Individuals
An American statesman, military officer, and Founding Father who served as U.S. minister to France from 1796 to 1797 during the XYZ Affair.
A delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he was twice nominated by the Federalist Party as its presidential candidate in 1804 and 1808, losing both times.
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
An American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the repatriation of freeborn and emancipated Black slaves from the U.S. to Africa to the nation of Liberia.
Slaveowners feared that the rising population of free Black people might help or inspire slaves to escape or rebel.
Most Black people and abolitionists opposed the project because by this point most African-American families had been living in the U.S. for several generations.
American Colonization Society
What was the main political lesson that the Federalist Party highlighted concerning the French Revolution in American politics?
That uncontrolled democracy led by a rabid political party (i.e. the Jacobins) produces anarchy, atheism, and tyranny.
In order to prevent the unseeming possibility of an interparty tie between Jefferson and Burr (no 12th Amendment yet), what assumption did James Madison, James Monroe, and Thomas Jefferson unfortunately make?
That one elector from each Democratic-Republican dominated state would drop a vote from Burr.
Under the simply pseudonym "A Republican," what politician wrote 24 newspaper essays supporting the election of Jefferson over either John Adams or Charles Cotesworth Pinckney with Federalists charging the author with disloyalty to his family, dereliction of his Senate duties, and self-interest in seeking an amassadorship under Jefferson?
Charles Pinckney
An American statesman, diplomat, abolitonist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris (1783), and a Founding Father of the United States.
He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first Chief Justice of the United States and from 1795 to 1801 as the 2nd governor of New York.
A co-author of the Federalist Papers, he would direct U.S. foreign policy for much of the 1780s and was an important leader of the Federalist Party.
He's most known for his self-titled treaty with Great Britain in 1794 that created 10 years of peaceful trade with Britain but inflamed partisan divide by being seen as too nice and generous by the Francophile Democratic-Republicans.
John Jay
An economic plan in the early 19th century rooted in the economic model created by Alexander Hamilton.
A plan to strengthen and unify the nation, the plan was advanced by leading members of the Whig Party like Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams.
It would include:
- Support for a high tariff to protect American industries.
- Maintain high public land prices to generate federal revenue
- Preserve the Bank of the United States to stabilize national currency and control risky state and local banks.
- Development of internal improvements and infrastructure to tie the nation together economically.
Southerners and Democrats generally opposed the plan.
American System
Why was Thomas Jefferson worried about Napoleon Bonaparte succeeding, becoming king/emperor for life, and bringing peace to France?
That it would encourage Americans to support a similiar dictatorship/monarchy under Federalist Part rule
Unlike the unreliable and unpredictable Aaron Burr, what reliable High Federalist and party loyalist from South Carolina did the Federalist Party nominate as John Adams's VP?
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (older borther of Federalist Party 1796 VP nominee Thomas Pinckney)
How long did it take for an original Aurora or Gazette of the United States article to reappear across the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky newspapers?
2 or more weeks.
An American statesman, lawyer, and Founding Father who served as the 4th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and was the 4th-longest serving justice in American history.
His tenure on the court is widely regarded as one of the most influential ever. Before he was on the Supreme Court, it really wasn't taken that seriously. After his 34 years on the bench, the Supreme Court would transform into an equal branch of government alongside the presidency and Congress.
Before serving on the court, he was one of the diplomats alongside Elbridge Gerry and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney who were told to bribe the French government during the XYZ Affair.
Starting with the monumental 1803 case of "Marbury v. Madison," he would strengthen the Supreme Court's power (judicial review) and through his time on the court in general, advocate and rule in favor of the supremacy of the federal government over states and individuals.
Other famous cases include:
- Fletcher v. Peck (1810
- Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
- McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
- Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816)
- Cohens v. Virginia (1821)
- Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
- Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
John Marshall
In 1846, after the Wilmot Proviso, the Whig Party split over the issue of slavery along regional lines. This mostly southern and pro-slavery faction of the Whig Party was led by Edward Everett and focused mostly on supporting the cotton industry as opposed to slavery itself.
Cotton Whigs
In the early days of presidential voting, what were three methods that various states used to select their Electoral College electors?
State legislators appointed the electors. The party with the most legislators would get all the state's electors.
- Voters chose electors in direct popular elections in their electoral district
- States used a general ballot so that all of the state's electors were chosen by voters across the state.
In his second attempt at the vice-presidency, this time as a U.S. Senator, Burr in 1796 ran for his candidacy in what political first?
The Democratic-Republican congressional delegation held their first closed-door meeting to select leaders, a caucus.
In response to Democratic-Republican threats of violence, what did the House of Representatives elect to do on February 9, 1801?
To reassure citizens that they could trust They drafted new Congressional rules stating that Congress would have to vote until a president was chosen and could not conduct any other business until it was settled.Democratic-Republicans to maintain order
A U.S. Senator from Georgia and Attorney General during the Andrew Jackson presidency.
As an attorney in "The Antelope" case of 1824, argued against freedom of slaves captured at sea noting slavery "lay at the foundation of the Constitution," and that slaves "constitute the very foundation of your union."
As attorney general he prosecuted former Treasury Fourth Auditor Tobias Watkins fro embezzlement and supported states' rights during the Nullifacation Crisis.
John M. Berrien
This was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.
Led by its namesake who was a local preacher, he and his rebels killed between 55 to 65 white people, making it the deadliest slave revolt for white people in American history.
It created mass hysteria among White people in the South with militia and mobs killing more than 120 slaves and free African-Americans in retaliation.
After the leaders and participants were caughta and tried, 56 slaves were executed, including its leader.
Because the leader was educated and literate, souther states subsequently passed laws prohibiting the education of slaves and free Black people, restricting the right to assembly without white supervision.
Nat Turner Insurrection
What attacks did the Democratic-Republican press hurl against James Ross in the 1799 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race?
They tied Ross with the locally unpopular policies of the Adams administration (Alien and Sedition Acts) and the High Federalists in Congress and supported Jay's Treaty.
Why did the James Callender sedition trial in Richmond in 1800 backfire on Federalists?
There was no D-R violence or opposition so it made Federalists look oppressive rather D-Rs as reactionary and riotous.
How many men in all were in the South Carolina legislature (House of Representatives and Senate) to elect 8 electors among 16 candidates?
151
An American author and statesman who is credited with turning the position of Attorney General into a seat of major influence and power.
He was the longest-serving attorney general in U.S. history, serving under presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams for 12 years. He was also the Anti-Masonic nominee for president in the Election of 1832 where he became the first third-party presidential candidate to win a state's Electoral College votes (Vermont).
His first major case was as prosecutor in Aaron Burr's treason trial. After leaving the Cabinet, he would represent the Cherokee in the Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia.
William Wirt
A short-lived Democratic-Republican newspaper published in Philadelphia by Philip Freneau from 1791 to 1793.
Founded at the urging of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, it was created to counteract the Federalist Party paper the Gazette of the United States.
It is unique in that it was substantially supported by a major player within a sitting administration (Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson). Jefferson would also hire Freneau as a State Department translator for an annual salary of $250.
The paper would die due to an outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia combined with dwindling subscriptions. In addition, Jefferson would leave the cabinet in 1793, thus shutting off Freneau's main leak in the White House.
The National Gazette
In 1792, what happened to Jefferson's reform-minded nobelman friend Duc de La Rochefoucauld?
The Duke was pulled from his coach and killed in front of his mother and wife by a political contingent of the French army attacking nobleman during war with Prussia.
What other trick did Federalists engage in in Virginia during the electors process?
Federalists nominated one candidate with the same first and last name as that of his opponent, forcing Democratic-Republican voters to identify their candidate's middle initial when voting.
In his book Notes on the State of Virginia what three details in did opponents highlight to prove that Thomas Jefferson was religiously unfit to be president?
He denied the existence of the flood in the Noah and the Ark story.
- He claimed different races of people had separate origins and not one common ancestor (i.e. Adam and Eve)
- He proposed that public school students learn history rather than study the Bible.