An American History

GLOSSARY ★ A-79

them. President Jackson refused to enforce

the ruling.

Works Progress Administration

(WPA) Part of the Second New Deal; it

provided jobs for millions of the unem-

ployed on construction and arts projects.

Wounded Knee massacre Last incident

of the Indian Wars; it took place in 1890 in

the Dakota Territory, where the U.S. Cav-

alry killed over 200 Sioux men, women,

and children.

writs of assistance One of the colonies’

main complaints against Britain; the

writs allowed unlimited search warrants

without cause to look for evidence of

smuggling.

XYZ affair Affair in which French for-

eign minister Talleyrand’s three anony-

mous agents demanded payments to stop

French plundering of American ships in

1797; refusal to pay the bribe was followed

by two years of undeclared sea war with

France (1798–1800).

Yalta conference Meeting of Frank-

lin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and

Joseph Stalin at a Crimean resort to dis-

cuss the postwar world on February 4–11,

1945; Joseph Stalin claimed large areas in

eastern Europe for Soviet domination.

Yamasee uprising Revolt of Yamasee

and Creek Indians, aggravated by rising

debts and slave traders’ raids, against Car-

olina settlers. Resulted in the expulsion of

many Indians to Florida.

yellow press Sensationalism in newspa-

per publishing that reached a peak in the

circulation war between Joseph Pulitzer’s

New York World and William Randolph

Hearst’s New York Journal in the 1890s;

the papers’ accounts of events in Havana

Harbor in 1898 led directly to the Spanish-

American War.

yeoman farmers Small landowners (the

majority of white families in the Old

South) who farmed their own land and

usually did not own slaves.

to the 1972–1974 scandal of the Nixon
administration; when his knowledge of
the break- in at the Watergate and sub-
sequent cover- up were revealed, Nixon
resigned the presidency under threat of
impeachment.
The Wealth of Nations The 1776 work
by economist Adam Smith that argued
that the “invisible hand” of the free mar-
ket directed economic life more effec-
tively and fairly than governmental
intervention.
Webster- Hayne debate U.S. Senate
debate of January 1830 between Daniel
Webster of Massachusetts and Robert
Hayne of South Carolina over nullifica-
tion and states’ rights.
welfare state A term that originated in
Britain during World War II to refer to a
system of income assistance, health cover-
age, and social services for all citizens.
Whiskey Rebellion Violent protest by
western Pennsylvania farmers against the
federal excise tax on whiskey, 1794.
Wilmot Proviso Proposal to prohibit
slavery in any land acquired in the Mex-
ican War; defeated by southern senators,
led by John C. Calhoun of South Carolina,
in 1846 and 1847.
Winthrop, John Puritan leader and gov-
ernor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
who resolved to use the colony as a refuge
for persecuted Puritans and as an instru-
ment of building a “wilderness Zion” in
America.
woman suffrage Movement to give
women the right to vote through a con-
stitutional amendment, spearheaded by
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton’s National Woman Suffrage
Association.
Worcester v. Georgia 1832 Supreme Court
case that held that the Indian nations
were distinct peoples who could not be
dealt with by the states— instead, only the
federal government could negotiate with