Term | Definition |
Northwest passage | A passage that, if found, would create a quick passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. |
Corps of Discovery | A group of people that included Meriwether Lewis and William Clark that took an expedition out west to discover what was out there. |
Filibuster | A private, unauthorized military adventurer, when he led three hundred men on an expedition across the Sabine River to take control of Texas. |
The Tallmadge Amendment | Denouncing slavery as immoral and opposed to the nation's founding principals of equality and liberty. |
Missouri Compromise | In 1820, Missouri and Maine became a state. Missouri supported slavery and Maine did not. |
Empresario | Someone who bought settlers to the region in exchange for generous grants of land. |
Tejanos | Residents of Texas, that got pushed out when people form other slave states pushed them out. |
Californios | The Mexican residents of California that wanted independence from Mexico. |
Mexican Cession | A conquest of land west of the Rio Grande. It included states like; California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and part of Colorado. |
Forty Niners | People who gathered around to create camps in California and realized it wasn't that easy to find gold in California. |
Liberty Party | Founded in 1840, was a single-issue party, who was veer anti-slavery. |
Free-Soil Party | Slogan- "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men." They were opposed to the extension of slavery into the territories. |
Barnburners | Martin Van Buren's anti-slavery supporters. |
Slave Power | Free soil party believing this far-fetched conspiracy of the slave holding elite to control both domestic policies for their own end. |
Spoils System | System that rewarded party loyalist. |
Corrupt Bargain | When Andrew Jackson appointed Henry Clay as Secretary of Sate and John C Calhoun labeled the whole affair the "Corrupt Bargain". |
The Theory of Nullification | Voiding of unwelcome federal laws, providing wealthy slaveholders, who were a minority in the United States, with an argument for resisting the national government if it acted contrary to their interest. |
Whig Party | Formed in 1834. Supported the national bank and also made their first national political appearance in the presidential election of 1836. |
Trail of Tears | The Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole Native Americans all walked from Georgia to Oklahoma. Thousands of Native Americans died. |
Second Party System | A system whereby the older Federalist and Democratic-Republican Parties had been replaced by a new Democrats and Whig Parties. |