Kuklick PART III Flashcards
(26 cards)
The Northwest Ordinances 1784
The States under the Articles of Confederation agreed to manage lands north of the Ohio river. Selling this land would raise money, congress passed laws known collectively as the Northwest Ordinances. In the new land, settlers would form governments but congressional appointees would rule. In 1790, the Southwest Ordinances were added.
Treaty of Greenville 1795
Americans wanted to expand their lands but found resistance from the British and more importantly from Native Americans, the Treaty of Greenville broke Indian power in Ohio, politicians signed the agreement and had to make concessions to obtain the lands. If natives refused terms a negotiator might redefine their rights even worse.
The Louisiana Purchase 1803
The French had troubles with the British once again and didn’t want to hold on to Louisiana, while needing to finance their fighting they offered to sell Louisiana to the Americans. This doubled the size of the US at the time. Jefferson allowed the Senate to ratify the treaty of acquisition to legitimize the purchase.
Embargo Act of 1807
Europeans still saw the US as a pawn in the affairs of the Old World, Americans thought that English interference reflected their repeated refusals to admit independence. Jefferson stopped the trade of both France and England with the US in the Embargo Act of 1807. When Jefferson left office in 1809, the English continued to disrupt trade. Congress called for war to uphold American honor.
War of 1812
In 1812 the US went to war, a new generation of statesmen from southern and western states called ‘the War Hawks’ wanted expansion and looked to attack Canada to destroy the English and Indians. In 1813 and 14, Canada remained in British hands and after Napoleon was defeated in Europe they launched a three point attack on the US. After the war the US continued to expand their frontiers, this encouraged national sentiment and suited most states.
Missouri Compromise 1820
When the territory of Missouri (part of the Louisiana purchase) asked for admission to the union as a slave state, tensions rose. The Constitution protected slavery, but Jefferson worked hard for the Northwest Ordinances in which slavery was prohibited. By 1819, the US had admitted 5 new states with slavery, but they bordered the slave states among the original 13, or were geographically part of the south (Mason-Dixon line). As a temporary solution in 1820 Congress divided the remaining land of the Louisiana Purchase along the 36’30 north latitude, above that line slavery could not exist.
Cherokee v. Georgia
The war of 1812 destroyed Indian chances of holding the line in the Northwest. State governments who expanded considered assimilation or gentle segregation spineless and foolish and looked to completely get rid of the natives. Monroe (president at the time) urged Indians to sell their lands to Georgia, but the Cherokee tribe went to the Supreme Court to defend their treaty with the US, it ruled in their favor.
Removal Act 1830
In 1828 Jackson became president and enacted the Removal Act of 1830. Congress gave Jackson new funds to negotiate treaties and resettle Indians west of the Mississippi. Under his orders, Indians had to move west.
Cherokee Trail of Tears
Indians had to move west between 1830-1850. Displacement of around 60,000 indians. The infamous route was called Cherokee Trail of Tears, during which exhaustion and disease took many lives.
Growing distinction between North and South
As the US grew in size and in population, a clear distinction between North, South and even West came in the early 19th century. Industry, commerce and finance set apart the North (‘Old Northwest) while plantations, agriculture and rural lands distinguished the South. The ‘new’ West which stretched along the land of the Louisiana purchase produced farm implements and food. Stronger links grew between the North, the Old Northwest and the West, but not between them and the South.
Second two-party system +/- 1830-1850
Around Jackson a new political party formed called the Whigs, they feared in Jackson the tyranny that democracy could fall into. The old Democratic-Republicans transformed into Democrats which dominated the Whigs. Democrats emphasized the rights of individual states. Whigs and Democrats contributed to a polity that was more a democracy than a republic: equality was stressed more than liberty. Into the 19th century, the US advanced across the continent and had a national bureaucracy, a military and belief that Washington City should act for the country when new lands were obtained.
The South in the 19th century
The South did not share the urbanity of the North and relied for the most part on servitude and plantations. Large slaveholder held wealth and a military ethic prevailed. A small proportion of the population counted as part of the elite, a tiny group controlled politics and culture and saw themselves as the true heirs of the Founding Fathers. They had a strong allegiance to self-rule and independence from outside forces.
Second Great Awakening
Boosted various reform movements among Baptists and Methodists who shared the Whig impulse to cleanse society. It accentuated the freedom to save oneself by hard work and obligation to change the behavior of fellow citizens. In 1826 ministers in Boston founded the Temperance Society to control drinking. The Second Awakening encouraged many northern Protestants to see slavery as wicked.
William Lloyd Garrison 1830
In the 1830’s the abolitionist movement picked up steam. William Lloyd Garrison promoted the immediate overthrow of slavery in the south and founded The Liberator, a weekly anti-slavery magazine. In 1833 Garrison created the American Anti-Slavery Society which expressed the moral and religious superiority of Massachusetts Protestants. Many abolitions still shared the prejudice about African Americans. Abolitionists worsened tensions between North and South.
Mexico War 1846
In 1823 the nation of Mexico won its independence from Spain and its boundaries included central America to the pacific Northwest. Mexico, l stood in the way of America as well as a group of tribes called the Comanche. The Mexican regime clashed with immigrated Americans and in a Texian rebellion they declared it independent. In 1845 Congress annexed Texas and the US wanted to move westwards to the pacific. Mexicans did not want to sell the land and a war started in April of 1846 which lasted till 1848 and was mostly won by the US.
The Compromise of 1850
Disputes over slavery in the South continued and led to the Compromise of 1850. In included a set of bills. One secured the entrance of California as a free state. A Fugitive Slave Law made a concession to the South, and obliged Northerners to track down runaway slaves and return them to their owner. The last decided for ‘popular’ sovereignty which meant that people in a territory could choose to have slaves or not. The US might admit a state as either free of slave depending on the wishes of the territory’s white males.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
President Douglas divided the remaining lands of the Louisiana purchase into Kansas and Nebraska. Through popular sovereignty as decided in the Compromise, inhabitants could say whether they would be free or slave. In doing so Douglas casted aside the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and provoked even more fragmentation between North and South.
Rise of the Republicans
The overturn of the Missouri Compromise told some northerners that they could not satisfy the South, and the thought of a free Kansas maddened Southerners. The Whigs crumpled, and in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska act a new party rose: the Republicans. They consisted of Whigs from the North, anti-slavery Democrats and groups of people angry over slavery.
Douglas and regulation for slavery
Douglas first dealt with an illegitimate attempt to admit Kansas as a slave state (not reflect popular sov). Douglas rightly argued that slavery could only exist if a territory had the laws and regulations that made slavery possible. Law-makers in a territory might prevent slavery by refusing to pass such laws.
Abraham Lincoln
Reinterest in politics because of the Compromise of 1850, elevated the democratic notions of the Declaration over the republican notions of the Constitution. Became president in 1861. He wanted to preserve a Union freed of slavery. Because of this the Southern states left the Union which lacked the authority to keep the states without their consent.
Confederacy
Southern states wanted to leave the union in peace and presumed they were stronger than the North should it come to armed conflict. The South became the Confederacy but overestimated their strength. They demanded self-rule but lacked the concentration of power to defeat the North and secure its own government.
Fort Sumter 1861
Lincoln ordered provisions to be brought to Fort Sumter. He challenged the South which started to fire on the Fort. This sparked fighting between the North and the Confederates. ‘
Anaconda Plan 1862
Plan by the Union, the Northern navy would seal off the South and would split the Confederacy by taking the Mississippi river and separating Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas from the rest. It was only minimally successful. Southern troops showed resourcefulness and courage in a way the Union did not expect it.
Emancipation Proclamation 1863
Issued by Lincoln, start of 1863 he would declare all slaves free in areas still in rebellion. It also dictated that the four Union border states with slaves did not yet have to free them. It freed only slaves liberated by Confederate losses.
