Important events and people that shaped our nations past.
Created by saunders on Sep 11, 2008
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 04:05 PM
Born in 1758, James Monroe became America's Fifth President, after James Madison. Monroe became president in 1817, and served until 1825. In 1820, he was reelected with little trouble. Though Monroe was often known as a "bland" individual, he did his job well as commander in chief. One example of this is the time he vetoed the public improvements legislation. Though this would have turned out poorly for him, he offered a compromise that satisfied everyone by achieving the same goal in accordance with the constitution. Monroe played a crucial role in America's foreign policy as he created the Monroe Doctrine, thus limiting the British in the Western Hemisphere. In addition, Monroe had wonderful relations with the French, and had gone to several diplomatic meetings in Paris. Monroe will not be forgotten for his service to America, long after his death in 1831.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/hall/bigmonro.htm
Francis Scott Key was born into a wealthy family and later became a lawyer. Francis Scott Key was trying to get the release of a prisoner who had been his good friend and had to wait until the British were done attacking Fort McHenry before he could go back to Maryland. He watched from eight miles out and when he looked out at the end of the battle the U.S.'s flag was still there. it wasn't till 1931 till it became our countries national anthem.
http://www.nps.gov/archive/fomc/tguide/Lesson9a.htm
The National Road was an expansive highway that stretched from Maryland all the way to Illinois. Although Congress approved the road in 1806, it was not until 1811 that construction on the National Road began. The highway is now known most commonly as "Route 40" and was the first highway ever to be constructed solely from federal funds. The midwest was introduced to commerce and settlement through The National Road.
http://www.nps.gov/archive/fone/natlroad.htm
Born in 1758, James Monroe became America's Fifth President, after James Madison. Monroe became president in 1817, and served until 1825. In 1820, he was reelected with little trouble. Though Monroe was often known as a "bland" individual, he did his job well as commander in chief. One example of this is the time he vetoed the public improvements legislation. Though this would have turned out poorly for him, he offered a compromise that satisfied everyone by achieving the same goal in accordance with the constitution. Monroe played a crucial role in America's foreign policy as he created the Monroe Doctrine, thus limiting the British in the Western Hemisphere. In addition, Monroe had wonderful relations with the French, and had gone to several diplomatic meetings in Paris. Monroe will not be forgotten for his service to America, long after his death in 1831.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/timeline/pres_era/3_665.html
The Abolition of the Atlantic slave trade is very controversial. Slavery never stopped until the 13,14,and 15 amendments in the Bill of Rights in 1865. It was a main goal to abolish slavery. There was a big conflict between the North and the South for slave states and free states. The constitution tried to help solve this problem. It first said that 3/5 of the slaves would be counted for representation and taxation. The other one was that congress could not be able to forbid the importation of slaves before 1808, but could tax them. Separate sates could choose to become a free state. Congress also found ways to forbid it with out not following the constitution. Overall slave trade was a big issue that was not very easily confronted.
In 1804 Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to find the Northwest Passage. Many explorers had been dreaming about the Northwest Passage. The Northwest passage was a water route leading to all of the trade routes of the pacific. Thomas Jefferson was looking for a way to strengthen America's trade. One step to accomplish this was to purchase Louisiana from France. 15 million dollars later America owned Louisiana. This was important because the Mississippi river ran right through Louisiana and also Louisiana was right on the Gulf of Mexico. This made a huge difference in trade because it made it easier to access the U.S. This was the start of the expedition. The expedition started April 25th 1805. On their journey they encountered and Indian tribe and accomplished many tasks.
http://lewisandclark.state.mt.us/
In 1804 Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to find the Northwest Passage. Many explorers had been dreaming about the Northwest Passage. The Northwest passage was a water route leading to all of the trade routes of the pacific. Thomas Jefferson was looking for a way to strengthen America's trade. One step to accomplish this was to purchase Louisiana from France. 15 million dollars later America owned Louisiana. This was important because the Mississippi river ran right through Louisiana and also Louisiana was right on the Gulf of Mexico. This made a huge difference in trade because it made it easier to access the U.S. This was the start of the expedition. The expedition started April 25th 1805. On their journey they encountered and Indian tribe and accomplished many tasks.
http://lewisandclark.state.mt.us/
In December of 1803, Thomas Jefferson closed a deal with the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The deal was that the US would give France $15 million for a piece of land that was named the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana purchase more than doubled the current size of the United States. It allowed easterners to expand and it gave the US lots of new natural resources along with full control of the Mississippi river. Later on, control of this river would become very importna to the Americans. Jefferson bought this land because he had heard that the Spanish, who used New Orleans to store goods temporarily, had given New Orleans to the French and stopped storing goods there. This alarmed Jefferson because he thought Napoleon would use New Orleans as a base of attack on the United States. That is how he came to the conclusion to make the Louisiana Purchase.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/images/ree0030p1.jpg
Marbury v. Madison, arguably the most important case in Supreme Court history, was the first Supreme Court case to use “judicial review”, or the act of judicial courts to cancel acts of Congress in conflict with the Constitution. In the election of 1800, the new Democratic-Republican candidate Thomas Jefferson beat the Federalist party’s John Adams. In Adam’s final days, he appointed many justices of peace for the District of Colombia that were approved but never delivered. When President Jefferson took office, he ordered his Secretary of State, James Madison, not to deliver them. William Marbury then petitioned the Supreme Court for a legal order, asking Madison to show why he should not receive his commission.
Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States of America, was inaugurated in Washington D.C., the capital city. The ceremonies took place March 4, 1801, in the Senate Wing of the not yet finished Capital building. Chief Justice John Marshall administered the Oath of Office to President Jefferson. Jefferson attempted to calm the bitter rivalry between the Federalists and Republicans in his speech, saying, “We have called by different names brethren of the same principles. We are all Republicans. We are all Federalists.” John Adams, the former president, did not attend the ceremony.
Gabriel’s conspiracy was a slave revolt, which occurred in the year 1800. Gabriel worked as a blacksmith on a plantation in Virginia, when he started organizing a slave army. Their first attempt to overthrow the white men and farm owners was foiled because there were very large thunderstorms, and the bridges became impassible. So the strike was postponed. Although before the strike, two slaves broke under the pressure told their owners about the plot. In the end, 26 slaves were killed by hanging, one commit suicide in captivity, and 65 were tried and found either not guilty, or they were transported out of the state and pardoned. According to the law, the slave-owners must be reimbursed by the state for “lost property” and Virginia paid almost 9000 dollars for the executed slaves.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1576.html
in 1800, the Capital of the United States was moved from Philidelphia to Washington DC. Pierre-Charles L'Enfant planed out the new capital. He wanted it to be "wholly new", and designed the framework of the capital city.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tri001.html
John Adams had provided great service during the Revolution and after it, so in 1789, he became Washington's Vice President. He was unhappy with the insignificance of the office, but being Vice President helped him become President in 1797. When Adams left the White House in 1801, he was discredited by some of the decisions he made as President. He wasn't exactly the most liked President in US history.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/hall/jadams.htm
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 protected slavery in the U.S.A. It made every escaped slave and their children fugitives-for-life, which meant they could be captured at any time in the United States. The Act made it a federal crime to help an escaping slave and gave slave masters the ability to seize back their runaway slaves even in the “free” states. This act started a whole business of slave and even non-slave catching and then selling them back into slavery. The Fugitive Act of 1793 had a terrible effect on the population of African slaves and resulted in the expansion of Underground Railroad.
Eli Whitney was a tutor from Massachusetts who was teaching in Georgia. His employer, Catherine Greene, encouraged Whitney to solve the problem that many farmers had. The problem was the cotton that grew inland had sticky seeds that were hard to pick out. In a couple of months, Whitney had invented the cotton gin. The cotton gin helped revive the cotton industry. But it also boosted another industry, slavery. The cotton gin helped growing cotton profitable, resulting in many plantations to increase in land and slaves. Eli Whitney also found a way to mass-produce muskets by machine. Eli Whitney is most often remembered as the man who helped the South become powerful with the invention of the cotton gin.
Citations
Cotton Gin. 14 Sept. 2008 .
Eli Whitney: The Inventor:The Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop. 14 Sept. 2008 .
http://www.eliwhitney.org/cotton.htm
Samuel Slater (1768-1835) finished the first textile mill. It ran on water power, and carded and spun cotton into thread. Samuel (instead of slaves) employed families to live and work there. This factory system became known as the Rhode Island System. It was soon used throughout New England.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/slater_hi.html
The first bank of the United States was made in Pennsylvania, 1791. Past governments had printed a massive amount of paper money. Due to the mass amount of money from the American Government, it became basically worth nothing. The Federalist Party tried to convince George Washington to open a bank that could help control the money that government made. Even though some in the Democratic - Republican Party disagreed. But when the Democratic - Republican Party realized that the bank helped businesses and the economy, they too agreed.
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=849
On February 1, 1790, the Royal Exchange Building in New York City hosted the first meeting of the Supreme Court. In what is now the financial district of New York, the day of scheduled opening was “uncommonly crouded” as the New York Daily Advertiser reported. However, only three out of six judges were present and the court was postponed until the next day. Once all the judges had come together, their first order of business was to hire a court crier and a clerk. After this, they picked which lawyers they admitted to the bar. Although they were ready, they did not have a single case in their two sessions in New York (February 1-10 and August 2-3, 1790), and did not have a single one until they moved to Philadelphia.
George Washington was born in 1732 to a Virginia farmer family. He pursued two interests: military arts, and western expansion, two great hobbies to become a president. In 1754, he became a lieutenant colonel and fought in the skirmishes of the French and Indian War. He was elected the Commander in Cheif of the Contentinental Army in 1775. Washington would have loved to retire back to Virginia. He decided to be a prime mover in the steps of making the Constitution of the United States. In the year 1789, George Washington took his oath as first President of the United States. This oath was on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/gw1.html
The Judiciary Act of 1789 was created to establish structure and jurisdiction of the federal court system. Article III of the U.S. Constitution made the Supreme Court, but gave Congress the authority to create the lower courts. This act was written by Senator Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. Not only did the Judiciary Act create a structured format for the federal courts, but it also made the position of attorney general. Edmund Randolph was the first appointed attorney general for the U.S. The Senate passed the act by a vote of 14 to 6 on July 17, and President George Washington signed the bill on September 24, 1789. This act has been amended by Congress throughout the years, but we still follow the basic structure that it gave for the federal courts.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/judiciary.html
During the adoption of the Constitution, some people thought that it could lead to tyranny by the government. The British control over them just a few years ago was fresh in their memory. They demanded a list of rights for the people (The Bill of Rights). In 1789, the First Congress proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution. The first two weren't ratified, but number 3 through 12 were. These formed the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, more formerly known as the Bill of Rights
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights.html
On September 17th, 1787, 55 delegates signed the constitution, vowing to follow its rules. It was then sent to the Congress, and in the following year was officially ratified, and became the law of the land. The entire constitution was printed for everyone to see in the newspapers, and a new lifestyle was started. The constitution created rules that are still effective today, as well as all the rights of freedom, such as religion and speech. This was an important document, created after many hours of work during the Constitutional Conventions. Though it has gone through some minor adjustments, the Articles of Confederation are still in effect and helping our government continue to be successful.
http://lawlibnews.blog.asu.edu/files/2007/09/constitution_quill_pen.jpg
12 of the 13 delegates met in Philadelphia to discuss the system of government that their country would run by. They replaced the Articles of Confederation, creating a stronger system of government with an equal say from the states, as well as creating new branches of government. This contained the judicial, legislative, and executive branches, which we still go by now. In this convention was created the layout for our government as it is today.
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/historybrf/images/cons1787.jpg
NW Ordinance was adopted by the Confederation Congress on July 13, 1787. Also known as the the Ordinance of 1787, the Northwest Ordinance established a government for the Northwest Territory, outlined the process for admitting a new state to the Union, and guaranteed that newly created states would be equal to the original thirteen states. Considered one of the most important legislative acts of the Confederation Congress, the Northwest Ordinance also protected civil liberties and outlawed slavery in the new territories.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/northwest.html
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