Second Semester Study Guide

Era of Good Feelings

• Period of national unity and minimal political strife after the War of 1812.

John Marshall

• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; shaped American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a center of power.

Marbury v. Madison

• Established judicial review, allowing the Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional.

Adams-Onis Treaty

• Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain.

Monroe Doctrine

• Declared that the U.S. would not interfere in European affairs, and opposed further European colonization in the Americas.

Battle of New Orleans

• Fought after the War of 1812 ended; made Andrew Jackson a national hero.

Samuel F.B. Morse

• Invented the telegraph, revolutionizing long-distance communication.

Eli Whitney

• Invented the cotton gin, which increased cotton production and perpetuated slavery.

Commonwealth v. Hunt

• Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that labor unions were not illegal conspiracies.

Cotton Gin

• Machine that automated the separation of cotton fiber from seeds.

Missouri Compromise

• Admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, maintaining the balance in the Senate. Prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Purchase territory north of the 36°30′ parallel.

Election of 1824

• Controversial election; Andrew Jackson won the most votes but lost to John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives.

Corrupt Bargain

• Alleged deal between John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay to make Adams president and Clay Secretary of State.

2nd Great Awakening

• Protestant religious revival movement that led to social reforms.

Spoils System

• Practice of rewarding political supporters with government jobs; associated with Andrew Jackson.

The Second Bank of the United States

• National bank chartered in 1816; controversial due to opposition from states' rights advocates.

Tariff of 1828

• Protective tariff that led to the Nullification Crisis.

Worcester v. Georgia

• Supreme Court ruled that the states did not have the right to impose regulations on Native American land.

Trail of Tears

• Forced removal of Cherokee Native Americans from their lands in the Southeastern United States to present-day Oklahoma.

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

• Resolved border disputes between the U.S. and Great Britain.

Irish Immigration

• Large-scale immigration of Irish people to the U.S., especially during the 1840s due to the Great Famine.

Temperance Movement

• Social movement advocating moderation or abstinence from alcohol.

Joseph Smith

• Founder of the Mormon Church.

Panic of 1837

• Financial crisis that led to an economic depression.

Frederick Douglass

• Abolitionist and former slave; prominent leader in the anti-slavery movement.

Transcendentalists

• Philosophical movement emphasizing spiritual experiences and the importance of the individual.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• Leading figure in the women's rights movement.

Nat Turner

• Led a slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831.

Caucus System v. National Nominating Convention

• Shift from party caucuses to national conventions for nominating presidential candidates.

Nativism

• Policy of protecting the interests of native-born inhabitants against those of immigrants.

Nullification

• The states' rights doctrine that a state can declare a federal law unconstitutional and void.

Manifest Destiny

• Belief that the U.S. was destined to expand across the North American continent.

John O’Sullivan

• Coined the term "Manifest Destiny".

Mountain Men

• Trappers and explorers who traveled and lived in the wilderness

Annexation of Texas

• Texas was added to the U.S. in 1845.

Election of 1844

• James K. Polk won, advocating for expansion.

Martin Van Buren

• Eighth President of the United States; dealt with the Panic of 1837.

Mormons

• Religious group founded by Joseph Smith.

“Fifty-four Forty or Fight”

• Slogan used regarding the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain.

Major Western Trails

• Oregon, Santa Fe, California trails.

The Alamo

• Battle during the Texas Revolution where Texan defenders were defeated by the Mexican Army.

Popular Sovereignty

• The principle that the authority of a state and its government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives.

Lewis Cass

• Advocated popular sovereignty to decide the slavery issue in the territories.

Conscience Whigs

• Whigs opposed to slavery on moral grounds.

California Gold Rush (1849)

• Mass migration to California following the discovery of gold.

Wilmot Proviso

• Proposed to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico.

Free-Soil Party Beliefs

• Opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories.

Mexican Cession

• Territory ceded to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Compromise of 1850

• Package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

• Required the return of escaped slaves to their owners.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that heightened tensions over slavery.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Allowed popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska, leading to conflict.

Caning of Charles Sumner

• Representative Preston Brooks attacked Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the Senate chamber.

Bleeding Kansas

• Violent civil confrontations in Kansas over the legality of slavery.

Views Toward Abolitionism

• Radical: Immediate emancipation and equal rights. Northern: Varying degrees of opposition to slavery's expansion.

Demise of Whig Party

• Collapse of the Whig Party due to internal divisions over slavery.

Dred Scott Case

• Supreme Court ruled that slaves were not citizens and Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories.

Lecompton Constitution

• Pro-slavery constitution proposed for Kansas.

Know-Nothing Party

• Nativist political party opposed to immigrants and Catholics.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• Series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the 1858 Illinois Senate campaign.

Stephen Douglas

• Politician who advocated for popular sovereignty.

Freeport Doctrine

• Stephen Douglas's view that slavery could be excluded from territories by local legislation.

John Brown

• Abolitionist who led violent raids against slavery supporters.

Raid-Harpers Ferry

• John Brown's failed attempt to start a slave rebellion.

Election of 1860

• Abraham Lincoln elected president, leading to secession.

Abraham Lincoln’s Inaugural Address

• Pledged to preserve the Union and enforce federal laws.

Secession

• Withdrawal of states from the Union.

Crittenden’s Compromise

• Proposed to prevent secession; failed.

Winfield Scott

• Union General; proposed the Anaconda Plan.

Fort Sumter

• Confederate attack on Fort Sumter initiated the Civil War.

Confederate Government v. Federal Government

• Confederate: Advocated states' rights and slavery.
• Federal: Sought to preserve the Union and abolish slavery.

The Anaconda Plan

• Union military strategy to blockade the South and control the Mississippi River.

William Tecumseh Sherman

• Union General; his "March to the Sea" was a destructive campaign through Georgia.

List of Union Commanders

• Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, George McClellan, George Meade

Martial Law in Maryland

• Lincoln imposed martial law to prevent Maryland from seceding.

Battle of First Bull Run

• First major battle of the Civil War; Confederate victory.

Battle of Shiloh

• Union victory in Tennessee.

Battle of Antietam

• Bloodiest single-day battle in American history; led to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Emancipation Proclamation

• Declared slaves free in Confederate-held territory.

Battle of Vicksburg

• Union victory that gave control of the Mississippi River.

Battle of Gettysburg

• Turning point of the Civil War; Union victory in Pennsylvania.

Election of 1864

• Abraham Lincoln re-elected president.

54th Massachusetts

• First African American regiment in the Union Army.

Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction

• Focused on reconciliation; lenient terms for the South.

Radical Republican’s Plan

• Focused on punishing the South and ensuring civil rights for African Americans.

Military Reconstruction Act

• Divided the South into military districts.

Wade-Davis Bill

• Stricter reconstruction plan; pocket vetoed by Lincoln.

Black Codes

• Southern laws that restricted the rights of freed slaves.

Freedman’s Bureau

• Federal agency that aided freed slaves in the South.

13th Amendment

• Abolished slavery.

14th Amendment

• Guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the law.

15th Amendment

• Guaranteed voting rights regardless of race.

Sharecropper

• System where farmers work land in exchange for a share of the crop. This system was used to keep formerly enslaved people working for the landowners.

The Tenure of Office Act

• Restricted the president's power to remove certain officeholders without Senate approval; led to Andrew Johnson's impeachment.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States regardless of race.

Force Acts

• Laws designed to suppress Ku Klux Klan violence.

The Ku Klux Klan Act

• Made KKK activities federal offenses.

The Compromise of 1877

• Resolved the disputed 1876 presidential election; effectively ended Reconstruction.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

• Johnson was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.