Term 3 APUSH vocab

Great American Desert

Vast arid territory west of the Missouri River & east of the Rocky Mountains

Silver Rush

The discovery of silver in Colorado, Nevada, the Black Hills of the Dakotas, and other western territories, created a mining boom.

Stephen Austin

Original settler of Texas, granted land from Mexico on condition of no slaves, convert to Roman Catholic, and learn Spanish

Santa Anna

Mexican general who tried to crush the Texas revolt and who lost battles to Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War (1795-1876)

Sam Houston

Commander of the Texas army at the battle of San Jacinto

Alamo

A Spanish mission converted into a fort, it was besieged by Mexican troops in 1836. The Texas garrison held out for thirteen days, but in the final battle, all of the Texans were killed by the larger Mexican force.

Aroostook War

Series of clashes between American and Canadian lumberjacks in the disputed territory of northern Maine, resolved when a permanent boundary was agreed upon in 1842.

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

1842 - Established Maine's northern border and the boundaries of the Great Lake states.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty that ended the Mexican War, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million

Commodore Matthew C Perry

commanded a fleet of warships sent to Japan. In a judicious display of force and tact, he persuaded the Japanese in 1854 to sign a treaty opening the door to trade, beginning an epochal relationship between Japan and the Western world.

John Tyler

elected Vice President and became the 10th President of the United States when Harrison died 1841-1845, President responsible for annexation of Mexico after receiving mandate from Polk, opposed many parts of the Whig program for economic recovery

54 Forty or Fight

Democratic candidate Governor James K. Polk's slogan in the election of 1844 calling for American sovereignty over the entire Oregon Country, which stretched from California to Russian-occupied Alaska and at the time was shared with Great Britain.

James K Polk

president in March 1845. wanted to settle oregon boundary dispute with britain. wanted to aquire California. wanted to incorperate Texas into union.

Wilmot Proviso

1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the War with Mexico

Franklin Pierce

14th president

Mexican American War

(1846-1848) The war between the United States and Mexico in which the United States acquired one half of the Mexican territory.

Zachary Taylor

(1849-1850), Whig president who was a Southern slave holder, and war hero (Mexican-American War). Won the 1848 election. Surprisingly did not address the issue of slavery at all on his platform. He died during his term and his Vice President was Millard Fillmore.

Bear Flag Republic

nickname for California after it declared independence from Mexico in 1846

Mexican Cession

1848. Awarded as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo after the Mexican American War. U.S. paid $15 million for 525,000 square miles.

Gadsden Purchase

Agreement w/ Mexico that gave the US parts of present-day New Mexico & Arizona in exchange for $10 million

Kanagawa Treaty

An 1854 agreement - the first between the United States and Japan - it opened two Japanese ports to American commerce, protected shipwrecked American sailors, and ended Japan's 200 years of isolation

Free Soil Movement

A political movement that opposed the expansion of slavery. In 1848 the free-soilers organized the Free-Soil Party, which depicted slavery as a threat to republicanism and to the Jeffersonian ideal of a freeholder society, arguments that won broad support among aspiring white farmers.

Conscience Whigs

Anti-slavery whigs who opposed both the Texas annexation and the Mexican War on moral grounds.

Hunker Democrats

conservative faction, opposed the Barnburners, and favored state banks, internal improvements, and minimizing the slavery issue

Barnburners

Conscience Whigs and Free-soilers were known as this

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.

Lecompton Constitution

supported the existence of slavery in the proposed state and protected rights of slaveholders. It was rejected by Kansas, making Kansas an eventual free state.

Lewis Cass and Popular Sovereignty

a war veteran, diplomat, and US senator ran as the Democratic candidate in the 1848 election, losing to Zachary Taylor best known as the father of "popular sovereignty" the notion that the sovereign people of a territory should themselves decide the issue of slavery

Compromise of 1850

Includes California admitted as a free state, the Fugitive Slave Act, Made popular sovereignty in most other states from Mexican-American War

Stephen A Douglas

A moderate, who introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and popularized the idea of popular sovereignty.

Millard Fillmore

Whig, fugitive slave act

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.

Crittenden Compromise

1860 - attempt to prevent Civil War by Senator Crittenden - offered a Constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in the territories south of the 36º30' line, noninterference by Congress with existing slavery, and compensation to the owners of fugitive slaves - defeated by Republicans

Know-Nothing Party

Group of prejudice people who formed a political party during the time when the KKK grew. Anti-Catholics and anti-foreign. They were also known as the American Party.

James Buchanan

The 15th President of the United States (1857-1861). He tried to maintain a balance between proslavery and antislavery factions, but his moderate views angered radicals in both North and South, and he was unable to forestall the secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860.

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 no end. The 1850 law was tougher and was aimed at eliminating the underground railroad.

Dred Scott v Sanford

Supreme Court case that 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

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories, Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate

Sumner-Brooks Incident

Sumner was an MA senator and unyielding foe of slavery. He was physically attacked by Senator Brooks of SC in retaliation for a two-day speech made denouncing the proslavery Missourians who had crossed into Kansas and Brook's pro-slavery uncle who supported the Missourians- showed the split of the government

John Brown and Harpers Ferry

He wanted to start a slave rebellion that swept through the South. In 1859 Brown, 13 whites and 5 blacks took over the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Brown was caught and hanged. The North thought of him ad Jesus-like. The South thought of him as the devil. This further separated the North and the South.

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.

Sociology of the South

Written by George Fitzhugh (1854)

Border States

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

Confederate States of America

A republic formed in February of 1861 and composed of the eleven Southern states that seceded from the United States

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

Second American Revolution

Civil War transformed American into a complex modern industrial society of capital, technology, national organizations, and large corporations

Morrill Land Grant Act

passed by Congress in 1862, this law distributed millions of acres of western lands to state governments in order to fund state agricultural colleges.

Homestead Act

1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.

Fort Sumter

Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina

Bull Run/Manassas

first major battle of the war that happened outside of Washington

Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan

1. Establish a naval blockade. 2. Capture the Mississippi River. 3. Capture Richmond.

Robert E Lee

Confederate general who had opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force

Antietam

A battle near a sluggish little creek, it proved to be the bloodiest single day battle in American History with over 26,000 lives lost in that single day.

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.

Gettysburg

A large battle in the American Civil War, took place in southern Pennsylvania from July 1 to July 3, 1863. The battle is named after the town on the battlefield. Union General George G. Meade led an army of about 90,000 men to victory against General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army of about 75,000. Gettysburg is the war's most famous battle because of its large size, high cost in lives, location in a northern state, and for President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Appomattox Court House

Famous as the site of the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant

Emancipation Proclamation

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

Reconstruction Acts

1867 - Pushed through congress over Johnson's veto, it gave radical Republicans complete military control over the South and divided the South into five military zones, each headed by a general with absolute power over his district.

54th Massachussetts Regiment

a fighting unit that was made up of mostly black men and typically had a white commander

Copperheads

A group of northern Democrats who opposed abolition and sympathized with the South during the Civil War

Laird Rams

Two confederate warships being constructed in British shipyards, they were eventually seized by the British for British use to remain neutral in the Civil War.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

law that banned discrimination in public facilities and transportation

Civil Rights Cases of 1883

Name attached to five cases brought under the Civil Rights Act of 1875. In 1883, the Supreme Court decided that discrimination in a variety of public accommodations, including theaters, hotels, and railroads, could not be prohibited by the act because such discrimination was private discrimination and not state discrimination.

Jay Gould and Credit Mobilier

United States financier who gained control of the Erie Canal and who caused a financial panic in 1869 when he attempted to corner the gold market , credit mobilier are construction companies that bribe officials

Jay Gould vs Cornelius Vanderbilt

Gould and Fisk used stock fraud in order to prevent Vanderbilt from taking control of the Erie Railroad

Boss Tweed

William Tweed, head of Tammany Hall, NYC's powerful democratic political machine in 1868. Between 1868 and 1869 he led the Tweed Reign, a group of corrupt politicians in defrauding the city. Example: Responsible for the construction of the NY court house

Thomas Nast

A famous caricaturist and editorial cartoonist in the 19th century and is considered to be the father of American political cartooning. His artwork was primarily based on political corruption. He helped people realize the corruption of some politicians. Created the Boss Tweed caricature.

Panic of 1873

Four year economic depression caused by overspeculation on railroads and western lands, and worsened by Grant's poor fiscal response (refusing to coin silver

Rutherford B Hayes

19th president of the united states, was famous for being part of the Hayes-Tilden election in which electoral votes were contested in 4 states, most corrupt election in US history

Compromise of 1877

Ended Reconstruction. Republicans promise 1) Remove military from South, 2) Appoint Democrat to cabinet (David Key postmaster general), 3) Federal money for railroad construction and levees on Mississippi river

Lincoln's 10% Plan

states could return to the union after 10% had signed allegiance to the U.S. following the state to select a state government and write a new constitution (must include end to slavery)

Radical Republicans

After the Civil War, a group that believed the South should be harshly punished and thought that Lincoln was sometimes too compassionate towards the South.

Wade-Davis Bill

1864 Proposed far more demanding and stringent terms for reconstruction

Freedman's Bureau

The bureau's focus was to provide food, medical care, administer justice, manage abandoned and confiscated property, regulate labor, and establish schools.

Black Codes

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves

Tenure of Office Act

1866 - enacted by radical congress - forbade president from removing civil officers without senatorial consent - was to prevent Johnson from removing a radical republican from his cabinet

Carpetbaggers

A northerner who went to the South immediately after the Civil War

Scalawags

A derogatory term for Southerners who were working with the North to buy up land from desperate Southerners

Hiram Revels

Black Mississippi senator elected to the seat that had been occupied by Jefferson Davis when the South seceded

Sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops. Many newly independent African Americans worked on these.

Force Acts

Acts passed to promote African American voting and mainly aimed at limiting the activities of the Ku Klux Klan. Through the acts, actions committed with the intent to influence voters, prevent them from voting, or conspiring to deprive them of civil rights, including life, were made federal offenses. Thus the federal government had the power to prosecute the offenses, including calling federal juries to hear the cases.

Amnesty Act of 1872

gave forgiveness to former Confederates and Whites in the South and allowed them to vote again

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical.

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad connecting the west and east coasts of the continental US

Jay Gould and Watering Stock

Entered railroad business for quick profits. He would sell off assets inflate the value of a corporation's assets and profits before selling its stock to the public. (p. 321)

Rebates

Developed in the 1880s, a practice by which railroads would give money back to its favored customers, rather than charging them lower prices, so that it could appear to be charging a flat rate for everyone.

Pools

Agreement between railroads to divide competition. Equalization was achieved by dividing traffic.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.

Vertical Integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

JD Rockefeller and Standard Oil Company

Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil. Oil monopoly.

Horizontal Integration

Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level

Interlocking Directorates

The practice of having executives or directors from one company serve on the Board of Directors of another company. J. P. Morgan introduced this practice to eliminate banking competition in the 1890s.

JP Morgan and the Panic of 1893

J.P. Morgan & Co. led a bond offering that helped rescue the United States from a severe two-year economic depression

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

Required the government to purchase an additional 4.5 million ounces of silver bullion each month for use as currency.

Bessemer Process

A way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly remove impurities.

Alexander Graham Bell

Invented the telephone

Thomas Alva Edison and Menlo Park

Edison created a research facility in Menlo Park

Interstate Commerce Act

Established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) - monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices

Interstate Commerce Commission

an agency that sets the laws for all the companies that do business across state lines

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions