History, Chapter 7

Letters from an American Farmer

A book published in France in 1782 by Hector St. John de CrÂevecoeur, in which he popularized the idea of the United States as a melting pot.

Three-fifths clause

A provision signed into the Constitution in 1787 that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted in determining each state's representation in the House of Representatives and its electoral votes for president.

Treaty of Greenville

A treaty signed in 1795 as a direct result of the Battle of Fallen Timbers; in this treaty, twelve Indian tribes ceded most of Ohio and Indiana to the federal government, and the system of annuity was established.

Miami Confederation

An alliance of Indian tribes in the Ohio Valley that waged open warfare, under the leadership of Little Turtle, on American forces in the 1790s.

The Federalist

Collection of eighty-five essays that appeared in the New York press in 1787 - 1788 in support of the Constitution; written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay and published under the pseudonym 'Publius.'

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Created the Northwest Territory (area north of the Ohio River and west of Pennsylvania), established conditions for self-government and statehood, included a Bill of Rights, and permanently prohibited slavery.

Ethnic nationalism

Defines the nation as a community of descent based on a shared ethnic heritage, language, and culture.

Land Ordinance of 1785

Directed surveying of the Northwest Territory into townships of thirty-six sections (square miles) each, the sale of the sixteenth section of which was to be used to finance public education.

Land Ordinance of 1784

Divided the Northwest Territory into districts that were initially governed by Congress and eventually admitted to the Union as member states.

Civic nationalism

Envisions the nation as a community open to all those devoted to its political institutions and social values.

Checks and balances

Feature of the U.S. Constitution (also known as the 'separation of powers') in which power is divided between executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the national government so that no one can dominate the other two and endanger citizens' liberties.

Bill of Rights

First ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1791 to guarantee individual rights against infringement by the federal government.

Shays's Rebellion (1787)

Massachusetts farmer and 1,200 compatriots, seeking debt relief through issuance of paper currency and lower taxes, attempted to prevent courts from seizing property from indebted farmers.

Anti-Federalists

Opponents of the Constitution who saw it as a limitation on individual and states' rights; their demands led to the addition of a Bill of Rights to the document.

Notes on the State of Virginia

Published by Thomas Jefferson in 1785, the book compared the white and black races, claiming that blacks lacked the qualities that made freedom and loyalty to the nation possible -- the capacity for self-control, reason, and devotion to the larger community.

Battle of Fallen Timbers

The 1794 defeat of the Miami Confederacy by 3,000 American soldiers led by Anthony Wayne.

Federalism

The division of political power between the state and federal governments under the U.S. Constitution (also known as the 'division of powers').

open immigration

The nineteenth century policy of immigration in which almost all white persons were eligible to claim American citizenship, unless they were unwilling to renounce hereditary titles of nobility.

empire of liberty

The practice of admitting a territory's population as equal members of the American political system, rather than ruling over the West as a colonial power.

Gradual emancipation

The process of emancipation in which children of slaves born after a certain date would be freed. The North's gradual emancipation acts assumed that former slaves would remain in the country, not be colonized abroad.

annuity system

Yearly grants of federal money to Indian tribes that institutionalized continuing government influence in tribal affairs and gave outsiders considerable control over Indian life.