Unit 3 Vocabulary Terms

Albany Plan

Plan of union proposed by Benjamin Franklin. The plan was for a permanent confederation among the British colonies in America with an elected parliament to organize their defense and the authority to raise taxes. The plan was rejected by the individual colonial assemblies, but it was an early proposal for unity.

French and Indian War

This conflict had its focal point in North America and pitted the French and their Native American allies against the English and their Native American allies. Although it lasted from 1754-1763, the event was known in Europe as the Seven Years' War. This struggle drove the French from North America, but it fundamentally changed the relationship between Britain and the American colonies.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

This treaty ended the French and Indian War (Great War for the Empire) in 1763. France abandoned nearly all its territorial claims in North America to Great Britain.

Pontiac's Rebellion

This indian uprising began in 1763 when a grand council of Potawatomis, Hurons and Ottawas was called to rise up against the British and American colonials and drive them back across the mountains. The British sent 15 regiments to restore order, but the war had been costly for the white settlements that were affected: an estimated 2,000 civilians and some 400 soldiers died during the conflict. To prevent future conflict with the indians, the British restricted American settlement west of the Appalachian mountains.

Proclamation of 1763

In an effort to avoid any future conflict with the Native Americans after the French and Indian War, the British issued this proclamation--that no English colonists shall be allowed to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. Passed in the wake of Pontiac's Rebellion, the edict forbade private citizens and colonial governments alike to buy land from or make any agreements with natives. The majority of colonists despised the proclamation because it restricted their freedom to settle on western lands. It became one in a long list of colonial grievances against the British.

Sugar Act

This 1764 Act initiated prime minister George Grenville's plan to place tariffs on some colonial imports as a means of raising revenue needed to finance England's expanded North American empire. It also called for more strict enforcement of the Navigation Acts. The end of "salutary neglect" and the effort to curb smuggling led to many of the early colonial protests against British interference in colonial affairs.

Stamp Act

This 1765 Act of Parliament was the first purely direct (revenue) tax Parliament imposed on the colonies. It was an excise tax on printed matter, including legal documents, publications, and playing cards, and the revenue produced was supposed to defray expenses for defending the colonies. Americans opposed it as "taxation without representation" and prevented its enforcement; Parliament repealed it a year after its enactment.

Patrick Henry

He was one of the great figures of the revolutionary generation. He stood in the vanguard of those calling for united action by all the colonies against British "tyranny." He was a firebrand demanding national independence, as seen in his "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech at an extralegal session of the Virginia Assembly in March 1775. During the war and its immediate aftermath he was five times governor of Virginia.

Townshend Duties

These acts of Parliament, passed in 1767, imposed duties on colonial tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass. The purpose of these duties was to help support government in America. The act prompted a successful colonial nonimportation movement. Parliament gradually rescinded the tax on all of the items enumerated in the laws except tea. The episode served as another important step in the coming of the American Revolution.

Boston Massacre

This violent confrontation between British troops and a Boston mob occurred on March 5, 1770. Five citizens were killed when the troops fired on the crowd that had been harassing them. The incident inflamed anti-British sentiment in the colony.

Samuel Adams

This American revolutionary political leader rose to prominence in the Massachusetts assembly during the opposition to the Stamp Act in 1765. An organizer of Boston's Sons of Liberty, he conceived of the Boston Committee of Correspondence and took a leading role in its formation and operations from 1772 through 1774. He was among those who planned and coordinated Boston's resistance to the Tea Act, which climaxed in the famous Tea Party, and he later worked for the creation of the Continental Congress, helping propel it into supporting Massachusetts in the crisis.

Tea Act

Enacted by the British Parliament in 1773, this act served two purposes: first, it offered a financial bailout to the failing East India Company by giving it a monopoly on tea importation in North America; and second, it was a symbolic tax on the increasingly recalcitrant American colonists. Citizens from all of the major ports voiced loud objections to the new tax. In December 1773 in Boston, where 60 colonists dressed as Indians threw 342 chests of tea into the harbor in what became known as the Boston Tea Party.

Sons of Liberty

Wealthy merchants John Hancock and Samuel Adams formed this radical patriot organization in Boston in 1765. This group engaged in direct action against British rule, more or less covertly. In 1773, for example, they organized and executed the Boston Tea Party. Throughout the revolutionary period, they continued to fight, eventually disbanding in 1783 with the end of the war.

Boston Tea Party

In 1773, patriot colonists led by the Sons of Liberty protested the Tea Act and the monopoly granted to the British East India Company by boarding three British ships in Boston Harbor and destroying 342 chests of Britsh Tea.

Daughters of Liberty

This organization of women assembled in communities throughout the colonies to support nonimportation and the patriotic cause. After the passage of the Townshend Acts in 1767, American patriots boycotted British-made goods, and this organization manufactured many of the replacement supplies.

Coercive Acts/Intolerable Acts

Parliament responded to the Boston Tea Party by passing these acts in 1774. They intended to punish Boston and Massachusetts generally for the crime committed by a few individuals. Colonists called these the Intolerable Acts.

First Continental Congress

Delegates from twelve colonies attended this meeting in Philadelphia in 1774. The delegates denied Parliament's authority to legislate for the colonies, adopted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, created a Continental Association to enforce a boycott, and endorsed a call to take up arms.

Lexington and Concord

These battles, fought on April 19, 1775 were the opening engagements of the American Revolution. Though there had been increasing violence and unrest throughout New England for several years, the colonists killed 73 British soldiers and wounded 174 and therefore brought the American patriots into open rebellion.

Salutary Neglect

British colonial policy during the reigns of George I and George II. Relaxed supervision of internal colonial affairs by royal bureaucrats contributed significantly to the rise of American self government.

Benjamin Franklin

American intellectual, inventor, and politician. He helped to negotiate French support for the American Revolution.

William Pitt

The Prime Minister of England during the French and Indian War. He increased the British troops and military supplies in the colonies, and this is why England won the war. He also enlarged the debt associated with this war.

King George III

King of England during the Revolutionary War

Virginia Resolves

In response to the 1765 Stamp Act, Patrick Henry persuaded the Virginia House of Burgesses to adopt several strongly worded resolutions that denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies. Known as the Virginia Resolves, these resolutions persuaded many other colonial legislatures to adopt similar positions.

Stamp Act Congress

This provided an opportunity for colonial leaders to meet and establish ties with one another. 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.

Declaratory Act

Act passed in 1766 just after the repeal of the Stamp Act. This act stated that Parliament could legislate for the colonies in all cases.

Virtual Representation

British governmental theory that Parliament spoke for all British subjects; including Americans, even if they did not vote for its members.

Parliament

Britain's law-making assembly

Gaspee Incident

In June, 1772, the British customs ship Gaspée ran around off the colonial coast. When the British went ashore for help, colonials boarded the ship and burned it. They were sent to Britain for trial. Colonial outrage led to the widespread formation of Committees of Correspondence. Led to the demand for the right to a trial by a jury of your peers (6th Amendment)

Second Continental Congress

This meeting gathered in May 1775 in Philadelphia. It was immediately faced with the pressure of rapidly unfolding military events. It served as the colonial government during the American Revolution. It issued paper money, made decisions that controlled the Continental Army, established committees to acquire war supplies, and investigated the possibilities of foreign assistance. This became the crucial governmental body of revolutionary America.

Olive Branch Petition

Although fighting had already erupted between the colonists and the British Army, the Second Continental Congress sent this petition to King George III in July 1775, requesting that the king help broker a compromise between the patriots and the British Parliament. George never answered the petition, and in fact proclaimed the colonists to be in rebellion in August 1775. The fighting escalated during 1775 and 1776, prompting the Continental Congress to adopt the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.

Common Sense

This 50-page pamphlet, written by Thomas Paine, inspired the Declaration of Independence. Even after fighting broke out in April 1775, many Americans were reluctant to break their ties to England. Paine's publication in January 1776 helped remove that obstacle by convincing the colonists that further association with the English king was undesirable. It was highly influential and sold more than 120,000 copies in the first three months, making it the biggest best-seller of its time.

Declaration of Independence

Written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, this justified the American Revolution by reference to republican theory and to the many injustices of King George III toward the colonies. The indictment of the king provides a remarkably full catalog of the colonists' grievances, and Jefferson's eloquent and inspiring statement of the contract theory of government makes the document one of the world's great state papers.

George Washington

He was appointed by the Second Continental Congress as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775. His ability to learn under duress and refusal to accept defeat kept an American army in the field. At the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 with French troop and naval support, he was able to entrap the British troops and force surrender. At the end of the war in 1783, he was the most famous man in America.

Battle of Saratoga

In this 1777 battle, British General Burgoyne surrendered his force to American General Horatio Gates. The American victory proved to be a turning point in the American Revolution because it thwarted a British plan to divide the colonies and it convinced France to recognize the United States and sign the Treaty of Amity and Commerce.

Loyalists

Sometimes called Tories, these Americans hesitated to take up arms against England. They may have been as much as one-third of the colonists in 1776. Many were royal appointees, Anglican clergymen, or Atlantic merchants. They were poorly organized and of limited help to British armies, but the Patriots persecuted them.

Battle of Yorktown

This battle proved to be the decisive battle in the revolutionary defeat of Great Britain at the hands of American colonists. After the failure of his Carolinas campaign, British general Lord Charles Cornwallis withdrew his army into Virginia and hoped to receive reinforcements. British reinforcements were also cut off by the arrival of French who drove the British Navy out of Chesapeake Bay. Giving up any hope of assistance, Cornwallis surrendered his troops on October 19, 1781.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

This treaty officially brought a close to the American Revolution, with Great Britain recognizing the colonies' independence. Negotiated in Paris by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, the treaty granted to the fledgling United States nearly everything it wanted, including territory extending to the Mississippi River. The document was formally signed on September 3, 1783.

Abigail Adams

She holds a unique place in American history as both the wife of one president and the mother of another. In her own right, she was an ardent American patriot. Her perseverance during the American Revolution kept her family together and enabled her husband, John, to devote himself entirely to the patriot cause. Her letters provided her husband with information and shrewd insights into the political situation in Boston while he was absent. In one letter, she urged her husband to "remember the ladies" in an age when women were seen as strictly domestic.

Republican Wife and Mother

During the American Revolution many women of all classes became politically active and participated in various ways for the cause. Women took part in boycotts and riots, and served as "Daughters of Liberty." After the Revolution, women were NOT given a larger place in political life or allowed the right to vote. Even if women did not take part in public life, through their role in the home they could raise their sons to become the upholders of the virtues needed by freemen in a free society. This role recognized the reality of restrictions on women but also gave them a vital role ensuring the success of the republic by instilling in its future generations the moral and political values necessary for good citizenship.

Articles of Confederation

Ratified in 1781, this was the United States's first constitution. It sharply limited central authority by denying the national government any coercive power including the power to tax and to regulate trade. The articles set up the loose confederation of states that comprised the first national government from 1781 to 1788.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Adopted by the Confederation Congress on July 13, 1787, this act applied to the territories north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River. It provided for the governance of the territories and made a provision for the eventual admission of between three and five states from those territories. Since those states would have the same rights as the original 13, the law assured that the United States would not become a colonial power on the North American continent. The states eventually carved from this law were Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Shays' Rebellion

This was an armed rebellion of western Massachusetts farmers to prevent state courts from foreclosing on debtors unable to pay their taxes in1786-7. Fears generated by this rebellion helped to convince states to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in 1787.

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 towards the colonies, Dickinson opposed the Revolution, and, as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776, refused to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Paine

Author of Common Sense

Thomas Jefferson

Author of the Declaration of Independence

Battle of Bunker Hill

First major battle of the Revolutions. It showed that the Americans could hold their own, but the British were also not easy to defeat. Ultimately, the Americans were forced to withdraw after running out of ammunition, and Bunker Hill was in British hands. However, the British suffered more deaths.

Patriots

American colonists who were determined to fight the British until American independence was won.

Homespun

A coarse, loosely woven, homemade fabric.

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.

Critical Period

The period between the end of the Revolutionary War and the ratification of the Constitution. This is a time when America faced economic, political and social chaos as it attempted to define itself as a new sovereign nation.

Philadelphia Constitutional Convention

Responding to calls for a stronger and more energetic national government, 55 delegates met in the summer of 1787 to draft a new constitution to replace the ineffective Articles of Confederation. The product that was created here, the Constitution of the United States, was ratified in 1788. It replaced the Articles of Confederation as the governing document for the United States, and transformed the constitutional basis of government from confederation to federation, also making it the world's oldest federal constitution.

New Jersey Plan

When James Madison offered the Virginia plan at the Constitutional Convention, calling for proportional representation in Congress, James Paterson responded with this plan, hoping to protect the less populous states. This plan called for equal representation for each state in a unicameral legislature. The controversy was resolved in the Great Compromise.

Virginia Plan

This plan set the agenda for much of the Constitutional Convention. The plan was believed to have been written chiefly by James Madison. It was devised as a means to correct and enlarge the Articles of Confederation. Although the plan underwent many modifications, key principles like the separation of powers and bicameralism, and key institutions like the executive and judicial branches, clearly originated in this plan. It is most remembered now for its rejected proposal that representation within the national legislature be based solely on population.

Great Compromise

This plan was proposed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut at the 1787 Constitutional Convention to resolve differences between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. It called for creating a national bicameral legislature: in the House of Representatives places were to be assigned according to a state's population (proportional representation) and filled by popular vote; in the Senate, each state was to have two members (equal representation) elected by its state legislature.

James Madison

He is often called the "Father of the Constitution" for his critical role in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. In addition to his remarkable contributions at the Constitutional Convention, he dedicated his life to public service: he authored many of the Federalist Papers; he crafted and sponsored the Bill of Rights; he joined Jefferson in founding the Democratic-Republican Party; he drafted the Virginia Resolves; (as Secretary of State) he guided the successful negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase; and (as president) he successfully guided the United States through the War of 1812.

Anti-Federalists

They were a loosely organized group that arose after the American Revolution to oppose the Constitution and the strong central government that it created. They feared the potential of strong governments to infringe on the liberties of the people and the rights of the states.

Federalists

This term applied to those who advocated ratification of the Constitution; they were centralizing nationalists who were convinced that America's survival required the new, stronger government outlined in the Constitution.

Federalist Papers

Alexander Hamilton, with the help of James Madison and John Jay wrote this--a brilliant series of essays explaining and defending the national government created by the Constitutional Convention of 1787. These essays serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government. According to historian Richard B. Morris, they are an "incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer."

Alexander Hamilton

During the American Revolution, he helped lead the assault at Yorktown that resulted in a British surrender. In the 1780s, he became a vocal critic of the Articles of Confederation, condemning them for their ineffectiveness. At the Constitutional Convention, he, with such notables as James Madison and Benjamin Franklin pushed for a powerful executive and federal supremacy. He rallied support for the new constitution through writing of several articles that, along with those of Madison and John Jay, became known as the Federalist Papers. With the Constitution ratified and Washington elected, he was appointed secretary of the treasury. As Treasury Secretary, he immediately confronted the main problem facing the new government, namely its finances. In building support for his program, he created the Federalist Party. In 1804, he was killed in a duel with his political nemesis, Aaron Burr.

Bill of Rights

This term refers to the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. James Madison, considered the "father of the Constitution," guided the amendments through the new Congress. The amendments were ratified by the requisite number of states on December 15, 1791 and went into effect on March 1, 1792. The amendments protect individual liberties and states' rights against the power of the national government.

Democrat-Republican Party

This political party was organized in the 1790s and became the first opposition party in US history. Following the ideas of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, this party was opposed to a strong central government and a central bank and supported strict construction of the Constitution and the predominance of agriculture in the economy. In 1800, Jefferson was elected president after a bitter political campaign against Adams. For the first time, power was transferred peacefully from one faction to another.

Whiskey Rebellion

Hamilton, unmoved by the plight of the farmers, convinced President George Washington to call up the militia and make a show of force against the farmers. The farmers chose not to fight, but the militia occupied some western Pennsylvania counties for months. This rebellion tested the principles of representative government and the powers of taxation in the new nation.

Neutrality Proclamation

Congress based its act on President Washington's neutrality proclamation of 1793 and the "Rules Governing Belligerents" drawn up in 1793 as instructions to American customs agents. Providing guidelines for neutral action, the law prohibited arming new belligerent vessels in US ports but recognized the legal equipment of foreign vessels. It also prohibited the recruitment of soldiers or sailors within the US territory by a belligerent agent. In many respects, it made activity such as that Genêt had taken officially illegal.

Jay's Treaty

John Jay negotiated a treaty with Britain in 1794 in which the British agreed to evacuate posts in the American northwest and settle some maritime disputes. Jay agreed to accept Britain's definition of America's neutral rights. The terms of the treaty provoked a storm of protest, but it was ratified in 1795.

Washington's Farewell Address

President Washington decided not to seek reelection in 1796. Near the end of his term he delivered this address that warned the nation against the harmful effects of rivalry between political parties, and against the dangers of permanent alliances with foreign nations.

John Adams

He was one of the lawyers who agreed to defend the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. At the Second Continental Congress in 1775, he pressed for a complete break with England . In 1778, he was sent to Europe to obtain a treaty of alliance with France. Later, he returned to France and in concert with Franklin and John Jay, negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1783) with Great Britain to end the revolution. He was elected the first vice president of the United States. In 1796, he overcame Hamilton's opposition to his candidacy to win a narrow victory for the presidency. Vilified by the Republicans for not vetoing the Alien and Sedition Acts, he was defeated for reelection by Jefferson in 1800.

Quasi-War

Since 1793, Revolutionary France had been embroiled in a war with England, and it sought to keep foreign shipping from carrying cargoes to English ports. Accordingly, in 1797, the French government issued several decrees authorizing the seizure of U.S. merchant vessels trading with England. On April 30, 1798, President John Adams created the U.S. Navy and ordered it into action against French privateers attempting to halt the Anglo-American trade. The conflict became known by this term.

Alien and Sedition Acts

In 1798 the Federalist Congress passed these four acts to attack the Republican party and suppress dissent against Federalist policies. The Acts curtailed freedom of speech and the liberty of foreigners resident in the United States. Democratic-Republicans maintained that the acts were an unconstitutional weapon to suppress political dissent, and the acts themselves proved wildly unpopular.

XYZ Affair

Peace commissioners sent to France by President Adams in 1797 were insulted by their French counterparts' demand for a bribe as a condition for negotiating with American diplomats. America's tender sense of national honor was outraged by this episode and Federalists increased demands for war against France.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

After the Federalist-dominated Congress adopted the Alien and Sedition Acts, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the leaders of the Democratic-Republican Party, responded by secretly authoring these papers. The resolutions suggested that the United States was a compact, much like that formed under the Articles of Confederation, and that states had the right, even the duty, to stop unconstitutional federal actions. Southerners like John C. Calhoun would later transform this vague doctrine of interposition into the doctrines of nullification and secession.

Revolution of 1800

The election of 1800 was considered this by Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson's victory would lead to a government that would put greater emphasis on states' rights than the previous Federalist administrations. Jefferson also repudiated the hated Alien and Sedition Acts and he attempted to bring the chief executive into greater touch with the people.

3/5ths Compromise

Agreement providing that enslaved persons would count as three-fifths of other persons when determining representation in Congress.

Separation of Powers

Constitutional division of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, with the legislative branch making law, the executive applying and enforcing the law, and the judiciary interpreting the law.

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.

Federalism

A system in which power is divided between the national and state governments.

Ratify

Sign or give formal consent to (a treaty, contract, or agreement), making it officially valid.

George Washington

1st President of the United States; commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution (1732-1799)

Federalist Political Party

Leaders = Alexander Hamilton, John Adams

Believed in strong national government

Believed in loose interpretation of Constitution (could stretch meaning)

Supported industry/manufacturing

Supported National Bank

Strong support in Northeast cities and wealthy South plantations

Liked Britain, disliked France

Report on Public Credit

Proposed by Hamilton to repair war debts; selling of securities and federal lands, assumption of state debts, set up the first National Bank

National Bank

A bank chartered, or licensed, by the national government.

Tariff

A tax on imported goods

French Revolution (1789)

Period of radical social and political change throughout Europe that began with an uprising

against the king of France.

Nullification

A state's refusal to recognize an act of Congress that it considers unconstitutional.

Aaron Burr

Served as the 3rd Vice President of the United States. Member of the Republicans and President of the Senate during his Vice Presidency. He was defamed by the press, often by writings of Hamilton. Challenged Hamilton to a duel in 1804 and killed him.

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.

Thomas Jefferson

3rd President of the United States