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Mexican-American War

Mexican-American War

1846 - 1848 - President Polk declared war on this country over the dispute of land in Texas. At the end, American ended up with 55% of this country's land.

Wilmot Proviso

Dispute over whether any Mexican territory that America won during the Mexican War should be free or a slave territory. A representative named David ______ introduced an amendment stating that any territory acquired from Mexico would be free. This amendment passed the House twice, but failed to ever pass in Senate. It became a symbol of how intense the dispute over slavery was in the U.S.

Spot Resolution

Proposed by Abraham Lincoln in the spring of 1846. After news from president James K. Polk that 16 American service men had been killed or wounded on the Mexican border in American territory, Lincoln, then a congressman from Illinois, proposed these resolutions to find out exactly on what spot the American soldier's blood had been shed. In Polk's report to congress the President stated that the American soldiers fell on American soil, but they actually fell on disputed territory that Mexico had historical claims to. To find out were the soldiers fell was important because congress was near to declaring war on Mexico.

Conscience Whigs

Northern Whig politicians who opposed slavery and the Mexican War (1846-1848) on moral grounds, maintaining that the purpose of the war was to expand and perpetuate control of the national government. They also sought to prevent the annexation of Texas as a slave state, fearing that the new slave territory would only serve to buttress the Southern "slave power."

John C. Fremont

American military officer, explorer, the 1st candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the US & 1st presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform in opposition to slavery; founded & explored CA in preceding decades; "Pathfinder"- mapped Oregon Trail; 1845 report on explorations encouraged westward movement

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

(1848) treaty signed by the U.S. and Mexico that officially ended the Mexican-American War; Mexico had to give up much of its northern territory to the U.S (Mexican Cession); in exchange the U.S. gave Mexico $15 million and said that Mexicans living in the lands of the Mexican Cession would be protected

Free Soil Party

American political party formed in 1847 - 1848, dedicated to opposing slavery in newly acquired territories such as Oregon and ceded Mexican territory.

Popular Sovereignty

A government in which the people rule by their own consent. Regarding the issue of slavery, this would mean that a potential ban of it would be dictated by those who lived in each soon-to-be state.

Stephen Douglas

A moderate senator from Illinois who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln. Wrote the Kansas-Nebreaska Act and the Freeport Doctrinen and helped popularize the idea of popular sovereignty.

California Gold Rush

1848 gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000 people coming to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. "Forty-niners," traveled to California by sailing boat and in covered wagons across the continent, often facing substantial hardships on the trip. San Francisco grew from a small settlement to a boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. A system of laws and a government were created, leading to the admission of California as a state in 1850

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

Signed by Great Britain and the United States, it provided that the two nations would jointly protect the neutrality of Central America and that neither power would seek to fortify or exclusively control any future isthmian waterway. Later revoked by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which gave the United States control of the Panama Canal.

Ostend Manifesto

The recommendation that the U.S. offer Spain $20 million for Cuba. It was not carried through in part because the North feared Cuba would become another slave state.

Compromise of 1850

(1) California admitted as free state, (2) territorial status and popular sovereignty of 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

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 to no end. The 1850 law was tougher and was aimed at eliminating the underground railroad. Passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, it set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways. Strengthened the antislavery cause in the North.

Breakers

Slave drivers who employed the lash to brutally "break" the souls of strong-willed slaves.

Black Belt

Region of the Deep South with the highest concentration of slaves. It emerged in the nineteenth century as cotton production became more profitable and slavery expanded south and west. South Carolina to Louisiana.

Mason-Dixon Line

Originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the 1760s, it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery.

Gag Resolution

Prohibited debate or action on antislavery appeals in the House of Representatives (1836). Driven through the House by pro-slavery Southerners, it passed every year for eight years, eventually overturned with the help of John Quincy Adams.

Liberty Party

A political party that started during the two party systems in the 1840's.The party's main platform was bringing an end to slavery by political and legal means. The party was originally part of the American Anti-slavery however; they split because they believed there was a more practical way to end slavery than Garrison's moral crusade. Nominated James G. Birney for president in 1840 and 1844; merged with the Free Soil Party in 1848.

Underground Railroad

(FP) 1830, Harriet Tubman, a system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North

Gadsden Purchase

Agreement w/ Mexico that gave the US parts of present-day New Mexico & Arizona in exchange for $10 million; all but completed the continental expansion envisioned by those who believed in Manifest Destiny.

Treaty of Kanagawa

(1854) trade treaty between Japan and the United States opening up two Japanese ports to U.S. trade; signed in response to a show of force by U.S. admiral Matthew Perry

New England Emigrant Aid Company

Antislavery organization in the North that sent out thousands of pioneers to the Kansas-Nebraska territory to thwart the Southerners and abolitionize the West.

Lecompton Constitution

Proposed Kansas constitution, whose ratification was unfairly rigged so as to guarantee slavery in the territory. Initially ratified by proslavery forces, it was later voted down when Congress required that the entire constitution be put up for a vote.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 - Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty.

Bleeding Kansas

A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent.

Charles Sumner

Massachusetts Senator in 1856, his strong abolitionist convictions caused him to antagonize the South and the Lecompton Constitution in a speech called "The Crime Against Kansas".

Dred Scott v. Sanford

1857 _____ was suing for freedom because of his long residence in free territory. He was denied freedom because he was property and his owner could take him into any territory and legally hold him as a slave. This court ruling was major cause in starting the Civil War. decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process - basically slaves would remain slaves in non-slave states and slaves could not sue because they were not citizens. Slaves were property no matter where they were living and the Missouri Compromise was deemed unconstitutional.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

written by harriet beecher stowe in 1853 that highly influenced england's view on the American Deep South and slavery. a novel promoting abolition. intensified sectional conflict.

Roger Taney

chief justice of the supreme court who wrote an opinion in the 1857 Dred Scott case that declared the Missouri compromise unconstitutional

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

During the race to become Senator Lincoln asked to have multiple debates with Douglas; certain topics of these debates were slavery, how to deal with slavery, and where slavery should be allowed; although Lincoln lost the election to Douglas, he was known throughout the country because of the debates; Douglas said people could exclude slavery by not enforcing & protecting slave-owner property--> ppl would not support Douglas for president

Harper's Ferry

Federal arsenal in Virginia seized by abolitionist John Brown in 1859. Though Brown was later captured and executed, his raid alarmed Southerners who believed that Northerners shared in Brown's extremism.

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.

Confederate States of America

Eventually made up of 11 former states that seceded; Jefferson Davis was the 1st & only president; unable to defeat the North b/c of lack of railroad lines, lack of industry, & inability to get European nations to support their cause.

Fort Sumter

Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the confederate attack on the fort marked the start of the Civil War

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by abraham lincoln on september 22, 1862 it declared that all slaves in the confederate states would be free

Gettysburg Address

(1863) a speech given by Abraham Lincoln after the Battle of Gettysburg, in which he praised the bravery of Union soldiers and renewed his commitment to winning the Civil War; supported the ideals of self-government and human rights

Thirteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude.

Sherman's March

(1864-1865) Union General William Tecmseh _____'s destructive journey through Georgia. An early instance of "Total war", puposely targeting infrastucture and civialian property to diminish moral and undercut the confederate war effort. He went from Chattanooga, Tennessee to South Carolina destroying everything the Confederates could use to survive. Setting fire to South Carolina's capital, Columbia.

Harriet Tubman

American abolitionist. Born a slave on a Maryland plantation, she escaped to the North in 1849 and became the most renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading more than 300 slaves to freedom.

Franklin Pierce

14th president and a Democrat.

Domestic Affairs:

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Bleeding Kansas

Foreign Affairs:

Gadsen Purchase

Attempt to secure Cuba-Ostend Manifesto

William Walker Nicaraguan dictatorship

William Walker

A proslavery American adventurer from the South, he led an expedition to seize control on Nicaragua in 1855. He wanted to petition for annexation it as a new slave state but failed when several Latin American countries sent troops to oust him before the offer was made.

Matthew Perry

A commodore in the American navy. He forced Japan into opening its doors to trade, thus brining western influence to Japan while showing American might.

Border States

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

Billy Yank

Nickname for average Northern/Union Soldier

Johnny Reb

'______' was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War

Jefferson Davis

An American statesman and politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history from 1861 to 1865

New York City Draft Riots

In July of 1863, these against the drafting and commutation system which allowed the rich to avoid being drafted, causing poor immigrants to feel they were being discriminated against. The working class also feared the possible influx of black labor that might put them out of work. The people chanted "Down with the rich", robbing wealthy homes and stores, but mainly attacking blacks, going on for three days until army units were able to end the riots.

Greenbacks

Name given to paper money issued by the government during the Civil War, so called because the back side was printed with green ink. They were not redeemable for gold, but $300 million were issued anyway. Farmers hit by the depression wanted to inflate the notes to cover losses, but Grant vetoed an inflation bill and greenbacks were added to permanent circulation. In 1879 the federal government finally made greenbacks redeemable for gold.

Morrill Tariff Act

This was an act passed by Congress in 1861 to meet the cost of the war. It raised the taxes on shipping from 5 to 10 percent however later needed to increase to meet the demanding cost of the war. This was just one the new taxes being passed to meet the demanding costs of the war. Although they were still low to today's standers they still raked in millions of dollars.

National Banking System

(1863) Network of member banks that could issue currency against purchased government bonds. Created during the Civil War to establish a stable national currency and stimulate the sale of war bonds.

Homestead Act of 1862

Act that allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30 - instead of public land being sold primarily for revenue, it was now being given away to encourage a rapid filling of empty spaces and to provide a stimulus to the family farm, turned out to be a cruel hoax because the land given to the settlers usually had terrible soil and the weather included no precipitation, many farms were repo'd or failed until "dry farming" took root on the plains , then wheat, then massive irrigation projects

Clara Barton

Launched the American Red Cross in 1881. An "angel" in the Civil War, she treated the wounded in the field.

Penninsula Campaign

Union General George B. McClellan's failed effort to seize Richmond, the Confederate Capital. Had McClellan taken Richmond and toppled the Confederacy, slavery would have most likely survived in the South for some time.

George McClellan

A general for northern command of the Army of the Potomac in 1861; nicknamed "Tardy George" because of his failure to move troops to Richmond; lost battle vs. General Lee near the Chesapeake Bay; Lincoln fired him twice. He defeated Lee, at Antietam though, securing a much needed Union victory.

Antietam

the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with almost 23,000 casualties. After this "win" for the North, Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation

Stonewall Jackson

general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War whose troops at the first Battle of Bull Run stood like a stone wall (1824-1863) He died at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Robert E. Lee

He gained recognition for his military leadership during the Civil War. A soldier who graduated second in his class at West Point, he served in the Mexican War and worked as an engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers. When the South seceded, Lincoln offered him the command of Union forces but he refused, resigned from the U.S. Army, and returned to Virginia to serve with the Confederate forces. In 1862 he was appointed to command the Army of Northern Virginia. His battle strategies are admired to this day, but he was criticized for having a narrow strategy centered on his native Virginia. He surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865. Following the war he urged southerners to pledge allegiance to the north and rebuild the nation.

Ulysses S. Grant

an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.

Vicksburg

Grant besieged the city from May 18 to July 4, 1863, until it surrendered, yielding command of the Mississippi River to the Union. Split the Confederacy in two.

Union Party

included all of the Republicans and the war Democrats. It excluded the copperheads and peace Democrats. It was formed out of fear of the republican party losing control. It was responsible for nominating Lincoln for re-election.

Appomattox

Lee surrenders here, but Grant offers the Confederacy good surrender terms to try to reunify the country.

John Wilkes Booth

was an American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.

Salmon Chase

an American politician and jurist in the Civil War era who served as U.S. Senator from Ohio and Governor of Ohio; as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln; and as Chief Justice of the United States. Wanted to replace Lincoln as president in 1864

William Seward

Secretary of State who was responsible for purchasing Alaskan Territory from Russia. By purchasing Alaska, he expanded the territory of the country at a reasonable price.

Tenure of Office Act

1866 - Enacted by radical Congress, it forbade the president from removing civil officers without consent of the Senate. It was meant to prevent Johnson from removing radicals from office. Johnson broke this law when he fired a radical Republican from his cabinet, and he was impeached for this "crime".

Seward's Folly

Secretary of State William Seward's negotiation of the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. At the time everyone thought this was a mistake to buy Alaska the "ice box" but it turned out to be the biggest bargain since the Louisiana purchase

Edwin Stanton

Secretary of War appointed by Lincoln. President Andrew Johnson dismissed him in spite of the Tenure of Office Act, and as a result, Congress wanted Johnson's impeachment.