"We, the people"

The Preamble to the United States Constitution is a brief introductory statement of the
Constitution's fundamental purposes and guiding principles. It states in general terms, and courts
have referred to it as reliable evidence of, the Founding Fathers' intentions regarding the
Constitution's meaning and what they hoped the Constitution would achieve. The phrase "We the
people" epitomizes the United States government's republican form.

The Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights is a series of limitations on the power of the United States Federal government,
protecting the natural rights of liberty and property including freedom of speech, a free press, free
assembly, and free association. In federal criminal cases, it requires indictment by a grand jury
for any capital or "infamous crime", guarantees a speedy, public trial with an impartial jury
composed of members of the state or judicial district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits
double jeopardy.

E Pluribus Unum

Latin for "Out of many, one", is a motto on the Seal of the United States, along with Annuit
cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum, and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782.[1] The phrase is
similar to a Latin translation of a variation of Heraclitus' 10th fragment, "Out of all things one,
one out of all things." A variant of the phrase was used in Moretum, a poem about salad attributed
to Virgil but with the actual author unknown.

Stars and Stripes

The national flag of the United States of America (the "American flag") consists of thirteen equal
horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the
canton (referred to specifically as the "union") bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars
arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five
stars. The fifty stars on the flag represent the 50 states and the 13 stripes represent the original
thirteen colonies that rebelled against the British monarchy and became the first states in the
Union.[1] Nicknames for the flag include the "Stars and Stripes", "Old Glory,"[2] and "The Star-
Spangled Banner

Chesapeake bay

he Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the
Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's
drainage basin covers 64,299 square miles (166,534 km2) in the District of
Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. More than 150 rivers and streams drain
into the Bay.

Pilgrim Fathers

In 1620 one hundred Puritans boarded the ‘Mayflower’ bound for the New
World. These people were the Pilgrim Fathers. The Pilgrim Fathers saw little
chance of England becoming a country in which they wished to live. They
viewed it as un-Godly and moving from a bad to worse state. The Pilgrim
Fathers believed that a new start in the New World was their only chance. A
lot of the trials and tribulations about where they should sail to, the journey
across the Atlantic to the New World and the initial problems experienced by
the Pilgrim Fathers are contained in a diary written by William Bradford.

Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of
Massachusetts, against the British government. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston
refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and
destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of
American history, and other political protests often refer to it.

North-West Ordinances

The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the
United States, North-West of the River Ohio, and also known as the Freedom Ordinance) was an
act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States. The primary effect of the ordinance
was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States out
of the region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the
Mississippi River. On August 7, 1789, the U.S. Congress affirmed the Ordinance with slight
modifications under the Constitution.

Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane "Sale of Louisiana")

was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles
(2,147,000 km2) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The
U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18
million francs ($3,750,000), for a total cost of 15 million dollars for the
Louisiana territory ($217 million in today's currency).

Missouri Compromise

The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the

pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving
primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited
slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30' north
except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. Prior to the
agreement, the House of Representatives had refused to accept this
compromise and a conference committee was appointed. The United States
Senate refused to concur in the amendment, and the whole measure was
lost.

Texas Annexation

The Texas Annexation of 1845 was the annexation of the Republic of Texas to
the United States of America as the twenty-eighth state. This act quickly led
to the Mexican War (1846–48) in which the U.S. captured additional territory
(known as the Mexican Cession of 1848) extending the 19th century southern
U.S. territorial acquisitions from Mexico all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Texas then claimed, but never actually controlled, the eastern part of this
new territory, which comprised parts of present-day Colorado, Kansas, New
Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. This created a continuing dispute between
Texas, the federal government and the New Mexico Territory until the
Compromise of 1850, when these lands became parts of other territories of
the United States in exchange for the U.S. federal government assuming the
Texas Republic's $10 million in debt.

California Compromise

California became part of the U.S. after the Mexican War. Its great Gold Rush
in 1848-49 quickly brought in enough people to form a state, and at their
constitutional convention they unanimously rejected slavery. The third
statute of the Compromise of 1850, enacted on September 9, 1850, admitted
California to the Union as the 31st State.

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States
(often in the ethnically specific form of the "Anglo-Saxon race") was destined
to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to
the Pacific Ocean. It was used by Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war
with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and fell into disuse after
the mid 1850s.