American History 2

George Washington – 1st president of the United States (Federalist government)

- wise leader (his name is connected to the consolidation of the national government,
national bank + policies for the settlement of territories

→ The Departments of State & Treasury (Thomas Jefferson & Alexander Hamilton =
appointed Secretaries)

→ the American Presidential Cabinet (reunites the heads of all Congress-created

departments)

- country growth, increasing immigration from Europe, Americans moving westward

- dawn of the Industrial Revolution (various industries – textiles, glass, iron, paper
etc.)

Federalists (Hamilton = urban mercantile interests of seaports → central government,

industrial development, businessmen: pro-British) ↔ Antifederalists (Jefferson = rural
& southern interests → decentralized agrarian republic; pro-French) =›
REPUBLICANS

1797 – John Adams (Federalist president)

- undeclared naval war with France (sea battles, crisis)
↓
Alien and Sedition Acts (passed by the Congress, 1798) – repression against
Republicans + their supporters

[Naturalization Act – requirement for citizenship: 14 years (up from 5) – directed

against Irish & French immigrants, pro-Republican individuals
Alien Act – President: granted power to expel/imprison ‘dangerous’ aliens in times of
war
Sedition Act – proscribed writing, speaking, publishing anything of a “false, scandalous
or malicious nature” against the President or the Congress)
↓
opposition by Jefferson + J. Madison

→ 1801: Thomas Jefferson - president (ends Acts)

- 1803: bought huge Louisiana territory from France for $15 million (during the
French-British wars, Napoleon sold the territory to put Louisiana beyond British
reach)
- Thus doubled the country’s territory (West: Rocky Mountains; one of world’s
greatest granaries + plains, mountains, forests, rivers)

- 1805: 2nd Jefferson mandate – declared neutrality during the Britain vs. France
wars
→ harassment of American merchant ships
→ embargo on American exports to Europe (repealed in 1809)
↓
American History 2
1809: James Madison = president
Report: instances in which British (in Canada) had hurt Americans, instigated Indians
against them
→ American desire to conquer Canada (to eliminate the British influence, and open new
lands for colonization)

- country: internally divided – South + West favored war

- New York + New England opposed it (it interfered w/ their commerce)

THE WAR OF 1812

- about 7000 trained soldiers in scattered posts + undisciplined state militias

→ American warships: scored some impressive victories BUT the vastly superior
British Navy blockaded American ports
- the attempts to invade British Canada miscarried → British occupation of Detroit

- 1813: campaign on Lake Erie → General Harrison occupied Detroit + pushed into
Canada (British + Indian defeat) → American control

- 1814 (August 24) – British forces captured + burned Washington (president Madison
fled to Virginia)

→ Britain & the U.S. agreed on a compromise peace: The Treaty of Ghent (December
1814)
– cessation of hostilities, restoration of conquests, commission to settle boundary
disputes

- meanwhile, general Andrew Jackson scored the greatest land victory in New
Orleans, Louisiana

The “Era of Good Feelings”

– period of rapid economic expansion

- national network of roads and canals, steamboats on rivers
- first steam railroad – Baltimore, Maryland, 1830
- The Industrial Revolution: growth of manufacturers, technological developments
(textile mills, iron foundries, factories – rubber goods, sewing machines, shoes,
clothing, farm implements, guns, clocks)

The Westward Movement

- settlers begin to cross the Mississippi;

- Native Americans are pushed farther West, theirs lands – occupied
- division of old territories, drawing of new boundaries
- (1816-1821: Indiana, Illinois, Maine – free states;
 Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri – slave states)

- 1828: Andrew Jackson = first president born into a poor family in the West
American History 2
- heir to Jefferson’s Republicans: creed of popular democracy, appeal to the humble
members of the society (farmers, mechanics, laborers)

Post-war prosperity: critically described by Alexis de Tocqueville – Democracy in America

The Panic of 1819: first major financial crisis in the U.S. – until 1824 (gradual recovery)

- Latin American revolutions (first decades of 19th century) → new countries by 1822

→ 1823: president James Monroe – The Monroe Doctrine

- refusal to tolerate any further expansion of European domination in the Americas,

solidarity with the new republics

Ideas:

The Western Hemisphere = no longer open for colonization;

The political system of Americas = different from Europe;
The U.S. would regard any interference in Western hemispheric affairs as threat to its
own security;
The U.S. would refrain from participation in European wars + would not disturb existing
colonies in the Western Hemisphere
↓
- no immediate attempts at recreating Spanish empire
- the doctrine kept Spain, France, and others out of the region: Britain remained,
however, the dominant trade power in Latin America
- Latin American countries resented the U.S.’ “Big Brother” attitude

THE MEXICAN WAR (1846-1848)

- thousands of Americans had been settling in Texas (the part of Mexico)

- Texas found General Santa Anna rule oppressive → rebellion → the creation of the
independent Republic of Texas (1835)
- 1845: the U.S. annexed Texas and Mexico suspended diplomatic relations
- 1847: the American army captured Mexico City
→ for $15 million, Mexico surrendered an enormous territory (most of today’s
California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado)

1846: by the settlement of border dispute with British Canada, the U.S. acquired today’s
Oregon, Washington, Idaho
→ America = continental power (from the Atlantic to the Pacific)

Standing issue: SLAVERY

American History 2
- “all men are created equal” (Declaration of Independence) = meaningless to 1.5
million black slaves
- many northern states moved towards the abolition of slavery ↔ Southern states –
based on plantations, use slave workers (cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar)

- constant debate upon the legal status of slavery in the new western territories

- 1850 (compromise): California = free state; Utah + New Mexico = allowed to decide
- The Fugitive Slave Act (the Southerners could recapture the slaves who had escaped
to free states)
- The abolitionists did not enforce the law and continued assisting fleeing blacks

- Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin (anti-slavery novel)

- violent fights between pro- and anti-slavery settlers

- 1857: Supreme Court issued the Dred Scott decision:

o blacks had no rights as American citizens
o Congress had no authority to bar slavery in western territories

1858: Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party (new anti-slavery party, related to
Jefferson’s Republicans) – election for the US Senate

- historic debates, demands to halt the spread of slavery

- Lincoln’s famous speech after chosen to run for Senator – The House Divided
[“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that the government cannot last
as long as America is half slave and half free. Either the people against slavery will stop
it forever, or it will become lawful in all the states, old and new, north and south alike. I
do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do
expect it will cease to be divided”]

- slavery = presented as moral wrong: violated the Declaration of independence

- supported national legislation (aim: to restrict, abolish slavery)
- a concern of U.S. as a whole, not only of local inhabitants

- Lincoln lost the senatorial race

Presidential election – 1860: Lincoln = Republican’s candidate

(The Democrats: not united → split, separate candidates – Southern/Northern/Border states)

- The majority in Southern + Border states voted against Lincoln but the North –
supported him → Lincoln won
↓
The Confederate States of America (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina – 11) – voted
to leave the Union - Secession

↓
American History 2

CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865)

- The Confederates – war for independence

o fight on their home territory
o excellent morale, troops, preparation (many people who had served the U.S.
military prior to the war), great commanders
o BUT greatly outnumbered by the Union (Northern) forces
- The South lacked sufficient railroads, factories, industries to support the war

- The Union navy = dominant, army = better trained + supplied

- The Union navy imposed blockade
→ shortages of war material = consumer goods in Confederacy

Lincoln’s priorities: to keep the United States one country + to rid the nation of slavery

→ January 1, 1863: issued the Emancipation Proclamation – freedom to all slaves in

areas still controlled by Confederacy

- The Southern army won some victories (early part of the war)
- Summer of 1863: general Robert E. Lee marched north into Pennsylvania
→ Gettysburg = largest battle ever fought on American soil (Confederates = defeated)

→ November 19, 1863: The Gettysburg Address (maybe most famous in American
history) upon inauguration of the new national cemetery
– 3000 Union soldiers, 4000 Confederates dead

→ Vicksburg (on the Mississippi) – general Ulysses S. Grant captured after q six-week
siege
→ the Union controlled the entire Mississippi, splitting the Confederacy in two

- The Election of 1864: Lincoln wins a second mandate (after the capture of Atlanta
and other victories)
- in late 1863: his formal plan for reconstruction had been opposed by the Congress

- April 5, 1865: general Robert E. Lee is forced to abandon Richmond (Confederate

capital) + surrenders to general Ulysses S. Grant (followed by all Confederate forces)

- April 14, 1865: president Lincoln is assassinated by the Virginia actor John Wilkes
Booth (while at the theater, because the murderer was embittered by the South’s
defeat)
↓
Andrew Johnson (Lincoln’s vice-president; a Southerner loyal to the Union) – President

The Civil War = the most traumatic episode in American history (all others fought abroad)
- 635,000 soldiers dead on both sides
American History 2
TWO fundamental issues resolved:

1. it put an end to slavery, completely abolished by 13 th amendment to Constitution

(1865)
2. it was decided that America was not a collection of semi-independent states, but a
single indivisible nation
[ - pardons were granted to those taking a loyalty oath;
- no pardons were available to high Confederate officials + persons owning property in
excess of $20,000;
- states needed to abolish slavery before being readmitted;
- states required to repeal secession ordinance before being readmitted]
+ The Civil Rights Act (1866), The Reconstruction Acts (1867-1868) etc.