Summary of U.S. Political History from 1790 to 1898 - SAT Subject Test in United States History

Manifest Destiny describes the idea that America had a right and need to extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This concept was a large driver of pre-Civil War American foreign policy, including the annexation of Texas, the Mexican-American War, and the California gold rush.

A loose constructionist believes that the Judiciary must take into account changes over time when making decisions to amend the Constitution. A strict constructionist is someone who believes the opposite, that the Judiciary should always base its decision off of the original intentions of the founding fathers. The Warren Court is an important example of a loose constructionist Court.

The 1824 Presidential Election occurred during the interim between the First and Second Party System, after the fall of the Federalist Party and before the rise of the Whig Party. With four legitimate candidates, the Electoral College could not produce a majority vote for one candidate, and thus the House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams as the next president despite Andrew Jackson winning more popular and electoral votes.

The Wilmot Proviso, proposed by David Wilmot, argued that any territory acquired from Mexico should be forever closed to slavery. The Bill passed the House, but failed in the Senate – where the South had a much greater proportion of representation. For much of the recent history prior the introduction of this bill, both political parties had sought to keep the issue of slavery out of the national debate. The Wilmot Proviso is considered important by historians because it began a period of national fracturing, that would temporarily be solved by the Compromise of 1850, but would flare up again in the years building up to the Civil War.

The Marshall Court was the name given to the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice John Marshall. John Marshall is the longest serving Chief Justice in American history, serving for more than thirty years. During that time his court did a great deal to expand the powers of the Federal government at the expense of the states. His most important contribution was defining the role of the judiciary. His court established the principle of judicial review, which states that the judiciary has the ability to nullify the actions of the executive and legislative branches when those actions are unconstitutional.

The “Era of Good Feelings” is the name given to the eight-year term of President James Monroe, from 1816-1824. The period of time was marked by an extensive geographic expansion of national territory and mostly sustained economic prosperity. It was also a period with little political maneuvering as the Democratic-Republican Party assumed almost complete control of government. Monroe even ran unopposed for election in 1820.

The North had many advantages over the South throughout the Civil War. Firstly, the North was a much more industrialized society, able to draw on a greater wealth of resources and factories to produce weaponry. Secondly, the North had a national history, unity, collective consciousness and all the institutions that go with these ideas already set up at the time of the outbreak of war—the South had to develop these on the fly. Thirdly, the South struggled to gain international recognition from any European nations because no European country wanted to be seen to support the institution of slavery. Finally, the North had a much more developed navy and this proved to be the difference in the Mississippi River campaign. One of the few advantages that the South had over the North was superior military commanders, like Robert E. Lee, and more than a few battles were won or lost based on this difference. Many historians believe that the South might have won the war on the strength of the Generals and military tactics alone were it not for the overwhelming economic advantages of the North and the dwindling supply of Southern soldiers.

The Pendleton Act was issued in 1883. It stated that it was illegal and immoral to grant civil service jobs on the basis of political favor. According to the act, government jobs should be granted solely on the basis of individual merit.

The Anaconda Plan was the name colloquially given to Winfield Scott’s strategy of choking the Confederacy during the Civil War. It called for the blockading of Southern ports to ruin the Confederacy’s ability to sustain itself economically, as well as an advance down the Mississippi river to divide the Confederacy in two. Historians generally agree that the fighting in the Mississippi theatre was crucial to the Union victory.

The Monitor and the Merrimack were two ironclad Civil War ships. A naval battle between the two ships marked the first time in history that two ironclad ships had fought. The Monitor was a Union ship, the Merrimack a former Union ship operated by the Confederacy (for a time called the CSS Virginia). The battle began when the Merrimack obliterated the Union wooden ship forces, culminating the next day with the arrival of the Monitor.

Henry Clay was closely associated with the West. Clay was a Representative and Senator from Kentucky, who served as Speaker of the House on numerous occasions and Secretary of State to John Quincy Adams. The politics of mid-nineteenth-century America were heavily based upon regional identity—with the North and South most vigorously opposed on the majority of issues.

John Tyler served as Vice-President to President William Henry Harrison. Harrison was the first President to die in office. His death created significant controversy in American politics over who should succeed him. The United States Constitution stated that in the event of the death of the President the office and its powers shall “devolve on the Vice-President”. Many politicians, particularly Tyler’s opponents believed that this called for a sort of regency position whereby Tyler would act as President in name until a new election could be called. Tyler, convinced he was in the right, arrived in Washington and immediately took the oath of office and called together Harrison’s existing cabinet. When informed by Daniel Webster that Harrison usually made decisions based on the majority vote of his cabinet Tyler roundly informed Webster of his aforementioned stance – namely that he was President now and they ought to accept his decisions or find a new line of work. Eventually both houses of Congress accepted Tyler’s candidacy for Presidency and inaugurated him officially as the Tenth President of the United States. Later, the Tyler Precedent, would be codified into law under the Twenty-fifth Amendment.

Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. It represented a bloody culmination to an extensive political feud between the two men. Burr had long blamed Hamilton for costing him the Presidential election of 1800, when Hamilton has used his influence to encourage votes for Jefferson. The matter came to a head when Hamilton released a newspaper account disparaging the integrity of Burr during Burr’s 1804 campaign for governorship of New York. Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton on July 11th 1804. It would spell the almost immediate end to his political career and contributed to the death of the Federalist Party.

The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant was marred by scandals almost too numerous to list. Nepotism—the practice of awarding jobs based on personal association and favor—was rampant. The Credit Mobilier scandal is perhaps unfairly attributed to Grant as it began during the Johnson administration and did not involve Grant specifically. To make a very lengthy story simple—the scandal involved the misallocation of government funds by a group of railroad construction companies and individuals in order that they should achieve individual profit. The so-called Salary Grab is perhaps a better indicator of the corruption during Grant’s administration. A bill was proposed to double the President’s salary and to increase the salaries of Congressmen by fifty-percent. The Federal Government’s power to raise its own salary is protected by the Constitution, but allegedly Grant encouraged the Senators to pass the bill in secrecy. He was later exposed by several different journalistic publications and public opinion was not kind.

Alexander Hamilton served as the first Secretary of the Treasury under President Washington. During his tenure Hamilton led the creation of the National Bank and the establishment of a United States Minting Office. Hamilton’s ideas on manufacturing and trade were also central to the direction of the infant United States.

The Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party were the first two political parties to exist in the United States. They formed the first of America’s few two-party systems. The Federalist Party eventually declined in popularity after the War of 1812, soon after to the point of non-existence. The Democratic-Republican Party survived for several electoral campaigns before splitting during the ascendency of President Andrew Jackson.

The term “Virginia System” was used by many politicians in the early years of the United States to refer to the dominance of the Presidential office by Virginians. Four of the first five Presidents were born residents of Virginia—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Many of their opponents deplored this state of affairs, some proclaimed conspiracy. After this initial wave of Virginians, however, there has been only one other President from Virginia—John Tyler.

The Judiciary Act of 1801 was designed primarily to expand the Federal court system; specifically it was designed to increase the number of judges in the lower levels of the court. It also led to the famous “Midnight Appointments,” where President Adams, realizing he was about to be replaced by a President with a different ideology, sought to fill as many of the vacancies with Federalist minded Judges as quickly as possible.

The Election of 1816 came immediately after the end of the War of 1812. Although the war had hardly resulted in an overwhelming victory for the United States, it had also not resulted in defeat. The Democratic-Republican Party took national credit for the outcome and the Federalist Party, with their opposition to the war and secessionist rhetoric, had become decidedly out of favor with the majority of the American voting population.

Perhaps understanding their own inevitable demise, the Federalist Party hardly bothered to have a nominating convention and allowed a weak candidate by the name of Rufus King to run for them. King won only a few New England states and Monroe and the Democratic-Republicans carried the election in a landslide victory.