APUSH Theme: Politics and Power (POL)

New Freedom

Platform of reforms advocated by Woodrow Wilson in his first presidential campaign (1912), including stronger antitrust legislation to protect small business enterprises from monopolies, banking reform, and tariff reductions. Wilson's strategy involved taking action to increase opportunities for capitalist competition rather than increasing government regulation of large trusts.

Spoils Systems

Policy of rewarding political supporters with public office, first widely employed at the federal level by Andrew Jackson. The practice was widely abused by unscrupulous office seekers, but it also helped cement party loyalty in the emerging two-party system.

Moral Majority

Political action committee founded by evangelical Reverend Jerry Falwell in 1979 to promote traditional Christian values and oppose feminism, abortion, and gay rights. The group was a major linchpin in the resurgent religious right of the 1980s.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic party

Political party organized by civil rights activists to challenge Mississippi's delegation to the Democratic National Convention, who opposed the civil rights planks in the party's platform. Claiming a mandate to represent the true voice of Mississippi, where almost no black citizens could vote, the MFDP demanded to be seated at the convention but were denied by party bosses. The effort was both a setback to civil rights activism in the south and a motivation to continue to struggle for black voting rights.

John Wilkes

Popular British oppositionist writer. Author of the North Britain. Accused of seditious libel against King George III in 1763. Was jailed, freed, but forced to flee to France. Later elected to, expelled from, and re-elected to the House of Commons. Became increasingly popular in the colonies, where he was considered a champion of individual rights.

Democratic Leadership Council

Non-profit organization of centrist Democrats founded in the mid-1980s. The group attempted to push the Democratic party toward pro-growth, strong defense, and anti-crime policies. Among its most influential early members was Bill Clinton, whom it held up as an example of "third way" politics.

Anti federalists

Opponents of the 1787 Constitution, they cast the document as antidemocratic, objected to the subordination of the states to the central government, and feared encroachment on individuals' liberties in the absence of a bill of rights.

Black Panther Party

Organization of armed black militants formed in Oakland, California, in 1966 to protect black rights. The Panthers represented a growing dissatisfaction with the non-violent wing of the civil rights movement, and signaled a new direction to that movement after the legislative victories of 1964 and 1965.

Freedom Riders

Organized mixed-race groups who rode interstate buses deep into the South to draw attention to and protest racial segregation, beginning in 1961. This effort by northern young people to challenge racism proved a political and public relations success for the Civil Rights Movement.

Judiciary Act of 1789

Organized the federal legal system, establishing the Supreme Court, federal district and circuit courts, and the office of the attorney general.

New Right

Outspoken conservative movement of the 1980s that emphaszed such "social issues" as opposition to abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, pornography, homosexuality, and affirmative action

Compromise Tariff of 1833

Passed as a measure to resolve the nullification crisis, it provided that tariffs be lowered gradually, over a period of ten years, to 1816 levels.

Force Bill of 1833

Passed by Congress alongside the Compromise Tariff, it authorized the president to use the military to collect federal tariff duties.

Wade Davis Bill

Passed by Congressional Republicans in response to Abraham Lincoln's "10 percent plan," it required that 50 percent of a state's voters pledge allegiance to the Union, and set stronger safeguards for emancipation. Reflected divisions between Congress and the President, and between radical and moderate Republicans, over the treatment of the defeated South

Stamp Act

Passed by George Grenville in 1765, angering much of the colonial population because it taxed newspapers, pamphlets, and most legal procedures. Led to colonial resistance. Eventually repealed.

criminal syndicalism laws

Passed by many states during the Red Scare of 1919-1920, these nefarious laws outlawed the mere advocacy of violence to secure social change. Stump speakers for the International Workers of the World, or IWW, were special targets.

Reconstruction Act (Military Reconstruction)

Passed by the newly elected Republican Congress, it divided the South into five military districts, disenfranchised former confederates, and required that Southern states both ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and write state constitutions guaranteeing freedmen the franchise before gaining readmission to the Union.

Civil Rights Bill of 1866

Passed over Andrew Johnson's veto, the bill aimed to counteract the Black Codes by conferring citizenship on African Americans and making it a crime to deprive blacks of their rights to sue, testify in court, or hold property.

Election of 1860

United States presidential election of 1860, American presidential election held on Nov. 6, 1860, in which Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. Event led to the secession of several southern states.

New York Draft Riots

Uprising, mostly of working-class Irish-Americans, in protest of the draft. Rioters were particularly incensed by the ability of the rich to hire substitutes or purchase exemptions.

Henry Clay

War Hawk who was elected Speaker of the House at the age of 34. Vigorously approached his position and worked hard to control floor debate, pack key committees with his allies, direct House affairs behind the scenes, and generally impose order on his fellow congressmen.

Sit In Movement

When young civil rights protestors demanded equal access to segregated lunch counters and other public facilities, they seated themselves and asked for service. Began in Greensboro, NC, in early 1960.

Civic Virtue

Willingness on the part of citizens to sacrifice personal self-interest for the public good. Deemed a necessary component of a successful republic

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Youth organization founded by southern black students in 1960 to promote civil rights. Drawing on its members' youthful energies, SNCC in its early years coordinated demonstrations, sit-ins, and voter registration drives.

Liberal Republicans (Civil War Era)

emerged to challenge Ulysses S. Grant in the election of 1872. Believed that conciliation of Southern whites rather than continued military intervention was the only way to achieve peace in the South. Nominated Horace Greeley for president. He urged his fellow northerners to put the issues of the Civil War behind them. (Greeley was also nominated by the Democrats.)

George Wallace

former governor of Alabama. Segregationist Democrat who created the American Independent Party and ran for president in 1968. His grassroots campaign and his attacks on the counterculture gained him 13.5 percent of the popular vote.

Sir William Berkeley

governor of Virginia. Favored defensive strategy against Indians. Tried to distinguish between neutral and friendly Indians and hostile ones. Put down Bacon's Rebellion. Died in disgrace in England.

Proclamation of 1763

issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War, which forbade all settlement past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains.This royal proclamation, which closed down colonial expansion westward, was the first measure to affect all thirteen colonies. In response to a revolt of Native Americans led by Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, King George III declared all lands west of the Appalachian Divide off-limits to colonial settlers. The edict forbade private citizens and colonial governments alike to buy land from or make any agreements with natives; the empire would conduct all official relations.

Stono Rebellion

large slave revolt that rocked South Carolina in the mid-eighteenth century (1739). Twenty slaves stole weapons from a store, murdered twenty-five whites, tried to escape to Florida. Most caught and killed by South Carolina militia.

Shay's Rebellion

large-scale, unsuccessful rural revolt in early 1787 in western Massachusetts. Led by debtor farmers against commercial forces located in the eastern part of the state. Convinced many gentlemen and artisans of the need for a strong central government.

Webster-Hayne Debate (1830)

a famous "sectional" debate Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina that took place on January 19-27, 1830 on the topic of protectionist tariffs.The Democrats in the West opposed the resolution since they favored cheap land in their region. The states' rights forces in the South took advantage of this situation and tried to forge an alliance with the West, hoping that this would lead to reworking such issues as the tariff.

Women's Clubs

attracted hundreds of thousands of members during the Progressive Era. Conceived as self-help organizations in which women would be encouraged to sharpen their minds, refine their domestic skills, and strengthen their moral faculties. Embraced social reform and focused their energies on improving schools, building libraries, furthering vocational opportunities for girls, and securing fire and sanitation codes for tenement houses. Transformed traditional female concerns into questions of public policy and significantly increased public awareness of the problems afflicting children and families.

Rachel Carson

author of Silent Spring. Raised public awareness of the dangers of pesticide use in agriculture, especially DDT. Had a significant impact on the expansion of the environmental movement.

Malcolm X

black civil rights leader, member of the Nation of Islam. Advocated a rejection of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "passive resistance" approach to the civil rights movement in favor of a more active building of black cultural traditions and a more aggressive defense of African-American institutions.

Social Gospel Movement

broad movement that deeply affected mainstream Protestant denominations in urban Gilded Age America. Its supporters were shocked by poverty and overcrowding in the growing tenement districts and believed that ameliorating the plight of the poor was as important as saving souls. Accordingly, they backed the settlement houses that appeared beginning in the 1890s and pressed for legislation to curb the exploitation of the poor and provide them with opportunities for betterment.

Hartford Convention

called by moderate Federalists in December 1814 in order to head off calls for secession among more radical party members. The convention proposed a number of amendments to the Constitution: elimination of the three-fifths compromise; denial of the right to hold office to naturalized citizens; making it harder for new states to enter the union; and requiring a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress for a declaration of war. None of the amendments was acted upon, and the convention discredited the Federalists and led to their rapid demise.

Era of Good Feelings

Popular name for the period of one-party, Republican, rule during James Monroe's presidency. The term obscures bitter conflicts over internal improvements, slavery, and the national bank. Democratic-Republicans dominated this time period as the Federalists faltered due to their opposition to the War of 1812 and their involvement with the Hartford Convention. In the Election of 1824, Democratic Republican candidates ran and led to the Corrupt Bargain and a split in the party with the Jacksonian Democrats and the National Republicans. The Era of Good Feelings marked a period in the political history of the United States that reflected a sense of national purpose and a desire for unity among Americans in the aftermath of the War of 1812.

Pet Banks

Popular term for pro-Jackson state banks that received the bulk of federal deposits when Andrew Jackson moved to dismantle the Bank of the United States in 1833.

Great Compromise

Popular term for the measure which reconciled the New Jersey and Virginia plans at the constitutional convention, giving states proportional representation in the House and equal representation in the Senate. The compromise broke the stalemate at the convention and paved the way for subsequent compromises over slavery and the Electoral College.

Tammany Hall

Powerful New York political machine that primarily drew support from the city's immigrants, who depended on Tammany Hall patronage, particularly social services.

Great Society

President Lyndon Johnson's term for his domestic policy agenda. Billed as a successor to the New Deal, the Great Society aimed to extend the postwar prosperity to all people in American society by promoting civil rights and fighting poverty. Great Society programs included the War on Poverty, which expanded the Social Security system by creating Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care for the aged and the poor. Johnson also signed laws protecting consumers and empowering community organizations to combat poverty at grassroots levels.

Fair Deal

President Truman's extensive social program introduced in his 1949 message to Congress. Republicans and Southern Democrats kept much of his vision from being enacted, except for raising the minimum wage, providing for more public housing, and extending old-age insurance to many more beneficiaries under the Social Security Act.

Specie Circular

Presidential executive order issued by President Andrew Jackson in 1836 pursuant to the Coinage Act and carried out by his successor, President Martin Van Buren. It required that all public lands be purchased with "hard," or metallic, currency. Issued after small state banks flooded the market with unreliable paper currency, fueling land speculation in the West. It contributed to the Panic of 1837 for which Van Buren was blamed.

Affirmative Action

Program designed to redress historic racial and gender imbalances in jobs and education. The term grew from an executive order issued by John F. Kennedy in 1961 mandating that projects paid for with federal funds could not discriminate based on race in their hiring practices. In the late 1960s, President Nixon's Philadelphia Plan changed the meaning of affirmative action to require attention to certain groups, rather than protect individuals against discrimination.

Fifteenth Amendment

Prohibited states from denying citizens the franchise on account of race. It disappointed feminists who wanted the Amendment to include guarantees for women's suffrage.

Federalists

Proponents of the 1787 Constitution, they favored a strong national government, arguing that the checks and balances in the new Constitution would safeguard the people's liberties.

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

Proposed that the issue of slavery be decided by popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska territories, thus revoking the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Introduced by Stephen Douglass in an effort to bring Nebraska into the Union and pave the way for a northern transcontinental railroad.

Nineteenth Amendment

This Constitutional amendment, finally passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified in 1920, gave women the right to vote over seventy years after the first organized calls for woman's suffrage in Seneca Falls, New York.

Constitutional Union Party

Formed by moderate Whigs and Know-Nothings in an effort to elect a compromise candidate and avert a sectional crisis

Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Founded in Ohio in the 1870s to combat the evils of excessive alcohol consumption, the WCTU went on to embrace a broad reform agenda, including campaigns to abolish prostitution and gain the right to vote for women.

Washington's Farewell Address (1796)

George Washington's address at the end of his presidency, warning against "permanent alliances" with other nations. Washington did not oppose all alliances, but believed that the young, fledgling nation should forge alliances only on a temporary basis, in extraordinary circumstances.

Roe v. Wade

Landmark Supreme Court decision that forbade states from barring abortion by citing a woman's constitutional right to privacy. Seen as a victory for feminism and civil liberties by some, the decision provoked a strong counter-reaction by opponents to abortion, galvanizing the Pro-Life movement.

American System

Henry Clay's three-pronged system to promote American industry. Clay advocated a strong banking system, a protective tariff, and a federally funded transportation network.. Henry Clay's "American System," devised in the burst of nationalism that followed the War of 1812, remains one of the most historically significant examples of a government-sponsored program to harmonize and balance the nation's agriculture, commerce, and industry.

Earth Day

International day of celebration and awareness of global environmental issues launched by conservationists on April 22, 1970.

"10 percent" Reconstruction plan

Introduced by President Lincoln, it proposed that a state be readmitted to the Union once 10 percent of its voters had pledged loyalty to the United States and promised to honor emancipation

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Investigatory body established in 1938 to root out "subversion." Sought to expose communist influence in American government and society, in particular through the trial of Alger Hiss.

War Powers Act

Law passed by Congress in 1973 limiting the President's ability to wage war without Congressional approval. The act required the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing troops to a foreign conflict. An important consequence of the Vietnam War, this piece of legislation sought to reduce the President's unilateral authority in military matters.

Elkins Act

Law passed by Congress to impose penalties on railroads that offered rebates and customers who accepted them. The law strengthened the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The Hepburn Act of 1906 added free passes to the list of railroad no-no's.

Common Law

Laws that originate from court rulings and customs, as opposed to legislative statutes. The United States Constitution grew out of the Anglo-American common law tradition and thus provided only a general organizational framework for the new federal government.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Legislation pushed through Congress by President Johnson that prohibited ballot-denying tactics, such as literary tests and intimidation. The Voting Rights Act was a successor to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and sought to make racial disenfranchisement explicitly illegal.

Welfare Reform Bill

Legislation that made deep cuts in welfare grants and required able-bodied welfare recipients to find employment. Part of Bill Clinton's campaign platform in 1992, the reforms were widely seen by liberals as an abandonment of key New Deal/Great Society provisions to care for the impoverished.

Mid-19th Century Political Crisis

Liberty Party 1. Run abolitionist candidate James Birney, for president in 1844. 2. Won only 2% of the vote but drew votes from the Whigs, especially in New York. Free Soil Party 1. Not abolitionist but opposed to expansion of slavery in the territories. 2. Won 10% of the popular vote with Martin Van Buren as their candidate in 1848. 3. Lost 50% of their support in 1852 when their candidate repudiated the Compromise of 1850 Whigs Split over slavery into: 1. Southern, "Cotton" Whigs who eventually drifted into the Democratic Party. 2. Northern, "Conscience" Whigs who moved to new parties, i.e. Free Soil and, later, into the Republican Party. American Party 1. Popularly known as the "Know Nothing" Party. 2. Nativist party based on opposition to immigration and on temperance. 3. Run Millard Fillmore in 1856 and win 21% of the popular vote. 4. Absorbed into the Republican Party after 1856. Republican Party 1. Formed in 1854 when a coalition of Independent Democrats, Free Soilers, and Conscience Whigs united in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 2. Stressed free labor and opposed the extension of slavery in the territories ("Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men!"). 3. Moderates, like Abraham Lincoln, could, therefore, oppose slavery on "moral" grounds as wrong, while admitting that slavery had a "right" to exist where the Constitution originally allowed it to exist. 4. John C. Fremont was the first Republican presidential candidate in the election of 1856.

Kent State University

Massacre of four college students by National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970, in Ohio. In response to Nixon's announcement that he had expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia, college campuses across the country exploded in violence. On May 14 and 15, students at historically black Jackson State College in Mississippi were protesting the war as well as the Kent State shooting when highway patrolmen fired into a student dormitory, killing two students.

March on Washington

Massive civil rights demonstration in August 1963 in support of Kennedy-backed legislation to secure legal protections for American blacks. One of the most visually impressive manifestations of the Civil Rights Movement, the march was the occasion of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786)

Measure enacted by the Virginia legislature prohibiting state support for religious institutions and recognizing freedom of worship. Served as a model for the religion clause of the first amendment to the Constitution.

Meat Inspection Act

A law passed by Congress to subject meat shipped over state lines to federal inspection. The publication of Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, earlier that year so disgusted American consumers with its description of conditions in slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants that it mobilized public support for government action.

Recall

A progressive ballot procedure allowing voters to remove elected officials from office.

Initative

A progressive reform measure allowing voters to petition to have a law placed on the general ballot. Like the referendum and recall, it brought democracy directly "to the people," and helped foster a shift toward interest-group politics and away from old political "machines."

Referendum

A progressive reform procedure allowing voters to place a bill or on the ballot for final approval, even after being passed by the legislature.

Grandfather Clause

A regulation established in many southern states in the 1890s that exempted from voting requirements (such as literacy tests and poll taxes) anyone who could prove that their ancestors ("grandfathers") had been able to vote in 1860. Since slaves could not vote before the Civil War, these clauses guaranteed the right to vote to many whites while denying it to blacks.

Whitewater

A series of scandals during the Clinton Administration that stemmed from a failed real estate investment from which the Clintons were alleged to have illicitly profited. The accusations prompted the appointment of a special federal prosecutor, though no indictments.

Proposition 13

A successful California state ballot initiative that capped the state's real estate tax at 1 percent of assessed value. The proposition radically reduced average property tax levels, decreasing revenue for the state government and signaling the political power of the "tax revolt," increasingly aligned with conservative politics.

Freedom Summer

A voter registration drive in Mississippi spearheaded by a collaboration of civil rights groups. The campaign drew the activism of thousands of black and white civil rights workers, many of whom were students from the north, and was marred by the abduction and murder of three such workers at the hands of white racists.

Alien and Sedition Laws (1798)

Acts passed by a Federalist Congress raising the residency requirement for citizenship to fourteen years and granting the president the power to deport dangerous foreigners in times of peace.

Compromise of 1850

Admitted California as a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law. Widely opposed in both the North and South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery.

American Relief and Recovery Act

Among the earliest initiatives of the Obama Administration to combat the Great Recession. It was based on the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes that called for increased government spending to offset decreased private spending in times of economic downturn. The Act was controversial from the outset, passing with no Republican votes in the House, and only three in the Senate, and helping to foster the "Tea Party" movement to curb government deficits, even while critics on the Left argued that the Act's $787 Billion appropriation was not enough to turn the economy around.

Muckrakers

Bright young reporters at the turn of the twentieth century who won this unfavorable moniker from Theodore Roosevelt, but boosted the circulations of their magazines by writing exposés of widespread corruption in American society. Their subjects included business manipulation of government, white slavers, child labor, and the illegal deeds of the trusts, and helped spur the passage of reform legislation.

Virtual Representation

British political concept. Maintained that all Englishmen were represented by all members of Parliament regardless of an individual MP's constituency. Designed to counter colonial cries against taxation without representation. British thinking maintained that the colonies were indeed represented--in the same way that the large, nonvoting majority in Great Britain was.

Bank of the United States

Chartered by Congress as part of Alexander Hamilton's financial program, the bank printed paper money and served as a depository for Treasury funds. It drew opposition from Jeffersonian Republicans, who argued that the bank was unconstitutional.

The Federalist Papers (1788)

Collection of essays written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton and published during the ratification debate in New York to lay out the Federalists' arguments in favor of the new Constitution. Since their publication, these influential essays have served as an important source for constitutional interpretation.

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act (1873)

Congressional legislation that established the Civil Service Commission, which granted federal government jobs on the basis of examinations instead of political patronage, thus reigning in the spoils system.

Fourteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that extended civil rights to freedmen and prohibited states from taking away such rights without due process.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Equal Rights Amendment, which declared full constitutional equality for women. Although it passed both houses of Congress in 1972, a concerted grassroots campaign by anti-feminists led by Phyllis Schlafly persuaded enough state legislatures to vote against ratification. The amendment failed to become part of the Constitution.

Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War

Established by Congress during the Civil War to oversee military affairs. Largely under the control of Radical Republicans, the committee agitated for a more vigorous war effort and actively pressed Lincoln on the issue of emancipation.

Emancipation Proclamation of 1863

Executive order that freed all slaves in the states in rebellion, but not those that remained loyal to the Union. Issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1862. It went into effect at the beginning of 1863.

Tallmadge amendment (1819)

Failed proposal to prohibit the importation of slaves into Missouri territory and pave the way for gradual emancipation. Southerners vehemently opposed the amendment, which they perceived as a threat to the sectional balance between North and South.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Federal law that banned racial discrimination in public facilities and strengthened the federal government's power to fight segregation in schools. Title VII of the act prohibited employers from discriminating based on race in their hiring practices, and empowered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to regulate fair employment.

First Two-Party System:

Federalists v. Democratic-Republicans, 1780s - 1816

Articles of Confederation

First American constitution that established the United States as a loose confederation of states under a weak national Congress, which was not granted the power to regulate commerce or collect taxes. The Articles were replaced by a more efficient Constitution in 1789.

Nat Turner's Rebellion

(also known as the Southampton Insurrection) was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831. Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the Southern United States. Raised fears among white Southerners of further uprisings.

Popular Sovereignty

(in the context of the slavery debate) Notion that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery. Seemingly a compromise, it was largely opposed by Northern abolitionists who feared it would promote the spread of slavery to the territories.

The Political Legacy of the New Deal (1932-1952)

1. Created a Democratic party coalition that would dominate American politics for many years (1933- 1952). 2. Included ethnic groups, city dwellers, organized labor, blacks, as well as a broad section of the middle class. 3. Awakened voter interest in economic matters and increased expectations and acceptance of government involvement in American life. 4. The New Deal coalition made the federal government a protector of interest groups and a mediator of the competition among them. 5. "Activists" role for government in regulating American business to protect it from the excesses and problems of the past. 6. Fair Deal of the post-war Truman administration continued the trend in governmental involvement: i.e. advocated expanding Social Security benefits, increasing the minimum wage, a full employment program, slum clearance, public housing, and government sponsorship of scientific research. 7. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman 8. In 1948, the "liberal" or Democratic coalition split into two branches: States' Rights (1948) 1. Southern conservative Democrats known as "Dixiecrats." 2. Opposed the civil rights plank in the Democratic platform. 3. Nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond for President. Progressive Party (1948) 1. "Liberal" Democrats who favored gradual socialism, the abolition of racial segregation, and a conciliatory attitude toward Russia. 2. Nominated Henry A. Wallace for president.

Democratic-Republicans (First Party System)

1. Emphasized states' rights. 2. "Strict" interpretation of the Constitution. 3. Preference for agriculture and rural life. 4. Strength in South and West. 5. Foreign policy sympathized with France. 6. Stressed civil liberties and trust in the people 7. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison

Federalist Party (First Party System)

1. Favored strong central government. 2. "Loose" interpretation of the Constitution. 3. Encouragement of commerce and manufacturing. 4. Strongest in Northeast. 5. Favored close ties with Britain. 6. Emphasized order and stability. 7. Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, John Marshall

Populist Party

1. Formed in 1891 by remnants of the Farmers' Alliances. 2. Big government party with a healthy list of demands that included: o free coinage of silver, o government ownership of the railroads, telegraphs, and telephone lines, o graduated income tax, o direct election of U. S. senators, o the use of initiative, referendum, and recall 3. The party eventually fades because farmers' situation improved in the late 1890s and because their political agenda was assumed by the major parties.

The Republican Era (1920-1932)

1. From 1921 to 1933 both the presidency and congress were dominated by Republicans (Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover). 2. The position of the government was decidedly pro-business. 3. Though conservative, the government experimented with new approaches to public policy and was an active agent of economic change to respond to an American culture increasingly urban, industrial, and consumer-oriented. 4. Conflicts surfaced regarding immigration restriction, Prohibition, and race relations. 5. Generally, this period was a transitional one in which consumption and leisure were replacing older "traditional" American values of self-denial and the work ethic.

Progressive Era Politics (1900-1920)

1. Spanned the period 1900-1920 and the presidencies of three "Progressive" Presidents: Theodore Roosevelt (Republican), William Howard Taft (Republican), and Woodrow Wilson (Democrat). 2. Believed that the laissez-faire system was obsolete, yet supported capitalism. 3. Believed in the idea of progress and that reformed institutions would replace corrupt power. 4. Applied the principles of science and efficiency to all economic, social, and political instituting. 5. Viewed government as a key player in creating an orderly, stable, and improved society. 6. Believed that government had the power to combat special interests and work for the good of the community, state, or nation. 7. Political parties were singled out as corrupt, undemocratic, outmoded, and inefficient. 8. Power of corrupt government could be diminished by increasing the power of the people and by putting more power in the hands of non-elective, nonpartisan, professional officials. 9. The progressives eventually co-opt many of the Populist demands such as referendum, initiative, direct election of Senators, etc. Some of these are incorporated in the "Progressive" Amendments to the U. S. Constitution: 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments.

Pure Food and Drug Act

A law passed by Congress to inspect and regulate the labeling of all foods and pharmaceuticals intended for human consumption. This legislation, and additional provisions passed in 1911 to strengthen it, aimed particularly at the patent medicine industry. The more comprehensive Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 largely replaced this legislation.

Whigs (Second Party System)

1. The party of modernization. 2. Looked forward to the future. 3. Spoke to the hopes of Americans. 4. Wanted to use federal and state government to promote economic growth, especially transportation and banks. 5. Advocated reforms such as temperance and public schools and prison reform. 6. Were entrepreneurs who favored industry and urban growth and free labor. 7. Favored gradual territorial expansion over time and opposed the Mexican War. 8. Believed in progress through internal growth 9. American System: Whig ideology of urbanization, industrialization, federal rights, commercial expansion was favored in the North. 10. Henry Clay

Democrats (Second Party System)

1. The party of tradition. 2. Looked backward to the past. 3. Spoke to the fears of Americans 4. Opposed banks and corporations as state legislated economic privilege. 5. Opposed state-legislated reforms and preferred individual freedom of choice. 6. Were Jeffersonian agrarians who favored farms and rural independence and the right to own slaves. 7. Favored rapid territorial expansion over space by purchase or war. 8. Believed in progress through external growth. 9. Democratic ideology of agrarianism, slavery, states rights, territorial expansion was favored in the South. 10. Andrew Jackson, Martin van Buren

Anti Masonic Party

1. the first third party 2. introduced nominating conventions and party platforms 3. single-issue party against Freemasons 4. absorbed by National Republicans to form Whig Party

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

A campus-based political organization founded in 1961 by Tom Hayden that became an iconic representation of the New Left. Originally geared toward the intellectual promise of "participatory democracy," SDS emerged at the forefront of the civil rights, antipoverty, and antiwar movements during the 1960s.

Volstead Act

A federal act enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.

Operation Wetback

A government program to roundup and deport as many as one million illegal Mexican migrant workers in the United States. The program was promoted in part by the Mexican government and reflected burgeoning concerns about non-European immigration to America.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

A governmental organization signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1970 designed to regulate pollution, emissions, and other factors that negatively influence the natural environment. The creation of the EPA marked a newfound commitment by the federal government to actively combat environmental risks and was a significant triumph for the environmentalist movement.

War Hawks

A group of young congressmen who took control of the House of Representatives in 1811-12. Mostly Republicans from the South or the West, they were ardent nationalists who were more than willing to declare war on England in order to protect U.S. rights. Their leader, Henry Clay, who became Speaker of the House.

Corrupt Bargain (1824)

Alleged to have been struck between John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay in the election of 1824. In exchange for Clay's support once the election had gone to the House of Representatives, Adams supposedly promised to appoint Clay secretary of state. After Adams won and did make Clay secretary of state, his opponents, led by Andrew Jackson (who had won the popular vote), denounced the "corrupt bargain" that had stolen the election for Adams.

Missouri Compromise of 1820

Allowed Missouri to enter as a slave state but preserved the balance between North and South by carving free-soil Maine out of Massachusetts and prohibiting slavery from territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, north of the line of 36°30'.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Also known, somewhat derisively, as "Obamacare," the Act extended health care insurance to some 30 million Americans, marking a major step toward achieving the century-old goal of universal health care coverage for all citizens.

Eugene V. Debs

American Socialist leader who was arrested and convicted for his opposition to World War I. Ran for President from his prison cell in 1920 and polled almost a million votes.

Free Soil Party

Antislavery party in the 1848 and 1852 elections that opposed the extension of slavery into the territories, arguing that the presence of slavery would limit opportunities for free laborers.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baptist minister who gained national prominence and fame during the Montgomery bus boycott. King helped form the SCLC and advocated nonviolent resistance in order to further civil rights legislation and end discrimination in America.

7th of March Speech

Daniel Webster's impassioned address urging the North to support of the Compromise of 1850. Webster argued that topography and climate would keep slavery from becoming entrenched in Mexican Cession territory and urged Northerners to make all reasonable concessions to prevent disunion.

George McGovern

Democratic presidential candidate in 1972. Represented the liberal wing of the party and advocated a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam. Defeated by Richard Nixon.

Reagan and the "New Right" (1980-Present)

Democrats 1. Strongly support environmental legislation, limiting economic development, halting the production of nuclear weapons and power plants. 2. Pro-choice movement emerged during the 1980s to defend a woman's right to choose whether and when to bear a child. 3. Affirmative Action, the use of racial quotas to "balance" the workforce, to one degree or another, becomes an issue of political disagreement with Democrats favoring it and Republicans opposing it. Republicans 1. Fueled by the increasingly "liberal" social agenda of the Democrats and spurred on by the rise of a militant and extremely well-organized Evangelical Christianity, most southern states begin voting Republican in considerable majorities. 2. Conservative Christians, Southern whites, affluent ethnic suburbanites, and young conservatives form a "New Right" that supported Ronald Reagan in 1980 on a "law and order" platform that advocated o stricter laws against crime, drugs, and pornography, o opposition to easy-access abortions, o and an increase in defense spending, o a cut in tax rates. 3. While Reagan curbed the expansion of the Federal Government, he did not reduce its size or the scope of its powers.

Nixon's New Federalism (1968-1980)

Democrats 1. The Democratic Party by the late 1960s is deeply fragmented and seemingly incapable of dealing with the violence and turmoil, social and political, caused by the Vietnam War. 2. In 1968, the Democratic Party candidate is Vice President Hubert Humphrey. 3. In the post-Vietnam War period, Democrats advocate a range of "liberal" social issues including the extension of civil rights, support for "reproductive rights" (i.e. birth control and abortion rights), fair housing legislation, etc. 4. George McGovern, Jimmy Carter Republicans 1. Opposition to the War in Vietnam and to growing federal social programs "converts" southern Democrats to vote Republican in increasing numbers. 2. Republicans run former Vice President Richard Nixon for president in 1968. He runs on a small-government, anti-war campaign as a defender of the "silent majority." 3. Nixon advocated a policy of cutting back Federal power and returning that power to the states. This was known as the "New Federalism." 4. Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford

Post-World War II Politics (1952-1968)

Democrats 1. The Democrats maintain what by this time had become their "traditional" power base of organized labor, urban voters, and immigrants. 2. In the 1952 election, the Democrats run Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, a candidate favored by "liberals" and intellectuals. 3. As the post-World War 2 period progresses, the Democratic Party takes "big government" positions advocating larger roles for the federal government in regulating business and by the 1960s advocate extensive governmental involvement in social issues like education, urban renewal, and other social issues. 4. The Democratic Party very early associates itself with the growing civil rights movements and will champion the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. 5. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson Republicans 1. In 1952, the pro-business Republican Party ran General Dwight D. Eisenhower for president. 2. The Republicans accuse the Democrats of being "soft" on communism. 3. Republicans promise to end the Korean War. 4. Conservative Southern Democrats, the "Dixiecrats," increasingly associate themselves with Republican candidates who oppose civil rights legislation. 5. Barry Goldwater

Second Two-Party System:

Democrats v. Whigs, 1828 - 1850

Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act

Designed to appeal to new women voters, this act provided federally financed instruction in maternal and infant health care and expanded the role of government in family welfare.

Three Fifths Compromise

Determined that each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of apportioning taxes and representation. The compromise granted disproportionate political power to Southern slave states.

Alexander Hamilton

Economic nationalist, treasurer to George Washington, and creator of the treasury debt-driven system of the Federalist state that has dominated American capitalist development. His proposals called for a large national debt, a national bank, and a system of tariffs to pay off interest owed on the debt. Hamilton's plan organized the government, not the market.

Voter Education Project

Effort by SNCC and other civil rights groups to register the South's historically disenfranchised black population. The project typified a common strategy of the civil rights movement, which sought to counter racial discrimination by empowering people at grassroots levels to exercise their civic rights through voting.

Revolution of 1800

Electoral victory of Democratic Republicans over the Federalists, who lost their Congressional majority and the presidency. The peaceful transfer of power between rival parties solidified faith in America's political system.

"Contract with America":

Multi-point program offered by Republican candidates and sitting politicians in the 1994 midterm election.The contract contained ten proposals, particularly a presidential line-item veto and a balanced federal budget. The platform proposed smaller government, Congressional ethics reform, term limits, great emphasis on personal responsibility, and a general repudiation of the Democratic Party. This articulation of dissent was a significant blow to the Clinton Administration and led to the Republican Party's takeover of both houses of Congress for the first time in half a century.

Know Nothing Party (1850s)

Nativist, anti-Catholic, political party that grew to great strength in the northeastern United States. Formally known as the American Party, it won big in the elections of 1854, mostly by cutting into the Whig constituency. Shortly thereafter, though, it was overtaken by Republicans who focused on the issue of slavery. Disappeared after 1856.

Silent Majority

Nixon Administration's term to describe generally content, law-abiding middle-class Americans who supported both the Vietnam War and America's institutions. As a political tool, the concept attempted to make a subtle distinction between believers in "traditional" values and the vocal minority of civil rights agitators, student protesters, counter-culturalists, and other seeming disruptors of the social fabric.

Family Assistance Plan

Nixon administration proposal for revising the welfare system. Would replace Aid to Families with Dependent Children, which provided aid to certain groups of the disadvantaged, with a guaranteed annual income for all families regardless of their circumstances. Embodied a major reformulation of the post-New Deal social welfare system and engendered criticism from both sides of the spectrum. A modified version was passed by the House in 1970 but defeated by the Senate.

southern strategy

Nixon reelection campaign strategy designed to appeal to conservative whites in the historically Democratic south. The President stressed law and order issues and remained noncommittal on civil rights. This strategy typified the regional split between the two parties as white Southerners became increasingly attracted to the Republican party in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement.

Eighteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1919, this Constitutional amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. It ushered in the era known as Prohibition.

"smoking gun" tape

Recording made in the Oval Office in June 1972 that proved conclusively that Nixon knew about the Watergate break-in and endeavored to cover it up. Led to complete break-down in Congressional support for Nixon after the Supreme Court ordered he hand the tape to investigators.

Politics of the Gilded Age (1868-1900)

Republicans & Democrats 1. Party differences blur during this period with loyalties determined by region, religious, and ethnic differences. 2. Voter turnout for presidential elections averaged over 78 percent of eligible voters; 60 to 80 percent in non-presidential years. 3. Both parties were pro-business. 4. Both parties were opposed to any type of economic radicalism or reform. 5. Both parties advocated a "sound currency" and supported the status quo in the existing financial system. 6. Federal government and, to some extent, state governments tended to do very little. 7. Republicans dominate the Senate; Democrats dominate the House of Representatives. 8. Republican Party splinter groups during this period: Stalwarts, Halfbreeds, Mugwumps. 9. Ulysses S. Grant (R), Rutherford B. Hayes (R), William McKinley (R), Grover Cleveland (D), William Jennings Bryan (D)

Tenure of Office Act

Required the President to seek approval from the Senate before removing appointees. When Andrew Johnson removed his secretary of war in violation of the act, he was impeached by the house but remained in office when the Senate fell one vote short of removing him.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858

Series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass during the U.S. Senate race in Illinois. Douglass won the election but Lincoln gained national prominence and emerged as the leading candidate for the 1860 Republican nomination

Nullification Crisis

Showdown between President Andrew Jackson and the South Carolina legislature, which declared the 1832 tariff null and void in the state and threatened secession if the federal government tried to collect duties. It was resolved by a compromise negotiated by Henry Clay in 1833.

New Nationalism

State-interventionist reform program devised by journalist Herbert Croly and advocated by Theodore Roosevelt during his Bull Moose presidential campaign. Roosevelt did not object to continued consolidation of trusts and labor unions. Rather, he sought to create stronger regulatory agencies to insure that they operated to serve the public interest, not just private gain.

Virginia and Kentucky resolutions (1798-1799)

Statements secretly drafted by Jefferson and Madison for the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia. Argued that states were the final arbiters of whether the federal government overstepped its boundaries and could therefore nullify, or refuse to accept, national legislation they deemed unconstitutional.

Freeport Doctrine

Stephen Douglas' attempt to reconcile the Dred Scott Decision with his popular sovereignty approach to the issue of slavery in the territories. He contended that even if slavery were legal in the territories its enforcement would still depend on the people who lived there.

Graft

Term used to describe bribes paid to machine politicians by businessmen seeking contracts. By 1900, graft had become essential to day-to-day operations in most cities around the country. It also made local office holding a rich source of personal financial gain.

The Bank War (1829-1837)

The Bank War refers to the political struggle that developed over the issue of rechartering the Second Bank of the United States (BUS) during the Andrew Jackson administration (1829-1837).The Bank's most powerful enemy was President Andrew Jackson. In 1832 Senator Henry Clay, Jackson's opponent in the Presidential election of that year, proposed rechartering the Bank early. This bill passed Congress, but Jackson vetoed it, declaring that the Bank was "unauthorized by the Constitution, subversive to the rights of States, and dangerous to the liberties of the people." After his reelection, Jackson announced that the Government would no longer deposit Federal funds with the Bank and would place them in state banks. Supporters of the Bank in the Senate were furious and took the unprecedented step of censuring Jackson. The President held fast, however, and when the Bank's charter expired in 1836, it was never renewed. Source: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/treasures_of_congress/text/page9_text.html

Necessary and Proper Clause

The Congress shall have Power ... To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Compromise of 1877

The agreement that finally resolved the 1876 election and officially ended Reconstruction. In exchange for the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, winning the presidency, Hayes agreed to withdraw the last of the federal troops from the former Confederate states. This deal effectively completed the southern return to white-only, Democratic-dominated electoral politics.

New Deal

The economic and political policies of Franklin Roosevelt's administration in the 1930s, which aimed to solve the problems of the Great Depression by providing relief for the unemployed and launching efforts to stimulate economic recovery. The New Deal built on reforms of the progressive era to expand greatly an American-style welfare state.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution. Fulfillment of Federalists' promise made during ratification that the new government would protect the liberties of the people. James Madison as member of House of Representatives proposed nineteen amendments, which were reduced to ten.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

The last piece of federal civil rights legislation until the 1950s, the law promised blacks equal access to public accommodations and banned racism in jury selection, but the Act provided no means of enforcement and was therefore ineffective. In 1883, the Supreme Court declared most of the Act unconstitutional.

The "Tariff of Abominations" of 1828

a protective tariff passed by the Congress of the United States on May 19, 1828, designed to protect industry in the northern United States. Tt was labeled the Tariff of Abominations by its southern detractors because of the effects it had on the antebellum Southern economy. It set a 62% tax on 92% of all imported goods.

Black Codes

a series of post-Civil War laws that established second-class status for freed people. Passed by southern state governments beginning in the fall of 1865, these laws excluded blacks from juries and the ballot box, prevented blacks from testifying against whites in court, banned interracial marriage, and punished blacks more severely than whites for certain crimes.

universal male suffrage

a system where all adult males have the right to vote. Became a feature of the new state constitutions written in the South during 1867 and 1868. Amounted to a true political revolution.

John Marshall

chief justice of the Supreme Court between 1801 and 1835. After 1816 his decisions encouraged business and strengthened the national government at the expense of the states. His most important decisions protected the sanctity of contracts and corporate charters against state legislatures. Among his key decisions were Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1816), McCulloch v. Maryland (1816), and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824).

Crittenden Compromise of 1860

compromise proposal put forward by Senator John Crittenden to resolve the secession crisis. Proposed amendments guaranteed that the federal government would not interfere with slavery in the states and protected slavery in the territories south of 36°30'. . It aimed to resolve the secession crisis of 1860-1861 by addressing the fears and grievances about slavery that led many slave-holding states to contemplate secession from the United States.

Jim Crow Laws

mandated racial segregation in public facilities. Passed by most southern states during the 1890s and given federal sanction in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision. Although that decision declared that separate but equal facilities for the races should be equal, in practice they never were.

Watergate

name given to the broad pattern of law-breaking—including obstruction of justice and illegal wire-tapping—that ultimately destroyed the Nixon presidency. More narrowly refers to the illegal entry in the summer of 1972 into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Complex in Washington, DC, by operatives tied to the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

carpetbaggers

northerners who moved to the South to live and/or to participate in Reconstruction governments. Most were Union Army officers who stayed on after the war as Freedmen's Bureau agents, teachers in black schools, or business investors. Many brought investment capital to the South in a sincere effort to rebuild and modernize it.

Freedmen's Bureau

officially called the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Created by Congress in 1865 to supervise black-white relations in the South. Sought to ensure that blacks were paid for their labor, distributed food to the poor, and established schools throughout the South for freed slaves. Southern whites opposed the Bureau, for obvious reasons.

National Security Act

passed in 1947. Created the National Security Council (with broad powers over the planning of foreign policy), the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Air Force (as a separate branch of the military)—all of these as part of a broad strategy to contain communism.

"blueprint for modern America"

phrase used to describe three measures passed by the 37th Congress. The Homestead Act granted 160 acres of land to farmers who lived on and improved it for five years. The Morrill Land-Grant College Act gave each state land for the establishment of colleges. And the Pacific Railroad Act granted land and loans to railroad companies to spur the building of a transcontinental railroad from Omaha to Sacramento. Passed by Republicans when Southerners were not represented in Congress.

Free Silver Movement

popular among farmers during the Gilded Age. Wanted the federal government to purchase all silver offered for sale at a ratio of 16 to 1 and turn it into coin. Its adherents believed that the resulting inflation would ease their economic burdens.

Gag Rule

procedure employed between 1836 and 1844 in Congress to avoid discussing the slavery issue. Involved tabling antislavery petitions sent by the general public without even reading them. Passed by southerners with the help of most northern Democrats.

Australian Ballot

secret ballot printed by the government, introduced in virtually every state by the 1890s. Enabled voters to cast their votes privately. Signified the government's commitment to election reform.

Andrew Johnson

seventeenth president; opposed Radical Republicans on various Reconstruction issues. Impeached by the House of Representatives but ultimately acquitted by the Senate.

Marbury vs. Madison

significant court case in which John Marshall first argued that the Supreme Court was the final arbiter on the constitutionality of an act of Congress.

John Quincy Adams

sixth president of the United States. Won the election of 1824 even though he did not win the popular vote. Generally unsuccessful term. Defeated by Andrew Jackson in 1828.

Kitchen Cabinet

unofficial group of advisers to Andrew Jackson that emerged in the wake of the cabinet shake up that followed the Peggy Eaton controversy. Included journalists Amos Kendall and Francis Preston Blair, along with Martin Van Buren and a few others.