Early American History: New Nation, First Five Presidents, Jacksonian Democracy, and the Second Great Awakening

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering constitutional foundations, early presidencies, foreign policy, Jacksonian democracy, the Second Great Awakening, and antebellum reform movements.

United States Constitution

The framework for the federal government that defines the relationship between the national government and the states.

Great Compromise

The compromise between the New Jersey and Virginia plans that established a bicameral legislature with equal representation in the Senate and representation proportional to population in the House of Representatives.

New Jersey Plan

A constitutional proposal calling for a unicameral (one house) legislature with equal representation for each state in Congress, supported by smaller states fearing loss of influence.

Virginia Plan

A constitutional proposal calling for a bicameral (two house) legislature with congressional representation based on state population, supported by larger states.

Article I of the Constitution

The constitutional article outlining the structure, powers, and limitations of the legislative branch, including the authority to levy taxes and regulate commerce.

Article II of the Constitution

The constitutional article establishing the executive branch and vesting executive power in the President, detailing presidential duties such as making treaties and serving as commander in chief.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution guaranteeing individual liberties, including freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, petition, and the right to bear arms.

First Amendment

The constitutional amendment guaranteeing the fundamental individual freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition.

Shays' Rebellion

An armed rebellion in Massachusetts aimed at overthrowing the state government and courts; its suppression by a privately funded militia demonstrated the weakness of the central government and spurred the writing of the Constitution.

Articles of Confederation

The nation's first written constitution, which formed a weak central government that lacked powers to tax or regulate trade and was ultimately replaced.

Northwest Territory

A western region organized under the Northwest Ordinance, which established an official process for admitting new free states into the Union.

Whiskey Rebellion

A domestic uprising against high federal taxes on whiskey that was decisively suppressed by George Washington and a strong federal government.

Washington's Farewell Address: Political Parties

George Washington's warning against political parties, expressing his belief that factional partisanship would ruin the government.

Washington's Farewell Address: Foreign Influence

George Washington's guidance asserting that the United States should maintain independence and avoid foreign entanglements and external influence.

Judiciary Act of 1789

Federal legislation that established the three-tiered organizational structure of the federal court system.

Marbury v. Madison

The landmark Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

The Supreme Court case affirming the doctrine of implied powers under the necessary and proper clause, establishing the supremacy of federal law over state law and prohibiting states from taxing federal institutions.

Impressment

The British naval practice of seizing American sailors from ships and forcibly compelling them to serve in the Royal Navy.

Embargo Act of 1807

A federal law shutting down all American foreign trade with Great Britain, France, and Spain, which resulted in severe economic damage domestically.

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

Resolutions asserting that states possessed the authority to declare federal laws unconstitutional, written in direct opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Controversial laws enacted by the federal government limiting foreign residents and restricting speech critical of the government.

Corps of Discovery

The expedition headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark commissioned to explore the newly acquired western territories of the United States.

Sacagawea

A Lemhi Shoshone woman who carried her infant child while serving as an essential guide and interpreter on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Battle of New Orleans

A major American victory in the War of 1812 led by General Andrew Jackson, which resulted in the defeat of British forces and approximately 2,100 to 2,200 British casualties.

War of 1812

A conflict between the United States and Great Britain from 1812 to 1815 caused by trade blockades, British support for Native American resistance, and American territorial ambitions.

Burning of Washington, D.C.

An episode during the War of 1812 in which British soldiers captured the nation's capital and set fire to the White House.

Warhawks

A faction of young Democratic-Republican congressmen, prominently led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who aggressively agitated for war with Britain.

Monroe Doctrine

A U.S. foreign policy enunciated in 1823 declaring that European powers must not intervene or colonize further in the Western Hemisphere.

American System

An economic plan championed by Henry Clay promoting protective tariffs, high public land prices, the continuation of the national bank, and federally funded internal improvements such as roads and canals.

Henry Clay

A prominent political leader known as the 'Great Compromiser' who formulated the American System and influenced the House outcome in the election of 1824.

John C. Calhoun

A South Carolina senator and Vice President under Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams who argued that states had the right to nullify federal laws deemed unconstitutional.

Corrupt Bargain

The contentious resolution of the 1824 presidential election where Henry Clay supported John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives vote, leading to Adams winning the presidency and appointing Clay as Secretary of State.

Indian Removal Act

An 1830 law signed by President Andrew Jackson that mandated the forced relocation of Southeastern Native American tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River.

Cherokee Court Cases

Legal actions in which the Cherokee Nation attempted to prevent the state of Georgia from imposing state jurisdiction over tribal territory, where the court initially refused jurisdiction on grounds that they were a foreign nation.

Trail of Tears

The forced westward march of the Cherokee from the Southeast to Oklahoma, which proceeded despite favorable Supreme Court rulings and claimed around 4,000 Cherokee lives from hunger, disease, and exposure.

Democratic Party (Jacksonian Era)

The political party led by Andrew Jackson and backed by common people and farmers that stood for limited government and opposed the national bank and federal infrastructure spending.

Whig Party

The political party led by Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams and supported by wealthier citizens that advocated for a national bank, protective tariffs, and federally funded internal improvements.

Second Great Awakening

A religious revival movement in the early 1800s centered on personal salvation and individual choice that sparked numerous antebellum social reform movements.

Charles Finney

A prominent revivalist minister during the Second Great Awakening who utilized dynamic sermons and innovative preaching techniques to convert followers.

Bloomers

A style of women's dress popularized by Amelia Bloomer that symbolized gender equality and the struggle for women's rights.

Lucretia Mott

A women's rights reformer and abolitionist who co-organized the historic Seneca Falls Convention.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first major women's rights convention held in the United States, organized to advocate for equal social, civil, and political rights for women.

Dorothea Dix

A dedicated social reformer who campaigned for prison and asylum reform to secure humane conditions and medical care for the mentally ill and prisoners.

Temperance Movement

A widespread social reform campaign dedicated to curbing or completely prohibiting the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Henry Box Brown

An enslaved African American man who escaped bondage by shipping himself inside a wooden postal crate from Virginia to abolitionists in Philadelphia.

Slave Auction

Public market sales where enslaved human beings were auctioned as property, with higher prices commanded for individuals capable of intense physical labor.

Gabriel Prosser

An enslaved organizer who planned a major slave insurrection in Richmond, Virginia, in 1800; its postponement and discovery resulted in arrests, executions, and stricter slave laws.

Nat Turner

An enslaved leader who initiated and directed the deadliest slave rebellion in the history of the United States in 1831.