Chapter 1 AICE U.S. History Review

Electoral College

A group of representatives from each state who formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States.

Veto

The power of the President to reject a bill passed by Congress.

House of Representatives

The lower chamber of the U.S. Congress, where members are directly elected and represent the population.

Senate

The upper chamber of the U.S. Congress, where each state is represented by two senators regardless of its population.

Separation of Powers

A principle of governance that divides government responsibilities into distinct branches to prevent any one branch from exercising the core functions of another.

Checks and Balances

A system that ensures that political power is not concentrated in one branch of government; each branch can monitor and limit the activities of the others.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantee certain individual rights.

Abolitionists

Individuals who advocated for the immediate end of slavery.

Tariff

A tax placed on imported goods to protect domestic industries.

Sectionalism

An allegiance to the interests of a particular region over the interests of the country as a whole.

Secession

The act of withdrawing from an organization or political entity, such as a state leaving the Union.

Annex

To add or incorporate a territory into another political entity, especially a country.

Missouri Compromise 1820

Legislation that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, maintaining a balance between slave and free states.

Compromise of 1850

A set of laws passed to ease tensions between slave and free states, including the admission of California as a free state.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that the authority of a state is created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives.

Fugitive Slave Act

Law that required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, even if they were found in free states.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Legislation that allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery or not, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise.

Dred Scott

An enslaved African American who sued for his freedom but lost in a landmark Supreme Court case.

Roger Taney

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who delivered the Dred Scott decision.

John Brown

An abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery.

The White House

The official residence and workplace of the President of the United States.

U.S. Congress

The bicameral legislature of the United States, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Federal Government

The national government of the United States, composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.

Slave States

U.S. states that permitted and upheld the institution of slavery.

Free States

U.S. states that abolished slavery and did not allow it.

Civil War

A conflict, primarily over the issue of slavery, between the Northern states (Union) and Southern states (Confederacy) from 1861 to 1865.

Civil Rights

The rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality.

Emancipation

The act of freeing someone from slavery or oppression.

States' Rights

The political powers that individual U.S. states possess in relation to the federal government.

Republican Party

A political party formed in the 1850s opposing the expansion of slavery into American territories.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent political confrontations in the Kansas Territory between 1854 and 1859, primarily over the issue of slavery.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates in 1858 focusing on the issue of slavery in the territories, between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

Compromise

An agreement or settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions.

Mason-Dixon Line

A boundary that traditionally demarcated the North from the South and the free states from the slave states.

Arizona Territory

A territory established by the United States that was involved in the debate over the extension of slavery.

Political Leadership

The act of guiding a group or organization through strategic direction and decision-making.

National Politics

Political activities and debates that involve the country as a whole, rather than just local or regional issues.

Federalism

A system of government where power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units.