APUSH Chapter 21 Vocabulary

A final proposal, as by one nation to another, that if rejected, will likely lead to war.

The London Foreign Office prepared an ultimatum for the U.S., demanding a surrender of the prisoners and an apology after the Trent Affair. [*See Trent Affair]

In law, an order requiring that a prisoner be brought before a court at a specified time and place in order to determine the legality of the imprisonment.

Civil liberty that was suspended by Lincoln in defiance of the Constitution and Supreme Court's chief justice. This was done so that anti-Unionists could be summarily arrested.

1801-72, U.S. statesman: Sec. of State 1861-69.

He rather foolishly believed that if the North picked a fight with European nations, the South would rally behind the Union. Later, he was prepared to march south to confront Napoleon and the Austrian Archduke Maximilian, who had established a regime in Mexico. Napoleon had been gambling that the Union would collapse in the midst of the Civil War. However, after the war was over in 1865, Seward organized a force and went down to Mexico to pursue the people that had defied the Monroe Doctrine. Napoleon realized this and took leave, leaving his puppet emperor to die.

1808-89, U.S. statesman: president of the Confederate States of America 1861-65. He believed in a well-knit central gov't. Tense, humorless, legalistic, stubborn, and suffered from neuralgia.

On February 9, 1861, after Davis resigned from the U.S. Senate, he was selected to be the provisional President of the Confederate States of America. He was elected without opposition to a six-year term that November. During his presidency, Davis took charge of the Confederate war plans but was unable to find a strategy to stop the larger, more powerful, and better organized Union. His diplomatic efforts failed to gain recognition from any foreign country, and he paid little attention to the collapsing Confederate economy, printing more and more paper money to cover the war's expenses. He supported a well-knit government, but this was opposed by states' rights supporters which led him less able to exercise arbitrary power. He was an able CSA President, but he was unpopular due to his defiance of public opinion. He overworked himself with civil government issues and military operations. He was devoted to the South, and was brilliant in all honesty, but sadly he had awkward social ticks which were not great for his publicity.

1861 During the Buchanan's presidency: Passage of the tariff was possible because antiprotection Southerners had left Congress after secession. This act raised the tariff rates to protect and encourage industry and the high wages of workers. This replaced the low pro-South Tariff of 1857. It also helped in raising revenue for the Civil War.

1860; Antiprotection Southerners had left Congress with the secession of southern states, which allowed Congress to pass this Act. The Morrill Tariff Act superceded the low Tariff of 1857 and increased duties by 5-10% (equal to the rates of the Walker Tariff of 1846). It raised revenue for the Civil War and protected manufacturers against internal taxes. This Act identified with the Republican party because most Republicans were industrialists who became rich from the benefits of the tariff. Two additional tariffs sponsored by Morrill, each one higher, were passed during Abraham Lincoln's administration to raise urgently needed revenue during the Civil War.

A fort in southeastern South Carolina, in Charleston harbor: its bombardment by the Confederates opened the Civil War on April 12, 1861.

One of the last two significant forts in the South that still sported the Union flag, located in Charleston harbor with less than a hundred men. Lincoln was backed into a corner with the dilemma of Fort Sumter. It was the most important remaining fort in the South, but he could not send reinforcements, in the fear that the South would view this as an act of aggression and trigger the war. Alas, he sent "provisions" but the South still saw these as "reinforcements." April 12, 1861; South Carolina opened a 34-hour bombardment on the fort, with no lives lost except for that of a horse. South Carolina's attack on Fort Sumter unified the North and made it determined to preserve the Union by military force. Lincoln soon sent a leaky blockade of Southern seaports, which led Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina to secede as well.

1861; USS San Jacinto intercepted the British mail steamer Trent. U.S. removed 2 Confederate diplomats who were bound for Britain and France. This threatened war between U.S. and Britain, which the CSA wanted. However, tensions cooled. Lincoln released the envoys, and the incident was over.

1861; A Union warship in the seas north of Cuba stopped the British mail steamer Trent and forcibly removed 2 Confederate diplomats bound for Europe. Britons were outraged and took steps in preparation for war with the U.S.; Britain strengthened troops in Canada, and the London Foreign Office prepared an ultimatum demanding the surrender of the prisoners and an apology. However, communications between the two countries were slow, so tensions eventually cooled off, and Lincoln released the envoys as "white elephants" or gifts.

1863; Established national charters for banks, which encouraged the development of national currency backed by bank holdings of U.S. Treasury securities.

1863; The national banking system was launched as a stimulant to the sale of government bonds and designed to establish a standard bank-note currency. Banks that joined the system could by government bonds and issue sound paper money backed by them. This helped the North gain finances for the Civil War and established "paper money." It was a financial landmark of the war, and the first significant step taken toward a unified banking network since 1836.

The Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built for the CSA Navy at Britain in 1862 by John Laird Sons & Co. It served as a commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships for over 2 years. It never entered a Southern port. 1864; The Alabama was sunk by the USS Kearsarge.

The Alabama was a British ship (commerce raider) controlled by Confederates. 1862; It escaped to the Portuguese Azores to take on weapons and an English crew, never entering a Southern port. It captured 60 Northern vessels, which angered the North who had to divert naval strength from the blockade to the Alabama. 1864; The Alabama was destroyed by a Union cruiser off the coast of France. U.S. minister Charles Francis Adams convinced Britain that ships of the kind were a dangerous precedent against them and convinced Britain to stay neutral in the war. Britain later apologized for the Alabama business and paid $15.5 million in damages caused by commerce raiders to U.S. ships (1871-72).