This document provides definitions and brief descriptions for 27 key people, events, and concepts from the Age of Jackson and the period of Westward Expansion in the United States. Some of the major topics covered include the American System, the Erie Canal, the Second Great Awakening, Jacksonian Democracy, the Trail of Tears, Manifest Destiny, the Oregon Trail, the Mexican-American War, and the Gold Rush of 1849.

1. Unit 5: The Age of Jackson & Westward Movement Key People & Vocabulary Terms
Name: _____________________________________
1. American System - an economic program pioneered by Henry Clay, which created a high tariff to support
internal improvements such as road building. This approach was intended to allow the United States to grow and
prosper by them.
2. Erie Canal - It is a canal in New York State, United States, that runs from the Hudson River to Lake Erie,
connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.
3. Second Great Awakening - A series of religious revivals starting in 1801, based on Methodism and
Baptism. Stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all. It also had an
effect on moral movements such as prison reform, the temperance movement, and moral reasoning against
slavery.
4. Horace Mann - was the leading advocate of the common (public) school movement for tax-supported school
spread rapidly to other states.
5. Dorothea Dix - A New England teacher and author who spoke against the inhumane treatment of insane
prisoners, her reports that brought about changes in treatment, and also the concept that insanity was a disease
of the mind, not a willfully perverse act by an individual.
6. Elizabeth Cady Stanton - was a member of the women's right's movement in 1840. She shocked other
feminists by advocating suffrage for women at the first Women's Right's Convention in Seneca, New York 1848.
Stanton read a "Declaration of Sentiments" which declared "all men and women are created equal."
7. Corrupt Bargain - A political scandal that arose when the Speaker of the House, Henry Clay, allegedly met
with John Quincy Adams before the House election to break a deadlock. Adams was elected president against
the popular vote and Clay was named Secretary of State.
8. Spoils System – The practice of giving government jobs to your supporters. As president, Andrew Jackson
rewarded many of his supporters with government jobs.
8. New Madrid Earthquakes – A series of earthquakes that took place in 1811 and 1812. The earthquakes
helped Tecumseh create his Native American Alliance. The extensive damage from the quakes altered the
course of the Mississippi River and created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee.
9. Jacksonian Democracy – Associated with the presidency of Jackson. It was the political movement toward
greater democracy (increase voting rights) for the common man.
10.“Corrupt Bargain” – 1824. A political scandal that arose, when the Speaker of the House, Henry Clay,
allegedly met with John Quincy Adams before the House election to break a deadlock. Adams was elected
president against the popular vote, which Andrew Jackson won, and Clay was named Secretary of State.
11. Sequoyah – Cherokee Indian born in Tennessee. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of a
Cherokee syllabary (alphabet) making reading and writing in Cherokee possible.
12. Nullification Crisis – Centered around a law called the Tariff of 1828. The crisis arose in the early 1830s
when leaders of South Carolina upset with the tariff advanced the idea that a state did not have to follow a
federal law and could, in effect, "nullify" (nullify means cancel) the law.
13. Trail of Tears – Name given to the forced march of Native Americans from the east of the U.S. to the new
Indian Territory (Present day Oklahoma). The removal of Native Americans from their homelands was the result
of the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

2. 14. Indian Removal Act – Law passed by Congress in 1830, during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. The law
authorized the president to negotiate with southern Indian tribes for their removal to lands in the West (The
Indian Territory).
15. Manifest Destiny - This expression was popular in the 1840s. Many people believed that the U.S. was
destined to secure territory from "sea to sea," from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This rationale drove the
acquisition of territory.
16. David Crockett - United States frontiersman and Tennessee politician who died at the siege of the Alamo,
example of "common man,"
17. Battle of the Alamo - 1836 attack on a mission in San Antonio by Mexican forces during the Texas
revolution. Inspired the battle cry for Texans’ to fight and win their independence.
18. Oregon Trail - Overland trail of more than two thousand miles that carried American settlers from the
Midwest to new settlements in Oregon, California, and Utah.
19. John C. Fremont - Against extension of slavery in territories, an American military officer, explorer, the first
candidate of the republican party for the office of president of the united states, and the first presidential
candidate of a major party to run on a platform in opposition to slavery.
20. James K. Polk - 13th President. Dark-Horse (1844) whose four-pronged approach to presidency was:
reestablish the independent treasury system, reduce tariffs, acquire Oregon, and acquire California and New
Mexico from Mexico.
21. Mexican-American War - (1846-1848) Conflict after US annexation of Texas; Mexico still considered Texas
its own; Victor: US; granted all land from Texas to California (minus the Gadsden Purchase) in the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo.
22. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo- (1848) Ended Mexican-American War; Mexico gave up all claims to land
from Texas to California for $15 million.
23. Zachary Tyler - General that was a military leader in Mexican-American War and 12th president of the
United States. He was the Whig party president. Sent by president Polk to lead the American Army against
Mexico at Rio Grande but lost.
24. Winfield Scott - United States army general. Unsuccessful presidential candidate for Whigs in 1852; and
was "Old Fuss and Feathers" national hero after Mexican American war. Served as military governor of Mexico
City.
25. Mexican Cession - was ceded to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
following the Mexican-American War. This massive land grab was significant because the question of extending
slavery into newly acquired territories had become the leading national political issue.
26. Wilmot Proviso - A representative named David Wilmot introduced an amendment stating that any territory
acquired from Mexico would be free. This amendment passed the House twice, but failed to ever pass in Senate.
This became a symbol of how intense dispute over slavery was in the U.S. and causes sectionalism.
27. Gold Rush - thousands of miners travel to Northern California after news reports of the discovery of gold at
Sutter's Mill in January of 1848 had spread around the world. This caused Californians to apply for statehood in
1849.