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/* Key Terms Through Reconstruction */ improved explanation
One approach to improving your knowledge of these key terms is simply to type or write out short descriptions of each one. There are only 321 terms. If you took 2 minutes for each one that you did not know, then it would take you only 1 hour to complete 30 that you did not know. In one day you could cover nearly the entire list, and you would not like forget them for a long, long time. Typing or writing out the meaning of something in one's own words has the effect of really burning it into one's memory! I still recall lines from Shakespeare that I wrote out by hand when I was in the eighth grade!
Our first through sixth lectures should have covered all of of the following terms, except the lectures did miss the Newburgh Address Conspiracy (or ConspiracyAddress). That was a plot among officers of the Continental Army (the Patriots fighting for the Americans in the Revolutionary War) to hold a military coup and establish martial law in order to obtain back pay that was owed to them by Congress for their military service. The plot came to a climax when they angrily met on March 15, 1783, and were surprised by an unexpected appearance by General George Washington. He gave a short speech, but the officers were still still angry, and lacking in the respect that they usually gave to their esteemed leader. Washington then pulled a letter from his pocket from a member of Second Continental Congress. But Washington was unable to read the letter without his reading glasses, and in a miraculous moment of sincere emotion, declared, "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country." Many of the officers were suddenly moved to tears in the realization that Washington, like themselves, had sacrificed much for the country. The officers left satisfiedand would abide by Congress's own timetable for paying them. The Newburgh Conspiracy is a good story. But develop a sensitivity or "ear" for the '''historical significance''' of this story. Why is this event important in the history of our nation? The answer is this: this event confirmed civilian authority or control over the military. Congress, a civilian authority, decides if and when to pay the soldiers. The soldiers have the guns, but they must submit to the civilian authority of Congress, as established by the above event
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