Facts and Details in U.S. Political History from 1790 to 1898 - AP U.S. History

Although most slave states seceded from the Union in 1860-1861 to form the Confederate States, a few Border States where slavery was legal remained loyal to the United States. The loyal Border States included Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. During the war, the pro-Union areas of western Virginia seceded from Virginia to form the new state of West Virginia. Although the Border States officially remained loyal to the United States, citizens from every Border State fought on both sides of the American Civil War.

The Union had to invade and conquer wide swaths of Southern territory in order to defeat the rebellion. It was hoped by Confederate officials that a long and bloody conflict would lead to war weariness in the North and force the United States to recognize Southern independence.

Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was defeated in the Battle of Antietam; however, it was able to escape back into Virginia after the battle. It did not surrender to the Union Army until April 1865 during the Appomattox Campaign.

The Black Codes were laws passed by Southern states in the immediate months after the Civil War ended. The intention behind them was to force freedmen into a labor system that was virtually the same as slavery. For example, a law passed in Mississippi stated that authorities could take children away from parents who allegedly could not support them. The children would then be "apprenticed" to their former slave masters who could perform corporal punishment on them. Outrage over the Black Codes in the North led to increased support for the policies of the Radical Republicans.

The 1862 Homestead Act was passed to encourage settlement in the Western United States by small farmers. It encouraged the widespread migration of Americans to the West after the Civil War. It also led to increased conflicts between the Federal Government and Native groups like the Lakota.

By 1863 Vicksburg, Mississippi was the last city along the Mississippi River that was still under the control of the Confederate forces. It's capture by Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant gave the Union complete control over the Mississippi and cut off Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana from the rest of the Confederacy.

The Copperheads were a faction of Northern Democrats who wanted an immediate peace with the Southern Confederacy, even if that peace meant independence for the rebellious states. A famous Copperhead was Ohio congressman Clement Vallandigham, who was put on trial for treason in 1864.

Slavery was the main issue of all seven debates held in Illinois between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858. Lincoln lost the election, but the national attention enabled him to become the Republican candidate for President of the United States.

During the Texas Revolution, Mexican General Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo Mission for a period of 13 days before finally launching an attack killing all of the Texian defenders. "Remember the Alamo" became a rallying cry for the Texians inspiring their eventual victory over the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto.

The Missouri Compromise stated that Missouri would be admitted as a slave state and Maine would be admitted as free in order to keep a balance between states. It also stated that new states admitted out of the Louisiana Purchase would be free if they were north of the Southern border of Missouri.

Franklin Roosevelt. The agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission were created out of the New Deal legislation during FDR’s presidency.

In the election of 1796, John Adams was elected president by the Electoral College, while his political rival and opponent Thomas Jefferson was elected vice president by coming in second place. After the 1796 election, the 12th Amendment was passed to change this. For the 1800 election and all subsequent elections, the president and vice president were elected together.

General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, who would later become the 18th President of the United States, at Appomattox Court House.

Dred Scott, a slave brought by his master into the free state of Wisconsin, sued to get his freedom, claiming he was a natural born citizen under the United States Constitution. Scott lost the case, with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney writing an opinion which asserted that people of African descent had no rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The Emancipation Proclamation only abolished slavery in territories currently held by the Confederacy, and would free those slaves when the territories were conquered by the Union army, and was issued in the middle of the war on New Year’s 1863. The Proclamation’s lack of attention to the Border Slave States necessitated the Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery throughout the nation, in 1865.

In his initial Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln specifically made slaves free only in territories that were still in open rebellion against the Union. The primary reason for doing so was Lincoln's pragmatic desire not to alienate those slave-owning territories and individuals that were fighting on behalf of the Union. However, the issuing of the Proclamation set the cause in motion and with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, at the end of the war, slavery was declared unconstitutional in all United States territory.

In December of 1860, following the election of Abraham Lincoln, the governing body of South Carolina voted unanimously for secession. Soon after, in early 1861, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, Lousiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee followed suit. Secession recieved the majority of popular support in the states of Missouri and Kentucky, but their pro-Union governments prevented this from happening. Lincoln declared the secession legally "void" and thus began the Civil War.

Henry Clay’s American System was a wide ranging economic plan developed and advocated by Clay throughout the 1820s while he was a member of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The key features were attempts to actively promote economic activities through raising revenues with tariffs and land prices, and economic improvements like the Bank of the United States and building canals and railroads.

Four slave states remained in the Union during the secession crisis of 1860-1861, all of which were the most northern states. The deep south states were the first states to secede, but Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware all remained in the Union despite being slave states.

The plot to assassinate Lincoln was a broad plan by John Wilkes Booth to destabilize the Federal government and rally the fading Confederate cause after Lee's Surrender. Booth himself planned to kill both Lincoln and Grant at the same time, while he sent co-conspirators to kill Secretary of State Seward and Vice President Johnson. Lincoln ended up being the only person killed in the plot, while Seward was severely injured in a knife attack.