APUSH Full Year
868. Mississippi Plan
1890 - In order to vote in Mississippi, citizens had to display the receipt which proved they had paid the poll tax and pass a literacy test by reading and interpreting a selection from the Constitution. Prevented blacks, who were generally poor and uneducated, from voting.
899. Battle of Wounded Knee
1890 - The Sioux, convinced they had been made invincible by magic, were massacred by troops at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
913. Repeal of Serman's Silver Purchase Act
1893 - Act repealed by President Cleveland to protect gold reserves.
772. E.C. Knight Company case
1895 - The Supreme Court ruled that since the Knight Company's monopoly over the production of sugar had no direct effect on commerce, the company couldn't be controlled by the government. It also ruled that mining and manufacturing weren't affected by interstate commerce laws and were beyond the regulatory power of Congress.
1418. Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.
1470. Domino Theory
1957 - It stated that if one country fell to Communism, it would undermine another and that one would fall, producing a domino effect.
933. Pollock v. Farmer's Loan and Trust Company
1895 - The court ruled the income could not be taxed. In response, Congress passed the 16th Amendment which specifically allows taxation of income (ratified 1913).
1402. Landrum-Griffin Act
1959 - Specially tailored to make labor officials responsible for the union's financial affairs, to prevent bully-boy tactics, ensure democratic voting practices within unions, outlaw secondary boycotts, and restrict picketing.
42. Charleston
1690 - The first permanent settlement in the Carolinas, named in honor of King Charles II. Much of the population were Huguenot (French Protestant) refugees.
682. Secretary of State William Seward
1867 - An eager expansionist, he was the energetic supporter of the Alaskan purchase and negotiator of the deal often called "Seward's Folly" because Alaska was not fit for settlement or farming.
927. Gold Standard Act
1900 - This was signed by McKinley. It stated that all paper money would be backed only by gold. This meant that the government had to hold gold in reserve in case people decided they wanted to trade in their money. Eliminated silver coins, but allowed paper Silver Certificates issued under the Bland-Allison Act to continue to circulate.
1214. Federal Housing Authorities (FHA)
1934 - Created by Congress to insure long-term, low-interest mortgages for home construction and repair.
929. Supreme Court: Legal Tender cases
1870, 1871 - A series of cases that challenged whether the paper "greenbacks" issued during the Civil War constituted legal tender, i.e., whether they were valid currency. The Supreme Court declared that greenbacks were not legal tender and their issuance had bee unconstitutional.
1554. Warren E. Burger Appointed, 1969
A conservative appointed by Nixon, he filled Earl Warren's liberal spot.
264. Sec. of State Jefferson
A leading Democratic-Republican, he opposed Hamilton's ideas. Washington tended to side with Hamilton, so Jefferson resigned.
1376. Baby Boom
30 million war babies were born between 1942 and 1950.
1495. United Nations in the Congo, 1960
A Black uprising against the Belgian colonial government in the Congo became increasingly violent with White settlers being raped and butchered. The U.N. sent in troops to try to prevent civil war.
863. Alice Paul
A suffragette who believed that giving women the right to vote would eliminate the corruption in politics.
577. Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, Virginia
An iron mill in Richmond. It was run by skilled slave labor and was among the best iron foundry in the nation. It kept the Confederacy alive until 1863 as its only supplier of cannons. It was also the major munitions supplier of the South and was directly responsible for the capitol of the Confederacy being moved to Richmond.
921. "Sockless" Jerry Simpson
A rural reformer who ran against Mary Lease in the Populist Part election in Kansas.
1116. Inflation during WW I
Caused by increased taxes and the government borrowing money directly from citizens.
1205. Hugh Johnson
Director of the NRA.
291. Doctrine of Nullification
Expressed in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, it said that states could nullify federal laws.
607. "Beecher's Bibles"
During the Kansas border war, the New England Emigrant Aid Society sent rifles at the instigation of fervid abolitionists like the preacher Henry Beecher. These rifles became known as "Beecher's Bibles".
824. Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)
Evangelist who preached the social gospel.
527. Stephen Kearny
Commander of the Army of the West in the Mexican War, marched all the way to California, securing New Mexico.
1537. Senator George M. McGovern
Democratic nominee for the 1972 election, from South Dakota. Somewhat of a radical, many voters thought he was a hippie and too supportive of women and militant Blacks. Ran an unsuccessful campaign, hampered by lack of funds.
807. Chinese Exclusion Law 1882
Denied citizenship to Chinese in the U.S. and forbid further immigration of Chinese. Supported by American workers who worried about losing their jobs to Chinese immagrants who would work for less pay.
946. Assistant Secretary of Navy Theodore Roosevelt
In charge of the navy when the Maine crisis occurred, he had rebuilt the navy and tried to start a war with Cuba.
797. "Honest Graft"
Justified bribery or cheating.
1496. "Flexible Response"
Kennedy abandoned Eisenhower's theory of massive nuclear war in favor of a military that could respond flexibly to any situation at any time, in different ways.
1103. Versailles Delegation
Led by Wilson, it fought for the inclusion of the 14 Points. Only one to be included was the League of Nations.
381. George Canning (1770-1829)
Led the House of Commons in Parliament. Cut Great Britain from the Holy Alliance in 1823. First leader to recognize the independence of the Spanish colonies in America and support the Monroe Doctrine, which helped restore good relations between the U.S. and Great Britain.
822. Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1889)
Minister who worked against slavery in Kansas Border War, promoted civil service reform.
700. Mississippi v. Johnson
Mississippi wanted the president to stop enforcing the Reconstruction Acts because they were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court decided that the Acts were constitutional and the states must obey them.
557. Samuel F.B. Morse, telegraph
Morse developed a working telegraph which improved communications.
1156. Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959)
Motion picture producer and director, he was famous for Biblical films and epic movies.
1198. Emergency Banking Relief Act, 1933
March 6, 1933 - FDR ordered a bank holiday. Many banks were failing because they had too little capital, made too many planning errors, and had poor management. The Emergency Banking Relief Act provided for government inspection, which restored public confidence in the banks.
1474. My Lai, Lt. Calley
March, 1968 - An American unit destroyed the village of My Lai, killing many women and children. The incident was not revealed to the public until 20 months later. Lt. Calley, who led the patrol, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years for killing 20 people.
1374. Extension of OPA vetoed
OPA had controlled wartime prices and a watered-down version was approved by Congress to stay in effect after the war, but Truman vetoed it.
1032. Tom Johnson, Sam (Golden Rule) Jones, Brand Witlock, Hazen Pingree
Mayors for social reform, they wanted a reform of values over more legislation.
948. Cleveland and Hawaii
President Cleveland did not want to forcibly annex Hawaii, so he waited five years to do so. McKinley finally did it. Cleveland felt the annexation overstepped the federal government's power.
966. Election of 1900: candidates, issues
Republican, William McKinley defeated Democrate, Williams Bryan. The issue was imperialism.
1393. Election of 1952: candidates & issues
Republicans - Eisenhower/Nixon, Democrats - Adlai Stevenson, Issues were conservatism and containment of Communism. Republicans won by a landslide.
1456. White Backlash
Resistance to Black demands led by "law and order" advocates whose real purpose was to oppose integration.
663. Black codes
Restrictions on the freedom of former slaves, passed by Southern governments.
811. John A. Roebling (1806-1869), Brooklyn Bridge
Roebling pioneered the development of suspension bridges and designed the Brooklyn Bridge, but died before its construction was completed.
475. Public education, Horace Mann
Secretary of the newly formed Massachusetts Board of Education, he created a public school system in Massachusetts that became the model for the nation. Started the first American public schools, using European schools (Prussian military schools) as models.
1038. Uncle Joe Cannon (1836-1926), Old Guard
Speaker of the House, he could make or break legislation form 1903 to 1910. He represented the Old Guard, which controlled Congress, and his arbitrary tactics led to the adoption of resolutions in 1910 limiting the power of the Speaker.
449. Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby Dick
Wrote Moby Dick (1851) about a Captain Ahab who seeks revenge on the white whale that crippled him but ends up losing his life, his ship, and his crew. Wasn't popular at the time but now highly regarded. Melville rejected the optimism of the transcendentalists and felt that man faced a tragic destiny. His views were not popular at the time, but were accepted by later generations.
771. Sherman Antitrust Act
1890 - A federal law that committed the American government to opposing monopolies, it prohibits contracts, combinations and conspiracies in restraint of trade.
907. Serman Silver Purchase Act
1890 - Directed the Treasury to buy even larger amounts of silver that the Bland-Allison Act and at inflated prices. The introduction of large quantities of overvalued silver into the ecomony lead to a run on the ferderal gold reserves, leading to the Panic of 1893. Repealed in 1893.
1378. Taft-Hartley Act
1947 - Senator Robert A. Taft co-authored the labor-Management Relations Act with new Jersey Congressman Fred Allan Hartley, Jr. The act amended the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 and imposed certain restrictions of the money and power of labor unions, including a prohibition against mandatory closed shops.
979. "Colossus of the North"
1906 - Relations between U.S. and Canada including a reciprocal trade agreement. Tight relations made the U.S. and Canada a "Colossus."
985. Great White Fleet
1907-1909 - Roosevelt sent the Navy on a world tour to show the world the U.S. naval power. Also to pressure Japan into the "Gentlemen's Agreement."
886. Springfield, Illinois riot
1908 - A riot broke out between blacks and whites over racial equality.
986. Root-Takahira Agreement
1908 - Japan / U.S. agreement in which both nations agreed to respect each other's territories in the Pacific and to uphold the Open Door policy in China.
1183. London Naval Conference
1909 - International Naval Conference held in London to adopt an international code of conduct for naval warfare.
1067. Virgin Islands Purchased
1917 - U.S. bought them from Denmark and built a naval base to protect the Panama Canal and to prevent Germany's seizure of islands during WWI.
1075. Archangel Expedition
1917 - U.S. sent troops to the Soviet cities of Murmansk and Archangel to reinforce White Russians (non-Communists). The U.S. troops did not fight Communists, but instead defended the ports.
1219. Indian Reorganization Act
1934 - Restored tribal ownership of lands, recognized tribal constitutions and government, and provided loans for economic development.
1438. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
1941-42 - Interracial until 1962, when it became predominately Black, after 1964, only Blacks were allowed to join. It concentrated on organizing votes for Black candidates and political causes, successful even in states like Mississippi and Alabama.
1400. Interstate Highways Act
1944 - Began federal funding for an interstate highway system.
1509. Elementary and Secondary Act
1965 - Provided federal funding for primary and secondary education and was meant to improve the education of poor people. This was the first federal program to fund education.
1520. Governor George Wallace of Alabama
1968 - Ran as the American Independent Party candidate in the presidential election. A right- wing racist, he appealed to the people's fear of big government and made a good showing.
1577. Iranian Crisis, the Shah, the Ayatollah Khomeini
1978 - a popular uprising forced the Shah to flee Iran and a Muslim and national leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, established an Islamic Republic based on the Koran. President Carter allowed the Shah to come to the U.S. for medical reasons. Young Iranian militants broke into the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and kept the staff hostage for 444 days, releasing them January, 1981.
1583. Three Mile Island
1979 - A mechanical failure and a human error at this power plant in Pennsylvania combined to permit an escape of radiation over a 16 mile radius.
23. Harvard founded
1636 - Founded by a grant form the Massachusetts general court. Followed Puritan beliefs.
47. Frame of government
1701 - The Charter of Liberties set up the government for the Pennsylvania colony. It established representative government and allowed counties to form their own colonies.
38. Georgia: reasons, successes
1733 - Georgia was formed as a buffer between the Carolinas and Spanish-held Florida. It was a military-style colony, but also served as a haven for the poor, criminals, and persecuted Protestants.
378. Purchase of Florida
1819 - Under the Adams-Onis Treaty, Spain sold Florida to the U.S., and the U.S. gave up its claims to Texas.
497. Supreme Court: Cohens v. Virginia
1821 - This case upheld the Supreme Court's jurisdiction to review a state court's decision where the case involved breaking federal laws.
382. Monroe Doctrine: origins, provisions, impact
1823 - Declared that Europe should not interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere and that any attempt at interference by a European power would be seen as a threat to the U.S. It also declared that a New World colony which has gained independence may not be recolonized by Europe. (It was written at a time when many South American nations were gaining independence). Only England, in particular George Canning, supported the Monroe Doctrine. Mostly just a show of nationalism, the doctrine had no major impact until later in the 1800s.
894. Indian Appropriations Act
1851 - The U.S. government reorganized Indian land and moved the Indians onto reservations.
687. Treaty of Washington
1871 - Settled the Northern claims between the U.S. and Great Britain. Canada gave the U.S. permanent fishing rights to the St. Lawrence River.
841. Edward Bellamy, Looking Backwards, 2000-1887
1888 - Utopian novel which predicted the U.S. woudl become a socialist state in which the government would own and oversee the means of production and would unite all people under moral laws.
484. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
A pioneer in the women's suffrage movement, she helped organize the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. She later helped edit the militant feminist magazine Revolution from 1868 - 1870.
1445. H. Rap Brown
A proponent of Black Power, he succeeded Stokely Carmichael as head of SNCC. He was indicted by inciting riot and for arson.
440. Tariff of 1842
A protective tariff signed by President John Tyler, it raised the general level of duties to about where they had been before the Compromise Tariff of 1833. Also banned pornography by increasing its cost.
1216. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Senator Norris
A public corporation headed by a 3-member board. The TVA built 20 dams, conducted demonstration projects for farmers, and engaged in reforestation to rehabilitate the area.
665. Thaddeus Stevens
A radical Republican who believed in harsh punishments for the South. Leader of the radical Republicans in Congress.
872. Slaughterhouse cases
A series of post-Civil War Supreme Court cases containing the first judicial pronouncements on the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. The Court held that these amendments had been adopted solely to protect the rights of freed blacks, and could not be extended to guarantee the civil rights of other citizens against deprivations of due process by state governments. These rulings were disapproved by later decisions.
506. Senator Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858)
A zealous supporter of western interests, he staunchly advocated government support of frontier exploration during his term in the Senate from 1820 - 1850. A senator from Missouri, but he opposed slavery.
1095. AEF
American Expeditionary Force was the first American ground troops to reach the European front. Commanded by Pershing, they began arriving in France in the summer of 1917.
1389. Alger Hiss
A former State Department official who was accused of being a Communist spy and was convicted of perjury. The case was prosecuted by Richard Nixon.
594. Harriet Tubman (1821-1913)
A former escaped slave, she was one of the shrewdest conductors of the underground railroad, leading 300 slaves to freedom.
1567. Amnesty
A general pardon by which the government absolves offenders, President Carter offered amnesty of Americans who had fled to other countries to avoid the draft for the Vietnam War.
1056. Federal Trade Commission, Cease and Desist Orders
A government agency established in 1914 to prevent unfair business practices and help maintain a competitive economy.
393. Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
A great American orator. He gave several important speeches, first as a lawyer, then as a Congressman. He was a major representative of the North in pre-Civil War Senate debates, just as Sen. John C. Calhoun was the representative of the South in that time.
1502. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Formed in 1962 in Port Huron, Michigan, SDS condemned anti-Democratic tendencies of large corporations, racism and poverty, and called for a participatory Democracy.
1436. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Founded in 1909 to improve living conditions for inner city Blacks, evolved into a national organization dedicated to establishing equal legal rights for Blacks.
1203. National Industrial Recovery Administration (NIRA)
Founded in 1933 to carry out the plans of the National Industry Recovery Act to fight depression. It established code authorities for each branch of industry or buisness. The code authorities set the lowest prices that could be charged, the lowest wages that could be paid, and the standards of quality that must be observed.
845. Nouveau riche
French for "new rich." Refered to people who had become rich through business rather than through having been born into a rich family. The nouveau riche made up much of the American upper classof the late 1800s.
1466. Geneva Conference, 1954
French wanted out of Vietnam , the agreement signed by Ho Chi Minh France divided Vietnam on the 17th parallel, confining Minh's government to the North. In the South, an independent government was headed by Diem.
902. Frederick Jackson Turner, Frontier Thesis
American historian who said that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into. The frontier provided a place for homeless and solved social problems.
459. Charles G. Finney (1792-1875)
An immensely successful revivalist of the 1800's. He helped establish the "Oberlin Theology". His emphasis on "disinterested benevolence" helped shape the main charitable enterprises of the time.
823. Rev. Russel Conwell, "Acres of Diamonds"
Baptist preacher whose famous speech said that hard work and thrift would lead to success.
1481. "Impeach Earl Warren"
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren used the Court's authority to support civil rights and individual liberties. He authored Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas and Roe v. Wade decisions. His liberal attitudes led conservative groups to brand him a communist and lobby for his impeachment.
591. Henry Clay (1777-1852)
Clay helped heal the North/South rift by aiding passage of the Compromise of 1850, which served to delay the Civil War.
1443. Medgar Evers
Director of the NAACP in Mississippi and a lawyer who defended accused Blacks, he was murdered in his driveway by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
955. Walter Reed
Discovered that the mosquito transmitted yellow fever and developed a cure. Yellow fever was the leading cause of death of American troops in the Spanish-American War.
778. Collective bargaining
Discussions held between workers and their employers over wages, hours, and conditions.
936. Venezuelan boundary dispute
Dispute between the U.S. and Britain involving the point at which the Venezuela / Columbia border was drawn. Britain eventually won the dispute.
1060. Panama tolls dispute
Dispute over canal toll charge between the U.S. and Panama.
545. Hegemony
Domination or leadership - especially the predominant influence of one state over others. Northern states seemed to be dominating Southern states.
1088. Creel Committee
Headed by George Creel, this committee was in charge of propaganda for WWI (1917-1919). He depicted the U.S. as a champion of justice and liberty.
1237. Father Charles Coughlin
Headed the National Union for Social Justice. Began as a religious radio broadcaster, but turned to politics and finance and attracted an audiance of millions from many faiths. Promoted inflationary currency, anti-sematism.
30. Headright system
Headrights were parcels of land consisting of about 50 acres which were given to colonists who brought indentured servants into America. They were used by the Virginia Company to attract more colonists.
1593. Supreme Court: School District of Abington Township v. Schempp, 1963
Held that it should not be necessary to require prayer be said in school. School district was said to be violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
31. John Smith
Helped found and govern Jamestown. His leadership and strict discipline helped the Virginia colony get through the difficult first winter.
1136. Election of 1928: candidates, personalities, backgrounds
Herbert Hoover, the Republican, was a Quaker from Iowa, orphaned at 10, who worked his way through Stanford University. He expounded nationalism and old values of success through individual hard work. Alfred E. Smith, the Democrat, was a Catholic from New York, of immigration stock and advocated social reform programs.
619. Hinton Helper, The Impending Crisis of the South
Hinton Helper of North Carolina spoke for poor, non-slave-owing Whites in his 1857 book, which as a violent attack on slavery. It wasn't written with sympathy for Blacks, who Helper despised, but with a belief that the economic system of the South was bringing ruin on the small farmer.
1503. "Flower Children"
Hippies who were unified by their rejection of traditional values and assumptions of Western society.
809. Literacy tests
Immigrants were required to pass a literacy test in order to gain citizenship. Many immigrants were uneducated or non-English-speakers, so they could not pass. Meant to discourage immigration.
608. John Brown's Raid
In 1859, the militant abolitionist John Brown seized the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry. He planned to end slavery by massacring slave owners and freeing their slaves. He was captured and executed.
621. John Brown, Harper's Ferry Raid
In 1859, the militant abolitionist John Brown seized the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry. He planned to end slavery by massacring slave owners and freeing their slaves. He was captured and executed.
940. Captain Alfred Thayler Mahan
In 1890, he wrote The Influence of Sea Power upon History. He was a proponent of building a large navy. He said that a new, modern navy was necessary to protect the international trade America depended on.
1417. "Separate but Equal"
In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but supposedly equal facilities for Blacks and Whites were legal.
980. Dominican Republic
In 1905, the U.S. imposed financial restrictions upon this Caribbean nation. Part of making sure Latin America traded with the U.S. and not Europe.
984. Gentlemen's Agreement
In 1907 Theodore Roosevelt arranged with Japan that Japan would voluntarily restrict the emmigration of its nationals to the U.S.
1404. AFL-CIO merger
In 1955 at a New York City Convention, these two once-rival organizations decided to put aside their differences and unite. Had a total membership of over 15 million.
620. Lincoln's "House Divided" speech
In his acceptance speech for his nomination to the Senate in June, 1858, Lincoln paraphrased from the Bible: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." He continued, "I do not believe this government can continue half slave and half free, I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do believe it will cease to be divided."
1200. Gold Clause Act, 1935
It voided any clause in past or future contracts requiring payment in gold. It was enacted to help enforce 1933 legislation discontinuing the gold standard and outlawing circulation of gold coin.
395. Internal improvements
The program for building roads, canals, bridges, and railroads in and between the states. There was a dispute over whether the federal government should fund internal improvements, since it was not specifically given that power by the Constitution.
598. Ostend Manifesto
The recommendation that the U.S. offer Spain $20 million for Cuba. It was not carried through in part because the North feared Cuba would become another slave state.
1357. Brinksmanship
The principle of not backing down in a crisis, even if it meant taking the country to the brink of war. Policy of both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. during the Cold War.
485. Seneca Falls
July, 1848 - Site of the first modern women's right convention. At the gathering, Elizabeth Cady Staton read a Declaration of Sentiment listing the many discriminations against women, and adopted eleven resolutions, one of which called for women's suffrage.
630. South's advantages in the Civil War
Large land areas with long coasts, could afford to lose battles, and could export cotton for money. They were fighting a defensive war and only needed to keep the North out of their states to win. Also had the nation's best military leaders, and most of the existing military equipment and supplies.
798. Boss Tweed
Large political boss and head of Tammany Hall, he controlled New York and believed in "Honest Graft".
1013. Anthracite Coal Strike, 1902, George F. Baer
Large strike by coal miners. Baer led the miner's union at the time.
631. North's advantages in the Civil War
Larger numbers of troops, superior navy, better transportation, overwhelming financial and industrial reserves to create munitions and supplies, which eventually outstripped the South's initial material advantage.
1403. Jimmy Hoffa
Leader of the teamster's union, he was anti-AFL/CIO. He threatened to defeat for reelection an Congressman who dared to vote for a tough labor law.
1104. Big Four: Wilson, George, Clemenceau, Orlando
Leaders of the four most influential countries after World War I - U.S., Britain, France and Italy, respectively.
989. "Muckrakers"
Journalists who searched for and publicized real or alleged acts of corruption of public officials, businessmen, etc. Name coined by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906.
1521. Moon race, Neil Armstrong
July 20, 1969 - Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon, beating the Communists in the moon race and fulfilling Kennedy's goal. Cost $24 billion.
1033. City Manager Plan, Commission Plan
Legislation designed to break up political machines and replace traditional political management of cities with trained professional urban planners and managers.
612. Lecompton Constitution
The pro-slavery constitution suggested for Kansas' admission to the union. It was rejected.
1556. Multinational Corporations
Most were American business firms whose sales, work force, production facilities or other operations were worldwide in scope. They represented the latest development in the continuing growth of corporate organization.
910. Free Silver
Movement for using silver in all aspects of currency. Not adopted because all other countries used a gold standard.
683. Napoleon III
Nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and elected emperor of France from 1852-1870, he invaded Mexico when the Mexican government couldn't repay loans from French bankers. He sent in an army and set up a new government under Maximillian. He refused Lincoln's request that France withdraw. After the Civil War, the U.S. sent an army to enforce the request and Napoleon withdrew.
859. William Randolph Hearst
Newspaper publisher who adopted a sensationalist style. His reporting was partly responsible for igniting the Spanish-American War.
1017. "Trustbuster"
Nicknamed for Teddy Roosevelt, this is a federal official who seeks to dissolve monopolistic trusts through vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws.
1562. Gerald R. Ford
Nixon's vice president after Agnew resigned, he became the only president never to be elected. Taking office after Nixon resigned, he pardoned Nixon for all federal crimes that he "committed or may have committed."
766. Fourteenth Amendment's "Due Process Clause"
No state shall deny a person life, liberty, or property without due process of law. (The accused must have a trial.)
625. John Breckinridge (1821-1875)
Nominated by pro-slavers who had seceded from the Democratic convention, he was strongly for slavery and states' rights.
1553. Cesar Chavez
Non-violent leader of the United Farm Workers from 1963-1970. Organized laborers in California and in the Southwest to strike against fruit and vegetable growers. Unionized Mexican-American farm workers.
916. Populist Party platform, Omaha platform
Offically named the People's Party, but commonly known as the Populist Party, it was founded in 1891 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wrote a platform for the 1892 election (running for president-James Weaver, vice president-James Field) in which they called for free coinage of silver and paper money; national income tax; direct election of senators; regulation of railroads; and other government reforms to help farmers. The part was split between South and West.
1446. Malcom X
One-time pimp and street hustler, converted to a Black Muslim while in prison. At first urged Blacks to seize their freedom by any means necessary, but later changed position and advocated racial harmony. He was assassinated in February, 1965.
810. James Bryce, The American Commonwealth
Opposed the Nativist sentiment and promoted the "melting pot" idea of American culture.
1428. Smith v. Allwright, 1944
Outlawed White primaries held by the Democratic Party, in violation of the 15th Amendment.
1569. Camp David Accords
Peace talks between Egypt and Israel mediated by President Carter.
1535. Election of 1972: candidates, issues
People feared that George S. McGovern, the Democratic candidate, was an isolationist because he promised cuts in defense spending. Richard M. Nixon, the Republican, promised an end to the Vietnam War and won by 60.7% of the popular vote.
781. Boycotts
People refuse to buy a company's product until the company meets demands.
1506. Great Society
Platform for LBJ's campaign, it stressed the 5 P's: Peace, Prosperity, anti-Poverty, Prudence and Progress.
1549. Henry S. Kissinger, "Shuttle Diplomacy"
Policy of this Secretary of State to travel around the world to various nations to discuss and encourage the policy of detente.
848. Edwin Lawrence Godkin (1831-1902), editor of The Nation
Political writer who founded The Nation magazine, which called for reform.
1068. Jones Act, 1916 (Philippine)
Promised Philippine independence. Given freedom in 1917, their economy grew as a satellite of the U.S. Filipino independence was not realized for 30 years.
49. Patron system
Patronships were offered to individuals who managed to build a settlement of at least 50 people within 4 years. Few people were able to accomplish this.
1354. Bricker Amendment
Proposal that international agreements negotiated by the executive branch would become law if and only if they were approved by Congress and didn't conflict with state laws. Isolationist measure, didn't pass.
909. "Coin" Harvey
Proposed a plan for bimettalism with a standard of 16 to 1, with gold worth 16 times as much as silver.
15. Covenant theology
Puritan teachings emphasized the biblical covenants: God's covenants with Adam and with Noah, the covenant of grace between God and man through Christ.
1177. Fordney-McCumber Tariff, 1922
Pushed by Congress in 1922, it raised tariff rates.
949. Queen Liliuokalani
Queen of Hawaii who gave the U.S. naval rights to Pearl Harbor in 1887. Deposed by American settlers in 1893.
961. Secretary of State John Hay, Open Door notes
September, 1899 - Hay sent imperialist nations a note asking them to offer assurance that they would respect the principle of equal trade opportunities, specifically in the China market.
998. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), Women and Economics
She urged women to work outside the home to gain economic independence. Attacked the traditional role of homemaker for women.
1380. Right-to-Work laws
State laws that provide that unions cannot impose a requirement that workers join the union as a condition of their employment.
1096. Selective service 1917
Stated that all men between the ages of 20 and 45 had to be registered for possible military service. Used in case draft became necessary.
1597. Supreme Court: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S., 1964
Supreme Court said that there would be penalties for those who deprived others of equal enjoyment of places of accommodation on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin.
973. Panama Revolution
The Isthmus of Panama had been part of Columbia. U.S. tried to negotiate with Columbia to build the Panama Canal. Columbia refused, so U.S. encouraged Panama to revolt. Example of Big Stick diplomacy.
408. Jacksonian Democracy: characteristics
The Jacksonian era (1829-1841) included many reforms: free public schools, more women's rights, better working conditions in factories, and the rise of the Abolition movement. In the election, Jackson was portrayed as a common man and his opponent, J.Q. Adams, was attacked for his aristocratic principles. Electors in the electorial college were also chosen by popular vote. Common man, nationalism, National Nominating Conventions.
602. Popular Sovereignty
The doctrine that stated that the people of a territory had the right to decide their own laws by voting. In the Kansas-Nebraska Act, popular sovereignty would decide whether a territory allowed slavery.
1043. Manchurian Railroad Scheme
The U.S. planned to build a railroad to transport American products into China. It would have allowed the U.S. to corner the China market.
1212. Works Progress Administration (WPA), Harold Hopkins, Federal Arts Project
The WPA started in May 1935 and was headed by Harold Hopkins. It employed people for 30 hours a week (so it could hire all the unemployed). The Federal Arts Project had unemployed artists painting murals in public buildings; actors, musicians, and dancers performing in poor neighborhood; and writers compiling guide books and local histories.
1083. Unrestricted submarine warfare
This was the German practice of attacking any and all shipping to countries it was at war with. It annoyed neutral countries.
514. Annexation of Texas, Joint Resolution under President Tyler
U.S. made Texas a state in 1845. Joint resolution - both houses of Congress supported annexation under Tyler, and he signed the bill shortly before leaving office.
908. Bimetalism
Use of two metals, gold and silver, for currency as America did with the Bland-Allison Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Ended in 1900 with the enactment of the Gold Standard Act.
1158. Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926), Charlie Chaplin
Valentino, a romantic leading man, was one of the most popular dramatic stars of silent films. Chaplin was a popular star of silent slap-stick comedies.
1368. Alliance for Progress
1961 - Formed by John F. Kennedy to build up Third World nations to the point where they could manage their own affairs.
1498. Alliance for Progress
1961 - Formed by Kennedy to build up third-world nations to the point where they could manage themselves.
1489. Berlin Wall
1961 - The Soviet Union, under Nikita Khrushev, erected a wall between East and West Berlin to keep people from fleeing from the East, after Kennedy asked for an increase in defense funds to counter Soviet aggression.
1523. Betty Frieden, The Feminine Mystique
1963 - Depicted how difficult a woman's life is because she doesn't think about herself, only her family. It said that middle-class society stifled women and didn't let them use their talents. Attacked the "cult of domesticity."
1452. Twenty-Fourth Amendment
1964 - It outlawed taxing voters, i.e. poll taxes, at presidential or congressional elections, as an effort to remove barriers to Black voters.
1482. Miranda Decision, Escobedo Decision
1964 - Miranda held that a person arrested for a crime must be advised of his right to remain silent and to have an attorney before being questioned by the police. Escobedo held that an accused can reassert these rights at any time, even if he had previously agreed to talk to the police.
1501. Panama Canal treaties
1978 - Passed by President Carter, these called for the gradual return of the Panama Canal to the people and government of Panama. They provided for the transfer of canal ownership to Panama in 1999 and guaranteed its neutrality.
1568. Panama Canal Treaty
1978 - Passed by President Carter, these called for the gradual return of the Panama Canal to the people and government of Panama. They provided for the transfer of canal ownership to Panama in 1999 and guaranteed its neutrality.
1471. Tet Offensive
1968, during Tet, the Vietnam lunar new year - Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army raiding forces attacked provincial capitals throughout Vietnam, even seizing the U.S. embassy for a time. U.S. opinion began turning against the war.
779. Injunction
A judicial order forcing a person or group to refrain from doing something.
1379. Senator Robert A. Taft
A key Republican leader in the Senate and a supporter of Joseph McCarthy.
263. Sec. of the Treasury Hamilton
A leading Federalist, he supported industry and strong central government. He created the National Bank and managed to pay off the U.S.'s early debts through tariffs and the excise tax on whiskey.
953. American Anti-Imperialist League
A league containing anti-imperialist groups; it was never strong due to differences on domestic issues. Isolationists.
783. Black list
A list of people who had done some misdeed and were disliked by business. They were refused jobs and harassed by unions and businesses.
487. Catherine Beecher (1800-1878)
A writer and lecturer, she worked on behalf of household arts and education of the young. She established two schools for women and emphasized better teacher training. She opposed women's suffrage.
1399. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW)
Created by Republican Congress members under Ms. Overta Culp Hobby of Texas. Regulated through committees.
1423. Civil Rights Act, 1957
Created by the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights and the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department.
1519. Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy"
His political strategy of "courting" the South and bad-mouthing those Northerners who bad- mouthed the South. He chose Spiro Agnew, the Governor of Maryland, as his running mate to get the Southern vote.
21. Saybrook Platform
It organized town churches into county associations which sent delegates to the annual assembly which governed the colony of Connecticut.
689. Election of 1872: Liberal Republicans, Horace Greeley
Liberal Republicans sought honest government and nominated Greeley as their candidate. The Democratic Party had also chosen Greeley. Regular Republicans renominated Grant. The Republicans controlled enough Black votes to gain victory for Grant.
641.Copperheads
Lincoln believed that anti-war Northern Democrats harbored traitorous ideas and he labeled them "Copperheads", poisonous snakes waiting to get him.
965. Most Favored Nation Clause
Part of RTA Act in 1834, allowed a nation to make a special agreement with another nation and give them a preferential low tariff rate.
785. Company unions
People working for a particular company would gather and as a unit demand better wages, working conditions and hours.
1516. Election of 1968: candidates, issues
Richard M. Nixon, Republican, won by a 1% margin against Hubert Humphrey, Democrat. The issues were the war in Vietnam and urban crisis of law and order.
629. Border states
States bordering the North: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. They were slave states, but did not secede.
774. William Sylvis
Leader of the National Labor Union.
1571. Palestinian Liberation Front (PLO), Yassar Arafat
Led by Arafat, it was organized to liberate Palestine from Israelis in the late '70's and early '80's. Its guerilla warfare and terrorist tactics were not effective.
991. Thorstien Velben, The Theory of the Leisure Class
An economist, he believed that society was always evolving, but not that the wealthiest members of society were the "fittest." Attacked the behavior of the wealthy. Muckraker novel.
1118. Brief depression, 1920-1921
Two years after WW I, prices went up and consumers stopped buying. Unemployment rose from 2% to 12% and industry and export trade halted.
496. Supreme Court: McCulloch v. Maryland
1819 - This decision upheld the power of Congress to charter a bank as a government agency, and denied the state the power to tax that agency.
1233. Revenue Act
1935 - Increased income taxes on higher incomes and also increased inheritance, large gft, and capital gains taxes.
1530. "Revenue Sharing"
1972 - A Nixon program that returned federal funds to the states to use as they saw fit.
1137. Bruce Barton, The Man Nobody Knows, 1925
Advertising executive Barton called Jesus the "founder of modern business" because he picked men up from the bottom ranks and built a successful empire.
1049. Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life
Editor who wrote The Promise of American Life about government authority being used to balance economic activity. This was the basis for Theodore Roosevelt's "New Nationalism."
1058. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)
Served as Secretary of State under Wilson from 1913-1915, he resigned in protest of U.S. involvement in WW I.
20. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Set up a unified government for the towns of the Connecticut area (Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield). First constitution written in America.
882. Jim Crow laws
State laws which created a racial caste system in the South. They included the laws which prevented blacks from voting and those which created segregated facilities.
661. Conquered territory theory
Stated that conquered Southern states weren't part of the Union, but were instead conquered territory, which the North could deal with however they like.
1500. Salvador Allende
President of Chile from 1970 to 1973, a member of the Socialist Party, he attempted to institute a number of democratic reforms in Chilean politics. He was overthrown and assassinated in 1973 during a military coup lead by General Augusto Pinochet.
891. Oliver H. Kelley
Worked in the Department of Agriculture and lead the Granger Movement.
290. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
Written anonymously by Jefferson and Madison in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, they declared that states could nullify federal laws that the states considered unconstitutional.
376. West Florida, 1810
The U.S. wanted this region, which now forms the southern parts of the states of Alabama and Mississippi, because it bordered the Mississippi River. The U.S. seized West Florida after an uprising by American settlers in the region.
1576. Olympic Boycott, 1980
The U.S. withdrew from the competition held in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. About 64 other nations withdrew for this and other reasons.
461. Brigham Young, Great Salt Lake, Utah
1847 - Brigham Young let the Mormons to the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah, where they founded the Mormon republic of Deseret. Believed in polygamy and strong social order. Others feared that the Mormons would act as a block, politically and economically.
942. Virginius
1873 - Spain and U.S. government got into a squabble over the Cuban-owned Virginius, which had been running guns. Spain executed several Americans who had been on board. The telegraph was used to negotiate a truce. The incident was played up by the yellow journalists.
930. Supreme Court: Minor v. Happensett
1875 - Limited the right to vote to men.
897. Battle of the Little Big Horn
1876 - General Custer and his men were wiped out by a coalition of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
767. Munn v. Illinois
1877 - The Supreme Court ruled that an Illinois law that put a ceiling on warehousing rates for grain was a constitutional exercise of the state's power to regulate business. It said that the Interstate Commerce Commission could regulate prices.
1373. Office of War mobilization and Reconversion
1944 - Directed by James F. Byrnes. Determined whether any prime contract for war production scheduled for termination after WWII should be continued in force.
1407. National Defense Education Act (NDEA Act)
1958 - This created a multi-million dollar loan fund for college students and granted money to states for upgrading curriculum in the sciences and foreign languages.
1531. Wage and price controls
1971 - To curb inflation, President Nixon froze prices, wages, and revenues for 90 days.
2. William Bradford
A Pilgrim, the second governor of the Plymouth colony, 1621-1657. He developed private land ownership and helped colonists get out of debt. He helped the colony survive droughts, crop failures, and Indian attacks.
864. Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
A group of women who advocated total abstinence from alcohol and who worked to get laws passed against alcohol.
1109. Mandate system
A half-way system between outright imperial domination and independence, it was used to split Germany's empire after WW I.
1062. Louis Brandeis (1856-1941), "Brandeis Brief"
A lawyer and jurist, he created the "Brandeis Brief," which succinctly outlines the facts of the case and cites legal precedents, in order to persuade the judge to make a certain ruling.
922. Ignatius Donnely
A leader of the Populist Party in Minnesota.
917. Tom Watson
A leader of the Populist Party in the South.
994. Frank Norris (1870-1902), The Octopus
A leader of the naturalism movement in literature, he believed that a novel should serve a moral purpose. Wrote The Octopus in 1901 about how railroads controlled the lives of a group of California farmers. A muckraker novel.
452. Washington Irving (1783-1859)
Author, diplomat. Wrote The Sketch Book, which included "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." He was the first American to be recognized in England (and elsewhere) as a writer.
696. Blanche K. Bruce
Became a senator in 1874 -- the only black to be elected to a full term until Edward Brooke in 1966.
974. Panama Canal
Buit to make passage between Atlantic and Pacific oceans easier and faster.
1080. British blockade
Declared a loose, ineffectual and hence illegal blockade, it defined a broad list of contraband which was not to be shipped to Germany by neutral countries.
294. Jefferson's Inaugural Address
Declared that he would avoid foreign alliances.
587. Anthony Burns (1834-1862)
A slave who fled from Virginia to Boston in 1854. Attempts to return him led to unrest in Boston. He was successfully returned at a cost $100,000. He was bought a few months later by a Boston group intent on setting him free.
407. Age of the Common Man
Jackson's presidency was the called the Age of the Common Man. He felt that government should be run by common people - a democracy based on self-sufficient middle class with ideas formed by liberal education and a free press. All white men could now vote, and the increased voting rights allowed Jackson to be elected.
609. Pottawatomie Massacre
John Brown let a part of six in Kansas that killed 5 pro-slavery men. This helped make the Kansas border war a national issue.
1165. Twenty-One Demands
Name for Japan's demands to the U.S., including its threat to close China to European and American trade. Resolved by the 1917 Lansing-Ishii Agreement, a treaty which tried to settle differences between the U.S. and Japan.
1552. Chicanos
Name given to Mexican-Americans, who in 1970, were the majority of migrant farm labor in the U.S.
1059. Arbitration Treaties
Negotiated by U.S. using arbitration, the mediation of a dispute, Taft promoted these agreements as an alternative to war in Latin America and Asia.
252. Opponents of the Constitution
Known as Antifederalists, they were mostly commoners who were afraid of strong central government and being taken advantage of. They included Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams.
812. Louis Sullivan (1856-1914)
Known as the father of the skyscraper because he designed the first steel-skeleton skyscraper. Mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright.
553. Ten-Hour Movement
Labor unions advocated a 10-hour workday. Previously workers had worked from sun up to sundown.
1091. Bernard Baruch
Millionaire, he headed the War Industries Board after 1918.
652. Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan
Former Confederate states would be readmitted to the Union if 10% of their citizens took a loyalty oath and the state agreed to ratify the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery. Not put into effect because Lincoln was assassinated.
428. Clay: Compromise Tariff of 1833
Henry Clay devised the Compromise Tariff of 1833 which gradually reduced the rates levied under the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. It caused South Carolina to withdraw the ordinance nullifying the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. Both protectionists and anti-protectionists accepted the compromise.
260. President George Washington
He established many of the presidential traditions, including limiting a president's tenure to two terms. He was against political parties and strove for political balance in government by appointing political adversaries to government positions.
1437. Urban League
Helping Blacks to find jobs and homes, it was founded in 1966 and was a social service agency providing facts about discrimination.
9. Separatists, non-separatists
Non-separatists (which included the Puritans) believed that the Church of England could be purified through reforms. Separatists (which included the Pilgrims) believed that the Church of England could not be reformed, and so started their own congregations.
269. Bank of the U.S.
Part of Hamilton's Plan, it would save the government's surplus money until it was needed.
904. Comstock Lode
Rich deposits of silver found in Nevada in 1859.
669. General Oliver O. Howard
Service as director of the Freedmen's Bureau.
1045. Taft-Roosevelt split
They split over idealogy. Roosevelt believed in breaking up "bad" trusts while allowing "good" trusts to continue. Taft opposed all trusts. Roosevelt wanted more involvement in foreign affairs, and Taft was an isolationist. Roosevelt ran against Taft in 1912.
517. Election of 1844: Third party's impact
Third party's impact was significant. James G. Birney drew enough votes away from Clay to give Polk New York, and thus the election.
1027. Wisconsin, "Laboratory of Democracy"
Wisconsin was called the "Laboratory of Democracy" because many of the reform ideas of the Progressive era came out of Wisconsin, specifically from Robert M. LaFollette.
610. New England Emigrant Aid Company
Promoted anti-slavery migration to Kansas. The movement encouraged 2600 people to move.
969. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
1850 - Treaty between U.S. and Great Britain agreeing that neither country would try to obtain exclusive rights to a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Abrogated by the U.S. in 1881.
1061. Colonel House
He was openly pro-British and was sent to Europe by Wilson to mediate. He would tolerate no interference in matters of foreign policy.
1559. Balance of Trade
1973 - U.S. tried to balance its trade to make American goods cost less for foreigners, in order to encourage them to buy more American products. Resulted in a devalued dollar.
1574. Department of Education
1977 - Carter added it to the Cabinet to acknowledge the changing role of the federal government in education.
1573. Department of Energy
1977 - Carter added it to the Cabinet to acknowledge the importance of energy conservation.
254. Sam Adams
He was opposed to the Constitution until the Bill of Rights was added, and then he supported it.
265. Sec. of War Knox
A Revolutionary War hero, Henry Knox had served as Secretary of War under the Articles of Confederation, and stayed on in that capacity as part of Washington's cabinet.
918. James B. Weaver
He was the Populist candidate for president in the election of 1892; received only 8.2% of the vote. He was from the West.
493. Supreme Court: Fletcher v. Peck
1810 - A state had tried to revoke a land grant on the grounds that it had been obtained by corruption. The Court ruled that a state cannot arbitrarily interfere with a person's property rights. Since the land grant wass a legal contract, it could not be repealed, even if corruption was involved.
354. Macon's Bill No. 2
1810 - Forbade trade with Britain and France, but offered to resume trade with whichever nation lifted its neutral trading restrictions first. France quickly changed its policies against neutral vessels, so the U.S. resumed trade with France, but not Britain.
500. Supreme Court: Worchester v. Georgia
1832 - Expanded tribal authority by declaring tribes sovereign entities, like states, with exclusive authority within their own boundaries. President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling.
419. Veto message
1832 - Jackson, in his veto message of the recharter of the Second Bank of the U.S., said that the bank was a monopoly that catered to the rich, and that it was owned by the wealthy and by foreigners.
547. Commonwealth v. Hunt
1842 - Case heard by the Massachusetts supreme court. The case was the first judgement in the U.S. that recognized that the conspiracy law is inapplicable to unions and that strikes for a closed shop are legal. Also decided that unions are not responsible for the illegal acts of their members.
534. Webster-Ashburton Treaty
1842 - Established Maine's northern border and the boundaries of the Great Lake states.
640. Cotton versus Wheat
Cotton was a cash crop and could be sold for large amounts of money. Wheat was mainly raised to feed farmers and their animals. The North had to choose which to grow.
538. Oregon Fever
1842 - Many Eastern and Midwestern farmers and city dwellers were dissatisfied with their lives and began moving up the Oregon trail to the Willamette Valley. This free land was widely publicized.
1435. Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Headed by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., a coalition of churches and Christians organizations who met to discuss civil rights.
1584. "Moral Majority"
"Born-Again" Christians become politically active. The majority of Americans are moral people, and therefore are a political force.
1551. Twenty-Sixth Amendment
Lowered voting age to 18.
1050. Election of 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, Debs, issues
Wilson, Democrat beat Roosevelt, Progressive (Bull Moose), Taft, Republican and Debs, Socialist. The issues were the economy and growing conflict in Europe.
711. Legal Tender cases
The Supreme Court debated whether it was constitutional for the federal government to print paper money (greenbacks).
1483. Baker v. Carr, 1962
The Supreme Court declared that the principle of "one person, one vote" must be following at both state and national levels. The decision required that districts be redrawn so the each representative represented the same number of people.
1484. Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963
The Supreme Court held that all defendants in serious criminal cases are entitled to legal counsel, so the state must appoint a free attorney to represent defendants who are too poor to afford one.
418. Clay, Bank Recharter Bill, Nicholas Biddle
The Bank of the United States was chartered by Congress in 1791; it held government funds and was also commercial. It wasn't rechartered in 1811, but a second bank was established in 1816 (1/5 government owned). Jackson opposed it, saying it drove other banks out of business and favored the rich, but Clay favored it. Nicholas Biddle became the bank's president. He made the bank's loan policy stricter and testified that, although the bank had enormous power, it didn't destroy small banks. The bank went out of business in 1836 amid controversy over whether the National Bank was constitutional and should be rechartered.
392. Boston Associates, Lowell, Massachusetts
The Boston Associates were a group of Boston businessmen who built the first power loom. In 1814 in Waltham, Massachusetts, they opened a factory run by Lowell. Their factory made cloth so cheaply that women began to buy it rather than make it themselves.
1018. Northern Securities Company case
The Supreme Court ordered this company to dissolve because it was a trust.
548. Boston Associates
The Boston Associates were a group of Boston businessmen who built the first power loom. In 1814 in Waltham, Massachusetts, they opened a factory run by Lowell. Their factory made cloth so cheaply that women began to buy it rather than make it themselves.
540. Oregon Territory
The territory comprised what arenow the states of Oregon and Washington, and portions of what became British Columbia, Canada. This land was claimed by both the U.S. and Britain and was held jointly under the Convention of 1818.
650. Financing of the war effort by North and South
The North was much richer than the South, and financed the war through loans, treasury notes, taxes and duties on imported goods. The South had financial problems because they printed their Confederate notes without backing them with gold or silver.
541. 49th Parallel
The Oregon Treaty of 1846 established an U.S./Canadian (British) border along this parallel. The boundary along the 49th parallel extended from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
1102. Versailles Conference, Versailles Treaty
The Palace of Versailles was the site of the signing of the peace treaty that ended WW I on June 28, 1919. Victorious Allies imposed punitive reparations on Germany.
1167. Versailles Conference, Versailles Treaty
The Palace of Versailles was the site of the signing of the peace treaty that ended WW I on June 28, 1919. Victorious Allies imposed punitive reparations on Germany.
944. De Lome Letter
Written by the Spanish minister in Washington, Dupuy de Lôme, it was stolen from the mail and delivered to Hearst. He had called McKinley weak and bitter. It was played up by the yellow journalists.
292. Election of 1800, tie, Jefferson and Burr
The two Democratic-Republicans Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr defeated Federalist John Adams, but tied with each other. The final decision went the House of Representatives, where there was another tie. After a long series of ties in the House, Jefferson was finally chosen as president. Burr became vice-president. This led to the 12th Amendment, which requires the president and vice-president of the same party to run on the same ticket.
780. Strikes
The unions' method for having their demands met. Workers stop working until the conditions are met. It is a very effective form of attack.
789. Homestead Strike
The workers at a steel plant in Pennsylvania went on strike, forcing the owner to close down. Armed guards were hired to protect the building. The strikers attacked for five months, then gave in to peace demands.
1504. Charles Reich, The Greening of America
Written in 1970, it predicted a coming revolution with no violence. It offers an interpretation of how the U.S. went wrong and predicts a rebirth of human values through a "new" generation.
1134. McNary-Haugen Bill, vetos
The bill was a plan to raise the prices of farm products. The government could buy and sell the commodities at world price and tariff. Surplus sold abroad. It was vetoes twice by Coolidge. It was the forerunner of the 1930's agricultural programs.
402. "Corrupt Bargain"
The charge make by Jacksonians in 1825 that Clay had supported John Quincy Adams in the House presidential vote in return for the office of Secretary of State. Clay knew he could not win, so he traded his votes for an office.
1024. Election of 1908
Taft, Republican, won over Byran, Democrat, because of his support of Roosevelt.
1539. Watergate tapes
Tapes which proved Nixon was involved in the Watergate scandal. Although he withheld them at first, the Supreme Court made Nixon turn over these recordings of the plans for the cover-up of the scandal.
271. Excise taxes
Taxes placed on manufactured products. The excise tax on whiskey helped raise revenue for Hamilton's program.
1044. Roosevelt's Osawatomie, Kansas speech
Teddy Roosevelt's speech given in Kansas on his Square Deal and "Big Stick" foreign policy. Roosevelt said, "speak softly and carry a big stick."
692. Solid South
Term applied to the one-party (Democrat) system of the South following the Civil War. For 100 years after the Civil War, the South voted Democrat in every presidential election.
458. "The Burned-Over District"
Term applied to the region of western New York along the Erie Canal, and refers to the religious fervor of its inhabitants. In the 1800's, farmers there were susceptible to revivalist and tent rallies by the pentecostals (religious groups).
938. "Yellow journalism"
Term used to describe the sensationalist newspaper writings of the time. They were written on cheap yellow paper. The most famous yellow journalist was William Randolf Hearst. Yellow journalism was considered tainted journalism - omissions and half-truths.
523. Rio Grande, Nueces River, disputed territory
Texas claimed its southern border was the Rio Grande; Mexico wanted the border drawn at the Nueces River, about 100 miles noth of the Rio Gannde. U.S. and Mexico agreed not to send troops into the disputed territory between the two rivers, but President Polk later reneged on the agreement.
519. Reoccupation of Texas and reannexation of Oregon
Texas was annexed by Polk in 1845. Oregon was explored by Lewis and Clark from 1804 to 1806 and American fur traders set up there, but during the War of 1812, the British essentially took control of Oregon and held it jointly with the U.S. The land was returned to the U.S. with the Oregon Treaty of 1846, supported by Polk.
1486. New Frontier
The "new" liberal and civil rights ideas advocated by Kennedy, in contrast to Eisenhower's conservative view.
935. James G. Blaine, Pan-Americanism
The 1884 nomination for the Rebublican presidential candidate. Pan-Americanism stated that events in the Americans affected the U.S. and we thus had reason to intervene.
1101. Congressional elections of 1918
The 66th Congress, under President Wilson. He begged people to elect Democrats so that they could support his foreign policy initiatives in Congress, but the public rejected him. The senate had 47 Democrats and 49 Republicans and the House had 216 Democrats, 210 Republicans and 6 others.
1202. National Industry Recovery Act (NIRA)
The chief measure to promote recovery was the NIRA. It set up the National Recovery Adminstration and set prices, wages, work hours, and production for each industry. Based on theory that regulation of the economy would allow industries to return to full production, thereby leading to full employment and a return of prosperity.
397. New states, 1815-1840
The government tried to maintain a balance between slave states and free states. The new states admitted were: Indiana (1816, free), Mississippi (1817, slave), Illinois (1818, free), Alabama (1819, slave), Maine (1820, free), Missouri (1821, slave), Arkansas (1836, slave), and Michigan (1837, free).
50. Peter Stuyvesant
The governor of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, hated by the colonists. They surrendered the colony to the English on Sept. 8, 1664.
666. Charles Sumner
The same Senator who had been caned by Brooks in 1856, sumner returned to the Senate after the outbreak of the Civil War. He was the formulator of the state suicide theory, and supporter of emancipation. He was an outspoken radical Republican involved in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
300. French Revolution
The second great democratic revolution, taking place in the 1790s, after the American Revolution had been proven to be a success. The U.S. did nothing to aid either side. The French people overthrew the king and his government, and then instituted a series of unsuccessful democratic governments until Napoleon took over as dictator in 1799.
694. Segregation
The separation of blacks and whites, mostly in the South, in public facilities, transportation, schools, etc.
539. Willamette Valley
The spot where many settlers travelling along the Oregon trailed stopped.
1226. Sit-down strikes
The strikers occupied the workplace to prevent any production.
1041. "Dollar Diplomacy"
Taft and Knox cam up with it to further foreign policy in the U.S. in 1909-1913 under the Roosevelt Corollary. It was meant to avoid military intervention by giving foreign countries monetary aid.
972. Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty
1903 - U.S. guaranteed the independence of the newly-created Republic of Panama.
462. Brook Farm
An experiment in Utopian socialism, it lasted for six years (1841-1847) in New Roxbury, Massachusetts.
695. Hiram R. Revels
North Carolina free black, he became a senator in 1870.
1026. Scientific Management, Frederick W. Taylor
1911 - Increased industrial output by rationalizing and refining the production process.
1040. Rule of Reason: Standard Oil case, American Tobacco case
1911 - Supreme Court allowed restrictions on competition through the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
24. New England Confederation
1643 - Formed to provide for the defense of the four New England colonies, and also acted as a court in disputes between colonies.
373. Rush-Bagot Treaty, Great Lakes
1817 - This treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain (which controlled Canada) provided for the mutual disarmament of the Great Lakes. This was later expanded into an unarmed Canada/U.S. border.
1215. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
1934 - Created to supervise stock exchanges and to punish fraud in sercurities trading.
856. James McNeill Whistler
(1834-1903) A member of the realist movement, although his works were often moody and eccentric. Best known for his Arrangement in Black and Grey, No.1, also known asWhistler's Mother.
876. Booker T. Washington (1857-1915), Tuskegee Institute
(1856-1915) An educator who urged blacks to better themselves through education and economic advancement, rather than by trying to attain equal rights. In 1881 he founded the first formal school for blacks, the Tuskegee Institute.
1386. National Security Acts
1947 - Created the cabinet post of Secretary of Defense, the CIA, and the National Security Council. 1949 - Created NATO.
862. Carrie Chapman Catt
(1859-1947) A suffragette who was president of the National Women's Suffrage Association, and founder of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Instrumental in obtaining passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
1517. Czechoslovakia invaded
1968 - Liberalization of Czechoslovakia was crushed by the Soviet Union invasion.
601. Stephen A. Douglas
A moderate, who introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and popularized the idea of popular sovereignty.
590. Nashville Convention
Meeting twice in 1850, its purpose was to protect the slave property in the South.
787. Haymarket Square Riot
100,000 workers rioted in Chicago. After the police fired into the crowd, the workers met and rallied in Haymarket Square to protest police brutality. A bomb exploded, killing or injuring many of the police. The Chicago workers and the man who set the bomb were immigrants, so the incident promoted anti-immigrant feelings.
34. House of Burgesses
1619 - The Virginia House of Burgesses formed, the first legislative body in colonial America. Later other colonies would adopt houses of burgesses.
33. Slavery begins
1619 - The first African slaves in America arrive in the Virginia colony.
1581. Sandra Day O'Connor
(b. 1930) Arizona state senator from 1969 to 1974, appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. Reagan appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the first female Justice of the Supreme Court.
1. Mayflower Compact
1620 - The first agreement for self-government in America. It was signed by the 41 men on the Mayflower and set up a government for the Plymouth colony.
861. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
(1815-1902) A suffragette who, with Lucretia Mott, organized the first convention on women's rights, held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Issued the Declaration of Sentiments which declared men and women to be equal and demanded the right to vote for women. Co-founded the National Women's Suffrage Association with Susan B. Anthony in 1869.
860. Susan B. Anthony
(1820-1906) An early leader of the women's suffrage (right to vote) movement, co-founded the National Women's Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stnaton in 1869.
572. David Walker (1785-1830), "Walker's Appeal"
A Boston free black man who published papers against slavery.
1174. Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
"Pact of Paris" or "Treaty for the Renunciation of War," it made war illegal as a tool of national policy, allowing only defensive war. The Treaty was generally believed to be useless.
869. Bourbons / Redeemers
A religious movement in the South.
992. Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives
Early 1900's writer who exposed social and political evils in the U.S. Muckraker novel.
565. American Anti-slavery Society
Formed in 1833, a major abolitionist movement in the North.
516. Election of 1844: Issues
Manifest Destiny Issues: The annexation of Texas and the reoccupation of Oregon. Tariff reform.
8. John Winthrop (1588-1649), his beliefs
1629 - He became the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, and served in that capacity from 1630 through 1649. A Puritan with strong religious beliefs. He opposed total democracy, believing the colony was best governed by a small group of skillful leaders. He helped organize the New England Confederation in 1643 and served as its first president.
4. Massachusetts Bay Colony
1629 - King Charles gave the Puritans a right to settle and govern a colony in the Massachusetts Bay area. The colony established political freedom and a representative government.
5. Cambridge Agreement
1629 - The Puritan stockholders of the Massachusetts Bay Company agreed to emigrate to New England on the condition that they would have control of the government of the colony.
16. Voting granted to church members - 1631
1631 - The Massachusetts general court passed an act to limit voting rights to church members.
14. Roger Williams, Rhode Island
1635 - He left the Massachusetts colony and purchased the land from a neighboring Indian tribe to found the colony of Rhode Island. Rhode Island was the only colony at that time to offer complete religious freedom.
40. Carolinas
1665 - Charles II granted this land to pay off a debt to some supporters. They instituted headrights and a representative government to attract colonists. The southern region of the Carolinas grew rich off its ties to the sugar islands, while the poorer northern region was composed mainly of farmers. The conflicts between the regions eventually led to the colony being split into North and South Carolina.
25. King Philip's War
1675 - A series of battles in New Hampshire between the colonists and the Wompanowogs, led by a chief known as King Philip. The war was started when the Massachusetts government tried to assert court jurisdiction over the local Indians. The colonists won with the help of the Mohawks, and this victory opened up additional Indian lands for expansion.
36. Bacon's Rebellion
1676 - Nathaniel Bacon and other western Virginia settlers were angry at Virginia Governor Berkley for trying to appease the Doeg Indians after the Doegs attacked the western settlements. The frontiersmen formed an army, with Bacon as its leader, which defeated the Indians and then marched on Jamestown and burned the city. The rebellion ended suddenly when Bacon died of an illness.
44. Pennsylvania, William Penn
1681- William Penn received a land grant from King Charles II, and used it to form a colony that would provide a haven for Quakers. His colony, Pennsylvania, allowed religious freedom.
26. Dominion of New England
1686 - The British government combined the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut into a single province headed by a royal governor (Andros). The Dominion ended in 1692, when the colonists revolted and drove out Governor Andros.
18. Brattle Street Church
1698 - Founded by Thomas Brattle. His church differed from the Puritans in that it did not require people to prove that they had achieved grace in order to become full church members.
390. Eli Whitney: cotton gin (short for "engine")
1798 - He developed the cotton gin, a machine which could separate cotton form its seeds. This invention made cotton a profitable crop of great value to the Southern economy. It also reinforced the importance of slavery in the economy of the South.
391. Interchangeable parts
1799-1800 - Eli Whitney developed a manufacturing system which uses standardized parts which are all identical and thus, interchangeable. Before this, each part of a given device had been designed only for that one device; if a single piece of the device broke, it was difficult or impossible to replace. With standardized parts, it was easy to get a replacement part from the manufacturer. Whitney first put used standardized parts to make muskets for the U.S. government.
492. Supreme Court: Marbury v. Madison
1803 - The case arose out of Jefferson's refusal to deliver the commissions to the judges appointed by Adams' Midnight Appointments. One of the appointees, Marbury, sued the Sect. of State, Madison, to obtain his commission. The Supreme Court held that Madison need not deliver the commissions because the Congressional act that had created the new judgships violated the judiciary provisions of the Constitution, and was therefore unconstitutional and void. This case established the Supreme Court's right to judicial review. Chief Justice John Marshall presided.
352. Non-Intercourse Act
1809 - Replaced the Embargo of 1807. Unlike the Embargo, which forbade American trade with all foreign nations, this act only forbade trade with France and Britain. It did not succeed in changing British or French policy towards neutral ships, so it was replaced by Macon's Bill No. 2.
353. Erskine Agreement
1809 - The U.S. offered to cease all trade with France and resume trade with Britain if the British would stop the impressment of American sailors. The British did not agree to this, so this proposal never went into effect.
494. Supreme Court: Martin v. Hunters Lessee
1816 - This case upheld the right of the Supreme Court to review the decisions of state courts.
377. Jackson in Florida
1817 - The Seminole Indians in Florida, encouraged by the Spanish, launched a series of raids into the U.S. President J. Q. Adams ordered Andrew Jackson, whose troops were on the U.S./Florida border, to seize Spanish forts in northern Florida. Jackson's successful attacks convinced the Spanish that they could not defend Florida against the U.S.
495. Supreme Court: Darmouth College v. Woodward
1819 - This decision declared private corporation charters to be contracts and immune form impairment by states' legislative action. It freed corporations from the states which created them.
685. Monroe Doctrine
1823 - Declared that Europe should not interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere and that any attempt at interference by a European power would be seen as a threat to the U.S. It also declared that a New World colony which has gained independence may not be recolonized by Europe. (It was written at a time when many South American nations were gaining independence). Only England, in particular George Canning, supported the Monroe Doctrine. Mostly just a show of nationalism, the doctrine had no major impact until later in the 1800s.
498. Supreme Court: Gibbons v. Ogden
1824 - This case ruled that only the federal government has authority over interstate commerce.
396. Erie Canal, Dewitt Clinton
1825 - The Erie canal was opened as a toll waterway connecting New York to the Great Lakes. The canal was approved in 1817 with the support of New York's Governor, Dewitt Clinton. Along with the Cumberland Road, it helped connect the North and the West.
448. James Fenimore Cooper, Last of the Mohicans
1826 - It is about a scout named Hawkeye during the French and Indian War, while he was in his prime. It is one of the Leatherstocking Tales, about a frontiersman and a noble Indian, and the clash between growing civilization and untamed wilderness.
404. Tariff of Abominations
1828 - Also called Tariff of 1828, it raised the tariff on imported manufactured goods. The tariff protected the North but harmed the South; South said that the tariff was economically discriminatory and unconstitutional because it violated state's rights. It passed because New England favored high tariffs.
416. Maysville Road Veto
1830 - The Maysville Road Bill proposed building a road in Kentucky (Clay's state) at federal expense. Jackson vetoed it because he didn't like Clay, and Martin Van Buren pointed out that New York and Pennsylvania paid for their transportation improvements with state money. Applied strict interpretation of the Constitution by saying that the federal government could not pay for internal improvements.
571. Nat Turner's Insurrection
1831 - Slave uprising. A group of 60 slaves led by Nat Turner, who believed he was a divine instrument sent to free his people, killed almost 60 Whites in South Hampton, Virginia. This let to a sensational manhunt in which 100 Blacks were killed. As a result, slave states strengthened measures against slaves and became more united in their support of fugitive slave laws.
499. Supreme Court: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
1831 - Supreme Court refused to hear a suit filed by the Cherokee Nation against a Georgia law abolishing tribal legislature. Court said Indians were not foreign nations, and U.S. had broad powers over tribes but a responsibility for their welfare.
430. Calhoun splits with Jackson
1832 - Calhoun resigned as vice-president when his views on states' rights were disputed by Jackson. Calhoun wanted each section of the country to share federal power equally, and he wanted independence for the South if they were to be controlled by the majority.
424. Calhoun resigns as vice-president
1832 - Calhoun, from South Carolina, wrote the doctrine of nullification, expressing his views in support of states' rights. His views were so disputed and so different from Jackson's that Calhoun resigned and was appointed senator in South Carolina to present their case to Congress.
429. Force Bill
1833 - The Force Bill authorized President Jackson to use the army and navy to collect duties on the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. South Carolina's ordinance of nullification had declared these tariffs null and void, and South Carolina would not collect duties on them. The Force Act was never invoked because it was passed by Congress the same day as the Compromise Tariff of 1833, so it became unnecessary. South Carolina also nullified the Force Act.
501. Supreme Court: River Bridge v. Warren Bridge
1837 - Supreme Court ruled that a charter granted by a state to a company cannot work to the disadvantage of the public. The Charles River Bridge Company protested when the Warren Bridge Company was authorized in 1828 to build a free bridge where it had been chartered to operate a toll bridge in 1785. The court ruled that the Charles River Company was not granted a monopoly right in their charter, and the Warren Company could build its bridge.
433. Charles River Bridge Decision, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, General Incooperation Laws
1837 - The Charles River Bridge Decision, delivered by Roger B. Taney, modified C.J. Marshall's ruling in the Darmouth College Case of 1819, which said that a state could not make laws infringing on the charters of private organizations. Taney ruled that a charter granted by a state to a company cannot work to the disadvantage of the public. The Charles River Bridge Company protested when the Warren Bridge Company was authorized in 1828 to build a free bridge where it had been chartered to operate a toll bridge in 1785. The court ruled that the Charles River Company was not granted a monopoly right in their charter, and the Warren Company could build its bridge. Began the legal concept that private companies cannot injure the public welfare.
579. Prigg v. Pennsylvania
1842 - A slave had escaped from Maryland to Pennsylvania, where a federal agent captured him and returned him to his owner. Pennsylvania indicted the agent for kidnapping under the fugitive slave laws. The Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for bounty hunters or anyone but the owner of an escaped slave to apprehend that slave, thus weakening the fugitive slave laws.
697. Prigg v. Pennsylvania
1842 - A slave had escaped from Maryland to Pennsylvania, where a federal agent captured him and returned him to his owner. Pennsylvania indicted the agent for kidnapping under the fugitive slave laws. The Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for bounty hunters or anyone but the owner of an escaped slave to apprehend that slave, thus weakening the fugitive slave laws.
472. Commonwealth v. Hunt
1842 - Case heard by the Massachusetts supreme court. The case was the first judgement in the U.S. that recognized that the conspiracy law is inapplicable to unions and that strikes for a closed shop are legal. Also decided that unions are not responsible for the illegal acts of their members.
502. Supreme Court: Commonwealth v. Hunt
1842 - Case heard by the Massachusetts supreme court. The case was the first judgement in the U.S. that recognized that the conspiracy law is inapplicable to unions and that strikes for a closed shop are legal. Also decided that unions are not responsible for the illegal acts of their members.
558. Walker Tariff
1846 - Sponsored by Polk's Secretary of Treasury, Robert J. Walker, it lowered the tariff. It introduced the warehouse system of storing goods until duty is paid.
544. Gadsen Purchase
1853 - After the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgowas signed, the U.S. realized that it had accidentally left portions of the southwestern stagecoach routes to California as part of Mexico. James Gadsen, the U.S. Minister to Mexico, was instructed by President Pierce to draw up a treaty that would provide for the purchase of the territory through which the stage lines ran, along which the U.S. hoped to also eventually build a southern continental railroad. This territory makes up the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico.
599. Kansas - Nebraska Act
1854 - This act repealed the Missouri Compromise and established a doctrine of congressional nonintervention in the territories. Popular sovereignty (vote of the people) would determine whether Kansas and Nebraska would be slave or free states.
606. Lawrence, Kansas
1855 - Where the pro-slavery /anti-slavery war in Kansas began ("Bleeding Kansas or Kansas Border War).
611. Sumner-Brooks Affair
1856 - Charles Sumner gave a two day speech on the Senate floor. He denounced the South for crimes against Kansas and singled out Senator Andrew Brooks of South Carolina for extra abuse. Brooks beat Sumner over the head with his cane, severely crippling him. Sumner was the first Republican martyr.
588. Ablemann v. Booth
1859 - Sherman Booth was sentenced to prison in a federal court for assisting in a fugitive slave's rescue in Milwaukee. He was released by the Wisconsin Supreme Court on the grounds that the Fugitive Slave Act was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court overturned this ruling. It upheld both the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act and the supremacy of federal government over state government.
626. Republican Party: 1860 platform, supporter, leaders
1860 platform: free soil principles, a protective tariff. Supporters: anti-slavers, business, agriculture. Leaders: William M. Seward, Carl Shulz.
890. Homestead Act
1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.
838. Morril Act
1862 - Set aside public land in each state to be used for building colleges.
432. Specie Circular
1863 - The Specie Circular, issued by President Jackson July 11, 1836, was meant to stop land speculation caused by states printing paper money without proper specie (gold or silver) backing it. The Circular required that the purchase of public lands be paid for in specie. It stopped the land speculation and the sale of public lands went down sharply. The panic of 1837 followed.
657. Wade-Davis Bill, veto, Wade-Davis Manifesto
1864 - Bill declared that the Reconstruction of the South was a legislative, not executive, matter. It was an attempt to weaken the power of the president. Lincoln vetoed it. Wade-Davis Manifesto said Lincoln was acting like a dictator by vetoing.
668. Freedmen's Bureau
1865 - Agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. It furnished food and clothing to needy blacks and helped them get jobs.
672. Thirteenth Amendment
1865 - Freed all slaves, abolished slavery.
675. Tenure of Office Act
1866 - Enacted by radical Congress, it forbade the president from removing civil officers without consent of the Senate. It was meant to prevent Johnson from removing radicals from office. Johnson broke this law when he fired a radical Republican from his cabinet, and he was impeached for this "crime".
671. Civil Rights Act
1866 - Prohibited abridgement of rights of blacks or any other citizens.
655. Ex Parte Milligan
1866 - Supreme Court ruled that military trials of civilians were illegal unless the civil courts are inoperative or the region is under marshall law.
673. Fourteenth Amendment and its provisions
1866, ratified 1868. It fixed provision of the Civil Rights Bill: full citizenship to all native-born or naturalized Americans, including former slaves and immigrants.
892. Granger Movement
1867 - Nation Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry. A group of agrarian organizations that worked to increase the political and economic power of farmers. They opposed corrupt business practices and monopolies, and supported relief for debtors. Although technically not a political party, local granges led to the creation of a number of political parties, which eventually joined with the growing labor movement to form the Progressive Party.
659. Reconstruction Acts
1867 - Pushed through congress over Johnson's veto, it gave radical Republicans complete military control over the South and divided the South into five military zones, each headed by a general with absolute power over his district.
710. Ohio Idea
1867 - Senator George H. Pendleton proposed an idea that Civil War bonds be redeemed with greenbacks. It was not adopted.
664. Texas v. White
1869 - Argued that Texas had never seceded because there is no provision in the Constitution for a state to secede, thus Texas should still be a state and not have to undergo reconstruction.
701. Texas v. White
1869 - Argued that Texas had never seceded because there is no provision in the Constitution for a state to secede, thus Texas should still be a state and not have to undergo reconstruction.
982. San Francisco School Board Incident
1906 - Racist schools segregated Chinese, Korean and Japanese students because of anti-oriental sentiment in California.
906. Bland-Allison Act
1878 - Authorized coinage of a limited number of silver dollars and "silver certificate" paper money. First of several government subsidies to silver producers in depression periods. Required government to buy between $2 and $4 million worth of silver. Created a partial dual coinage system referred to as "limping bimetallism." Repealed in 1900.
941. Pago Pago, Samoa
1878 - The U.S. gained the strategic port Pago Pago in Samoa for use in refueling U.S. warships overseas. It was part of building an international military presence.
712. Species Resumption Act
1879 - Congress said that greenbacks were redeemable for gold, but no one wanted to redeem them for face gold value. Because paper money was much more convenient than gold, they remained in circulation.
874. Civil Rights cases
1883 - These state supreme court cases ruled that Constitutional amendments against discrimination applied only to the federal and state governments, not to individuals or private institutions. Thus the government could not order segregation, but restaurants, hotels, and railroads could. Gave legal sanction to Jim Crow laws.
870. "New South," Henry Grady (1850-1889)
1886 - His speech said that the South wanted to grow, embrace industry, and eliminate racism and Confederate separatist feelings. Was an attempt to get Northern businessmen to invest in the South.
881. Plessy v. Ferguson, "Separate but equal"
1886 - Plessy was a black man who had been instructed by the NAACP to refuse to ride in the train car reserved for blacks. The NAACP hoped to force a court decision on segregation. However, the Supreme Court ruled against Plessy and the NAACP, saying that segregated facilities for whites and blacks were legal as long as the facilities were of equal quality.
931. Supreme Court: Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois
1886 - Stated that individual states can control trade in their states, but cannot regulate railroads coming through them. Congress has exclusive jurisdiction over interstate commerce. States cannot regulate or place restrictions on businesses which only pass through them, such as interstate transportation.
768. Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois
1886 - Stated that individual states could control trade in their states, but could not regulate railroads coming through them. Congress had exclusive jurisdiction over interstate commerce.
840. Hatch Act
1887 - Provided for agricultural experimentation stations in every state to improve farming techniques.
1182. Clark Memorandum
1928 - Under Secretary of State Reuben Clark, 286 pages were added to the Roosevelt Corollary of 1904.
915. Ocala Demands
1890 - The leaders of what would later become the Populist Party held a national convention in Ocala, Florida and adopted a platform advocating reforms to help farmers.
831. Rerum Novarum
1891 - Pope Leo XII's call to the Catholic Church to work to alleviate social problems such as poverty.
912. Coxey's army
1893 - Group of unemployed workers led by Jacob Coxey who marched from Ohio to Washington to draw attention to the plight of workers and to ask for government relief. Government arrested the leaders and broke up the march in Washington.
934. In Re Debs
1894 - Eugene Debs organised the Pullman strike. A federal court found him guilty of restraint of trade, stopping US mail, and disobeying a government injunction to stop the strike. He later ran for president as a candidate of the Social Democratic Party.
932. E. C. Knight Company case
1895 - The Supreme Court ruled that since the Knight Company's monopoly over the production of sugar had no direct effect on commerce, the company couldn't be controlled by the government. It also ruled that mining and manufacturing weren't affected by interstate commerce laws and were beyond the regulatory power of Congress. It gave E. C. Knight a legal monopoly because it did not affect trade.
883. Disenfranchisement, Williams v. Mississippi
1898 - The Mississippi supreme court ruled that poll taxes and literacy tests, which took away blacks' right to vote (a practice known as "disenfranchisement"), were legal.
951. Rough Riders, San Juan Hill
1898 - Theodore Roosevelt formed the Rough Riders (volunteers) to fight in the Spanish- American War in Cuba. They charged up San Juan Hill during the battle of Santiago. It made Roosevelt popular.
1073. ABC Powers
1899 - Name given to Argentina, Brazil and Chile. They tried to maintain peace in South and Central America.
963. Boxer Rebellion
1900 - a secret Chinese society called the Boxers because their symbol was a fist revolted against foreigners in their midst and laid siege to foreign legislations in Beijing.
970. Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
1901 - Great Britain recognized U.S. Sphere of Influence over the Panama canal zone provided the canal itself remained neutral. U.S. given full control over construction and management of the canal.
976. Venezuelan Crisis
1902 - England, Germany and Italy had blockaded Venezuelan ports because Latin American countries failed to make payments on debts owed to foreign banks. U.S. invoked the Monroe Doctrine and pressured the European powers to back off.
975. Goethals and Gorgas
1906 - Army colonels who supervised the construction of the Panama Canal.
1021. Pure Food and Drug Act
1906 - Forbade the manufacture or sale of mislabeled or adulterated food or drugs, it gave the government broad powers to ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs in order to abolish the "patent" drug trade. Still in existence as the FDA.
1019. Meat Inspection Act
1906 - Laid down binding rules for sanitary meat packing and government inspection of meat products crossing state lines.
1006. 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th Amendments
1913 - 16th Amendment authorized Congress to levy an income tax. 1913 - 17th Amendment gave the power to elect senators to the people. Senators had previously been appointed by the legislatures of their states. 1919 - 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. 1920 - 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.
1155. Henry Ford, the Model T, Alfred P. Sloan
1913 - Ford developed the mass-produced Model-T car, which sold at an affordable price. It pioneered the use of the assembly line. Also greatly increased his workers wages and instituted many modern concepts of regular work hours and job benefits. Sloan, an American industrialist, helped found project.
815. Armory Show
1913 - The first art show in the U.S., organized by the Ashcan School. Was most Americans first exposure to European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, and caused a modernist revolution in American art.
1057. Clayton Antitrust Act, labor's Magna Carta
1914 - Extended the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 to give it more power against trusts and big business. It outlawed practices that had a dangerous likelihood of creating a monopoly, even if no unlawful agreement was involved.
1074. Pancho Villa, General Pershing
1916 - Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico and Pershing was directed to follow him into Mexico. Pershing met with resistance and eventually left without finding Pancho Villa.
1084. Zimmerman note
1917 - Germany sent this to Mexico instructing an ambassador to convince Mexico to go to war with the U.S. It was intercepted and caused the U.S. to mobilized against Germany, which had proven it was hostile.
1069. Jones Act, 1917 (Puerto Rico)
1917 - Puerto Ricans won U.S. citizenship and the right to elect their own upper house.
1066. Smith-Lever Act, Smith-Hughes Act
1917-Established the U.S.'s first Food Administration with the authority to fix food prices, license distributors, coordinate purchases, oversee exports, act against hoarding and profiteering, and encourage farmers to grow more crops.
1159. New Woman, Flappers
1920's - Women started wearing short skirts and bobbed hair, and had more sexual freedom. They began to abandon traditional female roles and take jobs usually reserved for men.
1164. Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey
1920's sports heros, Ruth set the baseball record of 60 home runs in one season and Dempsey was the heavyweight boxing champion.
1150. Immigration Acts, 1921, 1924, Quota System
1921 - First legislation passed which restricted the number of immigrants. Quota was 357,800, which let in only 2% of the number of people of that nationality that were allowed in in 1890. 1924 - Limited the number of immigrants to 150,000 per year.
1154. Scopes trial, Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan
1925 - Prosecution of Dayton, Tennessee school teacher, John Scopes, for violation of the Butler Act, a Tennessee law forbidding public schools from teaching about evolution. Former Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, prosecuted the case, and the famous criminal attorney, Clarence Darrow, defended Scopes. Scopes was convicted and fined $100, but the trial started a shift of public opinion away from Fundamentalism.
1157. The Jazz Singer
1927 - The first movie with sound, this "talkie" was about the life of famous jazz singer, Al Jolson.
1125. Harding scandals: Teapot Dome
1929 - The Naval strategic oil reserve at Elk Hills, also known as "Teapot Dome" was taken out of the Navy's control and placed in the hands of the Department of the Interior, which leased the land to oil companies. Several Cabinet members received huge payments as bribes. Due to the investigation, Daugherty, Denky, and Fall were forced to resign.
1180. Bonus Army
1932 - Facing the financial crisis of the Depression, WW I veterans tried to pressure Congress to pay them their retirement bonuses early. Congress considered a bill authorizing immediate assurance of $2.4 billion, but it was not approved. Angry veterans marched on Washington, D.C., and Hoover called in the army to get the veterans out of there.
1185. Manchuria, Hoover-Stimson Doctrine
1932 - Japan's seizure of Manchuria brought this pronouncement by Hoover's Secretary of State, Henry Stimson, that the U.S. would not recognize any changes to China's territory, nor any impairment of China's sovereignty.
1206. Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), Second AAA
1933 - The AAA offered contracts to farmers to reduce their output of designated products. It paid farmers for processing taxes on these products, and made loans to farmers who stored crops on their farms. The Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
1207. Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
1936 - The second AAA appropriated funds for soil conservation paymnets to farmers who would remove land from production.
1186. Mexico's nationalization of oil
1938 - Mexico nationalized oil fields along the Gulf of Mexico which had been owned by investors from the U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands because the companies refused to raise the wages of their Mexican employees.
1227. Dust Bowl, Okies, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
1939 - Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was about "Okies" from Oklahoma migrating from the Dust Bowl to California in the midst of the Depression.
1390. McCarran Internal Security Act
1950 - Required Communists to register and prohibited them from working for the government. Truman described it as a long step toward totalitarianism. Was a response to the onset of the Korean war.
1398. McCarran-Walter Immigration Act
1952 - Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, it kept limited immigration based on ethnicity, but made allowances in the quotas for persons displaced by WWII and allowed increased immigration of European refugees. Tried to keep people from Communist countries from coming to the U.S. People suspected of being Communists could be refused entry or deported.
1432. Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.
1360. Hungarian Revolt
1956 - Hungary tried to overthrow the Communist government, partly encouraged by the U.S. The rebellion was quickly crushed.
1422. Little Rock, Arkansas Crisis
1957 - Governor Faubus sent the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine Black students from entering Little Rock Central High School. Eisenhower sent in U.S. paratroopers to ensure the students could attend class.
1366. Castro's Revolution
1959 - A band of insurgents led by Fidel Castro succeeded in overthrowing the corrupt government of Juan Baptista, and Cuba became Communist.
1367. Bay of Pigs
1961 - 1400 American-trained Cuban expatriates left from Nicaragua to try to topple Castro's regime, landing at the Bay of Pigs in southern Cuba. They had expected a popular uprising to sweep them to victory, but the local populace refused to support them. When promised U.S. air cover also failed to materialize, the invaders were easily killed or captured by the Cuban forces. Many of the survivors were ransomed back to the U.S. for $64 million. President Kennedy had directed the operation.
1511. Abolition of immigration quotas
1965 - Amendments to Immigration and Nationality Act abolished national origin quotas and instead, based immigration on skills and need for political asylum.
1508. War on Poverty
1965 - Johnson figured that since the Gross National Profit had risen, the country had lots of extra money "just lying around," so he'd use it to fight poverty. It started many small programs, Medicare, Head Start, and reorganized immigration to eliminate national origin quotas. It was put on hold during the Vietnam War.
1527. Ralph Nader, Unsafe at Any Speed
1965 - Nader said that poor design and construction of automobiles were the major causes of highway deaths. He upset Congress by asking for legislation regulating car design and creation of national auto safety board, NATSA.
1507. Office of Economic Opportunity
1965 - Part of the war on poverty, it was headed by R. Sargent Shiver, and was ineffective due to the complexity of the problem. It provided Job Corps, loans, training, VISTA, and educational programs.
1034. William Howard Taft
27th President (1908-1912), he was the only man to serve as both President of the U.S. and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Overweight, he was the only president to get stuck in the White House bathtub. Roosevelt supported he in 1908, but later ran against him.
261. Vice-president John Adams
A Federalist, he had little say in Washington's administration.
582. John Sutter (1803-1880)
A German immigrant who was instrumental in the early settlement of Califonria by Americans, he had originally obtained his lands in Northern California through a Mexican grant. Gold was discovered by workmen excavating to build a sawmill on his land in the Sacramento Valley in 1848, touching off the California gold rush.
466. Amana Community
A German religious sect set up this community with communist overtones. Still in existence.
613. Dred Scott Decision
A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. The U.S, Supreme Court decided he couldn't sue in federal court because he was property, not a citizen.
698. Dred Scott v. Sandford
A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. The U.S, Supreme Court decided he couldn't sue in federal court because he was property, not a citizen.
808. American Protective Association
A Nativist group of the 1890s which opposed all immigration to the U.S.
1396. Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
A Protestant minister who, in the 1940's, effected and influenced religion, society and politics in the U.S. Known for liberal philosophy, he believed that each individual had the primary responsibility for creating a good society. Founded the Liberal Party in 1944 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.
857. Winslow Homer
A Realist painter known for his seascapes of New England.
355. Tecumseh (1763-1813)
A Shawnee chief who, along with his brother, Tenskwatawa, a religious leader known as The Prophet, worked to unite the Northwestern Indian tribes. The league of tribes was defeated by an American army led by William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Tecumseh was killed fighting for the British during the War of 1812 at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.
667. Andrew Johnson (1808-1875)
A Southerner form Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, he became president. He opposed radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto. The first U.S. president to be impeached, he survived the Senate removal by only one vote. He was a very weak president.
510. Alamo
A Spanish mission converted into a fort, it was besieged by Mexican troops in 1836. The Texas garrison held out for thirteen days, but in the final battle, all of the Texans were killed by the larger Mexican force.
648. Great Britain: Trent, Alabama, Laird rams, "Continuous Voyage"
A Union frigate stopped the Trent, a British steamer and abducted two Confederate ambassadors aboard it. The Alabama was a British-made vessel and fought for the Confederacy, destroying over 60 Northern ships in 22 months. The Laird rams were ships specifically designed to break blockades; the English prevented them from being sold to the South.
878. George Washington Carver (1860-1943)
A black chemist and director of agriculture at the Tuskegee Institute, where he invented many new uses for peanuts. He believed that education was the key to improving the social status of blacks.
879. W. E. B. DuBois (1868-1963)
A black orator and eassayist. Helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He disagreed with Booker T. Washington's theories, and took a militant position on race relations.
1561. The Imperial Presidency
A book written in the later days of the Richard M. Nixon presidency by Arthur M. Schlensinger, Jr.
600. Birth of the Republican Party
A coalition of the Free Soil Party, the Know-Nothing Party and renegade Whigs merged in 1854 to form the Republican Party, a liberal, anti-slavery party. The party's Presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, captured one-third of the popular vote in the 1856 election.
1052. Pujo Committee
A committee formed to decide the fate of the Philippine Islands after the Spanish-American War.
28. Joint stock company
A company made up of a group of shareholders. Each shareholder contributes some money to the company and receives some share of the company's profits and debts.
680. Carpetbaggers
A derogatory term applied to Northerners who migrated south during the Reconstruction to take advantage of opportunities to advance their own fortunes by buying up land from desperate Southerners and by manipulating new black voters to obtain lucrative government contracts.
679. Scalawags
A derogatory term for Southerners who were working with the North to buy up land from desperate Southerners.
628. Crittenden Compromise proposal
A desperate measure to prevent the Civil War, introduced by John Crittenden, Senator from Kentucky, in December 1860. The bill offered a Constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in the territories south of the 36º30' line, noninterference by Congress with existing slavery, and compensation to the owners of fugitive slaves. Republicans, on the advice of Lincoln, defeated it.
556. Robert Fulton, steamships
A famous inventor, Robert Fulton designed and built America's first steamboat, the Clermont in 1807. He also built the Nautilus, the first practical submarine.
937. Bering sea seal controversy
A dispute between the U.S. and Russia involving who could hunt seals in the Bering Sea.
272. Report on Manufactures
A document submitted to Congress, which set up an economic policy to encourage industry.
389. Robert Fulton, Clermont
A famous inventor, Robert Fulton designed and built America's first steamboat, the Clermont in 1807. He also built the Nautilus, the first practical submarine.
1000. Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr.
A famous justice of the Supreme Court during the early 1900s. Called the "Great Dissenter" because he spoke out against the inposition of national regulations and standards, and supported the states' rights to experiment with social legislation.
1201. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
A federal agency which insures bank deposits, created by the Glass-Strengall Banking Reform Act of 1933.
1008. Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire
A fire in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist Company in 1911 killed 146 people, mostly women. They died because the doors were locked and the windows were too high for them to get to the ground. Dramatized the poor working conditions and let to federal regulations to protect workers.
769. Interstate Commerce Act, Interstate Commerce Commission
A five member board that monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states.
843. The single tax
A flat tax proposed by Henry George. (A flat tax is one in which every person pays the same amount, regardless of whether they are rich or poor.)
1028. Robert M. LaFollette (1855-1925)
A great debater and political leader who believed in libertarian reforms, he was a major leader of the Progressive movement from Wisconsin.
1132. Robert M. LaFollette (1855-1925)
A great debater and political leader who believed in libertarian reforms, he was a major leader of the Progressive movement from Wisconsin.
535. Carolina and Creole Affairs
A group of Canadian malcontents determined to free Canada from British rule made looting forays into Canada from an island being supplied by a ship from Carolina. The Canadians burned the vessel and killed an American on board. The Creole Affair involved slaves who mutinied and killed a crewman, then sailed to the Bahamas, where the British let them all go. The U.S. wanted the slaves back, but Britain refused. The ship stolen by the slaves was the Creole.
885. Niagra Movement
A group of black and white reformers, including W. E. B. DuBois. They organized the NAACP in 1909.
464. Oneida Community
A group of socio-religious perfectionists who lived in New York. Practiced polygamy, communal property, and communal raising of children.
567. Theodore Parker (1810-1860)
A leading transcendentalist radical, he became known as "the keeper of the public's conscience". His advocation for social reform often put him in physical danger, though his causes later became popular.
1543. Detente
A lessening of tensions between U.S. and Soviet Union. Besides disarming missiles to insure a lasting peace between superpowers, Nixon pressed for trade relations and a limited military budget. The public did not approve.
477. "Ten Nights in a Bar-Room," Timothy Shay Arthur
A melodramatic story, published in 1856, which became a favorite text for temperance lecturers. In it, a traveller visits the town of Cedarville occasionally for ten years, notes the changing fortunes of the citizens and blames the saloon.
688. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish
A member of the Grant administration, he was an able diplomat who peacefully settled conflicts with Great Britain through the Treaty of Washington.
563. William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879)
A militant abolitionist, he came editor of the Boston publication, The Liberator, in 1831. Under his leadership, The Liberator gained national fame and notoriety due to his quotable and inflammatory language, attacking everything from slave holders to moderate abolitionists, and advocating northern secession.
564. The Liberator
A militantly abolitionist weekly, edited by William Garrison from 1831 to 1865. Despite having a relatively small circulation, it achieved national notoriety due to Garrison's strong arguments.
465. Shakers
A millennial group who believed in both Jesus and a mystic named Ann Lee. Since they were celibate and could only increase their numbers through recruitment and conversion, they eventually ceased to exist.
413. Cherokee Indian removal, "Trail of Tears"
A minority of the Cherokee tribe, despite the protest of the majority, had surrendered their Georgia land in the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. During the winter of 1838 - 1839, troops under General Winfield Scott evicted them from their homes in Georgia and moved them to Oklahoma Indian country. Many died on the trail; the journey became known as the "Trail of Tears".
827. Social gospel
A movement in the late 1800s / early 1900s which emphasized charity and social responsibility as a means of salvation.
900. Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor
A muckracker whose book exposed the unjust manner in which the U.S. government had treated the Indians. Protested the Dawes Severalty Act.
993. Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936), The Shame of the Cities
A muckraker novel concerning the poor living conditions in the cities.
997. David Graham Phillips, The Treason of the Senate
A muckraker novel, it publicized corruption in the Senate after doing research on government leaders.
858. Joseph Pullitzer
A muckraker who designed the modern newspaper format (factual articles in one section, editorial and opinion articles in another section).
575. Denmark Vesey
A mulatto who inspired a group of slaves to seize Charleston, South Carolina in 1822, but one of them betrayed him and he and his thirty-seven followers were hanged before the revolt started.
383. Era of Good Feelings
A name for President Monroe's two terms, a period of strong nationalism, economic growth, and territorial expansion. Since the Federalist party dissolved after the War of 1812, there was only one political party and no partisan conflicts.
844. "Gilded Age"
A name for the late 1800s, coined by Mark Twain to describe the tremendous increase in wealth caused by the industrial age and the ostentatious lifestyles it allowed the very rich. The great industrial success of the U.S. and the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy hid the many social problems of the time, including a high poverty rate, a high crime rate, and corruption in the government.
375. Panic of 1819
A natural post-war depression caused by overproduction and the reduced demand for goods after the war. However, it was generally blamed on the National Bank.
441. Transcendentalism
A philosophy pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1830's and 1840's, in which each person has direct communication with God and Nature, and there is no need for organized churches. It incorporated the ideas that mind goes beyond matter, intuition is valuable, that each soul is part of the Great Spirit, and each person is part of a reality where only the invisible is truly real. Promoted individualism, self-reliance, and freedom from social constraints, and emphasized emotions.
847. Pragmatism
A philosophy which focuses only on the outcomes and effects of processes and situations.
463. New Harmony
A utopian settlement in Indiana lasting from 1825 to 1827. It had 1,000 settlers, but a lack of authority caused it to break up.
835. Johns Hopkins University
A private university which emphasized pure research. It's entrance requirements were unusually strict -- applicants needed to have already earned a college degree elsewhere in order to enroll.
866. Carry A. Nation (1846-1901)
A prohibitionist. She believed that bars and other liquor-related businesses should be destroyed, and was known for attacking saloons herself with a hatchet.
469. Dorothea Dix, treatment of the insane
A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill, beginning in the 1820's, she was responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the U.S. and Canada. She succeeded in persuading many states to assume responsibility for the care of the mentally ill. She served as the Superintendant of Nurses for the Union Army during the Civil War.
1414. To Secure these Rights
A report by the President's Committee on Civil Rights, it was given a year after the Committee was formed, and helped pave the way for the civil rights era. It recommended that the government start an anti-lynching campaign and ensure that Blacks got to vote.
958. Platt Amendment
A rider to the Army Appropriations Bill of 1901, it specified the conditions under which the U.S. could intervene in Cuba's internal affairs, and provided that Cuba could not make a treaty with another nation that might impair its independence. Its provisions where later incorporated into the Cuban Constitution.
287. Society of the Cincinnati
A secret society formed by officers of the Continental Army. The group was named for George Washington, whose nickname was Cincinnatus, although Washington himself had no involvement in the society.
593. Underground Railroad
A secret, shifting network which aided slaves escaping to the North and Canada, mainly after 1840.
576. Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
A self-educated slave who escaped in 1838, Douglas became the best-known abolitionist speaker. He edited an anti-slavery weekly, the North Star.
919. "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman
A senator from South Carolina, he compared Cleveland's betrayal of the Democratic party to Judas' betrayal of Jesus.
296. Second Great Awakening
A series of religious revivals starting in 1801, based on Methodism and Baptism. Stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects. The revivals attracted women, Blacks, and Native Americans.
615. Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 during Illinois Senatorial campaign
A series of seven debates. The two argued the important issues of the day like popular sovereignty, the Lecompton Constitution and the Dred Scott decision. Douglas won these debates, but Lincoln's position in these debates helped him beat Douglas in the 1860 presidential election.
574. Gabriel Prosser (1775-1800)
A slave, he planned a revolt to make Virginia a state for Blacks. He organized about 1,000 slaves who met outside Richmond the night of August 30, 1800. They had planned to attack the city, but the roads leading to it were flooded. The attack was delayed and a slave owner found out about it. Twenty-five men were hanged, including Gabriel.
1451. Black Power
A slogan used to reflect solidarity and racial consciousness, used by Malcolm X. It meant that equality could not be given, but had to be seized by a powerful, organized Black community.
1494. Bay of Pigs, 1961
A small army of ant-Castro Cuban exiles were trained and financed by the U.S. in the hope their invasion would lead to a popular uprising to overthrow the Communist government. The invasion force landed at the Bay of Pigs in Southern Cuba, but received no popular support and were quickly wiped out by Castro's forces.
412. Kitchen Cabinet
A small group of Jackson's friends and advisors who were especially influential in the first years of his presidency. Jackson conferred with them instead of his regular cabinet. Many people didn't like Jackson ignoring official procedures, and called it the "Kitchen Cabinet" or "Lower Cabinet".
920. Mary Ellen Lease
A speaker for the Populist Party and the Farmer's Alliance. One of the founders of the Populist Party.
1229. Elanor Roosevelt
A strong first lady who supported civil rights.
511. San Jacinto
A surprise attack by Texas forces on Santa Ana's camp on April 21, 1836. Santa Ana's men were surprised and overrun in twenty minutes. Santa Ana was taken prisoner and signed an armistice securing Texas independence. Mexicans - 1,500 dead, 1,000 captured. Texans - 4 dead.
1048. Theodore Roosevelt, New Nationalism
A system win which government authority would be balanced and coordinate economic activity. Government would regulate business.
444. Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1817-1862), "On Civil Disobedience"
A transcendentalist and friend of Emerson. He lived alone on Walden Pond with only $8 a year from 1845-1847 and wrote about it in Walden. In his essay, "On Civil Disobedience," he inspired social and political reformers because he had refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican-American War, and had spent a night in jail. He was an extreme individualist and advised people to protest by not obeying laws (passive resistance).
1522. Sunbelt versus Frostbelt
A trend wherein people moved from the northern and eastern states to the south and southwest region from Virginia to California.
1598. Supreme Court: Swan v. Carlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education, 1971
A unanimous decision that the busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.
832. Charles Sheldon, In His Steps Proofed Through Here
A very popular collection of sermons which encouraged young people to emulate Christ.
959. Protectorate
A weak country under the control and protection of a stronger country. Puerto Rico, Cuba, etc. were protectorates of the U.S.
782. Closed shop
A working establishment where only people belonging to the union are hired. It was done by the unions to protect their workers from cheap labor.
784. Yellow Dog contracts
A written contract between employers and employees in which the employees sign an agreement that they will not join a union while working for the company.
880. "Talented Tenth"
According to W. E. B. DuBois, the ten percent of the black population that had the talent to bring respect and equality to all blacks.
603. Thirty-six, thirty line
According to the Missouri Compromise (1820), slavery was forbidden in the Louisiana territory north of the 36º30' N latitude. This was nullified by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
386. Missouri Compromise, provisions
Admitted Missouri as a slave state and at the same time admitted Maine as a free state. Declared that all territory north of the 36°30" latitude would become free states, and all territory south of that latitude would become slave states.
1238. Dr. Francis Townsend
Advanced the Old Age Revolving Pension Plan, which proposed that every retired person over 60 receive a pension of $200 a month (about twice the average week's salary). It required that the money be spent within the month.
627. Buchanan and the Secession Crisis
After Lincoln was elected, but before he was inaugurated, seven Southern states seceded. Buchanan, the lame duck president, decided to leave the problem for Lincoln to take care of.
1107. New Nations, self determination
After WW I, Germany, Eastern Europe and the western portion of the former Russian Empire split into new countries. Wilson wanted them to have their own governments.
508. Texas War for Independence
After a few skirmishes with Mexican soldiers in 1835, Texas leaders met and organized a temporary government. Texas troops initially seized San Antonio, but lost it after the massacre of the outpost garrisoning the Alamo. In respone, Texas issued a Declaration of Independence. Santa Ana tried to swiftly put down the rebellion, but Texan soldiers surprised him and his troops on April 21, 1836. They crushed his forces and captured him in the Battle of San Jacinto, and forced him to sign a treaty granting Texan independence. U.S. lent no aid.
410. National Republicans
After the 1824 election, part of the Democratic - Republican party joined John Q. Adams, Clay, and Daniel Webster to oppose Andrew Jackson. They favored nationalistic measures like recharter of the Bank of the United States, high tariffs, and internal improvements at national expense. They were supported mainly by Northwesterners and were not very successful. They were conservatives alarmed by Jackson's radicalness; they joined with the Whigs in the 1830's.
656. Radical Republicans
After the Civil War, a group that believed the South should be harshly punished and thought that Lincoln was sometimes too compassionate towards the South.
281. New states: Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee
After the western land claims were settled, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee (in that order) were added to the United States under the Constitution.
1085. Russian Revolutions, 1917, March and Bolshevik
After years of oppression, the peasants rebelled against the czars. The first government was democratic and weak, so another revolution overthrew that government and instituted a Communist government lead by the Bolshevik party under Lenin. Lenin pulled Russia out of WWI (The Germans may have aided his rise to power so they would not have to fight on two fronts).
1135. Federal Farm Board
Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it offered farmers insurance against loss of crops due to drought, flood, or freeze. It did not guarantee profit or cover losses due to bad farming.
1077. Triple Entente
Allies ; Britain, France and Russia all had economic and territorial ambitions and they all disliked Germany, so they formed an alliance for protection.
1098. Aims of Allies and U.S. at Peach Conference
Allies wanted Germany to pay reparation for costs of war. Wilson brought 14 points, but only one was accomplished. The harsh punishment sent Germany into a depression and aided the rise of Hitler.
901. Dawes Severalty Act, 1887
Also called the General Allotment Act, it tried to dissolve Indian tribes by redistributing the land. Designed to forestall growing Indian proverty, it resulted in many Indians losing their lands to speculators.
814. Ashcan School
Also known as The Eight, a group of American Naturalist painters formed in 1907, most of whom had formerly been newspaper illustrators, they beleived in portraying scenes from everyday life in starkly realistic detail. Their 1908 display was the first art show in the U.S.
605. "Bleeding Kansas"
Also known as the Kansas Border War. Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, pro-slavery forces from Missouri, known as the Border Ruffians, crossed the border into Kansas and terrorized and murdered antislavery settlers. Antislavery sympathizers from Kansas carried out reprisal attacks, the most notorious of which was John Brown's 1856 attack on the settlement at Pottawatomie Creek. The war continued for four years before the antislavery forces won. The violence it generated helped percipitate the Civil War.
837. Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903)
America's greatest theoretical scientist, he studied thermodynamics and physical chemistry.
1001. Margaret Sanger (1883-1966)
American leader of the movement to legalize birth control during the early 1900's. As a nurse in the poor sections of New York City, she had seen the suffering caused by unwanted pregnancy. Founded the first birth control clinic in the U.S. and the American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood.
447. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), The Spy, The Pioneers
American novelist. The Spy (1821) was about the American Revolution. The Pioneers (1823) tells of an old scout returning to his boyhood home and is one of the Leatherstocking Tales, a series of novels about the American frontier, for which Cooper was famous. (Leatherstocking is the scout.) Cooper later stayed in Europe for seven years, and when he returned he was disgusted by American society because it didn't live up to his books. Cooper emphasized the independence of individuals and importance of a stable social order.
297. Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)
American painter, most famous for painting the portrait of Washington which was copied for the one dollar bill.
999. John Dewey (1859-1952): the school and society, "progressive education", "learning by doing"
American philosopher and educator, he led the philosophical movement called Pragmatism. Influenced by evolution, he believed that only reason and knowledge could be used to solve problems. Wanted educational reforms.
1161. James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
American poet and part of the Harlem Renaissance, he was influenced by jazz music.
850. Henry James (1843-1916)
American writer who lived in England. Wrote numerous novels around the theme of the conflict between American innocence and European sophistication/corruption, with an emphasis on the psychological motivations of the characters. Famous for his novel Washington Square and his short story "The Turn of the Screw."
990. Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847-1903), Wealth Against Commonwealth
American writer, he won fame for revealing illegal business practices in the U.S. in the late 1800's. Said many corporations put their interest above the good of the workers. Muckraker novel.
555. Cyrus Field (1819-1892)
An American financier who backed the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic. After four failed attempts in 1857, 1858 and 1865, a submarine cable was successfully laid between Newfoundland and Ireland in July, 1866.
1129. Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, tax cuts
An American financier, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Harding in 1921 and served under Coolidge and Hoover. While he was in office, the government reduced the WW I debt by $9 billion and Congress cut income tax rates substantially. He is often called the greatest Secretary of the Treasury after Hamilton.
775. Knights of Labor: Uriah Stephens, Terence Powderly
An American labor union originally established as a secret fraternal order and noted as the first union of all workers. It was founded in 1869 in Philadelphia by Uriah Stephens and a number of fellow workers. Powderly was elected head of the Knights of Labor in 1883.
1485. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
An American marine biologist wrote in 1962 about her suspicion that the pesticide DDT, by entering the food chain and eventually concentrating in higher animals, caused reproductive dysfunctions. In 1973, DDT was banned in the U.S. except for use in extreme health emergencies.
298. Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827)
An American naturalist painter.
1106. Collective Security
An Article 10 provision of the League charter, it stated that if one country was involved in a confrontation, other nations would support it. Collective security is agreements between countries for mutual defense and to discourage aggression.
1421. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
An Atlanta-born Baptist minister, he earned a Ph.D. at Boston University. The leader of the Civil Rights Movement and President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he was assassinated outside his hotel room.
1434. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
An Atlanta-born Baptist minister, he earned a Ph.D. at Boston University. The leader of the Civil Rights Movement and President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he was assassinated outside his hotel room.
1145. Sigmund Freud's Theories
An Austrian physician with new ideas on the human mind. One of the founders of the modern science of psychiatry, discovered the subconscious. Believed that the mind is divided into 3 parts: id - primitive impulse; ego - reason which regulates between the id and reality; and superego - morals.
569. Elijah Lovejoy (1802-1837)
An abolitionist and editor. The press he used was attacked four time and Lovejoy was killed defending it. His death was an example of violence against abolitionists.
654. John Wilkes Booth
An actor, planned with others for six months to abduct Lincoln at the start of the war, but they were foiled when Lincoln didn't arrive at the scheduled place. April 14, 1865, he shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre and cried, "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" ("Thus always to tyrants!") When he jumped down onto the stage his spur caught in the American flag draped over the balcony and he fell and broke his leg. He escaped on a waiting horse and fled town. He was found several days later in a barn. He refused to come out; the barn was set on fire. Booth was shot, either by himself or a soldier.
520. 54º40' or Fight!
An aggressive slogan adopted in the Oregon boundary dispute, a dispute over where the border between Canada and Oregon should be drawn. This was also Polk's slogan - the Democrats wanted the U.S. border drawn at the 54º40' latitude. Polk settled for the 49º latitude in 1846.
480. Nativism
An anti-foreign feeling that arose in the 1840's and 1850's in response to the influx of Irish and German Catholics.
642. Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham
An anti-war Democrat who criticized Lincoln as a dictator, called him "King Abraham". He was arrested and exiled to the South.
1469. Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
An area that both militaries are required to stay out of in order to create a buffer between nations. In Vietnam, a five mile wide DMZ was established between the North and South along the 17th parallel.
483. Lucretia Mott (1803-1880)
An early feminist, she worked constantly with her husband in liberal causes, particularly slavery abolition and women's suffrage. Her home was a station on the underground railroad. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she helped organize the first women's rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848.
1005. Direct Primary
An election where people directly elect their party's candidates for office. Candidates had previously been selected by party caucuses that were considered elitist and undemocratic. This made elected official more accountable to the people.
1022. Conservation Conference, 1908
An environmental conference to study the nation's natural resources and how to conserve them.
1558. Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
An international oil cartel dominated by an Arab majority, joined together to protect themselves.
570. Wendell Phillips
An orator and associate of Garrison, Phillips was an influential abolitionist lecturer.
1385. Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
An organization for the advancement of liberal causes in the 1940s.
417. Election of 1832, Anti-Masonic Party
Andrew Jackson (Democrat) ran for re-election with V.P. Martin Van Buren. The main issue was his veto of the recharter of the U.S. Bank, which he said was a monopoly. Henry Clay (Whig), who was pro-Bank, ran against him The Anti-Masonic Party nominated William Wirt. This was the first election with a national nominating convention. Jackson won - 219 to Clay's 49 and Wirt's 1. The Masons were a semi-secret society devoted to libertarian principles to which most educated or upper-class men of the Revolutionary War era belonged. The Anti-Masons sprang up as a reaction to the perceived elitism of the Masons, and the new party took votes from the Whigs, helping Jackson to win the election.
568. The Grimke sisters
Angelina and Sarah Grimke wrote and lectured vigorously on reform causes such as prison reform, the temperance movement, and the abolitionist movement.
1487. Kennedy and the Steel Price Rollback
Angry at steel companies for cutting wages and increasing prices in the face of his low-inflation plan, Kennedy activated the federal government's anti-trust laws and the FBI. Awed, steel companies cut their prices back for a few days, then raised them again slowly and quietly. Kennedy "jawboned" the steel industry into overturning a price increase after having encouraged labor to lower its wage demands.
420. Jackson's removal of deposits, Roger B. Taney, pet bank, Loco-Focos
Angry because Biddle used bank funds to support anti-Jacksonian candidates, Jackson removed federal deposits from the bank in 1833, firing the secretaries of treasury who wouldn't comply, and was charged with abuse of power. Roger B. Taney was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and helped Jackson crush the Bank of the U.S. Pet banks were state banks into which Jackson deposited federal funds in 1833, after he vetoed the recharter of the Second Bank of the U.S., so called because people thought they were chosen on political grounds. Loco Focos (1835) were Democrats who wanted reform and opposed tariffs, banks, monopolies, and other places of special privilege.
1476. Senator Fullbright
Anti-Vietnam War Senator from Arkansas, he was head of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. In 1966 and 1967, he held a series of hearings to air anti-war sentiments.
818. Social Darwinism
Applied Darwin's theory of natural selection and "survival of the fittest" to human society -- the poor are poor because they are not as fit to survive. Used as an argument against social reforms to help the poor.
522. Slidell mission to Mexico
Appointed minister to Mexico in 1845, John Slidell went to Mexico to pay for disputed Texas and California land. But the Mexican government was still angry about the annexation of Texas and refused to talk to him.
1209. Federal emergency Relief Administation (FERA)
Appropriated $500 million for aid to the poor to be distributed by state and local government. Harry Hopkins was the leader of FERA.
952. Treaty of Paris
Approved by the Senate on February 6, 1898, it ended the Spanish-American War. The U.S. gained Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
427. Jefferson Day Dinner: toasts and quotes
April 13, 1830 - At the Jefferson anniversary dinner, President Jackson toasted, "Our federal union! It must and shall be preserved!" making it clear to the nullifiers that he would resist the states' rights supporters' claim to nullify the tariff law. V.P. Calhoun's response to the toast was, "The union, next to our liberty, most dear. May we always remember that it can only be preserved by distributing evenly the benefits and burdens of the Union." Calhoun had wanted Jackson to side with him (for states' rights) in public, but he didn't succeed.
957. Teller Amendment
April 1896 - U.S. declared Cuba free from Spain, but the Teller Amendment disclaimed any American intention to annex Cuba.
277. Major L'Enfant, Benjamin Banneker
Architects of Washington, D.C.
977. Drago Doctrine
Argentine jurist, Luis Drago, proposed that European countries could not use force to collect debts owed by countries in the Americas. They could not blockade South American ports. Adopted as part of the Hague Convention in 1907.
1391. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Arrested in the Summer of 1950 and executed in 1953, they were convicted of conspiring to commit espionage by passing plans for the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.
1355. John Foster Dulles
As Secretary of State. he viewed the struggle against Communism as a classic conflict between good and evil. Believed in containment and the Eisenhower doctrine.
678. Secretary of War Stanton
As Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton acted as a spy for the radicals in cabinet meetings. President Johnson asked him to resign in 1867. The dismissal of Stanton let to the impeachment of Johnson because Johnson had broken the Tenure of Office Law.
370. Second bank of the U.S., a reversal of Jeffersonian ideas
As a Republican, Jefferson opposed the National Bank. The Second Bank of the U.S. was established in 1816 and was given more authority than the First Bank of the U.S. Bank loans were used to finance the American industrial revolution in the period after the War of 1812.
614. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (pronounced "Tawny")
As chief justice, he wrote the important decision in the Dred Scott case, upholding police power of states and asserting the principle of social responsibility of private property. He was Southern and upheld the fugitive slave laws.
509. Santa Ana
As dictator of Mexico, he led the attack on the Alamo in 1836. He was later defeated by Sam Houston at San Jacinto.
1108. Reparations
As part of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was ordered to pay fines to the Allies to repay the costs of the war. Opposed by the U.S., it quickly lead to a severe depression in Germany.
1172. Reparations
As part of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was ordered to pay fines to the Allies to repay the costs of the war. Opposed by the U.S., it quickly lead to a severe depression in Germany.
633. Bull Run
At Bull Run, a creek, Confederate soldiers charged Union men who were en route to besiege Richmond. Union troops fled back to Washington. Confederates didn't realize their victory in time to follow up on it. First major battle of the Civil War - both sides were ill-prepared.
1416. Korean War (1950-1953)
At the end of WW II, Korea had been divided into a northern sector occupied by the U.S.S.R. and a southern sector occupied by the U.S. who instituted a democratic government. On June 25, 1950, the North invaded the South. The United Nations created an international army, lead by the U.S. to fight for the South and China joined the war on the side of North Korea. This was the first time the United Nations had intervened militarily.
1461. Civil Rights Act, 1968
Attempted to provide Blacks with equal-opportunity housing.
794. Richard Olney
Attorney General of the U.S., he obtained an active injunction that state union members couldn't stop the movement of trains. He moved troops in to stop the Pullman strike.
1515. Senator Robert F. Kennedy
Attorney General under his brother, JFK, he was assassinated in June 1968 while campaigning for the Democratic party nomination.
1442. March on Washington, 1963
August - 200,000 demonstrators converged on the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. King's speech and to celebrate Kennedy's support for the civil rights movement.
1127. Harding's death, Coolidge takes over
August 2, 1923 - President Harding died and Vice President Calvin Coolidge took over.
1468. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
August, 1964 - After the U.S. Navy ship Maddux reportedly was fired on, the U.S. Congress passed this resolution which gave the president power to send troops to Vietnam to protect against further North Vietnamese aggression.
1518. Chicago, Democratic Party Convention riot
August, 1968 - With national media coverage, thousands of anti-war protestors, Blacks and Democratic supporters were clubbed by Major Daley's police.
451. Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)
Author who wrote many poems and short stories including "The Raven," "The Bells," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Gold Bug." He was the originator of the detective story and had a major influence on symbolism and surrealism. Best known for macabre stories.
1011. Newlands Reclamation Act, 1902
Authorized the use of federal money to develop the west, it helped to protect national resources.
1599. Supreme Court: Bakke v. Board of Regents, University of California at Davis, 1978
Barred colleges from admitting students solely on the basis of race, but allowed them to include race along with other considerations when deciding which students to admit.
1153. Billy Sunday (1863-1935)
Baseball player and preacher, his baseball background helped him become the most popular evangelist minister of the time. Part of the Fundamentalist revival of the 1920'
1148. Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's
Based on the post-Civil War terrorist organization, the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was founded in Georgia in 1915 by William Simmons to fight the growing "influence" of blacks, Jews and Catholics in US society. It experienced phenomenal growth in the 1920's, especially in the Midwest and Ohio Valley states. It's peak membership came in 1924 at 3 million members, but its reputation for violence led to rapid decline by 1929.
637. Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Antietam, Appomattox
Battle sites of the Civil War. Gettysburg - 90,000 soldiers under Meade vs. 76,000 under Lee, lasted three days and the North won. Vicksburg - besieged by Grant and surrendered after six months. Antietam - turning point of the war and a much-needed victory for Lincoln. Appomattox - Lee surrendered to Grant.
1076. "Sick Man of Europe," Ottoman Empire, Balkan Wars
Because the Ottoman Empire's internal authority had broken down, it was not able to keep order in Macedonia and Albania, and the Balkans were on the verge of war. After the second Balkan war, Bulgaria was forced to surrender much of the territory it won in the first Balkan war.
776. American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Began in 1886 with about 140,000 members; by 1917 it had 2.5 million members. It is a federation of different unions.
617. Panic of 1857
Began with the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance Company and spread to the urban east. The depression affected the industrial east and the wheat belt more than the South.
442. Transcendentalists
Believed in Transcendentalism, they included Emerson (who pioneered the movement) and Thoreau. Many of them formed cooperative communities such as Brook Farm and Fruitlands, in which they lived and farmed together with the philosophy as their guide. "They sympathize with each other in the hope that the future will not always be as the past." It was more literary than practical - Brook Farm lasted only from 1841 to 1847.
532. All Mexico Movement
Benito Juarez overthrew Mexican dictator Santa Ana. Mexico began blocking American immigration (Mexico for Mexicans only).
1587. Falkland Islands War
Between Britain and Argentina, centered around their claims to control over these islands.
1450. Angela Davis
Black Communist college professor affiliated with the Black Panthers, she was accused of having been involved in a murderous jail-break attempt by that organization.
1162. Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), Universal Negro Improvement Association
Black leader who advocated "black nationalism," and financial independence for Blacks, he started the "Back to Africa" movement. He believed Blacks would not get justice in mostly white nations.
877. "The Atlanta Compromise"
Booker T. Washington's speech encouraged blacks to seek a vocational education in order to rise above their second-class status in society.
358. Why war against Britain rather than against France?
Britain practiced impressment and was believed to be supplying weapons to the Indians on the frontier and encouraging them to attack the U.S. Also, Britain held land near the U.S. which the Americans hoped to acquire, and a war with Britain would allow the U.S. to seize Florida from Britain's ally Spain. Although France had also seized American ships, France had agreed to lift its neutral trading restrictions, and the U.S. had resumed trade with France.
820. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
British, developed a system of philosophy based on the theory of evolution, believed in the primacy of personal freedom and reasoned thinking. Sought to develop a system whereby all human endeavours could be explained rationally and scientifically.
1149. Fundamentalists
Broad movement in Protestantism in the U.S. which tried to preserve what it considered the basic ideas of Christianity against criticism by liberal theologies. It stressed the literal truths of the Bible and creation.
295. 12th Amendment
Brought about by the Jefferson/Burr tie, stated that presidential and vice-presidential nominees would run on the same party ticket. Before that time, all of the candidates ran against each other, with the winner becoming president and second-place becoming vice-president.
1560. Alaska pipeline
Built in 1975 along the pipeline to Valdez, it was an above-ground pipe 4 feet in diameter used to pump oil from the vast oil fields of northern Alaska to the tanker station in Valdez Bay where the oil was put aboard ships for transport to refineries in the continental U.S..
546. "Transportation Revolution"
By the 1850s railroad transportation was fairly cheap and widespread. It allowed goods to be moved in large quantities over long distances, and it reduced travel time. This linked cities' economies together.
950. Annexation of Hawaii
By the late 1800s, U.S. had exclusive use of Pearl Harbor. In July 1898, Congress made Hawaii a U.S. territory, for the use of the islands as naval ports.
596. Election of 1852: end of the Whig party
By this time the Whig party was so weakened that the Democrats swept Franklin Pierce into office by a huge margin. Eventually the Whigs became part of the new Republican party.
1037. Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy
Cabinet members who had fought over conservation efforts and how much effort and money should be put into conserving national resources. Pinchot, head of the Forestry Department, accused Ballinger, Secretary of the Interior, of abandoning federal conservation policy. Taft sided with Ballinger and fired Pinchot.
584. California applies for admission as a state
Californians were so eager to join the union that they created and ratified a constitution and elected a government before receiving approval from Congress. California was split down the middle by the Missouri Compromise line, so there was a conflict over whether it should be slave or free.
585. Compromise of 1850: provisions, impact
Called for the admission of California as a free state, organizing Utah and New Mexico with out restrictions on slavery, adjustment of the Texas/New Mexico border, abolition of slave trade in District of Columbia, and tougher fugitive slave laws. Its passage was hailed as a solution to the threat of national division.
1089. Bond drives
Campaigns to get people to but government war bonds to finance the war, people traveled around America selling them and it was extremely successful in raising funds.
819. Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), The Gospel of Wealth
Carnegie was an American millionaire and philanthropist who donated large sums of money for public works. His book argued that the wealthy have an obligation to give something back to society.
1023. Panic of 1907
Caused by mistrust for and lowered confidence in bankers.
525. Mexican War: causes, results
Causes: annexation of Texas, diplomatic ineptness of U.S./Mexican relations in the 1840's and particularly the provocation of U.S. troops on the Rio Grande. The first half of the war was fought in northern Mexico near the Texas border, with the U.S. Army led by Zachary Taylor. The second half of the war was fought in central Mexico after U.S. troops seized the port of Veracruz, with the Army being led by Winfield Scott. Results: U.S. captured Mexico City, Zachary Taylor was elected president, Santa Ana abdicated, and Mexico ceded large parts of the West, including New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California, to the U.S.
1078. Triple Alliance
Central Powers ; Germany, Austria and Hungary formed an alliance for protection from the Triple Entente.
414. Worchester v. Georgia
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia ; Worchester v. Georgia: 1832 - The Supreme Court decided Georgia had no jurisdiction over Cherokee reservations. Georgia refused to enforce decision and President Jackson didn't support the Court. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia: 1831 - The Supreme Court ruled that Indians weren't independent nations but dependent domestic nations which could be regulated by the federal government. From then until 1871, treaties were formalities with the terms dictated by the federal government.
677. Chief Justice Chase
Chief Justice in 1868, he upheld Republican Reconstruction laws and ruled that paper money was not a legal substitute for specie.
528. John C. Fremont
Civil governor of California, led the Army exploration to help Kearny. Heard that a war with Mexico was coming, thought he could take California by himself before the war began and become a hero. He failed, so he joined forces with Kearny.
19. Thomas Hooker
Clergyman, one of the founders of Hartford. Called "the father of American democracy" because he said that people have a right to choose their magistrates.
288. Democratic societies
Clubs which met for discussion, designed to keep alive the philosophies of the American Revolution. They were sometimes called Jacobean clubs because they also supported the French Revolution.
1514. New Left
Coalition of younger members of the Democratic party and radical student groups. Believed in participatory democracy, free speech, civil rights and racial brotherhood, and opposed the war in Vietnam.
524. General Zachary Taylor
Commander of the Army of Occupation on the Texas border. On President Polk's orders, he took the Army into the disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grnade Rivers and built a fort on the north bank of the Rio Grande River. When the Mexican Army tried to capture the fort, Taylor's forces engaged in is a series of engagements that led to the Mexican War. His victories in the war and defeat of Santa Ana made him a national hero.
1387. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
Committee in the House of Representatives founded on a temporary basis in 1938 to monitor activities of foreign agents. Made a standing committee in 1945. During World War II it investigated pro-fascist groups, but after the war it turned to investigating alleged communists. From 1947-1949, it conducted a series of sensational investigations into supposed communist infiltration of the U.S. government and Hollywood film industry.
597. Perry and Japan
Commodore Matthew Perry went to Japan to open trade between it and the U.S. In 1853, his armed squadron anchored in Tokyo Bay, where the Japanese were so impressed that they signed the Treaty of Kanagania in 1854, which opened Japanese ports to American trade.
1449. Black Muslims
Common name for the Nation of Islam, a religion that encouraged separatism from White society. They claimed the "White Devil" was the chief source of evil in the world.
765. Holding companies
Companies that hold a majority of another company's stock in order to control the management of that company. Can be used to establish a monopoly.
830. Washington Gladden
Congregationalist minister who followed the social gospel and supported social reform. A prolific writer whose newspaper cloumns and many books made him a national leader of the Social gospel movement.
1178. Hawley-Smoot Tariff, 1930
Congressional compromise serving special interest, it raised duties on agricultural and manufactured imports. It may have contributed to the spread of the international depression.
526. Spot Resolutions
Congressman Abraham Lincoln supported a proposition to find the exact spot where American troops were fired upon, suspecting that they had illegally crossed into Mexican territory.
1039. Senator George Norris (1861-1944)
Congressman from Nebraska, he was a reformer Republican who helped lead the rules change of 1910 which ended the arbitrary power of the Speaker. Known as the father of the Tennessee Valley Authority, he was author of the 20th Amendment. Later, while in the Senate, he was an isolationist who tried to keep the U.S. out of WW I.
1394. Ike (Eisenhower) and Modern Republicanism
Conservative about federal spending, liberal about personal freedoms. Believed in a balanced budget and lower taxes, but not in getting rid of existing social and economic legislation.
813. Frank Lloyd Wright
Considered America's greatest architect. Pioneered the concept that a building should blend into and harmonize with its surroundings rather than following classical designs.
1589. Supreme Court: Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963
Court decided that state and local courts must provide counsel for defendants in felony cases at the state's expense in any serious felony prosecution. Before, counsel was only appointed if the death penalty was involved.
1591. Supreme Court: Miranda v. Arizona, 1966
Court declared that police officers must inform persons they arrest of their rights: the right to remain silent and the right to counsel during interrogation.
1590. Supreme Court: Escobedo v. Illinois, 1964
Court ruled that there was a right to counsel at the police station. This was needed to deter forced confessions given without the benefit of counsel.
513. Republic of Texas
Created March, 1836 but not recognized until the next month after the battle of San Jacinto. Its second president attempted to establish a sound government and develop relations with England and France. However, rapidly rising public debt, internal conflicts and renewed threats from Mexico led Texas to join the U.S. in 1845.
1512. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Created by Congress in 1965, it was 11th in cabinet office. Afro-American economist Dr. Robert C. Weaver was named head, and the department regulated and monitored housing and suburban development. It also provided rent supplements for low-income families.
1128. Bureau of the Budget
Created in 1921, its primary task is to prepare the Annual Budget for presentation every January. It also controls the administration of the budget, improving it and encouraging government efficiency.
1179. Reconstruction Finance Corporation, RFC
Created in 1932 to make loans to banks, insurance companies, and railroads, it was intended to provide emergency funds to help businesses overcome the effects of the Depression. It was later used to finance wartime projects during WW II.
1208. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Created in April 1933. Within 4 months, 1300 CCC camps were in operation and 300,000 men between ages 18 and 25 worked for the reconstruction of cities. More than 2.5 million men lived and/or worked in CCC camps.
1199. Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act, 1933
Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures the accounts of depositors of its member banks. It outlawed banks investing in the stock market.
1110. Article 10 (Article X) of the Versailles Treaty
Created the League of Nations.
262. Judiciary Act, 1789
Created the federal court system, allowed the president to create federal courts and to appoint judges.
1223. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Created to insure fairness in labor-managment relations and the mediate employers' desputes with unions.
589. Webster's 7th of March Speech
Daniel Webster, a Northerner and opposed to slavery, spoke before Congress on March 7, 1850. During this speech, he envisioned thatg the legacy of the fugitive slave laws would be to divide the nation over the issue of slavery.
1123. Harding scandals: Harry Daugherty
Daugherty was implicated for accepting bribes.
638. Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens
Davis was chosen as president of the Confederacy in 1861. Stephens was vice-president.
1455. De Facto, De Jure segregation
De Facto means "it is that way because it just is," and De Jure means that there are rules and laws behind it. In 1965, President Johnson said that getting rid of De Jure segregation was not enough.
456. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
De Tocqueville came from France to America in 1831. He observed democracy in government and society. His book (written in two parts in 1835 and 1840) discusses the advantages of democracy and consequences of the majority's unlimited power. First to raise topics of American practicality over theory, the industrial aristocracy, and the conflict between the masses and individuals.
1051. Daniel DeLeon, IWW, Wobblies, "Big Bull" Haywood
DeLeon denounced populists because they believed in free enterprise. Haywood was the leader of the Wobblies. The International Workers of the World (Wobblies) were a militant, radical union. They favored socialism and opposed free enterprise. They were disliked by big business and less radical unions.
865. Francis Willard
Dean of Women at Northwestern University and the president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
1094. Eugene V. Debs imprisoned
Debs repeatedly ran for president as a socialist, he was imprisoned after he gave a speech protesting WWI in violation of the Sedition Act.
365. Hartford Convention, resolution
December 1814 - A convention of New England merchants who opposed the Embargo and other trade restriction, and the War of 1812. They proposed some Amendments to the Constitution and advocated the right of states to nullify federal laws. They also discussed the idea of seceding from the U.S. if their desires were ignored. The Hartford Convention turned public sentiment against the Federalists and led to the demise of the party.
367. Treaty of Ghent, provisions
December 24, 1814 - Ended the War of 1812 and restored the status quo. For the most part, territory captured in the war was returned to the original owner. It also set up a commission to determine the disputed Canada/U.S. border.
1433. Montgomery Bus Boycott
December, 1955 - In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat for a White man as required by city ordinance. It started the Civil Rights Movement and an almost nation-wide bus boycott lasting 11 months.
1420. Rosa Parks, Montgomery Bus Boycott
December, 1955 - In Montgomery, Alabama, she refused to give up her bus seat for a White man as required by city ordinance. It started the Civil Rights Movement and an almost nation-wide bus boycott lasting 11 months.
1426. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 1942
Decided that a state can require student to salute the flag in school.
1594. Supreme Court: Baker v. Carr, 1962
Declared that the principle of "one person, one vote" must prevail at both state and national levels. Decision required that districts be redrawn as that each representative represented the same number of people.
1381. Election of 1948: candidates, issues
Democrat - Harry Truman Republican - John Dewey States' Rights Democrat (Dixiecrat) - Strom Thurmond Progressive - Henry Wallace. The Democratic party was torn apart by the dispute between the liberal civil rights platform of the majority and the conservative, states' rights views of the southern membership, and the Progressive party pulled away liberal votes as well. Although everyone expected Dewey to win, Truman managed a surprise victory.
604. Election of 1856: Republican Party, Know-Nothing Party
Democrat - James Buchanan (won by a narrow margin). Republican - John Fremont. Know- Nothing Party and Whig - Millard Fillmore. First election for the Republican Party. Know- Nothings opposed immigration and Catholic influence. They answered questions from outsiders about the party by saying "I know nothing".
1190. Election of 1932: candidates, issues
Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, beat the Republican, Herbert Hoover, who was running for reelection. FDR promised relief for the unemployed, help for farmers, and a balanced budget.
267. Hamilton's Program: ideas, proposals, reasons for it
Designed to pay off the U.S.'s war debts and stabilize the economy, he believed that the United States should become a leading international commercial power. His programs included the creation of the National Bank, the establishment of the U.S.'s credit rate, increased tariffs, and an excise tax on whiskey. Also, he insisted that the federal government assume debts incurred by the states during the war.
268. Tariff of 1789
Designed to raise revenue for the federal government, resulted in a government surplus.
956. Insular cases
Determined that inhabitants of U.S. territories had some, but not all, of the rights of U.S. citizens.
1042. Secretary of State Knox (1853-1920)
Developed dollar diplomacy with Taft, he encouraged and protected U.S. investment abroad.
467. Lyceum Movement
Developed in the 1800's in response to growing interest in higher education. Associations were formed in nearly every state to give lectures, concerts, debates, scientific demonstrations, and entertainment. This movement was directly responsible for the increase in the number of institutions of higher learning.
846. William James
Developed the philosophy of pragmatism. One of the founders of modern psychology, and the first to attempt to apply psychology as a science rather than a philosophy.
1105. League of Nations
Devised by President Wilson, it reflected the power of large countries. Although comprised of delegates from every country, it was designed to be run by a council of the five largest countries. It also included a provision for a world court.
1070. Mexican Revolution, Diaz, Huerta, Carranza
Diaz was ruler of Mexico for 34 years, and caused much terror and bloodshed. Many people fled to the U.S. to plan a revolution. Huerta, in 1913, overthrew Diaz as dictator and had him murdered. Carranza was the leader of the forces against Huerta. The Mexican Revolution was an unstable situation that led to distrust between the U.S. and Mexico.
562. Sectionalism
Different parts of the country developing unique and separate cultures (as the North, South and West). This can lead to conflict.
770. Long haul, short haul
Different railroad companies charged separate rates for hauling goods a long or short distance. The Interstate Commerce Act made it illegal to charge more per mile for a short haul than a long one.
486. Emma Willard (1787-1870)
Early supporter of women's education, in 1818 she published Plan for Improving Female Education, which became the basis for public education of women in New York. In 1821, she opened her own girls' school, the Troy Female Seminary, designed to prepare women for college.
1097. Black migration to northern cities
During WWI, southern Blacks began to move north, where there were more jobs and less racism. The increased number of Blacks led to a White backlash and conditions like Southern racism.
1079. Loans to the Allies
During WWII, loans were offered under the Lend-Lease Act, which became law March 11, 1914. The U.S. spent $54 billion.
470. Rise of labor leaders
During the 1800's, labor unions became more and more common. Their leaders sought to achieve the unions' goals through political actions. Their goals included reduction in the length of the workday, universal education, free land for settlers, and abolition of monopolies. Labor unions were the result of the growth of factories.
1563. "Stagflation"
During the 60's and 70's, the U.S. was suffering from 5.3% inflation and 6% unemployment. Refers to the unusual economic situation in which an economy is suffering both from inflation and from stagnation of its industrial growth.
703. Whiskey Ring
During the Grant administration, a group of officials were importing whiskey and using their offices to avoid paying the taxes on it, cheating the treasury out of millions of dollars.
616. Freeport Doctrine
During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Douglas said in his Freeport Doctrine that Congress couldn't force a territory to become a slave state against its will.
1187. Ambassador Morrow
Dwight Whitney Morrow served as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from 1927 to 1930, during the Mexican-American diplomatic crisis.
1510. Medicare
Enacted in 1965 - provided, under Social Security, for federal subsidies to pay for the hospitalization of sick people age 65 and over.
583. Forty-Niners
Easterners who flocked to California after the discovery of gold there. They established claims all over northern California and overwhelmed the existing government. Arrived in 1849.
821. William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
Economist and sociologist.
849. William Dean Howells (1837-1920)
Editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and a champion of the realist movement in fiction writing.
266. Attorney General Randolph
Edmund Randolph had been General Washington's aide-de-camp at the outbreak of the Revolution, and served both as a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congressand as Governor of Virginia from 1786-1788. He submitted the virginia Plan at the Constitutional Convention. From 1789-1794 he served as U.S. Attorney General, and then succeeded Jefferson as Sec. of State. In 1795 he resigned form office after being falsely accused of receiving money from France to influence Washington's administration against Great Britain, although his name was eventually cleared by the french government.
1371. Revenue Act of 1942
Effort to increase tax revenues to cover the cost of WWII by adding additional graduated steps to the income tax and lowering the threshold at which lower income earners began to pay tax.
1361. Abdul Nasser, Suez Crisis
Egypt's dictator, Abdul Gamal Nasser, a former army officer who had led the coup that overthrew King Farouk, nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, and was attacked by British, French and Israeli forces. The U.S. intervened on behalf of Egypt. Damaged Britain and France's standing as world powers.
1408. "Military-Industrial Complex"
Eisenhower first coined this phrase when he warned American against it in his last State of the Union Address. He feared that the combined lobbying efforts of the armed services and industries that contracted with the military would lead to excessive Congressional spending.
1363. Eisenhower doctrine
Eisenhower proposed and obtained a joint resolution from Congress authorizing the use of U.S. military forces to intervene in any country that appeared likely to fall to communism. Used in the Middle East.
1566. Jimmy Carter
Elected to the Senate in 1962 and 1964, in 1974 he became the 39th President, with Vice President Walter Mondale. He secured energy programs, set the framework for Egypt-Israel treaty, and sought to base foreign policy on human rights.
960. Aguinaldo, Philippine Insurrection
Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964) led a Filipino insurrection against the Spanish in 1896 and assisted the U.S. invasion. He served as leader of the provisional government but was removed by the U.S. because he wanted to make the Philippines independent before the U.S. felt it was ready for independence.
586. Fugitive Slave Law
Enacted by Congress in 1793 and 1850, these laws provided for the return of escaped slaves to their owners. The North was lax about enforcing the 1793 law, with irritated the South no end. The 1850 law was tougher and was aimed at eliminating the underground railroad.
1410. Fair Employment Practices Committee
Enacted by executive order 8802 on June 25, 1941 to prohibit discrimination in the armed forces.
825. Rev. Josiah Strong
Enivisioned a "final competition of races," in which the Anglo-Saxons would emerge victorious.
1600. Supreme Court: Reed v. Reed, 1971
Equal protection: the Supreme Court engaged in independent judicial review of a statute which discriminated between persons on the basis of sex, making it clear that the Supreme Court would no longer treat sex-based classifications with judicial deference.
443. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Essayist, poet. A leading transcendentalist, emphasizing freedom and self-reliance in essays which still make him a force today. He had an international reputation as a first-rate poet. He spoke and wrote many works on the behalf of the Abolitionists.
773. National Labor Union
Established 1866, and headed by William Sylvis and Richard Trevellick, it concentrated on producer cooperation to achieve goals.
1526. National Women's Political Caucus
Established by Betty Frieden, encouraged women to seek help or run for political office.
1488. Peace Corps., Vista
Established by Congress in September, 1961 under Kennedy, dedicated Americans volunteered to go to about 50 third-world countries and show the impoverished people how to improve their lives.
1534. Committee for the Reelection of the President (CREEP)
Established in 1971 to help Nixon get reelected. Involved in illegal activities such as the Watergate break-in.
1176. Depression as an international event
Europe owed money. Germany had to pay, but did not have the money.
684. Maximillian in Mexico
European prince appointed by Napoleon III of France to lead the new government set up in Mexico. After the Civil War, the U.S. invaded and he was executed, a demonstration of the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine to European powers.
580. "King Cotton"
Expression used by Southern authors and orators before the Civil War to indicate the economic dominance of the Southern cotton industry, and that the North needed the South's cotton. In a speech to the Senate in 1858, James Hammond declared, "You daren't make war against cotton! ...Cotton is king!".
1234. Liberty League
Formed in 1934 by conservatives to defend business interests and promote the open shop.
1231. Deficit spending
FDR's admnistration was based on this concept. It involved stimulating consumer buying power, business enterprise, and ultimately employment by pouring billions of dollars of federal money into the economy even if the government didn't have the funds, and had to borrow money.
1124. Harding scandals: Secretary of the Interior Fall
Fall leased government land to the oil companies (Teapot Dome Scandal) and was convicted of accepting a bribe.
945. Maine explodes
February 15, 1898 - An explosion from a mine in the Bay of Havanna crippled the warship Maine. The U.S. blamed Spain for the incident and used it as an excuse to go to war with Spain.
887. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Founded in 1909 by a group of black and white intellectuals.
1544. China visit, 1972
February 21 - Nixon visited for a week to meet with Chairman Mao Tse-Tung for improved relations with China, Called "ping-pong diplomacy" because Nixon played ping pong with Mao during his visit. Nixon agreed to support China's admission to the United Nations.
284. Federalists / Democratic-Republicans: Programs
Federalist programs were the National Bank and taxes to support the growth of industry. The Democratic-Republicans opposed these programs, favoring state banks and little industry.
285. Federalists / Democratic-Republicans: Philosophies
Federalists believed in a strong central government, a strong army, industry, and loose interpretation of the Constitution. Democratic-Republicans believed in a weak central government, state and individual rights, and strict interpretation of the Constitution.
286. Federalists / Democratic-Republicans: Foreign proclivities
Federalists supported Britain, while the Democratic-Republicans felt that France was the U.S.'s most important ally.
764. Trusts
Firms or corporations that combine for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices (establishing a monopoly). There are anti-trust laws to prevent these monopolies.
1444. Adam Clayton Powell
Flamboyant Congressman from Harlem and chairman of the House and Labor Committee, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1968, but removed from office for alleged misuse of funds.
634. Monitor and the Merrimac
First engagement ever between two iron-clad naval vessels. The two ships battled in a portion of the Cheasepeake Bay known as Hampton Roads for five hours on March 9, 1862, ending in a draw. Monitor - Union. Merrimac - Confederacy. Historians use the name of the original ship Merrimac on whose hull the Southern ironclad was constructed, even though the official Confederate name for their ship was the CSS Virginia.
1012. Forest Reserve Act, 1891
First national forest conservation policy, authorized the president to set aside areas of land for national forests.
22. Massachusetts School Law
First public education legislation in America. It declared that towns with 50 or more families had to hire a schoolmaster and that towns with over 100 families had to found a grammar school.
1169. Five Powers Treaty, Four Powers Treaty, Nine Powers Treaty
Five Powers Treaty: Signed as part of the Washington Naval Conference, U.S., Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy set a ten year suspension of construction of large ships and set quotas for the number of ships each country could build. Four Powers Treaty: U.S., Japan, Britain, and France agreed to respect each others possessions in the Pacific. Nine Powers Treaty: Reaffirmed the Open Door Policy in China.
473. Criminal Conspiracy Laws and early unions
For a time in the 1700's and 1800's, these laws were directed at early labor unions. The organized stoppage of work by a group of employees in a strike could be judged a criminal restraint of trade. This approach largely ended after Commonwealth v. Hunt.
1122. Harding scandals: Charles Forbes
Forbes served time for fraud and bribery in connection with government contracts. He took millions of dollars from the Veteran's Bureau.
1142. Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy
Foremost American writer in the Naturalism movement, this book, written in 1925, criticized repressive, hypocritical society. It tells about a weak young man trying unsuccessfully to rise out of poverty into upper class society who is executed for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend.
560. American Colonization Society
Formed in 1817, it purchased a tract of land in Liberia and returned free Blacks to Africa.
581. Free Soil Party
Formed in 1847 - 1848, dedicated to opposing slavery in newly acquired territories such as Oregon and ceded Mexican territory.
1555. American Indian Movement (AIM), Wounded Knee
Formed in 1968 by urban Indians who seized the village of Wounded Knee in February, 1973 to bring attention to Indian rights. This 71-day confrontation with federal marshalls ended in a government agreement to reexamine treaty rights of the Ogalala Sioux.
1029. Regulatory commissions
Formed to set safety standards and to enforce fair practices of business competition for the sake of the U.S. public.
512. Sam Houston (1793-1863)
Former Governor of Tennessee and an adopted member of the Cherokee Indian tribe, Houston settled in Texas after being sent there by Pres. Jackson to negotiate with the local Indians. Appointed commander of the Texas army in 1835, he led them to victory at San Jacinto, where they were outnumbered 2 to 1. He was President of the Republic of Texas (1836-1838 & 1841-1845) and advocated Texas joining the Union in 1845. He later served as U.S. Senator and Governor of Texas, but was removed from the governorship in 1861 for refusing to ratify Texas joining the Confederacy.
1383. Progressive Party, Henry Wallace
Former vice-president under Roosevelt, Wallace ran for president with the Progressive Party, a branch of the Democrats who opposed the Cold War and the policy of containment. He lost but became secretary of commerce under Truman.
592. John C. Calhoun
Formerly Jackson's vice-president, later a South Carolina senator. He said the North should grant the South's demands and keep quiet about slavery to keep the peace. He was a spokesman for the South and states' rights.
1585. Iran-Iraq War
Fought over religious differences, this war lasted many years, from 1980 to 1988.
460. Mormons: Joseph Smith (1805-1844)
Founded Mormonism in New York in 1830 with the guidance of an angel. In 1843, Smith's announcement that God sanctioned polygamy split the Mormons and let to an uprising against Mormons in 1844. He translated the Book of Mormon and died a martyr.
490. American Peace Society
Founded in 1828 by William Laddit. Formally condemned all wars, though it supported the U.S. government during the Civil War, WWI, and WWII. It was dissolved after the United Nations was formed in 1945.
1365. Organization of American States (OAS)
Founded in 1948 by 21 nations at the Ninth Pa-American Conference, now consists of 32 nations of Central and South America and the U.S. Settled disputes between its members and discouraged foreign intervention in American disputes.
833. Mary Baker Eddy (1871-1910)
Founded the Church of Christian Scientists and set forth the basic doctrine of Christian Science.
1030. Florence Kelley, consumerism
Founded the National Consumer's League, which wanted legislation to protect consumers from being cheated or harmed by big business.
505. Horace Greeley (1811-1873)
Founder and editor of the New York Tribune. He popularized the saying "Go west, young man." He said that people who were struggling in the East could make the fortunes by going west.
39. James Oglethorpe
Founder and governor of the Georgia colony. He ran a tightly-disciplined, military-like colony. Slaves, alcohol, and Catholicism were forbidden in his colony. Many colonists felt that Oglethorpe was a dictator, and that (along with the colonist's dissatisfaction over not being allowed to own slaves) caused the colony to break down and Oglethorpe to lose his position as governor.
299. French Alliance of 1778
France aided the U.S. in the American Revolution, and the U.S. agreed to aid France if the need ever arose. Although France could have used American aid during the French Revolution, the U.S. didn't do anything to help. The U.S. didn't fulfill their part of the agreement until World War I.
409. Franchise extended, spoils system
Franchise extended - more people were given the right to vote, even men who owned no land. Spoils system - "To the victor go the spoils" - the winner of the election may do whatever they want with the staff. Jackson made more staff changes than any previous president, firing many people and replacing them with his own.
549. Lowell Factory
Francis Cabot Lowell established a factory in 1814 at Waltham, Massachusetts. It was the first factory in the world to manufacture cotton cloth by power machinery in a building.
361. Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key, "Star Spangled Banner"
Francis Scott Key saw Fort McHenry hold out during the night against a British attack. He wrote the poem "Star Spangled Banner" about the experience of seeing the U.S. flag still flying above the fort in the morning, and the poem was later set to the tune of an old English bar song.
1188. Good Neighbor Policy
Franklin Roosevelt described his foreign policy as that of a "good neighbor." The phrase came to be used to describe the U.S. attitude toward the countries of Latin America. Under Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy," the U.S. took the lead in promoting good will among these nations.
1548. Yom Kippur War, 1973
Frustrated by their losses in the Six-Days War, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur on October 6, 1973. Israel counterattacked, won a decisive victory, and had even occupied portions of northern Egypt.
1546. War Powers Act, 1973
Gave any president the power to go to war under certain circumstances, but required that he could only do so for 90 days before being required to officially bring the matter before Congress.
635. Lee, Jackson
General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson were major leaders and generals for the Confederacy. Best military leaders in the Civil War.
27. Sir Edmond Andros
Governor of the Dominion of New England from 1686 until 1692, when the colonists rebelled and forced him to return to England.
1441. "I have a dream" speech
Given August 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
924. "Cross of Gold" Speech
Given by Bryan on June 18, 1896. He said people must not be "crucified on a cross of gold", referring to the Republican proposal to eliminate silver coinage and adopt a strict gold standard.
1505. Election of 1964: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Barry Goldwater
Goldwater alienated people and was believed to be too conservative. He was perceived as an extremist who advocated the use of nuclear weapons if needed to win the war in Vietnam. LBJ won by the largest margin ever.
788. John Peter Altgeld
Governor of Illinois during the Haymarket riots, he pardoned three convicted bombers in 1893, believing them victims of the "malicious ferocity" of the courts.
1213. Home Owners' Local Corporation (HOLC)
Had authority to borrow money to refinance home mortgages and thus prevent forclosures. It lent over $3 billion to 1 million homeowners.
1120. Normalcy
Harding wanted a return to "normalcy" - the way life was before WW I.
691. Compromise of 1877 provisions
Hayes promised to show concern for Southern interests and end Reconstruction in exchange for the Democrats accepting the fraudulent election results. He took Union troops out of the South.
708. Compromise of 1877
Hayes promised to show concern for Southern interests and end Reconstruction in exchange for the Democrats accepting the fraudulent election results. He took Union troops out of the South.
1003. Richard Ely (1854-1943)
He asserted that economic theory should reflect social conditions, and believed that the government should act to regulate the economy to prevent social injustice.
1047. Woodrow Wilson, New Freedom
He believed that monopolies had to be broken up and that the government must regulate business. He believed in competition, and called his economic plan "New Freedom."
1141. Sinclair Lewis, Main Street, Babbit
He gained international fame for his novels attacking the weakness in American society. The first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature, Main Street (1920) was a satire on the dullness and lack of culture in a typical American town. Babbit (1922) focuses on a typical small business person's futile attempts to break loose from the confinements in the life of an American citizen.
1126. Harding scandals: Harry Sinclair
He leased government land to the oil companies and was forced to resign due to the investigation. He was acquitted on the bribery charges.
1092. Herbert Hoover, Food Administration
He led the Food Administration and started many programs to streamline food production and distribution.
893. Barbed wire, Joseph Glidden
He marketed the first barbed wire, solving the problem of how to fence cattle in the vast open spaces of the Great Plains where lumber was scarce, thus changing the American West.
255. George Mason, Bill of Rights
He opposed the Constitution because it didn't protect individual rights. His opposition led to the inclusion of the Bill of Rights.
1143. Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1952. A Farewell to Arms was written in 1929 and told the story of a love affair between an American ambulance driver and a British nurse in Italy during WW I.
1130. Senator George Norris (1861-1944), Muscle Shoals
He served in Congress for 40 years and is often called the Father of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a series of dams and power plants designed to bring electricity to some of the poorest areas of the U.S., like Appalachia.
400. John Quincy Adams as Sec. of State: Florida, Monroe Doctrine
He served under president Monroe. In 1819, he drew up the Adams-Onis Treaty in which Spain gave the U.S. Florida in exchange for the U.S. dropping its claims to Texas. The Monroe Doctrine was mostly Adams' work.
279. Washington's Farewell Address
He warned against the dangers of political parties and foreign alliances.
624. John Bell
He was a moderate and wanted the union to stay together. After Southern states seceded from the Union, he urged the middle states to join the North.
481. Samuel F.B. Morse, Imminent Dangers to the Free Institutions of the U.S. Through Foreign Immigration, and the Present State of the Naturalization Laws
He was briefly involved in Nativism and anti-Catholic movements, asserting that foreign immigration posed a threat to the free institutions of the U.S., as immigrants took jobs from Americans and brought dangerous new ideas.
796. George Washington Plunkitt
He was head of Tammany Hall and believed in "Honest Graft".
32. John Rolfe, tobacco
He was one of the English settlers at Jamestown (and he married Pocahontas). He discovered how to successfully grow tobacco in Virginia and cure it for export, which made Virginia an economically successful colony.
836. Charles W. Elliot, Harvard University
He was the president of Harvard University, and started the policy of offering elective classes in addition to the required classes.
1412. Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma
He wrote this to increase White awareness of the awful discrimination against Blacks.
1210. Civil Works Admnistration (CWA)
Hired unemployed workers to do make-shift jobs like sweeping streets. Sent men ages 18-24 to camps to work on flood control, soil conservation, and forest projects under the War Department. A small monthly payment was made to the family of each member.
537. John Jacob Astor (1763-1848)
His American fur company (est. 1808) rapidly became the dominant fur trading company in America. Helped finance the War of 1812. First millionaire in America (in cash, not land).
852. Hamlin Garland
His best-known work is Middle Board, an autobiographical story of the frustrations of life. One of the first authors to write accurately and sympathetically about Native Americans.
1160. Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Hughes was a gifted writer who wrote humorous poems, stories, essays and poetry. Harlem was a center for black writers, musicians, and intellectuals.
436. Independent Treasury Plan
Idea that federal government should have its own treasury; never put into practice.
278. Whiskey Rebellion
In 1794, farmers in Pennsylvania rebelled against Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey, and several federal officers were killed in the riots caused by their attempts to serve arrest warrants on the offenders. In October, 1794, the army, led by Washington, put down the rebellion. The incident showed that the new government under the Constitution could react swiftly and effectively to such a problem, in contrast to the inability of the government under the Articles of Confederation to deal with Shay's Rebellion.
398. Federal government's land policy: 1796, 1800, 1804, 1820
In 1796, land was sold in 640-acre tracts or more for no less than $2 per acre. In 1800, the minimum lot size was reduced to 320 acres. In 1804, the minimum lot size was 160 acres, and the minimum price $1.64 per acre. In 1804, the minimum lot size was 80 acres, and the minimum price $1.25 per acre.
507. Stephen Austin (1793-1836)
In 1822, Austin founded the first settlement of Americans in Texas. In 1833 he was sent by the colonists to negotiate with the Mexican government for Texan indedendence and was imprisoned in Mexico until 1835, when he returned to Texas and became the commander of the settlers' army in the Texas Revolution.
478. Maine Law, Neal Dow
In 1838, Dow founded the Maine Temperance Union. As mayor of Portland, Maine, Dow secured in 1851 the state's passage the Maine Law, which forbade the sale or manufacture of liquor.
435. Dorr's Rebellion
In 1841, Rhode Island was governed by a 1663 charter which said that only property holders and their eldest sons could vote (1/2 the adult male population). Thomas Dorr led a group of rebels who wrote a new constitution and elected him governor in 1842. The state militia was called in to stop the rebellion. Dorr was sentenced to life imprisonment, but the sentence was withdrawn. Dorr's Rebellion caused conservatives to realize the need for reform. A new constitution in 1843 gave almost all men the right to vote.
1114. Red Scare, Palmer raids
In 1919, the Communist Party was gaining strength in the U.S., and Americans feared Communism. In January, 1920, Palmer raids in 33 cities broke into meeting halls and homes without warrants. 4,000 "Communists" were jailed, some were deported.
1138. Henry L. Mencken, editor of the magazine, The American Mercury
In 1924, founded The American Mercury, which featured works by new writers and much of Mencken's criticism on American taste, culture, and language. He attacked the shallowness and conceit of the American middle class.
1465. Dien Bien Phu
In 1946, war broke out between communist insurgents in North Vietnam, called the Viet Minh, and the French Colonial government. In the spring of 1954, the Viet Minh surrounded and destroyed the primary French fortress in North Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu. The defeat was so disastrous for the French that they decided to withdraw from Vietnam.
1429. Dennis v. U.S., 1951
In 1948, the Attorney General indicted two key Communist leaders for violation of the Smith Act of 1940 which prohibited conspiring to teach violent overthrow of the government. They were convicted in a 6-2 decision and their appeal was rejected.
1447. Stokely Carmichael
In 1966, as chair of SNCC, he called to assert Black Power. Supporting the Black Panthers, he was against integration.
1419. Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
In 1967, appointed the first Black Supreme Court Justice, he had led that NAACP's legal defense fund and had argued the Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case before the Supreme Court.
1458. Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
In 1967, appointed the first Black Supreme Court Justice, he had led that NAACP's legal defense fund and had argued the Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case before the Supreme Court.
1454. Kerner Commission on Civil Disorders
In 1968, this commission, chaired by Otto Kerner, decided that the race riots were due to the formation of two different American cultures: inner-city Blacks and suburban Whites.
681. Purchase of Alaska
In December, 1866, the U.S. offered to take Alaska from Russia. Russia was eager to give it up, as the fur resources had been exhausted, and, expecting friction with Great Britain, they preferred to see defenseless Alaska in U.S. hands. Called "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox", the purchase was made in 1867 for $7,200,000 and gave the U.S. Alaska's resources of fish, timber, oil and gold.
1415. Desegregation of the Armed Forces, 1948
In July, Truman issued an executive order establishing a policy of racial equality in the Armed Forces "be put into effect as rapidly as possible." He also created a committee to ensure its implementation.
1115. Strikes: 1919, coal, steel, police
In September, 1919, Boston police went on strike, then 350,000 steel workers went on strike. This badly damaged the unions.
455. Hudson River School of Art
In about 1825, a group of American painters, led by Thomas Cole, used their talents to do landscapes, which were not highly regarded. They painted many scenes of New York's Hudson River. Mystical overtones.
1232. Monetary policy, fiscal policy
In monetary policy, government manipulates the nation's money supply to control inflation and depression. In fiscal policy, the government uses taxing and spending programs (including deficit spending) to control inflation and depression.
482. Women, their rights, areas of discrimination
In the 1800's women were not allowed to be involved in politics or own property, had little legal status and rarely held jobs.
1071. Mexican Migration to the U.S.
In the 1800's, Mexicans began moving north to work in agriculture. In the 1920's, they moved into the cities. Men outnumbered women. They faced racial discrimination from Whites.
468. Some reforms successful, some not, why?
In the 1800's, it was usually because the general public either didn't vocally support the reform or was opposed it. Not all people wanted change. In general, reforms failed if they were too far out on the political spectrum.
489. Women's movement, like others, overshadowed by anti-slavery movement
In the 1800's, the women's movement was often overshadowed by the anti-slavery movement. Many men who had been working on behalf of the women's movement worked for the abolition of slavery once it became a major issue.
964. Extraterritoriality
In the 1920's, China wated an end to the exemption of foreigners accused of crimes from China's legal jurisdiction.
1356. Massive Retaliation
In the 1950's after Stalin died, Dulles and Eisenhower warned the Soviets that if aggression was undertaken, the U.S. would retaliate with its full nuclear arsenal against the Soviet Union itself. However, the U.S. would not start conflicts.
35. Cavaliers
In the English Civil War (1642-1647), these were the troops loyal to Charles II. Their opponents were the Roundheads, loyal to Parliament and Oliver Cromwell.
411. Caucus System, Nation Nominating Conventions
In the National Nominating Convention, delegates voted on the results of a primary. In the Caucus System, candidates were elected by small, secretive party groups and the public had little say in the process.
939. Josiah Strong, Our Country
In this book, Strong argued that the American country and people were superior because they were Anglo-Saxon.
1457. Robert Weaver (b. 1907)
Influential Black economist, he served in the Department of the Interior and was Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs under Lyndon B. Johnson, becoming the first Black Cabinet official in the U.S.
1004. Initiative, referendum, recall
Initiative: people have the right to propose a new law. Referendum: a law passed by the legislature can be reference to the people for approval/veto. Recall: the people can petition and vote to have an elected official removed from office. These all made elected officials more responsible and sensitive to the needs of the people, and part of the movement to make government more efficient and scientific.
1524. National Organization for Women (NOW)
Inspired by Betty Frieden, a reform organization that battled for equal rights with men by lobbying and testing laws in court. NOW wanted equal employment opportunities, equal pay, ERA, divorce law changes, and legalized abortion.
1370. ICBM
Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, long-range nuclear missiles capable of being fired at targets on the other side of the globe. The reason behind the Cuban Missile Crisis -- Russia was threatening the U.S. by building launch sites for ICBM's in Cuba.
453. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Internationally recognized poet. Emphasized the value of tradition and the impact of the past on the present.
552. Elias Howe (1819-1869)
Invented the sewing machine in 1846, which made sewing faster and more efficient.
479. Irish, German immigration
Irish: arriving in immense waves in the 1800's, they were extremely poor peasants who later became the manpower for canal and railroad construction. German: also came because of economic distress, German immigration had a large impact on America, shaping many of its morals. Both groups of immigrants were heavy drinkers and supplied the labor force for the early industrial era.
1547. Six Day War, 1967
Israel responded to a blockade of the port of Elath on the Gulf of Aqaba by Egypt in June, 1967, by launching attacks on Egypt, and its allies, Jordan and Syria. Won certain territories for defense.
1424. Civil Rights Act, 1960
It gave the Federal Courts the power to register Black voters and provided for voting referees who served wherever there was racial discrimination in voting, making sure Whites did not try to stop Blacks from voting.
1015. Hepburn Act, 1906
It imposed stricter control over railroads and expanded powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, including giving the ICC the power to set maximum rates.
515. Election of 1844: Candidates
James K. Polk - Democrat. Henry Clay - Whig. James G. Birney - Liberty Party.
1479. Paris Accord, 1973
January 7, 1973 - U.S. signed a peace treaty with North Vietnam and began withdrawing troops. On April 25, 1975, South Vietnam was taken over by North Vietnam, in violation of the treaty.
363. Jackson's victory at New Orleans
January, 1815 - A large British invasion force was repelled by Andrew Jackson's troops at New Orleans. Jackson had been given the details of the British army's battle plans by the French pirate, Jean Laffite. About 2500 British soldiers were killed or captured, while in the American army only 8 men were killed. Neither side knew that the Treaty of Ghent had ended the War of 1812 two weeks before the battle. This victory inspired American nationalism.
1532. Nixon versus Congress
January, 1973 - Republican party operatives who had broken into the Democratic party facility at the Watergate Hotel convicted of burglary. Investigation of possible White House involvement disclosed existence of Nixon's tapes of meetings, but the President refused to turn over the tapes to Congress. Opposition to Nixon created unity in Congress that allowed passage of legislation Nixon had opposed.
981. Russo-Japanese War, Treaty of Portsmouth
Japan had attacked the Russian Pacific fleet over Russia's refusal to withdraw its troops from Mancharia after the Boxer Rebellion (1904-1905) War fought mainly in Korea. Japan victorious, the U.S. mediated the end of the war. Negotiating the treaty in the U.S. increased U.S. prestige. Roosevelt received a Nobel Peace Prize for the mediation.
293. Revolution of 1800
Jefferson's election changed the direction of the government from Federalist to Democratic- Republican, so it was called a "revolution."
1565. Election of 1976: candidate, issues
Jimmy Carter, Democrate defeated Gerald Ford, Republican. The issues were energy, transportation, and conservation. Carter had no Washington ties. Ford appealed to the upper- middle class, but Carter won by 1.7 million votes.
996. John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children
Journalist and novelist, he wrote of the unfair treatment of children used as child labor. Stressed better education, better schools and teachers. A muckraker novel.
786. Great Railroad Strike
July, 1877 - A large number of railroad workers went on strike because of wage cuts. After a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the rioting. The worst railroad violence was in Pittsburgh, with over 40 people killed by militia men.
1533. Watergate
June 17, 1972 - five men arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee's executive quarters in the Watergate Hotel. Two White House aides were indicted; they quit, Senate hearing began in May, 1973, Nixon admitted to complicity in the burglary. In July, 1974, Nixon's impeachment began, so he resign with a disbarment.
1218. National Youth Association (NYA)
June 1935 - Established as part of the WPA to provide part-time jobs for high school and college students to enable them to stay in school and to help young adults not in school find jobs.
1224. Fair Labor Standards Act, maxium hours and minimum wage
June 1938 - Set maximum hours at 40 hours a week and minimum wage at 20 cents an hour (gradually rose to 40 cents).
1411. Detroit race riots
June 25, 1943 - Outright racial war broke out between Blacks and Whites and the government did not send help.
1184. Hoover Moratorium
June 30, 1931 - Acting on President Hoover's advice, the Allies suspended Germany's reparation payments for one year.
384. Chief Justice John Marshall: decision
Justice Marshall was a Federalist whose decisions on the U.S. Supreme Court promoted federal power over state power and established the judiciary as a branch of government equal to the legislative and executive. In Marbury v. Madison he established the Supreme Court's power of judicial review, which allows the Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional.
1480. Election of 1960: issues, candidates, "Missile gap"
Kennedy, the Democrat, won 303 electoral votes, Nixon, the Republican, won 219 electoral votes, Byrd, the Independent, won 15 electoral votes. Kennedy and Nixon split the popular vote almost 50/50, with Kennedy winning by 118,000. The issues were discussed in televised debates. The "Missile gap" referred to the U.S. military claim that the U.S.S.R. had more nuclear missiles that the U.S., creating a "gap" in U.S. defensive capabilities.
1472. Kent State Incident, Jackson State Incident
Kent State: May 4, 1970 - National Guardsmen opened fire on a group of students protesting the Vietnam War. Jackson State: Police opened fire in a dormitory.
971. Hay-Herran Treaty
Kept the purchase price of the canal strip in Panama the same but enlarged the area from 6 to 10 miles.
1362. Peaceful coexistence
Khrushchev's proposal that the U.S. and U.S.S.R. could compromise and learn to live with each other.
251. Supporters of the Constitution
Known as Federalists, they were mostly wealthy and opposed anarchy. Their leaders included Jay, Hamilton, and Madison, who wrote the Federalist Papers in support of the Constitution.
1063. LaFollette Seaman's Act
LaFollette was a major leader of the Progressive movement from Wisconsin. He protested the cruel treatment that sailors received and led the fight for this act.
1440. Sit-ins, freedom rides
Late 1950's, early 1960's, these were nonviolent demonstrations and marches that challenged segregation laws, often braving attacks by angry White mobs.
651. Clara Barton
Launched the American Red Cross in 1881. An "angel" in the Civil War, she treated the wounded in the field.
898. Chief Joseph
Lead the Nez Perce during the hostilities between the tribe and the U.S. Army in 1877. His speech "I Will Fight No More Forever" mourned the young Indian men killed in the fighting.
793. Eugene V. Debs
Leader of the American Railway Union, he voted to aid workers in the Pullman strike. He was jailed for six months for disobeying a court order after the strike was over.
926. Marcus Hanna
Leader of the Republican Party who fought to get William McKinley the Republican nomination for president.
454. Walt Whitman (1819-1892), Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass (1855) was his first volume of poetry. He broke away from the traditional forms and content of New England poetry by describing the life of working Americans and using words like "I reckon", "duds", and "folks". He loved people and expressed the new democracy of a nation finding itself. He had radical ideas and abolitionist views - Leaves of Grass was considered immoral. Patriotic.
1448. Black Panthers
Led by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, they believed that racism was an inherent part of the U.S. capitalist society and were militant, self-styled revolutionaries for Black Power.
37. Culperer's Rebellion
Led by Culperer, the Alpemark colony rebelled against its English governor, Thomas Miller. The rebellion was crushed, but Culperer was acquitted.
791. American Railway Union
Led by Eugene Debs, they started the Pullman strike, composed mostly of railroad workers.
529. General Winfield Scott
Led the U.S. forces' march on Mexico City during the Mexican War. He took the city and ended the war.
928. Supreme Court cases
Legal Tender cases, Minor vs. Happensett, Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois, E. C. Knight Company case, Pollock v. Farmer's Loan & Trust Company, and In Re Debs.
1166. Lansing-Ishii Agreement, 1917
Lessened the tension in the feuds between the U.S. and Japan by recognizing Japan's sphere of influence in China in exchange for Japan's continued recognition of the Open Door policy in China.
987. Lansing-Ishii Agreement, 1917
Lessened the tension in the feuds between the U.S. and Japan by recognizing Japan's sphere of influence in China in exchange for Japan's continued recognition of the Open Door policy in China.
1189. Norris-LaGuardia (Anti-Injunction) Act, 1932
Liberal Republicans, Feorelo LaGuardia and George Norris cosponsored the Norris-LaGuardia Federal Anti-Injunction Act, which protected the rights of striking workers, by severely restricting the federal courts' power to issue injunctions against strikes and other union activities.
649. Election of 1864: candidates, parties
Lincoln ran against Democrat General McClellan. Lincoln won 212 electoral votes to 21, but the popular vote was much closer. (Lincoln had fired McClellan from his position in the war.)
643. Suspension of habeas corpus
Lincoln suspended this writ, which states that a person cannot be arrested without probable cause and must be informed of the charges against him and be given an opportunity to challenge them. Throughout the war, thousands were arrested for disloyal acts. Although the U.S. Supreme Court eventually held the suspension edict to be unconstitutional, by the time the Court acted the Civil War was nearly over.
1163. Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974), Spirit of St. Louis
Lindbergh flew his airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, across the Atlantic in the first transatlantic solo flight.
1425. Literacy tests, grandfather clause, poll taxes, White primaries
Literacy tests: Voters had to prove basic literacy to be entitled to vote. Because of poor schools, Blacks were often prevented from voting. Grandfather clause: Said that a person could vote only if their grandfather had been registered to vote, which disqualified Blacks whose grandparents had been slaves. Poll taxes and White primaries were other methods used to keep Blacks from voting.
1592. Supreme Court: Engel v. Vitale, 1962
Local and state laws requiring prayer in public schools were banned on the grounds that such laws violated the First Amendment.
41. John Locke, Fundamental Constitution
Locke was a British political theorist who wrote the Fundamental Constitution for the Carolinas colony, but it was never put into effect. The constitution would have set up a feudalistic government headed by an aristocracy which owned most of the land.
1112. Senate rejection, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, reservations
Lodge was against the League of Nations, so he packed the foreign relations committee with critics and was successful in convincing the Senate to reject the treaty.
554. Clipper ships
Long, narrow, wooden ships with tall masts and enormous sails. They were developed in the second quarter of the 1800s. These ships were unequalled in speed and were used for trade, especially for transporting perishable products from distant countries like China and between the eastern and western U.S.
274. Loose, strict interpretation of the Constitution
Loose interpretation allows the government to do anything which the Constitution does not specifically forbid it from doing. Strict interpretation forbids the government from doing anything except what the Constitution specifically empowers it to do.
550. Factory girls
Lowell opened a chaperoned boarding house for the girls who worked in his factory. He hired girls because they could do the job as well as men (in textiles, sometimes better), and he didn't have to pay them as much. He hired only unmarried women because they needed the money and would not be distracted from their work by domestic duties.
1550. Twenty-Fifth Amendment
Made the replacement of a vice president the same as for a Supreme Court justice, i.e., the president nominates someone and Congress decides.
536. Aroostook War
Maine lumberjacks camped along the Aroostook Rive in Maine in 1839 tried to oust Canadian rivals. Militia were called in from both sides until the Webster Ashburn - Treaty was signed. Took place in disputed territory.
6. Puritan migration
Many Puritans emigrated from England to America in the 1630s and 1640s. During this time, the population of the Massachusetts Bay colony grew to ten times its earlier population.
1197. Brain trust
Many of the advisers who helped Roosevelt during his presidential candidacy continued to aid him after he entered the White House. A newspaperman once described the group as "Roosevelt's Brain Trust." They were more influential than the Cabinet.
1194. "Bank Holiday"
March 11, 1933 - Roosevelt closed all banks and forbade the export of gold or redemption of currency in gold.
1195. Hundred Days
March 9, 1933 - At Roosevelt's request, Congress began a special session to review recovery and reform laws submitted by the President for Congressional approval. It actually lasted only 99 days.
372. Bonus Bill veto
March, 1817 - Madison vetoed John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill, which would have used the bonus money paid to the government by the Second National Bank to build roads and canals. Madison believed in strict interpretation, and using federal money for internal improvements is not a power granted to the federal government in the Constitution.
1477. Bombing of Laos and Cambodia
March, 1969 - U.S. bombed North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia and Laos. Technically illegal because Cambodia and Laos were neutral, but done because North Vietnam was itself illegally moving its troops through those areas. Not learned of by the American public until July, 1973.
431. Martin Van Buren, the Albany Regency
Martin Van Buren, a Democratic-Republican Senator from New York, rallied the factory workers of the North in support of Jackson. He became Jackson's V.P. after Calhoun resigned. New York politics at that time was controlled by a clique of wealthy land-owners known as the Albany Regency, of which Van Buren became the leader.
256. The ratification fights, especially in Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia
Massachusetts farmers opposed the Constitution because they felt it protected trade more than agriculture, but Massachusetts became the 6th state to ratify. New York was opposed to the Constitution; the Federalist Papers were published there to gain support for it. Virginia and New York would not ratify until the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution.
854. Mark Twain
Master of satire. A regionalist writer who gave his stories "local color" through dialects and detailed descriptions. His works include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, "The Amazing Jumping Frog of Calaverus County," and stories about the American West.
947. Commodore Dewey, Manila Bay
May 1, 1898 - Commodore Dewey took his ship into Manila Bay, in the Philippine Islands, and attacked the Spanish Pacific fleet there. The U.S. had been planning to take this strategic port in the Pacific. Dewey caught the Spanish at anchor in the bay and sank or crippled their entire fleet.
1222. Wagner Act
May 1935 - Replaced Section 7A of the NIRA. It reaffirmed labor's right to unionize, prohibited unfair labor practices, and created the National Labor Relations Board.
1217. Rural Electrificaion Committee (REA)
May 1936 - Created to provide loans and WPA labor to electric cooperatives to build lines into rural areas not served by private companies.
1081. Lusitania, Arabic Pledge, Sussex Pledge
May 7, 1915 - British passenger ships were regularly sunk by German subs, but the Lusitania had Americans aboard and brought the U.S. into the war. Germany promised to stop submarine warfare.
551. Cyrus McCormic, mechanical reaper
McCormic built the reaping machine in 1831, and it make farming more efficient. Part of the industrial revolution, it allowed farmers to substantially increase the acreage that could be worked by a single family, and also made corporate farming possible.
1405. Alaska, Hawaii
McKinley had purchased Alaska in 1867 for nine cents an acre and it was admitted to the Union in 1959. Alaska had great natural resources, including gold and oil reserves. Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959.
559. Independent Treasury System, Van Buren and Polk
Meant to keep government out of banking. Vaults were to be constructed in various cities to collect and expand government funds in gold and silver. Proposed after the National Bank was destroyed as a method for maintaining government funds with minimum risk. Passed by Van Buren and Polk.
790. Pinkertons
Members of the Chicago police force headed by Alan Pinkerton, they were often used as strike breakers.
1540. H. R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, John W. Dean and John Mitchel
Men involved in the Watergate scandal, who took the fall for Nixon. Mitchel was Attorney General at the time.
457. Millennialism, Millerites
Millerites were Seventh-Day Adventists who followed William Miller. They sold their possessions because they believed the Second Coming would be in 1843 or 1844, and waited for the world to end. The Millennial Dawnists, another sect of the Seventh-Day Adventists, believed the world was under Satan's rule and felt it their obligation to announce the Second Coming of Christ and the battle of Armageddon.
647. Charles Francis Adams
Minister to Great Britain during the Civil War, he wanted to keep Britain from entering the war on the side of the South.
1140. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Most critics regard this as his finest work. Written in 1925, it tells of an idealist who is gradually destroyed by the influence of the wealthy, pleasure-seeking people around him.
914. Farmer's Alliance
Movement which focused on cooperation between farmers. They all agreed to sell crops at the same high prices to eliminate competition. Not successful.
1588. Supreme Court: Mapp v. Ohio, 1961
Ms. Mapp was affirmed convicted having pornography "on her person" even though Ohio police obtained the material without a warrant. The Supreme Court ruled that there must be a warrant to search.
474. Oberlin, 1833
Mt. Holyoke, 1836 ; Oberlin: founded by a New England Congregationalist at Oberlin, Ohio. First coed facility at the college level. The first to enroll Blacks in 1835. Mt. Holyoke: founded in 1837 in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Became the model for later liberal arts institutions of higher education for women. Liberal colleges.
1175. Causes of the depression
Much debt, stock prices spiralling up, over-production and under-consuming - the stock market crashed. Germany's default on reparations caused European bank failures, which spread to the U.S.
368. Neutral rights issues end with the defeat of Napoleon
Napoleon's defeat ended the war between Britain and France, and thus ended the need for restrictions on neutral trading.
421. Chestnut Street to Wall
Name change of the street in New York in 1800s.
709. Greenbacks
Name given to paper money issued by the government during the Civil War, so called because the back side was printed with green ink. They were not redeemable for gold, but $300 million were issued anyway. Farmers hit by the depression wanted to inflate the notes to cover losses, but Grant vetoed an inflation bill and greenbacks were added to permanent circulation. In 1879 the federal government finally made greenbacks redeemable for gold.
1464. Viet Cong
Name given to the guerilla fighters on the Communist side. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) were regular troops.
1181. "Hooverville"
Name given to the makeshift shanty towns built in vacant lots during the Depression.
1536. White House "Plumbers"
Name given to the special investigations committee established along with CREEP in 1971. Its job was to stop the leaking of confidential information to the public and press.
573. Sojourner Truth
Name used by Isabelle Baumfree, one of the best-known abolitionists of her day. She was the first black woman orator to speak out against slavery.
1152. Leopold and Loeb case
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were convicted of killing a young boy, Bobby Franks, in Chicago just to see if they could get away with it. Defended by Clarence Darrow, they got life imprisonment. Both geniuses, they had decided to commit the perfect murder. The first use of the insanity defense in court.
1192. Wickersham Commission
National Law Enforcement Commission, so named after its chair, George Wickersham, it was a national commission on law observance and enforcement created by Hoover in 1929. Its 1930 report recommended the repeal of Prohibition.
1009. Anti-Saloon League
National organization set up in 1895 to work for prohibition. Later joined with the WCTU to publicize the effects of drinking.
399. New England's opposition to cheap land
New England was opposed to the federal government's liberal land policy because they did not feel that their region was benefitting from the money made off the land sales.
364. New England's merchants, critics of the War of 1812, Essex Junto
New England's merchants opposed the War of 1812 because it cut off trade with Great Britain. Critics of the war were mainly Federalists who represented New England. The Essex Junto was a group of extreme Federalists led by Aaron Burr who advocated New England's secession from the U.S.
48. New York: Dutch, 1664 English
New York belonged to the Dutch, but King Charles II gave the land to his brother, the Duke of York in 1664. When the British came to take the colony, the Dutch, who hated their Governor Stuyvesant, quickly surrendered to them. The Dutch retook the colony in 1673, but the British regained it in 1674.
829. Walter Rauschenbusch
New York clergyman who preached the social gospel, worked to alleviate poverty, and worked to make peace between employers and labor unions.
1151. Sacco and Vanzetti case
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants charged with murdering a guard and robbing a shoe factory in Braintree, Mass. The trial lasted from 1920-1927. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, many believed they had been framed for the crime because of their anarchist and pro-union activities.
1545. Recognition of China
Nixon established a trade policy and recognized the People's Republic of China, which surprised many because China had been an enemy during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
1353. Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh
North Vietnamese leader who had lead the resistance against the Japanese during WW II and at the end of the war had led the uprising against the French Colonial government. He had traveled in Europe, educated in Moscow, and was an ardent Communist. Became President of the North Vietnamese government established after the French withdrawal. Often called the George Washington of North Vietnam.
1463. Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969)
North Vietnamese leader who had lead the resistance against the Japanese during WW II and at the end of the war had led the uprising against the French Colonial government. He had traveled in Europe, was an ardent Communist, and became President of the North Vietnamese government established after the French withdrawal. Often called the George Washington of North Vietnam.
1462. Geography: North and South Vietnam
North and South Vietnam were split at the 17th parallel. North Vietnam is bordered by the Gulf of Tonkin on the east and Laos on the west. South Vietnam is bordered by Laos and Cambodia on the west. West of Laos and Cambodia lays Thailand.
1220. Recognition of the U.S.S.R.
November 1933 - In an effort to open trade with Russia, mutual recognition was negotiated. The financial results were disappointing.
896. Chivington Massacre
November 28, 1861 - Colonel Chivington and his troops killed 450 Indians in a friendly Cheyenne village in Colorado.
1493. Lee Harvey Oswald, Warren Commission
November, 22, 1963 - Oswald shot Kennedy from a Dallas book depository building, and was later himself killed by Jack Ruby. Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled that they both acted alone.
1054. Underwood-Simmons Tariff
October 13, 1913 - Lowered tariffs on hundreds of items that could be produced more cheaply in the U.S. than abroad.
1369. Cuban Missile Crisis
October 14-28, 1962 - After discovering that the Russians were building nuclear missile launch sites in Cuba, the U.S. announced a quarantine of Cuba, which was really a blockade, but couldn't be called that since blockades are a violation of international law. After 6 days of confrontation that led to the brink of nuclear war, Khrushchev backed down and agreed to dismantle the launch sites.
1557. Arab oil embargo
October 6, 1973 - Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. Moscow backed Egypt and both U.S. and U.S.S.R. put their armed forced on alert. In an attempt to pressure America into a pro-Arab stance, OPEC imposed an embargo on all oil to the U.S.
1406. Sputnik
October, 1957 - The first artificial satellite sent into space, launched by the Soviets.
1491. Trade Expansion Act, 1962
October, 1962 - The Act gave the President the power to reduce tariffs in order to promote trade. Kennedy could lower some tariffs by as much as 50%, and, in some cases, he could eliminate them.
1529. Spiro T. Agnew, his resignation
October, 1973 - Nixon's vice-president resigned and pleaded "no contest" to charges of tax evasion on payments made to him when he was governor of Maryland. He was replaced by Gerald R. Ford.
1467. National Liberation Front (NLF)
Official title of the Viet Cong. Created in 1960, they lead an uprising against Diem's repressive regime in the South.
1072. "Watchful Waiting"
Often said by President Monroe during the U.S.'s isolationism period, when the U.S. was trying to stay out of the affairs of other countries in order to avoid war.
362. Events of the War of 1812: Perry, Lake Erie, D.C., New Orleans
Oliver Perry led a 1813 naval victory against the British on Lake Erie. Washington D.C. was captured and burned by the British in 1814. The Battle of New Orleans was a great victory for the U.S. in January, 1815, but it took place two weeks after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent had ended the war.
1144. T.S. Elliot, "The Waste Land"
One of the most influential poets of the early 20th century, he had been born in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved to England after college and spent his adult life in Europe. The poem, written in 1922, contrasts the spiritual bankruptcy of modern Europe with the values and unity of the past. Displayed profound despair. Considered the foundation of modernist, 20th century poetry.
834. Chautauqua Movement
One of the first adult education programs. Started in 1874 as a summer training program for Sunday School teachers, it developed into a travelling lecture series and adult summer school which traversed the country providing religious and secular education though lectures and classes.
1146. KDKA, Pittsburgh
One of the first radio stations to pioneer in commercial radio broadcasting in 1920. By 1922 there were 508 radio stations.
253. Patrick Henry (1736-1799)
One of the main opponents of the Constitution, he worked against its ratification in Virginia.
1111. Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty
One of the more controversial articles, it dealt with the legal liability of Germany vs. the moral liability.
1439. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Organized in the fall of 1960 by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. as a student civil rights movement inspired by sit-ins, it challenged the status quo and walked the back roads of Mississippi and Georgia to encourage Blacks to resist segregation and to register to vote.
450. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), The Scarlet Letter
Originally a transcendentalist; later rejected them and became a leading anti-trascendentalist. He was a descendant of Puritan settlers. The Scarlet Letter shows the hypocrisy and insensitivity of New England puritans by showing their cruelty to a woman who has committed adultery and is forced to wear a scarlet "A".
1225. Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), John L. Lewis
Originally formed by leaders within the AFL who wanted to expand its principles to include workers in mass produciotn industries. In 1935, they created coalation of the 8 unions comprising the AFL and the United Mine Workers of America, led by John L. Lewis. After a split within the organization in 1938, the CIO was established as a separate entity.
1035. Department of Labor
Originally started in 1903 as the Department of Commerce and Labor, it was combined with the Bureau of Corporations in 1913 to create the Department of Labor
1473. Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers
Papers were part of a top-secret government study on the Vietnam War and said that the U.S. government had lied to the citizens of the U.S. and the world about its intentions in Vietnam.
1193. Twenty-First Amendment
Passed February, 1933 to repeal the 18th Amendment (Prohibition). Congress legalized light beer. Took effect December, 1933. Based on recommendation of the Wickersham Commission that Prohibition had lead to a vast increase in crime.
1460. Voting Rights Act, 1965
Passed by Congress in 1965, it allowed for supervisors to register Blacks to vote in places where they had not been allowed to vote before.
1064. Federal Highways Act, 1916
Passed by Wilson, it provided federal money to build roads. It helped to provide competition to the railroads' monopoly on public transportation.
504. Manifest Destiny
Phrase commonly used in the 1840's and 1850's. It expressed the inevitableness of continued expansion of the U.S. to the Pacific.
1364. Common Market
Popular name for the European Economic Community established in 1951 to encourage greater economic cooperation between the countries of Western Europe and to lower tariffs on trade between its members.
1490. Common Market
Popular name for the European Economic Community established in 1951 to encourage greater economic cooperation between the countries of Western Europe and to lower tariffs on trade between its members.
401. Election of 1824: popular vote, electoral vote, house vote: Jackson, Adams, Crawford, Clay
Popular vote: Jackson - 152,933 (42%), Adams - 115,626 (32%), Clay - 47,136 (13%), Crawford - 46,979 (13%). Electoral vote: Jackson - 99, Adams - 84, Crawford - 41, Clay - 37. House vote: Adams - 13, Jackson - 7, Crawford - 4, Clay - dropped. Jackson did not have a majority in the electoral vote, so the election went to the House of Representatives, where Adams won.
895. Plains Indians
Posed a serious threat to western settlers because, unlike the Eastern Indians from early colonial days, the Plains Indians possessed rifles and horses.
1173. Dawes Plan, Young Plan
Post-WW I depression in Germany left it unable to pay reparation and Germany defaulted on its payments in 1923. In 1924, U.S. Vice President Charles Dawes formulated a plan to allow Germany to make its reparation payments in annual installments. This plan was renegotiated and modified in 1929 by U.S. financier Owen Young.
445. Orestes Brownson (1803-1876)
Presbyterian layman, Universalist minister, Unitarian preacher and founder of his own church in Boston. Spent his life searching for his place and supporting various causes. As an editor, he attacked organized Christianity and won a large intellectual New England following. Then turned Roman Catholic and became a strong defender of Catholicism in Brownson's Quarterly Review, from 1844 until his death.
817. Charles Darwin, Origin of Species
Presented the theory of evolution, which proposed that creation was an ongoing process in which mutation and natural selection constantly give rise to new species. Sparked a long-running religious debate over the issue of creation.
1499. Dominican Republic, 1965
President Johnson sent 20,000 American troops to the island to keep a leftist government from coming to power.
521. James K. Polk
President known for promoting Manifest Destiny.
1582. Lech Walesa, Solidarity
President of Poland in 1990, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. He formed the first independent trade union in Poland, called Solidarity, and eventually brought down the Communist government and instituted democratic government. Credited with initiating the end of Communist domination in Eastern Europe.
777. Samuel Gompers
President of the AFL, he combined unions to increase their strength.
1409. Philip Randolph
President of the Brotherhood of Car Porters and a Black labor leader, in 1941 he arranged a march on Washington to end racial discrimination.
491. Prison reform: Auburn system, Pennsylvania system
Prison reform in the U.S. began with the Pennsylvania system in 1790, based on the concept that solitary confinement would induce meditation and moral reform. However, this led to many mental breakdowns. The Auburn system, adopted in 1816, allowed the congregation of prisoners during the day.
1570. Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty: Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat
Product of the Camp David Accords, Sadat represented Egypt and Begin represented Israel. Israel returned land to Egypt in exchange for Egyptian recognition. Earned both men the Noble Peace Prize.
911. Depression of 1893
Profits dwindled, businesses went bankrupt and slid into debt. Caused loss of business confidence. 20% of the workforce unemployed. Let to the Pullman strike.
873. Civil Rights Act of 1875
Prohibited discrimination against blacks in public place, such as inns, amusement parks, and on public transportation. Declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
1147. Prohibition, Volstead Act, Al Capone
Prohibition - 1919: the 18th Amendment outlawed the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors. Volstead Act - 1919: Defined what drinks constituted "intoxicating liquors" under the 18th Amendment, and set penalties for violations of prohibition. Al Capone: In Chicago, he was one of the most famous leaders of organized crime of the era.
1025. Mark Hanna (1839-1904)
Prominent Republican senator and businessman, he was Republican campaign manager.
903. Safety Valve Thesis
Proposed by Frederick Jackson Turner to explain America's unique non-European culture, held that people who couldn't succeed in eastern society could move west for cheap land and a new start.
1392. Twenty-Second Amendment
Proposed in 1947 and ratified in 1951. It limited the number of terms that a president may serve to two. Was brought on by FDR's 4-term presidency.
1572. Humphrey-Hawkins Bill
Proposed that detention centers be set up for suspected subversives (Communists) who could be held without a trial, it was known as the "concentration camp bill."
1525. Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
Proposed the 27th Amendment, calling for equal rights for both sexes. Defeated in the House in 1972.
10. Calvinism
Protestant sect founded by John Calvin. Emphasized a strong moral code and believed in predestination (the idea that God decided whether or not a person would be saved as soon as they were born). Calvinists supported constitutional representative government and the separation of church and state.
828. Salvation Army, YMCA
Provided food, housing, and supplies for the poor and unemployed.
1121. Esch-Cummins Transportation Act
Provided for the return of railroads to private control, widened powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
1221. Section 7A of the NRA
Provided that workers had the right to join unions and to bargain collectively.
12. Contrast Puritan colonies with others
Puritan colonies were self-governed, with each town having its own government which led the people in strict accordance with Puritan beliefs. Only those members of the congregation who had achieved grace and were full church members (called the "elect," or "saints") could vote and hold public office. Other colonies had different styles of government and were more open to different beliefs.
674. Fifteenth Amendment
Ratified 1870 - No one could be denied the right to vote on account of race, color or having been a slave. It was to prevent states from amending their constitutions to deny black suffrage.
1492. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963
Reacting to Soviet nuclear tests, this treaty was signed on August 5, 1963 and prohibited nuclear testing undersea, in air and in space. Only underground testing was permitted. It was signed by all major powers except France and China.
1579. Reaganomics
Reagan's theory that if you cut taxes, it will spur the growth of public spending and improve the economy. It included tax breaks for the rich, "supply-side economics," and "trickle down" theory.
1580. Supply side economics
Reaganomics policy based on the theory that allowing companies the opportunity to make profits, and encouraging investment, will stimulate the economy and lead to higher standards of living for everyone. Argued that tax cuts can be used stimulate economic growth. Move money into the hands of the people and they will invest, thus creating prosperity.
578. Mountain Whites in the South
Rednecks. Usually poor, aspired to be successful enough to own slaves. Hated Blacks and rich Whites. Made up much of the Confederate Army, fighting primarily for sectionalism and states' rights.
905. "Crime of 1873"
Referred to the coinage law of 1873 which eliminated silver money from circulation. Name given by people who opposed paper money.
503. Great American Desert
Region between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. Vast domain became accessible to Americans wishing to settle there. This region was called the "Great American Desert" in atlases published between 1820 and 1850, and many people were convinced this land was a Sahara habitable only to Indians. The phrase had been coined by Major Long during his exploration of the middle of the Louisiana Purchase region.
889. Great American Desert
Region between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. Vast domain became accessible to Americans wishing to settle there. This region was called the "Great American Desert" in atlases published between 1820 and 1850, and many people were convinced this land was a Sahara habitable only to Indians. The phrase had been coined by Major Long during his exploration of the middle portion of the Louisiana Purchase region.
962. Spheres of influence
Region in which political and economic control is exerted by on European nation to the exclusion of all others. Spheres of influence appeared primarily in the East, and also in Africa.
1053. Federal Reserve Act
Regulated banking to help small banks stay in business. A move away from laissez-faire policies, it was passed by Wilson.
622. Election of 1860: candidates, parties, issues
Republican - Abraham Lincoln. Democrat - Stephan A. Douglas, John C. Breckenridge. Constitutional Union - John Bell. Issues were slavery in the territories (Lincoln opposed adding any new slave states).
1117. Election of 1920: candidates, issues
Republican, Warren G. Harding, with V.P. running mate Coolidge, beat Democrat, Governor James Cox, with V.P. running mate, FDR. The issues were WW I, the post-war economy and the League of Nations.
1119. Election of 1920: candidates, issues, vice-presidential candidates
Republican, Warren G. Harding, with V.P. running mate Coolidge, beat Democrat, Governor James Cox, with V.P. running mate, FDR. The issues were WW I, the post-war economy and the League of Nations.
1513. John Birch Society
Right-wing group named for an American missionary to China who had been executed by Communist troops. They opposed the liberal tendencies of the Great Society programs, and attempted to impeach Earl Warren for his liberal, "Communist" actions in the Supreme Court.
1578. Election of 1980: candidates, issues
Ronald Wilson Reagan, Republican defeated Jimmy Carter, Democrat and John B. Anderson, Independent. The issues were government spending and traditional values.
967. Roosevelt's Big Stick Diplomacy
Roosevelt said, "walk softly and carry a big stick." In international affairs, ask first but bring along a big army to help convince them. Threaten to use force, act as international policemen. It was his foreign policy in Latin America.
1010. Square Deal
Roosevelt used this term to declare that he would use his powers as president to safeguard the rights of the workers.
1603. Supreme Court: Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 1980
Ruled that a man-made life form (genetic engineering) could be patented.
690. Election of 1876: Hayes and Tilden
Rutherford B. Hayes - liberal Republican, Civil War general, he received only 165 electoral votes. Samuel J. Tilden - Democrat, received 264,000 more popular votes that Hayes, and 184 of the 185 electoral votes needed to win. 20 electoral votes were disputed, and an electoral commission decided that Hayes was the winner - fraud was suspected.
707. Election of 1876: candidates, electoral commission
Rutherford B. Hayes - liberal Republican, Civil War general, he received only 165 electoral votes. Samuel J. Tilden - Democrat, received 264,000 more popular votes that Hayes, and 184 of the 185 electoral votes needed to win. 20 electoral votes were disputed, and an electoral commission decided that Hayes was the winner - fraud was suspected.
884. Grandfather clause
Said that a citizen could vote only if his grandfather had been able to vote. At the time, the grandfathers of black men in the South had been slaves with no right to vote. Another method for disenfranchising blacks.
842. Henry George, Progress and Poverty
Said that poverty was the inevitable side-effect of progress.
705. Liberal Republicans: Carl Schurz, Horace Greeley
Schurz and Greeley were liberal republicans - they believed in civil service reform, opposed corruption, wanted lower tariffs, and were lenient toward the South.
646. Emancipation Proclamation
September 22, 1862 - Lincoln freed all slaves in the states that had seceded, after the Northern victory at the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln had no power to enforce the law.
1564. SALT II
Second Strategic Arms Limitations Talks. A second treaty was signed on June 18, 1977 to cut back the weaponry of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. because it was getting too competitive. Set limits on the numbers of weapons produced. Not passed by the Senate as retaliation for U.S.S.R.'s invasion of Afghanistan, and later superseded by the START treaty.
983. Elihu Root
Secretary of War under Roosevelt, he reorganized and monderized the U.S. Army. Later served as ambassador for the U.S. and won the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize.
273. Implied powers, elastic clause, necessary and proper clause
Section 8 of Article I contains a long list of powers specifically granted to Congress, and ends with the statement that Congress shall also have the power "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the forfegoing powers." These unspecified powers are known as Congress' "implied" powers. There has long been a debate as to how much power this clause grants to Congress, which is sometimes referred to as the "elastic" clause because it can be "stretched" to include almost any other power that Congress might try to assert.
1093. Espionage Act, 1917
Sedition Act, 1918 ; Brought forth under the Wilson administration, they stated that any treacherous act or draft dodging was forbidden, outlawed disgracing the government, the Constitution, or military uniforms, and forbade aiding the enemy.
1431. Sweatt v. Painter, 1950
Segregated law school in Texas was held to be an illegal violation of civil rights, leading to open enrollment.
1538. Senator Edmund Muskie
Senator from Maine, although he was favored to win the Democratic candidacy, he lost to McGovern.
530. Nicholas Trist
Sent as a special envoy by President Polk to Mexico City in 1847 to negotiate an end to the Mexican War.
1372. G.I. Bill of Rights 1944
Servicemen's Readjustment Act, also called the G.I. Bill of Rights. Granted $13 billion in aid for former servicemen, ranging from educational grants to housing and other services to assist with the readjustment to society after demobilization.
374. Convention of 1818
Set the border between the U.S. and Canada at the 49th parallel (or latitude). Also affirmed U.S. rights to fisheries along Newfoundland and Labrador.
276. Residence Act
Set the length of time which immigrants must live in the U.S. in order to become legal citizens.
693. Sharecropping, Crop Lien System
Sharecropping provided the necessities for Black farmers. Storekeepers granted credit until the farm was harvested. To protect the creditor, the storekeeper took a mortgage, or lien, on the tenant's share of the crop. The system was abused and uneducated blacks were taken advantage of. The results, for Blacks, was not unlike slavery.
13. Anne Hutchinson, Antinomianism
She preached the idea that God communicated directly to individuals instead of through the church elders. She was forced to leave Massachusetts in 1637. Her followers (the Antinomianists) founded the colony of New Hampshire in 1639.
595. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
She wrote the abolitionist book, Uncle Tom's Cabin. It helped to crystalize the rift between the North and South. It has been called the greatest American propaganda novel ever written, and helped to bring about the Civil War.
1397. Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
She wrote this novel in 1943 to express her extreme conservative views and her belief that communism was inherently unworkable. Her philosophy was that society functions best when each individual pursues his or her own self-interest, called objectivism.
699. Ablemann v. Booth 1859
Sherman Booth was sentenced to prison in a federal court for assisting in a fugitive slave's rescue in Milwaukee. He was released by the Wisconsin Supreme Court on the grounds that the Fugitive Slave Act was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court overturned this ruling. It upheld both the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act and the supremacy of federal government over state government.
1016. Mann-Elkins Act, 1910
Signed by Taft, it bolstered the regulatory powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission and supported labor reforms. It gave the ICC the power to prosecute its own inquiries into violations of its regulations.
438. Rise of the Second Party System
Since the 1840's, two major political parties have managed to eliminated all competition. Democrats and Republicans have controlled nearly all government systems since the 1840's.
632. Fort Sumter
Site of the opening engagement of the Civil War. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina had seceded from the Union, and had demanded that all federal property in the state be surrendered to state authorities. Major Robert Anderson concentrated his units at Fort Sumter, and, when Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861, Sumter was one of only two forts in the South still under Union control. Learning that Lincoln planned to send supplies to reinforce the fort, on April 11, 1861, Confederate General Beauregard demanded Anderson's surrender, which was refused. On April 12, 1861, the Confederate Army began bombarding the fort, which surrendered on April 14, 1861. Congress declared war on the Confederacy the next day.
658. Joint Committee on Reconstruction (Committee of Fifteen)
Six senators and nine representatives drafted the 14th Amendment and Reconstruction Acts. The purpose of the committee was to set the pace of Reconstruction. Most were radical Republicans.
1528. Nixon, "New Federalism"
Slogan which meant returning power to the states, reversing the flow of power and resources from states and communities to Washington, and start power and resources flowing back to people all over America. Involved a 5-year plan to distribute $30 billion of federal revenues to states.
816. Anthony Comstock (1844-1915)
Social reformer who worked against obscenity.
446. Margaret Fuller (1810-1815), The Dial
Social reformer, leader in women's movement and a transcendentalist. Edited The Dial (1840-1842), which was the puplication of the transcendentalists. It appealed to people who wanted "perfect freedom", "progress in philosophy and theology . . . and hope that the future will not always be as the past."
423. Peggy Eaton Affair
Social scandal (1829-1831) - John Eaton, Secretary of War, stayed with the Timberlakes when in Washington, and there were rumors of his affair with Peggy Timberlake even before her husband died in 1828. Many cabinet members snubbed the socially unacceptable Mrs. Eaton. Jackson sided with the Eatons, and the affair helped to dissolve the cabinet - especially those members associated with John C. Calhoun (V.P.), who was against the Eatons and had other problems with Jackson.
826. Lester Frank Ward
Sociologist who attacked social Darwinism in his book, Dynamic Sociology.
1002. Edward Ross (1866-1951)
Sociologist who promoted "social psychology," the belief that social environment affected the behavior of individuals. He believed that practical solutions to current problems should be derived through the united efforts of church, state and science, and that the citizens should actively try to cure social ills rather than sit passively and wait for corrections.
1113. "Irreconcilables": Borah, Johnson, LaFollette
Some Senators would have been willing to support the League of Nations if certain reservations were made to the treaty. The "Irreconcilables" voted against the League of Nations with or without reservations.
533. Mexican Cession
Some of Mexico's territory was added to the U.S. after the Mexican War: Arizona, New Mexico, California, Utah, Nevada & Colorado. (Treaty of Guadelupe Hildago)
1382. Dixiecrats, J. Strom Thurmond
Southern Democrats disgruntled over the strong civil rights proposals of the Democrats' 1948 National Convention. Formed the States' Rights Democratic Party and nominated Thurmond (governor of South Carolina) for president.
1413. Rural South vs. Urban North
Southern communities were more rural and Northern communities more urban.
379. Transcontinental Treaty (Adams-Onis Treaty)
Spain gave up Florida to the U.S. and the U.S./Mexico border was set so that Texas and the American Southwest would be part of Mexico.
1541. Impeachment proceedings
Special committee led by Ervin began impeachment talks about Nixon. Impeachment hearing were opened May 9, 1974 against Nixon by the House Judiciary Committee. The Committee recommended 3 articles of impeachment against Nixon: taking part in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice, "repeatedly" failing to carry out his constitutional oath, and unconstitutional defiance of committee subpoenas. Nixon resigned on August 9.
1359. Nikita Khrushchev, 1955 Geneva Summit
Stalin's successor, wanted peaceful coexistence with the U.S. Eisenhower agreed to a summit conference with Khrushchev, France and Great Britain in Geneva, Switzerland in July, 1955 to discuss how peaceful coexistence could be achieved.
1377. Employment Act of 1946
Started because of the flood of available workers after WWII. Established the Council of Economic Advisors. declared that the government was committed to maintaining maximum employment.
792. Pullman Strike, 1894
Started by enraged workers who were part of George Pullman's "model town", it began when Pullman fired three workers on a committee. Pullman refused to negotiate and troops were brought in to ensure that trains would continue to run. When orders for Pullman cars slacked off, Pullman cut wages, but did not cut rents or store prices.
1007. Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948)
Started government regulation of public utilities. He was Secretary of State under Harding and later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was the Republican candidate in 1916, and lost to Wilson by less that 1% of the vote.
639. Northern blockade
Starting in 1862, the North began to blockade the Southern coast in an attempt to force the South to surrender. The Southern coast was so long that it could not be completely blockaded.
1395. Fiscal Management
Starting in 1950, the federal government controlled expenditures by regulating the budget, including the deficit.
1542. SALT I Agreement
Strategic Arms Limitations Talks by Nixon and Brezhnev in Moscow in May, 1972. Limited Anti-Ballistic Missiles to two major departments and 200 missiles.
403. Panama Conference
Summoned by the Venezuelan revolutionary leader, Simon Bolivar, in 1826 to discuss commercial treaties, adopt a code of international law, and arrive at a common Latin American policy toward Spain. Two delegates were sent by the U.S., but were delayed so long that when they got there the meeting was over. They were uncomfortable about black and whites mixing at the meeting. Showed the good relations between U.S. and South America.
867. Clara Barton
Superintendant of Nurses for the Union Army during the Civil War, founded the American Red Cross is 1881. See card # 651 for more information.
1597. Supreme Court: Reynolds v. Sims, 1964
Supreme Court created the one person, one vote grounded in the Equal Protection Clause.
1430. Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. Sawyer, 1952
Supreme Court decision which restricted the powers of the president and the executive branch.
1601. Supreme Court: Doe v. Bolton, 1973
Supreme Court found that physicians consulted by pregnant women had standing to contest the constitutionality of the state's abortion law.
1595. Supreme Court: Wesberry v. Sanders, 1964
Supreme Court required states to draw their congressional districts so that each represented the same number of people. "As nearly as practical, one man's vote . . . is to be worth as much as another's".
1602. Supreme Court: Roe v. Wade, 1973
Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional most state statutes restricting abortion. It ruled that a state may not prevent a woman from having an abortion during the first 3 months of pregnancy, and could regulate, but not prohibit abortion during the second trimester. Decision in effect overturned anti-abortion laws in 46 states.
943. Reconcentration Policy
When Cubans started to rebel, Spaniards begain to reorganize prisoners into labor camps.
623. Democratic Party Conventions: Baltimore, Charleston
The Democratic Party split North and South. The Northern Democratic convention was held in Baltimore and the Southern in Charleston. Douglas was the Northern candidate and Breckenridge was the Southern (they disagreed on slavery).
1082. Election of 1916: Hughes, Wilson, issues
The Democrats emphasized a program of domestic reform. Charles Evans Hughes left the Supreme Court to challenge Wilson, a democrat.
1230. Keynesian Economics
The British economist John Maynard Keynes believed that the government could pull the economy out of a depression by increasing government spending, thus creating jobs and increasing consumer buying power.
11. Congregational Church, Cambridge Platform
The Congregational Church was founded by separatists who felt that the Church of England retained too many Roman Catholic beliefs and practices. The Pilgrims were members of the Congregational Church. The Cambridge Platform stressed morality over church dogma.
1475. Hanoi, Haiphong
The Declaration of Independence by the Vietnamese was proclaimed in Hanoi on September 2, 1945. Haiphong is Hanoi's harbor.
359. Federalist opposition to the War of 1812
The Federalist party was mainly composed of New England merchants, who wanted good relations with Britain and free trade. New England merchants met at the Hartford Convention in protest of the war and the U.S. government's restrictions on trade.
17. Half-way Covenant
The Half-way Covenant applied to those members of the Puritan colonies who were the children of church members, but who hadn't achieved grace themselves. The covenant allowed them to participate in some church affairs.
888. "The Crisis"
The NAACP's pamphlet, which borrowed the name from Thomas Paine's speech about the American Revolution.
1204. National Recovery Administration, "The Blue Eagle"
The NRA Blue Eagle was a symbol Hugh Johnson devised to generate enthusiasm for the NRA codes. Employers who accepted the provisions of NRA could display it in their windows. The symbol showed up everywhere, along with the NRA slogan "We Do Our Part."
425. South opposes protective tariffs (Tariff of Abominations)
The North wanted tariffs that protected new industries, but the agricultural Southern states depended on cheap imports of manufactured goods and only wanted tariffs for revenue. The South strongly opposed protective tariffs like the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832, and protested by asserting that enforcement of the tariffs could be prohibited by individual states, and by refusing to collect tariff duties.
3. Pilgrims and Puritans contrasted
The Pilgrims were separatists who believed that the Church of England could not be reformed. Separatist groups were illegal in England, so the Pilgrims fled to America and settled in Plymouth. The Puritans were non-separatists who wished to adopt reforms to purify the Church of England. They received a right to settle in the Massachusetts Bay area from the King of England.
1046. Bull Moose Party
The Progressive Party, it was Roosevelt's party in the 1912 election. He ran as a Progressive against Republican Taft, beating him but losing to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
380. Quadruple Alliance, Holy Alliance
The Quadruple Alliance was signed by Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia in 1815. The Holy Alliance signed by all European rulers except the Pope, the king of England, and the sultan of Turkey. It was meant to unite Europe, preserve peace, and spread Christianity.
1236. Huey Long, Share the Wealth, Gerald K. Smith
The Share the Wealth society was founded in 1934 by Senator Huey Long of Louisiana. He called for the confiscation of all fortunes over $5 million and a 100% tax on annual incomes over $1 million. He was assassinated in 1935 and his successor Gerald K. Smith lacked the ability to be a strong head of the society.
275. Location of the capitol: Washington D.C., circumstances surrounding it
The South was angry that the whole country was assuming state debts incurred primarily in the North, and that slaves were not being counted as full persons for purposes of assigning the number of representatives that each state would have in the House. As part of the Compromise Plan adopted at the Constitutional Convention, it was agreed that the nation's capitol would be located in the South.
662. The unreconstructed South
The South's infrastructure had been destroyed - manufacturing had almost ceased. Few banks were solvent and in some areas starvation was imminent. General Sherman had virtually destroyed large areas on his "march to the sea".
660. State suicide theory
The Southern states had relinquished their rights when they seceded. This, in effect, was suicide. This theory was used to justify the North taking military control of the South.
1575. Afghanistan, 1979
The Soviet Union sent troops into neighboring Afghanistan to support its Communist government against guerilla attacks by fundamentalist Muslims.
1497. Cuban Missile Crisis, 1963
The Soviet Union was secretly building nuclear missile launch sites in Cuba, which could have been used for a sneak-attack on the U.S. The U.S. blockaded Cuba until the U.S.S.R. agreed to dismantle the missile silos.
1168. Washington Disarmament Conference, 1921-1922
The U.S. and nine other countries discussed limits on naval armaments. They felt that a naval arms race had contributed to the start of WW I. They created quotas for different classes of ships that could be built by each country based on its economic power and size of existing navies.
360. Naval engagements in the War of 1812
The U.S. navy won some important battles on the Great Lakes but failed to break the British blockade of the U.S.
954. Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba
The U.S. acquired these territories from Spain through the Treaty of Paris (1898), which ended the Spanish-American War.
270. National debt, state debt, foreign debt
The U.S.'s national debt included domestic debt owed to soldiers and others who had not yet been paid for their Revolutionary War services, plus foreign debt to other countries which had helped the U.S. The federal government also assumed all the debts incurred by the states during the war. Hamilton's program paid off these debts.
369. War of 1812 increased nationalism and economic independence
The U.S.'s success in the War of 1812 gave Americans a feeling of national pride. The War of 1812 had cut off America's access to British manufactured goods and forced the U.S. to develop the means to produce those goods on its own.
422. Foote Resolution, Webster-Hayne debate
The Webster-Hayne debate in 1830 was over an 1830 bill by Samuel A. Foote to limit the sale of public lands in the west to new settlers. Daniel Webster, in a dramatic speech, showed the danger of the states' rights doctrine, which permitted each state to decide for itself which laws were unconstitutional, claiming it would lead to civil war. States' rights (South) vs. nationalism (North).
1020. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
The author who wrote a book about the horrors of food productions in 1906, the bad quality of meat and the dangerous working conditions.
1358. Preemptive Strike
The doctrine of attacking an enemy force before they can attack you.
1478. Vietnamization
The effort to build up South Vietnamese troops while withdrawing American troops, it was an attempt to turn the war over to the Vietnamese.
518. Election 1844: Liberty Party
The first abolitionist party - believed in ending slavery.
394. National Road (also called Cumberland Road)
The first highway built by the federal government. Constructed during 1825-1850, it stretched from Pennsylvania to Illinois. It was a major overland shipping route and an important connection between the North and the West.
1196. "Relief, recovery, reform"
The first step in FDR's relief program was to establish the Civilian Conservation Corps in April, 1933. The chief measure designed to promote recovery was the National Industrial Recovery Act. The New Deal acts most often classified as reform measures were those designed to guarantee the rights of labor and limit the powers of businesses.
1055. Income tax
The first step toward building government revenues and redistributing wealth, a tax that was levied on annual income over a specific amount and with certain legally permitted deductions.
259. Bill of Rights adopted, 1791
The first ten amendments to the Constitution, which guarantee basic individual rights.
280. Election of 1796: President Adams, Vice-president Jefferson
The first true election (when Washington ran, there was never any question that he would be elected). Adams was a Federalist, but Jefferson was a Democratic-Republican.
282. Federalists and Democratic-Republicans
The first two political parties. Many of the Democratic-Republicans had earlier been members of the Antifederalists, which had never organized into a formal political party.
476. American Temperance Union
The flagship of the temperance movement in the 1800's. Opposed alcohol.
1375. Postwar Inflation
The high volume of U.S. spending during the war, which reached an estimated $341 billion, and pent up consumer demand caused by war-time rationing led to inflation after the war.
1031. Home Rule for cities
The idea was that the people of a city should decide how the city is run.
387. Growth of industry in New England, textiles
The industrial revolution had occurred in England in the 1700s, but it was not until the period industrial growth after the War of 1812 that the U.S. began to manufacture goods with the aid of factories and machines. New England, rather than the South, emerged as a manufacturing center because New England had many rivers to supply water power, plus a better system of roads and canals. The first major industry in New England was textiles.
1171. World Court
The judicial arm of the League of Nations, supported by several presidents.
283. Federalists / Democratic-Republicans: Party leaders and supporters
The leading Federalists were Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. The leading Democratic- Republicans were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
618. George Fitzhugh, Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society
The most influential propagandist in the decade before the Civil War. In his Sociology (1854), he said that the capitalism of the North was a failure. In another writing he argued that slavery was justified when compared to the cannibalistic approach of capitalism. Tried to justify slavery.
561. Abolitionism
The militant effort to do away with slavery. It had its roots in the North in the 1700s. It became a major issue in the 1830s and dominated politics after 1840. Congress became a battleground between pro and anti-slavery forces from the 1830's to the Civil War.
1090. War Industries Board
The most powerful agency of the war, it had to satisfy the allied needs for goods and direct American industries in what to produce.
1228. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins
The nation's first woman cabinet member.
7. Church of England (Anglican Church)
The national church of England, founded by King Henry VIII. It included both Roman Catholic and Protestant ideas.
645. Conscription draft riots
The poor were drafted disproportionately, and in New York in 1863, they rioted, killing at least 73 people.
1133. Progressive Party
The popular name of the "People's Party," formed in the 1890's as a coalition of Midwest farm groups, socialists, and labor organizations, such as the American Federation of Labor. It attacked monopolies, and wanted other reforms, such as bimetallism, transportation regulation, the 8-hour work day, and income tax.
875. Lynching
The practice of an angry mob hanging a percieved criminal without regard to due process. In the South, blacks who did not behave as the inferiors to whites might be lynched by white mobs.
704. "Waving the bloody shirt"
The practice of reviving unpleasant memories from the past. Representative Ben F. Butler waved before the House a bloodstained nightshirt of a carpetbagger flogged by Klan members.
289. Alien and Sedition Acts
These consist of four laws passed by the Federalist Congress and signed by President Adams in 1798: the Naturalization Act, which increased the waiting period for an immigrant to become a citizen from 5 to 14 years; the Alien Act, which empowered the president to arrest and deport dangerous aliens; the Alien Enemy Act, which allowed for the arrest and deportation of citizens of countries at was with the US; and the Sedition Act, which made it illegal to publish defamatory statements about the federal government or its officials. The first 3 were enacted in response to the XYZ Affair, and were aimed at French and Irish immigrants, who were considered subversives. The Sedition Act was an attempt to stifle Democratic-Republican opposition, although only 25 people were ever arrested, and only 10 convicted, under the law. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which initiated the concept of "nullification" of federal laws were written in response to the Acts.
357. Causes of the War of 1812
These included: British impressment of sailors, British seizure of neutral American trading ships, and the reasons given by the War Hawks (the British were inciting the Indians on the frontier to attack the Americans, and the war would allow the U.S. to seize the northwest posts, Florida, and possibly Canada).
366. Treaty negotiators: John Quincy Adams, Albert Gallatin, Henry Clay
These three were among the American delegation which negotiated the Treaty of Ghent.
839. Land grant colleges: A&M, A&T, A&I
These were colleges built on the land designated by the Morril Act of 1862.
995. Ida Tarbell (1857-1944), History of the Standard Oil Company
This 1904 book exposed the monpolistic practices of the Standard Oil Company. Strengthened the movement for outlawing monopolies. A muckraker novel.
351. Embargo of 1807, opposition
This act issued by Jefferson forbade American trading ships from leaving the U.S. It was meant to force Britain and France to change their policies towards neutral vessels by depriving them of American trade. It was difficult to enforce because it was opposed by merchants and everyone else whose livelihood depended upon international trade. It also hurt the national economy, so it was replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act.
257. The Federalist Papers, Jay, Hamilton, Madison
This collection of essays by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, explained the importance of a strong central government. It was published to convince New York to ratify the Constitution.
258. "The Federalist, # 10"
This essay from the Federalist Papers proposed setting up a republic to solve the problems of a large democracy (anarchy, rise of factions which disregard public good).
1459. Civil Rights Act of 1964, Public Accommodations Section of the Act
This portion of the Act stated that public accommodations could not be segregated and that nobody could be denied access to public accommodation on the basis of race.
371. Tariff of 1816 -- Protective
This protective tariff helped American industry by raising the prices of British manufactured goods, which were often cheaper and of higher quality than those produced in the U.S.
1014. Elkins Act, 1903, rebates
This strengthened earlier federal legislation that outlawed preferential pricing through rebates. Rebates are returns of parts of the amount paid for goods or services, serving as a reduction or discount. This act also prohibited railroads from transporting goods they owned. As a dodge around previous legislation, railroads were buying goods and transporting them as if they were their own.
531. Treaty of Guadelupe Hildago provisions
This treaty required Mexico to cede the American Southwest, including New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California, to the U.S. U.S. gave Mexico $15 million in exchange, so that it would not look like conquest.
439. Pre-emption Act, 1841
This was to help settlers who occupied land and improved it before surveys were done. Without it, settlers could be outbid for the land. Some speculators used "floaters" to pre-empt land for them.
1586. El Salvador
Three U.S. nuns found shot in El Salvador in December, 1980. President Carter had stopped aid to El Salvador's right-wing dictator, but President Reagan started it again.
988. Democracy, efficiency, pragmatism
Three characteristics that the U.S. felt made them superior to other countries. Many U.S. cities in the 1900 to 1920 instituted modern "scientific" political systems, such as the use of professional city managers, to replace inefficient traditional machine politics. The U.S. tried to spread there ideas abroad.
923. Williams Jenning Bryan
Three-time candidate for president for the Democratic Party, nominated because of support from the Populist Party. He never won, but was the most important Populist in American history. He later served as Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State (1913-1915).
676. Impeachment
To bring charges against a public official. Johnson was impeached, but was saved from being taken out of office by one vote.
43. Staple crops in the South
Tobacco was grown in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Rice was grown in South Carolina and Georgia. Indigo was grown in South Carolina.
1170. 5-3-1 ration
Tonnage ratio of the construction of large ships, it meant that Britain could only have 1 ship for every 3 ships in Japan, and Japan could only have 3 ships for every 5 ships in the U.S. Britain, U.S. and Japan agreed to dismantle some existing vessels to meet the ratio.
1384. Fair Deal
Truman's policy agenda -- he raised the minimum wage from 65 to 75 cents an hour, expanded Social Security benefits to cover 10 million more people, and provided government funding for 100,000 low-income public housing units and for urban renewal.
1086. War declared, April 1917
U.S. declared war on Germany due to the Zimmerman telegram and the attack on the Lusitania.
686. Ulysses S. Grant
U.S. president 1873-1877. Military hero of the Civil War, he led a corrupt administration, consisting of friends and relatives. Although Grant was personally a very honest and moral man, his administration was considered the most corrupt the U.S. had had at that time.
702. Ulysses S. Grant
U.S. president 1873-1877. Military hero of the Civil War, he led a corrupt administration, consisting of friends and relatives. Although Grant was personally a very honest and moral man, his administration was considered the most corrupt the U.S. had had at that time.
978. Roosevelt Corollary
U.S. would act as international policemen. An addition to the Monroe Doctrine.
1211. Public Works Administration (PWA), Harold Ickes
Under Secertary of the Interior Harold Ickes, the PWA distributed $3.3 billion to state and local governments for building schools, highways, hospitals, ect.
636. Grant, McClellan, Sherman and Meade
Union generals in the Civil War.
1235. Coalition of the Democratic Party: Blacks, unions, intellectuals, big city machines, South
Union took an active role providing campaign funds and votes. Blacks had traditionally been Republican but 3/4 had shifted to the Democratic party. Roosevelt still recieved strong support from ethnic whites in big cities and Midwestern farmers.
471. National Trade Union
Unions formed by groups of skilled craftsmen.
706. Panic of 1873, depression
Unrestrained speculation on the railroads let to disaster - inflation and strikes by railroad workers. 18,000 businesses failed and 3 million people were out of work. Federal troops were called in to end the strike.
1427. Korematsu v. U.S., 1944
Upheld the U.S. government's decision to put Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War II.
405. Vice-President Calhoun: South Carolina Exposition and protest, nullification
Vice-President Calhoun anonymously published the essay South Carolina Exposition, which proposed that each state in the union counter the tyranny of the majority by asserting the right to nullify an unconstitutional act of Congress. It was written in reaction to the Tariff of 1828, which he said placed the Union in danger and stripped the South of its rights. South Carolina had threatened to secede if the tariff was not revoked; Calhoun suggested state nullification as a more peaceful solution.
29. Virginia: purpose, problems, failures, successes
Virginia was formed by the Virginia Company as a profit-earning venture. Starvation was the major problem; about 90% of the colonists died the first year, many of the survivors left, and the company had trouble attracting new colonists. They offered private land ownership in the colony to attract settlers, but the Virginia Company eventually went bankrupt and the colony went to the crown. Virginia did not become a successful colony until the colonists started raising and exporting tobacco.
1099. Wartime manpower losses
WWI involved violent, modern weapons and old fighting styles. With so many men at war, nations needed other people to work in the factories and other wartime industries.
968. U.S.S. Oregon
Warship involved in Spanish-American blockade in Cuba in 1898. Went from Cuba to the Philippines by going around the Southern tip of South America. Showed that we need a better route between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
1401. St Lawrence Seaway
Waterway to connect Great Lakes on the U.S./Canadian border to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River, it allowed better shipping and transportation, and improved international relations and trade.
1453. Watts, Detroit race riots
Watts: August, 1965, the riot began due to the arrest of a Black by a White and resulted in 34 dead, 800 injured, 3500 arrested and $140,000,000 in damages. Detroit: July, 1967, the army was called in to restore order in race riots that resulted in 43 dead and $200,000,000 in damages.
566. Theodore Weld (1802-1895)
Weld was devoted to the abolitionism movement. He advised the breakaway anti-slavery Whigs in Congress and his anonymous tract "American Slavery as It Is" (1839) was the inspiration for Uncle Tom's Cabin.
356. War Hawks
Western settlers who advocated war with Britain because they hoped to aquire Britain's northwest posts (and also Florida or even Canada) and because they felt the British were aiding the Indians and encouraging them to attack the Americans on the frontier. In Congress, the War Hawks were Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun.
406. Jacksonian Revolution of 1828
When Andrew Jackson was elected president from humble beginnings, people thought he could make the American Dream come true. Jackson appointed common people to government positions. Jefferson's emphasis on farmers' welfare gave way to Jackson's appeal to city workers, small businessmen, and farmers. Jackson was the first non-aristocrat to be elected president. Jackson's election was the revolution of the "Common Man".
434. Panic of 1837
When Jackson was president, many state banks received government money that had been withdrawn from the Bank of the U.S. These banks issued paper money and financed wild speculation, especially in federal lands. Jackson issued the Specie Circular to force the payment for federal lands with gold or silver. Many state banks collapsed as a result. A panic ensued (1837). Bank of the U.S. failed, cotton prices fell, businesses went bankrupt, and there was widespread unemployment and distress.
385. Missouri: Tallmadge Amendment, Thomas Amendment
When Missouri applied for statehood, there was a dispute over whether it would be admitted as a slave state or a free state. The Tallmadge Amendment was a bill which would have admitted Missouri with its existing slave population, but would forbid the introduction of additional slaves and free all slave children at age 25. The Thomas Amendment was a bill which would have admitted Missouri as a slave state but forbid slavery north of the 36°30" latitude in the Louisiana Purchase region. Neither bill was put into effect.
543. Wilmot Proviso
When President Polk submitted his Appropriations Bill of 1846 requesting Congress' approval of the $2 million indemnity to be paid to Mexico under the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo, Pennsylvania Representative David Wilmot attached a rider which would have barred slavery from the territory acquired. The South hated the Wilmot Proviso and a new Appropriations Bill was introduced in 1847 without the Proviso. It provoked one of the first debates on slavery at the federal level, and the principles of the Proviso became the core of the Free Soil, and later the Republican, Party.
426. Nullification crisis, South Carolina Exposition and Protest
When faced with the protective Tariff of 1828, John Calhoun presented a theory in the South Carolina Exposition and Protest (1828) that federal tariffs could be declared null and void by individual states and that they could refuse to enforce them. South Carolina called a convention in 1832, after the revised Tariff of 1828 became the Tariff of 1832, and passed an ordinance forbidding collection of tariff duties in the state. This was protested by Jackson.
388. Samuel Slater (1768-1835)
When he emigrated from England to America in the 1790s, he brought with him the plans to an English factory. With these plans, he helped build the first factory in America.
415. Whigs: origins, policies
Whigs were conservatives and popular with pro-Bank people and plantation owners. They mainly came from the National Republican Party, which was once largely Federalists. They took their name from the British political party that had opposed King George during the American Revolution. Among the Whigs were Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and, for a while, Calhoun. Their policies included support of industry, protective tariffs, and Clay's American System. They were generally upper class in origin.
488. "Cult of True Womanhood": piety, domesticity, purity and submissiveness
While many women were in favor of the women's movement, some were not. Some of these believed in preserving the values of "true womanhood": piety, domesticity, purity and submissiveness. These opponents of the women's movement referred to their ideas as the "Cult of True Womanhood."
653. Assassination of April 14, 1865
While sitting in his box at Ford's Theatre watching "Our American Cousin", President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.
670. Ku Klux Klan
White-supremacist group formed by six former Conferedate officers after the Civil War. Name is essentially Greek for "Circle of Friends". Group eventually turned to terrorist attacks on blacks. The original Klan was disbanded in 1869, but was later resurrected by white supremacists in 1915.
437. Election of 1840: candidates, characteristics
William Henry Harrison and V.P. John Tyler - Whig - 234 votes. Martin Van Buren - Democrat - 60 votes. James G. Birney - Liberty Party - 0 votes. Panic of 1837 and a coming depression kept Van Buren from being reelected. Whigs rejected Clay, nominated military hero Harrison with the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too". They depicted Van Buren as living in luxury and Harrison as a "log cabin and hard cider" guy, which wasn't entirely true.
925. Election of 1896: candidates and issues
William McKinley-Republican, North, industry and high tariffs. Williams Bryan-Democrat, West and South, farmers and low tariffs. The main issues were the coinage of silver and protective tariffs.
45. Liberal land laws in Pennsylvania
William Penn allowed anyone to emigrate to Pennsylvania, in order to provide a haven for persecuted religions.
46. Holy experiment
William Penn's term for the government of Pennsylvania, which was supposed to serve everyone and provide freedom for all.
1087. "Make the world safe for democracy"
Wilson gave this as a reason for U.S. involvement in WWI.
1065. Adamson Act, 1916
Wilson pushed passage of this act which mandated an eight hour workday and time and a half for overtime.
1100. Fourteen Points
Wilson's idea that he wanted included in the WWI peace treaty, including freedom of the seas and the League of Nations.
1388. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957), McCarthyism
Wisconsin Senator who began sensational campaign in February, 1950 by asserting that the U.S. State Department had been infiltrated by Communists. In 1953 became Chair of the Senate Sub- Committee on Investigations and accused the Army of covering up foreign espionage. The Army-McCarthy Hearings made McCarthy look so foolish that further investigations were halted.
1131. Election of 1924: candidates
With Republican Coolidge running against Democrat Davis and Progressive LaFollette, the liberal vote was split between the Democrat and the Progressive, allowing Coolidge to win.
644. Republican legislation passed in Congress after Southerners left: banking, tariff, homestead, transcontinental railroad
With no Southerners to vote them down, the Northern Congressman passed all the bills they wanted to. Led to the industrial revolution in America.
1191. Twentieth Amendment
Written by George Norris and also called the "Lame Duck Amendment," it changed the inauguration date from March 4 to January 20 for president and vice president, and to January 3 for senators and representatives. It also said Congress must assemble at least once a year.
1036. Payne-Aldrich Tariff, 1909
With the fear of foreign competition gone, it lowered rates to 38%. Democrats felt it did not go far enough and passed the Underwood Tariff in 1913 to further lower taxes.
795. Danbury Hatters Strike
Workers in a hat-making factory went on strike.
1139. "The Lost Generation"
Writer Gertrude Stein named the new literary movement when she told Hemingway, "You are all a lost generation," referring to the many restless young writers who gathered in Paris after WW I. Hemingway used the quote in The Sun Also Rises. They thought that the U.S. was materialistic and the criticized conformity.
851. Stephen Crane (1871-1900)
Writer who introduced grim realism to the American novel. His major work, The Red Badge of Courage is a psychological study of a Civil War soldier. Crane had never been near a war when he wrote it, but later he was a reporter in the Spanish-American War.
853. Bret Harte
Wrote humorous short stories about the American West, popularized the use of regional dialects as a literary device.
871. Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908)
Wrote the "Uncle Remis" stories, which promoted black stereotypes and used them for humor.
542. Election of 1848: Cass, Taylor
Zachary Taylor - Whig. Lewis Cass - Democrat. Martin Van Buren - Free Soil Party (Oregon issues). Taylor side-stepped the issue of slavery and allowed his military reputation to gain him victory. Cass advocated states' rights in the slavery issue. Free Soil Party wanted no slavery in Oregon.