon colony in Mexican territory; an anti-Mormon mob stormed the jail in Carthage, Illinois, where he & his brother were being held, & murdered them
Brigham Young
A Mormon leader that led his oppressed followers to Utah in 1846. Under Young's management, his Mormon community became a prosperous frontier theocracy and a cooperative commonwealth. He became the territorial governor in 1850. Unable to control the hierarchy of Young, Washington sent a federal army in 1857 against the harassing Mormons.
Oneida
John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 started a cooperative community in ___, New York. Dedicated to an ideal of perfect social and economic equality, community members shared property, and later, marriage partners. Critics attacked the Oneida system of planned reproduction and communal child-rearing as a sinful experiment in "free love." Despite the controversy, the community managed to prosper economically by producing and selling silverware of excellent quality.
John Humphrey Noyes
(1811-1886) praised the Shakers as the true "pioneers of modern Socialism" & was inspired by their marriageless society to create a community which defined sexuality & gender roles in radically new ways; after being dismissed from his church, he turned to perfectionism (an evangelical movement that began in the 1830's which believed that the Second Coming of Christ had already occurred & that people could therefore aspire to sinless perfection in their earthly lives); he believed that the major barrier to achieving this ideal state was marriage; he & his followers embraced complex marriage (all members of community married to one another) partly because he wished to free women from being regarded as property of their husbands; in the late 1830's, Noyes established a community in Vermont which then moved to Oneida, NY where 200 people lived by the 1850's; Oneida became financially successful when the inventor of a highly successful steel animal trap joined & the community diversified into the production of silverware from there; After Noyes fled to Canada in 1879, the community died down
Brook Farm
Could a community of people live out the transcendental ideal? In 1841, George Ripley, a Protestant minister, launched a communal experiment at __- ___ in Massachusetts. His goal was to achieve a more "natural union between intellectual and manual labor." Living at __ ___ at times were some of the leading intellectuals of the period. Emerson went, as did Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. A bad fire and heavy debts forced the end of the experiment in 1849. But this place was remembered for its atmosphere of artistic creativity, its innovative school, and its appeal to New England's intellectual elite and their children.
New Harmony
The secular (nonreligious) experiment in __ ___, Indiana, was the work of Welsh industrialist and reformer Robert Owen. Owen hoped his utopian socialist community would provide an answer to the problems of inequity and alienation caused by the Industrial Revolution. The experiment failed, however, as a result of both financial problems and disagreements among members of the community.
Gilbert Stuart
A painter from Rhode Island who painted several portraits of Washington, creating a sort of idealized image of Washington. When Stuart was painting these portraits, the former president had grown old and lost some teeth. Stuart's paintings created an ideal image of him.
Charles Wilson Peale
He was one of the outstanding painters of the early American republic, and he painted more than a thousand portraits, mostly of American Revolution leaders. He founded the nation's first museum and first art school. His 1772 portrait of George Washington is recognized as the first authentic likeness of Washington. He continued to add paintings of national leaders like John Adams (1791-1794), Alexander Hamilton (1791), and James Madison (1792). His likenesses were realistic, accurate in detail, and sensitive to the sitter's personality.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The best known transcendentalist, he was a very popular American speaker. His essays and lectures expressed the individualistic and nationalistic spirit of Americans by urging them not to imitate European culture but to create a distinctive American culture. He argued for self-reliance, independent thinking, and the primacy of spiritual matters over material ones. A northerner who lived in Concord, Massachusetts, he became a leading critic of slavery in the 1850s and then an ardent supporter of the Union during the Civil War.
Henry David Thoreau
Also living in Concord and a close friend of Emerson. To test his transcendentalist theory, he conducted a two-year experiment of living simply in a cabin in the woods outside town. He used observation of nature to discover essential truths about life and the universe. His writings from those years were published in the book for which he is best known, Walden (1854). Because of this book, he remembered today as a pioneer ecologist and conservationist. Throughout his essay "On Civil Disobedience," Thoreau established himself as an early advocated of nonviolent protest. The essay presented Thoreau's argument for disobeying unjust laws and accepting the penalty. His own act of civil disobedience was to refuse to pay a tax that would support an action he considered immoral--the U.S. war with Mexico. For breaking the tax law, he spent one night in the Concord jail. In the next century, his essay and actions would inspire nonviolent movements.
Walt Whitman
American poet and transcendentalist who was famous for his beliefs on nature, as demonstrated in his book, Leaves of Grass. He was therefore an important part for the buildup of American literature and breaking the traditional rhyme method in writing poetry.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882) American poet that was influenced somewhat by the transcendentalism occurring at the time. He was important in building the status of American literature, and is regarded as one of the greatest American poets of all time.
Edgar Allen Poe
(1809-1849). Orphaned at young age. Was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic, and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. Failing at suicide, began drinking. Died in Baltimore shortly after being found drunk in a gutter. "the raven
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Originally a transcendentalist; later rejected them and became a leading anti-transcendentalist. He was a descendant of Puritan settlers. The Scarlet Letter shows the hypocrisy and insensitivity of New England puritans by showing their cruelty to a woman who has committed adultery and is forced to wear a scarlet "A".
Herman Melville
1819-1891 an uneducated and an orphan. ___ served eighteen months as a whaler. ___ wrote Moby Dick in 1851 which was much less popular than his tales of the South seas. adventuresome years served as a major part in his writing. In addition, he rejected the optimism of the transcendentalists and felt that man faced a tragic destiny.
Manifest Destiny
This was the term used, throughout the 1840s, to describe Americans' belief that they were destined by God to spread their beliefs across the continent. This sense of duty created a sense of unity among the nation and stimulated westward expansion. The term itself was coined by John O'Sullivan in an 1845 magazine article. The concept justified westward expansion in all its forms and ramifications, including the Mexican War, the persecution of the Indians, and other such ethnocentric acts.
Sam Houston
Born in Virginia. He became a Cherokee Indian and lived with them for 3 years. Went back to white settlement and taught school, fought in Jackson's army, studied law, was elected to Congress, and became the governor of Tennessee. Became an Indian for 4 years and moved to Texas as an Indian trader. Fought against Santa Anna.
Alamo
A Spanish mission converted into a fort, it was besieged by Mexican troops in 1836. The Texas garrison held out for thirteen days, but in the final battle, all of the Texans were killed by the larger Mexican force.
Election of 1844
Candidates: Henry Clay (Whigs- in an upset over Van Buren) and James Polk (Democrat). Polk favored expansion, demanded that Texas and Oregon be added to the US and Clay had already spoken out against annexation. Polk won the election by the difference of one state (NY, because some of its votes went to the Liberty Party candidate, losing Clay the state)
James K. Polk
(1845-1849) The Mexican War starts in 1846. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends the war in 1848. Wanted to settle Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain. Wanted to acquire California and to incorporate Texas into union, while reducing the tariff and re-establish an independent treasury system.
Annexation of Texas
Texas decides to secede from Mexico and attempts to declare its independence which eventually leads to our adoption of the land as a state although it was feared that it would cause conflict with Mexico leading to war. Southern states in support of this as Texas brought slaves with it meaning it would increase agricultural profits
John Slidell
A diplomat sent by Polk to buy California, New Mexico, and Texas from the Mexicans. Mexico rejected his offer and Polk sent Taylor's army into Mexico., Polk dispatched him to Mexico City as minister in 1845 to present a maximum offer of $25 million for California and the land to the east. __________ was not even permitted to present his offer by the proud Mexican people. This rejection frustrated Polk and forced him to prepare a showdown. He proposed that on the basis of this rejection, along with unpaid claims, Congress should declare war on Mexico. However, two cabinet members felt that Mexico should fire the first shots, and they did in 1846.
Nueces River vs. Rio Grande
One of the first settlers to scout the area was Cpt. Blas María de la Garza Falcón in 1766. From before the end of the Texas Revolution, Mexico recognized that the Nueces River was historically the border of Texas from the rest of the country. However, the Republic of Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its border with Mexico, citing the Treaty of Velasco signed by Mexican President Santa Anna who agreed to the Rio Grande border after losing the Battle of San Jacinto. This dispute continued after the annexation of Texas, and was one of the causes of the Mexican-American War. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the dispute, with Mexico recognizing under pressure the Rio Grande as its northern border.
Zachary Taylor
12th US President (1849-1850) Taylor was a general and hero of the Mexican-American war. He was elected to the presidency in 1848, representing the Whig party. He was in office during the crisis of California's admittance to the Union but died in office before a compromise could be worked out, and left vice president Filmore to finalize a deal between the hostile north and south. Advocated admission of California and New Mexico to US.
John C. Fremont
A captain and an explorer who was in California with several dozen well-armed men when the Mexican War broke out. He helped to overthrow the Mexican rule in 1846 by collaborating with Americans who had tried to raise the banner of the California Bear Republic. Fremont helped to take California from the inside.
Winfield Scott
In charge of the Union army. He was very smart, and he came up with the idea to block the South ports. He estimated the war would last 2-3 years. Everyone thought they were stupid, but he was right. He got fired, even though they followed his original plan.
Mexican-American War
(1846-1848) Began after President Polk attempted to buy the Southwest Territory from Mexico. When the Mexican government refused, Polk provoked the country until it attacked American troops. Whigs and abolitionists opposed the conflict, with the latter fearing that new states would allow slavery. The war ended when the United States invaded Mexico City and Mexico ceded control of much of the modern Southwest in exchange for $15 million
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
February 2 1848. The agreement between President Polk and the new Mexican government for Mexico to cede California and New Mexico to the US and acknowledge the Rio Grand as the boundary of Texas. In return, the US promised to assume any financial claims its new citizens had against Mexico and to pay the Mexicans $15 million.
Gadsden Purchase
1853 - After the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo was signed, the U.S. realized that it had accidentally left portions of the southwestern stagecoach routes to California as part of Mexico. James Gadsen, the U.S. Minister to Mexico, was instructed by President Pierce to draw up a treaty that would provide for the purchase of the territory through which the stage lines ran, along which the U.S. hoped to also eventually build a southern continental railroad. This territory makes up the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico.
Wilmot Proviso
1845, Dispute over whether any Mexican territory that America won during the Mexican War should be free or a slave territory. A representative named David Wilmot introduced an amendment stating that any territory acquired from Mexico would be free. This amendment passed the House twice, but failed to ever pass in Senate. The "Wilmot Proviso", as it became known as, became a symbol of how intense dispute over slavery was in the U.S.
California Gold Rush
1848 gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000 men, women, and children coming to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. These early gold-seekers, called "forty-niners," traveled to California by sailing boat and in covered wagons across the continent, often facing substantial hardships on the trip. San Francisco grew from a small settlement to a boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. A system of laws and a government were created, leading to the admission of California as a state in 1850
Caroline Affair
A series of events beginning in 1837 that strained relations between the U.S. and GB. American sympathizers helped out a group of Canadian rebels, settling near the border of New York. Sir Allan McNab (British) is sent to seize the Caroline (boat supporting the rebels), and set it on fire and sent it over the Niagara Falls. This story was dramatized, describing the horrible deaths of a dozen American men. British is mad that US is helping the rebels.
Creole Affair
a bunch of slaves up rise in mutiny on a slave ship and they take it over and go to the Bahamas. The Bahamas are controlled by the British who have a no-slave policy and let the rebels go. U.S.A is upset because they consider the slaves property and the British have let their property go. U.S.A calls for extradition of the slaves: they want the right to try the criminal in the state which he committee the crime. British refuse this request for extradition, and let all the slave rebels go, which creates even more tension.
Aroostook County War
an undeclared confrontation in 1838-39 between the United States and Great Britain over the international boundary between British North America (Canada) and Maine. The dispute resulted in a mutually accepted border between the state of Maine and the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec. It is called a war because not only were tensions high and rhetoric heated in Maine and New Brunswick, but troops were raised and armed on both sides and marched to the disputed border. President Martin Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott to work out a compromise. A neutral area was created and the controversy gradually died down. There was no actual confrontation between military forces, and the dispute was soon settled through negotiations between diplomats from Britain and U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster who secretly funded a propaganda campaign that convinced Maine leaders that a compromise was wise. The final border between the two countries was established with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, which gave Maine most of the disputed area, and gave the British a militarily vital connection between provinces.
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
1842 - Settled the dispute over the location of the Maine-New Brunswick border between the United States and Canada as well as the location of the border in the westward frontier up to the Rocky Mountains -called for a final end to the slave trade on the high seas, to be enforced by both signatories
Oregon Trail
A historical overland route to the western United States extending from various cities on the Missouri River to the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory. The trail was opened in 1842, and by 1845 more than 3,000 migrants had made the arduous journey. After the coming of the railroad, the trail fell into disuse and was finally abandoned in the 1870s.
Fifty-four Forty or Fight
An aggressive slogan adopted in the Oregon boundary dispute, a dispute over where the border between Canada and Oregon should be drawn. This was also Polk's slogan - the Democrats wanted the U.S. border drawn at the 54º40' latitude. Polk settled for the 49º latitude in 1846.
Buchanan-Pakenham Treaty
This treaty, of which terms were the same as two prior proposed treaties, extended the boundary between Canada and the Us along the 49th parallel to the Puget sound while giving England Vancouver Island and shipping rights to the Columbia River. "54 40' or Fight" was not headed