US History & GovernmentRegents Review

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MAJOR DOCUMENTS

Mayflower Compact

• The Mayflower Compact is often cited as the first example of self-government in the Americas. The Pilgrims, having arrived at a harbor far north of the land that was rightfully theirs, signed the Mayflower Compact to establish a "civil body politic" under the sovereignty of James I. Agreed to follow the decision of the majority.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

• 1639• the first written constitution in American

history written by Hartford settlers. It established a representative government consisting of legislature elected by popular vote and governor chosen by legislature.

Declaration of Independence

• 1776• The document sharply separated Loyalists

from Patriots and helped to c by allowing England to hear of create the new United States due to the colonists’ disagreements with British authority.– Rights of Englishmen had been violated by the

Crown and Parliament

Articles of Confederation

• First government of the United States and ultimately proved to be too weak and ineffective

Articles of ConfederationStrengths

• Governed nation during the American Revolutionary War (raised army, paid soldiers)

• Negotiated the Treaty of Paris at end of war (established independence from Britain and set boundaries for US)

• Passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 - (townships and free public education)

• Passed the Northwest Ordinance how new territory settled and settlers rights – Outlawed slavery, guaranteed freedom of religion, trial by

jury

Articles of ConfederationWeaknesses

• Each state had one vote in Congress• Laws must be approved by 9 or 13 states• amendments had to be approved by all 13 states• Congress cannot tax; had to ask the states for $• Congress cannot control trade between states or

with foreign countries• No executive or judicial branch• No real military force for defense

U.S. Constitution (1787)

• Replaced the Articles• Created the executive & judicial branches• Established principle of federalism• Gave Congress power to control interstate

commerce• Gave Congress power to tax states• Created strong central government that could

defend itself

Bill of Rights (1791)

• Although the Antifederalists failed to block the ratification of the Constitution, they did ensure that the Bill of Rights would be created to protect individuals from government interference and possible tyranny. The Bill of Rights, drafted by a group led by James Madison, consisted of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which guaranteed the civil rights of American citizens.

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

• Issued by Lincoln as a way to broaden the goals of the war and achieve a moral victory

• It freed absolutely no slaves on the day it was given; changed the purpose of the war and caused Europeans to withdraw from supporting South

Major Laws

Northwest Ordinance (1787)

• defined the process by which new states could be admitted into the Union from the Northwest Territory

• The ordinance forbade slavery in the territory but allowed citizens to vote on the legality of slavery once statehood had been established

• The Northwest Ordinance was the most lasting measure of the national government under the Articles of Confederation

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

• Result of the Compromise of 1850• paid federal commissioners were appointed

and given authority to issue warrants, gather, posses and force citizens to help catch runaway slaves

• the slaves could not testify in thier own behalf

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

• Local law enforcement compelled to assist is capturing and holding runaways

• Slave catchers did not even have to find actual runaways; could claim any black person was a runaway

Homestead Act (1862)

• provided free land in the west as long as the person would settle there and make improvements in five years and provided that he had never taken up arms against the United States

• Designed to settle the West and relieve some pressure on cities in the East

Dawes Act (1887)

• An act that removed Indian land from tribal possession, subdivided it, and distributed it among individual Indian families

• Designed to break tribal mentalities and promote individualism and cultural assimilation

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

• Established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) – monitors the business operation of carriers

transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

• First United States law to limit trusts and big business

• Said that any trust that was purposefully restraining interstate trade was illegal

Pure Food & Drug Act (1906)

• Forbade the manufacture or sale of mislabeled or adulterated food or drugs

• it gave the government broad powers to ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs in order to abolish the "patent" drug trade

• Still in existence as the FDA• Teddy Roosevelt influenced by reading

Sinclair’s The Jungle

Federal Reserve Act (1913)

• (Glass-Owen) Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created a Federal Reserve System of regional banks and a Federal Reserve Board to stabilize the economy by regulating the supply of currency and controlling credit

• Helped to control inflation and mitigate depression

Social Security Act (1935)

• created a federal insurance program based on the automatic collection of taxes from employees and employers throughout people's working careers

• They would receive this money in a monthly pension when they reached the age of 65

• The unemployed, disabled, and mothers with dependent children would also receive this money

Wagner Act/National Labor relations Act (1935)

• guarantees basic rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining for better terms and conditions at work, and take collective action including strike if necessary

• The act also created the National Labor Relations Board, which conducts elections that can require employers to engage in collective bargaining with labor unions

Civil Rights (1964)

• This act made racial, religious, and sex discrimination by employers illegal and gave the government the power to enforce all laws governing civil rights, including desegregation of schools and public places

Title IX of the Education Amendments (1972)

• No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

War Powers Act (1973)

• This act stated that the president must report to Congress within 2 days of putting troops in danger in a foreign country, and there would be a 60 to 90 day limit for over seas troop presence

• Passed in response to use of military in Vietnam

Americans WithDisabilities Act (1990)

• Passed by Congress, this act banned discrimination against the disabled in employment and mandated easy access to all public and commercial buildings

• Can be seen as an extension of the Civil Rights movement

North American Free Trade Agreement (1992)

• signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States

• Agreement between the 3 North American nations to remove tariffs and open their respective nations to the goods of their neighbors

Major Books

Major Books

• Thomas Paine, Common Sense– argued that the colonists should free themselves

from British rule and establish an independent government based on Enlightenment ideals - one that would protect man's natural rights

– Common Sense became so popular that many historians credit it with dissolving the final barriers to the fight for independence.

– “…Tis time to part!...”

Major Books

• Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin– Showed northerners and the world the horrors of

slavery while southerners attack it as an exaggeration, contributed to the start of the Civil War

Major Books

• Upton Sinclair, The Jungle– revealed gruesome details about the meat packing

industry in Chicago– The book was fiction but based on the things

Sinclair had seen.– Inspired Teddy Roosevelt to get the Meat

Inspection Act passed

Major Books

• Ida Tarbell, A History of Standard Oil– an exposé of the Standard Oil Company– the book was a seminal example of muckraking,

and inspired many other journalists to write about trusts,

– was credited with hastening the breakup of Standard Oil, which came about in 1911

Major Books

• Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives– documented squalid living conditions in New York

City slums in the 1880s– Used stark photographs to show the conditions of

the poor in NYC– Showed the poor in stark contrast to the wealth of

the Gilded Age

Major Books

• John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath– Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses

on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work

–

Major Books

• Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique– widely credited with sparking the beginning

of second-wave feminism in the United States– begins with an introduction describing what

Friedan called "the problem that has no name"—the widespread unhappiness of women in the 1950s and early 1960s. It discusses the lives of several housewives from around the United States who were unhappy despite living in material comfort and being married with children

Major Books

• Rachel Carson, Silent Spring– documented the detrimental effects on the

environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides

– Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly

– it spurred reversal in national pesticide policy, led to a nationwide ban on DDT for agricultural uses, and inspired an environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Major Books

• Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee– the history of Indians in the West in the late 19th

century– book expresses a Indian perspective on the

actions of the US government which are described as a series of injustices and betrayals

– government's dealings are portrayed as a continuing effort to destroy the culture, religion, and way of life of the Indians

Major Books

• Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor– an attempt to change government ideas/policy

toward Indians– She hoped to awaken the conscience of the

American people, and their representatives, to the flagrant wrongs that had been done to the American Indians, and persuade them "to redeem the name of the United States from the stain of a century of dishonor"

Presidents to Know

George Washington

• Neutrality• Farewell Address• Created cabinet (unwritten constitution)• Two-term precedent

John Adams

• First vice president• Alien and Sedition Act (1798)• XYZ Affair

Thomas Jefferson

• Antifederalist• Nation of yeoman farmers• Strict construction– Can’t do it if it is not in the Constitution

• Louisiana Purchase– Bought through treaty (see above)

• 1807 Embargo Act

James Monroe

• Monroe Doctrine– Western Hemisphere off limits to European

expansion

Andrew Jackson

• Trail of Tears• Ended the Bank of the U.S.

Abraham Lincoln

• Expansion of government power during war– Suspension of habeas corpus– Closing of anti-war newspapers

• Homestead Act (1862)• 10% Reconstruction Plan• Emancipation Proclamation

Andrew Johnson

• Lincoln’s vice president• Easy Reconstruction plan• impeached

Teddy Roosevelt

• “Trustbuster”• San Juan Hill/Rough Riders• Conservation• Progressive Party• “Walk softly and carry a big stick”• Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine• Panama Canal

Woodrow Wilson

• Expansion of government power during WWI• Moral diplomacy• 14 Points– League of Nations

• Support of women’s suffrage

1920s Republicans

• Laissez-faire economics• End to progressive reforms• Business of America is business• Isolationism foreign policy• Bonus Army March– Hoovervilles

Franklin Roosevelt• Elected to 4 terms, served 3• Hundred Days– 15 major laws passed to address Great Depression

• Deficit spending• Alphabet Soup– CCC, WPA, SEC, TVA, Wagner Act, etc.

• Fireside chats• Neutrality policy at first• Court Packing

Franklin Roosevelt

• Executive Order 9066• Manhattan Project• Arsenal of Democracy

Harry Truman

• FDR’s vice president• Executive order to integrate military • Truman Doctrine• Marshall Plan• Berlin Airlift

Dwight Eisenhower

• Integrate schools forcibly after Brown decision• U2 Incident• “More bang for the buck”• Eisenhower Doctrine

John Kennedy

• Bay of Pigs Invasion• Cuban Missile Crisis• Ich bin ein Berliner• New Frontier• Space program

Lyndon Johnson

• Civil Rights Act (1964)• Voting Rights Act (1965)• Great Society– Aid to Cities, Head Start, Medicare etc.

• Vietnam War– Gulf of Tonkin resolution

Richard Nixon

• Vietnamization• Détente• Paris Peace Talks• 1972 trip to China• Watergate scandal– Executive privilege– resignation

Gerald Ford

• Nixon’s vice president– Unelected as president

• Pardoned Nixon

Jimmy Carter

• Oil Embargo/Oil Crisis• Iran Hostage Crisis• Soviet invasion of Afghanistan• Olympics Boycott• Rising unemployment & inflation• Camp David Accords

Ronald Reagan

• Star Wars/SDI• Deficit spending/trickle down/supply side

economics• New Federalism• Arms for hostages– Oliver North

• Reagan Doctrine– Support Contras in Nicaragua

• End of Cold War

George H.W. Bush

• “Read my lips, no new taxes”• Desert Shield/Storm• Economic recession• Savings and Loan Crisis

Bill Clinton

• Impeached• Participated in the bombing of Kosovo in 1999

because of human rights violations• Supported NAFTA• attempted to bring peace to the Middle East

Principles of the Constitution

Popular sovereignty

Federalism

Separation of Powers

Checks and Balances

Consent of the Governed

Foreign Policies

Neutrality

Monroe Doctrine

Manifest Destiny

Open Door Policy

Big Stick Policy

Good Neighbor Policy

Truman Doctrine

Marshall Plan

Reagan Doctrine

Leaders in American

History

People of Note

• Rachel Carson• Cesar Chavez• Betty Friedan• Samuel Gompers• Jesse Jackson

People of Note

• Martin Luther King• Upton Sinclair• Harriet Beecher Stowe• Rosa Parks• John Foster Dulles

Reform Movements

What they Reformed/Impact of Movement

• Abolitionism • Labor • Native Americans • Women’s Rights• Populism• Progressivism• Civil Rights • Persons With• Disabilities