Unit 5 Vocabulary (Chapters 13-15) part 2
29. Crittenden Compromise: (1860-1): compromise forces gathered behind John lise Critteneden from KY. His compromise included an amendment to the constitution guaranteeing slavery in slave states, and a reestablishment of the MO Compromise and extending it to the Pacific Ocean. The remaining Southerners in the senate were willing to accept it, but the Republicans were not because they felt it would invalidate election of 1860; Sign.: last major attempt at compromise to prevent Civil War
30. Homestead Act: Homestead Act of 1862 permitted and citizen or prospective
citizen to claim 160 acres of public land purchases it after 5 years of a small price. (was passed by Repubs while south was out of congress.)
31. "Greenbacks": printing of paper currency rose during the Civil War, and they
were known as greenbacks. Values of the paper currency fluctuated according to union victories.
32. Andrew Johnson: Johnson joined Lincoln in his reelection. He was a war
democrat who had opposed his state's secession (TN); only So. Senator to stay in
the Senate after secession; He became pres. after Lincoln was shot; alienated moderate as well as Radical Republicans in "swing around the circle" in 1866 to influence Congressional elections; was impeached by the House of Rep.s, but not convicted by the Senate; was not renominated in 1868;
33. Battle of Antietam: union army defeated Confederate army at this battle in
Maryland in bloodiest battle of the Civil War; gave Lincoln key victgory so he could announce his intention of using wartime powers to free all slaves in Confederacy. On January 1, 1863 he
formally signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
34. 54th MA Infantry: the 54th MA Infantry was the most renown of all black units
that fought for the union. They had a white commander, Robert Shaw. Shaw and half of the infantry died in battle outside Charleston in 1863.
35. Sherman's March to Sea: during the last stage of war, Sherman decided to
advance eastwards towards Atlanta. He then burned the city as well as a 60-mile gap through GA until he reached Savannah. This was done in order to damage Confederate morale.
36. U.S. Sanitary Commission (Dorthea Dix): Dorthea Dix and a group of volunteers
established the US sanitary commission. They mobilized #'s of women to serve as nurses. By the end of the war, women were the dominant force in nursing. The sanitary commission helped bring about changes in health standards in hospitals; in doing so, the amount of death from disease began to decline.
37. Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross. Active in the accumulation and distribution of medical supplies. Became important force in world of nursing.
38. Jefferson Davis: at a constitutional convention in Montgomery, AL, the CSA named Davis as their president. He was chosen w/out opposition for a 6-year term. Davis was an unsuccessful president. He served as his own sec. of war. He rarely provided genuine nat'l leadership.
39. Ulysses S. Grant: failure in business and private life; became officer in Civil War and won key battles in the West-esp. Shiloh and Vicksburg; in March 1864, Lincoln's war effort was improved by choosing Grant as his commander of the entire Union army. Grant shared Lincoln's belief in making the enemy armies and resources, not territory, the target of military efforts; popularity because of his war efforts made him influential and in 1868 he was elected Pres. and served until 1877; his Presidency was marred by corruption and conflict over Reconstruction
40. Monitor and Merrimac: The Merrimac was a Union ship that was refitted in 1862
and changed in name to the Virginia. The Virginia than attacked northern ships, and came into conflict with the Monitor, which was another ironclad ship, and was stopped.
41. Jayhawkers: union sympathizers in KS organized in bands known as the
Jayhawkers, and were marginally less savage than the CSA in KS and MO.
42. Freedman's Bureau: March 1865; Congress established the FB, an agency under
control of the army and under direction of Gen. Oliver Howard. It was established as a means to distribute work to former slaves, establish schools, and modest efforts redistribute the land. <It had authority of operation for only one year.>; extension of the Freedmen's Bureau was vetoed by Pres. Johnson
43. Thaddeus Stevens: Radical Republican from PA, along w/ Sumner, who urged
that the political and military leaders of the former CSA be punished by means of disenfranchisement, and confiscation of goods and land to be distributed to former slaves; helped lead the effort to impeach Andrew Johnson
44. Black Codes: throughout 1865 and early 1866, the state legislatures in the South
were enacting sets of laws known as Black Codes; modeled after pre-war laws. These laws were established to reassert the supremacy of the Planter aristocracy and designed to control freed slaves; were extremely discriminatory against African-Americans
45. 13th Amendment: passed by congress in April, 1865. It abolished slavery in all
states and territories. States were required to ratify this amendment before they would be readmitted to the Union.
46. 14th Amendment: in April 1866, radicals in congress, through the joint committee
on the Reconstruction submitted a proposed 14th Amendment. The amendment offered first constitutional definition of American citizenship. The amendment also imposed penalties on states that denied any male inhabitant of his rights of citizenship; it also, protected corporations and people against being regulated without due process; it made no reference to women.
47. 15th Amendment: forbade states of government the right to deny suffrage to any citizen on account of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Was
adopted only with the support of Southern States who had to ratify it in order to be readmitted to the union. It had little affect on black suffrage, however, for many years.
48. Tenure of Office Act: to stop the president from interfering w/ their designs, the
radicals in congress passed 2 remarkable acts. First was the Tenure of Office Act, which forbade the president from removing civil officials. That particular act was meant to ensure the job of Sec. of War, Edmund Stanton. Johnson dismissed Stanton anyway, and was impeached by congress as a result. The other act passed was the Commander of Army Act, which prohibited the president from issuing military orders except through that of the Commander of Army.
49. Civil Service Reform: many civil service projects were enacted in the south
during the reconstruction. Such as public education, public works programs, relief for poor, and other costly commitments; civil service reform was designed to make sure only qualified people got federal jobs, not just supporters of the winning candidate; finally, passed into law in 1883 by the Pendleton Act 50. Credit Mobilier: a French-owned construction company that helped build Union Pacific Railroad. It hoarded millions of from the railroad and the government. They then transferred large amounts of stock to key congressman, and even the VP of Grant's administration. Was the biggest of many scandals that rocked the Grant administration.
51. Compromise of 1877: Grant wanted to run for a third term, but Republicans
resisted, for they were afraid of further scandals. The settled on Hayes. Democrats chose Tilden. Electoral college saw Tilden with 184, one short of victory. There were 20 disputed votes, just enough to get Hayes the presidency. There was a compromise to give Hayes the votes, but he had to remove the remaining federal troops from the south, thus ending reconstruction.
52. Sharecroppers: tenantry took several forms after the Civil War. Farmers who
owned tools, usually paid a cash rent annually for their land. But many farmers had no or tools at all. Landlords would supply then w/land, some tools, and maybe a shack, in return they would promise the owners a large share of the crop. Sharecroppers seldom had anything left to sell to themselves; sharecroppers lives were in many ways as bad as their lives had been under slavery, if not worse;
53. Booker T. Washington: many of the blacks who had climbed the ranks and became rich, stressed the importance of education as the primary reason. Chief Spokesman to this commitment for blacks for blacks was Booker T. Washington. He started Tuskegee Institute for blacks. He urged industrial skills over classical (art) education. He felt that blacks should forgo agitating for social and political rights, and should concentrate on self-improvement and preparation for equality.
54. Atlanta Compromise: in a famous speech in GA, Washington outlined a philosophy of race relations that became widely known as the Atlanta Compromise. He outlined the fact that blacks should engage in activities to improve their economic lot, then they will be given political equality.
55. Jim Crow: after reconstruction, laws restricting franchise (especially for blacks)
and segregating schools were only part of a network of state statutes known as "Jim Crow" laws - that by the first years of the 20th century had reached every area of southern life; system of laws was named for a character that put on racially offensive plays in antebellum period
56. Plessy Vs. Ferguson: (1896) in this case, involving a Louisiana law that required separate seating arrangements for races on railroads, the court ruled that separate accommodations did not deprive blacks of equal rights if accommodations were equal. A decision that lasted for years as the legal basis for segregating schools and all other aspects of southern society; overturned in 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
57. Literacy Tests: two devices emerged before 1900 to disenfranchise blacks in the
south. One was the Poll Tax. The other was the "literacy” or “understanding" test which required voters to demonstrate ability to read and interpret the constitution. Grandfather clauses were also, used to deprive blacks of the right to vote.