Unit IV: Continuing Sectionalism, Civil War, And Reconstruction. 1853 To
1877
Jennifer Plank
1st Period
10th Grade AP Honors American History
Mr. Seibert
1. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 – A Bill introduced by Steven Douglas to organize the
Nebraska territory. He hoped to build a transcontinental railroad making Chicago the
terminus, but they could not do this until the Indians were cleared away and the land was
in control. Nebraska would presumably become a free state due to the Missouri
Compromise but to please the South Douglas argued that the territories should be left
open to popular sovereignty. Douglas pushed for the bill and won, therefore the Missouri
Compromise was repealed and the North was in an uproar.
2. Birth of the Republican Party- Made up of former Free Soilers, Conscience Whigs, and
“Anti-Nebraska” Democrats. Presented themselves as the party of freedom though they
were not abolitionist, but they believed that slavery be kept out of the territories. The
Republican Party appealed too many to voters who not only disagreed with slavery but
also wanted to keep slavery out of their states.
3. Stephan A. Douglas- Known as the “Little Giant,” he was the most prominent
spokesman of the Young American movement. He held a series of state offices before
being elected for the United States Senate at the age of 29. Douglas wanted to get on with
the development of the nation; to build railroads, acquire new territory, and expand trade.
This made him suggest and push for the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
4. Popular Sovereignty- Also known as “squatter sovereignty,” the doctrine that says the
people of a new territory, under the Constitution, have the right to decide the status of
slavery. Congress officials liked it because it let them escape from making the decisions
themselves.
5. Thirty-Six------Thirty-One- the area the Mexican Cession consisted of, some wanted it
to allow slavery and others wanted slavery to spread no further.
6. Election of 1856: Candidates and issues- Election between James Buchanan
(Democrat) and John C. Fremont (Republican) and Millar Fillmore (Know-Nothings);
mudslinging hurt both parties: Buchanan bachelor and Fremont illegitimate birth and
Roman Catholic; Buchanan won with the result being the expansion of slavery.
7. “Bleeding Kansas” and Lawrence - the issue of Kansas that would bring many conflicts
and confrontations within the country; Lawrence was where a major outbreak took place
where 800 men attached this antislavery town.
8. “Beecher’s Bibles” – a nickname for the new breech-loading rifles; nicknamed after
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brother.
9. John Brown’s Raid – John Brown and his followers attacked Harper’s Ferry, West
Virginia in hopes of seizing the federal arsenal with which he could arm slaves and set up
a black republic in the mountains of West Virginia; created much furor and allowed the
Northern abolitionists to label him as a martyr.
10. Pottawatomie Massacre – occurred when John Brown led an attack on five
unsuspecting proslavery men who lived in the Pottawatomie Creek settlement; tipped the
opposing forces to become more extreme.
11. New England Emigrant Aid Company – an antislavery organization which sent about
2,000 persons into Kansas to forestall the South and also make a profit.
12. Sumner Brooks Affair – when Sumner was attacked by Brooks for insulting Brooks’
cousin; the attack left Sumner severely injured and abolitionists got upset over the
incident.
13. Lecompton Constitution – a proslavery constitution; sent to the settlers and was
rejected’ Democratic President Buchanan favored the Constitution but it still was not
passed by the people.
14. Dred Scott Decision – the decision helped to start the Civil War; ended the good
feeling in Buchanan’s presidency; Dred Scott had sued for freedom because his master
had taken him into free territories and states; Supreme Court turned a simple legal case
into a complex political issue; Chief Justice Taney said that because a slave was
property, he or she could be taken into any territory and legally be held there; the Court
said that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional all along and that Congress had
no right to ban slavery from the territories, more matter what the territorial government
may want; an unexpected victory for the South; further separated the once united
Democrats.
15. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney – the Southern slave-holding chief justice who ruled
against the slave Dred Scott; clearly biased; gave a moral boost to Southern society and
separated the Democrats.
16. Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 during Illinois Senatorial Campaign – the underdog
in the senatorial campaign, Lincoln wished to share Douglas’s fame by appearing with
him in debates. Douglas agreed to seven debates. Lincoln knew that Douglas – now
fighting the Democratic Buchanan administration over the constitution to be adopted by
Kansas – had alienated his South support; and he feared Douglas’s new appeal to eastern
Republicans now that Douglas was battling the South. Lincoln’s strategy was to stress
the gulf of principle that separated Republican opposition to slavery as a moral wrong
from the moral indifference of the Democrats, embodied in legislation allowing popular
sovereignty to decide the gate of each territory. Douglas, Lincoln insisted, did not care
whether slaver was “voted up or voted down”. By his vigorous showing against the
famous Douglas, Lincoln won the debates and his first considerable national fame.
17. Freeport Doctrine – Lincoln had pressed Douglas about how he could apply his doctrine
of popular sovereignty in the face of the Dred Scott Decision. Douglas’s answer, the
doctrine, was that since slavery could nowhere exist without the support of the local
police, if a state would be against, it could simply not protect it. This hurt him in the long
run, even though it helped him in the short term.
18. Panic of 1857 – The panic of 1857 occurred because of California gold, over stimulation
of the growth of grain, and speculation of land. The feverish railroad building of the 40s
and 50s opened up western land but didn’t prevent the Panic of 1857.
19. George Fitzhugh Sociology For the South or the Failure of Free Society - This
defense of slavery offers both theoretical and empirical evidence that slave societies are
superior to non-slave societies.
20. Hinton Helper The Impending Crisis of the South - Hinton Rowan Helper wrote this
in 1857 which became a Republican campaign document in 1860. It was an anti-slavery
treatise. The most notable aspect of this was its fierce language. The book cited
numerous authors from both North and South – as well as from other countries – who
concurred with Helper’s abolitionism. In the year after it was published, it sold some
13,000 copies – a respectable figure – and was well-received in several Northern
newspapers.
21. Lincoln’s “House Divided” Speech - In a speech at Springfield, Lincoln suggested that
Douglas, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, and Democratic presidents Franklin Pierce and
James Buchanan had conspired to nationalize slavery. In the same speech, he expressed
the view that the nation would become either all slave or all free: “A house divided
against itself cannot stand.”
22. John Brown, Harper’s Ferry Raid - Brown envisioned emancipation by massive slave
insurrection, but he did not pursue that goal until the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry. By the
spring of 1855, civil strife had broken out in Kansas and Brown had assumed command
of local Free-Soil militia. Within a year, proslavery forces had sacked the Free-Soil town
of Lawrence, an event that triggered a bloody retaliation by Brown. During the night of
May 24, 1856, Brown, four of his sons, and two other followers invaded the
Pottawatomie River country and killed five helpless settlers. Brown, who was never
caught, took full responsibility for the act.
23. Election of 1860: Candidates and Issues - This election pitted Breckinridge, a
Southern Democrat, against John Bell, a member of the Constitutional Union Party,
against Stephen Douglas, a Northern Democrat (lost probably because of the KansasNebraska Act), against Lincoln, a Republican. Lincoln won the election.
24. Democratic Party Conventions: Baltimore, Charleston – There were Democratic
Party Conventions held in the cities of Baltimore and Charleston before the Civil War to
deal with specific issues.
25. John Bell – Bell served as secretary of War under President William Henry Harrison. He
then went to the Senate where he led conservative Southerners who opposed secession.
In 1860, Bell was the presidential candidate of the Constitutional Union Party which
sought to old the Union together until NorthSouth hostility ebbed. He carried only Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.
26. John Breckenridge – The Southern Democrats nominated him for the presidency in
1860. He was defeated by Lincoln.
27. Republican Party: 1860 Platform, supporters, leaders - Generally belligerent towards
the South, the Republicans were regarded by Southerners with mingled hatred and fear as
sectional tension increased. They were successful in the elections of 1858 and passed
over their better-known leaders to nominate Abraham Lincoln, a leader of the party, in
1860. The party platform in 1860 included planks calling for a high protective tariff, free
homesteads, and a transcontinental railroad; these were bids for support among
Westerners, farmers, and eastern manufacturing interests.
28. Buchanan and the Secession Crisis - As his administration drew to a close, after the
election of Abraham Lincoln (1860), Buchanan was faced with the secession of the
Southern states. Very learned in constitutional law, he maintained that no state had the
right to secede, but he held, on the other hand, that he had no power to coerce the erring
states. He believed that the federal government was authorized to use force only in
protecting federal property and in collection customs.
29. Crittenden Compromise Proposal – John J. Crittenden of Kentucky offered several
constitutional amendments in an unsuccessful last ditch effort to stave off the split
between slave and free states. Crittenden proposed amendments permanently to permit
and protect slaver south of the Missouri Compromise line and permanently to bar slavery
north of the line. He also proposed enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law and federal
compensation to slave owners losing slaves because of the actions of Northerners. It
failed.
Civil War
30. Border states - the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, West Virginia
and Missouri, which refused to secede from the Union in 1860-61. Both the North and
the South thought that obtaining control of the Border States was important.
31. South’s Advantages in Civil War - South had “home-field advantage”, knew the terrain,
defenders only need 1 for every three attackers, better officers, better Presidential
leadership, and they were vast in size to conquer. Davis had military experience.
32. North’s Advantages in Civil War - More money, more troops (3 to 1), better
transportation, more raw supplies, vastly superior industry, and the Navy. Lincoln had
great political skill.
33. Fort Sumter – Seward, as secretary of state, tried to run the government and involved
himself in prolonged duplicity with Southern representatives over the Fort Sumter issue.
Lincoln stayed aloof, considered the Sumter question in proper political terms, and
decided to push at that point. The Confederates, almost fooled, realized at last that a
Federal expedition would come to the fort’s aid and that forbearance by the South would
appear to the world as weakness. On April 12, 1861, Confederate cannons opened fire,
and Fort Sumter became the first battle of the Civil War.
34. Bull Run – Two battles in the U. S. Civil War were fought along Bull Run Creek near
Manassas in Virginia. The first occurred in 1861 when Gen. McDowell led his 37,000
Union troops against 32,000 Confederates under Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard in the first
phase of an “On to Richmond” campaign. Beauregard, who had been reinforced on July
20 by about 10,000 men from the Shenandoah Valley under Gen. Johnston, met
McDowell near Manassas Junction. McDowell’s swift start threatened to sweep the field.
Resistance by Jackson’s brigade at the Henry House Hill on the Confederate left,
however, earned Jackson the nickname “Stonewall” and won the day for Beauregard.
First Bull Run convinced the North of the war’s seriousness and made the South
overconfident. A year later, after the Peninsular campaign and other major Virginia
battles, Gen. Robert E. Lee met the Federals under Gen. John Pope near the First Bull
Run fields. Second Bull Run marked the high point of Lee’s campaign against both
McClellan and Pope. Lee detached Jackson behind Pope and Jackson help Pope off
while Lee sent James Longstreet to defeat Pope’s left flank. This great Southern victory
cleared Virginia of Federal troops.
35. Monitor and the Merrimac – Monitor v. Merricac, historic naval battle of the American
Civil War fought on March 9, 1862, between a Union ship, the Monitor, and the
Confederate Merrimac. Both vessels had been covered in iron; the battle was the first
conflict between ironclad warships.
36. Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson – Robert E. Lee was a brilliant
Confederate general whose military genius was probably the greatest single factor in
keeping the Confederacy alive through the four years of the American Civil War.
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was an American soldier, considered by military authorities
as an outstanding leader, a skilled tactician, and one of the ablest Confederate
commanders.
37. Grant, McClellan, Sherman, Meade – Grant’s victories made him so prominent that he
was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and in February, 1864, he was given
command of all Union armies. Grant’s subsequent campaigns revealed his determination
to apply relentless pressure against the Confederacy by coordinating the Union armies
and exploiting the economic strength of the North. Grant continued to press the drive
against General Robert E. Lee’s army. After Sherman’s success in Georgia and the
conquest of the Shenandoah Valley by General Philip H. Sheridan, Grant forced Lee to
abandon Petersburg and Richmond (April 2, 1865) and to surrender at Appomattox Court
House on April 9. George McClellan was an American soldier and Union commander in
the Civil War. At the outbreak of the war, he was commissioned major general in the
regular army and after the first battle of Bull Run, commanded the Army of the Potomac,
the troops in and around Washington, D. C. In November 1861, he was appointed
commander in chief of the Union army.
38. Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Antietam – Vicksburg was a major siege of the Civil War,
consisting of military campaigns in 1862-63 and ending with the capture of the city of
Vicksburg, Mississippi, by Union troops on July 4, 1863. Gettysburg was a battle fought
on July 1 – 3, 1863, considered by most military historians as the turning point in the
Civil War. The Army of the Potomac, under the Union general George Meade, numbers
about 85,000; the Confederate army, under General Robert E. Lee, numbered about
75,000. Antietam was an important battle for the war. About 50,000 Confederate troops,
led by General Robert E. Lee attempted an invasion of the North. They were intercepted
on September 17, 1862, at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, by a Union army
of 70,000 men under the command of General George McClellan.
39. Appomattox – Appomattox is where the Confederates, or at least Robert E. Lee,
surrendered to the North on April 9. Grant was the Northern general.
40. Jefferson Davis – Davis was the first and only president of the Confederate States of
America (1861 – 65). On February 18, 1861, the provisional Congress of the
Confederate States made him provisional president. He was elected to the office by
popular vote the same year for a 6- year term and was inaugurated in Richmond,
Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy on February 22, 1862.
41. Alexander Stephens – He was a vice president of the Confederate States of America.
Stephens was born on February 12, 1812 near Crawfordville, Georgia. He helped
organize the Whig part in Georgia and in 1843 was elected to the U. S. House of
Representatives in which he served until 1859. Stephens opposed the secession
movement in Georgia in 1860-61 but after the state had voted to secede, he supported its
action and in 1862, after the outbreak of the American Civil War, he was elected vice
president of the CSA.
42. Northern Blockade – The northern blockade grew stronger against the South as the war
progressed. After the fall of Fort Sumter, Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of all Southern
ports in order to stop the flow of essential supplies to the Confederacy. A Union navy
barely existed at this time, its ships having been designed to fight on the high seas, not to
blockade ports. Thus, before the blockade could be implemented, new ships had to be
designed and several battles had to be fought. To break the blockade, the South
constructed the Merrimac.
43. Cotton Versus Wheat – In the beginning of the war, cotton was the major export of the
United States, especially to England and France. So when the South seceded, they
believed that England and France would support them. But, to their surprise, whe4at
became greater in demand; therefore, England and France supported the North instead of
the South.
44. Copperheads - Copperheads was a name popularly applied during the Civil War to
Northern members of the Democratic Party, also known as Peace Democrats, who
opposed the administration of Abraham Lincoln and advocated compromise with the
Confederate states to end the war. Not all those called Copperheads, however, were
sympathetic to the Southern position in the war. Many objected to a vigorous
prosecution of the war on the ground that the conque3st of the South was illegal or
impossible. The most conspicuous Copperhead was Ohio Congressman Clement Laird
Vallandigham, who was convicted of defying a military order that forbade any
declaration of sympathy with the South and was banished to the Confederacy. The
derivation of the name is uncertain; it may have referred either to the copperhead snake
or to buttons cut from the copper coins depicting the goddess of liberty that were worn by
many Peace Democrats.
45. Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham – Congressman Vallandigham was an
American politician born in New Lisbon, Ohio and educated at Jefferson College,
Washington, PA. He became a lawyer and served as a Democratic member of the United
States House of Representatives between 1858 and 1863, representing Ohio. He was a
firm believer in states’ rights and a bitter opponent of the American Civil War; he
became the leaders of the Copperheads, a group of northern Democrats who opposed the
war. His speeches against the war and the administration of Lincoln were considered
seditious and he was arrested in 1863 and sentenced to a prison term. Lincoln
subsequently commuted the sentence to banishment tot the Confederacy, from which
Vallandigham went to Canada. The following year he returned to the U. S. and became
supreme commander of the Sons of Liberty. He helped write the national Democratic
Party platforms of 1864 and 1868.
46. Suspension of Habeas Corpus – Because the Civil War had erupted, the Writ of habeas
Corpus was suspended.
47. Republican Legislation passed in Congress after Southerners left: Banking, Tariff,
Homestead, Transcontinental Railroad – After the South seceded from the Union, the
Republicans moved to pass legislation on a homestead law, which provided free land to
settlers; Internal Improvements, notably the Transcontinental Railroad; and a higher tariff
to aid Northern manufacturing.
48. Conscription, Draft Riots – Angered by the Union Conscription Act of March 3, 1863
that allowed the rich to buy their way out of military service, the slum-dwelling masses of
many cities, especially New York City, were in a rebellious mood. Impoverished Irish
immigrants blamed the Negroes for the war and feared competition from free blacks. On
Monday July 13, 1863, the day after the publication of the first draftees, a frenzied crowd
of 50,000 destroyed the conscription offices, hanged blacks, and looted and set fire to
buildings. For four days, the rampage continued until 13 Union regiments arrived in New
York and restored order.
49. Emancipation Proclamation – Preliminary Proclamation issued September 22, 1862 by
President Lincoln. The Final Proclamation was issued January 1, 1863 and freed three
million slaves in those states in rebellion against the union.
50. Charles Francis Adams – Grandson of President John Quincy Adams, he was born in
Boston in 1835 and studied law at Harvard. As sectionalism and disunion increased, he
paid more attention to politics than to law. When the war finally broke out, he
commanded a Negro regiment, the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry and received the brevet of
Brigadier General.
51. Great Britain: Trent, Alabama, Laird Rams, and “Continuous Voyage” - The
Confederates believed that the British were struck hard because of the Union blockade
that prevented any cotton to be exported to British. However, the cutting off of the cotton
did not strike the British hard because they had alternative sources in India and Egypt.
The opposite of what the Confederate believed happened. British crop failures
necessitated the importation of wheat from the North. In November of 1861, the U. S. S.
San Jacinto stopped the H. M. S. Trent and arrested two Confederate envoys, James
Mason and John Slidell. This angered the British, but Lincoln decided to turn the
Confederates loose so they would not start another conflict with Britain. In 1862, two
powerful new cruisers called the Florida and the Alabama were built in English
shipyards for the Confederates. Despite Union protests, they were permitted to be put to
sea and they were soon wreaking havoc among northern merchant ships. When two
ironclad ships, called Laird Rams, were also being build in English shipyards, the United
States made it clear that it would declare war if the ships were delivered to the
Confederates. When the British said that they were sailing somewhere but were really
going south to the Confederacy to trade, the North was outrages by it and brought up the
doctrine of Continuous Voyage.
52. Election of 1864: Candidates and Issues - Lincoln was renominated on a National
Union ticket with the Tennessee Unionist Andrew Johnson, a former Democrat as his
running mate. Lincoln defeated the Democrat nomination General McClellan who came
out with a policy that might almost be characterized as peace at any price.
53. Financing of the War Effort by the North and the South – At the beginning of the
war, Secretary of the Treasury underestimated the cost of the war. The North paid for the
war with a 3% tax on incomes over $800, which was lower than the average wage earner.
In addition, they assessed a direct tax to the states. Banks authorized loans amounting to
$140 million. New excise taxes were mounted as the war and expenses mounted. During
the war, the federal government borrowed $2.2 billion and collected $667 million in
taxes, slightly over 20% of its expenditures. Finance was a major problem for the South.
The Confederate Congress passed an income tax together with many excise taxes, but
that only covered 2% of the South’s needs. The most effective levy was a tax in kind that
amounted to one-0tenttth of each farmer’s production.
54. Clara Barton – Clara Barton was a volunteer nurse on Civil war battlefields. She would
eventually found the first American Red Cross Chapter.
Reconstruction
55. Lincolns’ Ten Percent Plan – Based on the presidential pardoning power, Lincoln
issued his own plan of reconstruction. After a number equal to 10 percent of a state’s
vote in 1860 had sworn allegiance to the Union, the state would be allowed to form a new
government. They would be allowed to send representative to Congress, provided it
recognized the principle of emancipation and the wartime acts of Congress concerning
slaver.
56. Assassination of April 14, 1865- President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes
Booth at Fords Theatre in Washington, D. C.
57. John Wilkes Booth- assassinated Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 at the Ford
Theatre in Washington, D. C.
58. Ex Parte Milligan-Supreme Court ruling that established the trails of civilians by
military commissions was unlawful outside military areas of operations if civilian courts
are set up.
59. Radical Republican- Republican representatives and senators who wanted stricter
measures against the post-war South; led by Sumner and Stevens.
60. Wade-Davis Bill, Veto, Wade-Davis Manifesto- Bill proposed for Reconstruction that
required 50 percent of the state’s voters take the oath of allegiances; vetoed by Lincoln.
61. Joint committee of Reconstruction (Committee on Fifteen)- a joint committee of
congressmen formed to design the Reconstruction Acts that would allow the South to
become five military districts each controlled by a major general.
62. Reconstruction Acts- Acts developed by Joint Committee on Reconstruction; vetoed by
President Johnson; divided the Confederate states into five military districts; district
commanders could organize new governments, control voting and appoint and remove
officials
63. State Suicide Theory- theory proffered by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner that
stated the South had “committed suicide and so were no longer part of the Union.” Thus,
the southern states needed to be readmitted as states. This would give the South their
independence from the Union. The federal government did not want to let the South have
their desire in defeat. They developed the conquered territory theory.
64. Conquered Territory Theory- developed by Sumner and Stevens that said the
Confederate states should be treated as conquered territories, under the jurisdiction and
control of the United States, but without government power therein. Avoided trouble
raised by the state suicide theory
65. Unrestricted South- the South tried to protect slavery in small ways since they were out
from under the federal government; the South was constantly being the focus of congress,
which passed several amendments to curtail their weak powers.
66. Black Codes- developed by the Southern states to control the former slaves; designed to
restrict the freedom of blacks.
67. Texas v. White, 1896- a case that decided the question of the status of the Southern
states during the war; the Courts had to determine if U. S. bonds seized and sold by the
confederate state of Texas were payable by Texas after the war was over; it ruled that
secession was legally impossible, nevertheless the process of reconstruction was still
constitutional since it is in congress’s power to see that each state has a republican
government and to recognize the legal government in any state.
68. Thaddeus Stevens- developed, along with Charles Sumner, the sate suicide theory and
conquered territory theory; practiced law in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; he advocated the
full enfranchisement of the liberated slaves and sponsored the legislation that would later
become the 14th amendment to the Constitution that affirmed the political and civil rights
of black Americans; he played a leading role in the impeachment of President Andrew
Johnson.
69. Charles Sumner- along with Thaddeus Stevens, developed the state suicide Theory and
conquered territory theory; a radical Republican.
70. Andrew Johnson-vice president for Lincoln assumed presidency after the assassination
of Lincoln; a Democrat; had great respect for states’ rights but held blacks in contempt;
attempted to hold Republicans in line at which time the Republicans attempted to
impeach him.
71. Freedoms Bureau- established in March of 1866 to care for refugee slaves; Johnson
vetoed a bill that attempted to expand its power.
72. General Oliver O. Howard- head of Freedmans Bureau; viewed blacks as Lazy, a
popular opinion at the time.
73. Ku Klux Klan- organize in Tennessee in 1866 as a social club, quickly becoming a
vigilante group; used intimidation and terror tactics to keep black ins line out of the
government; dissolved in 1872 but started up again in the 1920’s
74. Civil Rights Act- 1866; denied the states the power to restrict the rights of slaves to
testify in court, to make contracts for their labor and to hold property; vetoes by President
Johnson but congress overrode the veto.
75. Thirteenth Amendment- passed in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States.
76. Fourteenth Amendment and its Provisions- defined American citizenship in a way that
included blacks; did away with Black codes; encouraged southern states to allow blacks
to vote; barred former federal officials who served in the Confederacy from holding
office, either federal or states, unless specifically pardoned by a two-thirds vote of
Congress; Confederate debt was repudiated.
77. Fifteenth Amendment- forbade all states to deny the vote to anyone on account of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude.
78. Tenure of Office Act- passed by Congress to limit the powers of the president; this was
the act that Johnson defied; it specifically prohibited the president from removing
officials who had been appointed with the consent of the Senate without first obtaining
Senate approval.
79. Impeachment- process by which a legislative body can remove public officials from
office; impeachment comprises both the act of formulating an accusation or indictment
against an official and subsequent trial; Johnson was unsuccessfully impeached.
80. Chief Justice Chase- Salmon P. Chase, presided over Johnson’s impeachment trial.
81. Secretary of War Stanton- Edwin M. Stanton was removed from office by Johnson; in
doing so Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act and was subsequently impeached.
82. Scalawags, Carpetbaggers- tow groups that were involved in the support of freed
slaves; southerners willing to cooperate with the Republicans because they accepted the
results of the war even to the extent of appealing for the support of black voters;
carpetbaggers were northerners who went to the South as idealists to help the feed slaves,
as employees of the federal government, or sometimes just settlers looking to improve
themselves.
83. Purchase of Alaska- arranged by Secretary of State Seward; purchase form Russia for
$7.2 million; not a very popular purchase.
84. Secretary of State William Seward- expansionist under Johnson; arranged the purchase
of Alaska in 1867.
85. Napoleon III- from France; used the American Civil War to send troops to Mexico City
in 1863; defied the Monroe doctrine.
86. Maximilian in Mexico- Austrian archduke installed as emperor of Mexico by Napoleon
as a puppet leader.
87. Monroe Doctrine- born in 1823 by President Monroe which featured noncolonization
and nonintervention.
88. Ulysses S. Grant- Republican president; great military leader but poor president; failed
to deal effectively with the economic and social problems and unable to cope with
government corruption; his administration was rife with political scandals.
89. Treaty of Washington- treaty between Her Majesty and the United States of America
for the friendly settlement of all causes of difference between the two countries;
including “Alabama” Claims; Fisheries; Claims of Corporations, Companies or Private
Individuals; Navigation of Rivers and Lakes; San Juan Water Boundary; and Rules
Defining Duties of a Neutral Government during War.
90. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish- cabinet member under Grant who was not corrupt.
91. Election of 1868- Republicans nominated war hero Grant; Democrats nominated Horotio
Seymour; Grant won both popular and electoral but the vote was very close.
92. Election of 1872- Republicans nominated Grant; Liberal Republicans nominated Horace
Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune; Democrats also nominate Greeley.
93. Election of 1876- Republican nominated Hayes, governor of Ohio; Democrats
Nominated Tilden, governor of New York who assisted in the break up of the Tweed
ring; Hayes won; election corrupt.
94. Electoral Commission- made up of five senators (3 republican and 2 democrats) and
five representatives and five justices of the Supreme Court (2 democrats, 2 republicans, 1
independent) created to decide disputed cases.
95. Compromise of 1877 Provisions- Hayes recalled his troops from Louisiana and South
Carolina; appointed David M. Key, a former Confederate general to the position of
postmaster general.
96. Solid South- term used to describe a widely democratic South.
97. New South- term used to describe the southern states after reconstruction was complete.
98. Sharecropping, Crop Lien System- sharecropping was the system that was used after
the civil War was over and slavery was no longer in effect; planters broke up their estates
into small units and established a black family on each; the planter provided housing,
tools, animals, seed and other supplies; the family supplied labor; the crop was divided on
a 50-50 basis; crop lien system was when landowners had to borrow against a future
crop; lenders insisted on cash crops which injured everyone.
99. Segregation-blacks were treated unfairly after the end of the Civil War; blacks were
unable to use the same water fountains, transportation, bathrooms, etc. as whites.
100. Hiram R. Revels- black United States Senator from Mississippi; contributed
somewhat to government; became president of Alcorn University.
101. Blanche K. Bruce – black United States Senator from Mississippi; contributed
somewhat to government.
Supreme Court Cases
102. Dred Scot v. Sandord, 1857 - a case argued in front of the Supreme Court in 1857;
Dred Scot was trying to get his freedom on the grounds that he resided in a free state;
Supreme Court found that he was not free by reason of his residency in a free state.
103. Ableman v. Booth, 1859 - established the authority of the federal judiciary over state
courts, that there could be no “judicial nullification” by the states of federal judicial
decisions.
104. Ex parte Merryman – Chief Justice Taney held General George Cadwalader in
contempt for failing to produce a prisoner for trial when ordered to do so. Cadwalader
went unpunished.
105. Prize Cases, 1861 – These were cases in which the vessels named, together with their
cargoes, were severally captured and brought in as prizes by public ships of the United
States; owners of the vessels disclaimed any knowledge of any blockade.
106. Ex parte Milligan, 1866 – Milligan had been arrested and charged with treason in
1864; he was found guilty by a military commission in Indiana and sentenced to death
but this was not done; in 1866, the Supreme Court reviewed this case and decided to
unanimously to overrule his conviction because it was illegal because the civil courts in
Indiana were able to try Milligan but did not and also because he was held in violation of
the Habeas Corpus Act of 1863; seen as an attempt by the Court to block reconstruction.
107. Mississippi v. Johnson, 1867 – This case involved a bill in equity by which the state
of Mississippi sought to enjoin President Johnson and the general in command of the
military district of Mississippi and Arkansas from enforcing the Reconstruction Acts of
1867.
108. Texas v. White, 1869 – A case that decided the question of the status of the Southern
states during the war; the Court had to determine if U. S. bonds seized and sold by the
Confederate state of Texas were payable by Texas after the was over; it ruled that
secession was legally impossible, nevertheless the process of reconstruction was still
constitutional since it is in Congress’s power to see that each state has a republican
government and to recognize the legal government in any state.
109. Legal tender cases, 1870, 1871 – The cases had to do with the printing of different
currencies by banks that eventually was found to be unconstitutional.
110. Slaughterhouse cases, 1873 – In 1969, Louisiana legislature granted a 25 year
monopoly to a slaughterhouse concern in New Orleans for the stated purpose of
protecting the people’s health. Other slaughterhouse operators barred from their trade
brought suit, principally on the ground that they had been deprived of their property
without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The U. S.
Supreme Court, with Justice Samuel F. Miller rendering the majority decision, decided
against the slaughterhouse operators, holding that the Fourteenth Amendment had to be
considered in light of the original purpose of its framers, i. e., to guarantee the freedom of
former black slaves. Although the amendment could not be construed to refer only to
black slaver, its scope as originally planned did not include rights such as those in
question. A distinction was drawn between United States and state citizenship, and it was
held that the amendment did not intend to deprive the state of legal jurisdiction over the
civil rights of its citizens. The restraint placed by the Louisiana legislators on the
slaughterhouse operators was declared not to deprive them of their property without due
process.
111. Brandwell v. Illinois, 1873 – Supreme Court ruled that a woman denied the right to
practice law in the state courts because of her sex was not denied the privileges or
immunities of U. S. citizenship.
112. Minor v. Happersett, 1875 - Case brought by Virginia Minor against Reese
Happersett saying that her right to vote was denied because of her gender. Mrs. Minor
used the Fourteenth Amendment as her argument. Supreme Court eventually denied this
claim; even though women were determined to be legal citizens of the country, the
constitution did not provide voting as a privilege to all citizens.
Political History To 1877
113. Whiskey Ring and the other Scandals – Grant’s administration was rife with
scandals because Grant failed to deal with government corruption; the whiskey ring affair
involved Grant’s private secretary, Orville E. Babcock and cost the government millions
in tax revenue; other sandals were the Credit Mobilier scandal, involving the
transcontinental railroad; and Secretary of War Belknap was selling supplied to the
Indians that were mostly junk and pocketing a large piece of change.
114. “Waving the bloody shirt” – A reference to a Republican congressman who had
displayed the bloody shirt of a Northerner beaten by southern white supremacists;
referred to the habit of Republicans of accusing the Democrats of sedition and of having
cause the war.
115. Panic of 1873 – New York financier Jay Cooke first bought the Northern Pacific
Railroad which ran from Minneapolis to Seattle, hoping to make a fortune. People got
rich selling the land that ran beside the railroad line which the government gave them
when they built the railroad. Railroad owners were able to sell this land for a huge profit.
Cooke’s land was bad for farming so he hired publicity men to make up false stories
about how good the land was. The truth leaded out, buyers lost interest and Cooke’s
business collapse. Cooke’s investment bank had been considered a strong one, but
investors in the stock market panicked and started selling. Banks failed. Lenders
demanded payment on loans, businesses went bankrupt and jobs disappeared. The panic
was followed by a depression.