Untitled Flashcards Set

5.2

Causes of Westward Migration:

• The desire for access to natural and mineral resources

• The hope of economic opportunities 

• Religious Refuge

Alamo

Led by Colonel William B. Travis 

Mexico took the win killing all 187 men 

President James K. Polk 

• His decision and the mexican american war would lead texas to become a 28th state and symbol of american expansion

Oregon Territory 

• Jointly claimed by the United States and Great Britain 

Early 1840’s Oregon fever occurred across the country 

• This drew many settlers to brave the 2000 mile Oregon Trail journey from the western edge of american settlement in Missouri

• With the rising population James K. Polk was able to convince Britain to release the territory making oregon the 33rd state

Second Great Awakening  

• Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Religion 

• Brigham Young led more than 2000 followers to Utah where they could practice their faith undisturbed

• Gold was discovered in Nevada at a sawmill owned by a swiss immigrant Johann A. Sutter   

• This set off Gold Rush 

50,000 people to the Golden State in 1849 gaining the name the Forty-Niners

Access to the Pacific Ocean gave major cities like San Francisco to develop major trading centers 

Manifest Destiny 

• Whole continent was meant for White Americans, it was theirs to exploit, theirs to make one mighty nation, and theirs to display virtues of democratic and Christian institutions 

John L. O’Sullivan “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our multiplying millions.”

• Thus led americans to believe it was their destiny by God, who intended the American nation to reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean 

Homestead Act

• Gave 160 acres to any settler who would farm the land for five years

• This was an effort to populate the sparsely populated territories of the Midwest

Transcontinental Railroad 

• Was established due to the Pacific Railway Act

• Connected the two coasts of the U.S.

• American Warships sailed into Tokyo Harbor aboard the command of Commodore Matthew Perry

• Japanese leaders were impressed by his weapons so the Kanagawa Treaty was agreed to which opened two ports to American Shipping 

• Closer ties to asia than ever before 

5.3

James K. Polk

• An ardent expansionist

• Won the presidency with an electoral vote 

• He interpreted such a narrow victory as a mandate for expansion in the spirit of manifest destiny 

Boundary Dispute

• Over the texas border between U.S. and Mexico

• Texans claimed the Rio Grande River as their western and southern border

• Mexico argued the border was the Nueces River to the north

• Polk sent a small army with Zachary Taylor to texas to protect the new state from Mexican invasion

Mexican American War

• Mr Polks War

• US had won nearly all of Mexico north of the capital city

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was settled

Mexico accepted the Rio Grande as the Texas Boundary

Mexico ceded New Mexico and upper california to the U.S. for 15 million

The southern portion of New Mexico and Arizona would be bought for 10 million in the Gadsden Purchase

Impacts of this War

Nationalism

• Feelings of nationalism and manifest destiny was strengthened

Slavery Debate

• Debates over the status of slavery in the territories was intensified

Native American Conflict

• Conflict with Native Americans continued and intensified as white Americans moved west

5.4

Wilmot Proviso

• An amendment prohibiting slavery nor involuntary servitude in any part of said territory

• Was defeated in the senate where southerners held the balance

Popular Sovereignty

• Polk proposed to extend the line of the Missouri Compromise through the new territories to the Pacific Coast, banning slavery north of the line and permitting it in the south

• Others supported a different plan that would allow the people of each territory to decide the status of slavery in that territory 

• Previously known as “squatter sovereignty” and now defined as Popular Sovereignty 

• Allowed Congress to avoid the responsibility of deciding the question of slavery in the newly acquired territories

Compromise of 1850

• Proposed by henry clay

• Admissioned California as a free state

• The formation of territorial governments in the rest of the lands acquired from mexico without restrictions on slavery

• The abolition of the slave trade in washington DC

• A new and more effective strictly enforced fugitive slave law

The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state.

5.5

Anti-Catholic Nativist Movement

• Aimed to limit new immigrants political power and cultural immigrants from political power and cultural influence 

• Nativist political parties such as the “American Party” or Know-Nothing Party emerged to prevent the immigrants from voting or becoming citizen

 Johns Brown and William Lloyd Garrison

• Abolitionist  

Harriet Beacher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Attempt to arouse pubic anger through propaganda

• She was not an abolitionist nor a professional writer

• But she was angered by the fugitive slave act

Underground Railroad

• Assists slaves looking for freedom during the Civil War

• Harriet Tubman helped immensely

Free Soil Party 

• Formed before the 1848 election

• Was rooted  the desire to stop the expansion of slavery to territories

• Goal was to ban slavery in the territories so white farmers would not need to compete with large slave based plantations

John C. Calhoun 

• Stated the essence that slavery was a “good - a positive good”

• Him and other southerners argued slavery was a “positive good” for the slaves because they enjoyed better conditions than industrial workers in the North

5.6

Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854

• Stated the issue of slavery would be left to the decision of settlers in this region, based on the principle of popular sovereignty 

• Received support from the south and partial support from the northern democrats 

• Divided and destroyed the Whig party and drove many northern democrats from the democratic party 

• Stephen Douglas introduced a bill that organized a huge territory west of Missouri and Iowa as the Nebraska Territory 

Bleeding Kansas

• White settlers from both North and South began moving into Kansas as soon as the act was passed

• Thousands of pro slavery “border ruffians” moved from neighboring Missouri to Kansas 

• Known as Bleeding kansas 

• Radical abolitionist John Brown dragged five pro slavery settlers from their cabins in Pottawatomie Creek and butchered them

Charles Sumner

• Delivered a speech in congress called “A crime against Kansas” in which he demanded Kansas be admitted to the Union at once as a free state

• Congressman Preston Brooks two days after his speech caned Sumner over 30 times at his desk

Dred Scott Decision 

• Dred Scott was enslaved in Missouri, owned by an army surgeon that had taken scott with him into Illinois and Wisconsin, where slavery was forbidden  

• Scott filed a suit due to the death of his army surgeon for freedom on the grounds that his residence in free territory had liberated him from slavery

• Dred Scott vs Sandford that Dred Scott had no right to sue because Black americans were not citizens 

• Decision nullified missouri compromise and opened all territories to slavery, a major victory for southerners

The republican party

• Ran on the platform of free soil in the territories 

• Third Two-Party system, pitted democrats against republicans

5.7

Lincoln

• House Divided Speech

• He put issue of sectionalism and slavery front and center 

• Republican

• Stephen Douglas is a democrat and had debates with Lincoln

• Series of seven debates in July 1858 which attracted enormous crowds and media attention

• Douglas stated even in spite of the Dred Scott decision, which effectively declared territories open to slavery the territories would instead pass and enforce laws to protect slavery 

• Came known as the Freeport Doctrine

• Lincoln made clear argument  against the expansion of slavery in the territories 

• Lincoln Ended up losing the election

• The republicans nominated Lincoln with a platform based on free soil, a protective tariff, immigrant rights, a transcontinental railroad, and homesteads for citizens in the west

Constitutional Union Party

• Southern Democrats warned that they would leave the Union if Lincoln were elected, so some Whigs and moderates broke off and formed the Constitutional Union Party

• This nominated John Bell as their candidate to prevent secession

Election of 1860

• Lincoln secured 40 percent of the popular vote

• Breckenridge carried the South

• Douglas only won over Missouri

• Lincoln elected as the president

As soon as end of election became known, the South Carolina legislature declared its intention to secede from the United States

This was soon followed by the rest of the South

• Soon enough their representatives adopted a constitution closely resembling the U.S. constitution and establishing the Confederate States of America

• Following day they elected Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy

Fort Sumter

• A fort belonging to the U.S. government located in South Carolina began to run low on supplies, Lincoln sent a relief expedition and Confederates bombarded the fort for two days until it was surrendered to the southerners

• This began the Civil War

5.8

Advantages of the Union (The North)

• Greater industry and manufacturing 

• Larger population

• Transportation and communication

• Southern advantages

Advantages of the Confederacy

• Well trained generals 

• High troop morale and enthusiasm 

• Home soil advantage (most battle took place in the South)

First Battle of Bull Run

• Also known as Battle of Manassas in July 1861

• Union anticipated an easy win but were driven back by General Stonewall and were forced to retreat to washington

Union Army Four Phase Plan

• Anaconda Plan: focused on blockading all southern ports to cut off supplies and trade

• Control of Mississippi: focused on gaining control of the Mississippi river in the western region, general Ulysses S Grant achieved this

• Engage in “Total War”: General William T Sherman launched a total war on the south, attacking soldiers and civilians in the south and destroying cities in Sherman’s March to the Sea 

• Capture Richmond: final phase was to capture of Richmond the capital of the confederacy which fell to Grant’s union forces on April 3rd, 1865

• City was surrendered and Union has won

Battle of Gettysburg

• Union victory over the confederates gave North their first major victory over Lee, who was forced to retreat

• From this point forward Lee attempted no more strategic offenses

5.9

National Draft Law

• All young adult males were eligible to be drafted 

• Opposition to the draft - or conscription - was widespread “Copperheads” who were democrats opposed to the war

• Violence would erupt like in July 1863 New York City Draft Riot when the first drafted names were read out

Conscription Act

• Subjected all white males between age of 18 and 35 to military service for 3 years

At Start of the Civil War Lincoln’s primary goal was to preserve the Union

Emancipation

• Radical republicans passed a bill abolishing slavery in washington Dc

• Congress soon passed the Confiscation Act which freed all slaves owned by those supporting the insurrection and authorized the president to employ Black Americans as soldiers

Emancipation Proclamation: all slaves in areas in rebellion against the U.S. shall be free

• No single slave was freed directly by lincoln's announcement which did not apply to border states 

Presidential War Powers 

• Lincoln's greatest political problem was the widespread popular opposition to the war in the North, he ordered military arrests of civilian dissenters and suspended the right of habeas corpus, the right of an arrested person to receive a speedy trial

Lincoln's gettysburg address

• Dedication of the soldiers national cemetery in gettysburg four months after the deadly battle of gettysburg

• He solidified the revised cause of the Civil War “a new birth of freedom”

5.10

Reconstruction

Ten Percent Plan

• Stated that all southerners could reinstate themselves as US citizens by taking a simple loyalty oath

• When in any state a number equal to 10 percent of those who voted in the 1860 election had taken this oath they could set up state government 

Wade Davis Bill

• Required a majority of southerners in a given state to take the loyalty oath

• Confederate officials and anyone who has “voluntarily borne arms against the United States” were barred from voting 

Andrew Johnson’s reconstruction Plan

• Withdraw its secession

• Swear allegiance to the Union

• Ratify the 13th amendment which abolished slavery

Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Declared specifically the blacks were citizens and could not have their rights to property restricted

• The passage of the bill effectively announced that the national government had the responsibility of protecting the rights of the citizens not states

13th Amendment

• Abolished slavery 

14th Amendment

• Guaranteed citizenship to anyone

Military Reconstruction Act

• Separated southern states into 5 military districts each overseen by a Union military general

• New strict terms were laid out

• Southerners at the time called these new terms the “bayonet rule”

Scalawags

• White southerners who cooperated with radical reconstruction in this period

Carpetbaggers

• Northern whites who traveled into military districts to advance the radical cause

15th Amendment

• Forbade all states the denial of the right to vote to anyone

• This and the 14th amendment split the women’s suffrage movement into two

5.11

• General William T Sherman issued special field order No. 15 which gave 40 acre parcels of confiscated land and a mule to Black families 

Freedmen's Bureau

• This organization provided food, clothing, education, and job training to freed slaves

After the passage of the 15th amendment the reconstructed southern states sent the first African americans to congress both as representatives and senators

• Hiram R. Revels: won election to the Senate, becoming first African American senator 

Black Codes

• Legal methods of keeping freed slaves in positions of servitude 

• Authorized local officials to apprehend unemployed blacks, fine them for vagrancy and hire them out to private employers to satisfy fines

Sharecropping

• Began on the sugar plantations of Louisiana and quickly spread to the rest of the South

Secret Terrorist Societies

• Southerners established the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camelia and the Pale Faces

• Congress attempted to strike at the Klan with three force acts which placed elections under federal jurisdiction and imposed fines and prison sentences for anyone interfering with a person’s right to vote 

Redeemer Governments

• Led by rich former planers and businessmen dominated southern politics 

• Under these governments that the Jim Crow Laws would be passed 

Civil Rights Act of 1875

• Prohibited racial discrimination in public accomodations, public transportation, and jury selection

Compromise of 1877

- hayes is elected

- he recalled the last troops from the south and april, thus bringing an end to military reconstruction and reconstruction as a whole