U.S. Political History from 1790 to 1898 - AP U.S. History

During the time of Washington, then Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans, the rights of “civilized” Native American organizations to remain effectively autonomous within the United States was guaranteed and upheld; however, when Andrew Jackson came into the Presidency he sought to undo this trend. In a speech in 1829 he argued for the removal of Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi. The plan was met with general support by the American public, particularly those in the South, who desired bountiful Indian farming land. Jackson was notably opposed by Christian missionaries and a young Abraham Lincoln. Nevertheless, the bill passed Congress in 1830, and for the next two decades Native American groups all along the Eastern Seaboard were evicted from their lands and forced to migrate westwards.

Although the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, it was the Fifteenth Amendment that gave black men the right to vote. All women did not receive the right to vote until 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Sitting Bull defeated Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

The preceding text is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted on December 15th, 1791.

From 1865 to 1872, the Freedmen's Bureau was responsible for assisting recently freed slaves. Its full name was The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.

The Thirteenth Amendment was one of three amendments passed immediately following the Civil War. Collectively these three amendments are called the Reconstruction Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery; the Fourteenth Amendment addresses and guarantees citizenship rights and equal protection regardless of race; the Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the Federal and (crucially) State governments from denying the right to vote for reasons of race.

The ninth President of the United States who died in office from pneumonia complications after having served only 32 days was William Henry Harrison. Harrison was, until Ronald Reagan, also the oldest person ever to assume the office of President.

On July 2nd, 1881, Charles Guiteau shot President Garfield, causing his death. Guiteau acted as a disgruntled seeker of a Federal office who blamed President Garfield for his situation.

Robert E. Lee took command of the army of Northern Virginia in June of 1862. The army was the principle Confederate fighting force in the Eastern theatre of the Civil War—fighting in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Second Bull Run and many others. The army also included a corps led by Lt. Stonewall Jackson.

The battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) was the bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War, with over twenty thousand casualties. The battle was fought between the Confederate army of Northern Virginia against the Union forces, led by George McClellan. The battle of Antietam ended Lee’s invasion of the North and forced the Confederate army to withdraw to Virginia. Following the culmination of the battle President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle, but it lasted longer than one day.

Andrew Jackson is most often remembered as a President who applied the “spoils system” to the appointment of government officials. Individuals who had supported Jackson throughout his electoral campaign, or who remained loyal to him throughout his political life, were rewarded with positions in government once Jackson became President. Jackson famously broke with his Vice-President John C. Calhoun in 1831 and dismissed a large percentage of his cabinet who he deemed disloyal. He replaced them with his friends and personal advisors, many of whom had little political experience. This collection of advisors has been termed the “Kitchen Cabinet.”

"The Kitchen Cabinet" was the name given to Andrew Jackson’s collection of friends and advisors that he assembled during his Presidency. The term was used, mostly by Jackson’s opponents, disparagingly. The Kitchen Cabinet came into being following the dismissal of Vice-President John C. Calhoun, along with several other cabinet members. Most historians believe that Calhoun was dismissed for his refusal to support Jackson during the Eaton Affair (a scandal between a widowed woman and Jackson’s close friend Eaton).

In 1884, Grover Cleveland was elected President on a coalition of pro-business "Bourbon Democrats" and reform minded "Mugwump" Republicans. When he ran for reelection in 1888, he lost to Republican Benjamin Harrison. Four years later, Harrison and Cleveland squared off again in the Presidential election, with Cleveland returning to the White House. To date, he is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms, and is counted as both the 22nd and 24th Presidents.

Adopted on December 6th, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and forced servitude. It was one of three Reconstruction Amendments following the Civil War.

The eighth President of the United States, Martin van Buren, was instrumental in founding the Democratic Party, the oldest current party in the country.

The Whig Party was formed in 1833, in opposition the dominant Democratic Party and President Andrew Jackson. The Party was formed primarily on the ideology that Congress should always possess greater authority over the direction of the nation than the President. The first election contested by the Whigs was the election of 1936, but the party was insufficiently organized to run one candidate across the whole nation, so they opted for a series of regional challengers in the hope that they could deny a clear majority to Martin Van Buren, and therefore bring the election to the Senate. They narrowly missed out on this goal. In the election of 1840, however, the Whigs ran their first unified candidate, William Henry Harrison, who promptly died after thirty-one days in office.

Martin Van Buren was a staunch Democrat and Andrew Jackson’s chosen successor. The other four Presidents were all members of the Whig Party at the time of their inauguration. Although it is worth noting that President John Tyler blocked so much Whig legislation that he was expelled from the Whig Party during his presidency.

Maine, which was then a northern region of Massachusetts, was admitted to the Union as a result of the Missouri Compromise.

“Bleeding Kansas” is a term that refers to the armed conflict between Free Soil settlers and Pro-Slavery settlers to determine the composition of the state’s populace between 1854 and 1858. The makeup of the population became important because the Congress had allowed new states to decide whether to be Free or Slave states with the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Although the Treaty at Ghent was signed in 1814, it still needed to be ratified by Congress; this was done in February of 1815. Still, the Battle of New Orleans, which resulted in an American victory might have been avoided were communications of the era quicker.