Overview
John Quincy Adams
(1767—1848) American statesman, 6th President of the US 1825–9
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Abigail Adams
(1744–1818),wife of John Adams, from whom she had to be separated for long periods during the Revolution, occasioning her frequent, loving, lively, and outspoken letters. She also engaged in ...
Adams-Onís Treaty
An agreement made between the United States and Spain in 1819, in which Spain ceded Florida to the United States and relinquished its claims to Oregon, and the United States ...
Amistad Mutiny
Rebellion of Africans held captive aboard the slave ship La Amistad that occurred in July 1839 off the northern coast of Cuba.Although England and Spain had signed a treaty ...
Andrew Jackson
(1767–1845)US general and Democratic statesman, 7th President of the USA (1829–37). After waging several campaigns against American Indians, he defeated a British army at New Orleans (1815) and ...
Appointment and Removal Power
The Constitution of the United States contains two references to the appointment and removal power. Article II, section 2 provides that the president, “by and with the advice and consent ...
Benjamin Lundy
(b. 4 January 1789; d. 22 August 1839), journalist and abolitionist.Benjamin Lundy's newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, founded in 1821, was the first antislavery journal in the United ...
caucuses, congressional
The congressional caucus was a method of nominating Presidential candidates used by the Federalist party in 1800 and the Democratic-Republican party between 1800 and 1824.Borrowing the word from the ...
Declaration of Independence
The foundation document of the United States of America, which proclaimed American separation from Britain and was adopted by the Continental Congress on 4 July 1776. Its principal author was Thomas ...
Democratic Party
One of the two main political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican party, which follows a broadly liberal program, tending to support social reform and minority rights.[...]
Electoral College
A mechanism for the indirect election of public officials. For the purpose of electing the President and Vice President of the United States a 538‐member Electoral College is created with each state ...
Era of the Early Republic
(1789–1828).Elections for the new federal government established by the Constitution were held in the winter of 1788–1789. Supporters of the Constitution, calling themselves Federalists, won control ...
Expansionism
Expansionism—the desire of nations and empires to annex lands, peoples, or resources belonging to others—is a peculiar characteristic of a world order where boundaries are subject to the ambitions of ...
Film and Filmmakers
Numerous film scholars have challenged the representations of African Americans in American films, citing them as ongoing evidence of white domination of the film industry in the United States. A ...
foreign Policy
As long as monarchs wielded great personal power, it is hardly possible to divorce foreign policy from the individual circumstances and character of each king. Nevertheless, at an early period, ...
Free-Soil Party
As sectional tensions over slavery increased following the Mexican War, both the Whig and Democratic parties experienced internal disputes. Antislavery members of both parties expressed ...
Henry Adams
(1838–1918) American historian and man of lettersDemocracy (1880) FictionEsther (1884) FictionHistory of the United States (1889–1891) Non-FictionMemoirs of Marau Taaroa, Last Queen of Tahiti (1893) ...
Henry Brockholst Livingston
Associate Justice, 1807–23• Born: Nov. 25, 1757, New York, N.Y.• Education: College of New Jersey (Princeton), B.A., 1774; studied law with Peter Yates in New York, N.Y.• Previous government ...
Henry Clay
(1777–1852)US statesman and orator. As Speaker of the House of Representatives (1811–14) he played a central role in the agitation leading to the War of 1812, and was one of the commissioners ...
impeachment
A formal accusation of wrongdoing. To impeach a public official is to accuse him of crimes or misdemeanours in the execution of his duties. Impeachment proceedings normally occur in the lower house ...
James Knox Polk
(1795–1849)US Democratic statesman, 11th President of the USA (1845–49). His term of office resulted in major territorial additions to the USA: Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845, and the ...
