Nicholas Biddle

 President of the Bank of the Unites States

 Alleged deal b/t John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay

Tariff of abominations

·      Placed unprecedentedly high duties on imports

Nullification crisis

·      Showdown b/t the US president and the South Carolina legislature which had declared it would rather secede than allow the federal government to collect unreasonably high duties in the state

Force bill

·      Passed by Congress allowing the president to use the military to collect federal tariff duties

Trail of tears

·      Forced march of 15000 Cherokee Indians

Spoils system

·      Rewarding political supporters w/ public office

Indian removal act

·      Act passed in 1830 ordering the relocation of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi to territory west of Arkansas and Missouri

Anti Mason party

·      Political party whose primary platform was opposition to a certain secret society

Pet banks

·      Pro Jackson state institutions that received the bulk of federal deposits

Panic of 1837

·      Crisis triggered by bank failures, elevated grain prices, and presidential efforts to curb over speculation on western lands and transportation improvements

Alamo

·      400 American volunteers were slain here in 1836

Battle of San Jacinto

·      Resulted in the capture of the Mexican dictator who was forced to withdraw his troops from Texas and recognize the Rio Grande as Texas’ southwestern border

Santa Anna

·      Leader of the losers in the Battle of San Jacinto

Sam Houston

William Henry Harrison

·      Whig presidential candidate in 1840 whose symbols became a log cabin and hard cider

Andrew Jackson

·      President who readied the military to force South Carolina to back down in the nullification crisis

Slavery

·      Main reason some objected to admission of Texas to the union

Nicholas P. Trist

·      State department clerk who wrote a 65 page letter to the US president explaining his non compliance with a recall order and quickly negotiated the treaty ending the Mexican American War

Tariff of 1842

·      Protective measure passed by congressional Whigs returning to 1833 rates

Manifest destiny

·      Justification for mid 19^th century expansionism

Caroline

·      Diplomatic disagreement b/t the US and Britain regarding British setting fire to American steamer carrying supplies across Niagara river to Canadian insurgents

Aroostook war

·      Clashes that began in 1839 b/t American and Canadian lumberjacks in the disputed territory of northern Maine

Creole

·      American ship captured by rebelling Virginia slaves in 1841

Bahamas

·      Gave asylum to rebelling Virginia slaves in 1841

Walker tariff

·      Measure lowering tariff rates in 1846 fueling trade and increasing treasury receipts

Wilmot proviso

·      Amendment seeking to prohibit slavery in territory acquired from Mexico

Liberty party

·      Party that sought to stop expansion of slavery into the territories, abolish the slave trade, and eventually abolish slavery and ran candidates in the elections of 1840 and 1844

Battle of Buena Vista

·      Key 1847 American victory in the Mexican American war

Zachary Taylor 

·      Rose to prominence in the battle of Buena vista

Guadalupe hidalgo

·      Treaty ending the war with Mexico in 1848 establishing the exchange of territory reaching northwest from Texas to Oregon for $18 million in cash and assumed debts

California bear flag republic

·      Established by local American settlers in 1846 who revolted against Mexico

John C. Fremont

·      Collaborated with American naval officers to overthrow Mexican rule in California

Abraham Lincoln

·      Whig congressman who introduced resolutions requesting location of the precise spot on American soil where American blood had been shed instigating the Mexican American war

John Tyler

·      President who arranged for the annexation of Texas by joint resolution of both houses of congress

John Slidell

·      Dispatched to Mexico city in 1845 to offer to purchase California for $25 million

James K. Polk

·      President who asked congress to declare war on Mexico in 1846 because of a diplomatic insult and unpaid claims

LeCompton Constitution

·      Initially ratified by proslavery forces, it was later voted down when congress required that the entire document be put up for a vote

Dred Scott v Stanford

·      Extended federal protection to slavery in 1857 by ruling that congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory

Lincoln Douglas debates

·      Took place during the US senate race in Illinois in 1858

Stephen A. Douglas

·      Candidate for president nominated by northern democrats in 1860

Harpers Ferry

·      Federal arsenal in Virginia

Crittendon Amendments

·      Proposed in an attempt to appease the south in 1860. Would have given protection in slavery in all territories south of 36 30 where slavery was supported by popular sovereignty

Freeport Question

·      Raised by Abraham Lincoln in 1858 asking whether the court or the people should decide the future of slavery in the territories

Harriet Beecher Stowe

·      Wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Panic of 1857

·      Financial crash brought on by gold fueled inflation, over speculation, and excess grain production, raising calls in the north for higher tariffs and for free homesteads on western public lands

John Brown

·      His seizure of a federal arsenal in Virginia in 1859 caused southerners great alarm

John Bell

·      Nominated for president in 1860 by constitutional union party

Bleeding Kansas

·      Civil war fought in one of the western territories over the issue of slavery that took place on and off between 1856 and the US Civil War

Constitutional Union Party

·      Formed by moderate Whigs and know nothings in an effort to elect a compromise candidate and avert a sectional crisis in 1860

Freeport doctrine

·      Declared that since slavery could not exist without laws to protect it, the territorial legislatures, not the supreme court would have the final say on the slavery question

James Buchanan

·      By antagonizing the Douglas democrats in the north with his support of the LeCompton Constitution, this democratic president hopelessly divided the democratic party

John C. Breckinridge

·      Nominated by southern democrats for president in 1860

Southern Democrats

Fort Sumter

·      South Carolina location where confederate forces fired the first shots of the civil war in April 1861, after union forces attempted to provision the fort

Laird rams

·      Two well armed ironclad constructed for the confederacy by a British firm. Seeking to avoid war with the US, the British government purchased the two ships for its Royal Navy instead

Morrill Tariff Act

·      Increased duties back up to 1864 levels to raise revenue for the civil war

Napoleon III

·      Installed archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico

Homestead act

·      The 1862 act helped make land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward moving settlers

US sanitary commission

·      Established in 1861, it helped professionalize nursing and gave many women the confidence and organizational skills to propel the women’s movement in postwar years

Dominion of Canada

·      Unified Canadian government created by Britain to bolster Canadians against potential attacks or overtures from the US

West Virginia

·      Mountainous region that broke away from Virginia in 1861 to from its own state after Virginia seceded from the union

National banking system

·      Network of member banks that could issue currency against purchased government bonds. Created during the Civil War to establish a stable national currency and stimulate the sale of war bonds

Alabama

·      British built and manned confederate warship that raided union shipping during the civil war. One of the many built by the British for the confederacy, despite union protests

Trent affair

·      Diplomatic row that threatened to bring the British into the civil war on the side of the confederacy in 1861, after a union warship stopped a British steamer and arrested two confederate diplomats on board

Greenbacks

·      Paper currency issued by the union treasury during the civil war. Inadequately backed by gold, they fluctuated in value throughout the war, reaching a low of 39 cents on the dollar

New York draft riots

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

Border states

·      Five slave states-Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia-that did not secede during the Civil War

Writ of habeas corpus

Appomattox courthouse

·      Site where Lee surrendered to Grant in April 1865

Battle of Bull Run

·      First major battle of the civil war

Merrimack

·      Former US warship raised and reconditioned with old ironclad railroad rails by the confederacy

Monitor

·      Union ironclad built on about 100 days

Battle of Antietam

·      Landmark battle ending in a draw that demonstrated the prowess of the union army, forestalled foreign intervention, and gave Lincoln enough victory to issue the Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation proclamation

·      Declared all slaves in rebelling states free but did not affect slaves in non rebelling border states

13^th amendment

·      Prohibited all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude

Battle of Fredericksburg

·      Decisive 1862 victory for Robert E. Lee who successfully repelled a union attack on his lines

Battle of fort Henry and for Donelson

·      Key victory for Grant that secured the north’s hold on Kentucky and paved the way for his attacks deeper into Tennessee

Battle of Gettysburg

·      1863 Pennsylvania victory for the union that spelled doom for the confederacy

Gettysburg address

·      1863 speech in which Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty

Battle of Shiloh

·      April 1862 battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that resulted in the deaths of more than 23000 soldiers and ended in a marginal union victory

Peninsula campaign

·      Union general’s 1862 failed effort to seize Richmond

Wilderness Campaign

·      Series of brutal clashes between Grant’s and Lee’s armies in Virginia leading up to Grant’s capture of Richmond on April of 1865

Vicksburg

·      Two and a half month siege of a confederate fort whose success split the south in two

Battle of Bull Run

·      First battle that resulted in a defeat for union forces

·      All states were required to ratify prior to regaining re-entry into the union

George Pickett

·      Confederate general who led a daring but doomed charge at Gettysburg

Union Party

·      Coalition of pro war democrats and republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat anti war northern democrats

Copperheads

Seward’s folly

·      Purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867

Scalawags

·      Pro union southerners

Carpetbaggers

·      Northerners who came to the south after the civil war to invest in southern infrastructure or work on reconstruction projects

Redeemers

·      Southern politicians who sought to wrest control from republicans in the south after reconstruction

Ku Klux Klan

·      Extremist paramilitary right wing secret society founded in the mid 19^th century with anti foreign/black/Jewish beliefs

Reconstruction act

·      Divided the south into 5 military districts, disenfranchised former confederates, and required southern states to ratify the 14^th amendment and guarantee freedmen the vote before readmission to the union

·      Passed over Johnson’s veto, it aimed to counteract the black codes by conferring citizenship on African Americans and making it a crime to deprive blacks of their rights

Black codes

·      Southern laws passed to restrict the rights of emancipated blacks

Freedman’s bureau

·      Aided newly emancipated slaves by providing food, clothing, medical care, education, and legal support

Wade Davis plan

·      Required that half of a state’s voters pledge allegiance to the union and set stronger safeguards for emancipation

10 percent reconstruction plan

·      Lincoln’s plan for reunification proposing that a state be readmitted when 10% of its voters had pledged loyalty to the US and promised to honor emancipation

Ex parte Milligan

·      Supreme court ruling that military tribunals could not be used to try civilians if civil courts were open

15^th amendment

·      Prohibited states from denying citizens the vote because of race

14^th amendment

·      Extended civil rights to freedmen and prohibited states from taking away those rights without due process

13^th amendment

·      Prohibited all forms of slavery