AP US History Unit 4: Rise of American Democracy & Age of Reform

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, court cases, political developments, and reform movements of AP US History Unit 4 (Democratic-Republican Era, Age of Jackson, and Age of Reform).

Adams-Onís Treaty (1819)

Also known as the Florida Purchase Treaty and the Transcontinental Treaty; an agreement under which the United States paid Spain $5 million for Florida, Spain recognized America's claims to the Oregon Country, and the United States surrendered its claim to northern Mexico (Texas).

American System

A set of proposals by Henry Clay that called for a national bank, protective tariffs, and internal improvements, with the goal of achieving American economic self-sufficiency.

Andrew Jackson

U.S. general who defeated the Native Americans at Horseshoe Bend and commanded the victory over the British at New Orleans; he became a national hero as a result of his War of 1812 record and later rode that fame to the presidency.

Battle of New Orleans

A major battle of the War of 1812 that took place after the war ended; American forces inflicted a massive defeat on the British, protected the city, and propelled Andrew Jackson to national prominence.

Chesapeake-Leopard Affair

An 1807 incident in which the British warship Leopard attacked the American warship Chesapeake after the U.S. commander refused a boarding search for Royal Navy deserters; 20 American sailors were killed or wounded, four alleged deserters were impressed, and many Americans called for war.

Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)

Supreme Court case in which the Court prevented New Hampshire from changing Dartmouth's charter into a public institution, holding that the contract clause of the Constitution extended to charters and that contracts could not be invalidated by state law.

Embargo Act (1807)

A law passed by Congress stopping all U.S. exports until British and French interference with U.S. merchant ships stopped; it caused widespread economic hardship in America and was repealed in 1809.

Fletcher v. Peck (1810)

Supreme Court case that established the Court's power to invalidate state laws contrary to the Constitution by preventing Georgia from rescinding a land grant, even though it was fraudulently made.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Landmark Supreme Court case that struck down a New York law granting a steamboat monopoly between New York and New Jersey, thereby expanding congressional power to regulate interstate commerce and limiting states' rights.

Henry Clay

Leading American statesman from 1810 to 1852 who served as Speaker of the House, senator, and secretary of state; known as the Great Compromiser for his role in the compromises of 1820, 1833, and 1850, and made three unsuccessful presidential bids.

Impressment

The forceful drafting of American sailors into the British navy; between 1790 and 1812, over ten thousand Americans were impressed under the British claim that they were Royal Navy deserters, serving as the principal cause of the War of 1812.

John Marshall

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835 who authored decisions incorporating Alexander Hamilton's Federalist ideas into the Constitution and established the principle of judicial review.

Louisiana Purchase

An 828,000-square-mile territory purchased from France in 1803 for $15 million, which doubled the size of the United States, gave it control of the Mississippi River and New Orleans, and relied on implied constitutional powers (loose construction).

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review by striking down part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which the justices determined exceeded the Constitution's intent.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Supreme Court case establishing the supremacy of federal law over state law by overturning a Maryland tax on the Baltimore branch of the Second National Bank.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

Settlement authored by Henry Clay resolving the debate over slavery: Missouri entered as the twelfth slave state, Maine entered as the twelfth free state, and the remaining Louisiana territory was divided at latitude $36^\circ 30'$, closing the northern area to slavery and permitting it in the south.

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

Foreign policy statement proclaiming no new colonization in the Western Hemisphere, non-interference with existing European colonies, and U.S. non-interference in European affairs.

Non-Intercourse Act (1809)

Law that replaced the Embargo Act by reopening American trade with all nations except Britain and France; it failed to stop trade interference and was repealed in 1810.

Panic of 1819

Severe depression following post-War of 1812 prosperity, caused when the Second National Bank called in loans and raised interest rates to dampen land speculation and inflation, creating friction between Eastern commercial and Western agrarian interests.

Second Bank of the United States

National bank organized in 1816 to hold federal tax receipts and regulate currency; it became highly unpopular among Western farmers and land speculators following the Panic of 1819.

Treaty of Ghent (1815)

Agreement that ended the War of 1812 by returning all captured territory and leaving unresolved disputes (such as Great Lakes ownership) to future negotiation, while remaining silent on the causes of the war.

War Hawks

Young 12th Congress members from the South and West, led by Henry Clay and John Calhoun, who demanded war with Britain to annex Canada, protect U.S. maritime rights, and end Native American conflicts in the Trans-Appalachian West.

Corrupt Bargain

An alleged deal during the disputed 1824 presidential election in which Henry Clay directed his House of Representatives support to John Quincy Adams, and Adams subsequently appointed Clay as secretary of state.

Daniel Webster

Noted orator, constitutional lawyer, senator, secretary of state, and major spokesman for nationalism and the Union in the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s.

Democratic Party

Major political party tracing its roots to the Democratic-Republican Party; it was formed by Andrew Jackson's supporters following the disputed 1824 election to organize his successful 1828 campaign.

Exposition and Protest

Document secretly authored by Vice President John C. Calhoun invoking compact theory to argue that the Tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional and that South Carolina could lawfully nullify it.

His Accidency

Nickname given to John Tyler by his opponents after he became the first vice president to assume the presidency following William Henry Harrison's death in 1841, reflecting his disputes with Whigs over the National Bank, tariffs, and internal improvements.

Indian Removal Act (1830)

Legislation authorizing the president to negotiate treaties with southeastern Native American tribes to exchange their eastern lands for western territory, while funding land transfer and relocation.

John C. Calhoun

Vice president under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, author of Exposition and Protest, and leader of the 1832–1833 nullification fight who served as the foremost defender of southern states' rights.

John Quincy Adams

Son of John Adams, secretary of state who helped acquire Florida and draft the Monroe Doctrine, and president who championed activist government and economic nationalism before later serving in the House of Representatives.

Market Revolution

The nineteenth-century transformation of the American economy from small subsistence farms and workshops to large-scale production for distant cash markets, characterized by the rise of a permanent working class.

Martin Van Buren

U.S. senator, vice president, and president whose administration was undermined by the Panic of 1837; he lost re-election in 1840 and later joined the Free Soil Party.

Nullification

The constitutional theory asserting that the states created the Constitution as a compact and hold ultimate authority to declare federal laws unconstitutional and unenforceable within their borders.

Panic of 1837

A major economic depression lasting from 1837 to 1844 triggered by crop failures, European financial crises, and Andrew Jackson's ineffective handling of inflation after dismantling the Second National Bank.

Pet banks

State financial institutions loyal to Andrew Jackson's administration that received federal deposits after Jackson vetoed the Second National Bank's re-charter in 1832 and removed federal funds.

Spoils system

The practice of awarding government appointments to political loyalists and campaign supporters; Andrew Jackson removed approximately 20 percent of federal officeholders under this policy.

Tariff of Abominations

Name given to an exceptionally high protective tariff passed in 1828 that drove import duties to record highs and sparked the Nullification Crisis of 1832.

Trail of Tears (1838)

The forced relocation of approximately 18,000 Cherokees from their southeastern homelands to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), during which nearly 25 percent perished from disease and exhaustion.

Whigs

Political party established in 1832 to oppose Andrew Jackson; led by Henry Clay, it resisted executive overreach and favored a national bank, high tariffs, internal improvements, and public land distribution before disintegrating over slavery in the 1850s.

Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

Legal dispute where the Cherokee sued against the Indian Removal Act as a violation of ratified treaties; Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the ruling and used military force to carry out tribal removal.

American Anti-Slavery Society

Abolitionist society founded in 1833 that utilized moral persuasion to demand immediate uncompensated emancipation, supported diverse social reforms, and granted full membership to women.

Abby Kelley

Effective orator in the American Anti-Slavery Society whose 1840 appointment to an all-male committee prompted a schism between William Lloyd Garrison and rival abolitionists.

American Colonization Society

Organization established in 1817 that promoted sending freed slaves and free African Americans to Africa, leading to the creation of the colony of Liberia in 1827.

American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society

Organization established in 1840 by the Tappan brothers in opposition to William Lloyd Garrison's radicalism; it adopted a moderate approach and endorsed the political actions of the Liberty Party.

American Society for the promotion of Temperance

The first national temperance organization, established in 1826, which promoted total abstinence from alcohol through sobriety pledges and state-level prohibition statutes.

Brook Farm

A transcendentalist utopian community founded near Boston in 1841 by George Ripley centered on shared farm work and literary discourse; it dissolved after a fire in 1847.

Compensated Emancipation

An approach to ending slavery that proposed paying slaveholders for the loss of their property to minimize resistance to abolition.

Cult of domesticity

The nineteenth-century belief that women occupied a distinct sphere centered on providing moral and religious instruction at home while remaining removed from the worlds of business and politics.

Declaration of Sentiments

Resolutions adopted at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention modeled on the Declaration of Independence that demanded complete social, economic, and political equality for women, including voting rights.

Dorothea Dix

Reformer and former schoolteacher who led a crusade for the humane treatment of the mentally ill, lobbying state legislatures to establish specialized mental hospitals and remove patients from prisons.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A pioneer in the women's rights movement who organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and campaigned for female suffrage throughout the nineteenth century.

Frederick Douglass

Escaped slave, powerful abolitionist orator, and editor of The North Star who served as America's preeminent Black spokesman from the 1840s until his death in 1895.

Gradual Emancipation

An approach to phasing out slavery over time, commonly through granting freedom to the children of slaves once they reached a specified age, as adopted by several northern states after the American Revolution.

Horace Mann

Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education who spearheaded the public education movement by instituting minimum school terms, standardizing teacher training, and creating a secular curriculum.

Liberty Party

Antislavery political party formed in 1840 that nominated James Birney for president in 1840 and 1844, sought to end the interstate slave trade and slavery in federal territories, and merged into the Free Soil Party in 1848.

Lucretia Mott

Quaker abolitionist and women's rights activist who co-organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Maine Law (1851)

The first statewide prohibition statute, which banned the production and sale of intoxicating beverages except for medicinal purposes.

Sarah and Angelina Grimke

Quaker sisters from South Carolina who relocated to the North to lecture and write on behalf of both the abolitionist and women's rights movements.

Second Great Awakening

A period of religious revivals between 1790 and 1840 that stressed human moral accountability and salvation through righteous actions, inspiring the major reform movements of the 1830s.

Susan B. Anthony

Prominent women's rights activist who partnered with Elizabeth Cady Stanton to establish the National Woman Suffrage Association after the Civil War; the Nineteenth Amendment is named after her.

Transcendentalists

Nineteenth-century writers who maintained that reality and ultimate truth are discovered through spiritual intuition rather than established authority, validating challenges to social conformity.

William Lloyd Garrison

Radical antebellum abolitionist who published the antislavery newspaper The Liberator and founded the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Coerce

To persuade or convince an unwilling party by utilizing extreme force or threats.

Judicial review

The Supreme Court's authority to review legislation and executive orders to determine whether or not they are valid or constitutional.

Nullify

To make void, or invalidate.