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History 08-09 Midterm

Terms

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Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga in September and October 1777 were decisive American victories in the American Revolutionary War, resulting in the surrender of an entire British army of over 6,000 men invading New York from Canada. The two battles south of Saratoga, New York ended with the of Burgoyne,which is commonly seen as the turning point of the Revolution.
Bacon's Rebellion
(1676) A civil revolt in Virginia that sprang from colonial disagreement over response to an Indian uprising. Nathaniel Bacon (1647-76), a member of the Virginia Council, organized forces that violated Gov. Sir William Berkeley's orders and took indiscriminate offensive actions against neighboring Indian tribes, friendly or otherwise. When Berkeley removed Bacon from his council seat, Bacon's forces marched on Jamestown, burned it, and drove Berkeley out of town. The rebellion ended following Bacon's death from dysentery. After the episode, British regulars were stationed permanently in the colony.
Boston Tea Party
Incident on Dec. 16, 1773, in which American patriots dressed as Indians threw 342 chests of tea from three British ships into Boston Harbour. Their leader was Samuel Adams. The action was taken to prevent the payment of a British-imposed tax on tea and to protest the British monopoly of the colonial tea trade authorized by the Tea Act. In retaliation, Parliament passed the punitive Intolerable Acts, which further united the colonies in their opposition to the British.
Townshend Acts
(1767) British parliamentary measures to tax the American colonists. The series of four acts imposed duties on imports of lead, paint, glass, paper, and tea and established a board of customs commissioners to enforce collection. Colonial quartering of British troops was also revived. The colonists protested the new measures as taxation without representation and resisted compliance. Nonimportation agreements among colonial merchants cut British imports in half by 1769. In 1770 all the duties except the tax on tea were repealed.
Alien and Sedition Acts
These were four laws passed in 1789 that prevented aliens and the press from criticizing the government. Leading up to the war with France, both French and Irish immigrants supported the French cause. The American government punished this by increasing the waiting time for alien naturalization, and allowed the right to expel immigrants considered dangerous. Jefferson opposed these, and his participation against the acts propelled him to the presidency.
French and Indian War
(also known as The Seven Years War) It was the culmination of the struggle between Great Britain and France for supremacy in North America. Each side was augmented by colonial militia forces and Indian allies. The first phase of the war (1754-57) was fought largely in the frontier areas of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England and was marked by several defeats for the British forces. In 1759, the British gained a major victory by taking the city of Quebec. The French and Indian War was ended by the Treaty of Paris (February 10, 1763) which confirmed the British conquest of New France and its incorporation into the British empire. The war gave the British unchallenged control of North America, but it also provided the American colonists with military experience and aroused their resistance to dominance and economic exploitation by the mother country which led to the Revolutionary War less than a decade later.
Battle of Lexington
A conflict marking the beginning of the Revolutionary War in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775. An American force of about seventy minutemen under Capt. John Parker assembled on Lexington green after receiving word from dispatch riders, including Paul Revere, that a British force of about 250 men, under Maj. John Pitcairn, was advancing to Concord to confiscate provincial military supplies. British soldiers fired on Parker's force after hearing a gunshot, although which side the shot came from is uncertain, and it may have been accidental.
Abolitionism
(c. 1783 - 1888) Movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical religious groups condemned it as un-Christian. Though antislavery sentiments were widespread by the late 18th century, they had little immediate effect on the centres of slavery themselves — the West Indies, South America, and the southern U.S. In 1807 the importation of African slaves was banned in the U.S. and the British colonies. Slavery was abolished in the British West Indies by 1838 and in the French possessions 10 years later. In the 11 Southern states of the U.S., however, slavery was a social and economic institution. American abolitionism laboured under the handicap that it threatened the harmony of North and South in the Union, and it also ran counter to the U.S. Constitution, which left the question of slavery to the individual states. The abolitionist movement in the North was led by agitators such as William Lloyd Garrison, founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, writers such as John Greenleaf Whittier, former slaves such as Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The election of Abraham Lincoln, who opposed the spread of slavery to the West, marked a turning point in the movement. Convinced that their way of life was threatened, the Southern states seceded from the Union (see secession), which led to the American Civil War. In 1863 Lincoln (who had never been an abolitionist) issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves held in the Confederate states; the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1865) prohibited slavery throughout the country.
13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and, with limited exceptions, such as those convicted of a crime, prohibits involuntary servitude. It was adopted on December 6, 1865.
Antietam
Decisive and bloody battle of the American Civil War that halted the Confederate advance on Maryland. Following victory in the Second Battle of Bull Run, Gen. Robert E. Lee moved his troops into Maryland with an eye to capturing Washington, D.C. They were stopped by Union troops under George B. McClellan at Antietam Creek, Md. Confederate casualties numbered some 13,700, and Union losses were about 12,400. McClellan was criticized for allowing Lee's forces to retreat to Virginia, but the victory encouraged Pres. Abraham Lincoln to issue a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
John Brown
U.S. abolitionist. He grew up in Ohio, where his mother died insane when he was eight. He moved around the country working in various trades and raised a large family of 20 children. Though he was white, he settled in 1849 with his family in a black community founded at North Elba, N.Y. An ardent advocate of overt action to end slavery, he traveled to Kansas in 1855 with five of his sons to retaliate against proslavery actions in Lawrence. He and his group murdered five proslavery settlers (see Bleeding Kansas). In 1858 he proposed to establish a mountain stronghold in Maryland for escaping slaves, to be financed by abolitionists. He hoped that taking the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., would inspire slaves to join his "army of emancipation." In 1859 his small force overpowered the arsenal's guard; after two days it was in turn overpowered by federal forces led by Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried for treason, convicted, and hanged. His raid made him a martyr to northern abolitionists and increased the sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War.
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
Measures passed by the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky as a protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts. Drafted by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson (though their role went unknown for 25 years), the resolutions protested limitations on civil liberties and declared the right of states to decide on the constitutionality of federal legislation. Though their authors applied the resolutions to the specific issues of the day, Southern states later used the measures to support the theories of nullification and secession.
Embargo Act
Legislation by the U.S. Congress in December 1807 that closed U.S. ports to all exports and restricted imports from Britain. The act was Pres. Thomas Jefferson's response to British and French interference with neutral U.S. merchant ships during the Napoleonic Wars. The embargo had little effect in Europe, but it imposed an unpopular restriction on New England merchants and exporters (see Hartford Convention). Legislation passed in 1809 lifted the embargo, but continued British interference with U.S. shipping led to the War of 1812.
Dred Scott Case
1857 ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States that made slavery legal in all U.S. territories. Scott was a slave whose master had taken him in 1834 from a slave state (Missouri) to a free state and a free territory, then back to Missouri. Scott sued for his freedom in Missouri in 1846, claiming his residence in a free state and a free territory made him free. The opinion of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney declared that Scott was not entitled to rights as a U.S. citizen and, in fact, had "no rights which any white man was bound to respect". Taney and six other justices struck down the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional, maintaining that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the territories (see states' rights). The decision, a clear victory for the South, increased Northern antislavery sentiment, strengthened the new Republican Party, and fed the sectional strife that led to war in 1861.
Tecumseh
Shawnee Indian chief. As a boy during the American Revolution, Tecumseh participated in combined British and Indian attacks on American colonists. In 1794 he fought unsuccessfully against Gen. Anthony Wayne. He eventually established a confederation made up of members of the Creek and other nations. In 1811 his brother's attack on William H. Harrison's troops at Tippecanoe, Ind., ended in defeat. As the War of 1812 approached, Tecumseh assembled his followers under the British banner and captured Detroit. Several lesser successes followed, ending with his death at the Thames River in what is now Ontario, marking the end of Indian resistance in the Old Northwest (as the East North Central states were sometimes known).
Roger Williams
A Puritan religious leader of the seventeenth century, born in England. After he was expelled from Massachusetts for his tolerant religious views, Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island as a place of complete religious toleration.
Shays Rebellion
(1786 - 87) Uprising in western Massachusetts. In a period of economic depression and land seizures for debt collection, several hundred farmers led by Daniel Shays (1747? - 1825), who had served as a captain in the Revolutionary army, marched on the state supreme court in Springfield, preventing it from carrying out foreclosures and debt collection. Shays then led about 1,200 men in an attack on the nearby federal arsenal, but they were repulsed by troops under Benjamin Lincoln. As a result of the uprising, the state enacted laws easing the economic condition of debtors.
Articles of Confederation
Early U.S. constitution (1781 - 89) under the government by the Continental Congress, replaced in 1787 by the U.S. Constitution. It provided for a confederation of sovereign states and gave the Congress power to regulate foreign affairs, war, and the postal service, to control Indian affairs, and to borrow money. Under the Articles, Congress settled state claims to western lands and established the Northwest Ordinances. But Congress had no power to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops, and by late 1786 the government had ceased to be effective, as was demonstrated by Shays's Rebellion (1786 - 87) against courts that had been enforcing seizures of property for debt. Delegates to the Annapolis Convention called a meeting of all the states to amend the Articles.
Reformers
A group of radical republicans that gain majority in congress during reconstruction. They repeatedly override Johnson's vetoes to ass their agenda for black freedom and sharecropping.
Battle of Bunker Hill
(June 17, 1775) First major battle of the American Revolution. Within two months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, more than 15,000 colonial troops assembled near Boston to prevent the British army from occupying several hills around the city, including Bunker and Breed's hills. The colonists fortified Breed's Hill in Charlestown, across the Charles River from Boston. They withstood a cannonade from British ships in Boston Harbor and fought off assaults by 2,300 British troops but were eventually forced to retreat. Although the British won the battle, it was a Pyrrhic victory that lent considerable encouragement to the revolutionary cause. British casualties (about 1,000) and the colonists' fierce resistance convinced the British that subduing the rebels would be difficult.
Hamilton's Economic Policies
The first of his policies was to pay off foreign debts from the Revolutionary War. The second was to pay off domestic debts created through citizens supporting the revolution by selling bonds. The third part was that the federal government take over state debts, thus strengthening the financial security of the federal government. The fourth called for taxation on the businesses and citizens of the United States to keep the federal government running. The fifth involved a federal Bank of the United States. His sixth proposal was to have a uniform 'mint' across the United States, providing monetary stability. The most important idea in his policies was having good credit.
Royal Colonies
Colonies ruled over directly by a King or Queen.
Battle of Concord
After the Battle of Lexington, the British force came to Concord only ot find the military supplies had already been moved. A firefight ensued at the North Bridge over the Concord River (Battle of Concord), and the Americans demonstrated that they were capable of using armed force to resist the British regulars. This led to the siege of Boston as the British fled.
Election of 1828
Andrew Jackson beat John Quincy Adams.
Second Party System
The Second Party System is a term of periodization used by historians and political scientists to name the political system existing in the United States from about 1828 to 1854. The system was characterized by rapidly rising levels of voter interest beginning in 1828, as demonstrated by election day turnout, rallies, partisan newspapers, and a high degree of personal loyalty to party. The major parties were the Democratic Party, led by Andrew Jackson, and the Whig Party, assembled by Henry Clay from the National Republicans. It was a distinct party system. It formed over a 15 year period that varied by state. It was produced by leaders trying to win the presidency, with contenders building their own national coalitions. Regional effects strongly affected developments, with the Adams forces strongest in New England, for example, and the Jacksonians in the Southwest. For the first time two-party politics was extended to the South and West (which had been one-party regions). In each region the two parties were about equal--the first and only party system showing this. Because of the regional balance it was vulnerable to region-specific issues (like slavery). The same two parties appeared in every state, and contested both the electoral vote and state offices. Most critical was the abrupt emergence of a two-party South in 1832-34 (mostly as a reaction against Van Buren). The Anti-Masonic party flourished in only those states with a weak second party. Methods varied somewhat but everywhere the party convention replaced the caucus. The parties had an interest of their own, in terms of the office-seeking goals of party activists. The System brought forth a new, popular campaign style. Close elections brought out the voters (not charismatic candidates or particular issues). Party leaders formed the parties to some degree in their own image.
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on 3 September 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War and represented a major diplomatic triumph for the young nation. Following the decisive victory of the American and French forces at the Battle of Yorktown (1781), the British recognized that they could not defeat the rebellious colonists on the battlefield. After a change of government brought in a ministry devoted to ending the conflict, the British opened talks with the delegates from the Continental Congress: John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin. The Americans declined the guidance of their French allies and negotiated their own settlement, signing the initial articles on 30 November 1782. The final document was agreed to by all parties in September 1783. The treaty recognized the independence of the United States, generously fixed its western boundary at the Mississippi River (a move that doubled the size of the United States), and gave the new country fishing rights off Newfoundland. The United States agreed to terminate reprisals against loyalists and to return their property.
Battle of Yorktown
A Revolutionary War battle at Yorktown, Virginia starting in August, 1781, when British troops under Gen. Charles Cornwallis were attacked by American land forces. The Americans were later joined by forces approaching by sea and in early October began a formal siege. On October 17th Cornwallis surrendered along with his 8, 000 men. It was a turning point in the war since Cornwallis's army was the only British force that was surplus to garrison requirements in North America and British popular opinion began to suspect that there were not adequate resources available to win the war.
Indentured Servitude
A person under contract to work for another person for a definite period of time, usually without pay but in exchange for free passage to a new country. During the seventeenth century most of the white laborers in Maryland and Virginia came from England as indentured servants. Indentured Servants in colonial America were, for the most part, adult white persons who were bound to labor for a period of years. There were three well-known classes: the free-willers, or redemptioners; those who were enticed to leave their home country out of poverty or who were kidnapped for political or religious reasons; and convicts. Many German, English and Scottish men and women came to America this way. The Chesapeake immigrants were 80-90% indentured servants.
The Bank War
Controversy in the 1830s over the existence of the Bank of the United States, at that time the only national banking institution. The first Bank of the United States, chartered in 1791 over the objections of Thomas Jefferson, ceased in 1811 when Jeffersonian (Democratic) Republicans refused to pass a new federal charter. In 1816 the second Bank of the United States was created, with a 20-year federal charter. In 1829 and again in 1830 Pres. Andrew Jackson made clear his constitutional objections to and personal antagonism toward the bank. He believed it concentrated too much economic power in the hands of a small moneyed elite beyond the public's control. Its president, Nicholas Biddle, with the support of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, applied for a new charter in 1832, four years before the old charter was due to expire, thus ensuring that the bank would be an issue in the 1832 presidential election. Jackson vetoed the recharter bill and won the ensuing election, interpreting his victory as a mandate to destroy the bank. He forbade the deposit in the bank of government funds; Biddle retaliated by calling in loans, which precipitated a credit crisis. Denied renewal of its federal charter, the bank secured a Pennsylvania charter in 1836. Faulty investment decisions forced it to close in 1841.
14th Amendment
The amendment provides a broad definition of citizenship, overruling Dred Scott v. Sandford which had excluded slaves and their descendants from possessing Constitutional rights. The amendment requires states to provide equal protection under the law to all persons within their jurisdictions.
John Marshall
In 1801 Adams named Marshall chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a post he held until his death. He participated in more than 1,000 decisions, writing 519 himself. During his tenure, the Supreme Court set forth the main structure of the government; its groundbreaking decisions included Marbury v. Madison, which established judicial review; McCulloch v. Maryland, which affirmed the constitutional doctrine of "implied powers"; the Dartmouth College case, which protected businesses and corporations from much government regulation; and Gibbons v. Ogden, which established that states cannot interfere with Congress's right to regulate commerce. Marshall is remembered as the principal founder of the U.S. system of constitutional law.
Three-Fifths Clause
a compromise between Southern and Northern states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the population of slaves would be counted for enumeration purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. The three-fifths ratio, or "Federal ratio" had a major effect on pre-Civil War political affairs due to the disproportionate representation of slaveholding states. For example, in 1793 slave states would have been apportioned 33 seats in the House of Representatives had the seats been assigned based on the free population; instead they were apportioned 47. In 1812, slaveholding states had 76 instead of the 59 they would have had; in 1833, 98 instead of 73. As a result, southerners dominated the Presidency, the Speakership of the House, and the Supreme Court in the period prior to the Civil War.
Intolerable Acts
The four Intolerable Acts, also known as the Coercive Acts, formed Britain's punishment of both the town of Boston and the province of Massachusetts for the destruction of the East India Company's tea on 16 December 1773. They were rushed through Parliament in the spring of 1774. Their purpose was to show rebellious colonials that, unlike 1766, when the Stamp Act was repealed, and 1770, when four of the five Townshend taxes were withdrawn, Britain would not retreat this time. The Boston Port Act closed Boston to seaborne commerce until the town paid for the tea. Since trade was the town's life, the act and its enforcement by the Royal Navy amounted to a blockade, which was an act of war. The Massachusetts Government Act abolished the province's royal charter of 1692. The new structure would replace a provincial council elected by the assembly with one appointed by the governor in the name of the king. Towns would meet once per year, solely to elect local officers. County courts would enforce the act's provisions. The Administration of Justice Act let the Crown remove the trials of public officials under accusation to another province or to Britain on the ground that they could not get fair trials in local courts. The Quartering Act allowed British commanders to billet soldiers in colonials' homes if no barracks or public buildings could be found. The commander in chief in America, General Thomas Gage, became governor of Massachusetts. The Quebec Act, passed at the same time, granted legal privileges to the Catholic Church in the former French province, established nonrepresentative government there, and gave Quebec control of much of the interior north of the Ohio River. It was not part of the package of punishments. But the Intolerable Acts, the Quebec Act, and the naming of Gage all figured among the "abuses and usurpations" listed in the Declaration of Independence.
Election of 1824
Andrew Jackson won against John Quincy Adams, William Harris Crawford and Henry Clay
Ulysses S Grant
When the American Civil War began (1861), he was appointed brigadier general; his 1862 attack on Fort Donelson, Tenn., produced the first major Union victory. He drove off a Confederate attack at Shiloh but was criticized for heavy Union losses. He devised the campaign to take the stronghold of Vicksburg, Miss., in 1863, cutting the Confederacy in half from east to west. Following his victory at the Battle of Chattanooga in 1864, he was appointed commander of the Union army. While Gen. William T. Sherman made his famous march across Georgia, Grant attacked forces under Gen. Robert E. Lee in Virginia, bringing the war to an end in 1865. Grant's administrative ability and innovative strategies were largely responsible for the Union victory. In 1868 his successful Republican presidential campaign made him, at 46, the youngest man yet elected president. His two terms were marred by administrative inaction and political scandal involving members of his cabinet, including the Crédit Mobilier scandal and the Whiskey Ring conspiracy. He was more successful in foreign affairs, where he was aided by his secretary of state, Hamilton Fish. He supported amnesty for Confederate leaders and protection for the civil rights of former slaves.
Bull Run
It was the first major land battle of the American Civil War, fought on July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia. Although commonly believed to be, it was not the first land battle of the war as a battle in Carthage, Missouri preceded it by 16 days. Unseasoned Union Army troops under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell advanced across Bull Run against the equally unseasoned Confederate Army under Brig. Gens. Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard, and despite the Union's early successes, they were routed and forced to retreat back to Washington, D.C.
Robert E Lee
U.S. and Confederate military leader. In 1859 he led U.S. troops against the slave insurrection attempted by John Brown at Harpers Ferry. In 1861 he was offered command of a new army being formed to force the seceded Southern states back into the Union. Though opposed to secession, he refused. After his home state of Virginia seceded, he became commander of Virginia's forces in the American Civil War and adviser to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. In 1864 - 65 he conducted defensive campaigns against Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant that caused heavy Union casualties. Lee ended his retreat behind fortifications built at Petersburg and Richmond (see Petersburg Campaign). By April 1865 dwindling forces and supplies forced Lee, now general of all Confederate armies, to surrender at Appomattox Court House.
Nat Turner
U.S. insurrectionist. Born into slavery, he became convinced of his mission to lead American slaves out of bondage and developed a scheme to capture the armoury at Jerusalem, Va. He took an eclipse of the sun as a sign to act (1831) and began his insurrection by killing his master's family. He led 75 slaves as they killed about 60 whites on a two-day march to Jerusalem. About 3,000 state militia and local whites defeated the insurrectionists, who were captured or killed. Turner eluded arrest for six weeks but was found, tried, and hanged. Alarmed by the uprising, Southern states passed legislation forbidding the education, movement, or assembly of slaves.
Sharecropping
system of farm tenancy once common in some parts of the United States. In the United States the institution arose at the end of the Civil War out of the plantation system. Many planters had ample land but little money for wages. At the same time most of the former slaves were uneducated and impoverished. The solution was the sharecropping system, which continued the workers in the routine of cotton cultivation under rigid supervision. Economic features of the system were gradually extended to poor white farmers. The cropper brought to the farm only his own and his family's labor. Most other requirements—land, animals, equipment, and seed—were provided by the landlord, who generally also advanced credit to meet the living expenses of the cropper family. Most croppers worked under the close direction of the landlord, and he marketed the crop and kept accounts. Normally in return for their work they received a share (usually half) of the money realized. From this share was deducted the debt to the landlord. High interest charges, emphasis on production of a single cash crop, slipshod accounting, and chronic cropper irresponsibility were among the abuses of the system. Farm mechanization and a marked reduction in cotton acreage have virtually put an end to the system.
Trail of Tears
Forced migration in the United States of the Northeast and Southeast Indians during the 1830s. The discovery of gold on Cherokee land in Georgia (1828 - 29) catalyzed political efforts to divest all Indians east of the Mississippi River of their property. The Indian Removal Act (1830) authorized the U.S. president to negotiate with tribes for land cessions and removal to western territories. Many native people were forced from their homes, and most undertook the westward journey under severe duress. Some 15,000 died of exposure and disease on the journey, which became known as the Trail of Tears. Although the Trail of Tears is most closely associated with the Cherokee specifically and the Southeast tribes more generally, perhaps one-third to one-half of the 100,000 people removed were Northeast Indians.
Gettysburg
Major engagement in the American Civil War at Gettysburg, Pa., regarded as the war's turning point. After defeating Union forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee decided to invade the North with 75,000 troops. When he learned that the Union's Army of the Potomac had a new commander, George Meade, he led his own troops to Gettysburg, a strategic crossroads. On the first day of battle, Meade's advance force under John Buford held the site until reinforcements arrived. On the second day, the Confederates attacked Union lines at Little Round Top, Cemetery Hill, Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, and the Peach Orchard. On the third day, Lee sent 15,000 troops to assault Cemetery Ridge, held by 10,000 Union troops under Winfield S Hancock. A Confederate spearhead broke through the Union artillery defense but was stopped by a fierce Union counterattack on three sides.
Stamp Act
(1765) British parliamentary measure to tax the American colonies. To pay for costs resulting from the French and Indian War, the British sought to raise revenue through a stamp tax on printed matter. A common revenue device in England, the tax was vigorously opposed by the colonists, whose representatives had not been consulted. Colonists refused to use the stamps, and mobs intimidated stamp agents. The Stamp Act Congress, with representatives from nine colonies, met to petition Parliament to repeal the act. Faced with additional protests from British merchants whose exports had been reduced by colonial boycotts, Parliament repealed the act (1766), then passed the Declaratory Act.
Nullification Crisis
An unsuccessful but premonitory attempt (1832-33) by South Carolina's ruling planters, led by John C. Calhoun, to nullify federal legislation which violated state interests. Prompted by a receding cotton economy, high tariffs, the rise of abolitionism, and Nat Turner's uprising, the upper-class Nullifiers flamed fears of a humiliating conspiracy. Civil war loomed in early 1833 after Congress gave President Andrew Jackson authorization to forcefully subdue the Nullifiers, who pledged armed resistance. A compromise tariff agreement, however, was shortly reached, thus meeting South Carolina's request for economic relief while bolstering Jackson's status as a staunch unionist.
Marbury v. Madison
(1803) First decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional, thus establishing the doctrine of judicial review. In 1801 newly elected Pres. Thomas Jefferson ordered Secretary of State James Madison to withhold from William Marbury the commission of his appointment by former Pres. John Adams as justice of the peace in the District of Columbia. Marbury then requested that the Supreme Court compel Madison to deliver his commission. In denying his request, the court held that it lacked jurisdiction because the section of the Judiciary Act passed by Congress in 1789 that authorized the Court to issue such a writ was unconstitutional and thus invalid. Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for the Court, declared that the Constitution must always take precedence in any conflict between it and a law passed by Congress.
City Upon a Hill
A phrase that is associated with John Winthrop's sermon "A Model of Christian Charity," given in 1630. Verse fourteen of Matthew chapter five states that "you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden." Winthrop warned the Puritan colonists of New England who were to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony that their new community would be a "city upon a hill," watched by the world.
McCulloh v. Maryland
(1819) Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that affirmed the constitutional doctrine of Congress's implied powers. The case concerned the legitimacy of the authority of a newly created national bank to control the issuance of currency by the states, including Maryland. The unanimous opinion, written by John Marshall, established that Congress possesses not only the powers expressly conferred on it by the Constitution but also the authority appropriate to the utilization of such powers, in this case the creation of such a bank. This doctrine, drawn from the "elastic clause" of Article 1, became a significant factor in the steady growth of federal powers. It also bolstered the power of judicial review established in Marbury v. Madison (1803).
Andrew Johnson
The 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson worked his way up to the U.S. Senate. In the Civil War he was the only Southern Democrat to support Abraham Lincoln, and was chosen for the vice-presidency in 1864. When Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Johnson became President, but clashed with Radical Republicans, who held a majority in congress. They passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, restricting presidential powers, and when Johnson defied them, he was impeached in 1868. A few months later the Senate acquitted him by one vote. He was succeeded in office by Ulysses S. Grant.
Mexican War
War between the U.S. and Mexico. It grew from a border dispute after the U.S. annexed Texas in 1845; Mexico claimed that the southern border of Texas was the Nueces River, while the U.S. claimed it was the Rio Grande. A secret mission by John Slidell to negotiate the dispute and purchase New Mexico and California for up to $30 million was aborted when Mexico refused to receive him. In response to the snub, Pres. James Polk sent troops under Zachary Taylor to occupy the disputed land between the two rivers. In April 1846 Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and attacked Taylor's troops; Congress approved a declaration of war in May. Ordered to invade Mexico, Taylor captured Monterrey and defeated a large Mexican force under Antonio Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847. Polk then ordered Gen. Winfield Scott to move his army by sea to Veracruz, capture the city, and march inland to Mexico City. Scott followed the plan, meeting resistance at Cerro Gordo and Contreras, and entered Mexico City in September. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded to the U.S. nearly all of present New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and Colorado for $15,000,000 and U.S. assumption of its citizens' claims against Mexico. Casualties included about 13,000 American deaths, all but 1,700 of which were caused by disease. The war, which made a national hero of Taylor, reopened the slavery-extension issue supposedly settled by the Missouri Compromise.
Manifest Destiny
Concept of U.S. territorial expansion westward to the Pacific Ocean. The phrase was coined in 1845 by the editor John L. O'Sullivan, who described the U.S. annexation of Texas and, by extension, the occupation of the rest of the continent as a divine right of the American people. The term was used to justify the U.S. annexation of Oregon, New Mexico, and California and later U.S. involvement in Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
Jay's Treaty
After the Revolutionary War, both the United States and Great Britain failed to live up to the terms agreed upon on in the 1783 peace treaty. In an effort to remake bonds with Great Britain, George Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to negotiate with Britain. Britain agreed to evacuate posts form the war, and the U.S. agreed to pay all prewar debts. The citizens of the U.S. greatly criticized this treaty, but nevertheless it passed.
Federalist No. 10
Federalist Number 10 is an essay by James Madison and the tenth of the Federalist Papers, a series arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. No. 10 addresses the question of how to guard against "factions," groups of citizens with interests contrary to the rights of others or the interests of the whole community. In today's discourse the term special interest often carries the same connotation. Madison argued that a strong, large republic would be a better guard against those dangers than smaller republics—for instance, the individual states.
The First Great Awakening
Religious revival in British North America from 1720 into the 1740s. It was part of a movement, known as Pietism or Quietism on the European continent and evangelicalism in England, that swept Western Europe in the late 17th and early 18th century under the leadership of preachers such as John Wesley. In North America the Great Awakening was a Protestant evangelical reaction against formalism and rationalism in religion, and it had a strong Calvinist element. Revivalist preachers emphasized the need for sinners to fear punishment and to hope for the unearned gift of grace from God. George Whitefield (1714 - 1770) was one of the most popular, preaching to huge crowds throughout the colonies in 1739 - 40. Jonathan Edwards also helped inspire the Great Awakening and was its most important theologian. Among its results were missions to the Indians and the founding of colleges (including Princeton Univ.).
Charter Colonies
Colonies Chartered to an individual trading company by the British Crown.
Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments to the U.S. constitution introduced in 1789. The first amendment is the freedom of speech, press, assembly and the right to petition. The second amendment is the right to bear arms. The third is the protection from the quartering of troops. The fourth is protection from unreasonable search and seizure. The fifth ideals with due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination and eminent domain. The sixth amendment is the rights of an accused criminal. The seventh amendment says certain civil trials will have a jury present. The eighth prevents excessive bail and punishment. The ninth amendment states rights of the people not specifically written in the constitution will still be protected. The tenth amendment dictates that powers not given to the federal government are reserved for the states and the people.
Mayflower Compact
(1620) Document signed by 41 male passengers on the Mayflower before landing at Plymouth (Massachusetts). Concerned that some members might leave to form their own colonies, William Bradford and others drafted the compact to bind the group into a political body and pledge members to abide by any laws that would be established. The document adapted a church covenant to a civil situation and was the basis of the colony's government.
The Great Compromise
The basic structure of the Senate and House of Representatives resulted from the Great Compromise of 1787. A dangerous stalemate had developed at the Constitutional Convention between delegates from the larger states, who wanted representation in both houses of Congress according to the size of a state's population, and delegates from the smaller states, who demanded equal representation for each state.
Jacksonian Democracy
A movement for more democracy in American government in the 1830s. Led by President Andrew Jackson, this movement championed greater rights for the common man and was opposed to any signs of aristocracy in the nation. Jacksonian democracy was aided by the strong spirit of equality among the people of the newer settlements in the South and West. It was also aided by the extension of the vote in eastern states to men without property; in the early days of the United States, many places had allowed only male property owners to vote. (Compare Jeffersonian democracy.) It was also attributed to the spoils system, strict constructionism and laissez-faire economics.
15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States to prevent a citizen from voting based on that citizen's race,[1] color, or previous condition of servitude (i.e., slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870.
Proprietary Colonies
Type of settlement in British North America (1660 - 90). To repay political and financial debts, the British crown, beginning with Charles II, awarded supporters vast tracts of land in colonial New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Carolinas. The proprietors were to supervise and develop the colonies, which became successful enterprises. By 1690 concern about the colonies' growing independence from control by British officials led to the end of proprietary grants.
Redeemers
The Redeemers, a loose political coalition in the post-Civil War South, consisted of prewar Democrats, Union Whigs, Confederate army veterans, and individuals interested in industrial development. They sought to "redeem" the South by undoing the changes brought about by the Civil War. Although the various groups had widely different visions of the South, they shared a commitment to reduce the scope of state government and institute stricter economic and political control of blacks.
Jeffersonian Democracy
Jefferson came into office with a pro-state mentality, and tried to bring about a strong republican regime. He went against Hamilton and attempted to centralize American economy (while Hamilton was set on foreign alliances). Republicans at that time focused on a widespread wealth throughout the nation. State militias would be in charge of protection, and internal taxes would be left to the states. The Jeffersonian Republicans, as Jefferson or Madison conceived it, were quintessentially the party of the people and the champions of the republican Revolution. Their principles democratized the nation, profoundly shaping its religious landscape as well as its political institutions and ideas. They may also have protected slavery, produced a war with Britain, and contributed essentially to both sides of the argument that led to civil war.
Anne Hutchinson
Anglo-American religious leader. In 1612 she married William Hutchinson, and they followed John Cotton to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. She organized weekly meetings of Boston women to discuss recent sermons and to express their own theological views. Before long, ministers and magistrates were attracted to her sessions, at which she criticized the narrow Puritan orthodoxy and espoused a "covenant of grace." Her opponents accused her of believing that God's grace had freed Christians from the need to observe established moral precepts. Tried for "traducing the ministers," she was sentenced to banishment; refusing to recant, she was excommunicated. In 1638 she and her husband established a colony at Aquidneck Island, which became part of Rhode Island.
Post War of 1812
There were no geographical changes after the war. There were also very few policy changes, but there was a large destruction of Indian Tribal power. One thing stopped was the British policy of impressment. The war was ended with the peace treaty at Ghent. The war was coming to a stalemate, nobody wanted to fight, and almost all trading had come to a halt.
Carpetbaggers
Epithet used during the Reconstruction period (1865 - 77) to describe a Northerner in the South seeking private gain. The word referred to an unwelcome outsider arriving with nothing more than his belongings packed in a satchel or carpetbag. Many carpetbaggers were involved in corrupt financial schemes, but others helped rebuild the economy in the South and participated in educational and social reform.
Declaration of Independence
(July 4, 1776) Document approved by the Continental Congress that announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Britain. The armed conflict during the American Revolution gradually convinced the colonists that separation from Britain was essential. Several colonies instructed their delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered a resolution for independence. The congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to draft a declaration. Jefferson was persuaded to write the draft, which was presented with few changes on June 28. It began with a declaration of individual rights and then listed the acts of tyranny by George III that formed the justification for seeking independence. After debate and changes to accommodate regional interests, including deletion of a condemnation of slavery, it was approved on July 4 as "The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America." It was signed by Congress president John Hancock, printed, and read aloud to a crowd assembled outside, then engrossed (written in script) on parchment and signed by the 56 delegates.
Constitutional Convention
(May - September 1787) Assembly that drafted the Constitution of the United States. All states but Rhode Island sent delegates in response to a call by the Annapolis Convention for a meeting in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation. The delegates decided to replace the Articles with a document that strengthened the federal government. An important issue was the apportioning of legislative representation. Two plans were presented: the Virginia plan, favoured by the large states, apportioned representatives by population or wealth; the New Jersey plan, favoured by the small states, provided for equal representation for each state. A compromise established the bicameral Congress to ensure both equal and proportional representation. The document was approved on September 17 and sent to the states for ratification.
Mercantilism/Navigation Acts
English laws in the 17th - 18th centuries that required the use of English or colonial ships to carry English trade. The laws were designed to encourage English shipbuilding and restrict trade competition from England's commercial rivals, especially the Dutch. The acts of the 18th century gradually restricted trade by the American colonies and contributed to growing colonial resentment with the imposition of additional duties on sugar, tobacco, and molasses.
Temperance
Temperance was an American movement that began in the mid-1800s to outlaw the manufacture and consumption of alcoholic beverages, which were viewed by many to be a corrupt influence on American family life. By 1855 growing public support to ban liquor resulted in 31 states making it illegal to some degree. But a national policy of temperance was still sought by many. During the 1870s temperance became one of the cornerstones of the growing women's movement. As the nation's women, joined by other activists, mobilized to gain suffrage (the right to vote), they also espoused sweeping cultural changes.
Industrialism
Process of change from an agrarian, handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacture. It began in England in the 18th century. Technological changes included the use of iron and steel, new energy sources, the invention of new machines that increased production (including the steam engine and the spinning jenny), the development of the factory system, and important developments in transportation and communication (including the railroad and the telegraph). The Industrial Revolution was largely confined to Britain from 1760 to 1830 and then spread to Belgium and France. Other nations lagged behind, but, once Germany, the U.S., and Japan achieved industrial power, they outstripped Britain's initial successes. Eastern European countries lagged into the 20th century, and not until the mid-20th century did the Industrial Revolution spread to such countries as China and India. Industrialization effected changes in economic, political, and social organization. These included a wider distribution of wealth and increased international trade; political changes resulting from the shift in economic power; sweeping social changes that included the rise of working-class movements, the development of managerial hierarchies to oversee the division of labour, and the emergence of new patterns of authority; and struggles against externalities such as industrial pollution and urban crowding.
Election of 1860
The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout most of the 1850s on questions of states' rights and slavery in the territories. In 1860 this issue finally came to a head, fracturing the formerly dominant Democratic Party into Southern and Northern factions and bringing Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party to power without the support of a single Southern state.
Origins of Political Parties
From 1796 to 1828 the first political parties were formed. During the time when our country was in its formative years, two opposing factions arose. Each was concerned with how the new government was to be organized. The Federalists believed in a strong central government and supported the ratification of the Constitution. Additionally, they supported industrialization, a national bank, and government aid to build roads and canals. The Anti-Federalists - who were eventually called the Democratic - Republican Party, held the opposite views. The Anti-Federalists strongly supported the rights of the states. They were opposed to a national bank and favored farming over manufacturing. They were firmly against the government helping to further industrialization by building roads and canals. The Federalists won their cause for the Constitution. However, efforts by the Democratic-Republican Party to influence people to the Anti-Federalist cause eventually weakened the Federalists. By 1824, the party was virtually non-existent.
Spanish Conquest
Christopher Columbus convinced the King of Spain to sponsor his voyage to Asia by the Atlantic Ocean, and thus found the Americas. The Spanish took control of the Indians and began converting them to Catholicism. Soon, the Spanish slave trade started. Disease and malnutrition decimated the Indian population. In 1809, La Paz, Bolivia signed a declaration of independence from Spain. Revolutions fueled by this declaration as well as the French and American Revolutions spread across the American Spanish colonies. All colonies except Cuba and Puerto Rico freed themselves. in 1898 The United States won the Spanish-American war, ending all remaining Spanish rule in the Americas.
Virginia Company
English trading company chartered by James I in 1606 to colonize the eastern coast of North America. Its shareholders were residents of London. Approximately 105 colonists in three ships reached Virginia in 1607 and founded Jamestown. The company expanded its territory with new charters (1609, 1612) and authorized a two-house legislature (1619), including a House of Burgesses. The colony survived many hardships, but the company was divided by internecine disputes and was dissolved in 1624, whereupon Virginia became a royal colony.
The Second Great Awakening
In the late 1820s and 1830s a religious revival called the Second Great Awakening (a reference to a similar revival that had swept the colonies in the previous century) had a strong impact on antebellum American religion and reform. It grew partly out of evangelical opposition to the deism associated with the French Revolution and gathered strength in 1826. The Second Great Awakening had effects that extended beyond American Protestantism. The period has been called a "shopkeeper's millennium" because nascent capitalists used church membership and the admonition to work and avoid sin as a means of instilling discipline in workers accustomed to being independent artisans. And by spreading the belief that "heaven on earth" was possible, the revival movement inspired or contributed to many secular reform movements, including sabbatarianism, temperance, abolition, antidueling, moral reform, public education, philanthropic endeavors, and utopian socialism. It especially appealed to women, many of whom were encouraged to become missionaries and lay preachers.
Scalawags
Scalawag, originally used to describe runty or diseased cattle, was the term of opprobrium applied to white southerners who joined with former slaves and carpet-baggers in support of Republican policies during the Reconstruction period that followed the Civil War. In the states of the upper South, white Republicans were generally hill-country farmers with Unionist sympathies. Those in the Deep South came from elements of the planter-business aristocracy with Whig antecedents. Neither group was committed to black rights or suffrage, but their role in Reconstruction was important. Constituting approximately 20 percent of the white electorate, they often provided the crucial margin of victory for the Republicans. In the constitutional conventions of 1867-1868 and in the subsequent state governments, they exerted leadership disproportionate to their popular strength.
Washington's Precedents
Some precedents George Washington set as president were: only serving for two terms, appointing a cabinet of advisors, leading a military force against citizens to enforce law and neutrality in foreign affairs.
Enlightenment
European intellectual movement of the 17th - 18th century in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and man were blended into a worldview that inspired revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason. For Enlightenment thinkers, received authority, whether in science or religion, was to be subject to the investigation of unfettered minds. In the sciences and mathematics, the logics of induction and deduction made possible the creation of a sweeping new cosmology. The search for a rational religion led to Deism; the more radical products of the application of reason to religion were skepticism, atheism, and materialism. The Enlightenment produced modern secularized theories of psychology and ethics by men such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, and it also gave rise to radical political theories. Locke, Jeremy Bentham, J.-J. Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Thomas Jefferson all contributed to an evolving critique of the authoritarian state and to sketching the outline of a higher form of social organization based on natural rights. One of the Enlightenment's enduring legacies is the belief that human history is a record of general progress.
Compromise of 1850
Series of measures passed by the U.S. Congress to settle slavery issues and avert secession. The crisis arose in late 1849 when the territory of California asked to be admitted to the Union with a constitution prohibiting slavery. The problem was complicated by the unresolved question of slavery's extension into other areas ceded by Mexico in 1848. In an attempt to satisfy pro- and antislavery forces, Sen. Henry Clay offered a series of measures that admitted California as a free state, left the question of slavery in the new territories to be settled by the local residents, and provided for the enforced return of runaway slaves and the prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Support from Daniel Webster and Stephen A. Douglas helped ensure passage of the compromise. Moderates throughout the Union accepted the terms, which averted secession for another decade but sowed seeds of discord.
Reconstruction Era
Period after the American Civil War in which attempts were made to solve the political, social, and economic problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 Confederate states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war. Pres. Abraham Lincoln planned to readmit states in which at least 10% of the voters had pledged loyalty to the Union. This lenient approach was opposed by the Radical Republicans, who favoured the harsher measures passed in the Wade-Davis Bill. Pres. Andrew Johnson continued Lincoln's moderate policies, but enactment in the South of the black codes and demand in the North for stricter legislation resulted in victories for Radical Republicans in the congressional elections of 1866. Congress then passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which established military districts in the South and required the Southern states to accept the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. Southern resentment of the imposed state governments, which included Republicans, carpetbaggers, and scalawags, and of the activities of the Freedmen's Bureau led to the formation of terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camelia. By the 1870s conservative Democrats again controlled most state governments in the South. Though Reconstruction has been seen as a period of corruption, many constructive legal and educational reforms were introduced. The Reconstruction era led to an increase in sectional bitterness, dissension regarding the rights of blacks, and the development of one-party politics in the South.
Shiloh
One of the first major battles of the Civil War, in April, 1862 near Shiloh, Tennessee. Union forces resting under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant were first attacked by Confederates and were forced to retreat, but they later gained the lost ground and forced the Confederate army to retreat to Mississippi. There were more than 10, 000 casualties on both sides.
William Lloyd Garrison
U.S. journalist and abolitionist. He was editor of the National Philanthropist (Boston) newspaper in 1828 and the Journal of the Times (Bennington, Vt.) in 1828 - 29, both dedicated to moral reform. In 1829 he and Benjamin Lundy edited the Genius of Universal Emancipation. In 1831 he founded The Liberator, which became the most radical of the antislavery journals. In 1833 he helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1837 he renounced church and state and embraced the doctrines of Christian "perfectionism," which combined abolition, women's rights, and nonresistance with the biblical injunction to "come out" from a corrupt society by refusing to obey its laws and support its institutions. His radical blend of pacifism and anarchism precipitated a crisis in the Anti-Slavery Society, a majority of whose members chose to secede when he and his followers voted a series of resolutions admitting women (1840). In the two decades between the schism of 1840 and the American Civil War, Garrison's influence waned as his radicalism increased. Through The Liberator he denounced the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision and hailed John Brown's raid. During the Civil War he forswore pacifism to support Pres. Abraham Lincoln and welcomed the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1865 he retired but continued to press for women's suffrage, temperance, and free trade.
William Tecumseh Sherman
He joined the Union army when the American Civil War broke out. He fought in the Battle of Bull Run, then served under Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh and was promoted to major general. With Grant he helped win the Vicksburg Campaign and the Battle of Chattanooga. In 1865 he marched north, destroying Confederate railroads and sources of supply in North and South Carolina. He accepted the surrender of Johnston's army on April 26. Promoted to general, he succeeded Grant as commander of the army.
War of 1812
U.S.-British conflict arising from U.S. grievances over oppressive British maritime practices in the Napoleonic Wars. To enforce its blockade of French ports, the British boarded U.S. and other neutral ships to check cargo they suspected was being sent to France and to impress seamen alleged to be British navy deserters. The U.S. reacted by passing legislation such as the Embargo Act (1807); Congress's War Hawks called for expulsion of the British from Canada to ensure frontier security. When the U.S. demanded an end to the interference, Britain refused, and the U.S. declared war on June 18, 1812. Despite early U.S. naval victories, notably the duel between the Constitution and the Guerrière, Britain maintained its blockade of eastern U.S. ports. A British force burned public buildings in Washington, D.C., including the White House, in retaliation for similar U.S. acts in York (Toronto), Can. The war became increasingly unpopular, especially in New England, where a separatist movement originated at the Hartford Convention. On Dec. 24, 1814, both sides signed the Treaty of Ghent, which essentially restored territories captured by each side. Before news of the treaty reached the U.S., its victory in the Battle of New Orleans led it to later proclaim the war a U.S. victory. See also Battle of Châteauguay; Chippewa; Thames; Isaac Hull; Francis Scott Key; Oliver Perry.
Gibbons v. Ogden
U.S. Supreme Court decision (1824) that established that states could not, by legislative enactment, interfere with the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. The state of New York had authorized a monopoly on steamboat operation in its waters, an action upheld by a state chancery court, but the Supreme Court ruled that competing steamboat operators were protected by the terms of a federal license to engage in trade along a coast. The decision, an important development in the interpretation of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, freed all navigation from monopoly control.
Appomattox
The Battle of Appomattox Courthouse (April 9, 1865) was the final engagement of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant near the end of the American Civil War.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
(1854) Legislation that organized the territories of Kansas and Nebraska according to the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Introduced by Sen. Stephen A. Douglas to stop the sectional division over slavery, the act was criticized by antislavery groups as a capitulation to proslavery advocates. Groups on both sides rushed to settle Kansas Territory with their adherents, leading to the chaotic Bleeding Kansas period. Passage of the act led to the formation of the Republican Party as a political organization opposed to the expansion of slavery to any U.S. territory.

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