Key Terms
- Anti-Federalists
- those who did not support ratification of the Constitution
- Articles of Confederation
- the first basis for the new nation’s government; adopted in 1781; created an alliance of sovereign states held together by a weak central government
- bicameral legislature
- a legislature with two houses, such as the U.S. Congress
- Bill of Rights
- the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution; most were designed to protect fundamental rights and liberties
- checks and balances
- a system that allows one branch of government to limit the exercise of power by another branch; requires the different parts of government to work together
- confederation
- a highly decentralized form of government; sovereign states form a union for purposes such as mutual defense
- Declaration of Independence
- a document written in 1776 in which the American colonists proclaimed their independence from Great Britain and listed their grievances against the British king
- enumerated powers
- the powers given explicitly to the federal government by the Constitution (Article I, Section 8); power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, raise and support armies, declare war, coin money, and conduct foreign affairs
- federal system
- a form of government in which power is divided between state governments and a national government
- Federalists
- those who supported ratification of the Constitution
- Great Compromise
- a compromise between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan that created a two-house Congress; representation based on population in the House of Representatives and equal representation of states in the Senate
- natural rights
- the right to life, liberty, and property; believed to be given by God; no government may take away
- New Jersey Plan
- a plan that called for a one-house national legislature; each state would receive one vote
- republic
- a form of government in which political power rests in the hands of the people, not a monarch, and is exercised by elected representatives
- reserved powers
- any powers not prohibited by the Constitution or delegated to the national government; powers reserved to the states and denied to the federal government
- separation of powers
- the sharing of powers among three separate branches of government
- social contract
- an agreement between people and government in which citizens consent to be governed so long as the government protects their natural rights
- supremacy clause
- the statement in Article VI of the Constitution that federal law is superior to laws passed by state legislatures
- The Federalist Papers
- a collection of eighty-five essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of ratification of the Constitution
- Three-Fifths Compromise
- a compromise between northern and southern states that called for counting of all a state’s free population and 60 percent of its slave population for both federal taxation and representation in Congress
- unicameral legislature
- a legislature with only one house, like the Confederation Congress or the legislature proposed by the New Jersey Plan
- veto
- the power of the president to reject a law proposed by Congress
- Virginia Plan
- a plan for a two-house legislature; representatives would be elected to the lower house based on each state’s population; representatives for the upper house would be chosen by the lower house
