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

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the Democratic-Republican Era, the Age of Jackson, the Age of Reform, and foundational social studies terms for AP US History Unit 4.

Adams-Onís Treaty (1819)

Also known as the Florida Purchase Treaty and the Transcontinental Treaty; under its terms, the United States paid Spain $\$5\text{ million}$ 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 Native Americans at Horseshoe Bend and commanded the victory over the British at New Orleans; he became a national hero from 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 to let British officers search for 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 that prevented New Hampshire from altering Dartmouth’s charter to make it a public institution, ruling that the contract clause of the Constitution applies to charters and contracts cannot 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and French interference with U.S. merchant ships ceased; it caused widespread economic hardship in America and was repealed in 1809.

Fletcher v. Peck (1810)

Supreme Court case that established the Court's authority to invalidate state laws contrary to the Constitution by preventing Georgia from rescinding a fraudulently made land grant.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Landmark Supreme Court case that struck down a New York steamboat monopoly between New York and New Jersey, expanding congressional power to regulate interstate commerce while expanding federal power and limiting states’ rights.

Henry Clay

A leading American statesman from 1810 to 1852 who served as a congressman, 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.

Impressment

The forceful drafting of American sailors into the British navy; over ten thousand Americans were seized between 1790 and 1812 under claims of Royal Navy desertion, serving as the principal cause of the War of 1812.

John Marshall

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835 who incorporated 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 $\$15\text{ million}$; it doubled the size of the United States, secured control of the Mississippi River and New Orleans, and relied on implied constitutional powers.

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Court case that established judicial review, allowing the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of federal laws after striking down part of the Judiciary Act of 1789.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Supreme Court case establishing the supremacy of federal law over state law by prohibiting Maryland from taxing the Baltimore branch of the Second National Bank.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

A settlement authored by Henry Clay that admitted Missouri as a slave state, admitted Maine as a free state, and banned slavery in the Louisiana territory north of $36^\circ 30'$.

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

A foreign policy declaration barring new European colonization in the Western Hemisphere, pledging non-interference with existing colonies, and stating that the United States would avoid European affairs.

Non-Intercourse Act (1809)

A law replacing the Embargo Act that reopened American trade with all nations except Britain and France; it failed to halt shipping interference and was repealed in 1810.

Panic of 1819

A severe depression following post-War of 1812 expansion, triggered when the Second National Bank tightened credit and called in loans to curb inflation and land speculation, deepening divisions between eastern and western interests.

Second Bank of the United States

A national bank chartered in 1816 to hold federal tax receipts and regulate currency; it became intensely unpopular with western farmers and land speculators, especially after the Panic of 1819.

Treaty of Ghent (1815)

Agreement that ended the War of 1812 by restoring all captured territory and leaving unresolved disputes, including ownership of the Great Lakes, for future negotiation without addressing the causes of the war.

War Hawks

Young members of the 12th Congress from the South and West, led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who pushed for war with Britain to annex Canada, defend maritime rights, and resolve frontier conflicts with Native Americans.

Corrupt Bargain

An alleged deal during the disputed election of 1824 in which Henry Clay swung House support to John Quincy Adams, who subsequently named Clay secretary of state, denying plurality winner Andrew Jackson the presidency.

Daniel Webster

A prominent orator, constitutional lawyer, senator, and secretary of state who served as a foremost voice for nationalism and the Union during the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s.

Democratic Party

A major political party tracing its roots to the Democratic-Republicans, formed by supporters of Andrew Jackson following the contested election of 1824 to organize his successful 1828 presidential campaign.

Exposition and Protest

An anonymous essay authored by Vice President John C. Calhoun applying compact theory to argue that the Tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional and that South Carolina could legitimately nullify it.

“His Accidency”

A derisive nickname given to John Tyler in 1841 after he became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency upon William Henry Harrison's death, highlighting his disputes with Whig leaders over national banking, tariffs, and internal improvements.

Indian Removal Act (1830)

Legislation authorizing the president to negotiate treaties with southeastern Native American tribes to exchange their ancestral lands for territory west of the Mississippi, providing funds for transfer and relocation.

John C. Calhoun

Vice president under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson who authored Exposition and Protest, led the nullification crisis of 1832–1833, and championed southern states' rights from 1828 to 1850.

John Quincy Adams

Son of John Adams, secretary of state who negotiated the purchase of Florida and helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine, and president who championed economic nationalism and activist government.

Market Revolution

The nineteenth-century economic transformation from local, subsistence farming and artisan workshops to commercial production for distant cash markets, accompanied by the emergence 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 doctrine that individual states formed a compact in creating the Union and retain the power to declare federal laws unconstitutional and unenforceable within their borders.

Panic of 1837

A prolonged economic collapse lasting from 1837 to 1844 caused by crop failures, European financial crises, and Andrew Jackson's policies regarding inflation and the termination of the Second Bank of the United States.

Pet banks

State banks favored by Andrew Jackson's administration that received federal deposits after Jackson vetoed the Second Bank of the United States re-charter and removed government funds in 1832.

Spoils system

The practice of rewarding party loyalists and campaign workers with government appointments; Andrew Jackson removed roughly $20\%$ of officeholders under this approach.

Tariff of Abominations

An 1828 protective tariff that dramatically increased import duties on foreign goods to an unprecedented level, provoking fierce southern opposition and sparking the nullification crisis of 1832.

Trail of Tears (1838)

The forced eviction and westward march of roughly 18,000 Cherokees to designated Indian Territory (Oklahoma), during which nearly $25\%$ died of illness, exposure, and exhaustion.

Whigs

A political party organized in 1832 under Henry Clay to oppose Andrew Jackson and executive overreach, advocating high tariffs, national banking, internal improvements, and distribution of public land sales.

Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

Legal challenge brought by the Cherokee Nation arguing that Georgia laws violated federal treaties; President Jackson refused to enforce the Court's ruling and proceeded with forced removal via military authority.

American Anti-Slavery Society

A reform group established in 1833 that utilized moral persuasion to demand immediate emancipation without compensation to slaveholders, advocating broad reforms and including women as full members.

Abby Kelley

An abolitionist orator in the American Anti-Slavery Society whose 1840 appointment to an all-male committee prompted a split between William Lloyd Garrison and more conservative reformers.

American Colonization Society

An organization founded in 1817 that encouraged the resettlement of freed African Americans to West Africa, leading to the creation of the colony of Liberia in 1827.

American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society

An abolitionist association organized in 1840 by the Tappan brothers in protest against William Lloyd Garrison's radicalism, focusing on political engagement through the Liberty Party.

American Society for the Promotion of Temperance

The nation's first temperance organization, established in 1826, which dispatched agents to advocate voluntary abstinence pledges and advocate for state-level alcohol prohibition laws.

Brook Farm

A transcendentalist utopian commune set up by George Ripley near Boston in 1841 centered on shared agricultural labor, art, and literature; it disbanded following an 1847 fire.

Compensated Emancipation

An antislavery approach proposing financial restitution to slaveholders to soften the economic impact of emancipation and diminish resistance to ending slavery.

Cult of domesticity

The nineteenth-century social ideology asserting that women should occupy the private sphere of the home to provide moral and spiritual guidance while remaining detached from commerce and politics.

Declaration of Sentiments

A manifesto issued at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention patterned on the Declaration of Independence that detailed women's legal grievances and demanded voting, social, and economic rights.

Dorothea Dix

A reformer and former schoolteacher who campaigned to expose the mistreatment of the mentally ill in prisons, successfully lobbying state legislatures to establish specialized mental hospitals.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A women's rights pioneer who co-organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 and led campaigns for women’s legal rights and voting privileges throughout the nineteenth century.

Frederick Douglass

An escaped slave who became an influential abolitionist orator and writer, founded the antislavery paper The North Star, and served as the preeminent African American spokesperson from the 1840s to 1895.

Gradual Emancipation

An approach to ending slavery slowly over time, often by freeing children born to enslaved mothers once they reached a specified age, adopted by several northern states following the American Revolution.

Horace Mann

Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education who spearheaded common school reforms, established formal teacher training, extended school calendars, and introduced secular curricula.

Liberty Party

A third political party founded in 1840 that advocated outlawing the interstate slave trade and abolishing slavery in the territories and the District of Columbia; it nominated James Birney before merging into the Free Soil Party in 1848.

Lucretia Mott

A Quaker reformer active in both the abolitionist and feminist movements who helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1848.

Maine Law (1851)

The nation's first statewide prohibition statute, banning the manufacture 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 against slavery and champion equal rights for women.

Second Great Awakening

A broad wave of religious revivals between 1790 and 1840 that emphasized human free will, moral accountability, and personal salvation, providing ideological momentum for antebellum social reform movements.

Susan B. Anthony

A 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 in her honor.

Transcendentalists

A group of nineteenth-century writers and thinkers who believed ultimate truth could be discovered through inner spiritual intuition rather than empirical observation or established institutions.

William Lloyd Garrison

A prominent antebellum abolitionist who published the Boston-based weekly The Liberator and established the American Anti-Slavery Society to demand immediate and uncompensated emancipation.

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.