Ap Us History: Unit 4: Chapter 9: Key Terms

Front 1

Revolution of 1800

Back 1

Electoral victory of Democratic Republicans over the Federalists, who lost their Congressional majority and the presidency. The peaceful transfer of power between rival parties solidified faith in America’s political system.

Front 2

midnight judges

Back 2

Federal justices appointed by John Adams during the last days of his presidency. Their positions were revoked when the newly-elected Republican Congress repealed the Judiciary Act.

Front 3

Louisiana Purchase

Back 3

Acquisition of Louisiana territory from France. The purchase more than doubled the territory of the United States, opening vast tracts for settlement.

Front 4

impressment

Back 4

Act of forcibly drafting an individual into military service, employed by the British navy against American seamen in times of war against France, 1793–1815. Impressment was a continual source of conflict between Britain and the United States in the early national period.

Front 5

Non-Intercourse Act

Back 5

Passed alongside the repeal of the Embargo Act, it reopened trade with all but the two belligerent nations, Britain and France. The Act continued Jefferson’s policy of economic coercion, still with little effect.

Front 6

Battle of Tippecanoe

Back 6

Resulted in the defeat of Shawnee chief Tenskwatawa, “the Prophet” at the hands William Henry Harrison in the Indiana wilderness. After the battle, the Prophet’s brother, Tecumseh, forged an alliance with the British against the United States.

Front 7

patronage

Back 7

Practice of rewarding political support with special favors, often in the form of public office. Upon assuming office, Thomas Jefferson dismissed few Federalist employees, leaving scant openings to fill with political appointees.

Front 8

Marbury v. Madison

Back 8

Supreme Court case that established the principle of “judicial review”—the idea that the Supreme Court had the final authority to determine constitutionality. (

Front 9

Corps of Discovery

Back 9

Team of adventurers, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore Louisiana Territory and find a water route to the Pacific. Louis and Clark brought back detailed accounts of the West’s flora, fauna and native populations, and their voyage demonstrated the viability of overland travel to the west.

Front 10

Chesapeake Affair

Back 10

Conflict between Britain and the United States that precipitated the 1807 embargo. The conflict developed when a British ship, in search of deserters, fired on the American Chesapeake off the coast of Virginia.

Front 11

Macon’s Bill No. 2

Back 11

Aimed at resuming peaceful trade with Britain and France, the act stipulated that if either Britain or France repealed its trade restrictions, the United States would reinstate the embargo against the nonrepealing nation. When Napoleon offered to lift his restrictions on British ports, the United States was forced to declare an embargo on Britain, thereby pushing the two nations closer toward war.

Front 12

Tripolitan War

Back 12

Four-year conflict between the American Navy and the North-African nation of Tripoli over piracy in the Mediterranean. Jefferson, a staunch noninterventionist, reluctantly deployed American forces, eventually securing a peace treaty with Tripoli.

Front 13

Orders in Council

Back 13

Edicts issued by the British Crown closing French-owned European ports to foreign shipping. The French responded by ordering the seizure of all vessels entering British ports, thereby cutting off American merchants from trade with both parties.

Front 14

Embargo Act

Back 14

Enacted in response to British and French mistreatment of American merchants, the Act banned the export of all goods from the United States to any foreign port. The embargo placed great strains on the American economy while only marginally affecting its European targets, and was therefore repealed in 1809.

Front 15

war hawks

Back 15

Democratic-Republican Congressmen who pressed James Madison to declare war on Britain. Largely drawn from the South and West, the war hawks resented British constraints on American trade and accused the British of supporting Indian attacks against American settlements on the frontier.

Front 16

Judiciary Act of 1801

Back 16

Passed by the departing Federalist Congress, it created sixteen new federal judgeships ensuring a Federalist hold on the judiciary.