G369 AP US History

Unit 3: Birth Of A Republic Key Terms

Baron von Steuben: A Prussian born aristocrat and military leader that assisted the American
cause during the Revolutionary War. The ill-equipped and poorly trained soldiers of the
Continental Army received badly needed training from von Steuben in the winter of 1777-78 at
Valley Forge. He helped improve troops general organization, camp sanitation and arrangement
of tents, firing and volley exchange methods, and command structure. He was critical in getting
the American military cause on track in the early years of the war.

Battle of Saratoga – a turning point of the Revolution in October 1777, when an army of
6,000 British soldiers surrendered in New York; the battle resulted from a British attempt to
divide the colonies through the Hudson River Valley. The American victory convinced the French
to ally with the colonies and assured the ultimate success of independence.

Battle of Yorktown – a siege that ended in October 1781when Washington trapped 8,000
British soldiers on a peninsula in Virginia after a British campaign in the southern colonies;
this defeat caused the British to cease large-scale fighting in America and to start
negotiations, which eventually led to the colonies’ independence.

Ben Franklin – America’s leading diplomat of the time who served as a statesman and advisor
throughout the Revolutionary era. He was active in all the prerevolutionary congresses and
helped to secure the French alliance of 1778 and the Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the
Revolution in 1783.

Boston Massacre – confrontation between British soldiers and Boston citizens in March
1770. The troops shot and killed five colonials. American radicals used the event to roil
relations between England and the colonies over the next five years.

Coercive Acts (1774) – British actions to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party;
they included closing the port of Boston, revoking Massachusetts’s charter, trying all British
colonial officials accused of misdeeds outside the colony, and housing British troops in private
dwellings. In the colonies, these laws were known as the Intolerable Acts, and they brought on
the First Continental Congress in 1774.

Declaratory Act (1766) -passed as the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act; a
face-saving action, it asserted Parliament's sovereignty over colonial taxation and legislative
policies.

George III -king of England during the American Revolution. Until 1776, the colonists
believed he supported their attempt to keep their rights. In reality, he was a strong advocate
for harsh policies toward them.

George Washington – commander of the colonial army; while not a military genius, his
integrity and judgment kept the army together. Ultimately, he was indispensable to the colonial
cause.

John Dickinson -conservative leader who wrote Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania; he
advocated for colonial rights but urged conciliation with England and opposed the Declaration of
Independence. Later, he helped write the Articles of Confederation.
John Jay – lead diplomat in negotiating the Treaty of Paris (1783); he secretly dealt with the
British representatives at Paris and gained all of America’s goals for independence despite the
deviousness and meddling of France and Spain.

John Locke – English philosopher who wrote that governments have a duty to protect
people’s life, liberty, and property; many colonial leaders read his ideas and incorporated
them into their political rhetoric and thinking.

Loyalists (Tories) – colonists who remained loyal to England; they often were older, better
educated people who were members of the Anglican Church. The British hoped to use them as
a pacification force but failed to organize them properly.

Marquis de Lafayette: is a French aristocrat and military leader that assisted the Americans
in the Revolutionary War. He was given command of troops and was of great assistance to the
American cause, particularly at the Battle of Yorktown. His status as a French aristocrat and
connection to France helped in securing French aid to the American cause.

Patrick Henry – an early advocate of independence who was a strong opponent of the Stamp
Act and great defender of individual rights; in 1775, he declared: “Give me liberty, or give me
death.”

Pontiac's Rebellion (1763) - Indian uprising in the Ohio Valley region that killed 2,000
settlers; as a result, the British sought peace with the Indians by prohibiting colonial settlement
west of the Appalachian Mountains (the Proclamation of 1763). The Americans saw this ban as
an unlawful restriction of their rights and generally ignored it.

Salutary neglect – British policy before 1763 of generally leaving the colonies alone to
conduct their own internal affairs; the abandonment of this policy after 1763 was a major
factor leading to revolution and independence.

Samuel Adams – agitator and leader of the Sons of Liberty, who supported independence
as soon as the British veered from salutary neglect; he was the primary leader of the
Boston Tea Party and later a delegate to the Continental Congress.

Seven Years War – fought between England and France, 1756-1763; known as the French and
Indian War in the colonies, it started in 1754, over control of the Ohio River Valley and resulted
in France’s withdrawal from North America. It was the impetus for Parliament’s taxing policy that
led to the American Revolution.

Sons of Liberty – street gangs that formed during the Stamp Act crisis to enforce the
boycotts and prevent the distribution and sale of the tax stamps; they were the vanguard
of the Revolution as they intimidated British officials with violence.

Stamp Act (1765) – a tax on more than fifty items such as pamphlets, newspapers, playing
cards, and dice; it set off a strong protest among the colonists, who claimed it was an internal
tax designed only to raise revenue and therefore unlawful for Parliament to levy.

Stamp Act Congress (1765) – met in New York City to protest the Stamp Act; nine of the
thirteen colonies petitioned the king and organized a boycott that eventually helped to force the
repeal of the tax. This meeting and action was a major step to colonial unity and resistance of
British authority.
Sugar Act (1764) – designed to raise revenue by stiffening the Molasses Act (1733),
establishing new customs regulations, and trying smugglers in British vice-admiralty courts; this
was the first attempt to tax the colonies in order to raise revenue rather than regulate trade. It
actually lowered the tax on imported sugar in hopes of discouraging smugglers and thereby
increasing collection of the tax.

Thomas Jefferson – lead author of the Declaration of Independence; in it, he explained the
colonists’ philosophy of government and the reasons for independence. He wrote that
governments that did not protect unalienable rights should be changed.

Thomas Paine – writer of Common Sense, an electrifying pamphlet of January 1776 calling for
a break with England; written with great passion and force, it swept the colonies and provided a
clear rationale for colonial independence.

Townshend Acts (1767) – levied taxes on imported items such as paper, glass, and tea; these
taxes were designed to address colonial resistance to “internal taxation” like the Stamp Act,
which had no connection to trade and was intended only to raise revenue. However, the colonials
viewed the Townshend Acts as revenue-raising measures and refused to pay these taxes as well.

Virtual representation -idea offered by Britain to colonists' demands for representation in

Parliament and to establish lawful authority to tax them; the explanation was that Parliament
was a collective representation of all Englishmen regardless of where they lived. According to
this argument, a group's interest was represented in London by virtue of it being English.
Colonial leaders rejected this position.
Critical Period and Federalist Era

Alexander Hamilton – strong nationalist, first secretary of the treasury; he supported a

strong central government and was founder of the Federalist Party.

Alien and Sedition Acts – series of acts designed to suppress perceived French agents
working against American neutrality; the acts gave the president power to deport “dangerous”
aliens, lengthen the residency requirement for citizenship, and restrict freedoms of speech and
press.

Annapolis Convention -meeting held at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786 to' discuss interstate
commerce; only five states sent delegates, but Alexander Hamilton used the forum to issue a
call for the states to meet the next spring to revise the Articles of Confederation. The Annapolis
Convention was a stepping-stone to creation of the Constitution.

Anti-Federalists – persons who opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution by the states; in
general, they feared the concentration of power the Constitution would place in the national
government.

Democratic Republican Party – political party led by Thomas Jefferson; it feared centralized
political power, supported states’ rights, opposed Hamilton’s financial plan, and supported ties
to France. It was heavily influenced by agrarian interests in the southern states.

Farewell Address – presidential message in which Washington warned the nation to avoid both
entangling foreign alliances and domestic “factions” (political parties); the ideas of the address
became the basis of isolationist arguments for the next 150 years.
Federalist Papers – eighty-five essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and
John Jay and published in newspapers to convince New York to ratify the Constitution; taken
together, they are seen as a treatise on the foundations of the Constitution.

Federalist Party – political party led by Alexander Hamilton; it favored a strong central
government, commercial interests, Hamilton’s financial plan, and close ties to England. Its
membership was strongest among the merchant class and property owners.

Federalists – persons who favored ratification of the U.S. Constitution by the states; they are
not to be confused with the later Federalist Party.

Great Compromise -broke the impasse at the Constitutional Convention over congressional
representation.
Congress would consist of two houses-seats in the lower assigned according to each state's
population and states having equal representation in the upper chamber.

James Madison – strong nationalist who organized the Annapolis Convention, authored the
Virginia Plan for the Constitution, and drafted the constitutional amendments that became
the Bill of Rights; he was also a founding member of the Democratic Republican Party.

Jay’s Treaty (1794) – agreement that provided England would evacuate a series of forts in
U.S. territory along the Great Lakes; in return, the United States agreed to pay
pre-Revolutionary War debts owed to Britain. The British also partially opened the West Indies to
American shipping. The treaty was barely ratified in the face of strong Republican opposition.

Loose constructionist – person who believes that the “elastic clause” of the Constitution
(Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 18) gives the central government wide latitude of action; loose
constructionists hold that even powers not explicitly set forth in the Constitution may be
exercised if it is “necessary and proper” to carry out powers that are specifically stated.

New Jersey Plan – offered by William Paterson to counter the Virginia Plan; it favored a
one-house of Congress with equal representation for each state. It maintained much of the
Articles of Confederation but strengthened the government’s power to tax and regulate
commerce.

Northwest Ordinance (1787) – the major success of Congress under the Articles of
Confederation that organized the Northwest Territory for future statehood; the law provided
territorial status for a region when its population reached 5,000. At 60,000, the territory could
petition for statehood with the same rights as existing states. It set into law the procedure for
expanding the nation that eventually led to the admission of many other new states.
Also, by outlawing slavery in the Northwest Territory, it represented the first action by the
national government against that institution.

Pinckney's Treaty (1795)-agreement with Spain that opened the Mississippi River to
American navigation and granted Americans the right of deposit in )\jew Orleans; Spain agreed
to the treaty because it feared that Jay's Treaty included an Anglo-American alliance.

Shays’s Rebellion – an uprising in western Massachusetts between August 1786 and February
1787 that closed the
courts and threatened revolution in the state; the central government’s inability to suppress the
revolt reinforced the belief that the Articles of Confederation needed to be strengthened or
abandoned.
Strict constructionist – person who interprets the Constitution very narrowly; a strict
constructionist believes that a power not explicitly stated in the Constitution could not be
exercised by government. Historically, strict
constructionists have hoped to restrict authority of the central government and preserve states’
rights.

Thomas Jefferson – first secretary of state, who led opposition to the Hamilton/Washington
plan to centralize power at the expense of the states; after founding the Democratic
Republican Party to oppose these plans, Jefferson was elected vice president in 1796 and
president in 1800.

Three-Fifths Compromise – agreement at the Constitutional Convention that broke the

impasse over taxation and representation in the House of Representatives; the delegates
agreed to count slaves as three-fifths of a person for both. This formula had been used in
1783 to make financial assessments among the states under the Articles.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions -reaction against the Sedition Act; written by Madison for
Virginia and Jefferson for Kentucky, they stated that when the national government exceeded its
powers under the Constitution, the states had the right to nullify the law. Essentially, the
resolutions held that the Constitution was a compact among the states and they were its final
arbiter.

Virginia Plan – Edmund Randolph’s and James Madison’s proposal for a new government that
would give Congress increased taxing and legislative power; it called for two houses of
Congress—an elected lower house and an upper house appointed by the lower house. Because
seats in Congress would be apportioned according to the states’ populations, this plan was
favored by the large states.

Whiskey Rebellion – uprising in western Pennsylvania in 1794 over an excise tax levied on
whiskey; farmers saw the tax as an unjust and illegal levy, like the Stamp Act. President
Washington crushed the rebellion with overwhelming force and thereby demonstrated the
power of the new government to maintain order and carry out the law.

XYZ Affair-- diplomatic effort by President John Adams to soothe the French, who were upset
over Jay's Treaty and American neutrality in their conflict with Britain; three American
delegates to France were told they must offer a bribe before any negotiations could begin.
They refused, and the humiliation heightened tensions between the two countries and set off
war hysteria in the United States.