History Vocab

Electoral College

The official body designated to choose the President under the new Constitution.

Vice President

The constitutional office into which John Adams was sworn on April 30, 1789.

Secretary of the Treasury

The cabinet office in Washington's administration headed by a brilliant young West Indian immigrant.

Funding

Hamilton's policy of honoring all federal bonds at face value to strengthen the national credit.

Assumption

Hamilton's policy of having the federal government pay the financial obligations of the States.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution.

Political parties

Political organizations not envisioned in the Constitution and considered dangerous to national unity.

French Revolution

Political and social upheaval supported by most Americans during its moderate period beginning in 1789.

Amity and Alliance

An agreement signed between two anti-British countries in 1778 that plagued American foreign policy.

Miami Confederacy

The Alliance of eight Indian nations, led by Little Turtle, that inflicted major defeats on American forces.

Jay's Treaty

A document signed in 1794 whose terms favoring Britain outraged Jeffersonian Republicans.

France

The nation with which the United States fought an undeclared war from 1798 to 1800.

Compact

The political theory that the thirteen sovereign states had created the Constitution.

Nullification

The doctrine that a state can block a federal law it considers unconstitutional.

Great Britain

The nation to which most Hamiltonian Federalists were sentimentally attached.

Pardon

Action Jefferson took toward Republican 'martyrs' convicted under the Federalist Sedition Law.

Midnight Judges

Derogatory Republican term for Federalist judges appointed at the last minute by President Adams.

Marbury vs Madison

Precedent-setting Supreme Court case where part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 was declared unconstitutional.

Judicial Review

The principle that the Supreme Court can declare laws unconstitutional.

Impeachment

Action voted by the House of Representatives against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.

War Hawks

A branch of military service that Jefferson considered least threatening and necessary to suppressing the Barbary states.

Santo Domingo

Sugar-rich island where a slave rebellion disrupted Napoleon's dreams of a vast New World Empire.

Oregon

Territory beyond Louisiana explored by Lewis and Clark.

15 million

Price paid by the United States for the Louisiana Purchase.

Chesapeake

An American ship fired on by the British in 1807, nearly leading to war.

Embargo

Jefferson's policy of forbidding the shipment of any goods in or out of the United States.

Navy

Militantly nationalistic Western congressmen eager for hostilities.

Tippecanoe

Battle in 1811 where Governor Harrison defeated the Indian forces under Tecumseh.

Mr Madison's War

Derisive Federalist name for the War of 1812 blaming it on the Democratic-Republican president.

Whiskey Tax

Hamilton's economic measure repealed by Jefferson and Gallatin.

The Star Spangled Banner

Stirring patriotic song written by Francis Scott Key.

The Constitution

Famous American frigate larger and heavier than most British ships.

Hartford Convention

A gathering of prominent New England Federalists who considered secession.

The President's Mansion

A prominent Washington building burned by the British in 1814.

The North American Review

An intellectual magazine that reflected the post-1815 spirit of American nationalism.

American System

Henry Clay's ambitious proposal for tariffs, internal improvements, and expanded manufacturing.

Era of Good Feelings

Term for the Monroe administrations suggesting that this period lacked major conflicts.

Federalists

Once a prominent political party that effectively died by 1820.

Erie Canal

A major water transportation route financed by New York State after President Madison vetoed federal funding.

36° 30 minutes

Line designated as the future boundary between free and slave territories under the Missouri Compromise.

McCullough v Maryland

Supreme Court ruling that defended federal power by denying a state the right to tax a federal bank.

Dartmouth vs Woodward

Supreme Court case in which Daniel Webster argued that a state could not change a legal charter once granted.

Oregon

Territory occupied jointly by Britain and the United States under the Convention of 1818.

Monroe Doctrine

A presidential foreign-policy proclamation that could also be called the 'Adams Doctrine'.

Lake Erie

One of the Great Lakes where Oliver Hazard Perry captured a large British Fleet.