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| British Prime Minister who introduced several taxes to British North America, including the Stamp Act, to help pay for the costs of the Seven Years War |
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| This was one of several tax measures the British imposed on the colonies to help pay for the costs of the Seven Years’ War. |
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| This was one of several tax measures the British imposed on the colonies to help pay for the costs of the Seven Years’ War. |
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| When the Grenville government introduced this tax on all public and legal documents, the subsequent crisis prompted colonists to create the first Committees of Correspondence to express colonial opposition to the tax and to Parliament’s right to tax them. |
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| This was one of several measures the British imposed on the colonies to assert British control. Vice Admiralty Courts heard cases involving Crown interests and the accused had no right to a jury trial. |
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| Influential Virginia lawyer, author of the Virginia Resolves, and a leader of the Patriot cause. |
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| Patrick Henry introduced a series of resolutions to the Virginia House of Burgesses that declared only the Virginia House of Burgesses could tax Virginians. This was in response to the Stamp Act of 1765. |
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| This was an organization of patriots that directed colonial opposition to British policies. |
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| This was an organization of patriot women who aided the Sons of Liberty in opposing British policies and boycotting British goods. |
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| The Sons of Liberty organized the boycott of British goods during the Stamp Act crisis in 1765 and after the passage of the Coercive Acts in 1774. |
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| This act accompanied the repeal of the Stamp act and declared that Parliament could legislate for the colonies in any case whatsoever. |
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| This was the name colonists gave to a confrontation between British soldiers and residents of Boston in which five colonists were killed. Contributed to growing tensions between the British government and the colonies. Also resulted in passage of an act that would allow British soldiers accused of a crime to be tried outside of the colony where the alleged crime occurred. |
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| Committees of Correspondence |
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| The Sons of Liberty used Committees of Correspondence to communicate colonial interests and opposition to British policies. These committees were formed in every major and many minor cities across the thirteen colonies in response to the Stamp Act Crisis and the crisis following passage of the Coercive Acts. |
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| This act granted a monopoly on the sale of tea in the colonies to a company in which members of Parliament had invested that was threatened with bankruptcy. |
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| This was an act of defiance against the Tea Act held in Boston in 1774. Thousand of pounds worth of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor. It resulted in the passage of the Coercive Acts. |
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| These Acts were imposed on the colonists in the wake of the Boston Tea Party. They closed Boston Harbor, rescinded Massachusetts’ Charter, and alienated many colonists from British rule. |
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| This was an organization created in 1774 to determine a united colonial policy toward the Coercive Acts. It became the de facto government of the colonies and eventually adopted the Articles of Confederation. |
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| Lord Dunmore Proclamation |
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| Dunmore was the royal governor of Virginia. During the War for Independence, he offered freedom to slaves that fought for the British. |
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| Thomas Paine wrote this pamphlet in 1776 to encourage colonists to endorse independence from Great Britain. He drew upon the Doctrine of Two Spheres to help demonstrate why the interests of the colonists were different from those of Great Britain. |
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| Declaration of Independence |
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| This document declared American independence from Great Britain. A committee assigned Thomas Jefferson as the principal author. The document asserts several universal rights, but also includes a scathing indictment of George III. |
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| Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union |
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| The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were the first organizing principles of a central government. They allowed for strong state governments at the expense of the central government. The title suggests that the authors thought of the Union as indissoluble. |
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| This battle occurred in October 1777. American forces defeated British General Johnny Burgoyne Burgoyne surrendered and the Americans got not only his army, but also its supplies. This victory demonstrated to the French that the colonials could win. It led them to recognize American independence and the creation of the Franco-American Alliance. |
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| This was one of the results of the American victory at Saratoga. Benjamin Franklin negotiated two treaties with the French as the result of the victory. One was a treaty of commerce and the other a treaty of alliance. |
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| George Washington defeated Lord Cornwallis’ forces at this battle in Virginia in 1780. It was the turning point in the War for Independence. The pro-war government in London fell and the new government actively sought peace with the Americans. |
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| This treaty ended the War for Independence. Great Britain recognized American independence and gave the new nation territory that doubled its size. Neither side lived up to several of the treaty’s provisions. |
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| This was a subject of particular interest to Abigail Adams. She wrote her husband John during the deliberations on the Declaration of Independence and asked him to keep in mind the rights of women. Women were among several groups who did not directly benefit from the statements of universal rights in the Declaration. |
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| Although the majority of Americans did not oppose slavery in the late eighteenth century, some groups did. Quakers called upon their brothers and sisters to free their slaves. Benjamin Rush wrote against slavery. Ben Franklin spoke against slavery in his last public involvement with Congress. The Constitution proscribed Congress from abolishing the international slave trade until 1 January 1808, when Congress did abolish the purchase of slaves from abroad |
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| This 1780 Act was the first attempt by a colonial government to provide for the gradual abolition of slavery. |
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| A series of laws passed that governed the organization of territories, the rights of their residents, and the process through which they could enter the Union. Provided that the proceeds from the sale of one section in each township be set aside to fund public schools. |
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| This was a rebellion Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shay led from 1786-1787 in Massachusetts against government foreclosures on farms for unpaid back taxes. The rebellion took two years to subdue and indicated the need for a stronger federal government. |
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| Constitutional Convention |
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| Recognizing the weaknesses of the government under the Articles of Confederations, Americans called for a Constitutional Convention to be held in Philadelphia starting in 1787. The convention was charged with developing the basis for a more effective central government. |
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| Madison was Thomas Jefferson’s protégé and the father of the Constitution. |
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| James Madison introduced this plan to the Constitutional Convention. His plan, although modified, would become the basis of the Constitution and promoted the system of checks and balances. The central government would be superior to state governments in many areas under this plan. |
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| William Paterson of New Jersey introduced this plan in opposition to Madison’s Virginia Plan at the Constitutional Convention. The New Jersey Plan would have retained most of the features of the Articles of Confederation and allowed states supremacy over the central government. |
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| This was a compromise between the interests of large and small population states during the Constitutional Convention. It resulted in proportional representation in the U.S. House and equal representation in the U.S. Senate. |
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| This institution was designed to meet the interests of men opposed to the direct election of the president. Electors from each state would cast their ballots for the candidate. |
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| Madison designed checks and balances between the three branches of government to prevent one from dominating the others. |
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| John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison wrote these in defense of the Constitution from 1787 to 1789 in order to explain the Constitution to the public and persuade citizens to support its ratification. |
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| This act created the Supreme Court and the system of Federal District Courts. The act also established the bases of appeals from state courts to federal courts, thus establishing the supremacy of the federal courts. |
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| This Judiciary Act of 1789 created the Supreme Court with a Chief Justice at its head and five Associate Justices. |
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| Some critics of the Constitution as it emerged from the convention based their opposition on the fact that it did not include specific rights that citizens should have with regard to government potential to abuse power. Thomas Jefferson was among those who wanted a Bill of Rights. He and others were assured that the amendment process would allow for such a declaration of specific rights. The 1st Congress considered 12 such amendments and adopted 10 of them. These first ten amendments are the Bill of Rights. |
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| Hamilton was the first Secretary of the Treasury and a close confidante of George Washington. He was influential in the creation of the federal government and the adoption of the Constitution. He was the leader of the Federalists, one of the two first political parties. The Federalists opposed Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans. |
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| Hamilton asserted that the federal government could use any legal means to accomplish Constitutional ends. He based this on the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution that gave the government the power to “make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States.” |
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| Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the first Secretary of State under the Constitution, and the third president of the U.S. He was also a major slaveholder and struggled with the issue of slavery on an intellectual level, even though he kept his slaves until the day he died. Benjamin Bannecker, a free black man and an accomplished man of letters, tried to dissuade Jefferson from his belief that African Americans were inferior to white Americans. |
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| Jefferson asserted that the Constitution should be held to a strict interpretation focused on specific powers granted to the federal government. All unspecified powers were reserved to the people and the states. |
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| This was Thomas Jefferson’s party. The supported states’ rights, opposed a strong federal government, and supported France of Great Britain. When Jefferson became president, he found it difficult to mesh his party views about a strong central government and his actual practices as president. |
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| This was Alexander Hamilton’s plan for the federal government to assume to states’ debts from the Revolutionary War. It was coupled with his desire to create a national bank and both would serve to strengthen the federal government with regard to the states. |
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| Bank of the United States |
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| Alexander Hamilton wanted to create a national bank to service the banking needs of the federal government. His opponents tried to prevent the bank from opening for a variety of reasons: some people thought it would benefit only the wealthy; some people thought the Constitution did not authorize such things; still other people feared it would center too much power in the central government. The bank was authorized, but the issue would remain a source of controversy. |
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| Whitney was an American inventor best known for his invention of the cotton gin. That invention made the production of short staple cotton highly profitable. |
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| This invention, patented in 1794, allowed farmers to profitably plant short staple cotton. Prior to the cotton gin, this variety of cotton was to labor intensive to clean from the boll to be profitable. |
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| This was a concept that allowed for mass production of machine made goods. |
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| Signed in 1795, this was one of the first important treaties the U.S. signed with Native American peoples after the adoption of the Constitution. The U.S. got most of what is now Ohio and other territory in exchange for $20,000 dollars and a promise of no further encroachment on Indian lands. |
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| Alexander Hamilton got Congress to increase the tax on domestic whiskey in 1791. This led to a revolt amongst corn producers. It was an early test of the power of the central government. George Washington put the rebellion down swiftly with federal force and sent the message that the federal government would not tolerate armed rebellion. |
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| Proclamation of Neutrality, 1793 |
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| The revolutionary wars of France placed the U.S. in a difficult position. George Washington feared that the basis of the Treaty of Alliance with France, France would call upon the U.S. to join it in its war against Great Britain. Washington determined that the U.S. would remain neutral. |
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| Genet was an agent of the French government who sought to influence American public opinion in favor of the French in their war against Great Britain. He violated official U.S. policies and George Washington had him declared persona non grata. His efforts to influence public opinion and interfere with U.S. policy contributed to Washington’s warnings in his Farewell Address. |
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| This treaty established commercial relations with Great Britain in 1794. It became the source of section and partisan tensions in that Westerners thought it favored New England interests and Republicans thought it favored Britain and hurt France. |
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| Washington's Farewell Address |
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| Washington told the American people that the U.S. should have commerce with all; Americans should avoid partisanship; and that the U.S. should avoid entangling alliances. He also set the precedent for not seeking a third term. |
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| One of the Founding Fathers, first Vice President of the United States, and second President of the U.S. He was a Federalist and a one term president. |
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| This was an undeclared war between the United States and France from 1778-1800. The Treaty of Mortefontaine concluded this war. The treaty settled outstanding issues between the two countries and ended the Franco-American Alliance. |
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| French officials demanded American diplomats pay a huge bribe before being allowed to meet with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1798. The Americans refused. President John Adams used this to his advantage in his fight with pro-French Republicans who opposed his policy toward France. |
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| Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 to stifle dissent against the Quasi War. The Sedition Act attempted to limit free speech and represented the first of many times the federal government would use war as a reason to limit individual liberty. |
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| Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions |
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| Jefferson and Madison wrote these in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The resolutions asserted that states could nullify unconstitutional laws. |
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| This was another national religious revival that began in the 1820s and 1830s. Evangelicals addressed what they thought of as the problems of modernization. |
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| Religious groups that developed in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s that were outside the norm in terms of their dogmas and doctrines. The Mormons, the Millerites, the Shakers, and other such groups and were often millenarian. |
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| People who emphasized “native” culture, meaning the original colonial culture based on British influences. Nativists arose to combat what they saw as the unsavory impact of new groups of immigrants, i.e. the Irish and Germans, on the dominant culture. |
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| The Shawnee Prophet was a Shawnee leader who, along with his brother Tecumseh, sought the revitalization of Indian culture. The Prophet and his followers fled to Canada in the wake of the War of 1812. |
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| Tecumseh was a Shawnee leader who, along with his brother The Shawnee Prophet, sought the revitalization of Indian culture. He fought against the Americans during the War of 1812 and was killed in battle in 1813. |
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| Groups of families or individuals who pooled a portion of their resources to aid in health emergencies or burial costs in the times before insurance was available. |
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| Toussaint L’Ouverture was a former slave who became the leader against the French in Haiti. His victory over Napoleon’s forces in 1802 in Haiti resulted in Napoleon abandoning his plan to re-establish a French empire in North America. |
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| This was a rebellion that Gabriel, a slave, planned to launch in 1800. He and his followers were stopped before they could launch the rebellion. He and 25 others were hanged and laws were passed that severely limited free blacks in Virginia and elsewhere and also limited the movement of slaves. |
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| Prohibition of imported slaves |
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| The Constitution allowed the Congress to halt the international slave trade, but not until twenty years had passed. Congress passed legislation that ended the trade as of 1 January 1807. |
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| John Adams made a series of appointments after losing the election of 1800 that Thomas Jefferson refused to honor. One of the appointees brought suit against the government which led to the opinion in Marbury v. Madison. |
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| Chief Justice of the United States, 1801-1835. Wrote many opinions that established the role of the Supreme Court. Also wrote the opinion in Cherokee v. Georgia that asserted the Cherokee had an absolute right to their lands. |
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| This Supreme Court case of 1803 established the principle of judicial review. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the opinion that gave the Supreme Court the right to review Executive and Legislative Branch actions with regard to their constitutionality. |
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| The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Marshall established its right to review Executive and Legislative Branch actions with regard to their constitutionality in Marbury v. Madison. |
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| Toussaint L’Ouverture’s victory over Napoleon’s forces in 1802 in Haiti resulted in Napoleon abandoning his plan to re-establish a French empire in North America. He was now open to an American offer to purchase the Louisiana Territory. The U.S. bought that territory in 1803 for a total of $15 million. There were constitutional issues involved, not least of which was the fact that Constitution did not specifically address presidential purchases of territory. This put Jefferson in a difficult position in that he forwarded a strict construction of the Constitution. Another such issue was whether Louisiana residents would have the rights of citizens of the United States. |
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| This was the official name of the expedition Merriwether Lewis and William Clark led to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and search for a Northwest passage. The trip lasted from 1804-1806, originating near St. Louis and traveling to the Pacific Ocean and back. |
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| A British vessel named HMS Leopard fired on the USS Chesapeake outside of Norfolk, Virginia, in 1807 in order to stop it and search for British sailors. The British killed an American crewman and took four sailors from the ship it claimed were British sailors who had deserted. Two were Americans and this was impressment of American sailors. Impressment became one of the justifications for the War of 1812. |
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| Congress and President Jefferson respond to British and French violations of neutral rights in 1807 with the Embargo Act. This made American trade with either power illegal until one or the other stopped the violations, in which case the US. Would extend trade privileges to the country that met the requirement. The act ended up hurting American farmers more than anyone else and put the country in a recession. |
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| This war came about primarily as a result of British violations of U.S. neutrality, but also as a result of the goals of a new generation of American leaders known as the War Hawks. They sought to expand the nation’s territory by taking Canada and the Floridas and to eliminate Native American peoples from the nation. |
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| This was a battle between General William Henry Harrison and American forces against Shawnee forces in 1811. British made weapons were discovered among the Indian dead after the battle. The War Hawks used this as a justification for war against Great Britain in 1812 |
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| New England Federalists were upset with the War of 1812. They met in a convention in Hartford, Connecticut where a vocal minority expressed a desire secede over the War of 1812. |
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| This is the treaty that ended the war of 1812. It was signed in December 1814. Although the United States was in a miserable negotiating position due to military failures, the influential British general the Duke of Wellington convinced his government to base the treaty on the status quo ante bellum, or the way things were before the war. |
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| This was the one truly successful land battle for the U.S. during the War of 1812. Andrew Jackson defeated the British. The irony was the battle took place after the Treaty of Ghent had already been signed. Still, the victory buoyed American spirits and national pride. |
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| The Missouri Compromise of 1820 |
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| This was a compromise designed to keep the balance of free and slave states equal. When Missouri petitioned for statehood as a slave state, Henry Clay brokered a compromise in which Maine would enter the Union as a free state. |
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