Period 3 Kaplan APUSH notes

Albany Plan of Union

A proposal by the Albany Congress, under the guidance of Benjamin Franklin, during the French and Indian War. It called for a confederation of colonies to defend against attack by European and native foes. Rejected by the colonial assemblies due to concern over the central consolidation of power, and by the British government because they felt it allowed for too much colonial independence.

William Pitt

Also known as William Pitt the Elder. A Whig statesman who shifted British efforts in the French and Indian War from colonial skirmishes to the capturing of Canada, with key victories in Louisbourg (1758), Quebec (1759), and Montreal (1760). This effectively removed France’s presence from North America.

Pontiac’s Rebellion

An 18-month conflict with the American Indians of the Ohio Valley. Led by Chief Pontiac, leader of the Ottawa people, natives attacked British colonial settlements from the Great Lakes to Virginia. Resulted in the Proclamation of 1763.

Currency Act

A law passed by Parliament in 1764. It limited the use of colonial paper money, in order to protect British merchants from depreciation. While not a major contributing factor to the American Revolution, it did signify growing British interest in regulating the colonies.

George Grenville

British Prime Minister who passed the Currency, Sugar, Quartering, and Stamp Acts. He felt the colonists were being asked to pay only their fair share of the debt from the French and Indian War.

Patrick Henry

Founding Father. Young Virginian lawyer and Patriot. In reaction to the Stamp Act, he accused the British government of usurping the rights guaranteed to colonists as Englishmen. He encouraged his fellow leaders to insist that Virginians be taxed only by Virginians, not by some distant royal authority. Later an Anti-Federalist.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

A group of Patriot activists who intimidated tax collectors by attacking their homes, burning them in effigy, and even tarring and feathering them. They also ransacked warehouses that held stamps and burned them to the ground.

Samuel Adams

Founding Father. Led the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. Also penned Massachusetts Circular Letter in 1768, which demanded that the Townshend Act be repealed.

Declaratory Act

Replaced the Stamp Act. A 1766 law that maintained the right of the crown to tax the colonies, as Parliament’s authority was identical in both Britain and North America.

Townshend Acts

A revenue plan passed by Parliament in 1767. It imposed harsher taxes on the purveyors of imported goods such as glass, paper, and tea. In addition, a special board of customs officials was appointed to enforce writs of assistance. Repealed 1770.

Writs of assistance

Authorized under the Townshend Acts, writs allowed customs officials to search colonial homes, businesses, and warehouses for smuggled goods without a warrant from a judge. Led to the Massachusetts Circular Letter.

John Dickinson

Founding Father from Pennsylvania. He wrote a series of essays called “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,” which rekindled interest in the issue of taxation without representation during the Townshend Acts. He oversaw the drafting of the Articles of Confederation.

Massachusetts Circular Letter

Penned by Samuel Adams, it was a response to the Townshend Acts and the resulting writs of assistance. It demanded the Townshend Act be immediately repealed. Widely circulated, it rejuvenated boycotts of British goods.

Committees of Correspondence

A means by which Patriots could circulate letters of protest against British policies. It functioned as a kind of shadow opposition government in the runup to the American Revolutionary War. Vital in organizing the Continental Congress.

Gaspee Affair

The Gaspee was a British warship commissioned to capture vessels carrying smuggled goods before they reached the colonies. The Gaspee ran aground on the shores of Rhode Island. The Sons of Liberty set fire to the boat, and event celebrated throughout coastal colonial towns as a victory for the tax-burdened consumer.

Quebec Act

A 1774 act of Parliament that which allowed the former French region to expand its borders, taking away potential lands from colonists in the Ohio River Valley. Even more offensive to the largely Protestant colonists, it also allowed Quebec citizens to practice Catholicism freely.

First Continental Congress

Organized in 1774 as a response to the Intolerable Acts, colonial leaders managed to urge their colonies to expand military reserves and organize boycotts of British goods in the meantime.

Thomas Gage

British general. Led the British response to Pontiac’s Rebellion. Served as military governor of Massachusetts (1774–1775) to enforce the Intolerable Acts. Led British forces at Lexington and Concord, as well as Bunker Hill. Replaced in 1775 by William Howe.

Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms

A document published by the Continental Congress on July 6, 1775. It justified the raising of a professional colonial military force and urged King George III a second time to consider colonial grievances.

Common Sense

A pamphlet that used Enlightenment philosophy to argue that it would be contrary to common sense to allow British injustices to continue. Written and published in January 1776 by Thomas Paine

Enlightenment

An eighteenth-century philosophical and intellectual movement which prized reason. It challenged traditional notions of reflexive obedience to the Church and to monarchy, and laid the groundwork for the scientific revolution and Industrial Revolution.

Second Continental Congress

An assembly of delegates from across the Thirteen colonies (1775–1781). It passed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.

Richard Henry Lee

A delegate at the First and Second Continental Congress. On June 7, 1776, he famously made an official motion calling for the colonies to declare independence.

Whigs

A British political party which took control of Parliament from the Tories, and negotiated peace terms with the colonists. Distinct from the later American political party of the same name.

Miami Confederacy

A collection of American Indian tribes in the eighteenth century. In the Northwest Indian War (1785–1795), a military alliance led by Little Turtle and Blue Jacket attempted to resist the expansion of the U.S. into the Old Northwest territory.

Little Turtle

War chief of the Miami Confederacy during the Northwest Indian War. Along with Blue Jacket, he informed Americans that the Confederacy considered the Ohio River the northwestern boundary of the newfound United States. At St. Clair’s Defeat, his troops killed over a thousand U.S. officers and soldiers in the largest American Indian victory in history.

Battle of Fallen Timbers

The final battle of the Northwest Indian War, fought against the Miami Confederacy. Led to the Treaty of Greenville. THe forces under “Mad Anthony“ Wayne, recruited after St. Clair’s Defeat, would form the core of what became the US Army.

Treaty of Greenville

1795 treaty in which 12 American Indian tribes ceded vast areas of the Old Northwest to the federal government, including most of what is now Indiana and Ohio. In return, the tribes of the Miami Confederacy were given an initial payment of $20,000 and an annual payment of $9,000. Ended the Northwest Indian War.

John Adams

Second President. Served 1791–1801. First Vice President (1789–1797). Lobbied for declaring independence at the Continental Congress. Signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the armed forces during the Quasi-War. Died on July 4, 1826, the same day as his friend and political rival Thomas Jefferson.

Land Ordinance of 1785

Established the basis for the Public Land Survey System whereby settlers could purchase land in the undeveloped West. It required new townships to set aside a parcel of land reserved for public education. At this time, Congress did not have the power to raise revenue via taxes, so this Ordinance created a local mechanism for funding public education.

Charles Pinckney

A South Carolinian notable for his role at the Constitutional Convention, where he helped introduce the Fugitive Slave Clause and the “no religious test” clause for public officers. Later negotiated Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain.

George Mason

Founding Father from Virginia. One of three delegates at the Constitutional Convention who refused to sign the final document. He objected to its lack of a Bill of Rights, and wanted an immediate end to the slave trade (while supporting slavery itself). His 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights would strongly influence the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Connecticut Compromise

Also known as the Great Compromise of 1787, or the Sherman Compromise. A proposal at the Constitutional Convention that membership in one branch of the legislature be based on state population, and the other branch (the Senate) have equal representation for all states, with each state having one vote.

John Marshall

Founding Father. The fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1801–1835). Cemented the concept of judicial review, making the judicial branch coequal to the executive and legislative. A Federalist, his rulings reinforced the supremacy of federal law. See: Marbury v. Madison.

Henry Knox

Secretary of War in Washington’s cabinet. Recruited “Mad Anthony” Wayne to reorganize U.S. military forces in the Northwest Indian War after the fiasco of St. Clair’s Defeat.

Judiciary Act of 1789

Established the structure of the Judiciary Branch, with the Supreme Court consisting of one presiding chief justice and five associate justices. It also provided for the establishment of 13 District Courts and three Circuit Court of Appeals.

Marbury v. Madison

1803 ruling that stated Congress cannot pass laws that are contrary to the Constitution, and that it is the judicial system’s job to interpret what the Constitution permits. Overturned a clause in the Judiciary Act of 1789 that granted the Supreme Court the power to command any subordinate government authority to take or not take an action that is that authority’s legal duty.

Tariff Act of 1789

A tariff on imports. Northerners favored a higher rate to protect their manufacturing industry from foreign encroachment, while Southern farmers wanted a lower rate to provide for cheaper consumer goods.

Excise taxes

 Taxes paid when purchases are made on a specific good.

Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793

A declaration of neutrality in the ongoing conflicts between Britain and France resulting from the French Revolution. Supported by Washington and Hamilton. Decried by Jefferson and Madison.

Jay’s Treaty

Negotiated by Chief Justice John Jay in 1794 but shaped by Hamilton, it realized several American economic goals, including the removal of British forts in the Northwest Territory. Britain also benefited, as the treaty gave “most favored nation” trading status to Britain and allowed them to continue anti-French maritime policies. Both the Democratic-Republicans and the French were angered by the treaty, which was authorized for 10 years.

Pinckney’s Treaty

A treaty between the U.S. and Spain, ratified in 1796. It negotiated a settlement of boundary, right of navigation along the Mississippi River, and right to deposit goods for transportation at the Port of New Orleans. The Spanish made these concessions in order to avoid a possibly alliance between its rival, Britain, and the United States.