APUSH Chp 9 Vocab

franchise

franchise

The right to vote. Between 1820 and 1860, most states revised their constitutions to extend the vote to all adult white males. Black adult men gained the right to vote with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Nineteenth Amendment granted adult women the right to vote.

notables

Northern landlords, slave-owning planters, and seaport merchants who dominated the political system of the early nineteenth century.

political machine(s)

A highly organized group of insiders that directs a political party. These complex, hierarchical party organizations, such as New York's Tammany Hall, kept power through the strength of their political organization and their personal relationship with voters, especially working-class immigrants. Political machines were replaced by disciplined political parties usually run by professional politicians.

caucus

A meeting held by a political party to choose candidates, make policies, and enforce party discipline.

demographic transition

The sharp decline in birthrate in the United States beginning in the 1790s that was caused by changes in cultural behavior, including the use of birth control. The migration of thousands of young men to the trans-Appalachian west was also a factor in this decline.

republican motherhood

The idea that the primary political role of American women was to instill a sense of patriotic duty and republican virtue in their sons and husbands and mold them into exemplary citizens.

American Colonization Society

Founded by Henry Clay and other prominent citizens in 1817, the society argued that slaves had to be freed and then resettled, in Africa or elsewhere.

Missouri Compromise

A series of political agreements devised by Speaker of the House Henry Clay. Maine entered the Union as a free state and Missouri followed as a slave state, preserving a balance in the Senate between North and South. Farther west, it set the northern boundary of slavery at the southern boundary of Missouri.

American System

The mercantilist system of national economic development advocated by Henry Clay and adopted by John Quincy Adams, with a national bank to manage the nation's financial system; protective tariffs to provide revenue and encourage industry; and a nationally funded network of roads, canals, and railroads.

internal improvements

Government-funded public works such as roads and canals.

corrupt bargain

When Speaker of the House Henry Clay used his influence to select John Quincy Adams as president in 1824, and then Adams appointed Clay secretary of state, Andrew Jackson's supporters called it a corrupt bargain.

Tariff of Abominations

A tariff enacted in 1828 that raised duties significantly on raw materials, textiles, and iron goods. It enraged the South, which had no industries that needed protection and resented the higher cost of imported goods.

spoils system

The widespread award of public jobs to political supporters after an electoral victory. In 1829, Andrew Jackson instituted the system on the national level, arguing that the rotation of officeholders was preferable to a permanent group of bureaucrats.

nullification

The constitutional argument advanced by John C. Calhoun that a state legislature or convention could void a law passed by Congress.

Second Bank of the United States

National bank with multiple branches chartered in 1816 for twenty years. Intended to help regulate the economy, the bank became a major issue in Andrew Jackson's reelection campaign in 1832.

Indian Removal Act of 1830

Act that directed the mandatory relocation of eastern tribes to territory west of the Mississippi. Jackson insisted that his goal was to save the Indians and their culture. Indians resisted the controversial act, but in the end most were forced to comply.

Trail of Tears

Forced westward journey of Cherokees from their lands in Georgia to present-day Oklahoma in 1838. Nearly a quarter of the Cherokees died in route.

classical liberalism, or laissez-faire

The political ideology of individual liberty, private property, a competitive market economy, free trade, and limited government. The ideal is a laissez faire or "let alone" policy in which government does the least possible.

Whig Party

The Whig Party arose in 1834 when a group of congressmen contested Andrew Jackson's policies and conduct. The party identified itself with the pre-Revolutionary American and British parties — also called Whigs — that had opposed the arbitrary actions of British monarchs.

Panic of 1837

Triggered by a sharp reduction in English capital and credit flowing into the United States, the cash shortage caused a panic while the collapse of credit led to a depression — the second major economic crisis of the United States — that lasted from 1837 to 1843.

Specie Circular

An executive order in 1836 that required the Treasury Department to accept only gold and silver in payment for lands in the national domain.