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8th Grade Document Glossary
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Who created the document? Why? What effect did it have? List any
people from the people glossary associated with the document under
the document’s name.
Colonial Era (chapter 2-5)
Magna Carta
(1215)
Mayflower Compact
(1620)
Fundamental Orders
of Connecticut
(1639)
English Bill of Rights
(1689)
English document that granted rights to noblemen and freemen.
Limited the power of the king included the ideas of due process and
the right to a fair and speedy trial. The English viewed it as a
guarantee of law and justice.
Agreement drafted in 1620 by Pilgrim leaders and signed by the 41
men aboard the Mayflower prior to going ashore at Plymouth Bay
in Massachusetts. It outlined a form of government based on
a social compact It set a precedent for later documents in the
development of self-government.
Created in 1639, it was a frame of government for the colony of
Connecticut. It is considered the first constitution in the American
colonies. The Fundamental Orders extended voting rights to nonchurch members and limited the powers of the governor, thus
expanding the ideas of representative government, written by Thomas
Hooker.
English Document that guaranteed certain rights to English citizens
and declared that elections for Parliament would happen frequently.
It supported a limited monarchy, a system of shared power with
Parliament and the people.
Revolution (chapter 6 & 7)
Proclamation of 1763
(1763)
Stamp Act
(1765)
After the French and Indian War, the proclamation, in effect, closed
off the frontier to colonial expansion. The proclamation provided that
all lands west of the heads of all rivers which flowed into the Atlantic
Ocean from the west or northwest were off-limits to the colonists.
This excluded the rich Ohio Valley and all territory from the Ohio to
the Mississippi rivers from settlement. American colonists were very
unhappy with its passing and was the first step towards the
Revolution.
Despite the revenue raised by the Sugar Act, Britain's financial
situation continued to spiral out of control. Prime Minister George
Grenville thought that the American colonists should bear a heavier
tax load. To ensure this, Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March
1765. The act required Americans to buy special watermarked paper
for newspapers and all legal documents. To many colonists, the
Stamp Act seemed to represent all of the problems between England
and the colonies, especially “Taxation without Representation.” It
affected every one of the thirteen colonies equally, and every rank in
society.
Intolerable Acts
(1774)
Declaration of
Independence
(1776)
Common Sense
(1776)
Treaty of Paris
(1783)
The name given to a series of acts passed in response to the Boston
Tea Party. The British called their responsive measures the Coercive
Acts. Boston Harbor was closed to trade until the owners of the tea
were compensated. Town meetings were banned, and the authority of
the royal governor was increased. General Gage, the British
commander of North American forces, was appointed governor of
Massachusetts. British troops and officials would now be tried
outside Massachusetts for their crimes. Greater freedom was granted
to British officers who wished to house their soldiers in private
dwellings.
The Declaration of Independence is a document adopted by the
Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. It established the 13
colonies as independent states, free from rule by Great Britain. The
committee appointed to write the Declaration of Independence
included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert
Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson wrote the
majority of the declaration. In the Preamble, Jefferson explained that
it was necessary to list the reasons why the colonies sought their own
government. In three sections, Jefferson outlined the reasons: people
have the right to control their own government; the British
government and King used their power unjustly to control the
colonies; and the colonies had tried to avoid separating from Britain,
but Britain refused to cooperate.
Published in 1776, Common Sense challenged the authority of the
British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that
Thomas Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was
the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain.
The widespread success of Common Sense in the colonies lead to a
greater acceptance of the idea of the need for a complete break from
England among the American colonists.
The treaty, signed on September 3, 1783, between the American
colonies and Great Britain, ended the American Revolution and
formally recognized the United States as an independent nation. Two
crucial provisions of the treaty were British recognition of U.S.
independence and the creation of boundaries (Canada to the north and
the Mississippi River to the west and Spanish Florida to the south)
that would allow for American western expansion.
Creating a Government and putting it in Place (chapter 8, government, & 9)
Articles of
Confederation
(1781)
The Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first constitution, was
created and adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1781
during the Revolution. It provided guidance to government for seven
years and gave the Confederation Congress limited authority to make
laws and to draw up treaties with other nations. The Articles were
limited in providing solutions to many challenges facing the new
Republic because the states held most of the power, and Congress
lacked an executive, the power to tax, regulate trade, or control
coinage. These weaknesses as well as the lack of power to create a
national army to put down Shays’ Rebellion led to the Annapolis
Convention which proposed the Constitutional Convention that met
in Philadelphia in 1787 to revise the Articles.
Northwest Ordinance
(1787)
Constitution
(1787)
Bill of Rights
(1791)
Federalist Papers
(1788)
The Northwest Ordinance is considered one of the most significant
achievements of the Articles of Confederation. It established a system
for setting up governments in the western territories so they could
eventually join the Union on an equal footing with the original 13
states. This ordinance referred to the Northwest Territory, an area
bounded by the Ohio River, the Mississippi River, and the Great
Lakes and included present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota. When the territory opened, a
governor and three judges were appointed by Congress. After 5,000
adult males moved to the area, they could elect an assembly and send
a nonvoting delegate to Congress although the governor retained veto
power over the assembly. When 60,000 persons moved into one of
the political subdivisions, that area could draft a constitution, submit
it to Congress for approval, and become a state. Its constitution had to
provide for a representative government, and it had to prohibit
slavery.
A constitution is a document that outlines the powers of government.
One of the foundations of the American system of government is the
use of a written constitution defining the values and principles of
government and establishing the limits of power.
The U.S. Constitution evolved from the Articles of Confederation.
Congress announced a call for delegates to a convention “for the sole
and express purpose of revising” the Articles of Confederation. Fiftyfive delegates from 12 of the 13 states participated.
James Madison formulated many of the ideas included in the
Constitution and is known as the “Father of the Constitution.” He
proposed that the U.S. government be organized in three branches: a
legislative branch (Congress), an executive branch (the President) and
a judicial branch (Supreme Court).
The “Great Compromise” related to representation of states in the
federal government. Other compromises made during the drafting
process included the “three-fifths compromise” which counted slaves
as three-fifths of a person when apportioning direct taxes or counting
representation in the House of representatives. Another compromise
related to the slave trade, which the convention agreed to end in 1808.
Article VII, The Federalists, who favored a strong central
government, supported the Constitution while the Anti-Federalists,
who favored states’ rights and the protection of individual rights
through a Bill of Rights, opposed ratification
The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the Constitution
ratified in 1791. In several states, ratification of the Constitution was
only obtained when Federalist supporters promised to add a Bill of
Rights to the Constitution.
A series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and
James Madison in order to convince Americans that the new nation
would not last if the proposed Constitution was not adopted. The
Federalist Papers helped to persuade Americans to approve the
Constitution. Thomas Jefferson called them the best explanation ever
written about the principles of government.
Anti-Federalist
writings
Washington’s
Farewell Address
(1796)
Writings by Anti-Federalists, including George Mason, Patrick Henry
and others that contained arguments against ratification of the
Constitution. The writings appeared in various forms, by various
authors, many of whom used a pseudonym. Collectively, these
writings have become known as the Anti-Federalist Papers. They
contain warnings of dangers from tyranny that weaknesses in the
proposed Constitution did not adequately provide against. They also
insisted on the inclusion of Bill of Rights to secure the rights of the
people.
In 1796 George Washington decided not to pursue a third term as
President of the United States thereby allowing the election of a
successor. His farewell address to his cabinet, delivered on
September 17, stressed three dangers facing the nation. The first
related to the rise of political parties which he believed could divide
Americans and destroy the cooperation needed in government. The
second was sectionalism, or political divisions based on geographic
loyalties. The third was the involvement in European rivalries that
repeatedly drove those nations to war. The last served as a
cornerstone of American foreign policy until this country’s
involvement in World War I. He also supported the preservation of
religion and morality as “the great pillars of human happiness” and
educational institutions for the “general diffusion
of knowledge.”
The Nation Expands and Experiences Growing Pains (chapter 10-14)
Marbury v. Madison
(1803)
McCulloch v.
Maryland
(1819)
Gibbons v. Ogden
(1824)
U.S. Supreme Court case over a judicial appointment by John Adams
before he left office. William Marbury took Sec. of State James
Madison to court due to his appoint not being delivered. The Court’s
opinion stated that they did not have original jurisdiction to rule in
the case, it should have been heard by a lower court. Also, Chief
Justice John Marshall established the principle of judicial review,
reviewing state and national laws, by the court ruling that an article of
the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional.
Supreme Court case heard by the John Marshall led court. The case
centered around a state tax on the 2nd National Bank of the U.S. The
head of the Maryland branch, McCullough, argued that as a national
institution they were not under the jurisdiction of a state tax and
refused to pay it. The state sued and the court’s opinion was that the
state tax was unconstitutional.
Supreme Court case heard by the John Marshall led court. The case
centered around Thomas Gibbons wanting to utilize his federal
license to operate a steamboat from New York to New Jersey. Aaron
Ogden held a New York state license as the monopoly on steamboat
travel and sued Gibbons to stop the competition. The court’s opinion
stated the state law was in conflict with the Constitution and was
unconstitutional; only Congress could regulate interstate commerce.
Monroe Doctrine
(1823)
Missouri Compromise
(1820)
Indian Removal Act
(1830)
Worcester v. Georgia
(1832)
Doctrine of
Nullification
Declaration of
Sentiments
(1848)
Civil Disobedience
(1849)
Due to the growing revolutionary ideas in the Spanish colonies of
North and South America trying to win their freedom, President
James Monroe issued this during his annual address to Congress in
1823. Monroe built on Washington’s precedent of neutrality saying
the U.S. would oppose any attempt by Europe to establish new
colonies or to restore Spanish colonies in the Western Hemisphere.
Henry Clay engineered this compromise in Congress to help ease the
growing sectional tension over slavery. Missouri wished to enter the
union in 1820 as a slave state but the northern states hoped to stop the
expansion of slavery and keep a balance of power in the Senate. So,
they allowed the entrance of MO, added Maine as a free state to keep
the balance, and banned slavery in any new territory north of the
(36° 30’ N) parallel.
Passed by Congress under Andrew Jackson which called for the
immediate removal of all American Indians in the southern states to a
newly created Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. It was
fought with force and using the legal system. This led to the Trail of
Tears.
Georgia passed a law that any white person living among the Indians
without a license from the governor could be sent to prison. State
legislators feared white missionaries were encouraging resistance to
Indian removal. Samuel Worcester was arrested and sued to obtain
his freedom. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that if a state law
conflicts with a federal law, the federal law surpasses it. Jackson
ignored the case and continually pushed for removal.
Written by John C. Calhoun, Vice President of the U.S. and from
South Carolina, in response to the Tariff of 1828 and 1832, known as
the Tariff of Abominations. The doctrine is based on, and extends, the
idea proposed by Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky and Virginia
Resolution; the idea is that a state has the right to nullify, or cancel,
any law they believe is unconstitutional or violates the rights of that
state. Calhoun extends it further by banning the collection of the tariff
and threatens secession if they are not allowed to continue the ban.
Petition of grievances written by the women at the Seneca Falls
Convention in New York. It is written exactly as the Declaration of
Independence, with minor changes in wording. The document pushed
the equality of men and women, also for the inclusion of women in
the political process, and rights to their own property and wages. The
main signers were Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and
Frederick Douglass.
Essay written by Henry David Thoreau, in which he outlines his
beliefs in passive [peaceful] resistance of unjust laws passed by the
governments of the United States. The document outlines a peaceful
and non-violent form of protest. His example was not paying taxes to
a government that supported and funded the war with Mexico and the
institution of slavery; he was eventually jailed for this action.
Civil War and Reconstruction (chapter 15- 18)
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a controversial piece of legislation
created by Henry Clay to avoid conflict that had arisen from Congress
being divided over the issue of the admission of California as a free
state. The Compromise admitted California would be a free state,
abolished the Slave trade in Washington DC, prevented Congress from
passing any laws banning slavery in any of the lands won from
Mexico, and created a new, stronger fugitive slave law.
Dred Scott v.
Sandford
(1857)
Lincoln’s 1st
Inaugural Address
(1861)
Davis’s 1st Inaugural
Address
(1861)
Battle Hymn of the
Republic
(1861)
Emancipation
Proclamation
(1862)
Dred Scott v. Sandford was a landmark Supreme Court case in 1857
which confirmed the status of slaves as property rather than citizens.
Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that a slave could not be heard in
federal courts because he was not a citizen and had no protection under
the Constitution. Also, Congress had no authority over slavery in the
territories, and upon statehood, each territory would determine whether
it would be a slave state or a free state.
Written in a spirit of reconciliation toward the rebellious states,
Lincoln's inaugural address touched on several topics: first, his pledge
to "hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the
government"—including Fort Sumter, which was still in Federal
hands; second, his argument that the Union was indissolvable, and thus
that secession was impossible; and third, a promise that while he
would never be the first to attack, any use of arms against the United
States would be regarded as rebellion, and met with force. The
In his first inaugural address, Jefferson Davis attempted to defend the
secession of Southern states through a defense of the idea of states’
rights based on political ideas from the two founding documents of
American history, the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution. The Union, President Jefferson Davis believed, was like
a "marriage" between the States, who entered into the agreement
voluntarily and should be allowed to end that agreement in an
amicable “divorce.” He viewed the Confederacy as no different than
the original movement for American Independence from the British;
He felt secession was a “withdrawal from the voluntary compact”
between the states in the original union; and "a new “alliance” between
sovereign states. He believed that the South must go its separate way
and that it could be done peacefully.
The Battle Hymn of the Republic is a hymn by American writer Julia
Ward Howe using the music from the song "John Brown's Body". It
was written in November 1861 and first published in The Atlantic
Monthly in February 1862. The song links the judgment of the wicked
at the end of time with the American Civil War. Since that time it has
become an extremely popular and well-known American patriotic
song.
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September
22, 1862, to go into effect on January 1, 1863. It declared that all
slaves in the rebellious Confederate states would be free. These
included slaves in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.
Following the proclamation, many slaves in these states walked away
from plantations and sought the protection of Union forces. The
proclamation did not apply to slaves living in border states or to areas
in the South occupied by federal troops. As Union troops moved into
new areas of the Confederacy, slaves in those areas would be freed. All
Gettysburg Address
(1863)
Lincoln’s 2nd
Inaugural Address
(1865)
13th Amendment
(1865)
14th Amendment
(1868)
15th Amendment
(1870)
Homestead Act
(1862)
Dawes Act
(1887)
Morrill Act
slaves were not freed until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in
1865.
On November 19, 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham
Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to dedicate a national
cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg. Three sentences
excerpted from his short speech capture the spirit of liberty and
morality ideally held by citizens of a democracy. That ideal was
threatened by the Civil War.
At a time when victory over the secessionists in the American Civil
War was within days and slavery was near an end, Lincoln did not
speak of happiness, but of sadness. Lincoln discussed the war and
slavery, as well as his views on reconciliation and his approach to
Reconstruction. He spoke of how he sought to avoid harsh treatment
of the defeated South by reminding his listeners of how wrong both
sides had been in imagining what lay before them when the war began
four years earlier. Lincoln balanced that with a recognition of the
unmistakable evil of slavery, and the price the country had paid for it.
The 13th Amendment, one of three passed during the era of
Reconstruction, freed all slaves without compensation to slave owners.
President Abraham Lincoln first proposed compensated emancipation
as an amendment in December 1862. His Emancipation Proclamation
declared slaves free in the Confederate states in rebellion but did not
extend to border states. After Lincoln’s assassination, President
Andrew Johnson declared his own plan for Reconstruction which
included the need for Confederate states to approve the 13th
Amendment. The amendment, adopted in 1865, eight months after the
war ended, legally forbade slavery in the United States.
one of three passed during the era of Reconstruction, freed all slaves
without compensation to the slave owners.
One of three amendments to the U.S. Constitution passed during the
era of Reconstruction, granted black men the right to vote. The
amendment derived from a requirement in the Military Reconstruction
Act, passed by Congress on March 2, 1867, that Confederate states, as
a condition for readmission into the Union, extend the right to vote to
former adult male slaves
Offered 160 acres of free land to anyone who agreed to live on the land
for five years and improve it. As a result, many people began to move
west leading to the settlement of the Great Plains and conflict with
Native Americans.
An effort to assimilate Native Americans into American society, It
dissolved many tribes as legal entities did away with tribal ownership
of land and gave heads of individual families 160 acres. The goal was
for Native Americans to give up their native culture and accept
American culture by becoming farmers. Native American children
were sent to schools to become Americanized. The act had no real
impact as many Native Americans resisted the cultural change
Gave each state 30,000 acres of public land for each Senator and
Representative. The land was then to be sold and the money from the
(1862)
sale of the land was to provide support for the colleges in each of the
states. This Act changed the course of higher education. The purpose
of education shifted from the classical studies and allowed for more
applied studies that would prepare the students for the world that they
would face once leaving the classroom.