APUSH Exam Terms Review (2019)

War Hawks

"Hawk" is nickname for pro-war activists. Pro-peace activists are often termed doves. In the specific context of the early 19th century, it refers to politicians like Henry Clay from Kentucky and John C. Calhoun from South Carolina who insisted that the War of 1812 would finally clear Britain's influence from North America.

Glasnost

("Openness") A policy instituted by Gorbachev, it allowed Soviet citizens to publicly criticize the government and discuss social problems in the hope of finding solutions.

Perestroika

("restructuring") A policy instituted by Gorbachev, it introduced limited free market reforms to the Soviet Union's socialist planned economy. A key aspect of the Soviet Union's fall.

Progressive Era

An era of social and political reform that began with the swearing in of Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 and lasted until the beginning of U.S. involvement in WWI in 1917. Antitrust legislation and labor reform were key aspects of this era, along with support for women's suffrage, direct election of U.S. senators, and prohibition of alcohol. See: Frederick W. Taylor, Gilded Age, political machines, Social Gospel, Square Deal.

Social Gospel

An influential Protestant social justice movement in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries. It stated that Christians had an obligation to improve the lives of those less fortunate, especially the poor. Its leaders encouraged many middle-class Protestants to join reform efforts, such as those calling for laws banning child labor and making school compulsory for children. Essentially, it was the religious wing of the Progressive Movement.

United Nations

An intergovernmental organization chartered in October 1945 to mediate disputes between nations. Its headquarters is located in NYC. All recognized nations are granted seats in the General Assembly. However, veto power is reserved to the 5 permanent members of the Security Council, who represent the victorious world powers of WWII: Nationalist China (now held by the People's Republic of China), France, the Soviet Union (now held by Russia), the United Kingdom, and the United States. See: Atlantic Charter, Big Three, Eleanor Roosevelt, League of Nations, Yalta Conference.

Farewell Address

An open letter penned by George Washington in 1797. It warned the American people to remain neutral with regard to European affairs, to avoid entangling alliances, and to refrain from the formation of political parties. See: French Revolution.

Protestantism

An umbrella term for various Christian sects that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church following the start of the Reformation in 1517. Constitutes one of 3 major brances of Christianity, alongside Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox faith. Generally, Protestants believe that faith alone merits salvation and good works are unnecessary. They reject the authority of the Pope and believe the Bible is the sole authority. See: Puritanism.

Ku Klux Klan

An underground society of whites who ruthlessly and successfully used terrorist tactics to frighten both white and black Republicans in the South. While quashed by the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871, the organization survived, resurfacing and spreading throughout the country in later years. See: Redeemers.

Nativists

Anti-immigrant activists in the 19th century. In this period, many native-born Americans were Protestants of English ancestry. They disliked the large numbers of Irish and Germans that began to arrive in the 1840s, especially due to their Roman Catholic faith, which attracted paranoia about them being a fifth column for the Pope. Many Central Europeans were also leftists fleeing from prosecution after the failed Revolutions fo 1848. On the West Coast, Chinese immigrants prompted similar xenophobic sentiments. See: American Party (Know-Nothing Party), Chinese Exclusion Act, Emergency Quota Act.

Union Pacific Railroad

1/2 of the Transcontinental Railroad. It began building its portion from Omaha, Nebraska, and moved westward. See: Central Pacific Railroad, Promontory Point.

John Tyler

10th President. Served April 4, 1841 to 1845. A Virginian Whig, Tyler was that first vice president to ascend to the presidency upon the death of the incumbent. This act set the precedent that all future vice presidents would follow, as the issue was something of a legal gray area constitutionally. Tyler south the annexation of Texas but was unable to secure it. Nicknamed "His Accidency."

Battle of Gettysburg

Arguably the most significant battle of the Civil War. Fought July 1-3, 1863 in southern Pennsylvania. Over 50,000 men died there. It was the final major Confederate push into the North, and Lee's defeat ended any hope of Britain or France recognizing the Confederacy as a legitimate nation. General Meade's failure to chase and destroy Lee's retreating army, however, lengthened the war.

Sam Houston

As President of Texas, he advocated annexation by the United States. Later, as Texas governor, he resisted efforts at secession to join the Confederacy and was removed from office.

Zachary Taylor

12th President. Served 1849-1850. Died of a stomach ailment. Tyler was a Mexican-American War general. The Whigs nominated him in the 1848 election. While a slave-owner, he did not advocate the expansion of slavery, believing that the practice wasn't economically viable in the West. See: Millard Fillmore.

Millard Fillmore

13th President. Served 1850-1853. Took office after the sickness and death of Zachary Taylor. A long time House member, Fillmore worked to help pass the Compromise of 1850. Notably, he dispatched the Perry Expedition to Japan. After failing to gain the Whig nomination in 1852, he served as the Know-Nothing Party nominee in 1856.

Winston Churchill

British politician and writer. Served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice (1945-1950 + 1951-1955). Best remembered in the West for his early opposition to Adolf Hitler and the policy of appeasement, as well as for his leadership of the British Empire during WWII. See: Iron Curtain.

Earl Warren

14th Chief Justice. Served 1953-1969. Threw his support behind Eisenhower at the 1952 GOP convention in exchange for the first open Supreme Court seat. The Warren Court is noted for its liberal rulings, which include outlawing segregation in education, ending school prayer, establishing "one man-one vote" apportionment for election districts, and creating the Miranda warning. Warren was replaced in 1969 by Warren Burger. See: Warren Commission.

Franklin Pierce

14th President. Served 1853 - 1857. A northern Democrat, Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act into law, which inflamed regional tensions and helped lead to the creation of the Republican Party. He also signed the Gadsden Purchase. Pierce lost his party's renomination in 1856 to James Buchanan.

James Buchanan

15th President. Served 1857-1861. A Pennsylvania Democrat, Buchanan had a storied career as a U.S. senator and representative, a Secretary of State, and an ambassador to both Russia and Britain. He essentially won his party's nomination due to being abroad for so long, meaning he wasn't tied to any of the contentious domestic issues of the 1850s. He supported the "Dred Scott" ruling, and the entry of Kansas into the Union as a slave state. Declined to run for a second term. Often ranked as the worst president for exacerbating regional tensions in the run-up to the Civil War and then doing nothing to stop secession.

Abraham Lincoln

16th President. Served 1861 to his assassination on April 15, 1865. A former Whig who had opposed the Mexican-American War, he joined the newly formed Republican Party. His 1860 election triggered the secession of several states, and he deftly led the Union through the ensuing Civil War.

Scalawags

Coined by Southern Democrats, it was a derogatory term for Southern Republicans that meant they were pirates who sought to steal from state governments and line their own pockets. See: carpetbagger, Reconstruction.

Ulysses S. Grant

18th President. Served 1869-1877. Grant served in the Mexican-American War, where he worked as a quartermaster. During the Civil War, he led Union forces in the West, winning famous victories at Shiloh and Vicksburg. He eventually was placed in command of the whole US Army in 1864, where he fought several engagements with Lee. He supervised Reconstruction and prosecuted efforts against the KKK. He served two terms as president, to decidedly mixed results. The cronyism of his administration led to a push for civil service reform.

Eleanor Roosevelt

1st Lady of the United States (1933-1945). United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly (1945-1952). First chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (1946-1952) and oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A vocal supporter of civil rights. Died 1962.

Boris Yeltsin

1st President of the Russian Federation (1991-1999). Russian nationalist. Engineered his country's transition from a socialist to a capitalist economy via "shock therapy" reforms, such as rapid large-scale privatization. This effort led to massive social upheaval and a rise in powerful business oligarchs. Appointed Vladimir Putin as his successor.

James Garfield

20th President. Served from March 4, 1881 until his death on September 19, 1881. He was shot on July 2, 1881, but unsanitary medical treatment caused a fatal infection to take root. Otherwise unnotable. See: Chester A. Arthur.

William Howard Taft

27th President. Served 1909-1913. 10th Chief Justice (1921-1930). While a trust-busting Republican in Theodore Roosevelt's mold, he also had some sympathies with the party's conservative wing. Split the vote with Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in the 1912 election, allowing Woodrow Wilson to win the White House. Later appointed to the Supreme Court, becoming the only person to have led both the executive and judicial branches.

Richard M. Nixon

37th President. Served 1969-1974. Vice President under Eisenhower. A noted anticommunist, he narrowly lost the 1960 election to JFK. Domestically, Nixon accepted the Great Society programs. Internationally, he pursued a policy of détente and "realpolitik," most famously establishing relations with the People's Republic of China in order to counterbalance the Soviet Union. He also escalated the Vietnam War, secretly bombed Cambodia, and sponsored a coup in Chile. Only U.S. president to resign, doing so over the Watergate scandal.

Jimmy Carter

39th President. Served 1977-1981. The former governor of Georgia, he ran as an outsider in the 1976 presidential election. Served one term, Carter pardoned Vietnam War draft dodgers, established the Departments of Energy and Education, and returned the Panama Canal to Panama. Internationally, he oversaw the Camp David Accords, ended détente in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and was dogged by the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

Anwar Sadat

3rd President of Egypt. Ruled 1970-1981. Alongside Israeli Prime Minister Begin he signed the Camp David Accords, for which both men shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated in 1981 by the group Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

George H. W. Bush

41st President. Served 1989-1993. Considered a moderate Republican, his presidency was defined by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. He pushed for international cooperation in a "New World Order," such as in Operation Desert Storm. Signed but didn't ratify the NAFTA treaty. Breaking his "Read my lips: no new taxes" promise alienated conservatives ahead of the 1992 election.

Bill Clinton

42nd President. Served 1993-2001. Clinton advocated for centrist reform as a "New Democrat," signing NAFTA and welfare reform into law, but notably failed to reform health care. Intervened in the Kosovo War. Helped broker the Good Friday Agreement. Impeached in 1998 over allegations arising from his affair with Monica Lewinsky; he was not convicted.

Pueblo Revolt

A 1680 revolt against Spanish settlers in the modern-day American Southwest. Led by a Pueblo man named Popé, it forced the Spanish to abandon Santa Fe. A rare, decisive American Indian victory against European colonization.

Platt Amendment

A 1903 policy issued by the u.S. after the Spanish-American War. Cuba had to have all treaties approved by the United States; the U.S. had the right to interfere in Cuban affairs both politically and militarily; and the U.S. would be given access to naval bases on the island.

Hepburn Act

A 1906 law that allowed the ICC to regulate what rates railroad lines could charge, ending the long-haul/short-haul price gouging that had been the bane of farmers. See: Square Deal.

Kellog-Briand Pact

A 1928 pact which sought to foster world peace by making offensive wars illegal throughout the world. Unfortunately, the pact didn't have any teeth: it didn't prohibit defensive warfare or provide for punishment of countries that disobeyed the pact.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

A 1932 response to the Great Depression, created by Congress during the Hoover administration. The corporation was eventually given authority to issue loans to assist railroads, banks, and municipalities to prevent them from collapsing. However, the RFC benefited only the wealthy instead of those truly in need.

Indian Reorganization Act

A 1934 law that replaced the Dawes Act of 1887, returning lands to the tribes and giving support to American Indians to reestablish self-governance.

Smith Act

A 1940 law that authorized the arrest of people advocating the U.S. government's overthrow even if they had no intention of ever doing so.

Port Huron Statement

A 1962 political manifesto by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); called for an expansion of democratic participation. Noted as the start of the New Left, a liberal movement concerned with civil rights, gender roles, and other issues of identity rather than the "Old Left" Marxist focus on class struggle.

"The Ballot or the Bullet" speech

A 1964 speech given by Malcolm X. It stated that whites must either allow African Americans freedom at the ballot box or face an armed revolution later.

Immigration and Control Act

A 1986 law signed by Ronald Reagan. It made it a crime to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant, but also legalized millions of immigrants who had unlawfully entered the U.S. before January 1, 1982.

Sylvester Graham

A 19th-century Presbyterian minister, Reverend Graham is best known for advocating vegetarianism and supporting the temperance movement. Graham crackers were not invented by him, but they are named in his honor.

John Locke

A British philosopher whose theory of natural rights challenged the absolute and divine rule of kings and queens by asserting that all men should be ruled by natural laws, and that sovereignty was derived from the will of those governed. Locke went on to assert that the governed have a responsibility to rebel against a government that fails to protect the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. See: Enlightenment.

Tories

A British political party which controlled Parliament throughout the American Revolutionary War. Led by Lord North. Lost a vote of no confidence in March 1782 following the British defeat at the Siege of Yorktown. Power was transferred to the Whigs.

Frances Willard

A Christian socialist who advocated for women's suffrage and for prohibition. She became President of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1879, giving the movement new life by adding a focus on lobbying for laws to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages.

Battle of Fredericksburg

A Civil War battle fought December 11-15, 1862. A lopsided Confederate victory, it saw Union forces suffer 3-to-1 casualties. Lincoln removed General Burnside as a result, replacing him with Joseph Hooker.

Second Battle of Bull Run

A Confederate victory in August 1862. John Pope's defeat created an opening for Robert E. Lee's Maryland Campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Antietam.

Ghost Dance Movement

A Dakota Sioux movement that began in 1870. It intended to bring about a rebirth of native tradition and a repulsion of white incursion. As part of the U.S. government's efforts to suppress it, the respected Sioux leader Sitting Bull, was killed.

Samuel Tilden

A Democratic governor from New York, he had a reputation for political reform, largely from fighting Tammany Hall corruption. With civil service reform a hot button issue after the corruption of the Grant administration, he became the Democratic nominee in the 1876 Presidential election. Won the popular vote but lost the election. See: Compromise of 1877.

Yalta Conference

A February 1945 meeting of the Big Three. It finalized their plans for postwar Europe, with the division of Germany into 4 occupied military zones and Stalin agreeing to allow free elections in Eastern Europe. Stalin also agreed to enter the war against Japan within 3 months of Germany's surrender. Yalta also yielded the skeleton framework for the United Nations. See: Atlantic Charter, Berlin Airlift, Berlin Wall, Cold War.

House Un-American Activities Committee

A House committee founded in 1938 to root out alleged subversives. Associated with the Hollywood blacklist of the Second Red Scare, as well as Alger Hiss. Disbanded in 1975; its duties are handled by the House Judiciary Committee.

Olive Branch Peition

A July 1775 statement by the Continental Congress that reasserted colonial loyalty to King George III and asked him to intervene with Parliament on the colonies' behalf. The king refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Congress to make any such request.

Carrie A. Nation

A Kentucky-born member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Inspired by the death of her alcoholic husband, she traveled the U.S. smashing up bars with her trademark hatchet. She also crusaded against the evils of smoking tobacco, fought for women's suffrage, and railed against the restrictive women's fashions of the day.

George Custer

A Lt. Colonel who marched his column of men deep into Sioux territory only to discover some 2,500 Sioux warriors waiting for them at the Little Big Horn River. He and his men were then destroyed at the Battle of Little Bighorn - also known as Custer's Last Stand.

Public Works Administration

A New Deal program established during FDR's 1st hundred days. The PWA employed thousands of Americans to rebuild the country's infrastructure.

Second Great Awakening

A Protestant religious movement that took place across the United States between the 1790s and the 1840s. It peaked in the 1820s. Unlike the (First) Great Awakening, it gradually came to place a greater emphasis on slavery as a sin. See: abolitionism, American Temperance Society, Baptist, Charles G. Finney, Methodist.

Roger Williams

A Protestant theologian during the 1630s. Believed American Indians should be treated justly. Advocated the then-radical notion of separation of church and state, believing government involvement in religion amounted to forced worship. Banished from Massachusetts in 1636, he and his followers went on to found Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

A Puritan colonist in Massachusetts. Tried and convicted of heresy in the 1630s. She asserted that local ministers were erroneous in believing that good deeds and church attendance saved one's soul. She believed that faith alone merited salvation.

al-Qaeda

A Salafist jihadist transnational terrorist organization. Formed in 1988 by veteran "mujahideen" fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, along with other attacks in several other countries over the years.

Osama Bin Laden

A Saudi national infamous for orchestrating the September 11th Terrorist Attacks. Born into a family of billionaires, in 1979 he joined the "mujahideen" opposed to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Later founded al-Qaeda. Killed on May 2, 2011 in a U.S. Navy SEALS raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish immigrant who became a titan of industry. He cornered the railroad business in the 1860s, focusing on innovation, investment in technology, operating at full capacity, and keeping costs (including wages) low. Authored "The Gospel of Wealth," which asserted that wealth was a result of God's will and that, in turn, the wealthy had an obligation to give money away to better society. In contrast to rival J.P. Morgan, Carnegie favored driving competitors out of business. See: trickle down economics, vertical integration.

Alexander Graham Bell

A Scottish-born scientist. He is best known for patenting the telephone in 1876. He also founded the Bell Telephone Company in 1879 and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.

Charles Pinckney

A South Carolinian notable for his role at the Constitutional Convention, where he helped introduce the Fugitive Slave Clause and the "no religious test" clause for public officers. Later negotiated Pinckney's Treaty with Spain.

Hernán Cortés

A Spanish conquistador whose expedition conquered the Aztec Empire and brought large swaths of modern-day Mexico under Spanish authority. Famous for intentionally destroying his own ships in order to force his men not to abandon their campaign.

Federal Reserve System

Created in 1913, it consists of 12 regional banks that are publicly controlled by the Federal Reserve Board but privately owned by member banks. The system serves as the "lender of last resort" for all private banks, holds and sells the nation's bonds, and issues Federal Reserve Notes - otherwise known as dollar bills - for consumers to purchase goods and services. See: second Bank of the United States.

Federal Trade Commission

Created in 1914, the FTC is a regulatory agency that monitors interstate business activities and forces companies who break laws to comply with government's "cease and desist" orders.

Drug Enforcement Administration

Created in 1973, the DEA is a federal law enforcement agency operating under the Department of Justice. It enforces the Controlled Substances Act.

Francis Scott Key

Creator of "The Star- Spangled Banner." See: Fort McHenry.

Fidel Castro

Cuban revolutionary and 1st Secretary of Cuba from 1961-2011. He overthrew the Batista regime in 1959 and established a communist state in Cuba. Famously survived hundreds of assassination attempts by the CIA. Died in 2016 at age 90. See: Bay of Pigs.

Bessemer Process

Developed by an English inventor, this process revolutionized steel production by making it faster and cheaper. The increased availability and affordability of steel caused its use to increase in many industrial applications.

Saddam Hussein

Dictator of Iraq from 1979-2003. Infamously used chemical weapons in both the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and against Iraqi Kurds in the Anfal genocide (1986-1989). Invaded Kuwait in 1990, but was pushed out by a U.S.-led coalition in early 1991. Overthrown in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Executed on December 30, 2006.

Writ of Habeas Corpus

During the Civil War, Lincoln exercised executive power to limit Americans' civil rights and liberties to protect the Union. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus, which meant that the federal government could hold an individual in jail with no charges levied against him or her. For many alleged traitors, this meant long jail terms with no charges ever filed. Lincoln intended for this suspension to be only temporary, and the constitutional right would be restored after the war was over. When the Taney Court ruled his actions illegal, Lincoln ignored the court order.

Democrats

During the Era of Good Feelings, the Democratic-Republicans fragmented. During the 1828 election, the Democrats supported Andrew Jackson and the National Republican faction supported Henry Clay. Jackson's faction founded the modern Democratic Party. In this period, prior to the Civil War, the (Jacksonian) Democrats favored an agrarian economy, ending the national bank, lowering tariffs, and increasing the political power of the "common man," such as through universal male suffrage for whites. They also supported states' rights and federal restraint in social affairs.

Samuel Chase

A Supreme Court justice. Served 1796-1811. The House impeached Chase owing to his highly Federalist partisan decisions. The Senate, however, refused to remove him because of the absence of any evidence of "high crimes and misdemeanors." Thus, Jefferson's attempt to push Federalist judges out of the system was unsuccessful, as most remained on the bench for life. The judges did tend to rule more to the president's liking, however, once the threat of impeachment hung heavily over the judicial system. Nevertheless, this episode proved to be the last time that a Supreme Court justice would be impeached, maintaining the precious separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches. See: midnight judges.

John Bell

A Tennessee Whig nominated by the Constitutional Union Party in 1860. Bell had a storied career in both house of Congress, including a short stint as Speaker of the House. His argument that the Constitution protected slavery won him the electoral votes of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. After the Civil War broke out, Bell supported the Confederacy.

Fort McHenry

A base in Baltimore, Maryland. It was involved in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. U.S. soldiers valiantly held Fort McHenry through a night of bombing by the British Royal Navy in Chesapeake Bay, inspiring Francis Scott Key, who was being held prisoner on a nearby British ship, to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Battle of New Orleans

A battle fought between U.S. forces led by Andrew Jackson and British forces. It occurred from January 6-18, 1815. Jackson, desperate to secure the economically vital port of New Orleans, which controlled the flow of traffic along the Mississippi, recruited local free African Americans and even a band of pirates to supplement his militia. The battle was a stunning lopsided American victory. Due to the slow speed at which news traveled during this period, the battle actually occurred after the War of 1812 had officially ended.

Battle of Tippecanoe

A battle that took place in the Indiana Territory on November 7, 1811. American forces under the command of Governor William Henry Harrison battled Tecumseh's Confederacy, an American Indian force of various tribes led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother "The Prophet." Harrison's victory propelled him into the White House (briefly).

Rugged Individualism

A belief articulated by Herbert Hoover, which stated that anyone could become successful in life through hard work. Influenced his response to the Great Depression. See: Horatio Alger.

John Scopes

A biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, arrested and brought to trial in 1925 for teaching the theory of evolution. While he was found guilty and fined $100, his conviction was overturned on a legal technicality. See: ACLU, Clarence Darrow.

Operation Rolling Thunder

A bombing campaign conducted by the U.S. Air Force against North Vietnam. Run from March 1965 to November 1968, and dropped more bombs on North Vietnam than had been used by the U.S. throughout WWII. Failed to achieve its aims.

Cornelis Vanderbilt

A business tycoon who amassed a fortune in the steamboat business and invested this fortune in the consolidation of many smaller rail lines under one company, the New York Central Railroad.

Department of Homeland Security

A cabinet-level department formed in 2002 in response to the 9/11 attacks, it consolidated various public security agencies. It has since been criticized on several grounds, ranging from ineffectiveness to violating civil liberties.

Department of Energy

A cabinet-level office created in 1977 by Jimmy Carter largely in response to the 1973 Oil Crisis. Oversees energy-related research and domestic energy production. It also safeguards nuclear material, including nuclear weapons.

Warsaw Pact

A collective defense arrangement similar to NATO, to protect the Eastern Bloc from Western aggression. It also served to solidify Soviet control over Eastern Europe. Dissolved in 1991.

D-Day

A common day for the Normandy landings, although it technically only refers to the initial landing operation on June 6, 1944. The Western Allies invaded along 5 beachheads, gaining a foothold in Nazi-occupied France. 2,499 Americans died out of 4,414 total Allied fatalities. Often dramatized in movies and video games.

First Hundred Days

A common term for the breakneck pace of New Deal legislation passed during FDR's first hundred days in office as president. Often used as a measuring stick for the perceived success or failure of a new president, as the common perception is that they enjoy a honeymoon period in both public and opposition opinion early in their presidency.

Carnegie Steel Company

A company founded and owned by Andrew Carnegie. At its height, it supplied over half the world's steel. Sold to J.P. Morgan to form U.S. Steel.

Electoral College

A compromise at the Constitutional Convention regarding how to elect the president. Electors cast votes as representatives of their states, which delegates believed would protect the election process from corruption and the influence of factions (political parties).

Mexican-American War

A conflict between the United States and Mexico. It took place from April 1846 to February 1848. Following the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered a wayward province whose independence was a legal fiction created under duress, war broke out between 2 nations. The war was deeply controversial in its time, illustrating the deepening divide between free and slave states. Many political and military leaders of the Civil War fought in this war. It also led to a major U.S. territorial expansion. See: John Slidell, Santa Anna, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Wilmot Proviso.

Tripolitan War

A conflict fought (1801-1805) between the U.S. Navy and Mediterranean pirates based on the North African coast, with assistance by Sweden. Also known as the First Barbary War. The war was instigated by Barbary pirates attacking U.S. merchant vessels. The pirates held the crews for ransom and demanded tribute.

Cuban Missile Crisis

A confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over the placement of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Occurred October 16-28, 1962. Considered one of the Cold War's tensest events. Resolved diplomatically, it bolstered President Kennedy's then-shaky reputation but led to the overthrow of Nikita Khrushchev.

National Conservation Commission

A conservation committee established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. See: Square Deal, Turner's "Frontier Thesis."

Beatniks

A counterculture movement in the 1950s and early 1960s emphasizing art, philosophy, and social criticism. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were notable members.

Zimmermann Telegram

A diplomatic letter from German Foreign Secretary Zimmermann to the Mexican president, promising him that if his country assisted Germany in a possible war against the U.S., Mexico would be given back the territory lost in the Mexican-American War. A contributing factor to U.S. entry into WWI.

Charters

A document in which Parliament used to grant exclusive rights and privileges. Required for the legal sanction of a formal colony. Over time, especially after the Glorious Revolution, most colonies surrendered their charters and became royal colonies, which involved more centralized control from England.

Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms

A document published by the Continental Congress on July 6, 1775. It justified the raising of a professional colonial military force and urged King George III a second time to consider colonial grievances.

Yellow-Dog Contract

A document that a prospective employee was forced to sign in oder to secure a job. The worker agreed not to join a union. Compare: closed shop, collective bargaining.

Bacon's Rebellion

A failed 1676 rebellion in Jamestown. Led by Nathaniel Bacon, indentured servants and slaves revolted against the Virginia Colony's aristocracy. It led to a strengthening of racially coded laws, such as the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705, in order to divide impoverished white and black slaves, thus safeguarding the planter aristocracy from future rebellions.

Napoleon Bonaparte

A famous French military and political leader, both during the French Revolution and the ensuing Napoleonic Wars. He led France as Emperor Napoleon I from 1804 until 1814. His various military conquests led to the spread of legal reform, republicanism, nationalism, and other ideas of the French Revolution. In American history, he is notable for his involvement in the Louisiana Purchase, as he sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States.

Boss Tweed

A famous leader of the Tammany Hall political machine. He and his fellow Irish gave aid to small business owners, immigrants, and the poor in exchange for votes. A muckraking 1871 news story exposed his corruption. Tweed fled the U.S., but was eventually captured by Spanish police. Died of heart failure in 1878. See: Thomas Nast.

Tammany Hall

A famous political machine in New York City. Led by Boss Tweed.

Harper's Ferry

A federal arsenal in Virginia. John Brown planned to use it to arm slaves on surrounding plantations with the hope of generating a slave rebellion. Ultimately, he aimed to overthrow the institution of slavery. In October 1859, Brown led a march to Harper's Ferry and seized the arsenal. However, Brown and his followers were captured by the Virginia militia, tried for treason, and hanged. Robert E. Lee was in command of opposition forces.

Anglicanism

A form of Protestant Christianity that adheres to the liturgy of the Anglican Church, also known as the Church of England. Founded in the sixteenth century by King Henry VIII. See: Puritanism.

Direct Democracy

A form of democracy in which the people directly vote on matters of policy, rather than electing delegates to decide for them as in representative democracy.

Hudson River School

A form of large-scale landscape paintings from the Romantic era.

Benedict Arnold

A general in the American Revolutionary War. He participated in the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga and the Battle of Saratoga. Most infamously remembered for defection to the British, which caused his name to become a byword for treason.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

A group of Patriot activists who intimidated tax collectors by attacking their homes, burning them in effigy, and even tarring and feathering them. They also ransacked warehouses that held stamps and burned them to the ground.

American Liberty League (ALL)

A group of anti-FDR Democrats who opposed the New Deal on grounds that it was socialist. They promoted the concerns of big business and advocated for small government. Tried unsuccessfully to unseat FDR during the 1936 election.

Brain Trust

A group of economists, professors, and politicians that advised FDR on matters of economic and political policy. Comparable to Andrew Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet.

Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)

A health care reform act that reduced the uninsured population via expanded Medicaid eligibility and a reworking of the individual insurance marketplace. The Obama administration's signature legislation. Contentious in the 2010s.

Big Three

A label for the leaders of the "Grand Alliance," the three major Allied Powers in WWII: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin. See: Yalta Conference.

Pearl Harbor

A lagoon harbor located on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Home to a major U.S. Navy base. On December 7, 1941, it was target of an infamous surprise attack by Japan. 2,403 Americans were killed and several U.S. Navy ships were destroyed. Inflamed a previously lukewarm American public opinion about involvement in WWII.

In re Debs

A landmark 1895 Supreme Court case. It ruled that the use of court injunctions to break strikes was justified in the support of interstate commerce. In effect, the federal government had permitted employers to not deal with labor unions. See: National Industry Recovery Act.

Sedition Act (1918)

A law passed during WWI that limited the right to free speech. Antiwar activists and socialists, such as Eugene V. Debs, were targeted, arrested, and jailed.

Encomienda

A legal system established by the Spanish crown. Conquistadores or other officials were given a set number of American Indians from whom they would extract tribute while instructing in the Roman Catholic faith. In practice, it was a form of slavery. Contrast with: repartimiento.

Temperance Movement

A long-running social justice movement that sought to reduce the consumption of alcohol. The Victorian ideal of strict moral decorum and the concern over Catholic immigration led to its revival after the Civil War. The movement eventually hardened into a prohibition movement. Served as a stand-in for social issues that could not be discussed openly, such as domestic violence, and also as a soft form of nativism against German and Irish Americans. See: Anti-Saloon League, 18th Amendment, Mother Jones, Woman's Christian Temperance Movement.

Homestead Strike

A major strike in 1892 at the Carnegie Steel Company's Homestead, Pennsylvania factory. After the workers went on to strike, and the factory's manager hired 300 private Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant and enable strikebreakers to enter and restart the steel operations. After an exchange fo gunfire between the Pinkerton men and the workers, 9 strikers and 7 Pinkerton men were dead and many more people were wounded. Pennsylvania's governor sent in 8,000 state militia to assist scabs to enter the mill. It was a major setback in unionizing the steel industry.

Committees of Correspondence

A means by which Patriots could circulate letters of protest against British policies. It functioned as a kind of shadow opposition government in the runup to the American Revolutionary War. Vital in organizing the Continental Congress.

Stamp Act Congress

A meeting of representatives of nine of the Thirteen Colonies. They sent word to England that only colonial legislatures had the authority to tax the colonists. Repealed in 1766 and replaced with the Declaratory Act.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

A military alliance formed by the Western Allies of WWII to deter Soviet aggression. It guarantees collective defense under the rule that an attack on one member is an attack on all members.

Transcendentalists

A name for artists and writers of the Romantic Era, specifically ones who emphasized emotions and the connection between man and nature. They were a reaction to both the rationality of the Enlightenment and the burgeoning Industrial Revolution. Examples include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau; they claimed that each person was able to communicate with God and nature directly, eliminating the need for organized churches. They promoted individualism, self-reliance, and freedom from social constraints.

Second Bank of the United States

A national bank, patterned on Alexander Hamilton's design for the original. It existed from 1818-1824. The BUS was charted by James Madison in 1816, as he felt the need to strengthen the central government after the problems encountered during the War of 1812. However, the bank contributed to the Panic of 1819, infuriating many and leading to Andrew Jackson's successful effort to kill it. However, this act by Jackson would contribute to long-running instability in the American economy until the creation of the Federal Reserve System after the Panic of 1907.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

A nationwide strike that took place from July 14 to September 4, 1877. More than 100,000 railroad workers were ultimately involved, and the strike affected such cities as Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Chicago. The state National Guardsmen were often called in, but most militia members (and local residents) were sympathetic to the strikers. Ultimately, President Rutherford B. Hayes authorized the use of federal troops to break the strike. More than 100 workers were killed in the crackdown, and the strikers gained nothing. However, it led to more organized unionizing efforts.

Underground Railroad

A network of abolitionists and abolitionist-sympathizers who helped slaves escape into free states and Canada. Members included Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, among many others. The Underground Railroad gained greater support after the Compromise of 1850. At its peak, approximately 1,000 slaves per year escaped.

Ohio Gang (Poker Cabinet)

A nickname for President Warren Harding's cabinet, as it was mostly made up of old friends from the president's home state who were knowledgeable in the areas in which they served. Had a well-earned reputation for corruption.

Muckrakers

A nickname for investigative journalists who seek to spur reform and expose corruption. Originated during the Progressive Era. The term comes from Theodore Roosevelt, who said: "... the men with the muck rakes are often indispensable to the well being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck."

Frederick Law Olmsted

A notable American landscape architect. He established open spaces in cities by designing spacious, densely planted, meticulously planned parks. His most famous and influential work is the landscaping of Central Park in New York City.

J.P. Morgan

A notable investment banker who helped railraods and other major corporations raise capital. After purchasing Carnegie's steel business, he consolidated the industry to form U.S. Steel, the first corporation with a capitalization of over $1 billion. He essentially bailed out the U.S. economy during the Panic of 1893. In contrast to rival Andrew Carnegie, Morgan favored buying competitors out. See: interlocking directories.

Susan B. Anthony

A noted abolitionist and women's suffragist. With other feminists, she organized a landmark convention at Seneca Falls, New York, to discuss the plight of U.S. women. She co-founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890. Died in 1906. See: Declaration of Sentiments, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott

Tecumseh and the Prophet

A pair of Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and the Prophet, who led a large native confederacy organized in the face of an American advance westward. The Prophet, born Tenskwatawa, was a traditionalist who wished to purge the American Indian culture of any European influence. Then-Governor William Henry Harrison and his men successfully repulsed a surprise attack by them and subsequently burned a tribal settlement at Tippecanoe. This military disaster left the brothers with a poor reputation among American Indians.

Big Stick Diplomacy

A pejorative label for Teddy Roosevelt's foreign policy, especially in Panama, that referenced his repeated threats to use military force while negotiating peacefully.

Carpetbaggers

A pejorative term for the stereotype of the Northerner who packed all of his worldly possessions in a suitcase made from carpet, with the aim of moving to the South during Reconstruction to make a fortune. In the present day, the term is used to describe politicians who move to an area they have no previous connection with in order to gain election.

Gilded Age

A period from the 1870s to 1900. While marked by massive economic growth due to industrialization, it also led to equally massive economic inequality. Backlash to this period manifested in the reforms of the Progressive Era. See: Robber barons.

Stamp Act

A pivotal 1765 law. It required that all paper in the colonies, from death and marriage certificates to newspapers, have a stamp affixed signifying that the required tax had been paid. See: Stamp Act Congress.

John Rolfe

A pivotal leader at Jamestown. Negotiated peace between the settlers and local American Indians. Famously stated "He that will not work shall not eat," forcing the Jamestown colonists to work to save their then-failing colony. Returned to England in 1609 after being injured in a gunpowder explosion.

Contract With America

A pledge that listed specific conservative policies the GOP would enact if they gained control of the House of Representatives in the 1994 midterm elections.

New Nationalism

A policy proposal by Theodore Roosevelt in the election of 1912. In contrast to Wilson's New Freedom agenda, it proposed a smaller federal government with less big business influence. It also sought to support entrepreneurs and small businesses.

New Freedom

A policy proposal by Woodrow Wilson in the election of 1912. In contrast to Roosevelt's New Nationalism agenda, it proposed that the government take a larger role in regulating business. It also sought to grant women voting rights and to support various federal assistance programs.

Watergate

A political scandal sparked by Nixon operatives burglarizing the Democratic Party National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972. The burglars were arrested, and an ensuing investigation by "Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed a vast web of crimes and political corruption. With impeachment over the Watergate scandal certain, President Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. See: Gerald Ford.

Anti-Federalists

A post-revolutionary political faction that were wary of centralization and infringements upon individual liberties, especially when it came to taxation. Their criticism spurred the created of the Bill of Rights, and they would go on to contribute to the formation of the Democratic-Republicans.

locking out

A practice where workers were locked out of their place of employment before a strike even started, in order to avoid a sit-down strike or work stoppage.

Jonathan Edwards

A preacher credited for sparking the (First) Great Awakening. His sermons encouraged parishioners to repent of their sins and obey God's word in order to earn mercy. He delivered his most famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," in 1741.

League of Nations

A precursor to the United Nations, proposed by Woodrow Wilson in his 14 Points. Article X (10) of the League's charter called for members to stand at the ready if another member nation's sovereignty was being threatened. This killed the charter's chances of ratification in the U.S., as it seemed to promise future wars. See: reservationists, irreconcilables.

Direct Primaries

A process by which state voters nominate their own slate of candidates as opposed to the selection of the party ticket by the state legislature. While standard in the present day it was first adopted by Wisconsin in 1906. See: Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette.

New Jersey Plan

A proposal by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention. It called for equal representation in the legislative branch, regardless of the number of citizens of a state, in one legislative body. This structure would be similar to that under the Articles of Confederation.

Albany Plan of Union

A proposal by the Albany Congress, under the guidance of Benjamin Franklin, during the French and Indian War. It called for a confederation of colonies to defend against attack by European and native forces. Rejected by the colonial assemblies due to concern over the central consolidation of power, and by the British government because they felt it allowed for too much colonial independence.

William H. Seward

A radical abolitionist New York senator (1849-1861). He argued that slavery should be banned on moral grounds. Initially a Whig, he joined the Republican Party in 1855. Seward served as Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869. He was one fo the officials targeted by John Wilkes Booth's conspiracy but narrowly survived multiple stab wounds. He masterminded the purchase of Alaska in 1867, an act initially nicknamed Seward's Folly.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

A rare triumph under the Articles of Confederation, it established guidelines for attaining statehood: territories with at least 60,000 people could apply for statehood. If accepted by Congress, the new state would have equal status with other states. It banned slavery north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi, thereby guaranteeing future free states in the Midwest.

Specie Circular

A requirement instituted by the Jacksonian administration. The payment for the purchase of all federal lands had to be made in hard coin, or specie, rather than bank notes. Contributed to the Panic of 1837.

John Crittenden

A senator from Kentucky, Crittenden proposed in early 1861 an amendment to the Constitution to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific border, with slavery prohibited north of the line and protected south of it. President-elect Lincoln rejected the compromise, as the extension of slavery opposed Republican beliefs.

New Deal

A series of domestic policy initiatives and social welfare programs proposed by FDR. It sought to alleviate the suffering of the Great Depression with massive government spending, thus avoiding a potential communist or facist revolution. See: Great Society, Keynesian theory, Reagan Revolution, 2nd New Deal, Square Deal.

Great Society

A series of domestic programs proposed by Lyndon Johnson, expanding on Kennedy's stalled New Frontier proposals. Aimed to expand civil rights and eliminate poverty. See: Medicare, Medicaid, and the Immigration Act of 1965.

Black Panthers

A socialist, black nationalist organization founded in 1966. Famous for their uniforms and for openly carrying firearms. They organized a social safety net of impoverished African Americans in Oakland. Succumbed to ideological schisms, government harassment, as well as the arrests and deaths of their major leaders by the mid-1970s.

Tet Offensive

A surprise January 1968 offensive by the Viet Cong. While US. and South Vietnamese forces prevailed, it permanently undermined American public opinion in the war. Contributed to Johnson's decision to not run for reelection in 1968.

Rough Riders

A volunteer force of college students, cowboys, and adventurers led by Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War. They famously battled for control of San Juan Hill in Cuba with the heavy assistance of the 14th Regiment Colored.

Spanish-American War

A war between the U.S. and Spain (April 21, 1898-August 13, 1898). Ostensibly triggered by the alleged sinking of the "Maine" by Spanish forces, it involved the U.S. aiding independence efforts in Cuba to protect financial investments there, as well as to safeguard the Gulf Coast from a free Cuba potentially leasing its ports to foreign powers. The United States took control of Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and several other islands. Also led to the Philippine-American War and subsequent Moro Rebellion (1899-1913). See: Fidel Castro, Platt Amendment, Rough Riders, Treaty of Paris (1898), yellow journalism.

Pequot War

A war in New England in 1636-1638. Fought between the Pequot tribe and the English colonists with their American Indian allies. A catastrophic defeat for the Pequot tribe. Famous for the Mystic massacre, where over 500 Pequot were slaughtered in a blaze.

Suez Canal

A waterway linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas. A vital economic and military chokepoint. The British Empire gained control of it in 1882. Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it in 1956. In retaliation, Britain, France, and Israel invaded. However, Eisenhower didn't support them, so the alliance was forced to return the canal to Egypt.

James Oglethorpe

A wealthy reformer who founded Georgia in 1733 as a haven for those who had been imprisoned in England as debtors. He intially banned slavery and alcohol from the colony, which led to many disputes among settlers. In 1751, however, the colony was surrendered to the crown, which repealed both bans.

Internet

A worldwide computer network that uses the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). Grew out of ARPANET, a project funded by the U.S. department of defense.

Teller Amendment

Added to the war declaration on Spain, it assured Cuba and the world that the United States intended to grant Cuba its independence once the war ended. This turned out not to be the case. See: Platt Amendment, Spanish-American War.

Catholicism

Adherence to the liturgy and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholics believe that the Bible alone is not sufficient for salvation, but that it must be tied to certain rites and traditions. Catholics view the Pope as the representative of Jesus on Earth. Historically, the Catholic Church was a major landowner in both Europe and Latin America, and the Pope was often politically more powerful than most monarchs. Contrast: Protestantism, Puritanism.

Liberty Party

Along with his radicalism and his attacks on churches, William Lloyd Garrison's insistence on the participation of women in his American Antislavery Society led to a division among the supporters. This splinter faction, the Liberty Party, accepted women members. Contrast with: Foreign Antislavery Society.

Democratic-Republicans

Also called Jeffersonian Republicans. Founded by Anti-Federalists and agrarian interests, it was a political party that championed states' rights and the viewpoint of the common man. A later splinter would become the modern Democratic Party.

Trust

Also called a corporate trust, it was a common form of monopoly around the turn of the 20th century. Essentially, the stockholders of several companies would sell their stock to the owner of a larger company in exchange for trust certificates, which entitled them to a share of the profits as silent partners. The several companies still technically existed but were now effectively one entity. See: John D. Rockefeller, Square Deal, Theodore Roosevelt.

Great League of Peace

Also called the Haudenosaunee. A political confederation of five (later six) Iroquois tribes, which sought to coordinate collective action. Each tribe maintained its own political system and religious beliefs. Believed to have formed around 1450.

National Labor Relations Act

Also called the Wagner Act, it strengthened the language of the NIRA. It still stands as the foundation of U.S. labor law, and created the National Labor Relations Board.

Benito Mussolini

Also known as "II Duce." Following October 1922's March on Rome, he became Prime Minister of Italy. Formulated the core concepts of facism, which were embraced leaders Adolf Hitler. Aimed to create a new Italian Empire, although his reach usually far exceeded the grasp of his abilities. Killed in April 1945 and famously hung on a meat hook.

No Child Left Behind Act

Also known as NCLB. Established federal standards in education and test-based performance measurement. Passed in 2001 with bipartisan support. Replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act( ESSA) in 2015, which reverted standards to the states.

William Pitt

Also known as William Pitt the Elder. A Whig statesman who shifted British efforts in the French and Indian War from colonial skirmishes to the capturing of Canada, with key victories in Louisbourg (1758), Quebec (1759), and Montreal (1760). This effectively removed France's presence from North America.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

American abolitionist and author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852), an influential work of abolitionism.

Alice Paul

American suffragist and women's rights activist. In 1920, she founded the National Woman's Party, a splinter group of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), which she led for the next 50 years. Argued for the inclusion of women as a protected category in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. See: Equal Rights Amendment.

Pontiac's Rebellion

An 18-month conflict with the American Indians of the Ohio Valley. Led by Chief Pontiac, leader of the Ottawa people, natives attacked British colonial settlements from the Great Lakes to Virginia. Resulted in the Proclamation of 1763.

Squanto

An American Indian who learned English after having been captured and transported to England. Later returned to the New World. He showed the Pilgrims how to plant corn and where to fish, enabling them to survive early on.

Upton Sinclair

An American writer and vocal socialist. Most famous for his 1906 novel "The Jungle," a story illustrating the poor conditions at a Chicago meatpacking plant. While he intended readers to sympathize with the workers, instead they focused on the unsanitary food production. As Sinclair remarked: "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." See: Pure Food and Drug Act.

Atlantic Charter

An Anglo-American policy statement issued in August 1941. Negotiated by Roosevelt and Churchill, it declared that free trade and the self-determination fo peoples would be the cornerstones of the post-WWII international system. However, the idea of self-determination was not applied evenly to the British Empire, especially India. See: International Monetary Fund, United Nations, World Bank.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

An August 1964 Congressional resolution authorizing the president to wage war in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war.

Toleration Act of 1689

An English law that called for the free worship of most Protestants, not only Puritans. Forced on Massachusetts in 1691 after it was made a royal colony, revoking its earlier Puritan-centric charter.

Thomas Paine

An English-born political activist in the American and French Revolutions. Author of Common Sense.

Separation of Powers

An Enlightenment concept advocated by the French philosopher Montesquieu in his seminal 1748 work The Spirit of the Laws. It is the idea that a government's power should be divided into multiple branches that balance and check each other.

Henry Ward Beecher

An abolitionist and clergyman. In response to proslavery "border ruffians" moving into Kansas from Missouri, he helped antislavery settlers establish footholds in the state and also funneled them rifles. Beecher attacked the Compromise of 1850 in "Shall We Compromise," arguing that a Christian's duty to feed and shelter slaves meant that liberty and slavery were compatible. During the Civil War, Lincoln sent him on a European speaking tour, rallying public support in order to prevent Britain and France from recognizing the Confederacy.

Political Machine

An authoritarian or oligarchical political organization that commands political influence, voting blocs, and corporate influence in such a way that they can decide (or strongly influence) the outcome of elections. Often corrupt and prone to political patronage. Usually active at the city level, but sometimes extends statewide. A target of reform during the Gilded Age. See: direct primaries, Pendleton Civil Service Act, spoils system, Tammany Hall.

Political Machines

An authoritarian or oligarchical political organization that commands political influence, voting blocs, and corporate influence in such a way that they can decide (or strongly influence) the outcome of elections. Often corrupt and prone to political patronage. Usually active at the city level, but sometimes extends statewide. A target of reform during the Gilded Age. See: direct primaries, Pendleton Civil Service, spoils system, Tammany Hall.

Trickle Down Economics

An economic theory that argues the economy is best stimulated by low taxes for both businesses and the wealthy, thus allowing them to accumulate capital to spend. Thus, society as a whole benefits. See: Andrew Carnegie, Reagan Revolution.

17th Amendment

Progressive Era reform that required the direct election of U.S. senators by the people of their home state. Passed in 1913. Beside the pro-democratic arguments for its passage, state legislatures favored the amendment due to the protracted gridlock that selecting and confirming U.S. senators was increasingly causing them.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Proposed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas in 1854, it functionally repealed the Missouri Compromise. The act proposed the Nebraska Territory be divided into 2 regions, Nebraska and Kansas, and each would vote by popular sovereignty on the issue of slavery. It was presumed that Nebraska would become a free state, while Kansas would become a slave state. Douglas was able to push his bill through Congress, and President Pierce signed it into law in 1854. It helped spur the formation of the Republican Party.

Thomas Hooker

Puritan leader. Founded a settlement at Hartford, Connecticut (1636) after dissenting from the Massachusetts authorities. See: the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.

Red Scare

Ran from 1917-1920s. A period of social anxiety and paranoia concerned with communist and anarchist infiltration throughout society. Drive by events such as the nationalism of WWI, labor unrest, nativism, and most especially the 1917 Russian Revolution that established the world's 1st communist state in the Soviet Union. Led to a series of mass arrest deportations in 1919-1920 known as the Palmer Raids.

2nd New Deal

Ran from 1935-1938. Focused more on relief and reform. Among several programs passed during this period, the most famous is the Social Security Act.

Twelfth Amendment

Ratified in 1804, it called for electors to the Electoral College to specify which ballot was being cast for the office of president and which was being cast for the office of vice president. In other words, the president and vice president were now elected as a unified ticket, rather than the vice president being the runner-up. The tie vote that occurred in 1800 between Jefferson and Burr would not happen again under this new amendment.

15th Amendment

Ratified in 1870, it barred any state from denying a citizen's right to vote on the basis of race, color, or previous servitude. However, it did not ban poll taxes or literacy tests, which would be a loophole exploited by whites after the end of Reconstruction to suppress African American voters.

16th Amendment

Ratified in 1913, it authorized the federal government to collect an income tax. See: Populist Party.

Non-Intercourse Act of 1809

Replaced the unpopular Embargo Act of 1807. This law allowed the Untied States to trade with foreign nations except Britain and France. Like its predecessor, the Embargo Act, it was difficult to enforce and mostly ineffective.

American Temperance Society

Revival preachers of the Second Great Awakening joined forces in the 1820s to form the American Temperance Society. While their initial goal was to encourage drinkers simply to limit their alcohol intake, the movement soon evolved to demand absolute abstinence, as reformers began to see the negative effects that any alcohol consumption had on people's lives. The movement quickly earned the support of state leaders as decreased alcohol use resulted in fewer on-the-job accidents and more overall productivity. The most active members of temperance societies tended to be middle-class women.

John Adams

Second President. Served 1791-1801. First Vice President (1789-1797). Lobbied for declaring independence at the Constitutional Congress. Signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the armed forces during the Quasi-War. Died on July 4, 1826, the same day as his friend and political rival Thomas Jefferson. See: Boston Massacre, midnight judges.

Edwin Stanton

Secretary of State (1862-1868) under the Lincoln and Johnson administrations. A Radical Republican, he supported Congress over Johnson when it came to Reconstruction. His firing violated the Tenure of Office Act, which provided the Radical Republican Congress an excuse to impeach the Johnson. The Senate also reappointed Stanton as Secretary of War, although he resigned following the failure to convict Johnson.

Joseph McCarthy

Senator from Wisconsin (1947-1957). The face of the Second Red Scare, his baseless accusations and dramatic flare attracted major media attention. After the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings exposed him doctoring evidence, public opinion swung against him. The Senate censured him. Died in 1957, age 48, from hepatitis exacerbated by alcoholism.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Served as First Lady to Bill Clinton 1993-2001. Served as Senator form NY 2001-2009. Served as Secretary of State 2009-2013. Ran for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in 2008 but lost to Barack Obama after a protracted campaign. Won the nomination in 2016, becoming the first female nominee for a major party, but lost the presidential election. Politically, she advocated for health care reform and women's rights, and was considered a foreign policy hawk.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert

English explorer. In the Elizabethan era, he founded the 1st English colony at Newfoundland, which failed.

Henry Hudson

English explorer. While working to find a Northwest Passage for the Dutch East India Company, he sailed up the Hudson River, establishing Dutch claims for what became New Amsterdam (modern-day New York)

Quakers

Formally known as the "Society of Friends." A Protestant church that advocated that everyone was equal, including women, Africans, and American Indians. See: William Penn.

International Monetary Fund

Formed in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference, the IMF facilitates global trade to avoid another Great Depression.

William Penn

Founded Pennsylvania in 1683. A Quaker, Penn believed in equality between people. He owned all the colony's land and sold it to settlers at low costs, instead of developing a headright system. The religious tolerance, excellent climate, and low cost of land appealed to immigrants from across Western Europe. See: Quaker.

American Federation of Labor

Founded in 1886, the AFL was a federation of 20 craft unions (unions of skilled workers, each representing a particular trade). The AFL concentrated on what they considered to be basic economic issues, such as the 8 hour workday and higher wages, rather than social change. Because the AFL was made up of skilled rather than unskilled laborers, their workers could not be as easily replaced by scabs if a strike were called. See: collective bargaining, closed shops, National Labor Relations Act.

Jamestown

Founded in Virginia in 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. After the statehouse was burned on four separate occasions, the capital was moved to what became modern-day Williamsburg. See: John Smith, Roanoke.

Ayatollah Khomeini

Founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its leader from 1979-1989. Gained infamy in the U.S. for supporting the taking of American diplomats as hostages. Dubbed the U.S. the "Great Satan." Died in June 1989.

Alexander Hamilton

Founding Father and co-author of the Federalist Papers. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, he set out to repair the nation's credit and overall financial health. Favored a strong executive, strong military, and political centralization. See: Whiskey Rebellion.

Robert Morris

Founding Father and noted financier of the American Revolution. Signed the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. Declined to become the first Treasury Secretary, instead recommending Alexander Hamilton.

Roger Sherman

Founding Father from Connecticut. Proposed the Connecticut Compromise, which provided the basis for the structure of the legislative branch.

John Jay

Founding Father from New York. President of the Second Continental Congress. First Chief Justice (1795-1989). An early leader in the Federalist Party. Contributed to the Federalist Papers. See: Jay's Treaty.

John Dickinson

Founding Father from Pennsylvania. He wrote a series of essays called "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania," which rekindled interest in the issue of taxation without representation during the Townshend Acts. He oversaw the drafting of the Articles of Confederation.

James Madison

Founding Father from Virginia. Known as the "Father of the Constitution" for his role in drafting it and the Bill of Rights. Contributed to the Federalist Papers. Co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party.

George Mason

Founding Father from Virginia. One of three delegates at the Constitutional Convention who refused to sign the final document. He objected to its lack of a Bill of Rights, and wanted an immediate end to the slave trade (while supporting slavery itself). His 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights would strongly influence the French Revolution's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

William Paterson

Founding Father. A New Jersey statesman who put forth the New Jersey Plan at the Constitutional Convention in rebuttal of the Virginia Plan.

Edmund Randolph

Founding Father. A Virginian who would become the first Attorney General and second Secretary of State. Proposed the Virginia Plan at the Constitutional Convention.

Thomas Jefferson

Founding Father. Authored the Declaration of Independence. First Secretary of State (1779-1781). Second Vice President (1797-1801). Helped found the Democratic-Republican Party in 1794. Co-authored the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.

Samuel Adams

Founding Father. Led the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. Also penned Massachusetts Circular Letter in 1768, which demanded that the Townshend Act be repealed.

Patrick Henry

Founding Father. Young Virginian lawyer and Patriot. In reaction to the Stamp Act, he accused the British government of usurping the rights guaranteed to colonists as Englishmen. He encouraged his fellow leaders to insist that Virginians be taxed only by Virginians, not by some distant royal authority. Later an Anti-Federalist.

Jacques Cartier

French explorer. Cultivated a fur trade with American Indians. Dubbed the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and its surroundings as "the Country of Canadas," a term derived from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word for village/settlement.

Louis Joliet

French-Canadian explorer. He and Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans to explore and map the Mississippi River.

Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette

Governor and later U.S. Senator fo Wisconsin. A notable Republican from his party's progressive wing, he forced the introduction of direct primaries in his state, campaigned for child labor laws, a minimum wage, and women's suffrage. He opposed U.S. entry into WWI. Ran for president as the Progressive Party candidate in 1924, but won only his home state and roughly 17% of the national vote.

Henry Ford

He applied Taylor's principles of scientific management to make factory production faster and more efficient, specifically with his automobile factory assembly lines. This led to the creation and production of the Ford Model T, the 1st affordable car.

Leland Stanford

He became a wealthy merchant during the California Gold Rush, and later served as Governor of California (1862-1863) and as its Senator (1885-1893). Leader of the Central Pacific Railroad, Stanford oversaw the construction of part of the transcontinental railroad. Considered a robber baron, he wielded tremendous wealth and influence due to his control over railroads in the American West. Later founded Stanford University.

Harriet Tubman

She escaped from slavery and later helped others do the same with the Underground Railroad. Tubman helped John Brown recruit his band for the raid on Harper's Ferry. After the Civil War, she advocated for women's suffrage.

V-E Day

Shorthand for "Victory in Europe Day." Took place on Tuesday, May 8, 1945.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Signed between Spain and Portugal in 1494, it decided how Christopher Columbus's discoveries of the New World would be divided. It established the zone of Portuguese influence in what would become Brazil.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Signed in February 1848, it ended the Mexican-American War. The treaty granted California and most of the Southwest (including current-day Nw Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada) to the United States. The U.S. government agreed to pay war reparations in the sum of $15 million to the Mexican government. Despite continued bitter debate over the expansion of slavery, the treaty was ratified. See: Gadsden Purchase.

Battle of Little Bighorn

Sometimes called Custer's Last Stand, it is the most famous victory of American Indian forces over the U.S. military (although not the largest in death toll). The Sioux killed over 260 troops and their leader, Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The Sioux were hunted down and killed by other U.S. forces. See: Northwest Indian War, Blue Turtle.

Spanish Requirement of 1513

Spain asserted its divine right to conquer the New World, stating that its main concern was to rescue the natives from hedonism.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Spanish explorer and conquistador. In 1513, he led the first overland expedition by Europeans to reach the Pacific, specifically crossing the Isthmus of Panama.

Federalists

Supported an orderly, efficient central government that could protect their economic status; these well-organized leaders often wielded significant political control. Members included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton. An early political party. See: Anti-Federalists, Alien and Sedition Acts.

U.S. Steel

The 1st corporation in history with a capitalization of over $1,000,000,000 (1 billion), at a time when the entire U.S. stock market was worth roughly $9,000,000,000 (9 billion). It was formed by J.P. Morgan, who purchased Andrew Carnegie's steel business and then went on to consolidate that whole industry.

Sputnik

The 1st manmade satellite. Launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Sparked the Space race, as well as a massive investment in the American Education System. See: NASA.

Judiciary Act of 1801

In a last-minute piece of legislation before the Congress was to be turned over to the majority Democratic-Republicans, the Federalists created 16 new judgeships. President John Adams worked through the nights of his last days in office, appointing so-called "midnight judges" who would serve on the bench during Jefferson's administration. Incensed by the packing of Federalists into lifetime judicial appointments, Jefferson sought to keep these men from taking the bench. This led to the "Marbury v. Madison" ruling.

American Independent Party (AIP)

In the 1968 election, the AIP founded as a pro-segregationist breakaway from the Democratic Party. Its nominees were George Wallace and Curtis LeMay. Wallace aimed to throw the election into the House of Representatives and play kingmaker.

Three-Fifths Compromise

Infamous compromise at the Constitutional Convention. It held that enslaved person in the South was counted as three-fifths of a person. In addition, the South conceded to the end of the legal importation of slaves in 1808.

Robert Fulton

Inventor of the steamboat, which he created in 1807. Before the steamboat, river travel was done by flatboats or by keelboats. The steamboat allowed goods and people to be transported easily both upstream and downstream. See: Erie Canal.

13th Amendment

It banned slavery and involuntary servitude, and functionally repealed the Three-Fifths Clause. Passed in early 1865 and ratified later that year, this amendment was one of Lincoln's last major achievements prior to his assassination.

New Amsterdam

The Dutch capital of their New Netherland colony. Noted for its tolerance of religious practices. It failed to attract enough settlers to compete with the surrounding English colonies. Conquered by the English in 1664, who renamed it New York City.

Treaty of Ghent

It ended the War of 1812, and was signed by American envoys and British diplomats in Belgium on December 24, 1814. The provisions of the treaty provided for the return of any conquered territories to their rightful owners, and the settlement of a boundary between Canada and the United States. Essentially, the war ended in a draw - neither side gained any major concessions, restitution, or apologies. Most Americans were pleased, however, because they had expected to lose territory. See: Battle of New Orleans, Hartford Convention.

Gaspee Affair

The Gaspee was a British warship commissioned to capture vessels carrying smuggled goods before they reached the colonies. The Gaspee ran aground on the shores of Rhode Island. The Sons of Liberty set fire to the boat, and event celebrated throughout coastal colonial towns as a victory for the tax-burdened consumer.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1908. It seeks to end all racial discrimination, segregation, and disenfranchisement. See: Niagara Movement.

Office of War Information

The OWI was organized during WWII to produce radio shows and news reels to keep Americans apprised of events overseas. It aimed to keep American morale high and to increase support for the war.

Tariff of 1832

It lowered the Tariff of 1828's rate from 45% to 35% in a failed attempt to placate the South. Calhoun resigned from the vice presidency in response. South Carolina voted to nullify the Tariff of 1832 and threatened to secede if Jackson attempted to collect the duties by force. In response, Jackson encouraged Congress to lower tariffs even more. However, he also asked Congress to pass the Force Bill, which gave the president the power to use the military to collect tariffs. This signaled to the South that their threats would not be tolerated. In response, South Carolina rescinded the nullification. However, the tensions between the North and the South would continue to escalate, culminating in the Civil War.

Central Pacific Railroad

Led by Leland Stanford, it set out to build the most difficult stretch of the transcontinental railroad from Sacramento, California, through the Sierra Nevada mountains and eastward. Chinese laborers built most of the Central Pacific's line. See: Chinese Exclusion Act, Promontory Point, Union Pacific Railroad.

Robert E. Lee

Lee served as an aide to Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War, where he gained experience in artillery and troop movements. During John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, Lee commanded the mixed force of militia and soldiers that suppressed his attempted slave uprising. However, his legacy would be defined by betraying the U.S. and taking command of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War.

Joseph Stalin

Longtime dictator of the Soviet Union. After Lenin's 1924 death, Stalin consolidated power and eliminated rivals, ruling with an iron fist until his own death on March 5, 1953. Favored centralization and collectivization. Purged millions through man-made famine, imprisonment in gulags, and executions. He and Hitler struck a surprise non-aggression pact and divided Poland. See: Big Three.

Huey P. "Kingfish" Long

Louisiana Senator and demagogue. He advocated for a "Robin Hood" plan to take from the rich and give to the poor called Share Our Wealth. His plan would impose heavy taxes on inheritance and estates to fund a minimum salary of $2,000 a year for every American. Long argued that the New Deal was not enough to aid the country's most needy citizens. Assassinated in September 1935.

Daniel Shays

Massachusetts farmer and Revolutionary War veteran. He led a short-lived populist uprising that demanded tax and debt relief. Pardoned in 1788. See: Shay's Rebellion.

Henry Kissinger

National Security Advisor 1969-1975. Secretary of State 1973-1977. A foreign policy advisor for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Advocated détente and "realpolitike," or international relations, based on self-interest rather than ideology or morality.

William Marbury

One of the "midnight judges" appointed by John Adams. Jefferson tried to stop his appointment. So, Marburg sued under the Judiciary Act of 1789, which granted the Supreme Court the authority to enforce judicial commissions. His case resulted in the landmark "Marbury v. Madison" decision.

Federal Reserve Act

Passed in 1913 in reaction to the Panic of 1907. It created the Federal Reserve System.

Opechancanough

Planned and executed a surprise attack in 1622 on Jamestown that massacred a fourth of the total Virginia colonists in one day. The resulting retaliation by the English settlers devastated his tribe, altering the regional balance of power. See: Powhatan.

Political Parties

Political factions within a republican government. The Founding Fathers generally warned against such factions. However, parties quickly arose in Washington's first term. The U.S. is noted for the enduring two-party system. There are 5 recognized party systems, although a Sixth Party System (starting in the later 1960s) is sometimes also listed.

Virginia Company

The collective name for two joint stock companies (one of London, the other of Plymouth) that had identical charters but different (if overlapping) territorial claims. Chartered in 1606 by King James I in order to settle the North American eastern coastline.

Great Depression

The name for a global economic depression that took place from 1929 and lasted until the outbreak of WWII. The massive social and political disruption it caused due to the loss of wealth and a spike in unemployment contributed to instability throughout the world, and eld to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. See: Black Tuesday, Hawley-Smoot Tariff, Keynesian theory, New Deal, Second New Deal.

Powhatan

The name for an American Indian tribe neighboring Jamestown. Also the common name for its chief (formally known as Wahunsenacawh) in the 1610s, who was father to Pocahontas and brother to Opechancanough.

Trail of Tears

The name for the expulsion of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia in the 1830s and their forced relocation to modern-day Oklahoma. Of the 15,000 people who embarked on the journey, 4,000 died. See: Andrew Jackson, "Cherokee Nation v. Georgia," Indian Removal Act, "Worcester v. Georgia."

Black Tuesday

The name for the worst stock market crash in U.S. history, which occurred on October 29, 1929. A common starting point for the Great Depression.

Three Mile Island

The name refers to a March 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Led to the decline of the U.S. nuclear power industry.

James Otis

A Patriot from Massachusetts. Coined the phrase "Taxation without representation is tyranny," which is popularly abbreviated as "no taxation without representation."

Charles G. Finney

A Presbyterian minister during the Second Great Awakening. Like Jonathan Edwards of the First Great Awakening, he appealed to his audience's emotions, rather than to their reason. His "fire and brimstone" sermons became commonplace in upstate New York. He insisted that parishioners could save themselves through good works and a steadfast faith in God. He was also an abolitionist, and condemned slavery from the pulpit.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

A landmark 1857 Supreme Court case that was a major contributing factor to the outbreak of the Civil War. Dred Scott, a slave in Missouri, spent years in Wisconsin and Illinois with his master. After his master's death, Dred Scott sued for freedom. The Court ruled that all African Americans (free or slave) were not citizens. Taney also ruled that Congress had no right to deny citizens of their individual property, and therefore the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional for stripping slave owners of their rightful property once they moved north.

Brown v. Board of Education

A landmark Supreme Court Case that held segregation fo public schools was unconstitutional. Overturned "Plessy v. Ferguson" in the context of education.

Iron Curtain

A metaphor for the dividing line between the West and the Soviet Union. Coined by Winston Churchill in a March 1946 speech delivered in Fulton, Missouri.

Blacklisting

A method of subverting labor organizing. "Difficult" workers were barred from being hired, or forced to knuckle under and sign a yellow-dog contract.

Richard Henry Lee

A delegate at the First and Second Continental Congress. On June 7, 1776, he famously made an official motion calling for the colonies to declare independence.

Filibuster

An act of obstructionism that prevents the normal workings of the legislature. An elected official will continue talking rather than allow debate on a bill to be closed, thus preventing a vote from taking place. In the U.S. Senate, it was never used until 1837.

Frederick W. Taylor

Author of the 1911 book, "The Principles of Scientific Management," an influential book on scientific management (Taylorism). His ideas were adapted by Henry Ford.

Timothy McVeigh

A right-wing anti-government domestic terrorist. McVeigh helped orchestrate the Oklahoma City bombing, which targeted the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. 168 people were killed and nearly 700 were injured. McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001.

Iran-Contra Scandal

A scandal where the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran in exchange for the release of Americans held hostage, and then used the profits from that sale to illegally support right-wing insurgents in Nicaragua. Led to calls for Reagan's impeachment. In late 1992, President George H.W. Bush pardoned those under trial for their part in Iran-Contra.

Fort Sumter

A sea fort near Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12-13, 1861, the first shots of the Civil War were fired there. The Confederate Army fired upon the unarmed merchant vessel "Star of the West" which was attempting to resupply the U.S. forces stationed at the fort.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Beginning in 1994, it created a free trade bloc between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. Negotiated by George H.W. Bush and ratified with the approval of Bill Clinton. Opposed in the 1992 election by Ross Perot.

Horatio Gates

American general in the Revolutionary War. He shares credit with Benedict Arnold for winning the most important battle of the war: the Battle of Saratoga.

Closed Shops

Businesses in which all employees had to be members of the union. Meant to deter exploitation of laborers by owners.

Lucretia Mott

An abolitionist, pacifist, Quaker, and suffragist. After being barred from attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840, she became interested in women's rights and helped convene the Seneca Falls Convention. She co-wrote the Declaration of Sentiments.

World Wide Web

Distinct from but related to the Internet. It's a system by which documents are coded in HTML, identified by URLs, and linked together by hypertext. Invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

John Pope

His defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run created an opening for Robert E. Lee's Maryland Campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Antietam.

Partisan

The supporter of a political figure or cause, to the point that it biases their actions. See: Samuel Chase.

Bill of Rights

Umbrella term for the first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It explicitly lists protections for individual rights and state sovereignty. Created to secure the support of Anti-Federalists in ratifying the U.S. Constitution, which initially had no such guarantees.

John C. Breckenridge

Vice president under James Buchanan, he was the Democratic party's nominee for president in the 1860 election. Breckenridge won the South and Maryland, but no Northern states. He supported the Confederacy, becoming a general in its army.

James K. Polk

11th President. Served 1845-1849. An heir of sorts to Andrew Jackson, he advocated for Manifest Destiny. His campaign slogan was "Fifty-four forty or fight!" Yet while that slogan advocated a hardline position on the disputed Oregon Territory, he instead reached a diplomatic agreement with Britain. The border was drawn at the 49th parallel, which ceded what is now British Columbia, including Vancouver Island. He then oversaw the controversial Mexican-American War, expanding the U.S. into the Southwest. Having pledged to only serve 1 term, he declined to run for reelection in 1848.

French and Indian War

1754-1763. Name for the North American theater of the Seven Years' War. Featured Britain and France, and their colonial and native allies, fighting for control of North America east of the Mississippi. While the British won, they incurred massive debts in the process. This led to trouble down the road for them. See: Treaty of Paris (1763).

Marbury v. Madison

1803 ruling that stated Congress cannot pass laws that are contrary to the Constitution, and that it is the judicial system's job to interpret what the Constitution permits. Overturned a clause in the Judiciary Act of 1789 that granted the Supreme Court the power to command any subordinate government authority to take or not take an action that is that authority's legal duty.

Mormon

The common name for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Rutherford B. Hayes

19th President. Served 1877-1881. While a Civil War veteran and a Republican, he ended Reconstruction as a part of the Compromise of 1877 to resolve the disputed 1876 election. Enacted modest civil service reform. Ordered federal troops to break up the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Pledged not to run for reelection and returned to Ohio.

Chester A. Arthur

21st President. Served 1881-1885, but only assumed office after President Garfield's assassination. Mainly remembered for the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which encouraged a merit-based system for the civil service. Declined to run for reelection in 1884 due to poor health. He died in November 1886 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Grover Cleveland

22 and 24th President. Only president to serve non-consecutive terms, in 1885-1889 and 1893-1897. The first Democratic Party president since before the Civil War. Supported the gold standard. His second term was defined by the Panic of 1983, which caused a severe depression. Sent federal troops in to break up the Pullman Strike. His resolution of the Venezuelan crisis of 1895 began the reconciliation between the United States and British Empire.

Benjamin Harrison

23rd President. Served 1889-1893, and was bookended by Cleveland's 2 non-consecutive terms. Harrison supported the passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act but did little to enforce it. His attempt at securing voting rights for African Americans was unsuccessful. Modernized the U.S. Navy with new warships.

William McKinley

25th President. Served 1897-1901. A proponent of the gold standard and a moderate between business and labor interests, McKinley was assassinated 6 months into his 2nd term by an anarchist. McKinley oversaw U.S. involvement in the Spanish-American War, as well as the subsequent extension of American control over Cuba and the Philippines. See: Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Treaty of Paris (1898).

Theodore Roosevelt

26th President. Served 1901-1909. A reformist New York governor, Roosevelt was kicked upstairs by party bosses to the vice presidency, which was seen as an unimportant office. After McKinley was assassinated, Roosevelt became president at 42, the youngest ever. He pursued a progressive domestic agenda called the Square Deal. In terms of foreign policy, he forced through construction of the Panama Canal. He brokered an end to the Russo-Japanese War, which secured him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. He unsuccessfully attempted to run for a 3rd, non-consecutive term in 1912. See: Bull Moose Party, Rough Riders.

Woodrow Wilson

28th President. Served 1913-1921, although a series of near-fatal strokes in late 1919 incapacitated him for the rest of his life, and the remainder of his presidency was essentially run by his wife Edith. The 1st Southern President since before the Civil War. When healthy, Wilson supported a number of progressive reforms, such as the Federal Reserve Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act. Implemented segregation throughout the executive branch offices, including the Navy, which had never been segregated. Internationally, he is famous for the 14 Points as well as his brainchild, the League of Nations. Died in 1924.

Warren G. Harding

29th President. Served from 1921 until August 2, 1923. Initially popular, various scandals (such as Teapot Dome) uncovered after his death, which destroyed Harding's reputation. Oversaw the Washington Naval Conference. See: Calvin Coolidge, Ohio Gang.

Calvin Coolidge

30th President. Served 1923-1929. Assumed the Presidency following Warren G. Harding's death. Elected in 1924. Nicknamed "Silent Cal" for his tight-lipped nature. He was a small-government conservative and supported "laissez-faire" economics. Unsuccessfully called on Congress to make lynching a federal crime.

Herbert Hoover

31st President. Served 1929-1933. A Quaker and humanitarian, he famously led famine relief efforts in Europe after WWI, as well as oversaw the response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. However, his response (or lack thereof) to the Great Depression destroyed his popularity. Homeless encampments were dubbed Hoovervilles as a mocking honor. Signed the Smoot-Hawley Act into law and supported Prohibition.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

32nd President. Served 1933-1945. Elected to 4 terms, and the only president to do so. FDR oversaw the response to the Great Depression in the New Deal, led the u.S. through most of WWII, approved the Manhattan Project, and laid the groundwork for the postwar international system. Paralyzed after a 1921 bout with Polio, FDR carefully hid his disability with the help of the press. Died in office; succeeded by Harry Truman. See: Atlantic Charter, Big Three, Eleanor Roosevelt, Executive Order 9066, United Nations.

John F. Kennedy

35th President. Served 1961-1963. First Roman Catholic President. Narrowly elected over Richard Nixon, his term in office was dominated by the rising civil rights movement, such as the Freedom Riders, and escalating Cold War tensions. The early months of his presidency were dominated by the Bay of Pigs and the building of the Berlin Wall. In October 1962, he dealt with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Gerald R. Ford

39th President. Served from August 8, 1974 to January 20, 1977. The only person to serve as president not elected as president or vice president. He ended American involvement in Vietnam by allowing the conquest of South Vietnam by the North. Continued the policy of détente. Initially popular, his approval ratings sank after issuing an unconditional pardon of Richard Nixon. Narrowly lost "reelection" to Jimmy Carter.

Ronald Reagan

40th President. Served 1981-1989. Former 2 term governor of California, he heralded a shift within the Republican Party toward an ideological conservatism. Domestically, he oversaw massive tax cuts, economic deregulation, and increased defense spending. Internationally, he took a hawkish line with the Soviet Union while also negotiating arms ilmitations. His final years in office were dogged by the Iran-Contra Scandal.

George W. Bush

43rd President. Serviced 2001-2009. He won election after the 2000 recount. The 9/11 attacks defined his presidency. Directed the invasions of Afghanistan and Iran. Domestically, he signed the No Child Left Behind Act, Patriot Act, and an expansion of Medicare into law. The final months of his presidency were marked by the 2008 Financial Crisis. He signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which bailed out failing banks.

Barack Obama

44th President. Served 2009-2017. A freshman senator from Illinois, he defeated Hillary Clinton in a protracted 2008 primary fight and went on to a landslide general election victory. First African American President. Along with George W. Bush, he oversaw the response to the 2008 Financial Crisis. Signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010. His foreign policy was marked by a multilateral approach and the targeted use of military force.

Roger Taney

5th Chief Justice. Served 1836-1864. He also served as Attorney General (1831-1833). Appointed to both posts by Andrew Jackson, Taney is infamous for his majority opinion in "Dred Scott v. Sandford." Taney is also notable as the 1st Roman Catholic (and 1st non-Protestant generally) appointed to either a Presidential cabinet or the Supreme Court. His attempt to overturn Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus in Maryland (Taney's home state) was ignored by Lincoln. He died in October 1864, hated by the North for Dred Scott just as the South loathed him for siding with the Union.

Martin Van Buren

8th President. Served 1837-1841. Van Buren's presidency was marred by an economic depression resulting from the policies of his predecessor, Andrew Jackson. The Panic of 1837 dogged his administration. Van Buren was the first president to be born a U.S. citizen, and the only president to speak English as a 2nd language (Dutch being the primary language spoken in his childhood home).

Mikhail Gorbachev

8th and final leader of the Soviet Union (1985-1991). He sought reform with his "glasnost" and "perestroika" policies. Oversaw the democratization of Eastern Europe. However, the revival of nationalism throughout the Warsaw Pact proved problematic for him. The failed August Coup of 1991 by the hardline communists fatally wounded his power base. Resigned on December 25, 1991. Transferred power over Russia to Boris Yeltsin.

William Henry Harrison

9th President. Served from March 4 to April 4, 1841, famously dying after 31 days in office. A hero of the War of 1812, specifically the battle of Tippecanoe, his lively campaign saw the Whigs cart model log cabins to towns and distribute hard cider to boast of Harrison's "poor" background. His "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too" ticket easily defeated Van Buren in 1840. However, he gave his Inaugural Address on a cold, rainy day and neglected to war a warm coat. He contracted pneumonia and died. See: John Tyler.

Stono Rebellion

A 1739 slave uprising in Stono, South Carolina. Led to the deaths of more than four dozen colonists and as many as 200 African slaves. Prompted South Carolina's proprietors to create a stricter slave code.

Sugar Act

A 1764 law which raised the previous amount demanded on sweeteners (molasses and sugar). Part of British attempts to pay off debt from the French and Indian War.

Quartering Act

A 1765 act of Parliament that required colonial citizens to provide room and board for British soldiers stationed in America. Wildly unpopular. This practice was later banned by the Third Amendment to the Constitution.

Tea Act

A 1773 law that actually lowered the price of tea, but colonists were now wary of any British attempt to collect revenue. They refused to purchase the tea. See: Boston Tea Party.

Quebec Act

A 1774 act of Parliament that which allowed the former French region to expand its borders, taking away potential lands from colonists in the Ohio River Valley. Even more offensive to the largely Protestant colonists, it also allowed Quebec citizens to practice Catholicism freely. See: Intolerable Acts.

GI Bill

A 1944 law which provided funding for a college education, as well as low-interest home and small business loans. For 15 million soldiers returning from war, the GI Bill provided the opportunity to secure a career and purchase a home. Facilitated the postwar "baby boom."

Treaty of Greenville

A 1795 treaty in which 12 American Indian tribes ceded vast areas of the Old Northwest to the federal government, including most of what is now Indiana and Ohio. In return, the tribes of the Miami Confederacy were given an initial payment of $20,000 and an annual payment of $9,000. Ended the Northwest Indian War.

Insular Cases

A 1901 court decision which ruled that a citizen in a conquered territory did not necessarily have the protection of the Constitution. It was up to Congress to decide the rights of the peoples in the newly conquered territories. See: Spanish-American War.

Niagara Movement

A 1905 meeting at Niagara Falls organized by W.E.B. Du Bois. It discussed possible forms of protest and formulated a plan of action to advance the cause of African American equality. It is a direct precursor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Pure Food and Drug Act

A 1906 piece of progressive legislation. It ensured the safety and accurate labelling of food and drug products. Inspired in party by Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel "The Jungle," a story illustrating the poor conditions at a Chicago meatpacking plant.

Underwood Tariff Bill

A 1913 reform that significantly reduced tariff rates and protected consumers by keeping the price f manufactured goods low. To offset the loss of federal revenues from the lower tariff, President Wilson used the power of the 16th Amendment to have Congress enact a graduated income tax.

Clayton Antitrust Act

A 1914 law which strengthened provisions for breaking up trusts and protected labor unions from prosecution under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Labor leader Samuel Gompers hailed the bill as labor's "Magna Carta." See: interlocking directorates.

Espionage Act

A 1917 law aimed at German-Americans and antiwar activists. It prohibited interfering with military recruitment and any support of enemy nations in wartime. Although parts have been repealed over time, the Espionage Act remains in effect, and has been used to prosecute people even in the 2010s. Used against many dissidents, from Eugene V. Debs to Daniel Ellsberg.

Emergency Quota Act (Immigration Act)

A 1921 law that set a strict limit on individuals from each nation of origin based on the 1910 census. In practice, this biased immigration in favor of northern and western Europeans. Repealed by the Immigration Act of 1965. See: nativists.

Washington Naval Conference

A 1921-1922 arms control conference that reflected the antiwar mood of the 1920s. It attempted to limit battleships. Belgium, Britain, China, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the U.S. all attended. The Soviet Union was not invited due to its ongoing isolation from the international system during this period. Unintentionally contributed to the development and popularization of the aircraft carrier, the key naval weapon of WWII.

Taft-Hartley Act

A 1947 amendment to the National Labor Relations Act that garnered the support of big business. While vetoed by Truman, it was enacted by a congressional override. The act outlawed "closed-shop" workplaces, limited boycotts, and allowed the president to obtain an 80-day injunction against any strike deemed a danger to national health or safety. Under it, organized labor lost much of the ground it had gained during the New Deal.

Truman Doctrine

A 1947 policy articulated by Harry Truman, stating the u.S. had a duty to aid free nations under communist threat. The cornerstone of U.S. Cold War policy.

Freedom Riders

A 1961 effort by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register African American voters throughout the South. The violent backlash the activists encountered forced President Kennedy to take a stronger public stance on civil rights.

Yom Kippur War

A 1973 war between Israel and a coalition fo Arab states led by Syria and Egypt, after the latter attacked Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Richard Nixon supplied Israel with vital military aid. See: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Camp David Accords

A 1979 peace agreement reached between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, following 12 days of secret negotiations at Camp David. Settled several outstanding Israeli-Egyptian disputes. Widely considered Jimmy Carter's crowning foreign policy achievement.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

A 5-star general, Dwight acted as Supreme Commander of the Western Allies in Europe. He oversaw the invasion of North Africa and the Normandy landings. Anticipating the rise of Holocaust denialism, he took steps to see Nazi death camps were extensively photographed and recorded on film. This evidence was soon used at the Nuremberg trials. Later served as the 34th President (1953-1961).

Whigs

A British political party which took control of Parliament from the Tories, and negotiated peace terms with the colonists. Distinct from the later American political party of the same name.

Antietam

A Civil War battle that took place on September 17, 1862. The bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history, it saw 22,717 killed. Despite stopping Lee's invasion of Maryland, McClellan failed to exploit an opening to destroy Lee's army and shorten the war, leading to Lincoln removing him as general-in-chief of the Union Army. Nevertheless, Antietam offered good enough news to allow Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

"Stonewall" Jackson

A Confederate general who worked under Lee. Until his death in 1863, he was involved in every major battle in the eastern theater of the war. He is considered an able officer by military historians. Jackson was accidentally shot by Confederate soldiers in May 1863. He lost his arm ad died from infection shortly thereafter.

U-2 Incident

A May 1960 incident where the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. U-2 spy plane and captured its pilot alive. Resulted in Eisenhower's public humiliation, ending a tentative thaw between the two superpowers that had been underway.

Great Awakening

A Protestant religious movement that took place across the 13 Colonies during the 1730s and 1740s. It indirectly helped spur religious tolerance and led to the founding of many universities. See: Second Great Awakening.

John C. Calhoun

A South Carolina politician and member of the Great Triumvirate. Calhoun was an ardent supporter of states' rights, nullification, and slavery. Calhoun, who had served as Andrew Jackson's vice president, resigned from that office to return to the Senate, where he felt he could better defend the virtues of nullification. From his deathbed, Calhoun wrote fierce attacks upon the proposed Compromise of 1850 and affirmed the right of secession.

Worcester v. Georgia

A Supreme Court case (1832) which ruled that the state of Georgia could not infringe on the Cherokee Nation's sovereignty, thus nullifying Georgia state laws within the tribe's territory. President Jackson, incensed, allegedly said, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it." The expulsion of the Cherokee resulted in the Trail of Tears. Also notable as being one of the few times a president ignored a Supreme Court ruling.

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

A Supreme Court case from 1831. The Marshall court ruled that the Cherokee Tribe was not a sovereign foreign nation and, therefore, had no right to sue for jurisdiction over its homelands. See: Worcester v. Georgia.

Winfield Scott

A U.S. Army general with a storied career in the 19th century. He commanded troops in the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. While too old for field service during the Civil War, he served as a strategist and masterminded the defense of Washington D.C. He ran for president in 1852 as a Whig but lost to Franklin Pierce. See: Anaconda Plan, Robert E. Lee.

Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793

A declaration of neutrality in the ongoing conflicts between Britain and France resulting from the French Revolution. Supported by Washington and Hamilton. Decried by Jefferson and Madison.

William Tecumseh Sherman

A Union general. Sherman's army captured and destroyed Atlanta in September of 1864. Sherman then marched to South Carolina, and ordered troops to burn and destroy fields, homes, and cities as they marched through Georgia. His goal was to inflict misery on the Southerners so they would be compelled to surrender. This strategy made the Civil War the first modern "total war," with citizens as targets. Sherman was able to capture Savannah, Georgia in December 1864 and Columbia, South Carolina in February 1865. Famously disdained war itself, stating that its "glory is all moonshine."

Gettysburg Address

A brief, poignant address by Abraham Lincoln commemorating the Battle of Gettysburg. It was delivered on November 19, 1863. Harkening back to the Declaration of Independence 87 years prior, Lincoln proposed the idea of equality - "all men are created equal" - as the core spirit of the Declaration and the Constitution. He goes on to reframe the context of the Civil War as a trial to see if equality can endure rather than being solely an issue of preserving the Constitution's political framework ("the Union").

Department of Education

A cabinet-level office created in 1979 by Jimmy Carter. As the u.S. education is decentralized, it has historically had little influence over curricula. It mainly collects data, coordinates federal assistance to schools, and helps enforce civil rights laws. See: No Child Left Behind Act.

Miami Confederacy

A collection of American Indian tribes in the 18th century. In the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795), a military alliance led by Little Turtle and Blue Jacket attempted to resist the expansion of the U.S. into the Old Northwest territory.

Federalist Papers

A collection of letters written in the late 1780s urging ratification of the Constitution. Authors include Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

Intolerable Acts

A colonial term for a number of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party. See: Quebec Act, Tea Act, Thomas Gage.

Plymouth

A colony in modern-day Cape Cod, founded by the Pilgrims in 1620. By 1691, it was merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony to form the crown colony of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

Propietary Colony

A colony in which the crown allotted land and governmental command to one person. Maryland under Lord Baltimore is an example of it.

Kerner Commission

A commission established by President Johnson to study the 1967 race riots. Concluded the riots had been caused by frustration among African Americans due to lack of economic opportunity. Their report was ignored by Johnson.

Pullman Palace Car Company

A company that manufactured sleeping cars for the railroads. Its owners constructed a "model town" for its employees outside Chicago, where the company controlled everything, to the point of only renting rather than selling homes to residents. When management, affected by the Panic of 1893, terminated half the workers and announced a 25% wage cut, Pullman Car workers went on strike. The protests spread nationwide. President Cleveland eventually intervened to break the strike. The Labor Day holiday was created as a conciliatory gesture towards U.S. labor in the aftermath of Pullman and other strikes, as an alternative to the more radical May Day. See: Haymarket Square Riot.

Juan de Oñate

A conquistador born in New Spain (modern-day Mexico). Established the first permanent colonial settlement in what is the modern-day American Southwest. Infamous for the 1599 Acoma Massacre, which saw over 800 American Indians killed. Later recalled to Spain and convicted for cruelty toward natives and colonists alike.

Fugitive Slave Act

A controversial law that constituted part of the Compromise of 1850. It required that escaped slaves, upon their capture, would be returned to their masters, and that the authorities in a free state had to cooperate with this process. Nicknamed the "Bloodhound Law" by abolitionists for the common use of such dogs in hunting down slaves.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

A couple executed for espionage. Their 1951 trial was a press spectacle. Declassified Soviet archives later proved the couple had, in fact, been spies.

Writ of Mandamus

A court order to an inferior government official compelling them to carry out their legally obligated duties. Important in the reasoning of the "Marbury v. Madison" decision.

Compromise of 1877

A deal that resolved the hung election of 1876. It provided that Rutherford B. Hayes would become president only if he agreed to remove the last remaining federal troops stationed in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The end of martial law in the South signaled the end of Reconstruction in the United States. See: Samuel Tilden.

National Republicans

A faction of the splintering Democratic-Republicans during the 1828 election. They supported Henry Clay and opposed Andrew Jackson. The National Republicans eventually became the Whig Party in 1836. Whig ideology was very similar to the platform of the old Federalist Party. See: Democrats.

Bay of Pigs

A failed intervention by CIA-backed rebels in Communist Cuba during April 1961. A public humiliation for President Kennedy, it bolstered Castro's position at home and abroad.

"Cross of Gold" Speech

A famous speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the Democratic National Convention in 1896. In it, Bryan savaged the gold standard in favor of bimetallism. The speech concluded with the line "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." It won Bryan, a dark horse, the Democratic nomination for President. Considered one of the greatest works of American rhetoric.

Panic of 1873

A financial crisis that created an economic depression (1873-1879). It had several interlocking causes that reflected the period's increasingly globalized economy. Initially referred to as the Great Depression until the far more severe economic crisis of that name in the 1930s. See: National Labor Union.

Panic of 1837

A financial crisis that lasted from 1837 until the mid 1840s. Caused, in part, by Andrew Jackson killing the Bank of the United States and issuing the Specie Circular, the latter of which caused the value of paper money to plummet.

Panic of 1907

A financial crisis triggered by a stock manipulation scheme involving the copper market, causing a panic and run on the banks. An economic depression was averted by the intervention of banker J.P. Morgan, who essentially bailed out of the American banking system. Led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System.

Good Neighbor Policy

A foreign policy initiative by FDR. Centered on Latin America, it saw the withdrawal of American forces from Nicaragua and the establishment of normalized relations between the United States and the nations of Latin America. Its non-interference, non-interventionist doctrine lasted until the start of the Cold War. See: Roosevelt Corollary.

Spoils System

A form of political corruption where a political parties rewards its supporters with favors, often posts to public office. Andrew Jackson was a proponent of the spoils system, in which he appointed those who supported his campaign government positions. Jackson created jobs and appointed many friends to his unofficial cabinet, earning it the name "Kitchen Cabinet" from critics. See: political machines, Pendleton Civil Service Act.

Frederick Douglass

A former slave, Douglass published The North Star, an antislavery journal that chronicled the ugliness of slavery and argued that the Constitution could be used as a weapon against slavery. Thus, Douglass argued for fighting slavery through legal means in contrast to some other radical abolitionists, who advocated varying degrees of violence to achieve abolition. His 1845 memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, became a bestseller and inspired many abolitionists. An egalitarian, he also supported women's suffrage.

Cold War

A geopolitical struggle between rival blocs led by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Lasted from 1946-1991. While it primarily featured an ongoing arms race and proxy wars, direct nuclear conflict between the 2 blocs almost occurred on several occasions.

2008 Financial Crisis

A global banking crisis that arose from the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market. Resulted in the federal bailout of U.S. banks. Led to the Great Recession.

Freedman's Bureau

A government program created in 1865 to help manage and assist newly emancipated slaves. The bureau provided assistance in the form of food, shelter, and medical attention to African Americans. Eventually, the bureau would establish schools across the South to help educate large numbers of former slaves. The Freedman's Bureau struggled as Congress refused to increase its funding, which expired in 1872.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

A group composed mainly of skilled workers who did not agree that unions should protect all workers. Members fo the AFL who wished to extend union membership broke away to form the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Reservationists

A group led by Republican senator Henry Cabot Lodge that agreed to ratify the League of Nations treaty only if reservations, such as the ability to leave the League and international acceptance of the Monroe Doctrine, were added to the League's covenant. See: irreconcilables.

Irreconcilables

A group led by Senators Hiram Johnson and William Borah who refused to ratify the League of Nations treaty under any circumstances. See: reservationists.

Navajo Code Talkers

A group of American Indian volunteers during WWII. They translated U.S. documents and order into their native language so that enemy forces could not decipher their content.

Bonus Army

A group of WWI veterans who marched on Washington in 1932 to demand the early release of bonuses Congress had promised to pay in 1945. The Bonus Bill, however, was not passed by Congress. Soldiers used tear gas and tanks on the unarmed protesters. The U.S. Army also burned the encampment, driving away the veterans.

Essex Junto

A group of radical Federalists plotting for a New England state secession from the Union. They had originally asked Hamilton if he would run for governor of New York to join in their exploits. Hamilton refused the offer, so the group then asked Aaron Burr if he would run. Burr gladly accepted. Upon hearing the news, Hamilton leaped at the chance to crush Burr's chances of election by leading the opposition faction. Wary of Burr for his association with the Democratic-Republicans, Federalists in New York chose not to elect Aaron Burr as governor. The plot then faded away, but the whole incident contributed to the fatal Hamilton-Burr duel.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A landmark civil rights law that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, nationality, religion, and sex. It prohibited racial segregation.

Boston Massacre

A landmark incident on March 5, 1770 that helped alienate the American people from Parliament and King George III. Angered by the Quartering Act, a crowd of Bostonians harrassed the British troops guarding a local customs house. The guards fired upon the crowd, killing 5 and wounding 6 protesters. John Adams would defend the guards tried for this incident and secure their acquittal.

Free Speech Movement

A large-scale student protest that took place during the 1964-1965 academic year at the University of California, Berkeley. The students demanded that the administration acknowledge the students' free speech rights. Backlash to the Free Speech Movement aided in Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1966 California gubernatorial election.

Currency Act

A law passed by Parliament in 1764. It limited the use of colonial paper money, in order to protect British merchants from depreciation. While not a major contributing factor to the American Revolution, it did signify growing British interest in regulating the colonies.

Fair Labor Standards Act

A law passed during the Second New Deal. It established a federal minimum wage and set the maximum hours for workers employed by interstate businesses. It also ensured an end to child labor.

Meat Inspection Act

A law passed in 1907 to ensure that meat sold in the U.S. is properly preserved, chemically unadulterated, and generally unspoiled. See: Square Deal.

Mann-Elkins Act

A law passed in 1910 that placed the regulation of communications directly under the ICC. See: William Howard Taft.

Homestead Act of 1862

A law that provided a settler with 160 acres of land if he promised to live on it and work it for at least 5 years. About 500,000 families took advantage of this Homestead Act, while many more bought land from private purveyors. Unfortunately, the parcels of land on the Great Plains were difficult to farm, owing to lack of rain and hard-packed soil. Many homesteaders left the land behind and returned home. See: sodbusters.

Dawes Plan

A loan program crafted by Charles Dawes that enabled Germany to pay its war reparations, thus lessening the financial crisis in Europe. It was successful until the program ended with the U.S. stock market crash in 1929.

Berlin Airlift

A major crisis in the early Cold War. From June 1948 to May 1949, the Soviet Union blockaded the West's land access to Berlin. President Truman responded by airlifting in supplies around the clock, putting the onus for starting WWIII on the Soviets.

XYZ Affair

A major political scandal. Three agents of French Foreign Minister Talleyrand - only identified as X, Y, and Z - demanded a large sum of money as a loan and an additional bribe from an American diplomatic delegation just for the opportunity to speak with French officials. The delegation refused to comply. Led to the Quasi-War.

Supermajority

A majority greater than one half, typically two-thirds.

Battle of Wounded Knee

A massacre of over 200 American Indian men, women, and children that took place in December 1890 in South Dakota. Over 20 soldier involved were awarded the Medal of Honor.

Constitutional Convention

A meeting that took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. Ostensibly called to amend the Articles of Confederation, the majority of the delegates arrived with the intention to simply draft a new constitution, one which is still in use to the modern-day. See: Connecticut Compromise, New Jersey Plan, Virginia Plan.

Berlin Wall

A militarized concrete barrier separating East and West Berlin. Existed from 1961-1989. Constructed by the Soviets to halt a brain drain of East Germans. Its fall heralded German reunification and the twilight of the Cold War.

Separatists

A minority Puritan faction that wished to abandon the Church of England and form their own independent church cleansed of any lingering Catholicism. After a failed 1607-1608 effort in the Netherlands, that failed due to fears over the local culture corrupting their children, they boarded the Mayflower and founded Plymouth colony.

Common Sense

A pamphlet that used Enlightenment philosophy to argue that it would be contrary to common sense to allow British injustices to continue. Written and published in January 1776 by Thomas Paine.

Knickerbockers

A name for members of the Knickerbocker Group, a vague collection of American authors influenced by the nationalistic mood that followed the War of 1812. Washington Irving developed American fiction by using domestic settings and character types for their stories. Tales such as "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" were based on preexisting stories. Tales of the frontier were glorified by James Fenimore Cooper, whose "The Last of the Mohicans" gained worldwide attention. Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" and Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" addressed important questions regarding religion and morality.

Bank of the United States

A national bank in which the federal government held the major financial interest. The national treasury would keep its deposits in the bank, keeping the funds safe and available as loanable funds. The brainchild of Alexander Hamilton. Opposed by Thomas Jefferson on Constitutional grounds.

Sodbusters

A nickname for homesteaders on the Great Plains. Life was difficult there; drought was always a problem, and plagues of insects were a constant nuisance. About 2/3 of the original homesteaders left the Great Plains, draining the region of 1/2 its population by the turn of the 20th century. See: Homestead Act of 1862.

George Fitzhugh

A notable proslavery intellectual. His sociology books detailed the allegedly happy lives of Southern slaves who were clothed, fed, and housed by benevolent slave owners. Fitzhugh argued in his book "Cannibals All" (1857) that African American slaves were much better off than the "Northern wage slave," who was not provided with basic living needs for him and his family. Fitzhugh also argued that slavery itself could easily be applicable to whites.

Compromise of 1850

A package of several bills that alleviated some of the tension between the North and the South, delaying the Civil War for another decade. Orchestrated by Henry Clay. It's key points were: 1. California was admitted as a free state 2. Created the New Mexico and Utah territories, and popular sovereignty would determine slavery's status in them 3. Banned the slave trade in Washington, D.C. 4. Enacted a stricter Fugitive Slave Act 5. Gave Texas monetary compensation to drop its claims to part of New Mexico's territory. See: Great Triumvirate, Millard Fillmore, Stephen A. Douglas, William H. Seward.

Robber Barons

A pejorative name for investors who artificially inflated the value of their company's stock, sold the stock to the public, and pocketed the profits. The company would then go bankrupt, leaving stockholders with nothing. Additionally, the fierce competition of the Gilded Age coupled with lack of federal regulation often led to dishonest business practices.

Reconstruction

A period (1865-1877) of rebuilding and reforming the South following the Civil War. It is considered a failure, as African Americans were left destitute and disenfranchised for another century. See: Black Codes, Civil Rights Bill of 1866, Civil Rights Act of 1875, Freedman's Bureau, Military Reconstruction Act, Ten Percent Plan, Wade-Davis Bill.

Great Migration

A period beginning around 1910 which saw millions of African Americans move from the South to northern cities. This was to take advantage of economic opportunities in the North, often to escape from the exploitation system of sharecropping.

French Revolution

A period of massive upheaval in 1789-1799 in which the French overthrew their monarchy and established a republic, which in turn gave rise to Napoleon. One of the most important events in world history, it led to the spread of republicanism and Enlightenment ideas. Partly triggered by the debts incurred by France aiding American revolutionaries.

Era of Good Feelings

A period of national unity, it began with the close of the War of 1812 and ended in the 1820s. It saw the collapse of the Federalist Party and a decline in partisanship. It was followed by a revival of partisan bickering between the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs.

Great Migration of the 1630s

A period where many Puritan families moved across the Atlantic. By 1642, approximately 20,000 Puritans had immigrated to Massachusetts.

Rosie the Riveter

A piece of American propaganda during WWII that exalted women's war work. See: Office of War Information.

Jane Addams

A pioneer in the field of social work and winner of the 1931 Novel Peace Prize, Addams is a major figure of the Progressive Era. She innovated on the concept of the settlement house by having immigrants live with college-educated people in order to ease their transition into American society. Settlement house guests were taught courses in English, hygiene, and cooking. Addams and others also pioneered some of the first instruction in child are. Later, the Addams strongly opposed World War I and U.S. entry into it.

William Randolph Hearst

A pioneer of yellow journalism in the 1880s and rival to Joseph Pulitzer. Owned a media empire. He was associated with the progressive movement. Today, he is best remembered for helping kick off the Spanish-American war with his news coverage, as well as for the thinly veiled portrayal of his biography in the 1941 classic "Citizen Kane."

Joseph Pulitzer

A pioneer of yellow journalism in the 1880s and rival to William Randolph Hearst. He was associated with the Democratic Party in New York. Today best remembered for establishing the Pulitzer Prize, an award for achievements in journalism.

Virginia Plan

A plan put forth by Edmund Randolph at the Constitutional Convention that favored larger states. It called for representation in both legislative house to be based solely on population: proportional representation. See: New Jersey Plan, Connecticut Compromise.

Open Door Policy

A policy articulated by Secretary of State John Hay who served in both the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations. It declared that China would be open and free to trade equally with any nation. The policy was wildly popular in the United States, as it kept Chinese markets open to American business while outwardly avoided the taint of imperialism. Unsurprisingly, it was denounced and resisted in China due to it being a thinly veiled justification for violating their sovereignty. Contributed to the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion.

Headright System

A policy where a colonial government grants a set amount of land to any settler who paid for their own - or someone else's - passage to the New World.

Thomas Nast

A political cartoonist for "Harper's Weekly," became Boss Tweed's archenemy as he drew scathing commentaries regarding the machine's corruption and greed. His cartoons were so famous that they led to the fugitive Tweed's 1876 capture in Spain. See: muckraker.

Redeemers

A political movement that sought to return control of the former Confederacy to white Southerners. Their policy, Redemption, sought to purge the South of the influence of Republicans, carpetbaggers, and newly emancipated slaves. See: Compromise of 1877, Jim Crow Laws, Ku Klux Klan.

Constitutional Union Party

A political party formed by conservative and moderate Whigs concerned that Lincoln's victory would lead to the end of the Union. It nominated John Bell of Tennessee as its candidate in teh 1860 election. The party hoped to garner enough Republican votes to prevent the Southern states from seceding. It won Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Tennessee Valley Authority

A program of the 1st New Deal, the TVA worked to electrify the impoverished Tennessee Valley with hydroelectric power.

Works Progress Administration

A program of the 2nd New Deal, the WPA encourage more public works projects and the employment of nontraditional workers - artists, writers, and young people - to build bridges, refurbish parks, write plays, and paint murals.

Square Deal

A progressive policy platform advocated by President Theodore Roosevelt. It involved breaking up trusts, increasing government regulation of business, pro-labor laws, and promoting environmental conservation. The New Deal took its name from it. See: Hepburn Act, Meat Inspection Act, National Conservation Commission, Northern Securities Company.

Star Wars (Strategic Defense Initiative)

A proposal by Ronald Reagan to intercept incoming nuclear missiles using lasers fired from orbital platforms. Popularly known as "Star Wars," it was considered technologically infeasible by scientists.

Lecompton Constitution

A proposed proslavery constitution for Kansas. It protected slaveholders and excluded free African Americans from the protections of the Bill of Rights. It encountered intense debates in Congress, as President Buchanan supported it and Senator Douglas vehemently opposed it. Antislavery forces boycotted the ratification process, prompting a re-vote; this second vote was then boycotted by the proslavery forces, allowing Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a free state.

New York Central Railroad

A railroad company founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt. It consolidated many smaller rail companies, standardized gauges, and popularized steel rails. It linked major cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

Yazoo Land Scandal

A real estate fraud case in Georgia during the mid-1790s. The Quids stated that the President Jefferson's decision to pay companies restitution for illegally obtained land in Georgia (the Yazoo land scandal) proved that he was corrupt. This scandal led to a schism within the Democratic-Republican party that continued to plague Jefferson in his second term.

Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1881

A reform which encouraged a merit-based system for the civil service over the then-predominant party patronage (spoils) system. See: Chester A. Arthur.

Rust Belt

A region of the U.S. centered around the Great Lakes and upper Midwest. The term references the post-WWII economic decline of the country's former industrial heartland.

Puritanism

A religious code and societal organization that split off from Anglicanism. Puritans believed that their religious and social structures were ideal. They thought that the Church of England's ceremonies were too reminiscent of Catholicism and that true believers ought to read the Bible for themselves and listen to the sermons of an educated clergy.

Republic of Texas (Lone Star Republic)

A republic declared in 1836. Santa Anna was forced to sign a peace treaty recognizing its independence from Mexico while in custody of Sam Houston's forces. Its initial attempts to join the United States were rebuffed under Jackson and Van Buren for fear of tipping political power toward the slave states. Congress rejected Tyler's efforts to absorb it in 1844. It was finally annexed under the Polk administration.

14th Amendment

A response to the lackluster Reconstruction efforts by President Johnson. Proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, it protected the rights of all U.S. citizens, granted all African Americans full citizenship and civil rights, and required states to adhere to the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution. Furthermore, it disallowed former Confederate officers from holding state or federal office. It would decrease the proportional representation of any state that denied suffrage to any able citizen.

Townshend Acts

A revenue plan passed by Parliament in 1767. It imposed harsher taxes on the purveyors of imported goods such as glass, paper, and tea. In addition, a special board of customs officials was appointed to enforce writs of assistance. Repealed 1770.

Booker T. Washington

A self-educated former slave, he advocated for the education of African Americans to allow them access to the growing economy. His Tuskegee Institute in Alabama was founded to instruct African Americans in the industrial arts and the ability to work within the system. Contrast with: W.E.B. Du Bois.

Stephen A. Douglas

A senator from Illinois nicknamed the "Little Giant." He is notable for creating the Kansas-Nebraska Act as well as participating in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. He initially supported the "Dred Scott" decision until it proved politically unpopular. He opposed the Lecompton Constitution. A staunch Unionist, he supported Lincoln during the Civil War, even holding the man's stovepipe hat during the Inauguration ceremony. However, he died in June 1861 of typhoid fever. See: Freeport Doctrine.

Zoot Suit Riots

A series of California race riots in summer 1943. Sailors roamed the streets of LA and Long Beach attacking young "zooters": Mexican-American teens who wore long coast, flashy colors, and long hairstyles. Due to rationing of fabric to support the war effort, the teens were considered unpatriotic for such extravagance. A special commission appointed by Governor Earl Warren found that the riots were not caused by the sails and the police.

Internment Camps

A series of government-run camps on the West Coast where 100,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned during WWII. See: Executive Order 9066.

Geneva Convention

A series of international treaties and protocols negotiated in the aftermath of WWII which established humanitarian standards for wartime, updating protocols originally agreed to in 1929. Contested in the 2000s with the rise of non-state actors.

Dust Bowl

A severe drought that hit the Great Plains in the 1930s, killing most of its crops. The topsoil turned to a fine, powdery dust that blew away with the hot winds. Many of these farmers and their families flocked to California and earned the pejorative nickname "Okies," as many came from the panhandle regions of Oklahoma or Texas.

Bull Moose Party

A short-lived third party formed by Theodore Roosevelt to support his 1912 run for President. Officially named the Progressive Party, its common name stems from a quote by Roosevelt that he was still "fit as a bull moose" following an assassination attempt. See: New Nationalism.

Reagan Revolution

A significant pivot point in U.S. political history, where the New Deal ideology of the 1930s was replaced by a socially conservative, free market of ideology. Began with the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan. The "New Democrats" of the 1990s were a response to the Reagan Revolution, as leftwing policies were perceived to be unpopular with modern voters.

Settlement House Movement

A social reform movement led by young female activists, as they could not become involved in the political process. It aimed to achieve social reform through mixed-incoming house, with people of different classes living in one house. These houses often offered education and daycare. The most famous of the settlement houses was Hull House in Chicago (1889). See: Jane Addams.

Warren Commission

A special commission appointed by Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy. Headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, it concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone.

John Slidell

A special envoy sent by President Polk to inform the Mexican government of U.S. desires to draw the Texas border at the Rio Grande, rather than the Nueces River farther south, and to purchase California. In anticipation of Mexican resistance to Slidell's proposal, Polk amassed the U.S. Army, led by Zachary Taylor, along the disputed southern border of Texas at the Rio Grande River in January of 1846. See: Mexican-American War.

Fourteen Points Speech

A speech given by President Wilson in 1918. It outlined his vision for the war aims and peace terms of the United States in WWI.

National Woman's Party

A splinter group of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Alice Paul. Founded in 1916, disbanded in 1997. It focused on the ratification of a constitutional amendment securing women's suffrage nationwide. Later sought to secure equal rights for women, such as with the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

Hard Hat Riot

A spontaneous counter-protest in NYC in 1970. About 200 construction workers attacked 1,000 students protesting the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings. Embodied a growing social backlash to the 1960s youth culture.

Henry Clay

A statesman and orator from Kentucky, Clay was known as "The Great Compromiser" for brokering multiple deals over nullification and slavery. He was also a proponent of infrastructure development that he called the American System. Clay notably ran for president on several occasions but never won. See: Compromise of 1850, Great Triumvirate.

Ironclads

A steam-powered warship that is armored (or "clad") in iron plates. While an evolutionary halfway point between wooden sailing ships and all-metal ships, it represented a revolution in naval warfare. The South's first ironclad was named "Merrimac" while the North's first as called the "Monitor." In a 5 hour battle in March 1862, the 2 ships fought to a draw.

Tariff Act of 1789

A tariff on imports. Northerners favored a higher rate to protect their manufacturing industry from foreign encroachment, while Southern farmers wanted a lower rate to provide for cheaper consumer goods.

U-Boat

A term for German submarines, from "unterseeboat" ("underwater boat"). Upon their introduction, they were seen as a ghastly weapon that violated the gentlemanly rules of warfare. The sinking of several ocean liners, such as the "Lusitania," led to the deaths of American citizens and the entry of the U.S. into WWI. See: Zimmermann Telegram.

Harlem Renaissance

A term for a cultural flowering in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem during the 1920s. Harlem became the center of African American culture during this period. It helped to change the perception of African Americans.

Mugwumps

A term for a faction of the Republican Party neutral in regards to party patronage (Spoils) system during the Gilded Age, but who still advocated modest reform of it.

Halfbreeds

A term for a faction of the Republican Party opposed to the party patronage (Spoils) system during the Gilded Age.

Stalwarts

A term for a faction of the Republican Party that supported the party patronage (spoils) system during the Gilded Age.

Yellow Journalism

A term for journalism that produced juicy stories, both real and wildly sensationalized, designed to drive newspaper readership, sometimes at the expense of the truth. See: Joseph Pulitzer, muckrakers, Spanish-American War, William Randolph Hearst.

Mestizos

A term for people of mixed Spanish and American Indian heritage.

Gold Bugs

A term for pro-gold standard Democrats, such as Grover Cleveland. See: "Cross of Gold" speech.

Exodusters

A term for thousands of former slaves who uprooted their families and moved toward Kansas between 1878 and 1880. These migrants called themselves Exodusters, because they believed that their promised land lay somewhere in the West.

Greenback Party

A third party formed in 1874 and disbanded in 1889. It existed alongside the Farmers' Alliance. Its elements later merged into the Populist Party.

Woodstock

A three-day concert in rural NY during 1969. Typified 1960s youth culture.

Triangular Trade

A transatlantic trade network. New World colonies exported raw materials such as sugar and cotton to England. There, these materials were transformed into rum and textiles. Europeans sold these manufactured goods, including at African ports, in exchange for slaves, who would then be sold in the colonies as farm workers, thus completing the triangle.

Henry David Thoreau

A transcendentalist whose book "Waldon" chronicled a self-initiated experiment in which Thoreau removed himself from society by living in seclusion in the woods for two years. However, perhaps even more influential was his essay "On Civil Disobedience," in which he advocated passive resistance as a form of justifiable protest. This essay would inspire later social movement leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. An abolitionist, he also opposed the Mexican-American War.

George Whitefield

A traveling New Light preacher during the Great Awakening. Known for his sermons on the "fire and brimstone" eternity that all sinners would face if they did not publicly confess their sins. Undermined the power and prestige of Old Light ministers by proclaiming that ordinary people could understand Christian doctrine without the clergy's guidance.

Pinckney's Treaty

A treaty between the U.S. and Spain, ratified in 1796. It negotiated a settlement of boundary, right of navigation along the Mississippi River, and right to deposit goods for transportation at the Port of New Orleans. The Spanish made these concessions in order to avoid a possibly alliance between its rival, Britain, and the United States.

Flappers

A type of middle and upper-class woman in the 1920s. So named because they were not unlike baby birds flapping their wings and leaving the nest. Flappers cut their hair into short bobs, wore short skirts, rolled down their stockings to reveal their knees, drank alcohol, and danced the Charleston. While few in number, their behavior was very public and raised concerns among traditionalists.

George McClellan

A veteran of the Mexican-American War, McClellan is most famous for his short tenure as general-in-chief of the Union Army during the Civil War. McClellan was a meticulous planner, taking care to plan his operations and train his men. However, he was timid on the battlefield, and frequently overestimated the strength of Confederate forces. Lincoln removed him as general-in-chief of the Union Army after Antietam. He was the Democratic nominee for president in 1864 election.

Dorothea Dix

A well-known reformer who fought for the humane treatment of the nation's mentally ill population. Her efforts led to the creation of mental institutions where patients were given access to proper treatments. Connected to the asylum reform movement was the crusade to change the penal system in the United States. As a result, some prisons instituted programs that taught prisoners job skills and increased access to religious services.

Nathaniel Bacon

A young member of the House of Burgesses who capitalized on his fellow backwoodsmen's complaints by mobilizing them to form a citizens' militia. Burned Jamestown during Bacon's Rebellion. Died of dysentery in 1676.

Rosa Parks

Activist in the Civil Rights Movement. Famous for refusing to give up her seat to a white person i defiance of segregation; her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Patriots

Activists for independence from the British Empire. Mostly young New Englanders and Virginians. Often did not have significant status in society. Many volunteered their time to the Continental Army, typically without pay.

Abolitionists

Advocates for ending slavery. Aside from the influence of Enlightenment ideas about freedom, many abolitions believed that slavery was sinful and, therefore, must be eliminated. As Charles Sumner said in 1860: "[God] set an everlasting difference between man and a chattel, giving to man dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth: - that fight we hold By His donation; but man over men He made not lord, such title to Himself Reserving, human left from human free."

Robert Livingston

Along with James Monroe, he was dispatched to France in 1803 to offer $10 million for New Orleans and a strip of land that extended to Florida. If negotiations failed, Monroe and Livingston were to travel directly to London to ask for a transatlantic alliance between the United States and Britain. Much to the surprise of both men, the French ministers were offering not only the land Jefferson sought but the entire Louisiana Territory.

Foreign Antislavery Society

Along with his radicalism and his attacks on churches, William Lloyd Garrison's insistence on the participation of women in his American Antislavery Society led to a division among its supporters. This splinter faction, the Foreign Antislavery Society, did not accept women members. Contrast with: Liberty Party.

Vietnam War

Also called the Second Indochina War. Direct American involvement in Vietnam began in 1955 and ended on April 30, 1975, with the Fall of Saigon. The war polarized American society. It killed more than 58,000 Americans and over 2 million Vietnamese. See: Domino Theory, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Tet Offensive, War Powers Act.

Viet Cong

Also known as "V.C." or "Charlie." The Viet Cong were the military wing of the National Liberation Front, a communist nationalist group in South Vietnam.

September 11th

Also known as 9/11. Using 4 hijacked airliners, al-Qaeda destroyed the Twin Towers in NYC and severely damaged the Pentagon. A 4th plane crashed into a Pennsylvanian field after its passengers attempted to retake the cockpit. 2,977 victims died. Over 6,000 were injured. Sparked the War on Terror.

Jacob Coxey

Also known as General Coxey. He led "Coxey's Army" into Washington D.C. in 1894 and 1914 to demand that Congress create jobs for the unemployed. His ideas would contribute to the development of the Social Security Act.

John Randolph

Also known as John Randolph of Roanoke, he was Virginia planter once counted among Jefferson's supporters in the House. Randolph opposed President Jefferson's abandonment of his once staunch advocacy for states' rights, believing the man had essentially become a Federalist. In reaction, Randolph founded the Quids.

King Philip's War

Also known as Metacom's War, King Philip's War (1675-1678) was an ongoing battle between English colonists and the American Indian inhabitants of New England. The English victory expanded their access to land that was previously inhabited by the natives.

Ten Percent Plan

Also known as the "Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction," Lincoln proposed this plan in 1863 as a way to bring Southern sates back under the wing of the federal government. The plan reestablished state governments and required at least 10% of the states' voters to swear an oath of loyalty to the United States and the Constitution. Lincoln was also prepared to grant complete pardons to any former Confederate, but required an oath fo allegiance and agreement to eliminate slavery. See: Wade-Davis Bill.

Civil War

Also known as the American Civil War, it was fought from 1861 to 1865. Several states seceded to form the Confederate States of America, an illegal act. The Confederacy sought to protect the institution of slavery form perceived interference by Lincoln, who had won the 1860 election without his name even being on the ballot in many Southern states, thus showcasing the relative declining power of the South over U.S. domestic policy. The war cemented the supremacy of the federal government over the states. The death toll is estimated to be over 620,000.

Equal Rights Amendment

Also known as the ERA. A proposed Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have guaranteed equal rights regardless of sex. By 1977, it had bee ratified by 35 of the 38 states necessary, but faced a backlash form the growing conservative movement. It failed to be ratified by a sufficient number of states by its 1982 deadline.

Republican Party

Also known as the GOP, for "Grand Old Party," it emerged from the sectional tension of the 1850s. The GOP was founded in 1854 by antislavery Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, and Know-Nothings from the North and West. Although the GOP lost the 1856 presidential election, the popular John C. Fremont garnered many votes and won 11 of the 16 free states in the Electoral College.

Connecticut Compromise

Also known as the Great Compromise of 1787, or the Sherman Compromise. A proposal at the Constitutional Convention that membership in one branch of the legislature be based on state population, and the other branch (the Senate) have equal representation for all states, with each state having one vote. See: Roger Sherman.

Operation Desert Storm

Also known as the Gulf War (1990-1991). The code name for an international, U.N.-backed effort at liberating Kuwait following its invasion by Iraq. In the aftermath, economic sanctions and two No-Fly Zones were imposed on Iraq.

Populist Party

Also known as the People's Party. Their 1892 policy platform advocated for a silver standard, a graduated income tax, direct election of U.S. senators, and ownership of railroads, telegraph, and telephone lines. While the Populists won 5 Western states in the 1892 election, the Democrats absorbed their policies thanks to William Jennings Bryan.

Pocahontas

American Indian woman who brokered peace between her tribe and the early settlers at Jamestown, such as John Smith. Married John Rolfe in 1614.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

American suffragist and abolitionist who co-founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890 with Susan B. Anthony. Attended the Seneca Falls conference and was the principal author of the Declaration of Sentiments.

McCulloch v. Maryland

An 1819 case that challenged the doctrine of federalism. It involved the state of Maryland attempting to collect a tax from the Second Bank of the United States. Marshall invoked the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution to rule that the federal government had an implied power to establish the bank. He also declared that the state had no right to tax a federal institution; he argued that "the power to tax was the power to destroy" and would signal the end of federalism. Most importantly, the ruling established that federal laws were the supreme law of the land, superseding state laws.

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

An 1842 treaty that divided a contested territory in Maine between the United States and Britain, settling Maine's northern boundary.

Gadsden Purchase

An 1853 treaty between the U.S. and Mexico. It was ratified in 1854. The treaty resolved a border issue lingering from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In exchange for $10 million, the U.S. purchased a chunk of modern-day Arizona and a small portion of southwest New Mexico. This was the last notable expansion of the continental U.S.

Tenure of Office Act

An 1867 law. It disallowed the president (Johnson) from discharging a federal appointee without the Senate's consent. With the act, Republicans in Congress attempted to protect their positions from Johnson. The president chose to ignore the act and fired Republican Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The House promptly submitted articles of impeachment to the floor by charging Johnson with 11 counts of "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Dawes Severalty Act

An 1887 act which stripped tribes of their official federal recognition and land rights and would only grant individual families land and citizenship in 25 years if they properly assimilated. Former reservation land was sold, and the proceeds funded "civilizing" ventures for natives, such as so-called Indian Schools which were rampant with abuse and neglect. This forced-assimilation policy remained the federal government's way of dealing with American Indians until 1934.

Interstate Commerce Act

An 1887 law that which would regulate and investigate railroad companies that participated in interstate rail trafficking. The first example of the federal government regulating private industry in U.S. history. See: Interstate Commerce Commission.

Enlightenment

An 18th century philosophical and intellectual movement which prized reason. It challenged traditional notions of reflexive obedience to the Church and to monarchy, and laid the groundwork for the scientific revolution and Industrial Revolution. See: Benjamin Franklin, Common Sense, Declaration of Independence, French Revolution.

Sojourner Truth

An African American abolitionist and suffragist. Born into slavery in New York and speaking Dutch as her first language, she is notable as the first black woman to win a court case against a white man. She gave herself her own name in 1843. She is best known for the "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, which advocated for both abolitionism and women's rights.

W.E.B. Du Bois

An African American intellectual who believed that his people should demand nothing less than social and political equality with whites; only then would blacks gain economic success. Contrast with: Booker T. Washington. See: Niagara Movement.

Douglas MacArthur

An American 5-star general. He played a major role in the Pacific front of WWII. Oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945-1951. Led the United Nation forces in the Korean War, most famously at the Inchon Landing. Removed from command by President Truman for insubordination.

Horatio Alger

An American novelist famous in the latter-half of the 19th century for his "rags-to-riches" stories, such as "Ragged Dick," that were intended to inspire the poor to become wealthy industrialists. This character arc trope became known as the "Horatio Alger myth." See: Andrew Carnegie, "laissez-faire," rugged individualism, Social Darwinism.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

An American poet and essayist, and member of the transcendentalist movement. He was a close friend of Henry David Thoreau. Like Thoreau, he supported abolitionism and stressed self-reliance.

John Brown

An abolitionist who believed that arming slaves was the only way to get rid of slavery. He first became famous for leading a small band of fighters in Bleeding Kansas, killing several proslavery supporters. In 1859, he led a raid on Harpers Ferry, intending to take its weapons to equip slaves on nearby plantations. Brown's raid was quickly squashed, but it excited national furor, especially after he was executed.

War Industries Board

An agency established by the federal government during WWI. It sought to control production, wages, and the prices of goods.

Farmers' Alliance

An alliance of farmers in several states. The Alliance gained membership, successfully seated senators and governors in several midwestern states, and eventually morphed into the Populist Party.

Roosevelt Corollary

An amendment to the Monroe Doctrine issued by Theodore Roosevelt. It stated that the U.S. would come to the aid of any Latin American nation experiencing financial trouble. In essence, the U.S. gained total control of Latin America through the corollary. See: Good Neighbor Policy.

American Revolution

An anti-colonial revolt (1765-1773) where the 13 Colonies threw off the yoke of the British Empire and established the United States of America. Distinct from but related to the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Its beginning is traced to the aftermath of the French and Indian War, when Britain sought to resolve the debt that the war had created.

"Rise of the Common Man"

An aspect of what became the Jacksonian Democrats. By 1820, many states had adopted universal male suffrage for whites, eliminating the property-owning requirement to be able to vote. This era signaled a retreat from exclusive rule by the well-to-do and a shift to a more democratic society.

Second Continental Congress

An assembly of delegates from across the 13 colonies (1775-1781). It passed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.

Declaration and Resolves

An attempt by the First Continental Congress to reconcile the 13 Colonies with the British Empire. Addressed to King George III, it urged him to correct the wrongs incurred by the colonists while simultaneously acknowledging the authority of Parliament to regulate colonial trade and commerce.

Whiskey Rebellion

An early test of the American government's power under the new Constitution. Angered by the Federalist government's excise tax imposed on distilled liquors such as whiskey, farmers in western Pennsylvania rebelled over being taxed by a government that seemingly did not represent them. Quickly defeated, it proved the new central government's power to stop rebellions and maintain peace. See: Shay's Rebellion.

Panic of 1893

An economic depression caused by the failure of the Reading Railroad company and by over-speculation artificially inflating the price of stocks. The market did not recover for almost 4 years. Investors began trading in their silver for more valuable gold, depleting the already dangerously low supply of gold. See: Grover Cleveland.

Keynesian Theory

An economic policy that states that governments should spend that which it does not have- in other words, resort to deficit spending. By the government increasing spending, it would "prime the pump" by spurring an increase in demand that would eventually increase the need for employees. See: Great Depression, New Deal.

Jazz Age (Roaring Twenties)

An era from 1920-1929 that experienced a cultural explosion similar to that of the antebeelum period. Jazz music became the music of choice for young people and urbanites. As leisure time increased, radio and movies became popular. The "Lost Generation" was made up of authors and poets, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, reacted to the impact of technology and business by creating realist or early surrealist works that portrayed America without the glitter of consumerism.

Baptists

An evangelical sect of Protestant Christianity. Generally, they believe that baptism should only be performed on adults who can profess their faith (as opposed to infant baptism). They also believe in salvation through faith alone, not requiring good works, and in the supremacy of the Bible as the sole authority over theological matters. During the Second Great Awakening, Methodist and Baptist ministers often preached at tent revivals, converting thousands. This led to these two forms of Protestantism becoming the two largest denominations of Christianity in the U.S. during this period.

Northern Securities Company

An example of progressivism during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. The railroad monopoly fought the president by taking its case all the way to the Supreme Court. The court, however, upheld the president's position. Roosevelt's victory gave him a reputation as a champion "trust buster." See: Elkins Act, Hepburn Act, Square Deal.

Turner's "Frontier Thesis"

An idea articulated by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893. He argued that the frontier's existence shaped the American character: a propensity for democracy, egalitarianism, individualism, and violence, as well as a disinterest in high culture. However, by 1890 the U.S. had no unsettled lands left. The Frontier Thesis partly reflects a then-building romanticization of the wilderness by conservationist and such things as the name for Kennedy's "New Frontier" agenda.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

An ill-considered 1930 response to the Great Depression. It raised the tariff on imported goods from 30-50%, sparking a global trade war that worsened the economic crisis. Over 1,000 economists signed a petition opposing its passage.

Confederate States of America (CSA)

An illegal, unrecognized state that existed from 1861 to 1865. It attempted to secede from the United States in order to preserve the institution of slavery, as explicitly stated in the secession declarations of several states. It was led by Jefferson Davis and its capital was in Richmond, Virginia. Its members included: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. It attempted to lay claim to territory in the American Southwest, as well as to Kentucky and Missouri. Union loyalists in Virginia counter-seceded from the CSA to form West Virginia.

Salem Witch Trials

An infamous 1692 instance of mass hysteria. A group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts accused older, wealthy members of the community of witchcraft. 20 were executed, 5 died in prison, and the Puritan clergy's prestige was irreversibly damaged.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

An infamous sweatshop fire in NYC on March 25, 1911. 146 out of 500 women and girls, some as young as 15, either died in the blaze or from jumping from the top floors in a desperate bid to escape. While the factory owners were acquitted of any wrongdoing, despite knowing the exits and fire escapes were locked, it led to massive reforms in factory conditions.

Shay's Rebellion

An insurrection in Massachusetts (1786-1787) over oppressive taxes and debt collectors. Led by Daniel Shay. It helped spur the Constitutional Convention.

Standard Oil Company

An oil refining company owned by John D. Rockefeller. At its height, it controlled 95% of U.S. refineries through consolidation. This business strategy is called horizontal integration. In 1911, the Supreme Court ruled it an illegal monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and split it into 34 companies. See: trust.

Executive Order 9066

An order issued by President Roosevelt in 1942 in reaction to the paranoia that American citizens of Japanese ancestry might turn against their adopted country to aid Japan in an invasion of the West Coast. The Supreme Court upheld the decision to intern these citizens in the case "Korematsu v. United States" (1944), stating that in times of war, the curbing of civil rights was justified and that the court could not second-guess military decisions.

League of Women Voters

An organization founded by Carrie Chapman Catt after the ratification of the 19th Amendment. It exists to assist female voters.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

An organization of oil-producing states, especially ones in the Middle East. In retaliation for U.S. support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War, OPEC targeted the U.S. and some of its Western Allies for an oil embargo. This led to the 1973 oil crisis. See: Department of Energy.

Battle of Saratoga

An umbrella term for 2 battles fought 18 days apart in Autumn 1777. British forces under General Burgoyne attacked U.S. forces led by Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold. The British were eventually forced to retreat. News of the American victory led to the introduction fo French aid, reshaping the entire war.

Bear Flag Republic

An unrecognized independent California that existed from June 14 to July 9, 1846. Led by John C. Fremont, and annexed into the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Named for its flag, which featured a bear.

Declaration of Independence

Announced the colonies' official break from England, making the United States a country in its own right. It contained a preamble that heavily reflected Enlightenment philosophy regarding natural rights, as well as 27 grievances and charges of wrongdoing directed at the crown and Parliament. See: Gettysburg Address.

Interstate Commerce Commission

Authorized under the Interstate Commerce Act, the ICC originally investigated railroad companies in order to ensure fair rates. However, in its early years the ICC lacked enforcement powers. Farmers did not gain much from its formation, as they lost most of the cases brought before it. In later decades, the ICC also regulated other sectors of interstate commerce, such as busing, telegraphs, and telephones. Dissolved in 1996.

Writs of Assistance

Authorized under the Townshend Acts, writs allowed customs officials to search colonial homes, businesses, and warehouses for smuggled goods without a warrant from a judge. Led to the Massachusetts Circular Letter.

Carrie Chapman Catt

Became leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1900. An outspoken advocate of women's suffrage, she believed that women could only guarantee protections for themselves and their children through voting.

Tariff of 1816

Because of a postwar upsurge in nationalism after the War of 1812, there was a strong desire to protect all things American, especially the burgeoning industrial economy. To prevent cheap British goods from flooding the market and injuring American manufacturing, Congress passed the Tariff of 1816, which imposed a 20% duty on all imported goods and became the first truly "protective tariff" in American history. However, the passage of the tariff was unpopular in the South due to its export-oriented agricultural economy. The tariff was allowed to lapse in 1820. See: Panic of 1819.

Mother Jones

Born Mary Harris Jones. A female labor activist who traveled the country, even after she lost her ability to write and walk unassisted. Coordinated major strikes. Cofounded the Industrial Workers of the World. Died in 1930 at age 93.

George Grenville

British Prime Minister who passed the Currency, Sugar, Quartering, and Stamp Acts. He felt the colonists were being asked to pay only their fair share of the debt from the French and Indian War.

Thomas Gage

British general. Led the British response to Pontiac's Rebellion. Served as military governor of Massachusetts (1774-1775) to enforce the Intolerable Acts. Led British forces at Lexington and Concord, as well as Bunker Hill. Replaced in 1775 by William Howe.

Bill Gates

Co-founded the Microsoft Corporation. A pioneer in the personal computer revolution, his business tactics led to an antitrust case where Microsoft was ruled a monopoly. However, the court order to break up Microsoft was reversed upon appeal.

Manifest Destiny

Coined by journalist John O'Sullivan in 1845 to describe the belief that it was God's will for the United States to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean. It also describes a more general expansionism, such as the dispute over the Oregon Territory that Polk campaign on and the U.S. expansion into the Southwest following the Mexican-American War.

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Commonly known as HUD, it is a cabinet-level office created in 1965 as part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program. Oversees the housing market, with an emphasis on creating and sustaining affordable housing.

World War I (WWI)

Commonly referred to as "The Great War." Fought from July 28, 1914, to November 11, 1918. Triggered by the assassination fo Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, which activated a series of interlocking military alliances. It killed 18 million soldiers and civilians. WWI saw the introduction of many military innovations, but the Western Front's static trench warfare is best remembered. Many leaders of WWII, from Adolf Hitler to Harry S. Truman, were veterans of it. It stresses led to the Russian Revolution. See: 14 Points, Treaty of Versailles, U-Boat, Zimmermann Telegram.

Selective Service Act

Commonly referred to simply as "The Draft." It provided for all American males between the ages of 21-35 to register for compulsory military service. This was the 1st time a peacetime military draft had been initiated, signaling that the president's stance was shifting from isolationism to interventionism.

Gold Rush

Commonly refers to the California Gold Rush, which took place between 1848 and roughly 1855. The population of California ballooned as prospectors flocked to the state to seek a fortune in mining gold. Over 100,000 American Indians died as settlers and prospectors violently displaced the. See: Forty-Niners.

Erie Canal

Completed in 1825 with funds provided by the state of New York, it linked the Great Lakes with the Hudson River. As a result, the cost of shipping dropped dramatically, and port cities along the length of the canal and its terminal points began to develop and flourish.

Charter of Liberties and Privileges

Drafted in 1683 by a New York assembly, following the colony's takeover by the English. It mandated elections, and reinforced traditional English liberties such as trial by jury, security of property, and religious tolerance for Protestant churches.

Freeport Doctrine

During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln challenged Douglas to rationalize the concept of popular sovereignty with the decision of the "Dred Scott" case. Douglas state that territories would have to pass and enforce laws to protect slavery. In essence, he argued that "Dred Scott" would still be the law of the land but that, by willfully choosing to not arm themselves with the means to police the issue, territories could still functionally be free soil. This attempt to appease both wings of the Democratic Party alienated supporters in the South, dwindling the chances of Douglas to win the presidency in 1860.

Hartford Convention

During the winter of 1814-1815, a radical group of New England Federalists met at Hartford, Connecticut to discuss ways to demand that the federal government pay them for the loss of trade due to the Embargo Act and the War of 1812. The group also proposed amending the Constitution to: limit the U.S. President to one term; require a two-thirds vote to enact an embargo, declare war, and admit new states; and repeal the Three-Fifths Compromise. Some even suggested secession. However, news of the war's end and Jackson's victory at New Orleans swept the nation, resulting in the Federalists being labeled unpatriotic and leading to their party's demise.

Judiciary Act of 1789

Established the structure of the Judiciary Branch, with the Supreme Court consisting of one presiding chief justice and 5 associate judges. It also provided for the establishment of 13 District Courts and 3 Circuit Court of Appeals. See: Marbury v. Madison.

Sir Walter Raleigh

English polymath. One of the most important figures of the Elizabethan era. Granted permission by Queen Elizabeth I to explore and colonize the New World in exchange for 1/5 of all the gold and silver this venture obtained. Founded Roanoke.

Land Ordinance of 1785

Established the basis for the Public Land Survey System whereby settlers could purchase land in the undeveloped West. It required new townships to set aside a parcel of land reserved for public education. At this time, Congress did not have the power to raise revenue via taxes, so this Ordinance created a local mechanism for funding public education. See: Department of Education.

Eli Whitney

Famously invented the cotton gin in 1793, which sped up the process of removing the seeds from raw cotton, making cotton the number one cash crop of the South. Plantation owners switched from growing tobacco to growing cotton to keep up with increasing demands from domestic and overseas markets. He also popularized (but did not invent) the concept of interchangeable machine parts. See: King Cotton.

James Monroe

Fifth President. Served 1817-1825. A Virginian and Democratic-Republican, he helped secure the Lousiana Purchase. During the War of 1812, he served as both Secretary of State (1811-1817) and Secretary of War (1814-1815). The Era of Good Feelings largely overlaps with his presidency. He dealt with the Panic of 1819 as well as the Missouri Compromise. In 1832, he issued the Monroe Doctrine, a long-lasting foreign policy of the United States.

George Washington

First President. Served 1789-1797. A land surveyor from Virginia, he led colonial militia as an officer in the French and Indian War. Led the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War at battles such as Valley Forge and Yorktown. Later presided over the Continental Congress. Among many other acts, he established the informal two-term limit for presidents by declining to run for reelection in 1796. See: Farewell Address.

laissez-faire

First articulated by the economist Adam Smith in his treatise "The Wealth of Nations, laissez-faire" economics states that natural market force, not government regulations or subsidies, should control the marketplace. However, the growth of monopolies during the Gilded Age prevented any natural competition from occurring, leading to antitrust laws. The term derives from the French for "let do," or in essence, "Let the economy run itself."

Ambrose Burnside

Following Antietam, Lincoln selected him to replace General McClellan as general-in-chief of the Union Army. In turn, after the Battle of Fredericksburg, he was replaced by Joseph Hooker. Known for his distinctive facial hair, which provided the name for sideburns.

Brigham Young

Following the 1844 murder of Joseph Smith, he became the new leader of the Mormons, holding that position for 29 years until his own death in 1877 from a ruptured appendix. He led his followers west, finally settling in present-day Utah.

Wilmot Proviso

Following the Mexican-American War, Representative David Wilmot proposed that slavery would be forbidden in any new lands acquired by the war with Mexico. The final bill passed in the House but failed in the Senate. This bill, the Wilmot Proviso, signaled the start of an even deeper crisis that would pit the North against the South over issues of slavery's expansion, states' rights, and government representation.

Final Solution

Formally, the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. The Nazi plan for the extermination of the Jewish people, which resulted in the Holocaust.

National American Woman Suffrage Association

Formed in 1890, it combined the once rival National Woman Suffrage Association and American Woman Suffrage Association to fight for a woman's right to vote. The NAWSA organized several hundred state and local chapters. See: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony.

George Marshall

Former Army Chief of Staff 1939-1945). Secretary of State (1947-1949) and Secretary of Defense (1950-1951) under Truman. A 5-star general, he is credited with the Marshall Plan, a foreign aid package that helped Western Europe rebuild after WWII.

Newt Gingrich

Former Speaker of the House (1995-1999). He helped draft the Contract with America, which led to the 1994 Republican Revolution. Oversaw welfare reform, the 1995-1996 government shutdown, and the Clinton impeachment. Officially reprimanded for ethics violations, he resigned his seat in 1999.

Department of Defense

Formerly known as the War Department, it was reorganized by the National Security Act of 1947 into the DoD. A cabinet-level office. Military officers are forbidden from serving as the Secretary of Defense until 7 years after their retirement, barring a waiver from Congress, in order to ensure civilian control over the military.

World War II (WWII)

Fought from September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945. Overlapped with teh Second Sino-Japanese War. Estimates for its death toll vary, but at least 60 million people died during WWII. Fought between the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) and the Allies (British Empire, U.S., France). Led to the downfall of Britain and France as world powers and the ascendancy of the U.S. and Soviet Union. See: Atlantic Charter, Big Three, Cold War, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, Yalta Conference.

Knights of Labor

Founded as a secret society in 1869, and elected Terence V. Powderly its leader the following year 1879. Under his leadership, the union announced itself in 1881. One of their strengths was that i was a broad industrial union: all wage workers (skilled, unskilled, women, and minorities) were invited to join. The Knights advocated for both economic and social reforms, such as the development of labor cooperatives, an eight-hour workday, and federal regulation of business. They preferred to use arbitration rather than violent strikes. Entered terminal decline after the Haymarket Square Riot.

American Antislavery Society

Founded by William Lloyd Garrison in 1833, it opposed slave traders and owners. Garrison's radicalism soon alienated many moderates within the movement when he claimed that the Constitution was a proslavery document. Garrison's insistence on the participation of women in the movement led to division among his supporters and the formation of the Liberty Party, which accepted women, and the American and Foreign Antislavery Society, which did not.

Massachussetts Bay Colony

Founded in 1629 by a collective of London financiers, who advocated for the Puritan cause and wanted to profit from American Indian trade.

National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry

Founded in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley, it was a kind of fraternity of farmers and their families. The Grange sought to break the hold of railroad owners and middlemen who kept raising the cost of farming by charging exorbitant prices for shipping and storage. The Grangers gained cultivated significant political power, and they played an important part in the rise of the Populist Party.

Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Founded in 1873, the group believed that prohibition would diminish threats to women and families that they saw as a direct result of alcohol over-consumption: domestic violence, misspent wages, and adultery. Later advocated for women's suffrage under the leadership of Frances Willard. Conducted missionary work.

Anti-Saloon League

Founded in 1893, the ASL quickly became the nation's leading prohibition advocacy group. It pushed aside earlier groups, like the WCTU, by incorporating modern business management to practice to better foster its organization and goals.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Founded in 1920, the ACLU is an organization dedicated to the absolutist protection of Constitutional liberties, especially those of the 1st Amendment. In the 1920s, they appointed Clarence Darrow as defense in the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Joseph Smith

Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). According to Mormon tradition, an angel visited the young Joseph Smith in western New York in 1823 to reveal the location of a sacred text that was inscribed on gold plates and had been buried by the fabled "Lost Tribe of Israel." By 1830, Joseph Smith had allegedly translated the sacred text. He was murdered by a mob in Illinois in 1844.

Benjamin Franklin

Founding Father. Invented bifocals, the Franklin stove, the lightning rod, and the swivel chair. An early campaigner for American unity, he served as the first U.S. Ambassador to France (1776-1785). Signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Died 1790 at age 84. See: Albany Plan of Union.

John Marshall

Founding Father. The fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1801-1835). Cemented the concept of judicial review, making the judicial branch coequal to the executive and legislative. A Federalist, his rulings reinforced the supremacy of federal law. See: Marbury v. Madison.

Jacques Marquette

French Jesuit missionary. He and Louis Joliet were the first Europeans to explore and map the Mississippi River. He founded the first European settlement in Michigan in 1668.

Sieur de La Salle

French explorer, also known as René-Robert Cavelier. He surveyed the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, and Gulf of Mexico. Founded a network of forts around the Great Lakes and in the modern-day Midwest.

Samuel de Champlain

French explorer. Known as "The Father of New France." Founded Quebec in 1608. Made the first accurate maps of what is modern-day Eastern Canada.

Adolf Hitler

Führer of Germany (1934-1945). Leader of the Nazi Party. A decorated WWI veteran, he became dictator of Germany and started both European fronts of WWII. A driving force behind the Holocaust, he used Jewish people as a scapegoat for Germany's loss in WWI. His hatred for Bolsheviks and Slavic people led him to formulate a plan to colonize Eastern Europe, enslaving or genociding the people already living there. Hitler committed suicide near the end of the Battle of Berlin, to avoid capture by vengeful Soviet troops.

Conquistadores

Generalized term for soldiers and explorers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires. Colonized what became Latin America in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.

Thaddeus Stephens

He was a Radical Republican member of the House, serving until his death in August 1868. A firebrand abolitionist and proponent of civil rights for African Americans he was at the forefront of pushing a sterner Reconstruction agenda over President Johnson's objections. He served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the Civil War, giving him significant leeway to tackle his goals.

Lousiana Territory

In 1803, Jefferson offered France $10 million for New Orleans and a strip of land that extended to Florida. However, Napoleon had abandoned his dream of an American empire because of his failure to stop a slave uprising in Haiti; he instead prioritized raising revenue to fund his conquest of Europe. He offered the entire Louisiana Territory, which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Hudson Bay, and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, for the bargain price of $15 million. Jefferson, while torn over the fact that the Constitution did not specifically provide for the president to negotiate for and purchase land from a foreign power, reluctantly accepted the proposal in order to safeguard national security.

USS Chesapeake

In 1807, the British ship "Leopard" fired upon the USS "Chesapeake", right off the coast of Virginia. The attack killed 3 Americans, and the British then impressed four sailors from the "Chesapeake." Despite the war fever taking hold in America, President Jefferson sought a diplomatic resolution via economic sanctions. This led to the Embargo Act of 1807.

American Party (Know-Nothing Party)

In 1849, a wing of the nativist movement became a political party called the American Party. The group opposed both immigration and the election of Roman Catholics to political office. The members of the party met in secret and would not tell anyone what they stood for, saying, "I know nothing," when asked. This provided the basis for the group's more common name.

Boston Tea Party

In protest of the Tea Act, Bostonians dressed as American Indians boarded British merchant ship and dumped their tea into Boston Harbor. Resulted in closure of the Harbor, the colonial charter of Massachusetts being revoked, and the Quartering Act.

Proclamation of 1763

In reaction to Pontiac's Rebellion, King George III barred American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. The British saw this as a quick and easy way to make peace while securing the fur trade. Colonists, however, were incensed by the crown's interference in their ability to settle land they had won in the French and Indian War. The colonists often ignored it. An important contributing factor to the American Revolution.

William Lloyd Garrison

Influenced by the teachings of the Second Great Awakening, abolitionists believed that slavery was sinful and, therefore, must be eliminated. Garrison began publishing "The Liberator," a newspaper dedicated to ending slavery. Garrison also founded American Antislavery Society in 1833 to oppose slave traders and owners. Garrison's radicalism soon alienated many moderates within the movement when he claimed that the Constitution was a proslavery document. See: Foreign Antislavery Society, Liberty Party.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Informally known as the Mormon Church, it was founded by Joseph Smith. The followers of Mormonism were ostracized and harassed - in large part, due to the practice of polygamy (having multiple wives) - by their surrounding community and left New York to head west. The Mormons later settled in Utah.

Free Soil Party

Inspired by the Wilmot Proviso, antislavery advocates from various political parties founded the Free Soil Party to oppose the expansion of slavery into the new Western territories. Martin Van Buren ran for president as a Free Soil candidate in 1848. The Free Soil Party's membership was later absorbed into the new Republican Party.

John Harvey Kellogg

Inventor of the cornflake, he espoused the importance of healthy diets. Dr. Kellogg established the Battle Creek Mental Institution to put his ideas about diet and health into practice.

Body of Liberties

Issued by the Massachusetts General Court in 1641, it delineated the liberties and duties of Massachusetts settlers. It also allowed for free speech, assembly, and due process; it also authorized the death penalty for the worship of false gods, blasphemy, and witchcraft.

Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

Issued by the proprietors of Carolina in 1669, who aimed to create a feudal society composed fo nobles, serfs, and slaves. 4/5 of the land was owned by the planters. Colonial leaders established an elected assembly and a headright system to attract immigrants, who were allowed to own the remaining land. It allowed for religious tolerance, both for Christian dissenters and Jewish people.

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued on January 1, 1863, it was an executive order that freed any slave in areas in open rebellion against teh United States government. Slavery in the border states was still legal. Despite its limitations, the proclamation did much to bolster the morale of Union troops and supporters at home. However, some Unionists felt betrayed, believing they had been duped into fighting a war for emancipation instead of merely for the Union's preservation. The Proclamation also served to dissuade Britain and France from recognizing the Confederacy, as it reframed the moral context for the war as opposition to slavery. Abolitionism was popular with the voters in Britain and France.

Civil Rights Bill of 1866

It was designed to end the Black Codes by giving African Americans full citizenship. As expected, Johnson vetoed the bill, and Congress overturned his veto. Many Republicans were concerned that a future return of a Democratic majority might mean the end of the bill they had worked so hard to pass. Therefore, they needed a more permanent solution in the form of the 14th Amendment.

Amerigo Vespucci

Italian explorer and cartographer. His 1499-1502 trip along the South American coast determined that the New World was a distinct continent from Asia.

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer and colonizer. While attempting to prove a westward sea route for East Asian trade existed, he stumbled across the Bahamas in October 1492. The first European to visit the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Japanese cities destroyed in 1945 by atomic bombs. Hiroshima was struck on August 6 by the "Little Boy" bomb dropped by the "Enola Gay," killing 80,000 instantly and 135,000 in the long-term goal. Nagasaki was struck on August 9 by the "Fat Man" bomb dropped by the "Bockscar," killing another 80,000 in total.

King George III

King of Great Britain and Ireland. He reigned from 1760 to 1820. Dismissed attempts by the Second Continental Congress to peacefully resolve their conflict with Parliament on the grounds that the colonies had no authority to form such a body.

Midnight Judges

Judges appointed at the very end of the Adams administration under the Judiciary Act of 1801. So-called because they were an attempt to pack the judicial branch with Federalist judges just before the Democratic-Republicans took power.

Battle of Bull Run/Battle of Manassas

Known as Manassas in Confederate histories, the (First) Battle of Bull Run took place on July 21, 1861. It was an early Confederate victory in the Civil War, showing the North that this would be a long and bloody war, while Southerners felt emboldened by their victory. Union forces had expected an easy victory; many Congressman and D.C. elites actually brought their families along to hold picnics to watch the battle.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Landmark Supreme Court case (1896) that upheld segregation, codifying the doctrine of "Separate, but equal." Partially overturned by "Brown v. Board of Education." Functionally overturned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Second Red Scare

Lasted from 1947-1956. A period of social anxiety and paranoia concerned with communist infiltration throughout society. Driven by events such as the Rosenberg's trial, the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, and the victory of Mao's Communists in the Chinese Civil War. See: House Un-American Activities Committee, McCarthyism, Smith Act.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Laws passed by Congress in 1789. The Alien Acts increased the residency requirement for citizenship from 5 to 14 years and gave the president power to detain and/or deport enemy aliens during wartime. The Sedition Act criminalized the making of false statements that were critical of the president or of Congress. Both acts were an attempt by the Federalists to silence the Democratic-Republicans. See: Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern legislatures in response to legal emancipation of slaves. These codes restricted the actions, movements, and freedoms of African Americans. Under these codes, African Americans could not own land, so they were tied instead to small plots leased from a landowner. This began the system of sharecropping. See: Jim Crow laws, Reconstruction.

Confiscation Acts

Laws passed early in the Civil War that allowed Union troops to seize enemy property that could be used in an act of war. Slaves fit under teh loose definition of property and could, thus, be confiscated. The second of these acts freed slaves in any territory that was currently in rebellion against the Union. These were the first steps in the emancipation.

Navigation Acts

Laws passed in 1651 as measure to supersede Dutch control of international trade. Colonial commodities such as tobacco and sugar had to be exported to England in English ships and sold in English ports before they could be re-exported to other nations' markets. Spurred colonial resentment in the long-term. See: mercantilism.

Force Acts

Laws passed in 1870 and 1987 that authorized the use of federal troops to quell violence and enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments. While these acts were moderately successful in limiting the KKK's activities, the group continued to exist, resurfacing in the 1920s in response to an influx of Southern and Eastern European immigrants.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws that enforced segregation, primarily but not exclusively in the South. The name references a famous 19th century blackface act called Jump Jim Crow.

Terence V. Powderly

Leader of the Knights of Labor. Elected in 1879, he preferred the use of arbitration to settle disputes between labor and management, rather than violent strikes.

Nikita Khrushchev

Leader of the Soviet Union from 1953-1964. Domestically, his tenure was marked by an easing of Stalin era political and cultural restrictions. Internationally, his efforts at warming relations with the West often ran afoul of his own flare for drama and a tendency to gamble on long odds. Following the loss of face in the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was removed by conservative elements in the Kremlin and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Made literacy tests illegal and prohibited states from denying any U.S. citizen the right to vote on the basis of race. The Selma to Montgomery marches contributed to its passage.

King Cotton

Made possible by Eli Whitney's cotton gin, King Cotton was when the lucrative cotton export business caused an expansion of slavery, from 1 million slaves to 4 million in 50 years, because more workers were needed to work the fields. It essentially made civil war inevitable, as slaveowners now had too much invested in the institution of slavery to ever accept voluntarily emancipation, as some former slave states in the North had. See: Slave codes.

Methodists

Methodism is a form of Protestant Christianity based on the teachings of John Wesley. It split off from the Anglican Church. They accept infant baptism and stress charitable work, especially that which alleviates the suffering of the poor. During the Second Great Awakening, Methodist and Baptist ministers often preached at tent revivals, converting thousands. This led to these two forms of Protestantism becoming the two largest denominations of Christianity in the U.S. during this period.

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996

More commonly referred to as "welfare reform," Bill Clinton signed it into law. It stopped open-ended benefits, instead favoring a limited work-based concept, and shifted control to the states.

Quids

More formally known as the "tertium quids" (Latin for "a third something"). They were a conservative wing of the Democratic-Republican party that wished to restrict the role of the federal government. The Quids were foudned in 1805 by John Randolph. See: Yazoo land scandal.

Jay's Treaty

Negotiated by Chief Justice John Jay in 1794 but shaped by Hamilton, it realized several American economic goals, including the removal of British forts in the Northwest Territory. Britain also benefitted, as the treaty gave "most favored nation" trading status to Britain and allowed them to continue anti-French maritime policies. Both the Democratic-Republicans and the French were angered by the treaty, which was authorized for 10 years.

New York Draft Riots

New York City erupted into rioting from July 13 to July 16, 1863. Started primarily by Irish immigrants, hundreds were killed and entire city blocks were destroyed by fire. The rioters feared that newly emancipated African Americans would undercut them in the labor market, and they resented that wealthy men were able to buy exemptions from the military draft.

James Tallmadge

New York senator. He proposed an amendment to Missouri's bid for statehood. After the admission of Missouri as a state, the Tallmadge Amendment would not have allowed any more slaves to be brought into the state and would have provided for the emancipation of the children of Missouri slaves at the age of 25 years. Southerners were outraged by this abolition attempt and crushed the amendment in the Senate. This led to the Missouri Compromise.

Forty-Niners

Nickname for an influx of immigrants to California in 1849 seeking riches in the gold rush. A number of immigrants were Chinese.

Seward's Folly

Nickname for the 1867 purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire for a $7.2 million. So named because Secretary of State William H. Seward brokered the deal for what was then popularly seen as a worthless icebox. Later, gold and oil were discovered in great quantities in Alaska, making the deal a steal. Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. to keep it out of the hands of its geopolitical rival, Britain, which seemed poised to eventually seize the land.

William Jennings Bryan

Nicknamed "The Great Commoner." An outspoken Christian fundamentalist and anti-imperialist, Bryan served as the Democratic Party's nominee for President on 3 separate occasions. He saved the party from being overtaken y the insurgent Populist Party by co-opting its progressive policies and rhetoric. Later served as the prosecutor in the Scopes Monkey Trial. See: ACLU, "Cross of Gold" speech.

Roanoke

Nicknamed "the Lost Colony." First attempted English colony in the New World. Founded in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh on an island off the modern-day North Carolina coast. By 1590, its inhabitants had vanished for reasons that still remain unknown.

Copperheads

Northern Democrats who demanded a peace settlement with the Confederacy. The term was initially a pejorative coined by Republicans, who likened the anti-war Democrats to the venomous copperhead snake, but was adopted by Democrats as a symbol of Liberty (owing to the Liberty Head large cent copper coins in circulation at the time).

War of 1812

Often called "The Second War of Independence." Fought 1812-1815. It is the U.S. term for the North American theater of the Napoleonic Wars. Tensions between the United States and Britain had been high since the attack on the USS "Chesapeake." Following unsuccessful economic sanctions under the Jefferson administration, the Monroe administration was pressured into declaring war by Congressional War Hawks. The war went poorly, and nearly led to New England's secession at the Hartford Convention. British forces burned the White House in August 1814. However, the United States managed not to lose territory before the Treaty of Ghent was signed, and the Battle of New Orleans reinvigorated U.S. morale.

"I Have a Dream" Speech

Often considered the greatest American speech of the 20th century, it was given by Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial.

Haymarket Square Riot

On May 4, 1886, a rally in support of the 8 hour workday was held in Chicago's Haymarket Square. When police began to break up what had been a peaceful public meeting, someone in the crowd threw a bomb at the police, and police fired into the crowd. Several dozens were killed. Rumors circulated that alleged the Knights of Labor were tried to the anarchist bombing, which fatally weakened the Knights. However, Haymarket Square ultimately became a global rallying point for the 8 hour workday. May Day began, in part, as an international commemoration for Haymarket Square.

William Clark

One half of the famed Lewis and Clark team who explored and charted the Louisiana Purchase. See: Meriwether Lewis.

Meriwether Lewis

One half of the famed Lewis and Clark team who explored and charted the Louisiana Purchase. See: William Clark.

Virginia Resolution

One of two notable responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts. Covertly written by James Madison, it declared that states could overrule federal law, as the U.S. Constitution drew its powers only from what the sovereign states delegated to it. An important precedent for later acts of nullification. See: Kentucky Resolution.

Kentucky Resolution

One of two notable responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts. Covertly written by Thomas Jefferson, it declared that states could overrule federal law, as the U.S. Constitution drew its powers only from what the sovereign states delegated to it. An important precedent for later acts of nullification. See: Virginia Resolution.

First Continental Congress

Organized in 1774 as a response to the Intolerable Acts, colonial leaders managed to urge their colonies to expand military reserves and organize boycotts of British goods in the meantime. See: Declaration and Resolves.

Office of Equal Opportunity

Oversaw the creation of the Job Crops, a program that provided career training to inner-city and rural citizens. Part of the Great Society.

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

Part of the 1st New Deal, NIRA was the most proactive legislation to date (circa 1933) in protecting the rights of workers and organized labor. Its board set maximum work hours, minimum wages, and price floors. It was also responsible for setting production quotas and inventories to prevent overproduction or price gouging. Later ruled unconstitutional in 1935. Importantly for organized labor, the NIRA guaranteed labor the right to organize and collectively bargain. "In re Debs." See: National Labor Relations Act.

War Powers Act

Passed by Congress after learning of Nixon's secret bombings of Cambodia, it severely limited the president's ability to wage war without Congressional approval. However, despite violations over the years, Congress has never taken legal action over the issue, and executive authority to wage war has grown substantially since 2001.

Wade-Davis Bill

Passed by both houses in 1864 in response to Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan. It required that 50% of Southern state voters take the loyalty oath, and it allowed only those citizens who had not been active members or supporters of the Confederacy to approve of the new state constitutions. Exercising his executive power, Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill by refusing to sign it.

Morrill Land Grant Act

Passed in 1862, this act gave federal lands to states for the purpose of building schools that would teach agriculture, engineering, and technical trades. It provided the foundation for the state university system still in use throughout the United States.

Military Reconstruction Act

Passed in 1867 by a Radical Republican Congress, it placed the South under martial law, dividing the South into 5 districts that would be governed by a Union general stationed in each. The act further tightened the readmission requirements of former Confederate states by requiring petitioning states to ratify the 14th Amendment and provide for universal manhood suffrage. The act was a response to the leniency displayed by President Johnson toward the Confederacy.

Elkins Act

Passed in 1903, it allowed the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to prohibit rail companies from giving rebates and kickbacks to favored customers. See: Square Deal.

Social Security Act

Passed in 1935, the SSA guaranteed income for retirees, the disabled, and the unemployed. Unfortunately, the law was biased - it didn't apply to millions of agricultural and service workers, such as domestics, nannies, and janitors, who were largely African American. A major U.S. social safety net program.

Embargo Act of 1807

Passed in response to British and French harassment of American shipping. However, this embargo mainly hurt the U.S. as neither nation was dependent on U.S. trade. Repealed in 1809 and replaced with the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809. The Embargo Act led to the Hartford Convention and the weakening of the U.S. ahead of the War of 1812.

Emergency Banking Relief Act

Passed on March 3, 1933, it reopened solvent banks after the nationwide Bank Holiday. Announced by FDR in the first of his fireside chats.

Patriot Act

Passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks, it authorized wide-ranging new powers for law enforcement. Critics charged it trampled on civil liberties and the Constitution. Expired in 2015 and replaced by the USA Freedom Act.

Massachusetts Circular Letter

Penned by Samuel Adams, it was a response to the Townshend Acts and the resulting writs of assistance. It demanded the Townshend Act be immediately repealed. Widely circulated, it rejuvenated boycotts of British goods.

Indentured Servants

People who offered up to 5-7 years of their freedom in exchange for passage to the New World. Limited rights while servants, but considered free members of society upon release. During the 17th century, nearly 2/3 of English immigrants were indentured servants. Declined in favor of slavery, which was more profitable to planters.

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese explorer. From 1519 to 1522, he led a Spanish expedition that was the first to circumnavigate the Earth. Magellan died in battle in the Philippines in 1521, and command was transferred to Juan Sebastián Elcano.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Prompted by racist attitudes toward Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles and San Francisco, this 1882 law restricted Chinese immigration to the United States. See: Central Pacific Railroad, Emergency Quota Act, Immigration Act of 1965, nativist.

Missouri Compromise

Proposed by Henry Clay of Kentucky, it constituted three bills which collectively allowed for the admission of Missouri as a slave state while also admitting Maine as a free state. This would maintain the balance of power in the Senate. In addition, slavery would not be permitted in states admitted above the latitude 36° 30' (with the exception of Missouri, which lay above the line). Clay's compromise was accepted by both North and South and lasted for 34 years, earning him the title "the Great Compromiser." Functionally repealed by Kansas-Nebraska Act, but not officially overturned until the Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling declared it was unconstitutional.

American System

Proposed by Henry Clay of Kentucky, it sought to establish manufacturing and bring in much needed revenue for internal improvements throughout the country. It included the recharter of the Bank of the United States; protective tariffs, such as the one passed in 1816; and improvements on American infrastructure, such as turnpikes, roads, and canals. The South did not support the plan, as plantations (especially cotton ones) made their money on export. Internal improvements also required a stronger federal government, which potentially threatened the South's control over their slave population.

Monroe Doctrine

Proposed by President Monroe in his annual address to Congress in 1823, it quickly became the basis of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. The doctrine called for "nonintervention" in Latin America and an end to European colonization. though the U.S. did not actually have a strong enough military to defend the doctrine if necessary, it remained firm and adhered to the Doctrine throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. See: Roosevelt Corollary.

19th Amendment

Ratified in 1920, it granted women the right to vote.

Immigration Act of 1965

Repealed the discriminatory practices of the Quota Acts of the 1920s and allowed millions of previously excluded peoples to immigrate to the U.S.

Declaratory Act

Replaced the Stamp Act. A 1766 law that maintained the right of the crown to tax the colonies, as Parliament's authority was identical in both Britain and North America.

Repartimiento

Replaced the encomienda system. American Indians living in native villages were legally free. This system legally rendered indigenous slavery nonexistent; natives were allowed land, received pay for labor, and could not be bought and sold. However, they were still abused by Spanish authorities and working conditions could still be brutal.

Speakeasies

Secret clubs that served alcohol. Visitors needed to know the password and whisper it, or "speak easy," to gain entrance. Had the side effect of normalizing women drinking in public establishments, which had been rare prior to Prohibition and seen as immoral.

Pentagon Papers

Secret documents regarding the Vietnam War leaked to "The New York Times" by analyst Daniel Ellsberg. They revealed that Congress had been lied to for many years about the war, and that the U.S. had acted contrary to its publicly stated goals.

Henry Knox

Secretary of War in Washington's cabinet. Recruited "Mad Anthony" Wayne to reorganize U.S. military forces in the Northwest Indian War after the fiasco of St. Clair's Defeat.

Andrew Jackson

Seventh President. Served 1829-1837. He gained fame for his defense of New Orleans during the War of 1812, a rare outright US. victory in that conflict. He advocated for the "common man" against established interests, and supported universal male suffrage for whites, nixing the existing property requirement that barred the poor from participating in democracy. He also pushed for a spoils system to reward supporters, opposed abolitionism, and killed the Second Bank of the United States. He forcefully quashed South Carolina during the Nullification Crisis. He is infamous for creating the Trail of Tears. See: Tariff of 1832.

Sharecropping

Sharecroppers would lease land and borrow supplies to till their plots, while giving a significant portion of their harvest to the landowner as payment for the loan. This exploitative system ensured that farmers were never able to harvest enough to pay the landlord and feed their families. Generations of African Americans remained tied to their plot of land until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. See: Black Codes, Great Migration.

John Quincy Adams

Sixth President. Served from 1825-1829. Son of John Adams. In his lifetime, JQA was a member of basically every major political party at some point. He was elected after striking a deal with Henry Clay in the disputed 1824 election. Following his presidency, JQA was elected to the House in 1830 and served until his death in 1848. He became increasingly opposed to slavery, even arguing before the Supreme Court in 1841 on behalf of African slaves in the "Amistad" case, winning them their freedom. He criticized the Mexican-American War.

Juan Ponce de León

Spanish explorer and conquistador. Led the first European expedition to Florida in 1513, an area which he named. Commonly said to have been hunting for the Fountain of Youth, although that motivation is considered a myth.

Munn v. Illinois

Supreme Court ruling (1877) that held a state had the right to regulate the practices of a business if that business served the public interest. Because railroad transportation was very much in the public's interest, according to the Court, state regulation of rates was appropriate. Despite these successes on the state level, federal laws still protected interstate commerce and allowed railroad companies to raise their long-haul rates in order to offset the losses on short hauls. See: Interstate Commerce Act, Interstate Commerce Commission.

Excise Taxes

Taxes paid when purchases are made on a specific good. See: Whiskey Rebellion.

John C. Fremont

Temporary leader of the Bear Flag Republic and later governor of California. Fremont is perhaps best remembered for his role in the 1856 presidential election, where he served as the very first nominee of the newly founded Republican Party. He came in second with a little over 33% of the popular vote. During the Civil War, he served as a Union major general, fighting mainly in the Midwest.

18th Amendment

The "noble experiment" in banning alcohol in the United States. This period was known as Prohibition. In practice, narrow exemptions were made for medical necessity or for religious rites that required sacramental wine. Took effect in 1920. repealed by the 21st Amendment in December 1933. See: speakeasies.

Glorious Revolution

The 1688 overthrow of the Catholic King James II by the English Parliament. He was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange. Led to both celebration and unrest throughout the American colonies.

Thurgood Marshall

The 1st African American Justice of the Supreme Court. Appointed by Lyndon Johnson in 1967, he was regarded as a liberal judicial activist, favoring rulings that protected individual rights. Retired in 1991 and was replaced by Clarence Thomas.

National Labor Union

The 1st attempt to organize all workers nationwide. Founded in 1866, its goals included better working conditions, higher wages, an 8-hour workday, and equal rights for women and African Americans (but also the exclusion of Chinese-Americans). Members included skilled and unskilled workers as well as farmers; these groups had different, sometimes incompatible, needs. The Panic of 1873 contributed to its decline, as did the failure of Great Railroad Strike of 1877. See: Knights of Labor.

Sandra Day O'Connor

The 1st female Justice of the Supreme Court. Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981, she was a moderate Republican regarded as a swing vote, favoring narrow rulings. Retired in 2006 and replaced by Samuel Alito.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

The CIA is a foreign intelligence service founded in 1947. It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In the mid-1970s, the Church Committee investigated the CIA for a string of abuses; as a result, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was formed to oversee the CIA.

Congress of Industrial Organizations

The CIO organized laborers in America's heavy industrial sector such as steel, automobiles, and mines. By 1938, the CIO was completely independent of the AFL, which it had split from. Led by John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers.

Lewis Cass

The Democratic nominee in the 1848 election. Cass advocated the use of "popular sovereignty" to resolve the slavery issue in the new territories, which would enable citizens of the territories to vote on whether slavery would be permitted. Taylor won the election, largely due to the emergent Free Soil Party taking many Northern Democratic votes from Cass.

Cult of Domesticity

The Industrial Revolution had social consequences. People no longer necessarily labored in the field or in small home industries. As children became less important as a source of labor, and men took factory jobs, the position of women became centered on the home. This led to the elevation of motherhood and homemaking in the "cult of domesticity" in the early 19th century.

Panic of 1819

The Second Bank of the United States (BUS) caused this financial crisis; it over-speculated on land in the West and attempted to curb inflation by pulling back on credit for state banks. After the War of 1812, demand for American agricultural goods abroad fell sharply, forcing the BUS to demand payment from state banks in hard specie (coin). Unfortunately, frontier banks had limited amounts of currency due to issuing many loans to farmers. Thus, these western or "wildcat" banks could not pay back the BUS in specie, and the amount of currency in circulation became dangerously low. The BUS demanded that western banks foreclose on farmers who could not pay back their debts, resulting in a significant rise of landless farmers. Western banks were deemed evil by frontier farmers and poor citizens. This panic greatly contributed to the rise and popularity of Andrew Jackson and his policies.

Transcontinental Railroad

The Transcontinental Railroad linked the U.S. from Atlantic to Pacific by both rail and telegraph. This railroad accelerated the development and eventual closure of the frontier. See: Promontory Point.

"The Star-Spangled Banner"

The U.S. national anthem. Written by Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. It was made the official national anthem in 1931 during the twilight of the Hoover administration, but had gained some official recognition as a national anthem by the Wilson administration in 1916.

Two-Party System

The United States is noted for its enduring two-party system; the life cycle of which two parties are dominant is referred to as a Party System. There are 5 recognized party systems, although a 6th Party System (starting in the late 1960s) is sometimes also listed.

Whig Party

The Whig Party was born out of opposition to Jacksonian Democrats. The Whigs favored economic nationalism, a strong central government, and rechartering the national bank. They believed in protectionist measures such as tariffs to support American industrialization. They also promoted Clay's American System as a way to improve the roads, canals, and infrastructure of the country. The party collapsed over the question of slavery's expansion into newly acquired territories.

Judicial Review

The ability of the Supreme Court to determine the constitutional validity of legislative acts. From "Marbury v. Madison" onward, the power of the Supreme Court was established: it could now check the authority of both the legislative and executive branches.

Détente

The act of easing hostility between 2 or more parties through diplomacy. Advocated during the Cold War by Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Contrast with: brinksmanship.

Ratification

The act of giving official certification to a law or treaty. In this period, it often refers to the process of ratifying the U.S. Constitution. Approval from at least 9 states was required to ratify new constitution, an infringement on state sovereignty as seen by the Anti-Federalists.

Social Darwinism

The application of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to society, specifically the concept of "survival of the fittest." It attempted to explain economic and social differences by arguing that wealth belonged in the hands of those who were most fit to manage it. Many Social Darwinists believed that giving assistance to the poor went against the natural order. See: Gospel of Wealth, Horatio Alger, "laissez-faire."

Great Triumvirate

The collective label for Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster. These 3 statesmen dominated U.S. politics in the 19th century prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. They would play roles in everything from the Nullification Crisis to the Compromise of 1850. As was often the case with early American politics, the name was a reference to Ancient Roman history, specifically the 1st and 2nd Triumvirates.

Clarence Darrow

The defense attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial, in which he represented teacher John Scopes. See: ACLU.

Battle of Fallen Timbers

The final battle of the Northwest Indian War, fought against the Miami Confederacy. Led to the Treaty of Greenville. The forces under "Mad Anthony" Wayne, recruited after St. Clair's Defeat, would form the core of what became the United States Army.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

The first "constitution" in colonial America, fully established the Hartford government in 1639. While it modeled itself after the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the document - in a key innovation - called for the power of government to be derived from the governed, who did not need to be church members to vote.

Pilgrims

The first Puritans to colonize the New World. Settled at Plymouth. Members of a minority group of Puritans known as separatists.

Articles of Confederation

The first constitution of the U.S., drafted alongside the Declaration of Independence but by a separate committee. It strongly favored states' rights and forbid Congress from levying taxes. Ratified in 1781. Replaced by the Consitution following Shay's Rebellion. See: Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

House of Burgesses

The first elected legislative assembly in the New World. Established in 1619. It served as a political model for subsequent English colonies. Initially, only landowners could vote, and only the Virginia Company and the governor could rescind laws.

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I)

The first round of arms control talks. Negotiations took place under the Johnson and Nixon administrations. The treaty was ratified in 1972. See: détente, SALT II.

Mayflower Compact

The first written form of government in the modern-day United States. Drafted by the Pilgrims, it was an agreement to establish a secular body that would administer the leadership of the Plymouth colony.

Emancipation

The freeing of slaves. See: James Tallmadge.

Supreme Court

The highest court in the judicial branch. In the present day, there are nine justices seated at it, with one of the nine serving as Chief Justice, although this number fluctuated in the early years of the United States. The president nominates a justice and the Senate votes on that nomination. If confirmed, the justice has a lifetime appointment, serving until their death or retirement. See: Judiciary Act of 1789, "Marbury v. Madison."

Chief Justice

The highest judicial officer in the United States. When in the majority of a ruling, the Chief Justice assigns the duty of who will write the majority's opinion. The Chief Justice also has sway over which cases the Supreme Court will hear. By tradition, the Chief Justice administers the presidential oath of office. See: Earl Warren, John Jay, John Marshall, Roger Taney, William Howard Taft.

Domino Theory

The idea that political revolutions in one country will cause similar revolutions in neighboring countries, akin to one one domino being necessary to topple over a whole chain of dominos. Typically associated with the spread of communism, although a variant associated with spreading democracy gained currency during the 2003 Iraq War.

Battle of the Bulge

The last major German offensive on the Western Front. It took place in December 1944, and aimed to encircle the Allied armies, hold them hostage to force a peace treaty, and thus allow Germany to focus its full attention on the Soviets. Despite suffering heavy losses, the Allies were able to recover and continue their push toward Germany.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

The last of the Reconstruction-era civil rights reform made it a crime for any person to be denied full and equal use of public places, such as hotels, rail cars, restaurants, and theaters. Unfortunately, this act lacked any wording to enforce it, and it was therefore ignored by most states, both Northern and Southern. See: "Plessy v. Ferguson"

Middle Passage

The leg of Triangular Trade which transported Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to teh New World. Approximately 20% of enslaved Africans died before reaching the New World due to poor conditions, dehydration, and disease.

House of Representatives

The lower chamber of the United States Congress. Its size varied over the decades, but was fixed at the current membership of 435 seats by the Reapportionment Act of 1929. See: Connecticut Compromise.

Bleeding Kansas

The nickname for a period of bloody conflict in what became Kansas. Lasted 1855-1859. Proslavery and antislavery forces engaged in a number of battles, massacres, and raids in order to determine whether Kansas would be a free or slave state. Due to decrying slavery in Kansas, Senator Charles Sumner was nearly beaten to death on the Senate floor by Preston Brooks. Due to the objections of Southern states, Kansas would not be admitted to the United States until the start of the Civil War. See: John Brown.

Lord Baltimore

The noble title for Cecilius Calvert. He founded Maryland in 1632 as a haven for his fellow Catholics and advocated for peaceful coexistence between Catholics and Protestants. Overthrown during the Glorious Revolution by Protestant rebels.

Treaty of Paris (1898)

The peace treaty that ended the Spanish-American War. It turned Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico over to the U.S. The treaty also signaled the end of Spain as a world power and the beginning of the U.S. as a rising one.

Treaty of Versailles

The peace treaty that officially ended WWI, but not ratified by the U.S., which secured a separate peace in 1921. The treaty's terms were extremely harsh but, as time went on, laxly enforced, resulting in the worst of both worlds. They contributed to Germany's postwar economic turmoil while allowing for the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. See: Dawes Plan, Fourteen Points.

Promontory Point

The point at which the rail lines of the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad finally met on May 10, 1869. This marked the completion fo the Transcontinental Railroad. Promontory Point, Utah, is just north of the Great Salt Lake.

Affirmative Action

The policy of favoring members of a historically disadvantaged group, usually in the context of employment or education. Came into practice in the U.S. in the 1960s but has become the subject of increasing controversy. It's banned in several states by law.

Brinksmanship

The practice of achieving a goal by escalating events to one step shy of open conflict in order to force a rival party to knuckle under for fear of catastrophe. A common tactic in the Cold War period. Contrast with: "Détente."

Collective Bargaining

The practice of negotiating between owners and a designation group of employees that represent all other employees. Contrast with: Blacklisting, locking out, yellow-dog contract.

Impeachment

The process of a legislative body removing a government official from their appointed office. Impeachment is often mistaken for being successfully removed. In fact, it is merely the name for the overall process. Both Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached but neither man was convicted of charges laid against them. See: Samuel Chase.

Strikebreaking

The process of breaking a strike to avoid making concessions to workers, either through violence or through the use of replacement workers. In the 19th century, the government often sided with businesses, and would authorize the use of the National Guard or U.S. Army troops on striking workers. See: scabs.

Vertical Integration

The process of controlling every aspect of the production process for a product, from the acquisition of raw materials to the distribution of the final product. A favored practice by Andrew Carnegie. See: Horizontal Integration.

Horizontal Integration

The process of merging companies that all compete in one aspect of a long production process, such as refinement in the oil industry, thereby creating either a monopoly (total control by one company) or an oligopoly (control by few companies). See: John D. Rockefeller, Standard Oil Company, trust, vertical integration.

John D. Rockefeller

The richest American of all time, worth well over $300 billion when adjusted for inflation. He monopolized the oil industry with the Standard Oil Company. While an avowed Social Darwinist, in his later years he turned to philanthropy, such as by founding the University of Chicago among other schools.

SALT II

The second round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. Negotiations took place under Nixon and Ford administrations. In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the final 1979 agreement was not ratified by the Senate. See: détente.

Alamo

The site of a famous battle in San Antonia, Texas. A small force of Texans found themselves under siege from February 23 to March 6, 1836. Mexican forces led by Santa Anna eventually took the Alamo, killing all the defenders in the process. However, news of the resistance inspired other Texans to rebel, especially thanks to an open letter - "To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World" - by the Alamo's commander, William B. Travis.

Appomattox Court House

The site of the formal surrender of General Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Union forces led by General Grant. This act triggered a series of other Confederate forces surrendering, finally ending the Civil War. Took place on April 9, 1865, in the parlor of the house owned by Wilmer McLean.

Jefferson Davis

The sole President of the Confederate States. Served February 22, 1862 to May 10, 1865. Davis was a Democrat from Mississippi. A veteran of the Mexican-American War, he had served in the House (1845-1856) and Senate (1847-1851, 1857-1861), as well as Secretary of War (1853-1857) under Franklin Pierce. Davis was a micromanager who hampered the Confederate war effort by refusing to delegate issues or authority to his subordinates. He also lacked the political skill to overcome the decentralized, states' rights structure of the Confederacy, which made him reliant on state governors in a way Lincoln did not deal with.

Mercantilism

The theory that a government should control economic pursuits to further a nation's national power, especially in the acquisition of silver and gold. Prominent in Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Replaced by free trade. See: laissez-faire.

monopolies

The total or near-total domination of an industry by 1 business. Monopolies can artificially fix prices and stifle innovation, as a lack of competition means they have little reason to reinvest their profits in improving their products. See: Bill Gates, interlocking directorates, Gilded Age, horizontal integration, robber barons, trusts.

Columbian Exchange

The transmission and interchange of plants, animals, diseases, cultures, human populations (including slaves), and technologies between the New World and the Old World. Greatly benefited Europe and Asia while simultaneously bringing catastrophe to American Indian populations and cultures.

Napoleonic Wars

The umbrella term for seven major European conflicts between 1803 and 1815, which spun out of the French Revolution and its various wars. The French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte fought varying alliances of European powers that aimed to roll back the nationalism and liberalism unleashed by the French Revolution. The War of 1812 was a secondary theater in North America to these wars. In the end, following a failed invasion of Russia, Napoleon was defeated. The resulting Congress of Vienna redrew Europe's borders, established a conservative anti-nationalistic, pro-monarchy consensus for several decades, and established the supremacy of the British Empire and the "Pax Britannica" until World War I.

Senate

The upper chamber of the United States Congress. Representation is by state. Each state has 2 Senators regardless of population. Until 1913, Senators were appointed by state legislature. Named for the Roman Senate, upon which it is based. See: Connecticut Compromise.

Dutch Eat India Company

The vehicle for the commercial ambitions of the Netherlands in the New World, especially with regards to the fur trade. Led to the founding of New Netherlands and New Amsterdam. See: Henry Hudson.

Declaration of Sentiments

The women at the Seneca Falls Convention (1848) drafted this document. Modeled after the Declaration of Independence, it declared that "all men and women are created equal" and demanded suffrage for women. Much like the earlier temperance movement, the women's crusade soon became eclipsed by the abolitionist movement and did not resurface until closer to the turn of the 20th century. See: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony.

Slave Codes

These laws were aimed at oppressing enslaved Africans, discouraging free blacks from living in the South, and preventing slave revolts. They were created to support the exploitative slave plantation economy of King Cotton as well as to suppress potential slave uprisings like Nat Turner's Rebellion. Compare with: Jim Crow laws, sharecropping.

Aaron Burr

Third Vice President (1801-1805). Served during Thomas Jefferson's first term. Famously killed Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel. Tried but acquitted on charges of treason in 1807 over allegations he conspired with foreign agents to overthrow Spanish rule in what became the American Southwest, in order to establish a new nation with himself as ruler.

Pacific Railway Act

This 1862 act approved building a transcontinental railroad that would transform the west by linking the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific. An example of infrastructure spending, it had held up for several years by arguments over whether the route should be from the South or the North, given the economic opportunity such a rail line would provide.

Indian Removal Act

This law provided for the immediate forced resettlement of American Indians living in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and present-day Illinois. By 1835, some 100,000 Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole American Indians had been forcibly removed from their homelands. See: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Trail of Tears, Worcester v. Georgia.

Tariff of 1828

This tariff came about in response to New England merchants who had been pushing for stronger protection from foreign competitors. However, the new tariff was incredibly damaging to the southern economy, causing Vice President John C. Calhoun to secretly write "The Southern Carolina Exposition and Protest," which threatened South Carolina's secession. Calling the tariff the "Tariff of Abominations," Calhoun recommended that the southern states declare it to be null and void (nullification) if the federal government refused to lower the duty requirement. In an attempt to appease the South, Jackson signed into law the Tariff of 1832.

Three Sisters

Three staple crops (corn, beans, and squash) favored by many native tribes in North America. Their collective name references their interdependence: the cornstalks provided a structure for the beans to grow up, and the squash held moisture in the soil for all three.

Oregon Trail

Throughout the 1840s, a flood of settlers began traversing the dangerous Oregon Trail. Families traveled up to 6 months in caravans, covering only about 15 miles per day with good weather. While living on the trail, some women began to run prayer meetings and schools to maintain some roles outside of homemaking and childcare, such as repairing wagon wheels and tending to livestock.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

Treaty which capped off the French and Indian War. The British took control of French Canada and Spanish Florida, effectively removing France's presence from North America.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

Treaty which official ended the American Revolutionary War. The U.S. agreed to repay debts to British merchants and promised not to punish Loyalists who chose to remain in the - United States. Formal recognition of the United States as an independent country. Set the geographic boundaries between the British Empire and the United States.

Nat Turner's Rebellion

Turner, an enslaved African American from Virginia, organized a massive slave uprising in 1831. It resulted in the deaths of over 50 white men, women, and children, and the retaliatory killings of hundreds of slaves. Afterwards, states across the South passed laws restricting civil rights for all African Americans, free or slave, and banned educating them as well. See: slave codes.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Typically refers to a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon that can kill a large number of people in a single action. Also known as WMD.

Charles Sumner

U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851-1874). A Radical Republican abolitionist, he pushed for the protection of civil rights in Southern states. Famously caned on the floor of the Senate by Preston Brooks.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

U.S. name for a logistical network that connected North and South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia. Supported the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army.

Daniel Webster

U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1827-1841, 1845-1850) and Secretary of State under Harrison and Tyler (1841-1843) and Fillmore (1850-1852). A Whig politician and member of the Great Triumvirate. During the debate over the Tariff of 1816, he complained that New England had not developed enough to withstand interruptions in its ability to trade freely with Britain. He opposed nullification. He often sought the presidency but never won. He resigned his Senate seat over the negative reception to his support for the Compromise of 1850.

United Auto Workers

Under the protections provided by the Fair Labor Standards Act, the UAW organized a sit-down strike of assembly line employees at General Motors in 1936 and 1937. When the government refused to intervene between labor and management, the companies reluctantly went to the bargaining table and formally recognized the UAW as an official party with which to negotiate worker contracts.

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader. Stepped down from office in 1965 due to health problems. Died in 1969. After the fall of Saigon, it was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

Sir William Berkeley

Virginia governor during Bacon's Rebellion (1676). Ruled the colony based on the interests of the wealthy tobacco planters. In addition, Berkeley advocated for good relations with the American Indians in order to safeguard the beaver fur trade.

Harry S. Truman

WWI veteran who led an artillery regiment. Missouri Senator (1935-1945) elected with aid of the Pendergast machine. He later gained a reputation for investigating military waste. Vice President from January 20, 1945 to April 12, 1945. Ascended to the presidency upon FDR's death. He ordered the dropping of 2 atomic bombs on Japan and oversaw the final phases of both the Western and Pacific Fronts. See: Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Little Turtle

War chief of the Miami Confederacy during the Northwest Indian War. Along with Blue Jacket, he informed Americans that the Confederacy considered the Ohio River the northwestern boundary of the newfound United States. At St. Clair's Defeat, his troops killed over 1,000 U.S. officers and soldiers in the largest American Indian victory in history. See: Battle of Fallen Timbers.

Fireside Chats

Weekly radio addresses intended to inform and reassure the American public. Started by FDR in 1933, and maintained by all presidents since then. George W. Bush adapted the practice to podcasting, Barack Obama adapted it to a streaming-video, a practice continued by Donald Trump.

interlocking directorates

When the members of a company's board of directors also serve on the board of other companies, thus linking those companies at the management level. This practice often leads to accusations of corruption and conflict of interest. The Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) would later ban these by law if the companies were competing in the same industry, as such interlocking directorates would be creating what were functionally monopolies.

John Wilkes Booth

While a famous actor in his own lifetime, Booth is best remembered for orchestrating the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theater. Booth and his co-conspirators had tried on multiple occasions to assassinate Lincoln. In fact, other key cabinet figures were supposed to be killed simultaneously with Lincoln, but those plots failed for varying reasons. Shot while attempting to evade capture in the ensuing manhunt.

Anaconda Plan

Winfield Scott's 4 phase plan to defeat the Confederacy. Phase 1 - U.S. Navy blockades all Southern ports. Phase 2 - Navy splits the Confederacy in half by taking control of the Mississippi River. Phase 3 - Union Army cuts through Georgia, and then travels up the coast to the Carolinas. Phase 4 - Union captures the Confederate capital at Richmond.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, this novel expressed Northern abolitionist frustrations with the Fugitive Slave Act. In the North, the novel quickly gained fame and convinced many that slavery was morally wrong. Meanwhile in the South, the commitment to protecting the institution of slavery intensified.