Amendments to the Constitution

Flashcards of key terms, people, amendments, and events in United States History.

First Amendment

Prohibits federal government from restricting religion, speech, assembly, petition, press

Second Amendment

Gives citizens right to bear arms

Third Amendment

Prohibits federal government from housing troops in private homes during peacetime

Fourth Amendment

Prohibits federal government from making unreasonable searches and seizures

Fifth Amendment

Prohibits double jeopardy, self-incrimination, seizing property without due process, and just compensation

Sixth Amendment

Citizens have right to speedy and public trial, be informed of charges against them, impartial jury, legal counsel

Seventh Amendment

Citizens have right to a jury trial

Eighth Amendment

Prohibits excessive bail or fines and cruel or unusual punishment

Tenth Amendment

Powers not delegated to federal government are reserved to the state or people

Eleventh Amendment

Federal courts have no authority in suits by citizens against another state or foreign states

Twelfth Amendment

Provides for separate electoral voting for president and vice president

Thirteenth Amendment

Abolished slavery in the United States

Fourteenth Amendment

Blacks given citizenship; all citizens guaranteed due process of law and equal protection of the law; federal government would protect rights if states failed to do so

Fifteenth Amendment

Black men given the right to vote

Sixteenth Amendment

Federal government allowed to tax incomes

Seventeenth Amendment

Direct popular election of United States senators

Eighteenth Amendment

Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages

Nineteenth Amendment

Women given the right to vote

Twentieth Amendment

Congress begins new term on January 3; president and vice president begin terms on January 20 of year following their election

Twenty-first Amendment

Repealed Eighteenth Amendment

Twenty-second Amendment

Limited the president to two terms or ten years in office

Twenty-third Amendment

District of Columbia given three electoral votes in presidential elections

Twenty-fourth Amendment

Abolished poll taxes in the voting process

Twenty-fifth Amendment

When president dies or is disabled, vice president becomes president and new vice president is appointed; established procedures in case of presidential disability

Twenty-sixth Amendment

All citizens eighteen years of age and older given right to vote

Twenty-seventh Amendment

Congress prohibited from changing its pay for the current congressional term

Treaty of Paris

U.S. gained trans-Appalachian empire

Louisiana Territory

Doubled the size of the U.S.

Florida

Established boundary between New Spain and Louisiana Territory

Oregon

Gave U.S. clear claim to land on the Pacific Coast

Mexican Cession

U.S. acquired California and large portions of southwest North America

Gadsden Purchase

Bought with the hope of building a transcontinental railroad across the southern U.S.

Bacon's Rebellion

Colonial rebellion against government authority

Shays' Rebellion

Articles of Confederation viewed as too weak to maintain law and order

Whiskey Rebellion

Government could enforce the law

Nat Turner's (slave) Rebellion

Tightened slave codes

First Great Awakening

Literal interpretation of Bible

Second Great Awakening

Belief in personal/societal perfection

Congregational Church

Only visible saints saved

Anglican Church

Used Book of Common Prayer

Society of Friends

Inner light' a guide to salvation

Catholic Church

Strict hierarchy with Pope at head

Presbyterian Church

Calvinism

Proclamation Line of 1763

Forbade settlement west Appalachian Mountains

Sugar Act

Act passed to raise money for colonial defense

Stamp Act

Passed to raise money

Declaratory Act

England could pass any laws for the colonies

Townshend Act

Passed to raise money and regulate trade

Boston Massacre

British troops in city to enforce laws

Boston Tea Party

Colonists protested tea tax

First Continental Congress

Met to decide how to help Massachusetts resist Intolerable Acts

Jay Treaty, 1794

Britain withdrew from forts in Great Lakes

Treaty of Ghent, 1814

Ended War of 1812

Adams-Onís Treaty, 1819

U.S. got Florida

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848

Ended Mexican War

Treaty of Paris, 1898

Ended Spanish-American War

Treaty of Versailles, 1919

Ended the Great War (World War I)

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949

Military alliance to contain Communism in Europe

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, 1954

Mutual defense pact intended to repel common dangers in southeast Asia

Washington's Neutrality

Neutrality in European affairs

Monroe Doctrine

No new colonies in Western Hemisphere

Open Door

All nations share equal trading rights in China

Dartmouth College V. Wood Ward, 1819

Contract law strengthened by extending contract clause to corporate charter

McCulloch V. Maryland 1819

Maryland could not tax bank because state power was subordinate to Constitution

Gibbons V. Ogden, 1824

Congress had power to regulate interstate commerce

Great Compromise

Representation in Congress

Missouri Compromise

Admission of Missouri would disrupt Senate balance between free and slave states

Compromise of 1850

Admission of California to Union

Compromise of 1877

Who won the presidency in the election of 1876?

First Bank

Paid dividends and interest to government, which was the source of revenue

Second Bank

Explosion in number of unstable state banks

Democratic Republicans 1790-1810

Weak central government

Federalists 1790-1800

Strong central government

Whigs 1832

Jeffersonian traditions/ideas

Democrats 1850-1900

Favored secession from Union

Republicans

Hamiltonian traditions/ideas

Progressive Party (Bull Moose, 1912), 1912-1924

Grew from split between William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt in 1912

States Rights Party (Dixienas), 1948

Grew from Democratic platform plank in 1948

American Independent Party 1968-1972

Grew from civil rights revolution in 1960s

Liberal Party 1840–1848

Grew out of split in abolitionist movement in late 1830s

American Party (Know-Nothings), 1849-18562

Grew out of nativist sentiment of the 1830s and 1840s

People's Party (Populist) 1892-1903

Grew from farmer grievances against railroads and banks after the Civil War

Seneca Falls Movement

Right to vote

National Woman Suffrage Association

Right to vote along with black men

American Woman Suffrage Association

Keep nation aware of women's suffrage

Presidential Plan

President Abraham Lincoln

Congressional

Thaddeus Stevens

Legal Tender Act, 1862

Government authorized to print greenback dollars without species backing

Coinage Act, 1873

Congress decreed silver coins should no longer be minted

Resumption Act, 1875

Greenbacks would be redeemed for species

Bland-Allison Act, 1878

Treasury would buy $2-$4 million of silver each month

Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 1890

Government purchased 4.5 million ounces of silver monthly

Gold Standard Act, 1900

All paper money backed by gold

Social Darwinism

Economic life controlled by natural law

Social Gospel Movement

Humans can direct evolution

Slaughterhouse cases

Defense of most rights still a job for individual states

U.S. v. Cruikshank

Did not give U.S. government power to suppress ordinary crimes by individuals

U.S. v. Singleton

Legislation was powerless to stop private acts of racial bias

Plessy v. Ferguson

Separate facilities were not inherently unconstitutional

Booker T. Washington

Accommodation with Southern whites