A financial crisis that last from _______ until the mid 1840s. Caused, in part, by Andrew Jackson killing the Bank of the United States and issuing the Specie Circular, the latter of which caused the value of paper money to plummet.

Eleventh President. Served 1845-1849. An heir of sorts to Andrew Jackson, he advocated for Manifest Destiny. His campaign slogan was "Fifty-four forty or fight!" Yet while that slogan advocated a hardline position on the disputed Oregon Territory, he instead reached a diplomatic agreement with Britain. The border was drawn at the 49th parallel, which ceded what is now British Columbia, including Vancouver Island. He then oversaw the controversial Mexican-American War, expanding the U.S. into the Southwest. Having pledged to only serve one term, he declined to run for reelection in 1848.

Coined by journalist John O'Sullivan in 1845 to describe the belief that it was God's will for the United States to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean. It also describes a more general expansionism, such as the dispute over the Oregon Territory that Polk campaign on and the U.S. expansion into the Southwest following the Mexican-American War.

Ninth President. Served from March 4 to April 4, 1841, famously dying after 31 days in office. A hero of the War of 1812, specifically the Battle of Tippecanoe, his lively campaign saw the Whigs cart model log cabins to towns and distribute hard cider to boast of _________"poor" background. His "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too" ticket easily defeated Van Buren in 1840. However, he gave his Inaugural Address on a cold, rainy day and neglected to wear a warm coat. He contracted pneumonia and died. See: John Tyler.

A conflict between the ____________ and _________. It took place from April 1846 to February 1848. Following the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered a wayward province whose independence was a legal fiction created under duress, war broke out between the two nations. The war was deeply controversial in its time, illustrating the deepening divide between free and slave states. Many political and military leaders of the Civil War fought in this war. It also led to a major U.S. territorial expansion. See: John Slidell, Santa Anna, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Wilmot Proviso.

A deal that resolved the hung election of 1876. It provided that Rutherford B. Hayes would become president only if he agreed to remove the last remaining federal troops stationed in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The end of martial law in the South signaled the end of Reconstruction in the United States. See: Samuel Tilden.

Nineteenth President. Served 1877–1881. While a Civil War veteran and a Republican, he ended Reconstruction as part of the Compromise of 1877 to resolve the disputed 1876 election. Enacted modest civil service reform. Ordered federal troops to break up the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Pledged not to run for reelection and returned to Ohio.

The last of the Reconstruction-era ___________ made it a crime for any person to be denied full and equal use of public places, such as hotels, rail cars, restaurants, and theaters. Unfortunately, this act lacked any wording to enforce it, and it was therefore ignored by most states, both Northern and Southern. See: Plessy v. Ferguson.

A political movement that sought to return control of the former Confederacy to white Southerners. Their policy, Redemption, sought to purge the South of the influence of Republicans, carpetbaggers, and newly emancipated slaves. See: Compromise of 1877, Jim Crow laws, Ku Klux Klan.

A government program created in 1865 to help manage and assist newly emancipated slaves. The ________ provided assistance in the form of food, shelter, and medical attention to African Americans. Eventually, the ________ would establish schools across the South to help educate large numbers of former slaves. The ___________ struggled as Congress refused to increase its funding, which expired in 1872.

U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851–1874). A Radical Republican abolitionist, he pushed for the protection of civil rights in Southern states. Famously caned on the floor of the Senate by Preston Brooks.

Also known as the "Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction," Lincoln proposed this plan in 1863 as a way to bring Southern states back under the wing of the federal government. The plan reestablished state governments and required at least _________ of the states' voters to swear an oath of loyalty to the United States and the Constitution. Lincoln was also prepared to grant complete pardons to any former Confederate, but required an oath of allegiance and agreement to eliminate slavery. See: Wade-Davis Bill.

A brief, poignant address by Abraham Lincoln commemorating the ___________. It was delivered on November 19, 1863. Harkening back to the Declaration of Independence 87 years prior, Lincoln proposed the idea of equality—“all men are created equal”—as the core spirit of the Declaration and the Constitution. He goes on to reframe the context of the Civil War as a trial to see if equality can endure rather than being solely an issue of preserving the Constitution’s political framework (“the Union”).

Seventeenth President. Served 1865–1869. One of only three presidents to be impeached; like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, he was not convicted. Took office after Lincoln’s assassination. A Democrat who had run with the Republican Lincoln, he was disliked by Congress, especially for his mild terms for Reconstruction and disinterest in protecting newly freed slaves; this all led to Radical Republicans passing the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment.

________ served as an aide to Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War, where he gained experience in artillery and troop movements. During John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, ________ commanded the mixed force of militia and soldiers that suppressed his attempted slave uprising. However, his legacy would be defined by betraying the U.S. and taking command of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War.

During the Civil War, Lincoln exercised his executive power to limit Americans’ civil rights and liberties to protect the Union. He suspended the __________, which meant that the federal government could hold an individual in jail with no charges levied against him or her. For many alleged traitors, this meant long jail terms with no charges ever filed. Lincoln intended for this suspension to be only temporary, and the constitutional right would be restored after the war was over. When the Taney Court ruled his actions illegal, Lincoln ignored the court order.

A South Carolina politician and member of the Great Triumvirate. _______ was an ardent supporter of states’ rights, nullification, and slavery. ________, who had served as Andrew Jackson’s vice president, resigned from that office to return to the Senate, where he felt he could better defend the virtues of nullification. From his deathbed, _________ wrote fierce attacks upon the proposed Compromise of 1850 and affirmed the right of secession.

Northern Democrats who demanded a peace settlement with the Confederacy. The term was initially a pejorative coined by Republicans, who likened the anti-war Democrats to the __________, but was adopted by Democrats as a symbol of Liberty (owing to the Liberty Head large cent __________ in circulation at the time).

The sole President of the Confederate States. Served February 22, 1862 to May 10, 1865. ________ was a Democrat from Mississippi. A veteran of the Mexican-American War, he had served in the House (1845–1856) and Senate (1847–1851, 1857–1861), as well as Secretary of War (1853–1857) under Franklin Pierce. ________ was a micromanager who hampered the Confederate war effort by refusing to delegate issues or authority to his subordinates. He also lacked the political skill to overcome the decentralized, states’ rights structure of the Confederacy, which made him reliant on state governors in a way Lincoln did not deal with.