American Pageant Chapter 12

War of 1812

(1812-1815): fought b/w US and Britain largely over issues of trade and impressment. Ended in relative draw, but showed the US willingness to fight for their beliefs and earned respect from the European nations. "2nd war for independence."

Battle of New Orleans

Battle won by the US and Andrew Jackson. Was a decisive win for the United States in the War of 1812.

Congress of Vienna

(1814-1815): Convention of major European powers to redraw the boundaries of continental Europe after the defeat of Napoleonic France.

Treaty of Ghent

(1815): Ended the War of 1812 in a virtual draw, restoring prewar borders but failing to address and of the grievances that first brought America into the war.

Hartford Convention

(1814-1815): convention of Federalists from 5 New England states who opposed the War of 1812 and resented the strength of Southern and Western interests in Congress and in the White House.

Rush-Bagot Agreement

(1817): Signed by Britain and the US, established strict limits on naval armaments in the Great Lakes, a first step in the full demilitarization of the US-Canadian border, finalized in the 1870s.

Tariff of 1816

First protective tariff in US History, created primarily to shield New England manufacturers from the inflow of British goods after the War of 1812.

American System

(1820s): Henry Clay's three pronged system to promote American industry. Clay advocated a strong banking system, a protective tariff, and a federally funded transportation network.

The Era of Good Feelings

(1816-1824): Popular name for the period of one-party, Republican, rule during James Madison's presidency. The term obscures bitter conflicts over internal improvements, slavery, and the national bank.

The Panic of 1819

severe financial crisis brought on primarily by the efforts of the Bank of the United States to curb over-speculation on western lands. It disproportionally affected the poorer classes, especially in the West, sowing the seeds of Jacksonian Democracy.

Land act of 1820

Fueled the settlement of the Northwest and Missouri territories by lowering the price of public land. Also prohibited the purchase of federal acreage on credit, thereby eliminating one of the causes of the Panic of 1819.

Tallmadge Amendment

(1819): Failed proposal to prohibit the importation of slaves into Missouri territory and pave the way for gradual emancipation. Southerners opposed this, which they perceived as a threat to the sectional balance between the North and the South.

Peculiar institution

Widely used term for the institution of American Slavery in the South. Its use in the first half of the 19th century reflected a growing division in the North, where slavery was gradually abolished, and the South, where slavery became increasingly entrenched.

The Missouri Compromise

(1820): Allowed Missouri to enter as a slave state but preserved the balance between North and South by carving free-soil Maine out of the Massachusetts and prohibiting slavery from territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, north of the line 36.30.

McCulloch v. Maryland

(1819): Supreme Court case that strengthened federal authority and upheld the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States by establishing that the state bank of Maryland did not have power to tax the bank.

Loose construction

idea of using the elastic clause as a way of interpreting the constitution

Cohens v. Virginia

Case that reinforced federal supremacy by establishing the right of the Supreme court to review decisions of state supreme courts in questions involving the powers of the federal government.

Gibbons v. Ogden

(1824): suit over whether New York State could grant a monopoly to a ferry operating on interstate waters. The ruling reasserted that Congress had the sole power to regulate interstate commerce.

Fletcher v. Peck

(1810): Established firmer protection for private property and asserted the right of the Supreme Court to invalidate state laws in conflict with the Constitution.

Dartmouth College v. Woodward

(1819): Supreme Court case that sustained Dartmouth University's original charter against changes proposed by the New Hampshire state legislature, thereby protecting corporations from domination by state governments

Anglo-American Convention

(1818): Signed by Britain and the US, the pact allowed New England fishermen access to Newfoundland fisheries, established the Northern border of Louisiana territory and provided for the joint occupation of the Oregon Country for 10 years.

Florida Purchase Territory (Adams-Onis Treaty)

(1819): Under the agreement, Spain ceded Florida to the US, which, in exchange, abandoned its claims to Texas.

Monroe Doctrine

Statement delivered by President James Monroe, warning European powers to refrain from seeking any new territories in the Americas. The US largely lacked the power to back up the pronouncement, which was actually enforced by the British, who sought free access to Latin American markets.

Russo-American Treaty

(1824): fixed the line of 54.40' as the southernmost boundary of Russian holdings in North America

Oliver Hazard Perry

American naval officer whose decisive victory over a British fleet on Lake Erie during the War of 1812 reinvigorated American morale and paved the way for General William Henry Harrison's victory at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.

Francis Scott Key

Author and lawyer who composed the "Star Spangled Banner", our national anthem, while observing the bombardment of Fort McHenry from the deck of a British ship where he was detained.

James Monroe

Revolutionary war soldier, statesman, and 5th president. As president, he supported protective tariffs, and a national bank, but maintained a Jeffersonian opposition to federally funded improvements. Though he sought to transcend partisanship, even undertaking a goodwill tour of the states in 1817, his presidency was rocked by partisan and sectional conflicts.

John Marshall

Supreme Court Chief Justice who expanded the power of both the Supreme Court and the National Government

Washington Irving

Early American Writer. Wrote Rumplestilskin and Legend of Sleepy Hollow

James Fenimore Cooper

Early American Writer. Wrote the Deerslayer, and Last of the Mohicans