Common Terms
Political
Parties:
Federalists:
Led
by Alexander Hamilton, this party opposed the Jeffersonian Republicans,
supporting a strong federal government.
They were accused of being supporters of monarchy by the Jeffersonian
Republicans.
Anti-Federalists:
The
early opposition to the Federalist Party.
It was not a unified group, and represented a variety of social
interests. The anti-Federalists
believed that the Constitution granted too much power to federal government and
weakened the autonomy of individual
states.
Democratic
Republican: A
political party founded in the early 1790s by Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison. The party insisted on a
strict construction of the Constitution. The party was strongest in the South
and weakest in the Northeast; it favored states' rights and the primacy of the
yeoman farmers and the planters over bankers, industrialists, merchants, and
investors.
Democratic:
A
political party formed in the 1820’s under the leadership of Andrew Jackson;
favored states’ rights and a limited role for the federal
government.
Whigs:
A political party made up of those who opposed President Jackson and were
angered by the National Bank’s calling in of all loans.
They supported a strong central government, the Bank of the United
States, protective tariffs, and internal improvements.
This party’s candidates nearly forced the presidential election of 1836
into the House of Representatives.
Republican
Party:
A political party founded in 1854 consisting of Whigs, northern Democrats, and
Know-Nothings. The party advocated
expansion and was anti-slavery.
Its first presidential candidate was John C.
Fremont.
Liberty
Party:
A political party that had abolition as its main goal.
Its first presidential candidate was James G.
Birney.
Free
Soil: A political party that promoted the
adjustment of abolitionist ideals to practical
politics.
Know-Nothings: (American Party) A political party that
was anti-immigrant. Its members
frequently would refuse to state their political views, hence the name of the
party.
Populist: A
third party based on reform movements and primarily comprised of
farmers.
Bull
Moose: Aka Progressive Party.
It was formed after a split in the Republican Party between President
William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt. The party also
became known as the Bull Moose Party when former President Roosevelt boasted
"I'm fit as a bull moose," after being shot in an assassination attempt prior to
his 1912 campaign speech.
Dixiecrats:
Political party that stood for states’ rights Democrats and was represented by
Strom Thurmond in the election of 1948.
American
Independent:
A
political party that was established in 1967 by Bill and Eileen Shearer. The party founders believed that a new
party was urgently needed because the leaders of the two existing parties,
Democrat and Republican, have deserted the principles and traditions of the
nation's founding fathers. In 1968, the American Independent Party nominated
George C. Wallace as its presidential candidate.
Key
Elections:
1800: Between the Federalist John Adams and
Charles Pinckney and the Republican Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
Adams secured the votes of New England, while Jefferson secured votes in
the South and West. As a result of
this election, the Constitution was altered (12th Amendment) to allow separate
ballots for president and vice president.
Jefferson defeated Adams.
1824:
Five
Republicans (William Crawford, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson,
and John C. Calhoun) ran for president in this election.
Jackson was a latecomer to the race, but his incredibly reputation as a
military hero allowed him to secure 43% of the electoral votes.
The election went to the House of Representatives, and Henry Clay used
his influence to secure John Quincy Adams the
presidency.
1860: The
election which consisted of John Breckinridge, John Bell, Stephen Douglas, and
Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln won with
an overwhelming number of electoral votes, and this event directly led to the
secession of many southern states.
1876:
A disputed election in which Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) gained the
presidency after Republicans challenged the vote totals of Samuel Tilden
(Democrat), who had 200,000 more popular
votes.
1896: William McKinley defeated William
Jennings Bryan and promoted the Open Door Policy. Bryan’s slogan reflected
populist views and he promoted silver.
1912: The
election in which Woodrow Wilson was victorious over Taft, Roosevelt, and
Debs. This was the first modern
presidential race because it featured the first direct
primaries.
1932:
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat) was victorious over Herbert Hoover
(Republican), partially because of FDR’s optimistic plans for recovery and the
fact that the economy was in horrible condition under
Hoover.
1948: Harry
S. Truman was elected over Strom Thurman who ran on the Dixiecrat
ticket.
1960: John F.
Kennedy (D) defeated Richard Nixon (R) in an extremely close election. This election was the first to depend
largely on televised debates, where the photogenic JFK held the
advantage.
1980: Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in a
landslide. Republicans won control
of the United States Senate for the first time in 28
years.
Court Cases:
Marbury
v. Madison:
A court case between Marbury, who had been selected to serve on the Supreme
Court at the end of Adams’s term, and Madison, the Secretary of State at the
time. The court decided in favor
of Madison, but established the policy of judicial review, which holds that the
Judicial Branch has the right to declare the constitutionality of
laws.
McCulloch
v. Maryland: (1819),
was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The state of
Maryland had attempted to impede operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the
United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland.
The Court invoked the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution, which
allowed the Federal government to pass laws not expressly provided for in the
Constitution's list of express powers, provided those laws are in useful
furtherance of the express powers of Congress under the Constitution
Gibbons
v. Ogden:
Executed
under Chief Justice John Marshall in 1824, this case prevented the state of New
York from allowing Robert Fulton to obtain a monopoly over the steamboat line,
arguing that while he had a federal patent, his invention’s commercial
application was not protected by this
patent.
Cherokee
Nation v. Georgia:
In
1831, the Cherokee Nation sought a federal injunction against laws passed by
the state of Georgia depriving them of rights within its boundaries, but the
Supreme Court did not hear the case on its merits. It ruled that it had no
original jurisdiction in the matter, as the Cherokee were a dependent nation,
with a relationship to the United States like that of a ward to its guardian.
Dred
Scott v. Sandford:
A Supreme Court decision in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney held that any
black person was not a citizen and dismissed the case when a former slave
claimed freedom based on residence in a free territory.
The ruling was supported by President Buchanan and outraged
northerners.
Ex
Parte Milligan:
(1866),
a United States Supreme Court case that ruled that the application of military
tribunals to citizens when civilian courts are still operating is
unconstitutional.
Munn
v. Illinois: (1877),
a United States Supreme Court case dealing with corporate rates and
agriculture. The Munn case allowed states to regulate certain
businesses within their borders, including railroads, and is commonly regarded
as a milestone in the growth of federal government
regulation.
Wabash
Case: Wabash,
St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois, (1886), was a Supreme Court decision
that severely limited the rights of states to control interstate commerce. It
led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Plessy
vs. Ferguson:
A
Supreme Court decision that ruled that segregated trains did not violate the
Constitution and upheld the “separate but equal”
doctrine.
Lochner v.
New York: A Supreme Court case in
which the court struck down the law limiting the workday for bakers to 10
hours. The decision was
vehemently opposed by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Muller v.
Oregon: A Supreme Court case in
which the court upheld an Oregon law limiting the work day for women to 10
hours. The strategy of
sociological jurisprudence (amassing data to support his arguments rather than
using traditional arguments) was first used in this
case.
Schenck
v. United States:
A Supreme Court case upholding the constitutionality of the Sedition and
Espionage Acts. It convicted
Charles Schenck for mailing pamphlets urging people to resist
conscription.
Schecter v. U.S.:
Case in which the Supreme Court found the National Recovery Administration
unconstitutional.
Korematsu
v. U.S.:
The Supreme Court Case that upheld the constitutionality of the relocation and
internment of the Japanese.
Brown
v. Board of Education:
A collective group of court cases initiated by Thurgood Marshall that overturned
Plessy v. Ferguson and declared that
segregation violated the Constitution.
Gideon
v. Wainwright:
In
1963, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required under
the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution to provide counsel in criminal cases for
defendants who are unable to afford their own
attorneys.
Miranda
v. Arizona: (1966)
This case resulted in the Miranda warning, which is the formal warning that is
required to be given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in
police custody before they are interrogated, in accordance with the Miranda
ruling. Its purpose is to ensure the accused is aware of, and reminded of, these
rights under the U.S. Constitution, and that they know they can invoke them at
any time during the interview.
Roe
v. Wade: Supreme
Court case in 1973 that disallowed state laws prohibiting abortion during the
1st trimester of pregnancy and establishing guidelines for abortion
in the 2nd and 3rd
trimesters.
Battles:
Lexington
and Concord: The
British (under General Gage) had dispatched a force of 700 men to confiscate a
store of American ammunition at Concord.
The Americans found out, and Paul Revere and William Dawes were
dispatched to warn the minutemen that the English were coming.
An unorganized force of 70 minutemen gathered at Lexington, and 8 were
killed in the following skirmish.
The British proceeded to burn a few weapons at Concord, but Americans
mistook the burning weapons for burning houses and attacked the British in great
numbers. The British lost 73
soldiers before reinforcements could
arrive.
Trenton:
A counterattack by George Washington across the Delaware River after being
defeated at the Battle of Long Island which ended in decisive victories for the
Americans (1776)
Saratoga:
After being bogged down by Patriot militias, General Burgoyne (British)
retreated to the base at Saratoga, where he was promptly surrounded by General
Horatio Gates (American) and forced to surrender 6,000 men.
This was the largest American victory of the war until Yorktown.
Yorktown:
French General Rochambeau and General Washington converged and lay siege to this
important outpost, where British General Cornwallis was residing with 5,000
men. The siege was successful, and
this became the final and most important victory of the Revolution
(1781).
Washington,
D.C.: The
Burning of Washington was a battle that took place on August 24, 1814, during
the War of 1812. The British Army
occupied Washington, D.C. and set fire to many public buildings following the
American defeat at the Battle of Bladensburg. The facilities of the U.S.
government, including the White House and U.S. Capitol, were largely
destroyed.
New
Orleans:
The most well-known victory of Andrew Jackson in which he defeated a
British-Indian alliance with the odds against him.
It greatly boosted morale, which was not at its best during the War of
1812.
Manassas/
Bull Run:
A battle at Manassas Creek, Virginia in 1861 that resulted in a victory for
General Beauregard of the South after the northern army broke ranks and fled to
Washington.
Antietam/Sharpsburg: September 17, 1862,
was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on
Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with
about 23,000 casualties.
Vicksburg:
Ulysses S. Grant captured this influential Mississippian city after a siege,
allowing the Union to control all of the Mississippi
River.
Gettysburg:
The location of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War in which Robert E. Lee’s
advance was stopped by Union General George
Meade.
San
Juan Hill: July 1, 1898, was a decisive battle of
the Spanish-American War. It was
the bloodiest and most famous battle of the War. It was also the location of the
greatest victory for the Rough Riders as claimed by the press and its new
commander, the future Vice-President and later President, Theodore
Roosevelt.
Pearl
Harbor: December 7, 1941 – Japanese air forces attacked this location in
Hawaii, destroying much of the American navy and leading to the American
declaration of war.
Midway:
The turning point of the war in the Pacific where U.S. naval forces inflicted a
crushing defeat on Japan after intercepting Japanese coded
signals.
Normandy: D-Day, June 6, 1944 – The Allies
invaded Normandy, France, sustaining heavy casualties but succeeding in making
an entrance to France to begin Operation Overlord.
Inchon: September 15, 1950, an amphibious
invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and
strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations. The operation involved some
75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels, and led to the recapture of the South
Korean capital Seoul two weeks later.
Tet
Offensive: A massive attack by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong that was
able to overtake the American embassy in Saigon and resulted in many casualties
on both sides (mainly Vietcong), including
civilians.
Social
History:
Triangular
Trade: The 3-legged journey which consisted of English raiding (or bartering
with local chiefs in exchange for manufactured goods) for slaves, then shipping
the slaves to the Americas, where they traded for
commodities such as sugar and tobacco.
The last leg of the trade consisted of the sale of the commodities for a
massive profit in Europe.
Great
Awakening: A widespread colonial revival of Christianity.
People began to turn away from dry sermons and looked to inspired
ministers who preached with emotion.
Jonathan Edwards, George
Whitefield, and William Tennent were the major catalysts for the
awakening.
Alien
and Sedition Acts: A series of 4 acts passed by the Federalist majority in
Congress in 1798: the Naturalization Act (raised the required residence in the
United States for citizenship from 5 years to 14 years), the Alien Act and Alien
Enemies Act (gave president the right to deport or imprison any suspected
foreigners during times of war), and the Sedition Act (gave the government the
right to place heavy fines or imprison anyone speaking or writing falsely or
maliciously against the government).
Missouri
Compromise:
A compromise in which Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slaves state with
Maine (previously part of Massachusetts) being added as a free state,
maintaining the balance of slave and free
states.
Seneca
Falls Convention:
Held in New
York in 1848, this was the first convention for women’s
rights.
Second
Great Awakening:
The large scale spread of Christianity throughout the slave population as well
as slave-owners during the 1790s.
Transcendentalism:
Popularized by Ralph Waldo Emerson, this movement supported individualism and
emphasized the need to achieve intuition of the Universal Being through
nature.
Horace
Mann: Arguing that universal public education
was the best way to turn the nation's unruly children into disciplined,
judicious republican citizens, Mann won widespread approval from modernizers,
especially in his Whig Party, for building public
schools.
Hudson
River School:
A mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape
painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by
romanticism.
Compromise
of 1850:
A compromise driven by Stephen Douglas which admitted California as a free
state, allowed New Mexico and
Utahto decide slave/free status through popular
sovereignty, ended the slave trade in the District
of Columbia, and enacted the Fugitive Slave
Law.
Emancipation
Proclamation:
A decree issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that freed all slaves in
Confederate states still in rebellion.
Dawes
Severalty Act, 1887: Ended the tribal ownership of land and allowed the
government to distribute land to individuals who were legally no longer part of
their tribe.
Nativism:
Contempt for immigrants and the desire to stop immigration.
This issue was not addressed during the McKinley
presidency.
Hull
House: Founded by Jane Addams in Chicago, it was one of the first settlement
houses, including a nursery, a stock of medicines, a boardinghouse, an art
gallery, and a music school.
Social
Gospel: Initiated by Washington Gladden, it was a movement in which churches
began to contend with pressing social problems, working towards civil service
reform and the end of child labor.
Women were also active in the movement.
Red
Scare: Hysteria after World War I caused by Attorney General Palmer’s
deportation of suspected communists.
Immigration
Act of 1921: Act passed in 1921 that restricted the number of immigrants per
year to 357,000 (3 percent of each European country’s natives currently in the
U.S.).
Immigration
Act of 1924: (Or
Johnson-Reed Immigration Act) revised the quotas of the
Immigration Act 1921 to 164,000 immigrants per
year.
Little
Rock - 1957: At Little Rock’s
Central High School in Arkansas, the school that attempted to resist integration
(led by Governor Faubus). The black
children had to be protected by the U.S. army.
Montgomery
Bus Boycott: A boycott of Montgomery buses initiated by Rosa Parks and led
by Martin Luther King Jr. that succeeded in countering Montgomery’s bus
segregation laws.
1963
March on Washington: 200,000 civil rights activists led by MLK marched to
Washington in nonviolent protest.
It was here that MLK gave the famous “I have a dream”
speech.
Constitutional
Amendments:
1:
Freedom
of religion, free speech, right to assemble, right to address government, right
of press to publish
2:
Right
to bear arms
3:
Army cannot force homeowners to provide room/board (in response to Quartering
Act)
4:
Prevents
unreasonable search and seizures by the
government
5:
Provides
for process of indictment, cannot be forced to testify against self, guarantees
due process of law
6:
Guarantees speedy trial, impartial jury, accused can have witnesses, accused
allowed a lawyer
7:
Provides
right to trial by jury
8:
Prohibits cruel and unusual punishment
9:
Asserts existence of unenumerated (not specifically stated)
rights
10:
Limits power of government to what is stated in
Constitution
11:
Supreme Court has jurisdiction over cases brought up by a citizen of a different
state
12:
Redefines election of president/vice-president. No longer 1st and
2nd place, run as a package, vice president eligible for
presidency
13:
Abolished slavery
14:
Citizens have federal and state rights, removed 3/5 Compromise, deals with
post-war Confederate legislators
15:
Prohibits denial of suffrage based on
race
16:
Federal income tax
17:
Popular election of Senators
18:
Prohibition – abolished sale/consumption of
alcohol
19:
Women suffrage
20:
Set new date for term of president, clarifies procedures after death of
president
21:
Repealed 18th
22:
Limit of 2 terms for president
23:
Grants Washington D.C. right to 3 electors in presidential
elections
24:
Eliminates
poll tax
25:
Establishes line of succession to
presidency
26:
Sets age limit of 18 to vote
27:
Prevents
laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until the beginning of
the next session of Congress
Making
Generalizations:
1:
Colonial
America resisted British taxation in a variety of ways that led up to the
American Revolution.
2:
Once independent, the United States faced many challenges and was forced to
reconcile conflict over its
Constitution.
3:
States and the people sought to limit the power of the federal government and
grant more responsibilities to states in the early 19th
century.
4:
Reform in the areas of women’s rights, slavery, and education was prevalent in
the minds of Americans during the 19th
century.
5:
The issue of slavery in western territories led to conflict in the
mid-1800s.
6:
The fight for the removal of slavery led to conflict, both physical and
political.
7:
States and the people sought to
limit the power of the federal government and grant more responsibilities to
states in the early 19th
century.
8:
Americans
sought to increase the rights of the people and prevent any government from
infringing upon them.
9:
The United States experienced a shift in cultural values during the early
20thcentury.
10:
The United States based its foreign policy largely on the containment of
communism and sought alliances with non-communist nations after
WWII.
11:
The United States government sought to improve relations with and the financial
security of the workforce during the
mid-1900s.
12:
Reform of political structures was prevalent in the early 20th
century.
Political
Parties:
Federalists:
Led
by Alexander Hamilton, this party opposed the Jeffersonian Republicans,
supporting a strong federal government.
They were accused of being supporters of monarchy by the Jeffersonian
Republicans.
Anti-Federalists:
The
early opposition to the Federalist Party.
It was not a unified group, and represented a variety of social
interests. The anti-Federalists
believed that the Constitution granted too much power to federal government and
weakened the autonomy of individual
states.
Democratic
Republican: A
political party founded in the early 1790s by Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison. The party insisted on a
strict construction of the Constitution. The party was strongest in the South
and weakest in the Northeast; it favored states' rights and the primacy of the
yeoman farmers and the planters over bankers, industrialists, merchants, and
investors.
Democratic:
A
political party formed in the 1820’s under the leadership of Andrew Jackson;
favored states’ rights and a limited role for the federal
government.
Whigs:
A political party made up of those who opposed President Jackson and were
angered by the National Bank’s calling in of all loans.
They supported a strong central government, the Bank of the United
States, protective tariffs, and internal improvements.
This party’s candidates nearly forced the presidential election of 1836
into the House of Representatives.
Republican
Party:
A political party founded in 1854 consisting of Whigs, northern Democrats, and
Know-Nothings. The party advocated
expansion and was anti-slavery.
Its first presidential candidate was John C.
Fremont.
Liberty
Party:
A political party that had abolition as its main goal.
Its first presidential candidate was James G.
Birney.
Free
Soil: A political party that promoted the
adjustment of abolitionist ideals to practical
politics.
Know-Nothings: (American Party) A political party that
was anti-immigrant. Its members
frequently would refuse to state their political views, hence the name of the
party.
Populist: A
third party based on reform movements and primarily comprised of
farmers.
Bull
Moose: Aka Progressive Party.
It was formed after a split in the Republican Party between President
William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt. The party also
became known as the Bull Moose Party when former President Roosevelt boasted
"I'm fit as a bull moose," after being shot in an assassination attempt prior to
his 1912 campaign speech.
Dixiecrats:
Political party that stood for states’ rights Democrats and was represented by
Strom Thurmond in the election of 1948.
American
Independent:
A
political party that was established in 1967 by Bill and Eileen Shearer. The party founders believed that a new
party was urgently needed because the leaders of the two existing parties,
Democrat and Republican, have deserted the principles and traditions of the
nation's founding fathers. In 1968, the American Independent Party nominated
George C. Wallace as its presidential candidate.
Key
Elections:
1800: Between the Federalist John Adams and
Charles Pinckney and the Republican Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
Adams secured the votes of New England, while Jefferson secured votes in
the South and West. As a result of
this election, the Constitution was altered (12th Amendment) to allow separate
ballots for president and vice president.
Jefferson defeated Adams.
1824:
Five
Republicans (William Crawford, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson,
and John C. Calhoun) ran for president in this election.
Jackson was a latecomer to the race, but his incredibly reputation as a
military hero allowed him to secure 43% of the electoral votes.
The election went to the House of Representatives, and Henry Clay used
his influence to secure John Quincy Adams the
presidency.
1860: The
election which consisted of John Breckinridge, John Bell, Stephen Douglas, and
Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln won with
an overwhelming number of electoral votes, and this event directly led to the
secession of many southern states.
1876:
A disputed election in which Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) gained the
presidency after Republicans challenged the vote totals of Samuel Tilden
(Democrat), who had 200,000 more popular
votes.
1896: William McKinley defeated William
Jennings Bryan and promoted the Open Door Policy. Bryan’s slogan reflected
populist views and he promoted silver.
1912: The
election in which Woodrow Wilson was victorious over Taft, Roosevelt, and
Debs. This was the first modern
presidential race because it featured the first direct
primaries.
1932:
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat) was victorious over Herbert Hoover
(Republican), partially because of FDR’s optimistic plans for recovery and the
fact that the economy was in horrible condition under
Hoover.
1948: Harry
S. Truman was elected over Strom Thurman who ran on the Dixiecrat
ticket.
1960: John F.
Kennedy (D) defeated Richard Nixon (R) in an extremely close election. This election was the first to depend
largely on televised debates, where the photogenic JFK held the
advantage.
1980: Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in a
landslide. Republicans won control
of the United States Senate for the first time in 28
years.
Court Cases:
Marbury
v. Madison:
A court case between Marbury, who had been selected to serve on the Supreme
Court at the end of Adams’s term, and Madison, the Secretary of State at the
time. The court decided in favor
of Madison, but established the policy of judicial review, which holds that the
Judicial Branch has the right to declare the constitutionality of
laws.
McCulloch
v. Maryland: (1819),
was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The state of
Maryland had attempted to impede operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the
United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland.
The Court invoked the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution, which
allowed the Federal government to pass laws not expressly provided for in the
Constitution's list of express powers, provided those laws are in useful
furtherance of the express powers of Congress under the Constitution
Gibbons
v. Ogden:
Executed
under Chief Justice John Marshall in 1824, this case prevented the state of New
York from allowing Robert Fulton to obtain a monopoly over the steamboat line,
arguing that while he had a federal patent, his invention’s commercial
application was not protected by this
patent.
Cherokee
Nation v. Georgia:
In
1831, the Cherokee Nation sought a federal injunction against laws passed by
the state of Georgia depriving them of rights within its boundaries, but the
Supreme Court did not hear the case on its merits. It ruled that it had no
original jurisdiction in the matter, as the Cherokee were a dependent nation,
with a relationship to the United States like that of a ward to its guardian.
Dred
Scott v. Sandford:
A Supreme Court decision in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney held that any
black person was not a citizen and dismissed the case when a former slave
claimed freedom based on residence in a free territory.
The ruling was supported by President Buchanan and outraged
northerners.
Ex
Parte Milligan:
(1866),
a United States Supreme Court case that ruled that the application of military
tribunals to citizens when civilian courts are still operating is
unconstitutional.
Munn
v. Illinois: (1877),
a United States Supreme Court case dealing with corporate rates and
agriculture. The Munn case allowed states to regulate certain
businesses within their borders, including railroads, and is commonly regarded
as a milestone in the growth of federal government
regulation.
Wabash
Case: Wabash,
St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois, (1886), was a Supreme Court decision
that severely limited the rights of states to control interstate commerce. It
led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Plessy
vs. Ferguson:
A
Supreme Court decision that ruled that segregated trains did not violate the
Constitution and upheld the “separate but equal”
doctrine.
Lochner v.
New York: A Supreme Court case in
which the court struck down the law limiting the workday for bakers to 10
hours. The decision was
vehemently opposed by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Muller v.
Oregon: A Supreme Court case in
which the court upheld an Oregon law limiting the work day for women to 10
hours. The strategy of
sociological jurisprudence (amassing data to support his arguments rather than
using traditional arguments) was first used in this
case.
Schenck
v. United States:
A Supreme Court case upholding the constitutionality of the Sedition and
Espionage Acts. It convicted
Charles Schenck for mailing pamphlets urging people to resist
conscription.
Schecter v. U.S.:
Case in which the Supreme Court found the National Recovery Administration
unconstitutional.
Korematsu
v. U.S.:
The Supreme Court Case that upheld the constitutionality of the relocation and
internment of the Japanese.
Brown
v. Board of Education:
A collective group of court cases initiated by Thurgood Marshall that overturned
Plessy v. Ferguson and declared that
segregation violated the Constitution.
Gideon
v. Wainwright:
In
1963, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required under
the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution to provide counsel in criminal cases for
defendants who are unable to afford their own
attorneys.
Miranda
v. Arizona: (1966)
This case resulted in the Miranda warning, which is the formal warning that is
required to be given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in
police custody before they are interrogated, in accordance with the Miranda
ruling. Its purpose is to ensure the accused is aware of, and reminded of, these
rights under the U.S. Constitution, and that they know they can invoke them at
any time during the interview.
Roe
v. Wade: Supreme
Court case in 1973 that disallowed state laws prohibiting abortion during the
1st trimester of pregnancy and establishing guidelines for abortion
in the 2nd and 3rd
trimesters.
Battles:
Lexington
and Concord: The
British (under General Gage) had dispatched a force of 700 men to confiscate a
store of American ammunition at Concord.
The Americans found out, and Paul Revere and William Dawes were
dispatched to warn the minutemen that the English were coming.
An unorganized force of 70 minutemen gathered at Lexington, and 8 were
killed in the following skirmish.
The British proceeded to burn a few weapons at Concord, but Americans
mistook the burning weapons for burning houses and attacked the British in great
numbers. The British lost 73
soldiers before reinforcements could
arrive.
Trenton:
A counterattack by George Washington across the Delaware River after being
defeated at the Battle of Long Island which ended in decisive victories for the
Americans (1776)
Saratoga:
After being bogged down by Patriot militias, General Burgoyne (British)
retreated to the base at Saratoga, where he was promptly surrounded by General
Horatio Gates (American) and forced to surrender 6,000 men.
This was the largest American victory of the war until Yorktown.
Yorktown:
French General Rochambeau and General Washington converged and lay siege to this
important outpost, where British General Cornwallis was residing with 5,000
men. The siege was successful, and
this became the final and most important victory of the Revolution
(1781).
Washington,
D.C.: The
Burning of Washington was a battle that took place on August 24, 1814, during
the War of 1812. The British Army
occupied Washington, D.C. and set fire to many public buildings following the
American defeat at the Battle of Bladensburg. The facilities of the U.S.
government, including the White House and U.S. Capitol, were largely
destroyed.
New
Orleans:
The most well-known victory of Andrew Jackson in which he defeated a
British-Indian alliance with the odds against him.
It greatly boosted morale, which was not at its best during the War of
1812.
Manassas/
Bull Run:
A battle at Manassas Creek, Virginia in 1861 that resulted in a victory for
General Beauregard of the South after the northern army broke ranks and fled to
Washington.
Antietam/Sharpsburg: September 17, 1862,
was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on
Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with
about 23,000 casualties.
Vicksburg:
Ulysses S. Grant captured this influential Mississippian city after a siege,
allowing the Union to control all of the Mississippi
River.
Gettysburg:
The location of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War in which Robert E. Lee’s
advance was stopped by Union General George
Meade.
San
Juan Hill: July 1, 1898, was a decisive battle of
the Spanish-American War. It was
the bloodiest and most famous battle of the War. It was also the location of the
greatest victory for the Rough Riders as claimed by the press and its new
commander, the future Vice-President and later President, Theodore
Roosevelt.
Pearl
Harbor: December 7, 1941 – Japanese air forces attacked this location in
Hawaii, destroying much of the American navy and leading to the American
declaration of war.
Midway:
The turning point of the war in the Pacific where U.S. naval forces inflicted a
crushing defeat on Japan after intercepting Japanese coded
signals.
Normandy: D-Day, June 6, 1944 – The Allies
invaded Normandy, France, sustaining heavy casualties but succeeding in making
an entrance to France to begin Operation Overlord.
Inchon: September 15, 1950, an amphibious
invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and
strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations. The operation involved some
75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels, and led to the recapture of the South
Korean capital Seoul two weeks later.
Tet
Offensive: A massive attack by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong that was
able to overtake the American embassy in Saigon and resulted in many casualties
on both sides (mainly Vietcong), including
civilians.
Social
History:
Triangular
Trade: The 3-legged journey which consisted of English raiding (or bartering
with local chiefs in exchange for manufactured goods) for slaves, then shipping
the slaves to the Americas, where they traded for
commodities such as sugar and tobacco.
The last leg of the trade consisted of the sale of the commodities for a
massive profit in Europe.
Great
Awakening: A widespread colonial revival of Christianity.
People began to turn away from dry sermons and looked to inspired
ministers who preached with emotion.
Jonathan Edwards, George
Whitefield, and William Tennent were the major catalysts for the
awakening.
Alien
and Sedition Acts: A series of 4 acts passed by the Federalist majority in
Congress in 1798: the Naturalization Act (raised the required residence in the
United States for citizenship from 5 years to 14 years), the Alien Act and Alien
Enemies Act (gave president the right to deport or imprison any suspected
foreigners during times of war), and the Sedition Act (gave the government the
right to place heavy fines or imprison anyone speaking or writing falsely or
maliciously against the government).
Missouri
Compromise:
A compromise in which Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slaves state with
Maine (previously part of Massachusetts) being added as a free state,
maintaining the balance of slave and free
states.
Seneca
Falls Convention:
Held in New
York in 1848, this was the first convention for women’s
rights.
Second
Great Awakening:
The large scale spread of Christianity throughout the slave population as well
as slave-owners during the 1790s.
Transcendentalism:
Popularized by Ralph Waldo Emerson, this movement supported individualism and
emphasized the need to achieve intuition of the Universal Being through
nature.
Horace
Mann: Arguing that universal public education
was the best way to turn the nation's unruly children into disciplined,
judicious republican citizens, Mann won widespread approval from modernizers,
especially in his Whig Party, for building public
schools.
Hudson
River School:
A mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape
painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by
romanticism.
Compromise
of 1850:
A compromise driven by Stephen Douglas which admitted California as a free
state, allowed New Mexico and
Utahto decide slave/free status through popular
sovereignty, ended the slave trade in the District
of Columbia, and enacted the Fugitive Slave
Law.
Emancipation
Proclamation:
A decree issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that freed all slaves in
Confederate states still in rebellion.
Dawes
Severalty Act, 1887: Ended the tribal ownership of land and allowed the
government to distribute land to individuals who were legally no longer part of
their tribe.
Nativism:
Contempt for immigrants and the desire to stop immigration.
This issue was not addressed during the McKinley
presidency.
Hull
House: Founded by Jane Addams in Chicago, it was one of the first settlement
houses, including a nursery, a stock of medicines, a boardinghouse, an art
gallery, and a music school.
Social
Gospel: Initiated by Washington Gladden, it was a movement in which churches
began to contend with pressing social problems, working towards civil service
reform and the end of child labor.
Women were also active in the movement.
Red
Scare: Hysteria after World War I caused by Attorney General Palmer’s
deportation of suspected communists.
Immigration
Act of 1921: Act passed in 1921 that restricted the number of immigrants per
year to 357,000 (3 percent of each European country’s natives currently in the
U.S.).
Immigration
Act of 1924: (Or
Johnson-Reed Immigration Act) revised the quotas of the
Immigration Act 1921 to 164,000 immigrants per
year.
Little
Rock - 1957: At Little Rock’s
Central High School in Arkansas, the school that attempted to resist integration
(led by Governor Faubus). The black
children had to be protected by the U.S. army.
Montgomery
Bus Boycott: A boycott of Montgomery buses initiated by Rosa Parks and led
by Martin Luther King Jr. that succeeded in countering Montgomery’s bus
segregation laws.
1963
March on Washington: 200,000 civil rights activists led by MLK marched to
Washington in nonviolent protest.
It was here that MLK gave the famous “I have a dream”
speech.
Constitutional
Amendments:
1:
Freedom
of religion, free speech, right to assemble, right to address government, right
of press to publish
2:
Right
to bear arms
3:
Army cannot force homeowners to provide room/board (in response to Quartering
Act)
4:
Prevents
unreasonable search and seizures by the
government
5:
Provides
for process of indictment, cannot be forced to testify against self, guarantees
due process of law
6:
Guarantees speedy trial, impartial jury, accused can have witnesses, accused
allowed a lawyer
7:
Provides
right to trial by jury
8:
Prohibits cruel and unusual punishment
9:
Asserts existence of unenumerated (not specifically stated)
rights
10:
Limits power of government to what is stated in
Constitution
11:
Supreme Court has jurisdiction over cases brought up by a citizen of a different
state
12:
Redefines election of president/vice-president. No longer 1st and
2nd place, run as a package, vice president eligible for
presidency
13:
Abolished slavery
14:
Citizens have federal and state rights, removed 3/5 Compromise, deals with
post-war Confederate legislators
15:
Prohibits denial of suffrage based on
race
16:
Federal income tax
17:
Popular election of Senators
18:
Prohibition – abolished sale/consumption of
alcohol
19:
Women suffrage
20:
Set new date for term of president, clarifies procedures after death of
president
21:
Repealed 18th
22:
Limit of 2 terms for president
23:
Grants Washington D.C. right to 3 electors in presidential
elections
24:
Eliminates
poll tax
25:
Establishes line of succession to
presidency
26:
Sets age limit of 18 to vote
27:
Prevents
laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until the beginning of
the next session of Congress
Making
Generalizations:
1:
Colonial
America resisted British taxation in a variety of ways that led up to the
American Revolution.
2:
Once independent, the United States faced many challenges and was forced to
reconcile conflict over its
Constitution.
3:
States and the people sought to limit the power of the federal government and
grant more responsibilities to states in the early 19th
century.
4:
Reform in the areas of women’s rights, slavery, and education was prevalent in
the minds of Americans during the 19th
century.
5:
The issue of slavery in western territories led to conflict in the
mid-1800s.
6:
The fight for the removal of slavery led to conflict, both physical and
political.
7:
States and the people sought to
limit the power of the federal government and grant more responsibilities to
states in the early 19th
century.
8:
Americans
sought to increase the rights of the people and prevent any government from
infringing upon them.
9:
The United States experienced a shift in cultural values during the early
20thcentury.
10:
The United States based its foreign policy largely on the containment of
communism and sought alliances with non-communist nations after
WWII.
11:
The United States government sought to improve relations with and the financial
security of the workforce during the
mid-1900s.
12:
Reform of political structures was prevalent in the early 20th
century.