APUSH Period 5: 1844-1877

Manifest Destiny

the 19th-century belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Texas Revolution (1836)

American settlers in Texas proclaimed Texan independence from Mexico; Sam Houston won their independence but the treaty was rejected by Mexican govt.

Santa Anna

Mexican general who tried to crush the Texas revolt and who lost battles to Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War (1795-1876)

Annexation

The adding of a region to the territory of an existing nation

John Tyler (1841-1845)

Whig (sorta), first VP to become President accidentally after President Harrison died in office, "Tippcanoe and Tyler too", Webster-Ashburton treaty

James K. Polk (1845-1849)

Democratic Party, Wilmot Proviso, Annexation of Texas,

Gold in California, Oregon "54°40' or Fight." -secured to 49th paralel to mark Oregon/Canada border, Mexican American War

Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842)

Between the US and the Brits, settled boundary disputes in the North West, fixed most borders between US and Canada along Maine

54 40 or fight

Polk's aggressive campaign slogan over the Oregon boundary dispute with the British; called for a fight over Oregon; Polk settled for the 49th latitude of half the territory of Oregon country

Mexican-American War

(1846-1848) The war between the United States and Mexico in which the United States acquired one half of the Mexican territory.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Ended the Mexican War, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and CA in exchange for $15 million

Wilmot Proviso (1846)

Bill that would ban slavery in the territories acquired after the War with Mexico, didn't pass but opened up major debates about slavery in newly-acquired territories

Oregon Trail

2,000-mile pioneer trail that began in Independence, Missouri and crossed the great plains into the Oregon country

California gold rush, 1849

Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world, mostly young men, to California after gold was discovered in search of instant riches. Led to quick population of California, new conflicts over slavery as California petitioned for admission as a free state. Led to Compromise of 1850

Preemption Acts of 1830s and 1840s

gave squatters the right to settle public lands and purchase them for low prices once gov't put them up for sale

Missouri Compromise of 1820

Allowed Missouri to enter the union as a slave state, Maine to enter the union as a free state, prohibited slavery north of latitude 36˚ 30' within the Louisiana Territory (1820)

Whigs

Party once largely Federalist, policies included support of industry, protective tariffs, and Clay's American System. They were generally upper class Northerners, later split & ended on the issue of slavery

Democrats

Party led originally by Jackson, formed from the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans, pro-states' rights, anti-tariff & anti federal govt. power

Free Soilers

Northern antislavery politicians who rejected radical abolitionism but sought to prohibit the expansion of slavery in the western territories

Popular Sovereignty

A belief that ultimate power resides in the people based on their votes; in antebellum era - the option to vote on a state having slavery or not

Zachary Taylor

(1849-1850), Whig president who was a Southern slave holder, and war hero (Mexican-American War). Won the 1848 election, favored CA as a free state, died in office from soured milk & cherries

Compromise of 1850

(1) California admitted as free state, (2) popular sovereignty for Utah and New Mexico, (3) resolution of Texas-New Mexico boundaries, (4) federal assumption of Texas debt, (5) slave trade abolished in DC, and (6) new fugitive slave law; advocated by Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas

Henry Clay

Distinguished Whig senator from KY who ran for president 5 times until his death in 1852. He was a strong supporter of the American System, a war hawk for the War of 1812, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and known as "The Great Compromiser." Outlined the Compromise of 1850 with five main points

secession

withdrawal from the Union

cede

to give up

annex

to add or attach

Sectionalism

Different parts of the country developing unique and separate cultures (as the North, South and West). This can lead to conflict as in the Civil War

Fugitive Slave Law

1850, Provided for the return of escaped slaves to their owners, tough, and aimed at eliminating the underground railroad, bounty hunters & cops rewarded for turning in runaways but also led to freedmen being kidnapped

Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman & many abolitionists helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North

Uncle Tom's Cabin

A novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 which portrayed slavery as brutal and immoral, even attracted the attention of Europe who called on American to end slavery

Franklin Pierce

14th President, 1852-56, signed into the debated law Kansas-Nebraska Act, took the popular sovereignty stance for new lands, took the backseat on major issues as he wasn't mentally present or capable to rule as President

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Proposed by Senator Douglas (Illinois) and advocated popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska territories; Douglas wanted the building of the transcontinental railroad on a route through Illinois. Backfired terribly as extremes of both sides of slavery debate flooded into Kansas - vote ended up making Kansas free

Bleeding Kansas (1856)

Disagreements over whether slavery should be allowed in Kansas led to violence among settlers, Border ruffians from Missouri, Lecompton pro-slavery Constitution, Topeka anti-slavery Constitution, John Brown's Pottawatomie Massacre

Gadsden Purchase (1853)

U.S. acquisition of land from Mexico for $10 million to eventually be southern AZ; land was needed for a possible transcontinental railroad line through the southern United States. However, the route was never created

Sumner-Brooks Incident

Charles Sumner was physically attacked by Preston Brooks in the Senate for making a speech made denouncing the proslavery Missourians and Brook's pro-slavery uncle who supported the Missourians

Republican Party

1854 - anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats, Free Soilers and reformers from the Northwest met and formed party in order to keep slavery out of the territories, Lincoln first Republican president

Dred Scott v. Sanford

1857, Supreme Court case that decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories; slaves would remain slaves in non-slave states; slaves could not sue because they were not citizens

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 Debates for Illinois Senate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories, Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate but lost

John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

1859 Failed attempt to invade the South w/ armed slaves, plan to seize the fed. arsenal; Brown & remnants were caught by Robert E. Lee; Brown was hanged; led to extreme tensions and opposing views of Brown's decisions

Election of 1860

Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won because the Democratic party was split over slavery. As a result, the South no longer felt like it has a voice in politics and a number of states seceded from the Union.

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)

Civil War (1861-1865)

Deadliest war in American history; conflict between north (union) and south (confederacy); Southern slave states wanted to secede from Union in order to keep states' rights & preserve slavery; North won, 620,000+ killed

Border States of Civil War

state on the border between the North and South: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri - allowed to keep slaves if they stayed part of the Union

Anaconda Plan

Union war plan by Winfield Scott, called for blockade of southern coast, capture of Richmond, capture Mississippi R, and to take an army through heart of south

Robert E. Lee

Confederate commanding general from VA; opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force

Ulysses S. Grant

Eventually the commanding Union general in the American Civil War & later the 18th President, known for alcoholism, butcher on the battlefield & corruption during Presidency

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

After the Union victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued this which declared slaves free in territories still in rebellion but did not apply to border slave states; many slaves fled to Union armies and this turned federal forces into armies of liberation

13th Amendment (1865)

Abolition of slavery w/o compensation for slave-owners

14th Amendment (1868)

grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the US"; it forbids any state to deny any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws."

Gettysburg Address (1863)

Abraham Lincoln's famous speech delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty.

Draft Acts in the Union and Confederacy

Conscription into the army, if you were picked from the lottery you had to go unless you buy a substitute for $300 in the North; if you own 20 or more slaves you are automatically exempted in the South

Draft Riots of 1863

The draft law of 1863 exempted the wealthy & led to riots in New York city where Irish working class gangs vented their anger on blacks until federal troops arrived; showed that whites were unwilling to risk their lives for what they perceived as a Black cause

Sherman's March to the Sea (1864)

Union campaign led by William Tecumseh Sherman' from Atlanta to the port city of Savannah; Inflicted significant damage to Southern industry, infrastructure, civilian property; destroyed much of the South's physical and psychological capacity to wage war

Assassination of Lincoln (1865)

Lincoln shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth, Confederate sympathizer, five days after Confederate surrender

Homestead Act of 1862

Encouraged westward settlement by allowing heads of families to buy 160 acres of land for a small fee ($10-30); settlers were required to develop and remain on the land for five years. Over 400,000 families got land through this law.

Reconstruction 1865-77

the period after the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union

Andrew Johnson

17th President of the United States, A Southerner from Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, opposed radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto, first U.S. president to be impeached

Johnson's Reconstruction Plan

Pardoned Southerners who took loyalty oaths, punished plantation owners and forced states to abolish slavery before readmittance to the Union and to accept the 13th amendment but he eventually pardoned slaveowners & gave them their land back

Thaddeus Stevens

A Radical Republican who believed in harsh punishments for the South during Reconstruction; leader of the Radical Republicans in Congress

Freedmen's Bureau (1865-1872)

Agencies set up to provide food, clothing, medical care, and education to freedmen and white refugees. Greatest success was teaching 200,000 blacks how to read but dissolved in 1872

Black Codes

laws passed in the south just after the civil war aimed at controlling freedmen and enabling plantation owners to exploit african american workers

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Necessary requirements for the former Confederate States to be readmitted to the Union, Congress placed the South under military occupation zones

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868)

Tenure of Office Act stated that no government officer could be removed until the Senate confirmed his replacement. 1868, Johnson suspended Secretary of War violating the Act. & put on trail for that, for lenient policies towards Reconstruction & his vetoes

Scalawags

A derogatory term for white Southerners who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War and worked with Northern Republicans on their policies, sometimes corrupt

Carpetbaggers

A derogatory term applied to Northerners who migrated south during the Reconstruction to take advantage of opportunities to advance their own fortunes by buying up land from desperate Southerners and by manipulating new black voters

Sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops; usually black farmers & became just another new form of slavery

Compromise of 1877

Deal that settled the 1876 presidential election contest between Rutherford Hayes (Rep) & Samuel Tilden (Dem.); Hayes was awarded presidency in exchange for the permanent removal of fed. troops from the South that ended Reconstruction

sentiment

a feeling or emotion

Frederick Douglas

(1817-1895) African-American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer., founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.

15th Amendment (1870)

States cannot deny any person the right to vote because of race

Ku Klux Klan

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights.

Radical Republicans Plan

tougher approach to Reconstruction than Johnson & Lincoln; The leader was Thaddeus Stevens, who initially used Wade-Davis bill to have 50% of South to take loyalty

Suffrage

the right to vote

Nativist

a person who favors those born in his country and is opposed to immigrants

German Immigrants

second largest immigrant group that settled in the Midwest, often were educated and skilled laborers, advocated for public schools & abolition

Irish Immigrants

Came to the U.S. because of the Irish Potato Famine. Many worked in factories in harsh conditions for little pay, Catholic & often faced prejudice