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An American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and the third President of the United States (1801–1809). -
In Marbury v. Madison, decided in 1803, the Supreme Court, for the first time, struck down an act of Congress as unconstitutional. This decision created the doctrine of judicial review and set up the Supreme Court of the United States as chief interpreter of the Constitution.
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The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 was extremely important to the United States because it dramatically expanded the size of the country. It essentially doubled the size of union. It was also acquired peacefully rather than through warfare. -
The expedition's mission was to find a water passage to the Pacific Ocean. The explorers discovered 178 new plants and 122 species and subspecies of animals. Lewis and Clark's team mapped uncharted land, rivers, and mountains. They brought back journals filled with details about Native American tribes and scientific notes about plants and animals they'd never seen before.
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The Embargo Act of 1807 was a law passed by Congress forbidding all exportation of goods from the United States. Britain and France had been continuously harassing the U.S. and seizing U.S. ship's and men. The embargo was an unpopular and costly failure. It hurt the American economy far more than the British or French, and resulted in widespread smuggling. Exports fell from $108 million in 1807 to just $22 million in 1808. Farm prices fell sharply.
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The effects of this war were the decrease in Native American resistance, increased American Patriotism, strengthened the nation, increased manufacturing and, decreased political party divisions.. Ushers in the era of good feelings.
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This legislation admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a non-slave state at the same time, so as not to upset the balance between slave and free states in the nation. It also outlawed slavery above the 36º 30' latitude line in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory.
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By the mid-1800s, Monroe's declaration, combined with ideas of Manifest Destiny, provided precedent and support for U.S. expansion on the American continent. In the late 1800s, U.S. economic and military power enabled it to enforce the Monroe Doctrine.
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Andrew Jackson was the first to be elected president by appealing to the mass of voters rather than the party elite. He established the principle that states may not disregard federal law. However, he also signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to the Trail of Tears. -
Between 1830 and 1850, about 100,000 American Indians living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida moved west after the U.S. government coerced treaties or used the U.S. Army against those resisting. Many were treated brutally. An estimated 3,500 Creeks died in Alabama and on their westward journey. It affected westward expansion because it removed the Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes from their ancestral lands so that white Americans could expand west.