Manifest Destiny
This began when a significant number of American settlers in the region demanded greater autonomy from the Mexican government in 1835.
The Texas Revolt
Originally proposed by a Democrat from Michigan that allowed the decision of slavery within a territory to be decided upon by the settlers of the area.
Popular Sovereignty
Southern nationalists who hoped to split the Democratic Party country by forming an independent Southern Confederacy.
"Fire-Eaters"
Proposed by General Winfield Scott, blockade the South by cutting off ports and taking control of the Mississippi River. (Additional info, skip)
Anaconda Plan
Most famous "rehearsal for Reconstruction" that demonstrated the success of free wage labor turning a profit, but did not settle the issue of whether land ownership should accompany freedom.
Sea Island Experiment
The three main policy goals of this president were to reduce the tariff, reestablish the independent treasury system, and settle land disputes over OR and bring CA into the Union.
James K. Polk
Designed by Senator Henry Clay including four main provisions, the first of which provided CA would enter as a free state.
Compromise of 1850
Made up of mostly Unionist former Whigs who pledged to preserve the Constitution with slavery.
Constitutional Union Party
After Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the Union took on this new political identity.
Nation
Required a majority of white male southerners to pledge support for the Union before Reconstruction could begin, popular amongst Republicans.
Wade-Davis Bill
This 1846 proposed resolution would prohibit slavery from all territory acquired from Mexico and highlighted the increased sectional tension of the time.
Wilmot Proviso
The main incentive for Senator Douglas to introduce the Kansas and Nebraska Act was
To encourage western development by allowing for the construction of a transcontinental RR through the territories.
Pierre Soule, the American ambassador to Spain, persuaded ministers of Britain and France to join in signing this document that would enable the US to purchase or seize Cuba.
Ostend Manifesto
The Confiscation Acts
Three dominant labor systems seen in the South during Reconstruction.
Sharecropping, Tenant Farming, Crop-Lien System
The gain of harbors for trade in California led to this international result.
The "Opening of Japan" by Commodore Matthew Perry
One of it's major points was that Congress had no authority to bar slavery from a territory nor interfere with southerners' rights to bring slaves into western territories.
The Dred Scott Decision
A plan that embodied a series of unamendable constitutional amendments that would guarantee the future of slavery where it existed and extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific.
Crittenden Compromise (Additional Info, basically part of the emancipation)
Lincoln claimed this right under the presidential war powers that allowed prisoners to be held without charge. (Too specific, optional)
Suspension of Habeas Corpus
The Republican North's view of the South that would resemble a free society with public schools, small towns, and independent farmers.
Established in 1850 this limited voting and the right to testify in courts to whites, specifically excluding Native Americans, Asians, and African Americans.
California State Constitution
Drafted by a pro-southern convention in Kansas and supported by President Buchanan, even though it was never submitted to a popular vote. (Additional Info)
Lecompton Constitution
December of 1860 South Carolina voted to leaved the Union and issued this which placed the issue of slavery in the center of the crisis.
Declaration of the Immediate Causes of Secession
Main tactic employed by General Grant against the South in 1864. (Additional info, skip)
War of Attrition
President Johnson's plans for reuniting the nation with a series of proclamations pardoning white southerners and restoring their political and property rights.
Reconstruction