AP US History Unit 4: Rise of American Democracy - Key Terms

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, court cases, treaties, political parties, individuals, and social movements of AP US History Unit 4 (Rise of American Democracy).

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 American claims to the Oregon Country, and the United States surrendered its claim to northern Mexico (Texas).

American System

A set of economic 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 Native Americans at Horseshoe Bend and commanded the victory over the British at New Orleans; his fame as a War of 1812 national hero propelled him to the presidency.

Battle of New Orleans

A major battle of the War of 1812 fought after the war had formally ended, in which American forces decisively defeated the British, protected the city, and elevated Andrew Jackson to national prominence.

Chesapeake-Leopard Affair

An 1807 naval incident in which the British warship Leopard attacked the American warship Chesapeake after its commander refused a boarding search for Royal Navy deserters, resulting in 20 American casualties and four sailors being impressed.

Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)

Supreme Court case that prevented New Hampshire from altering Dartmouth's charter into a public institution, ruling that the Constitution's contract clause applies to corporate charters and cannot be invalidated by state law. This case limited states’ power and promoted business interests

Embargo Act (1807)

A law passed by Congress halting all U.S. exports until Britain and France ceased interfering with American shipping; it caused severe economic hardship domestically with minimal diplomatic impact and was repealed in 1809.

Fletcher v. Peck (1810)

Supreme Court case establishing the judiciary's power to invalidate state laws that violate the Constitution, preventing Georgia from revoking a fraudulent land grant.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Landmark Supreme Court case invalidating a New York state monopoly on steamboat traffic between New York and New Jersey, broadening federal power by upholding congressional control over interstate commerce.

Henry Clay

Influential American statesman from 1810 to 1852 who served as Speaker of the House, senator, and secretary of state; dubbed the 'Great Compromiser' for crafting the compromises of 1820, 1833, and 1850.

Impressment

The forced drafting of American sailors into the British Royal Navy under the pretext that they were British deserters; over 10,000 Americans were seized between 1790 and 1812, serving as a primary cause of the War of 1812.

John Marshall

Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1801–1835) whose landmark rulings integrated Hamiltonian Federalist principles into constitutional law and established judicial review, elevating the judiciary to co-equal status with other branches.

Louisiana Purchase

An 828,000-square-mile territory bought from France in 1803 for $15 million, doubling the geographic area of the United States and securing control of New Orleans and the Mississippi River via Jefferson's use of implied powers.

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Landmark Supreme Court decision establishing judicial review—the power of federal courts to invalidate acts of Congress that violate the Constitution—by striking down a provision of the Judiciary Act of 1789.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Second Bank of the United States and striking down a Maryland tax on its Baltimore branch, reinforcing the supremacy of federal law over state legislation.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

A sectional agreement orchestrated by Henry Clay admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while barring slavery in the remaining Louisiana territory north of latitude 36° 30'.

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

U.S. foreign policy declaration warning European powers against further colonization or political interference in the Western Hemisphere, in exchange for American non-involvement in European affairs.

Non-Intercourse Act (1809)

Statute replacing the Embargo Act that reopened American foreign commerce to all countries except Great Britain and France; it proved ineffective at stopping maritime harassment and was repealed in 1810.

Panic of 1819

A sharp economic downturn following post-War of 1812 expansion, sparked when the Second Bank of the United States tightened credit and called in loans to halt land speculation, deepening sectional tensions between East and West.

Second Bank of the United States

Federal financial institution chartered in 1816 to manage government revenues and stabilize national currency; its monetary policies made it deeply unpopular among western farmers and land speculators.

Treaty of Ghent (1815)

Diplomatic agreement ending the War of 1812 by restoring prewar borders (status quo ante bellum) and deferring disputed matters like Great Lakes ownership to future negotiations, while omitting the original causes of the conflict.

War Hawks

Fervent young nationalist Congressmen in the 12th Congress from the South and West, led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who agitated for war with Great Britain to conquer Canada, protect maritime rights, and subdue frontier Native Americans.

Corrupt Bargain

Allegation made by Andrew Jackson's followers regarding the disputed election of 1824, claiming Henry Clay threw his support to John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives in exchange for the appointment as secretary of state.

Daniel Webster

Prominent orator, constitutional lawyer, senator, and secretary of state who served as a primary defender of national unity and federal supremacy during the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s.

Democratic Party

Political party originating from the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans, coalesced by Andrew Jackson's supporters following the contested 1824 election to secure his victory in the election of 1828.

Exposition and Protest

An anonymous 1828 treatise authored by Vice President John C. Calhoun invoking the compact theory of the Union to argue that the Tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional and that South Carolina held the right to nullify it.

"His Accidency"

A mocking nickname given to John Tyler in 1841 by political opponents when he became the first vice president to ascend to the presidency following William Henry Harrison's death, highlighting his hostility toward mainstream Whig policies.

Indian Removal Act (1830)

Legislation authorizing the president to negotiate treaties exchanging southeastern tribal lands for unsettled territories west of the Mississippi River, providing federal funds for land acquisition and forced relocation.

John C. Calhoun

South Carolina statesman who served as vice president under Adams and Jackson, authored the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, and served as the preeminent defender of southern states' rights and nullification from 1828 to 1850.

John Quincy Adams

Diplomat, secretary of state, and sixth U.S. president who helped negotiate the Florida purchase and craft the Monroe Doctrine, advocated national economic development, and later served in the House of Representatives after losing the 1828 election.

Market Revolution

The nineteenth-century economic transformation from local, subsistence farming and artisan workshops into commercial production for distant cash markets, precipitating the rise of a permanent wage-earning working class.

Martin Van Buren

Eighth president of the United States whose single term in office was crippled by the Panic of 1837, causing his defeat in 1840; he later joined the antislavery Free Soil Party.

Nullification

The political doctrine holding that individual states, having formed the Union by compact, hold ultimate constitutional authority and can declare federal laws void within their borders; rooted in the 1798 Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.

Panic of 1837

A severe multi-year financial crisis lasting until 1844, provoked by crop failures, European financial instability, and Andrew Jackson's hard-money policies and destruction of the Second Bank of the United States.

Pet banks

Selected state-chartered financial institutions aligned with Andrew Jackson's administration where federal deposits were redirected following Jackson's 1832 veto and defunding of the Second Bank of the United States.

Spoils system

The political practice of awarding government offices and bureaucratic posts to party loyalists; Jackson defended it as democratic rotation in office, though he replaced only about 20 percent of incumbents.

Tariff of Abominations

The southern label for the protective Tariff of 1828, which raised duties on foreign imports to historic highs, provoking bitter resistance in South Carolina and inciting the nullification crisis of 1832.

Trail of Tears (1838)

The forced relocation of roughly 18,000 Cherokee people from their ancestral southeastern lands to designated Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma), resulting in the deaths of approximately 25 percent of the population.

Whigs

Political party organized in 1832 under Henry Clay to oppose Andrew Jackson's executive actions; promoted the American System (national bank, protective tariffs, internal improvements) before fracturing over slavery in the 1850s.

Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

Supreme Court case ruling that the Cherokee Nation was a distinct political community over which Georgia law had no force; Andrew Jackson disregarded the decision and proceeded with federal removal efforts.

American Anti-Slavery Society

Abolitionist organization founded in 1833 that demanded immediate emancipation without compensation to owners through moral suasion, advocating multifaceted reforms and admitting women as active participants.

Abby Kelley

Abolitionist and public speaker whose 1840 appointment to a leadership committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society triggered a split between William Lloyd Garrison's supporters and more conservative abolitionists.

American Colonization Society

Organization established in 1817 advocating the voluntary resettlement of freed slaves in West Africa, leading to the creation of the colony of Liberia in 1827.

American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society

Abolitionist group formed in 1840 by the Tappan brothers after breaking away from William Lloyd Garrison over his radical religious, political, and anti-institutional views; favored constitutional political activism via the Liberty Party.

American Society for the Promotion of Temperance

The nation's first centralized temperance organization, established in 1826, which deployed lecturers, gathered personal sobriety pledges, and campaigned for legal prohibitions on alcohol consumption.

Brook Farm

A transcendentalist utopian communal experiment established by George Ripley near Boston in 1841 combining manual labor with intellectual and cultural life; dissolved after an 1847 fire.

Compensated Emancipation

An antislavery approach proposing government financial payments to slaveowners to offset the loss of their human property, attempting to mitigate Southern resistance to abolition.

Cult of domesticity

The nineteenth-century cultural ideal maintaining that women's proper domain was the private household as moral and spiritual guides, excluding them from public business and political arenas.

Declaration of Sentiments

The manifesto drafted at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention modeled after the Declaration of Independence, enumerating female grievances and demanding equal civil, social, and political rights, including suffrage.

Dorothea Dix

Social reformer who led a national campaign exposing the mistreatment of the mentally ill, lobbying state legislatures to establish humane public asylums separate from the penal system.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Pioneering women's rights leader who co-organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, and advocated female suffrage for over half a century.

Frederick Douglass

Escaped slave and preeminent African American abolitionist orator and writer who broke with Garrison to establish the antislavery paper The North Star, championing racial equality throughout the nineteenth century.

Gradual Emancipation

An approach to abolishing slavery gradually by freeing future offspring of enslaved people once they reached adulthood, a framework used across many northern states following the American Revolution.

Horace Mann

Educational reformer and secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education who championed tax-funded universal public education, minimum school terms, standardized teacher training, and secular curricula.

Liberty Party

The first antislavery political party, established in 1840 to work within the constitutional system; ran James G. Birney for president in 1840 and 1844 before merging into the Free Soil Party in 1848.

Lucretia Mott

Quaker reformer and antislavery activist who partnered with Elizabeth Cady Stanton to organize the landmark 1848 Seneca Falls Convention for women's rights.

Maine Law (1851)

The earliest statewide prohibition legislation enacted in the U.S., banning the commercial manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages except for medical purposes.

Sarah and Angelina Grimke

Southern Quaker sisters who relocated to the North to become outspoken advocates of abolitionism and women's rights, writing and lecturing against the institution of slavery.

Second Great Awakening

A major Protestant religious revival movement between 1790 and 1840 emphasizing individual moral free agency, personal salvation, and societal perfection, providing the moral foundation for antebellum social reform movements.

Susan B. Anthony

Women's suffrage activist who allied with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 to establish the National Woman Suffrage Association after the Civil War; the Nineteenth Amendment is often named in her honor.

Transcendentalists

A group of New England writers and intellectuals who emphasized individual spiritual intuition over empirical reasoning and formal institutional authority, encouraging antebellum social dissent.

William Lloyd Garrison

Prominent radical abolitionist publisher of The Liberator and co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, known for demanding the immediate and uncompensated emancipation of all enslaved people.

Coerce

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

Judicial review

The Supreme Court's constitutional authority to evaluate executive actions and statutory legislation to determine their constitutionality and legal validity.

Nullify

To render something legally void, invalid, or without legal effect.