| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Citizen Genêt | Edmond Charles Genêt. A French diplomat who came to the U.S. 1793 to ask the American government to send money and troops to aid the revolutionaries in the French Revolution. President Washington asked France to recall Genêt after Genêt began recruiting men and arming ships in U.S. ports. However, Washington later relented and allowed Genêt U.S. citizenship upon learning that the new French government planned to arrest Genêt. |
| Neutrality Proclamation | Washington's declaration that the U.S. would not take sides after the French Revolution touched off a war between France and a coalition consisting primarily of England, Austria and Prussia. Washington's Proclamation was technically a violation of the Franco-American Treaty of 1778. |
| XYZ Affair, Talleyrand | 1798 - A commission had been sent to France in 1797 to discuss the disputes that had arisen out of the U.S.'s refusal to honor the Franco-American Treaty of 1778. President Adams had also criticized the French Revolution, so France began to break off relations with the U.S. Adams sent delegates to meet with French foreign minister Talleyrand in the hopes of working things out. Talleyrand's three agents told the American delegates that they could meet with Talleyrand only in exchange for a very large bribe. The Americans did not pay the bribe, and in 1798 Adams made the incident public, substituting the letters "X, Y and Z" for the names of the three French agents in his report to Congress. |
| Undeclared naval war with France | Late 1790s - Beginning in 1794, the French had began seizing American vessels in retaliation for Jay's Treaty, so Congress responded by ordering the navy to attack any French ships on the American coast. The conflict became especially violent after the X,Y, Z Affair. A peace convention in 1800 with the newly installed dictator, Napoleon, ended the conflict. |
| Convention of 1800 | A conference between the U.S. and France which ended the naval hostilities. |
| British seizure of American ships | France blocked English ports during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s; England responded by blocking French ports. The British seized neutral American merchant ships which tried to trade at French ports. |
| Rule of 1756 | A British proclamation that said that neutral countries could not trade with both of two warring nations; they had to chose sides and only trade with one of the nations. This justified Britain's seizure of neutral American ships during the war between Britain and France in the early 1800s. |
| Northwest Posts | British fur-trading posts in the Northwest territory. Their presence in the U.S. led to continued British-American conflicts. |
| Jay's Treaty | 1794 - It was signed in the hopes of settling the growing conflicts between the U.S. and Britain. It dealt with the Northwest posts and trade on the Mississippi River. It was unpopular with most Americans because it did not punish Britain for the attacks on neutral American ships. It was particularly unpopular with France, because the U.S. also accepted the British restrictions on the rights of neutrals. |
| Was Jacksonianism an attack on privilege? | To some extent, it was. Jackson opposed monopolies and the privileged class of society; he attacked the national bank for this reason. He advocated increased popular participation in government and greater opportunity for the common man. |
| Bank war: its enemies and defenders | During Jackson's presidency, this was a struggle between those who wanted to keep the national bank in operation and those who wanted to abolish it. Jackson and states' rights advocates opposed the national bank, which they felt imposed discriminatory credit restrictions on local banks, making it more difficult for farmers and small businessmen to obtain loans. The bank was defended by Nicholas Biddle and Henry Clay, the National Republicans, the wealthy, and larger merchants, who felt that local banks credit policies were irresponsible and would lead to a depression. |
| Bank war: Veto message by Andrew Jackson | 1832 - President Jackson vetoed the bill to recharter the national bank. |
| Bank war: laws from 1800 to 1865 on banking | These laws moved away from favoring the national bank towards favoring state banks. |
| Changes in federal land laws and policies | The Land Acts of 1800 and 1820, and the Preemptive Acts of the 1830s and 1840s lowered the price of land and made it easier for prospective settlers to acquire it. This encouraged people to move west. |
| Changes and improvements in transportation and its effect | These included canals in the Great Lakes region, toll roads, steamboats, and clipper ships. The result was faster trade and easier access to the western frontier. It aided the growth of the nation. |
| President Jefferson | He believed in a less aristocratic presidency. He wanted to reduce federal spending and government interference in everyday life. He was a Democratic-Republican (originally an Anti- Federalist), so he believed in strict interpretation of the Constitution. |
| Vice-President Burr | Aaron Burr was one of the leading Democratic-Republicans of New york, and served as a U.S. Senator from New York from 1791-1797. He was the principal opponent of Alexander Hamilton's Federalist policies. In the election of 1800, Burr tied with Jefferson in the Electoral College. The House of Representatives awarded the Presidency to Jefferson and made Burr Vice- President. |
| Sec. of Treasury Gallatin | Albert Gallatin was a Swiss immigrant who was a financial genius and served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1801 - 1814 under Presidents Jefferson and Madison. He advocated free trade and opposed the Federalists' economic policies. Gallatin was a member of the U.S. delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, and later served as Ambassador to France and to Britain. |
| Jefferson's Inaugural Address, "We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans" | Jefferson (a Republican) declared that he wanted to keep the nation unified and avoid partisan conflicts. |
| Federalist control of courts and judges, midnight judges | On his last day in office, President Adams appointed a large number of Federalist judges to the federal courts in an effort to maintain Federalist control of the government. (The Federalists had lost the presidency and much of Congress to the Republicans.) These newly-appointed Federalist judges were called midnight judges because John Adams had stayed up until midnight signing the appointments. |
| Justice Samuel Chase | A Federalist judge appointed by Washington to the Supreme Court. Chase had been a Revolutionary War hero, and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson disagreed with his rulings and had him impeached for publicly criticizing the Jefferson administration to the Maryland grand jury. Chase was acquited by the Senate, and the impeachment failed. (This is the only attempt in history to impeach a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.) |
| Tripolitan War (1801-1805) | Also called the Barbary Wars, this was a series of naval engagements launched by President Jefferson in an effort to stop the attacks on American merchant ships by the Barbary pirates. The war was inconclusive, afterwards, the U.S. paid a tribute to the Barbary states to protect their ships from pirate attacks. |
| Treaty of Sam Ildefonso | 1800 - In this treaty, Spain gave the Louisiana territory back to France (France had lost it to Spain in the Seven Years War). |
| Toussaint L'Overture | 1803 - Led a slave rebellion which took control of Haiti, the most important island of France's Caribbean possessions. The rebellion led Napoleon to feel that New World colonies were more trouble than they were worth, and encouraged him to sell Louisiana to the U.S. |
| Hamilton-Burr duel | After Burr lost to Jefferson as a Republican, he switched to the Federalist party and ran for governor of New York. When he lost, he blamed Hamilton (a successful Federalist politician) of making defamatory remarks that cost him the election. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, in which Hamilton was killed on July 11, 1804. |
| Burr expedition, treason trial | After the duel, Burr fled New York and joined a group of mercenaries in the southern Louisiana territory region. The U.S. arrested them as they moved towards Mexico. Burr claimed that they had intended to attack Mexico, but the U.S. believed that they were actually trying to get Mexican aid to start a secession movement in the territories. Burr was tried for treason, and although Jefferson advocated Burr's punishment, the Supreme Court acquitted Burr. |
| Pike, Major Long, their observations | Zebulon Pike explored (1805-1807) Minnesota and the Southwest, mapped the region, and spied on the Spanish whenever his exploration took him into their territory. (He was eventually captured by the Spanish, but the U.S. arranged for his release.) Major Long explored the middle of the Louisiana Purchase region (Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado) and concluded that it was a worthless "Great American Desert." |
| Berlin Decree (1806), Milan Decree (1807) | These decrees issued by Napoleon dealt with shipping and led to the War of 1812. The Berlin Decree initiated the Continental System, which closed European ports to ships which had docked in Britain. The Milan Decree authorized French ships to seize neutral shipping vessels trying to trade at British ports. |
| Polly case, Essex case | These dealt with the impressment of sailors. |
| Orders-in-council | British laws which led to the War of 1812. Orders-in-council passed in 1807 permitted the impressment of sailors and forbade neutral ships from visiting ports from which Britain was excluded unless they first went to Britain and traded for British goods. |
| Impressment | British seamen often deserted to join the American merchant marines. The British would board American vessels in order to retrieve the deserters, and often seized any sailor who could not prove that he was an American citizen and not British. |
| Chesapeake-Leopard Affair | 1807 - The American ship Chesapeake refused to allow the British on the Leopard to board to look for deserters. In response, the Leopard fired on the Chesapeake. As a result of the incident, the U.S. expelled all British ships from its waters until Britain issued an apology. They surrendered the colony to the English on Sept. 8, 1664. |
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