US History Vocab - Unit 4

Second Great Awakening, 1800

A series of Protestant religious revivals that began out of a concern of evangelical Christians over spread of “infidelity" (any religion that wasn't evangelical –such as Catholics. The revivals began in 1797 and lasted into the 1830's. They stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects.

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 Expedition , 1804-1806

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were commissioned by Jefferson to map and explore the Louisiana Purchase region. Beginning at St. Louis, Missouri, the expedition traveled up the Missouri River to the Great Divide, and then down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. It produced extensive maps of the area and recorded many scientific discoveries, greatly facilitating later settlement of the region and travel to the Pacific coast.

Marbury v. Madison, 1806

A Supreme Court case that established the right of the Court to review the constitutionality of laws. The decision involved judicial appointments made during the last hours of the administration of President John Adams (1797-1801). Some commissions, including that of William Marbury, had not yet been delivered when President Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) took office. Infuriated by the last minute nature of Adams's Federalist appointments, Jefferson refused to send the undelivered commissions out, and Marbury decided to sue. The Supreme Court ruled that although Marbury's commission was valid and the new president should have delivered it, the Court could not compel him to do so. The Court based its reasoning on a finding that the grounds of Marbury's suit, resting in the Judiciary Act of 1789, were in conflict with the Constitution,. This ruling established the concept of judicial review, the right of the courts to judge the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress and the state legislatures.

War of 1812 (1812-1814)

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. In addition, 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.

Henry Clay's American System, 1816-1817

Plan to advance the nation's economic growth by the following:
• Protective tariff to promote industry and raise revenue to build a national transportation system
• A national bank to keep the plan on an even keel by providing a national currency. (2nd BUS)
• Internal improvements Tariffs would benefits the East, internal improvements would promote growth in the West and South, and the Bank would help the economies of all sections.
Two parts of his plan, the tariff and the national bank were already in place by 1816. But Presidents Madison and Monroe both thought internal improvements were unconstitutional and vetoed the bills.

Second Bank of the United States, 1816-1836

As a result of the First Bank's charter expiring in 1811, prices and inflation rose and a call for another national bank led to the establishment of the Second Bank of the U.S. in 1816. This existed until President Andrew Jackson's veto of the bill to recharter the Bank and its current charter expired in 1836.

Monroe Doctrine, 1823

Doctrine issued during President James Monroe's administration, but was really the product of his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams.
• 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.
• Any New World colony which had gained independence could not be recolonized by Europe. (It was written at a time when many South American nations were gaining independence).
• The first major U.S. foreign policy declaration concerning the Americas, although the doctrine had no major impact until later in the 1800s

“Era of Good Feelings," 1817-1823

Term coined by a newspaper editor to describe the non-partisan political atmosphere during President James Monroe's two terms.
• The era was characterized by a period of strong nationalism, economic growth, and territorial expansion.
• The Democratic Republicans were the dominant party since the Federalist party had declined after the War of 1812 to a local party, The beginnings of North-South tensions over slavery.

Missouri Compromise, 1820

Congressional sectional compromise put together by Henry Clay to solve the deadlock between the North and the South over the admittance of Missouri to the Union.
• Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state.
• Maine was admitted as a free state.
• Slavery was banned in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase territory above the latitude of 36°30.

McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819

This decision upheld the power of Congress to charter a bank as a government agency, and denied the state the power to tax that agency.
• Ruling supported the idea of the “implied powers" clause and a broad interpretation of the Constitution.
• Reaffirmed the supremacy of federal power over state power.

Indian Removal, 1820s-1830's / Indian Removal Act, 1830

The process of forcibly removing Indians from desirable land and relocating them west of the Mississippi River in the early nineteenth century.
• Indian removal was carried out largely under the leadership of President Andrew Jackson (1829-1837).
• Cherokee Indian removal / "Trail of Tears," 1838-1839 During the winter of 1838 - 1839, the Cherokee were forced to evacuate their lands in Georgia and travel under military guard to Oklahoma Indian country.
• Due to exposure and disease, roughly one-quarter of the 16,000 Cherokees died en route.
• The hardship and suffering the Cherokee endured led to the term “The Trail of Tears" being used for the removal.

Jacksonian Democracy, 1820s-1830s

A historian's term for the political culture of white male citizens in the 1820s -1830s. It celebrated the "self-made man" and rejected the ideas that leaders should be drawn from the intellectual and economic elite. Andrew Jackson, the first people's president," exemplified the spirit of the age.

Nullification Crisis, 1828-1833

High protective tariff of 45% passed because New England mills charged the British were selling textile goods at below market prices to drive their American competitors out of business.
• Southern planters feared the tariff would raise the cost of almost everything they brought and called it the "tariff of abominations." Opponents of the tariff added even higher duties hoping to make the tariff so unpopular it would be defeated in Congress. But their strategy backfired, and the highly protective tariff was enacted.
• When faced with the protective Tariff of 1828, Andrew Jackson's Vice-President John Calhoun presented a theory that federal tariffs could be declared null and void by individual states and that they could refuse to enforce them.

The Bank War, 1832-1836

Jackson's political rivals, Senator Henry Clay (Kentucky), and Nicholas Biddle, President of the National Bank, supported a bill to recharter the Bank four years earlier than it was due.
• Clay wanted the Bank to be an issue for the upcoming presidential election in 1832 against Jackson.
• Jackson vetoed the bill and this increased his popularity.
• Jackson saw his 1832 victory as a mandate from the people to destroy the Bank.
• Unwilling to wait for the current charter to expire, Jackson withdrew federal deposits from the Bank in 1833

Eli Whitney, Cotton Gin, 1793

His cotton gin that removed seeds from short-staple cotton revolutionized cotton production because with his machine one person could clean as much in a couple of hours as what formerly took a group of workers the whole day to do so.
• The size of cotton crop increased eight times over, and as a result, slavery increased.

Interchangeable parts, 1799-1800

Eli Whitney developed a manufacturing system which used standardized parts which are all identical and thus, interchangeable. Before this, each part of a given device had been designed only for that one device; if a single piece of the device broke, it was difficult or impossible to replace. With standardized parts, it was easy to get a replacement part from the manufacturer. Whitney first used standardized parts to make muskets for the U.S. government.

Lowell Factory, 1813

Francis Cabot Lowell established a factory in 1813 at Waltham, Massachusetts. Paternalistic factory system held up as a model of its time. Workers’ wages and working conditions declined in the 1830s-1840s as it faced increased competition.

National Road / Cumberland Road, 1811-1830s

The first highway built by the federal government. Constructed during the 1811-1830s, it stretched from Maryland to Illinois. It was a major overland shipping route and an important connection between the North and the West.

Internal improvements, 1820s

The program for building roads, canals, bridges, and railroads in and between the states. There was a dispute over whether the federal government should fund internal improvements, since it was not specifically given that power by the Constitution.

Canals, 1820s-1830s

Developed as an alternative to slow overland and expensive steamboat transport of goods. Most canals were built by states and the most ambitious and famous was the Erie Canal. Canals were superseded by railroads in the 1840s. The Erie canal was opened as a toll waterway connecting New York to the Great Lakes. Construction started in 1817 and its completion linked the Northeast with the Northwest.

Irish, German immigration, 1830s-1850s

The Irish arrived in immense waves in the 1800's due to the potato famine. They were extremely poor peasants who later became the manpower for canal and railroad construction. The Germans also came because of economic distress, but usually had more resources than the Irish. Germans often had the resources to buy farms and many settled in the Northwest.

Nativism, 1840s-1850s

An anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic feeling that arose in the 1840's and 1850's in response to the influx of Irish Catholics.

“Know-Nothings” / The American Party, 1850s

A nativist political party that enjoyed a brief popularity in the decade before the Civil War. ∙ The Know-Nothings drew on anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant sentiment to gain power across the country in 1854 and 1855.
• The party got its nickname because its members, when questioned about the party’s rituals, replied “I know nothing.”
• It had some success in state and local elections, within a couple of years, however, sectionalism proved to be a stronger political force than nativism.

“Cult of Domesticity,” / Separate Spheres, 1800s

The nineteenth-century belief that women’s place was in the home, where they should create a haven for harried men who worked in the outside world.
∙ This ideal was made possible by the separation of the workplace and the home, a result of the industrial revolution, and was used to sentimentalize the home and women’s role in it.

Nat Turner's Insurrection, 1831

Slave uprising in which a group of sixty slaves led by Nat Turner, who believed he was a divine instrument sent to
free his people, killed almost sixty whites in South Hampton, Virginia. This led to a sensational manhunt in which
one hundred blacks were killed.
• As a result, slave states strengthened measures against slaves and became more united in their support of fugitive slave laws.

Temperance Movement, early 1800s

Temperance – the moderation or abstention in the use of alcohol gained many supporters in the early 1800s. Their crusade against alcohol, which grew out of the Second Great Awakening, became a powerful social and political force.

Mormons / Joseph Smith, 1830

Smith founded the Mormon religion in New York in 1830. He claimed to have found sacred writings and created
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (which became known as Mormon church). In 1843, Smith's
announcement that God sanctioned polygamy split the church.
• Mormons were shunned because of various beliefs such as polygamy. Smith died a martyr and leadership of the church passed to Brigham Young.
• Young eventually formed a Mormon community near Great Salt Lake and that settlement became the state of Utah.

McGuffey’s Reader, 1836

School books widely used throughout the country through the 19th century. The stories in the Readers emphasized
morality, the value of work, religious values, and patriotism.

Seneca Falls, 1848

The first women's right convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, co-sponsored by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Lucretia Mott.
• Delegates drafted a “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments,” patterned on the Declaration of Independence which said “all men and women are created equal."
• The Convention also called for women's suffrage. Convention was also significant because it rejected the idea of separate spheres.

Gag Rule, 1836-1844

A procedure in the House of Representatives by which antislavery petitions were automatically tabled when they
were received so that they could not become the subject of debate. Signifies the growing divisiveness of the slavery issue in the 1830’s and 1840’s.

Dorothea Dix, 1820’s

A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill. Starting 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 also served as the Superintendent of Nurses for the Union Army during the Civil War.

Hudson River School of Art, 1820’s

Group of American landscape painters who were influenced by the European Romantic movement. The Hudson
River School emphasized romantic and majestic landscapes such as the Niagara Falls, the Catskills, and the Hudson River Valley.
• The School was part of the rising American nationalism which followed the War of 1812. Artists in the school included Thomas Cole, S.F.B. Morse, and Thomas Doughty.

Utopian Communities, 1830s-1850s

Between 1830s-1850s, hopes for societal perfection - utopia – were widespread among evangelical Christians and
secular humanists. Utopian communities were attempts by cooperative communities to improve life in the face of
growing industrialism.
• Communities practiced social experiments such as sexual equality, racial equality, and socialism.
• Brook Farm and Oneida were two examples of these communities.

Transcendentalism, 1830s-1840s

A nineteenth-century intellectual movement that believed that humans should look within themselves for truth and guidance rather than conforming to formal religion.
• It incorporated the ideas that mind went beyond matter, intuition was valuable, that each soul was part of the Great Spirit, and each person was part of a reality where only the invisible was truly real.
• The movement promoted individualism, self-reliance, and freedom from social constraints, and emphasized emotions.
• Transcendentalism was less an alternative to the values of mainstream society than an exaggerated form of the rampant individualism of the age.
• They saw organized religion as reactionary and an obstacle to self-expression.
• Transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo Emerson (who pioneered the movement), Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller.
• Some transcendentalists formed cooperative communities such as Brook Farm, in which they lived and farmed together with the philosophy as their guide.