1. Unit 1
The promise of America

2. Essential Question:
How did democracy in America grow between 1776 and 1870?
To what extent is American Democracy still a broken promise?

3. The Declaration of INdependence
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

4. After independence Articles of Confederation
1st government
Too weak
1787: Constitutional Convention
U.S. Constitution
Still our government
James Madison: father of Constitution

5. The Bill of Rights 1st 10 amendments to the constitution
1st: freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition
2nd: right of militia to bear arms
3rd & 4th: no quartering or unreasonable searches
5th-8th: rights of accused
9th: protection of non-enumerated rights
10th: non-enumerated powers to the states

6. Alien & Sedition Acts
Passed by Federalist Congress to limit power of Democratic-Republicans
Raise Citizenship Requirement from 5 to 14 years
Deport (peace time) or jail (during war) dangerous aliens
Sedition Act: Fine & imprisonment for impeding government policies or defaming its officials
Matthew Lyon & others imprisoned for writing criticisms of Adams

7. Loyal Opposition
Belief that you can love and be loyal to your country, and still criticize the government.
Sedition threatens Free Speech.
Without free speech there is no other freedom.
In our history we have passed Sedition laws, to silence protest.
World War I Sedition Act

8. Growth of democracy 1830: Universal White Male Suffrage
Property restrictions to vote dropped
National Conventions
Andrew Jackson—People’s President

9. Indian Removal Act, 1830
Removed all Native Americans living east of the Mississippi
included 5 Civilized Tribes
Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole
Land coveted because of Gold and Cotton
Worchester v Georgia: Supreme Court recognized Indian land rights
Jackson ignored court

10. Trail of Tears
4,000 Cherokees died during forced removal.

11. “Manifest Destiny”
First coined by newspaper editor, John O’Sullivan in 1845.
".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty … and self-government….. It is right such as that of the tree to the space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth."
Idea & emotion Americans felt when they realized whole continent should be theirs

13. Texas 1820: 1st Americans to Texas Promised to..
Become Catholics
Become Mexican citizens
To follow the law that abolished slavery.
Texas became independent, 1836
Remember the Alamo!

14. Mexican American War, 1846-1848 U.S. Annexed Texas in 19451845
Border dispute with Mexico
U.S. wanted to purchase California & New Mexico territory
Fighting Along Border
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised U.S. citizenship rights to Mexican population of new territory. Promise was broken

15. Abolitionist Movement
Began 1820: William Lloyd Garrison
Frederick Douglass
Sojourner Truth
Harriet Tubman

16. Dred Scot v Sanford 1857 Supreme Court overturned Missouri Compromise
Upheld Property Rights of Slaveholders in all U.S. territory.

17. Bleeding Kansas & Harper’s Ferry
John Brown turned to violence

18. American Civil War,
Slavery
States Rights

19. Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln, Jan. 1,
All slaves living in states in rebellion were forever free.
13th Amendment Abolished Slavery
14th Citizenship
15th Right to Vote