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| Given by George Washington in 1796 following his second presidential term, he advised the nation on what to avoid and remember in order to maintain a prosperous country. He announced the importance of unity, the dangers of political parties, and to always remain outside of foreign affairs as much as possible. | ||
| protest of Tariff of Abominations (1828) written by John C. Calhoun; stated that if tariff wasn't repealed, South Carolina would secede; stated doctrine of nullification (idea that state has right to reject a federal law) | ||
| Political philosophy of Andrew Jackson and his supporters; Promoted strength of the presidency and executive branch; Built on principles of expanded suffrage, manifest destiny, spoils system, strict construction of the Constitution, laissez-faire economics | ||
| Response to Iraq invading Kuwait (Saddam Hussein); Desert Shield: military defense, by a 30-nation force led by the United States, of Saudi Arabia and its oil installations following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990 ,ended on Jan. 17, 1991, when, at 3 a.m. Saudi Arabian time, it was replaced by Operation Desert Storm, the military offensive against Iraq's forces in Kuwait and thousands of targets in Iraq proper; Desert Storm: under leadership of U.S. General Norman Schwarskopf, Air war to destroy Iraq's military and infrastructure, Cease fire in Feb. 28th 1991 | ||
| Lincoln issued the proclamation Jan. 1, 1863. It was a technical document, granting freedom to all slaves in all areas of the confederacy still in rebellion. The proclamation did not pertain to slaves in the border states, but it did allow for the popular use of African-Americans in the Union Army and Navy. The proclamation also made the war a crusade against slavery, meaning that England and France, both morally opposed to slavery, could not in good conscience ally themselves with the confederacy. | ||
| An act passed by congress in 1862 promising ownership of a 160-acre tract of public land to a citizen or head of a family who had resided on and cultivated the land for five years after the initial claim. | ||
| The policy enacted by Secretary of State John Hay that allowed equal trading rights and access to the Chinese Market to all nations. President McKinley created this in 1898 following the Spanish American War and the US possession of the Philippines. It prevented any nation with a sphere of influence to overpower China while protecting America's trading rights in Asia. Chinese nationalists in the Boxer Rebellion were a few of many to challenge this policy. | ||
| In 1900 Chinese nationalists rebelled to end foreign occupation of China and its trade by the Open Door Policy. The "Boxers" were a group of anti-foreigners in China that rose up against the spheres of influence, but were later defeated. | ||
| FDR's policy enacted in his first 99 days in 1933 that provided relief to the unemployed, recovery to businesses and farms, and reform. It was FDR's way of dealing with the lasting effects of the stock market crash in 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. It was one of the few successful ideas in dealing with the depression such as creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. | ||
| a scandal in 1872 in which the Union Pacific made contracts with the company, Crédit Mobilier, to build the Union Pacific railway. The Crédit Mobilier paid by check and would use these checks to buy stock and bonds in Union Pacific and then would sell them on the open market to make huge profits. These construction contracts brought huge profits to the Crédit Mobilier, which was owned by Durant and the other directors and principal stock holders of the Union Pacific. The net result was that the U.S. Congress paid enormously inflated costs to Union Pacific which ended up as profits for Crédit Mobilier. | ||
| a scandal which was exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. The Whiskey Ring began in St. Louis. Before they were caught, a group of mostly Republican politicians were able to siphon off millions of dollars in federal taxes on liquor because of an extensive network of bribes involving distillers, rectifiers, gaugers, storekeepers, and internal revenue agents. It was discovered that President Grant's Secretary of War, William W. Belknap, was involved which tarnished Grant's reputation. | ||
| a charter implimented by Kennedy which was intended to improve relations between the United States, Latin and South America so as to unite the western hemisphere against the Communist threat. It called for Latin American countries to pledge a capital investment of $80 billion over 10 years and the United States to supply $20 billion within one decade. It also required the participating countries to draw up plans for national development. Third, it required tax codes to be changed. | ||
| The Interstate Commerce Act was one of the first attempts by the government to regulate business. It created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which regulated railroad prices and prevented rebates for specific customers. However, the commission lacked the proper resources to successfully stop abuse, and did not accomplish much. | ||
| The Sherman Antitrust act, passed in 1890, was the first law prohibiting trusts, cartels, and monopolies. It was not successfully used for 10 years due to Supreme Court intervention, until the trust-busting campaigns of TR and Taft. | ||
| Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark Supreme Court decision, which declared the segregation of public schools unconstitutional. This overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld segregation (separate but equal). | ||
| The Morill Act gave land grants to states to support education; it grew from discrimination against blacks and women. | ||
| The amendment was an extension of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; it abolished slavery. | ||
| The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed literacy tests and placed voter registrars in Southern states to end discrimination. | ||
| First supreme court case of it's kind, a law passed by congress was declared unconstitutional.Gave more power to the Supreme court and wstablished Judicial Review. | ||
| Land purchased from the French by Jefferson. Originally thought to be unconstitutional but deemed necessary as a buffer from Spanish and French invaders. | ||
| Congress required the U.S. treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as coins. Hayes vetoed, but Congress overruled the veto. | ||
| Settled the disputed election of 1876 and ended Reconstruction. Hayes was allowed to become president if he would withdraw troops from the South. | ||
| Because of the huge Latin American debt to European countries, Theodore Roosevelt feared that European countries may take over Latin America to demand that the Latin American countries pay their debt, which violates the Monroe Doctrine. TR announced "preventive intervention", known as the corollary to the monroe doctrine, . He said that the U.S. will intervene and help the Latinos pay off debt to keep the Europeans out of the Western hemisphere. | ||
| After the SF earthquake, the SF board segregated all the Asians to make room for white people. This turned into an international crisis with Japan condemning this racism. TR made SF school board repeal this action and struck a deal with Japan called the Gentleman's Agreement, which Japan agreed to stop the flow of laborers to the American mainland from Japan. | ||
| It replaced the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and under this new law; the quota was cut down from 3% to 2%. This disproportionally hurt Southern Europeans and the purpose were to freeze existing racial composition. | ||
| The Tweed Ring refers to the corruption of the U.S. government in New York during the Guilded Age. "Boss Tweed" became the head of Tammany Hall and, with the rest of his "political machine", he was able to pocket a huge amount of money from New York City's own budget for their own. By using bribery, embezzlement, and other corrupt means, Tweed made around $40 million to $200 million. He was caught by investigative journalist Thomas Nast, who published a political cartoon in the Harper's Weekly of Tweed taking part in the corrupt business. The "Tweed Ring" is important because it shows some of the most notorious and scandalous business that occurred in the U.S.'s own government, and also expresses how the free press came to become to play such a huge role in uncovering the corrupt business. | ||
| After the boom of the Civil War, the US economy took a downfall during the Panic of 1873. It was mainly caused by overproduction, a declining market, and deflation of goods. Specifically, the funding of railroads, like the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the failures of banks (they went bankrupt) were one of the key characteristics of the Panic of 1873. This led to many people trying to find jobs and moving West and other parts of the country to seek more labor opportunities to recover from the panic. | ||
| Kennedy's policy of containment led to the development of the philanthropic program called the Peace Corps. Its mission was to provide teachers and specialists in agriculture, health care, transportation, and communications to third-world countries to teach them the "American-style of living." However, some of the third-world countries didn't want to be forced to live the American life-style, which led to some failures of the Peace Corps. | ||
| A treaty between Britain and the U.S. that regulated commerce and navigation. In result, the British withdrew from the posts they occupied in the Northwestern Territory of the U.S. that they had earlier promised to abandon in 1783. War-time debts and U.S./Canada border was sent to arbitration. The Americans were also granted some rights to trade with British possessions in India and the Caribbean in exchange for American limits on the export of cotton. | ||
| When Obama was campaigning for the presidency he firmly held the belief that the U.S. should withdraw troops in Iraq. However, once Obama was elected he decided to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan by next summer and to begin withdrawing forces in July 2011, making his case to the nation that Islamist extremism in the region remains an enduring threat to the security of Americans. | ||
| The state of Maryland tried to destroy a branch of the Bank of the U.S. by imposing a tax on its notes. Marshall declared the bank constitutional using the Hamiltonian doctrine of implied powers, and rejected Maryland's right to tax the bank. This boosted the power of the federal government by enforcing the doctrine of "loose construction" which allowed the government to act for the benefits of the estates. | ||
| Spanish troops had been diverted towards South American rebellions that erupted earlier that year. Andrew Jackson took advantage of the lack of troops to capture all of Florida, on the pretext that hostile Seminole Indians and fugitive slaves were seeking refuge in Florida. After the battle, the Florida Purchase Treat of 1819 was hammered out, where Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. | ||
| This amendment stated that the U.S. citizen's right to vote cannot be denied in any way by any government on the basis of race, ethnicity, or past conditions and the Congress has the power to enforce this legislation. This was significant because blacks finally gained the right to vote; however, discrimination, segregation, and different methods such as the poll taxes and grandfather clause, denied most blacks from voting. | ||
| This was built by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad connecting the station at Iowa/Nebraska and California. This road, surpassing the technology of the Erie Canal, finally connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts allowing people as well as goods to travel efficiently. Due to this feat, railroad began to develop making other routes and scandals resulted (Credit Mobilier). | ||
| In October 1962 during the Cold War, the Cuban and Soviet governments began to secretly build bases in Cuba in order to strike most of the US with nuclear arms at any time. Upon learning about this case, JFK responded quickly by demanding immediate removal of nuclear arms from Cuba. An agreement was reached as Soviets dismantled their weapons and US pulled out their ballistic missiles from Turkey. | ||
| A series of violent events between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups over the issue of slavery and popular sovereignty in Kansas; set off by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and a factor leading to Civil War | ||
| Driven by Southerners' desire for Cuba as another slave state, this document was secretly drawn up to declare that if Spain refused to sell Cuba, US would be justified in seizing it by force | ||
| Treaty involving US and Soviet Union on the issue of armament reduction control, which aimed at freezing numbers of long-range nuclear missiles for five years (arranged between Nixon and Brezhnev) | ||
| The Tariff of 1832 was a protectionist tariff that sought to reduce the tariff rates in order to remedy the conflict created by the tariff of 1828, but it was still deemed unsatisfactory by southerners and other groups hurt by high tariff rates. The Tariff of 1833 stipulated that import taxes would gradually be cut over the next decade after southerners objected to the Tariff of 1832. | ||
| The Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816, five years after the First Bank of the United States lost its own charter. Like the First Bank, the Second Bank was also chartered for 20 years, and also failed to get its charter renewed. The predominant reason that the Second Bank of the United States was chartered was that in the War of 1812, the U.S. experienced severe inflation and had difficulty in financing military operations. | ||
| The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal in which the United States agreed to facilitate the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo. The proceeds from the weapon sales were diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North devised the plan. | ||
| It was a policy initiated by President James Monroe in which aimed to limit European expansion into the Western Hemisphere. Monroe proclaimed, "the American continents, byt the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth, not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by and European powers." The US accepted the responsibility of being the protector of independent Western nations and affirmed that it would steer clear of European affairs. | ||
| The Missouri Compromise is what determined whether a state would become a slave or free state. Missouri's bid for statehood alarmed the North because slavery was well established there. If Missouri came in as a slave state, it would tip the political balance in the South's favor. A compromise was finally reached on March 3, 182, after Maine petitioned Congress for statehood. Both states were admitted, a free Maine and a slave Missouri. The Missouri Compromise specified that all the Louisiana purchase territory north of the southern boundary of Missouri, except Missouri, would be free, and the territory below that line would be slave. This boundary line was called parallel 36-30. | ||
| The billion dollar congress was the 51st Congress of the United States which came into power after the McKinley Tariff Act (1890) was passed. They spent about $1 billion dollars in its two sessions to meet the huge increase in total costs of national spending as a result of the Republican legislation. | ||
| When Hawaii "gained their freedom", it was achieved by Americans overthrowing Queen Liliuokalani. Cleveland felt that the manner in which this was done was illegal and also not in the best interest of the native Hawaiian citizens. Tension grew between those for and against annexation in Hawaii and Cleveland just advised Congress to not intervene in their affairs. | ||
| The "Fair Deal" was Truman's domestic policy when he was in office. Using the "New Deal" as a guide, Truman strived to strengthen measures for civil rights, fair employment practices, education, public health insurance, social security benefits, low income housing, price and rent control, and farm funding. He also wanted to guarantee full employment and a raise in the minimum wage. Most of his proposals were shot down by the Congress, but Truman was able to make advances in housing through the Housing Act and social security. | ||
| The Dred Scott decision, or Dred Scott v. Sanford, ruled that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves were not protected by the Constitution and could never be citizens of the United States. The United States Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories, so it prohibited the federal government from freeing slaves brought into federal territories. | ||
| were a series of seven debates between former House Representative Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, and Senator Stephen Douglas, a Democratic Party candidate, for a seat in the United States Senate. The main topic of all the debates was slavery. The debates previewed the issues that Lincoln would face in the 1860 presidential election. | ||
| U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China was an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, who at that time considered the U.S. one of its staunchest foes. The visit has become a metaphor for an unexpected or uncharacteristic action by a politician. | ||
| The name used to describe President Taft's foreign policy. It was slightly expansionist, but it utilized investors' dollars more than the navy's battleships. Taft's goal was to promote U.S. trade and economy by supporting American businesses abroad. He believed that American investment in foreign nations would not only support U.S. businesses, but also lead to stability and prosperity in those nations. However, "Dollar Diplomacy" led to many interventions by the marines to protect American investments, which resulted in ill feelings from many Latin American countries, such as Nicaragua. | ||
| The platform Woodrow Wilson ran on in his 1912 presidential campaign. It called for stronger antitrust legislation, tariff reductions, and reforms in banking and currency. It was opposed by Roosevelt's New Nationalism. | ||
| This tariff was passed in 1922 under the pro-business Republic congress. It raised tariff's almost as high as Taft's Payne-Aldrich Tariff. It contributed to the coming of the Great Depression by stifling foreign trade, especially between the debt-ridden nations of Europe. | ||
| The Pendleton Act was passed under President Arthur to reform the civil service. Prior to the Act, civil service positions had been filled through the spoils system, which rewarded party supporters with jobs. This was replaced with a merit-based system, in which qualified candidates would compete for jobs, usually through tests. | ||
| The Haymarket Riot started as a rally for unionized workers. It devolved into violence after an anarchist attending the rally threw a bomb, killing a police officer. The police opened fire, killing eight officers and an unknown number of workers. The incident was a huge setback for the labor movement and its demands. | ||
| The Eisenhower doctrine stated that a country under armed aggression from communism could request US economic/military aid. This was partly created in response to the situation in the Middle East after the Suez Crisis, with the Soviet Union attempting to gain stronger footholds in the region. | ||
| the US was supporting the Philippines, Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico for their independence from Spain. The sinking of the USS Maine and yellow journalism (W.R. Hearst "New York Journal" & Joseph Pulitzer "New York World") were the causes | ||
| The American ship the USS Maine was sunk in the Havana Harbor off the coast of Cuba on Feb. 15, 1898. The ship was blown up over a submarine mine and it created outrage from Americans and led to the declaration of war against Spain | ||
| FDR's court packing plan in 1937. FDR felt that the old, conservative Supreme Court members were slowing down his New Deal Plans, so he proposed to add a judge to every present judge over the age of 70. It was considered unconstitutional by Congress (it undermined the independence of the courts) | ||
| The Fourteenth Amendment marked the end of the Reconstruction Plan and the beginning of congressional control. Its main purpose was the force the South to give equal civil rights to blacks. The Amendment stated that blacks were to be made citizens of the United States of America and that no state had the right to enforce any law which would abridge the privileges of citizens of the US. The Amendment also guaranteed every person the right to life, liberty and property and equal protection of the laws. This Amendment also stated that anybody who had held a public office requiring an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and then had broken the oath by joining the confederate side were not permitted to hold any public office again and the Confederate debts did not need to be paid. | ||
| This act stated that there was no legal government in any of the ex-Confederate state except Tennessee. It then established a congressional plan of Reconstruction. The South was also divided into five military districts each under a major general. Elections were to be held and freed blacks were allowed to vote. | ||
| This act stated that uniform standards must prevail for establishing the right to vote. Schooling through the sixth grade counts is needed as legal proof of literacy. Literacy tests must be in writing and the attorney general may institute legal proceedings if he or she discovers a pattern of discrimination. This act also provided that a public accommodations' provision must make establishments offering help available to all persons without discrimination and the attorney general may take legal action in any area where there is a pattern of resistance to the law. Projects involving federal funds would have funds cut off if any discrimination is found and an employment agency or an employer may not discriminate against the hiring or firing of anybody based on color, race, etc. This act basically provided that there should be no discrimination. | ||
| As an alternative to war, this measure prohibited American merchant ships from sailing to any foreign port. The embargo backfired and brought much greater economic hardship to the United States than to Britain. | ||
| Jefferson persuaded Congress to fund scientific explorations of the Trans Mississippi West to be led by Captain Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark. They set out from St. Louis in 1804, crossed the Rockies, reached the Oregon coast on the Pacific Ocean, then turned back and completed the return journey in 1806. | ||
| After Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden and his associates their government was quickly overthrown in the fall of 2001 by a combination of U.S. bombing, the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance troops, and U.S. Special forces. | ||
| In the election of 1824, Henry Clay who was the Speaker of the House convinced the Congress to elect John Quincy Adams as President. After Adams defeated his rival Andrew Jackson in the election, he made Clay the Secretary of State. Angry Jacksonians protested against this "corrupt bargain", but no evidence proved this to be true. [JQ Adams] | ||
| The Congress passed the Tariff of 1828 to protect American industry from European competition. This put heavy tax on imported goods, and the South were to pay for the raised prices of manufactured goods. The tariff most hurt the South, which made few manufactured goods and therefore had to buy them at high tariff prices. [JQ Adams] | ||
| It was revealed that Clinton had an affair with a White House intern Monica Lewinksy. Clinton lied under oath and denied involvement with "that woman". Eventually, he admitted that he had a relationship with her. The White House voted for impeachment, and Clinton was declared not guilty by 10 more votes. Most people liked Clinton's political and economic policies and wanted him to stay in office. [Clinton] | ||
| A panic that was caused by speculation and the specie circular which refused to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States and the policies of President Jackson, which was to withdraw money from banks and put it into a federal vault. Martin Van Buren was blamed for the panic and as a result was unable to win the next election | ||
| In 1837, he denied the request to avoid the conflict that would ensue between North and South over slavery. Also, there was conflict between the U.S. and Mexico. | ||
| The economic policy during Reagan's administration, it involved cutting taxes, reducing government spending, controlling inflation, and deregulating industries. It was believed that this would lead to higher employment, productivity, and output. | ||
| When Polk asked Congress to declare war on Mexico, he stated that American blood had been shed on American soil - the soil being the disputed territory between Mexico and the US. Abraham Lincoln was unconvinced, and proposed the Spot Resolution, which asked the president to name the exact spot at which blood had been shed. | ||
| This ended the Mexican War. As a result, Mexico recognized Texas as a part of the United States, and ceded territory such that the new Mexican-American border was at the Rio Grande. | ||
| The most infamous political scandal in history. A group of CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect the President) members were caught breaking in and trying to bug Democratic National Headquarters. It prompted an investigation which unveiled that the break-in and several other illegal activities were conducted under President Nixon and his officials. Nixon then resigned to avoid impeachment. | ||
| The Venezuelan Boundary affair was between British Guinea and Venezuela. Venezuela demanded land that was claimed by the British, and with this happening in the Western Hemisphere, the US invoked the Monroe Doctrine. British negotiators respected the doctrine, but refused to cede the territory. A compromise was then reached, but was in favor of the British. | ||
| After the Pullman Car Company cut wages but not housing rents, the workers went on strike. Laborers around the country then joined, threatening the entire economy by preventing transportation of goods. With mail also not circulating about the country, President Cleveland sent federal troops to break the strike. | ||
| The Taft-Harley Act overhauled the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. New provisions outlawed the secondary boycott, crippled national strikes, unionized supervisory employees. The biggest impact was the outlawing of closed shops. Truman tried to veto it, but Congress overrode it. | ||
| Wilson's address to the country to assure them that the First World War was being fought for a moral cause. It became the terms of surrender for Germany in the Paris Peace Conference. It called for free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination, as well as the creation of the League of Nations. | ||
| Harding's Secretary of the Interior leased land without competition. He was charged with indictments for conspiracy and accepting bribes. He was convicted of accepting bribes and sentenced to one year in prison and fined $100,000. | ||
| A military conference conducted outside the League of Nations. It was attended by nine nations having interests in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. Soviet Russia was not invited to the conference. It was the first international conference held in the United States and the first disarmament conference in history, and is studied by political scientists as a model for a successful disarmament movement. |
