APUSH Periods 4-5 Vocab

Revolution of 1800

In 1800, Two Democratic-Republicans Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr defeated Federalist John Adams, but tied with each other. The final decision went the House of Representatives, where Jefferson was finally chosen as president. Burr became vice-president. This led to the 12th Amendment, which requires the president and vp to run on the same ticket. Jefferson’s election changed the direction of the government from Federalist to Democratic-Republican, so it was called a “revolution.”

Thomas Jefferson

3rd President of U.S. He believed in a less aristocratic presidency. He wanted to reduce federal spending and government interference in everyday life. He was a Democratic-Republican so he believed in strict interpretation of the Constitution. Inaugural address, “We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans."

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Resulted from the controversy over Adams midnight judges. No ruling is made on midnight judges but significance of this case is that Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall established the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review, which allows the Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional. 

John Marshall

Justice Marshall was a Federalist whose decisions on the U.S. Supreme Court promoted federal power over state power and established the judiciary as a branch of government equal to the legislative and executive.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

John Marshall declared the bank of the United States constitutional and said that states had no right to tax or otherwise try to destroy the bank. The Bank was much more popular in the North than the South and West and some states were trying to weaken or destroy it in their states.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

The ruling reasserted that congress had the sole power to regulate interstate commerce.

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. The Constitution did not give the federal government the power to buy land, so Jefferson used loose construction to justify the purchase which is contrary to politics. Explored by Lewis & Clark.

Embargo Act (1807)

Jefferson cuts off American exports to the rest of the world to punish Britain and France for interfering in American trade. Unintended consequence is a downtown in American economy. Embargo Act is strongly opposed in New England and depicted as “O-Grab-Me” in political cartoons in opposition to the Act.

James Madison

4th President of U.S. “Father of the Constitution” HIs proposals for an effective government became the Virginia Plan, which was the basis for the Constitution. He was responsible for most of the language of the Constitution, author of Federalist Papers, and adding Bill of Rights. Leader of Democratic-Republicans.

War of 1812

A war between the U,S. and Great Britain caused by American outrage over the impressment of American sailors, the British seizure of American ships, and British aid to the Indians attacking the Americans on the western frontier. The British managed to invade and burn Washington, D.C. The Treaty of Ghent ended the war. 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.

Hartford Convention

A meeting of New England merchants who opposed the Embargo 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. The Hartford Convention turned public sentiment against the Federalists and led to the demise of the party. 

Tecumseh

A Shawnee chief who, along with his brother, a religious leader known as The Prophet, worked to unite the Northwestern Indian tribes. The league of tribes was defeated by an American army led by William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Tecumseh was killed fighting for the British during the War if 1812 at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.

Era of good Feelings

A name for President James Monroe’s two terms, a period of strong nationalism, economic growth, and territorial expansion. Since the Federalist Party dissolved after the War of 1812, there was only one political party and no partisan conflicts. Sectionalism still did exist over slavery,

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

Declared that Europe should not interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere and that any attempt at interference by a European power would be seen as a threat to the U.S. It also declared that a New World colony which has gained independence may not be re-colonized by Europe. Actually written by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams during the Monroe administration.

Missouri Compromise

Also called Compromise of 1820. Admitted Missouri as a slave state and at the same time admitted Maine as a free state. Declared that all territory north of the 36°30” latitude would become free states, and all territory south of that latitude would become slave states. Created by Henry Clay (the Great Compromiser).

King Cotton

Expression used by Southern authors and orators before the Civil War to indicate the economic dominance of the Southern cotton industry, and that the North needed the South’s cotton. In a speech to the Senate in 1858, James Hammond declared, “You daren’t make war against cotton! …Cotton is king!”

Frederick Douglas

A self-educated slave who escaped in 1838, Douglas became the best-known abolitionist speaker. He edited an anti-slavery newspaper, the North Star.

Second Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals starting in 1801, that stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects. The revivals attracted women and African-Americans. Also inspired social reform movements such as abolition, temperance, and prison reform. Charles Finney the most notable to the Second Great Awakening preachers.

Harriet Tubman

A former escaped slave, she helped slaves escape the south through a secret network of hiding places called the Underground Railroad, leading 60-70 slaves to freedom.

Denmark Vesey Conspiracy (1822)

Attempted slave revolt in which rebels planned to seize control of Charleston S.C. and escape to freedom in Haiti, a free black republic, but they were betrayed by other slaves, and seventy-five conspirators were executed.

Nat Turner (1831)

Slave uprising. A group of 60 slaves led by Nat Turner killed almost 60 Whites in Virginia. As a result, slave states strengthened measures against slaves and became more united in their support of fugitive slave laws. Southern states also strengthened black codes and restricted Northern abolitionist newspapers.

David Walker

David Walker was a free black man who published his Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World in 1829, advocating a black rebellion to crush slavery. The purpose of Walker’s Appeal was to remind his people that they were Americans and should be treated fairly.

William Lloyd Garrison

A militant abolitionist, editor of Boston newspaper, The Liberator, which gained national fame due to his inflammatory language, attacking everything from slave holders to moderate abolitionists, and advocating northern secession.

Gag rule

Strict rule passed by pro-southern Congressmen in 1836 to prohibit all discussion of slavery in the House or Representatives.

Hilton Helper

Book entitled ‘Impending Crisis of the South’ that stirred trouble. Attempted to prove that indirectly the non-slave holding whites were the ones who suffered the most from slavery.

The Corrupt Bargain

The charge made by Jackson supporters that John Quincy Adams had stolen the 1824 election by promising Henry Clay Secretary of State in return for Clay getting the House to award the presidency to Adams. Marks the end of the “Era of Good Feelings”.

Henry Clay

Nationalist political leader known as the Great Compromiser (Missouri Compromise, Compromise Tariff of 1833, Compromise of 1850). Proponent of American System and opponent of Andrew Jackson. Leader of Whig Party.

American System

Proposed by Henry Clay after the War of 1812, it included using federal money for internal improvements (roads, bridges, industrial improvements, etc.), enacting a protective tariff to foster the growth of American industries, and strengthening the national bank.

Democratic Party (1828)

Led by Martin Van Buren and Andrew Jackson. Party of the common man. Strongly support state’s rights, slavery, and is more popular in the South and West.

Revolution of 1828

Jackson was the first non-aristocrat to be elected president. Jackson’s election was the revolution of the “Common Man” meaning that he felt that government should be run by common people. Almost all white men could now vote, and the increased voting rights allowed Jackson to be elected because of his popularity within the masses. Begins “Age of Jackson.”

Nullification Crisis

Led by John C. Calhoun South Carolina declared the federal tariff null and void and refused to collect the tariff in the state. They threatened to secede from the Union if forced to collect it. Jackson threatens to invade South Carolina. Compromise ends crisis. 

Indian Removal Act (1830)

Allowed state officials to override Federal protection of Native Americans and allocated funds for their removal. Resulted in force removal of Cherokee to the West known as Trail of Tears. John Marshall and Supreme Court made rulings in favor of Native Americans (Worcester v. Georgia) but could not stop Jackson.

Bank War

Despite John Marshall ruling the Bank of U.S. was constitutional in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland; President Jackson vetoed the bill to re-charter the bank saying he believed it was unconstitutional. Jackson then removes federal money from the B.U.S. and placed it in dozens of state banks (“pet banks”) killing the Bank.

Panic of 1837

When Jackson was president, many state banks received government money tat had been withdrawn from the Bank of the U.S. These banks issued paper money and financed wild speculation, especially in federal lands. Jackson issued the Specie Circular to force the payment for federal lands with gold or silver. Many state banks collapsed as a result. A panic ensued (1837). Bank of the U.S. failed, cotton prices fell, buisnesses went bankrupt, and there was widespread unemployment and distress.

Whig Party

Led by John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay in opposition to the policies of Andrew Jackson. Generally, more of a nationalist party with strong support for the Bank of U.S. and tariffs and less supportive of slavery. More popular in the North.

Transportation Revolution

A period of rapid growth in the speed and convenience of travel. Use of gravel roads, canals, steamboats and railroads is expanded.

National Road (Cumberland Road)

The first highway built by the federal government. Constructed 1811-1837, it stretched from Pennsylvania to Illinois. It was a major overland shipping route and an important connection between the Northeast and the West.

Erie Canal

The Erie Canal was opened as a toll waterway connecting New York to the Great Lakes. The canal was completed in 1825 with the support of New York’s Governor, Dewitt Clinton. Along with the Cumberland Road, it helped connect the Northeast & West.

Market Revolution

1. Rapid improvement in transportation: roads, canals, steamboat, early railroads

2. Commercialization: production of goods for a cash market

3. Industrialization: use of power driven machinery to produce goods

4. Communication: Samuel Morse telegraph

Samuel Slater

Slater becomes the father of American industry after he memorizes the designs of the British cotton spinning factory while serving as an apprentice and brings the designs to America to start his own cotton mill.

Lowell factory System

Developed in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1820s, in these factories as much machinery as possible was used, so that few skilled workers were needed in the process, and the workers were almost all single young farm women that were paid less than men.

Eli Whitney

Pioneered an American industrial technology of interchangeable parts. An entire product would no longer need to be replaced because of one bad part. Became known as American System of Manufacture by the British. Also invented cotton gin.

Mechanical Reaper

Cyrus McCormick invents the mechanical reaper in 1831 which allows farmers to harvest their grain quicker. Shows how industry impacts agriculture.

Cult of Domesticity

Widespread cultural creed that glorified the customary functions of women as the homemaker.

Transcendentalism

They theory urged people to be self-reliant, nonconforming, and non-egotistical. The most notable transcendentalists are Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance) and Henry David Thoreau (Walden).

Irish Immigration

Irish potato famine led millions of Irish immigrants to settle in Boston and New York City and anti-Irish backlash. They worked low paying jobs, lived in miserable conditions, and faced discrimination for being Catholic. Example of contradiction of “Old Immigrants” from Western Europe being welcomed by Americans.

Nativism

Native born Americans alarmed by the influx of immigrants (German, Irish) fearing immigrants would take their jobs and destroy their culture.

American Party (Know Nothings)

Made up of nativists. they were anti foreigner and anti-Catholic and adopted the slogan “American’s must rule America!” Often called the Know-Nothing Party.

Social Reform Movement

Reformers that were inspired by the Second Great Awakening to improve society. Led by middle class women that pursued temperance, abolition, and women’s rights.

Dorthea Dix

Launched crusade to improve treatment of the mentally ills. Mental patients began receiving professional treatment.

Horace Mann

Leading advocate of the common (public) school movement. Worked towards mandatory schooling for all children, a longer school year, and better training of teachers.

American Temperance Society

Was established in 1826. Within ten years there was 8,000 local chapters in the U.S. with 1.5 million members who had taken a pledge to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages. Led by Lyman Beecher.

American Colonization Society

Formed in 1817, it purchased a tract of land in Liberia and returned free Blacks to Africa.

Seneca Falls Convention

Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1848, this convention adopted resolutions for women’s rights. Among those adopted were a demand for women’s suffrage and a reduction of sexual discrimination in education and employment. Issued the Declaration of Sentiments modeled after the Declaration of Independence.

Utopian Communities

Idealistic and impractical communities. Who, rather than seeking to create an ideal government or reform the world, withdrew from the sinful, corrupt world and formed their own communities.

Oneida Community

Joseph Humphrey-Noyes founded this group and the beliefs of the society. A group of socio-religious perfectionists who lived in New York. Practice polygamy, communal property, and communal raising of children.

Mormons

New religion established by Joseph Smith in 1830. Mormons became targeted by outsiders because of their practice of Polygamy (multiple wives). Brigham Young leads believers to safety and establishes a successful community near the Great Salt Lake in present day Utah.

Manifest Destiny

Concept of U.S. territorial expansion westward to the Pacific Ocean. The phrase was coined in 1845 by the editor John L. O’Sullivan, who described the U.S. annexation of Texas and, by extension, the occupation of the rest of the continent as a divine right of the American people. The term was also used to justify the U.S. annexation of Oregon, New Mexico, and California.

Texas Annexation

After being independent from Mexico for almost a decade the Republic of Texas was added to US as the 28th state in 1845. This angered Mexico and quickly led to the Mexican-American War over Rio Grande border dispute.

James K Polk

Democratic President (1845-1849) known for promoting Manifest Destiny. Promised to acquire California, settle Northwest boundary dispute (fifty-four-fourty-or-fight), lower the tariff and re-establish an independent treasury in only one term. Accomplished all. President during Mexican-American War.

Fifty-Four-Fourty-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 campaign slogan - the Democrats wanted the U.S. border drawn at the 54°40’ latitude.

Oregon Treaty

Established the U.S./Canadian (British) border along the 49th parallel extending from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Polk settled for the 49° latitude in 1846 to focus on war against Mexico.

Spot Resolutions

Offered in House of Representative by Abraham Lincoln, requested Polk to provide congress with the exact location “the spot'“ upon which blood was spilt on American soil, as Polk had claimed in 1846 when asking congress to declare war on Mexico.

Mexican American War

Conflict between U.S. and Mexico over annexation of Texas. U.S. captured Mexico City. Resulted in Mexican cession in exchange for 15 million in Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Polk completed goal of territorial expansion of US to pacific coast.

California Gold Rush

1848 gold was discovered in California. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000 people coming to California. These early gold-seekers were called “forty-niners.” San Francisco grew from a small settlement to a boomtown leading to the admission of California as a state in 1850.

Wilmot Proviso

Would have banned slavery in any territory gained by the US from Mexico in the Mexican War. Only passed in the House not Senate. Associated with Free Soil Movement.

Free Soil Party (1848-54)

Minor but influential political party in the pre-Civil War period of American history that opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories. Associated with Wilmot Proviso.

Compromise of 1850

Called for the admission of California as a free state, organizing Utah and New Mexico without restrictions on slavery (popular sovereignty), adjustment of the Texas/New Mexico border, abolition of slave trade in District of Columbia, and tougher fugitive slave laws. Its passage was hailed as a solution to the threat of national division but was not.

Fugitive Slave Law

Enacted by Congress in 1793 and 1850, these laws provided for the return of escaped slaves to their owners. The North was lax about enforcing the 1793 law, with irritated the South. The 1850 law was tougher and was aimed at eliminating the Underground Railroad.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the abolitionist book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It helped to crystallize the rift between the North and South. It has been called the greatest American propaganda ever written, and helped to bring about the Civil War.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Proposed by Stephen Douglas. This act repealed the Missouri Compromise and established that popular sovereignty (vote of the people) would determine whether Kansas and Nebraska would be slave or free states.

Bleeding Kansas

Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, pro-slavery forces from Missouri crossed the border into Kansas and terrorized and murdered antislavery settlers. Antislavery sympathizers from Kansas carried out reprisal attacks. The war continued for four years before the antislavery forces won. The violence it generated helped precipitate the Civil War.

Republican Party

Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, the Republican Party quickly surpassed the Whig Party as the principal opposition to the Democratic Party.

Dred Scott v Sandford (1857)

A slave named Dred Scott was sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. The U.S, Supreme Court decided he couldn’t sit in federal court because he was property, not a citizen. Also slaves are property and can be brought anywhere by their owner Roger Taney was Chief Justice.

John Brown’s Raid

In 1859, the militant abolitionist John Brown seized the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. He planned to end slavery by massacring slave owners and freeing their slaves. He was captured and executed becoming a martyr for the abolitionist movement.

Abraham Lincoln

Republican wins presidential election of 1860. Lincoln is opposed to slavery but determined to preserve the Union. South Carolina secedes from the Union 1st followed by rest of the South.

Fort Sumter

South Carolina had seceded from the Union, and had demanded that all federal property n the state be surrendered to them. Lincoln sent supples to reinforce the fort so the Confederate Army began bombarding the fort, which surrendered. Congress declared war on the Confederacy the next day.

Border States

States bordering the North: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. They were slave states, but did not secede from the Union.

Civil War (1861-1865)

The war was precipitated by the secession of eleven Southern states during 1860 and 1861 and their formation of the Confederate States of America under President Jefferson Davis. Though Lincoln did free Southern slaves during the war, he fought primarily to restore the Union.

South’s advantages in the Civil War

They were fighting a defensive war and only needed to keep the North out of their states to win. Had the nation’s best military leaders.

North’s advantages in the Civil War

Larger number of troops, superior navy, better transportation, overwhelming financial and industrial reserves to create munitions and supplies.

Monitor vs Merrimac (Virginia)

First engagement ever between two iron-clad naval vessels. The two ships battled for five hours on March 9, 1862, ending in a draw. The South was unable to break the Union blockade of their ports.

Monitor - Union. Merrimac - Confederacy

Emancipation Proclamation (September 22, 1862)

Issued Jan. 1 1863

Lincoln freed all slaves in the states that had seceded, after the Northern victory at the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln had no power to enforce the law but war was no longer just to preserve the union.

New York City Draft Riot

In 1863 Congress passed a conscription law making all men between 20 and 45 of age liable for military service. The government’s attempt to enforce the draft in New York City ignited four days of violence. A majority of the rioters were Irish.

John Wilkes Booth

April 14, 1865, while sitting in his box at Ford’s Theatre watching “Our American Cousin”, President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. First presidental assassination.

Reconstruction (1865-1877)

Period following the Civl War. Radical Republicans battled with President Johnson to control restoration of the Union. Radical Republicans gave military control over the South and divided the South into five military zones, each headed by a general with absolute power to protect African-Americans.

Tenure of Office Act

Enacted by radical Congress, it forbade the president from removing Cabinet officers without consent of the Senate. Johnson broke this law when he fired a radical Republican from his cabinet, and he was impeached for this “crime”.

13th Amendment

Freed all slaves, abolished slavery.

14th Amendment

Full citizenship for African-Americans. All people born in U.S. are American citizens.

15th Amendment

African-American Suffrage.

Freedmen’s Bureau

Agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. It furnished food and clothing to needy blacks and helped them get jobs. Biggest success is with literacy.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War denying ex-slaves the complete civil rights enjoyed by whites and intended to force blacks back to plantations and impoverished lifestyle.

Sharecropping

African-Americans who stayed on plantations would do the labor and the owner would provide the tools and land. Most of the time the sharecropper would end up in a serious debt that they cannot get out of.

Ku Klux Klan

Post-Civil War terrorist organization. The Ku Klux Klan was founded to fight the growing “influence” of blacks, Jews and Catholics in US society. Begun during Reconstruction, it experienced phenomenal growth in the 1920’s.

Compromise of 1877

President Hayes promised to show concern for Southern interests and end Military Reconstruction in the South in exchange for the Democrats accepting the fraudulent results of 1876 election. He took Union troops out of the South leaving no protection for African-Americans.

The New South

Supported building a more diversified Southern economy; championed the expansion of southern industry; supported return of White conservatives to power; withdrawal of federal troops and rise of KKK and lynching.