Manifest Destiny Key Terms - Honours US History

Sam Houston

(March 2, 1793 - July 26, 1863) was an American politician and soldier, best known for his role in bringing Texas into the United States as a constituent state.

John Tyler

(March 29, 1790 - January 18, 1862) was the tenth President of the United States (1841-45). He was also, briefly, the tenth Vice President (1841), elected to that office on the 1840 Whig ticket with William Henry Harrison.

John O'Sullivan

(November 15, 1813 - March 24, 1895) was an American columnist and editor who used the term "manifest destiny" in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Country to the United States.

Zachary Taylor

(November 24, 1784 - July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general.

Joint resolution

(in the US Congress) a resolution passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Know-Nothing party

(initial capital letters) U.S. History. a member of a political party (American party or Know-Nothing party) prominent from 1853 to 1856, whose aim was to keep control of the government in the hands of native-born citizens: so called because members originally professed ignorance of the party's activities.

Nativist

1. A policy of favoring native inhabitants as opposed to immigrants. 2 : the revival or perpetuation of an indigenous culture especially in opposition to acculturation. A person who, especially in the United States in the 19th century, favors the interests of established inhabitants over those of immigrants.

Great Awakening II

A Protestant religious revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800 and, after 1820, membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement.

Martin Van Buren

A U.S. Senator and governor of New York, and one of the founders of the Democratic Party. Under Andrew Jackson, Van Buren served as Secretary of State, Minister to England and Vice President. Shortly after Van Buren took office a financial panic in 1837 forced several bank closures.

Remember the Alamo

A battle cry in which the bitterness of the Texans over the massacres by Mexican forces at the Alamo in San Antonio (6 March 1836) and at Goliad(27 March 1836) found expression.

Irish potato famine

A famine in Ireland in the nineteenth century caused by the failure of successive potato crops in the 1840s. Many in Ireland starved, and many emigrated. More than a million Irish came to the United States during the famine.

Spinning Jenny

A machine for spinning with more than one spindle at a time, patented by James Hargreaves in 1770.

Mormons

A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a religion founded in the US in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr.

Hudson River School

A mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism.

Abolitionist

A person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or (formerly) slavery.

James K. Polk

A political leader of the nineteenth century; Polk, a Democrat, was president from 1845 to 1849. An ardent believer in manifest destiny, he led the United States into the Mexican War.

Tallmadge Amendment

A proposed amendment to a bill requesting the Territory of Missouri to be admitted to the Union as a free state. This amendment was submitted on February 13, 1819, by James Tallmadge, Jr., a Democratic-Republican from New York, and Charles Baumgardner.

Free-Soil party

A short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. Founded in Buffalo, New York, it was a third party and a single-issue party that largely appealed to and drew its greatest strength from New York State.

Telegraph

A system for transmitting messages from a distance along a wire, especially one creating signals by making and breaking an electrical connection.

Market revolution

A term used by historians to describe the expansion of the marketplace that occurred in early nineteenth-century America, prompted mainly by the construction of new roads and canals to connect distant communities together for the first time.

Oregon Treaty

A treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States that was signed on June 15, 1846, in Washington, D.C.

Mexican-American War

A war fought between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. The United States won the war, encouraged by the feelings of many Americans that the country was accomplishing its manifest destiny of expansion.

Temperance

Abstinence from alcoholic drink.

Gadsden Purchase

Also known as a treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico.

Whig party

An American political party formed in the 1830s to oppose President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats. Whigs stood for protective tariffs, national banking, and federal aid for internal improvements.

Transcendentalism

An idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures.

Dark horse candidate

An unexpected winner. In politics, a dark horse is a candidate for office considered unlikely to receive his or her party's nomination, but who might be nominated if party leaders cannot agree on a better candidate.

Erie Canal

Canal in New York that is part of the east-west, cross-state route of the New York State Canal System. Originally, it ran about 363 miles from Albany, on the Hudson River, to Buffalo, at Lake Erie.

Lone Star Republic

Chamber of Commerce, Huntsville, TX. ... At the time Spain granted independence to Mexico in 1821, the land now comprising the state of Texas was very sparsely populated. The Mexican government actually encouraged the settlement of the area by American pioneers.

Battle of San Jacinto

Fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican army in a fight that lasted just 18 minutes.

Bear Flag revolt

From June to July 1846, a small group of American settlers in California rebelled against the Mexican government and proclaimed California an independent republic.

Wilmot Proviso

Issued on August 8th, 1846 by Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman David Wilmot. It prohibited the expansion of slavery into any territory acquired by the United States from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War settlement.

Steel plow

It was used for farming to break up tough soil without soil getting stuck to it. When was it invented or first used? John Deere invented the steel plow in 1837 when the Middle-West was being settled. The soil was different than that of the East and wood plows kept breaking.

Santa Anna

Mexican general who tried to crush the Texas revolt and who lost battles to Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War (1795-1876)

Franklin Pierce

November 23, 1804 - October 8, 1869) was the 14th President of the United States (1853-57). Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Officially entitled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, is the peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Interchangable parts

Parts (components) that are, for practical purposes, identical. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any assembly of the same type. One such part can freely replace another, without any custom fitting (such as filing).

54'40 or Fight

Polk called for expansion that included Texas, California, and the entire Oregon territory. The northern boundary of Oregon was the latitude line of 54 degrees, 40 minutes. "Fifty-four forty or fight!" was the popular slogan that led Polk to victory against all odds.

California Gold Rush

(1848-1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. 1849 (San Francisco 49ers) Gold discovered in California attracted a rush of people all over the country and world to San Francisco; arrival of the Chinese; increased pressure on fed gov. to establish a stable gov. in CA

Eli Whitney

(December 8, 1765 - January 8, 1825) was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Invented the cotton gin

John C. Fremont

(January 21, 1813 - July 13, 1890) was an American military officer, explorer, and politician who became the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States.

Mexican Cession

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. • Mexican War. Definition: Area of the present-day United States that Mexico agreed to give up as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War

Manifest destiny

The 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Webster-Ashburn treaty

Signed August 9, 1842, was a treaty resolving several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies (i.e. the region that became Canada).

Annexation

The action of annexing something, especially territory. (Taking over, invasion)

John Calhoun

The leading southern politician of the early nineteenth century; he served as vice president under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson and then was elected senator from South Carolina. Calhoun championed slavery and states' rights.

Spot Resolution

The resolutions requested President James K. Polk to provide Congress with the exact location (the "spot") upon which blood was spilt on American soil, as Polk had claimed in 1846 when asking Congress to declare war on Mexico.

Oregon Trail

The route over which settlers traveled to Oregon in the 1840s and 1850s; trails branched off from it toward Utah and California. The Oregon Trail passed through what is now Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho.

Walker Tariff of 1846

Was a successful attempt by President James Polk to lower Federal tariff rates to help the economy and trade in Southern states. It was one of many political battles that occurred in the lead-up to the American Civil War.

Seneca Falls Convention

Was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman". Held in Seneca Falls, New York, it spanned two days over July 19-20, 1848.