Sedition Act
When: 1789-1815
What: act of Congress making common law libel or slander of officials in the federal government a federal crime
Who and significance: passed by Federalist majorities in Congress, signed and enforced by Federalist president John Adams; upheld by, and accused found guilty and sentenced in Federalist federal courts; resulted in several leading Republican newspaper editors going to jail because their papers criticized Federalist policy

Kentucky & Virginia Resolutions
When: 1789-1815
Who: Kentucky resolutions written by Jefferson, Virginia Resolutions written by Madison; passed by Republican majorities in the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures
What and significance:  declared that the Sedition Act was unconstitutional for (several reasons including) its violation of the 1st Amendment; Republicans campaigned supporting the resolutions in the election of 1800

Election of 1800
Who: Republican Thomas Jefferson defeats Federalist John Adams for president; Federalists lose and  Republicans win the majority in both houses of Congress
What and significance: Republicans replace Federalists as the majority political party in the country; Federalist era over, Republican era begins; Jefferson said it was a "revolution" and such elections--called revolutionary elections--have remained rare in American history

Louisiana Purchase
When: 1789-1815
What, where: treaty between U. S. and France
Who, where, what: Jefferson administration; U. S. negotiators, James Monroe and Robert Livingston; Napoleon (France) had pressured Spain to concede Louisiana and--given the threat of a possible U. S.-British alliance and Napoleon's need for funds to continue the war with Britain--he sells it to the U. S. for $15,000,000
What and significance: U. S. gets New Orleans and land from the Mississippi River to the Rockies

Battle of New Orleans
When: 1789-1815, during the War of 1812
Who: U. S. commander, Andrew Jackson; an "army" of Choctaw Indians, free blacks, pirates, French militia, and TN and KY riflemen
What, where: U. S. to defend New Orleans from a British invasion; Jackson uses swampy terrain and a wall of mud and cotton
What and significance: the U. S. riflemen provided the most effective fire against a frontal assault by the British, who, after 2500 casualties, retreated back to their ships; U. S. victory; Americans see it as the battle that wins the war for the U. S.; makes Jackson a hero and kicks off the "Era of Good Feelings"

Dolley Madison
When: 1789-1815
Who: wife of president James Madison
What and significance: important in developing the role of the First Lady, as hostess for government dinners and other ceremonies, at the White House; one of the organizers of removing documents and art out of Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812, before the British captured and burned the city

"Era of Good Feelings"
When: this "era" was from about 1815 to 1819
What and significance: a period when many Americans were caught up in a nationalistic, patriotic mood, feeling very good about America; began with the victory at the Battle of New Orleans, and the end of the War of 1812; the majority of Americans were Republicans happy to see the demise of the Federalist party; a sense of western expansion due to the defeat of the Creeks and Tecumseh's Indian alliance, with several territories ready to become states (IN, MS, IL, AL, MO; and prosperity fueled by an expanded banking system; ended by the Panic of 1819

Eli Whitney
When: 1789-1815
What and significance: invented the cotton gin which removed the seeds from cotton; made the vast expansion of cotton possible, very important for the U. S. economy; advocate of interchangeable parts; mass produced guns in factories
Where: the cotton gin helped to develop the area from the Up Country of the Lower South to Texas; his gun factories were in New England

Robert Fulton
When: 1789-1815
What and significance: first to successfully propel a boat with a steam engine; built and operated steamboats; allowed large vessels to move up river against a strong current; made rivers 2-way streets
Where: his steamboats were on the Hudson River; steamboats were important in commerce on all major U. S. rivers and also on the Great Lakes

Panic of 1819
Who and what: came after credit boom from the expanded banking system, particularly state banks; farmers had heavily borrowed to buy land and expand production; overproduction and falling prices led to loan delinquencies; local banks failed as central banks called in loans; news of bank failures led to "runs on the banks;" many left with worthless bank notes
What and significance: causes a depression that lasted into the mid-1820s; left many farmers with bad feelings about banks

Missouri Compromise
1820-21
Who: act of Congress
What: came after a politicizing of slavery, making an issue of MO becoming another state with plantations using slave labor
What and significance: compromise, MO would enter with slavery, the southern MO border to run to Rockies, slavery allowed below, prohibited above; introduces an issue to geographically divide the union, and raises the constitutional question of whether Congress can set the terms of how a territory will become a state

Erie Canal
When: 1815-40
Where: state of New York, ran from Lake Erie to the Hudson River system
What, where, and significance: the major success of the canal building era; important in commerce in connecting the Old NW with the eastern regions; made New York City the Atlantic port city for the Great Lakes

"Bank War"
When: 1815-40
Who: Jackson, Democrats in Congress
What: as the corporate charter of the Bank of the United States was coming due; president Jackson vetoed a bill by Congress that would recharter the bank; denounced the bank as monopolistic and aristocratic; called for ending the national banking system; gets support among Democrats in Congress not to pass another bill to recharter the bank; its charter ends
Significance: the U. S. no longer had a national banking system, but only state banks

Indian Removal Act
When: 1815-40
Who: called for by Jackson, passed by Democrat Congress, enforced by president Jackson
What: act of Congress, that Indians east of the Mississippi would be removed to areas west of the river
What and significance: Indian nations, including Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks, were forced by the army to move to Oklahoma reservations; opens up land for settlement mainly in the Old SW, but also the Old NW (particularly Wisc) and part of the Lower South and Florida

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
When: 1840-60
Who: Polk administration
What and where:  treaty between the U. S. and Mexico
What, where, and significance: treaty ends the Mexican War; a treaty at gunpoint, the U. S. army having taken Mexico City; meets president Polk's objectives in fulfilling America's Manifest Destiny; Mexico recognizes Texas as part of the U. S., that the boundary is the Rio Grande, that all land from Texas through California is given to the U. S., and the U. S. pays $15,000,000 to Mexico for the new territory

Cyrus McCormick
When: 1840-60
Where: Old NW
What and significance: important in mechanizing farms; invented and in factories mass produced farm machinery, inventing and selling combine harvesters of grain products allowing more to be harvested faster

John Deere
When: 1840-60
Where: Old NW
What and significance: important in the agriculture; in factories mass produced farm tools and machinery; used the railroads and local general store owners as agents to market his products; began with a plow, the first tractors to have steam engines

Stephen Douglass
When: 1840-60
Where: U. S. Senator from Illinois; major northern Democrat
What and significance: advocate of federal and state land being given to railroad companies to subsidize their ability to raise money to build the lines; main author of the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act; advocate of "Popular Sovereignty," as a democratic solution to the issue of new territory either having or prohibiting slavery, that the people moving into a territory will decide for themselves by majority vote.

William Garrison
When: 1840-60
Where: Boston, Mass.
What and significance: editor of The Liberator, the top anti-slavery newspaper; founder and president of the American Anti-Slavery Society, the main anti-slavery organization; major leader in the anti-slavery movement; critic of the U. S. Constitution for allowing slavery to exist in America; advocated restricting or ending the domestic slave trade and preventing the expansion of slavery into new western territories.

Uncle Tom's Cabin
When: 1840-60
Who: Harriet Beecher Stowe
What and significance: most popular fictional work in 1850s America; first serialized in newspapers and magazines before being published as a book; most came in contact with it through local theatre dramatization; condemned slavery as immoral and corrupting society; helped to get people from New England through the Old NW talking about problems connected with slavery

Compromise of 1850
1840-60; act of Congress; main author, Stephen Douglass; an attempted compromise that failed to resolve differences between anti- and pro-slavery sides; terms included California entering the union without slavery, the status of the land between Texas and California being determined by "popular sovereignty," the people moving into the territory deciding on whether or not they want slavery, the slave market being closed in Washington, D. C., and a fugitive slave law asserting federal jurisdiction over slaves escaping across state boundaries

Kansas-Nebraska Act
1840-60; act of Congress; main author, Stephen Douglass; an attempted compromise that failed to resolve differences between anti- and pro-slavery sides; the status of the Kansas and Nebraska territories to be determined by "popular sovereignty," the people moving into the territory deciding on whether or not they want slavery

Dred Scott v. Sandford
1840-60; decision by U. S. Supreme Court, Roger Taney the chief justice; the Court put its prestige on the line to try to resolve the growing conflict between anti- and pro-slavery sides over questions regarding slavery expansion into western territories; Court ruled with the pro-slavery side, that Congress cannot restrict the carrying of slaves, being legal property, into western territories; declared that the MO Compromise was unconstitutional; decision failed to resolve the conflict, and was condemned by the anti-slavery side.

National Bank Act
1860-77; act of Congress; passed by Republicans; main author, Salmon Chase; reestablished a national banking system, with Congress chartered national banks; connected national debt to the money supply; established a standard money taxing state bank notes out of existence; important as a financial advantage for the U.S.A. in the Civil War over the C. S. A.

Morrill Land Grant Act
1860-77; act of Congress; passed by Republicans; main author, Justin Smith Morrill; federal government grants of land to states for the purpose of establishing or further developing state colleges and universities in the general area of applied science (engineering and technology) and the specific areas of agriculture and mining.

Civil War Amendments
1860-77; drawn up by Republicans, proposed in Congress, ratified by states; 13th Amendment abolished slavery; provisions of the 14th Amendment include establishing national citizenship, which sets up dual citizenship, Americans having both national and state citizenship; and the 15th Amendment makes unconstitutional the prevention of voting on the basis of race, though blacks would still be disenfranchised through such devices as literacy tests and poll taxes.