The first constitution in the United States.
An agreement providing that enslaved persons would count as three-fifths of other persons in determining representation in Congress.
Article I outlines the lawmaking powers of this branch.
The idea that power lies with the people.
What is Popular Sovereignty?
A series of essays written to defend the Constitution.
What is the Federalists Papers?
The cause for many political leaders, merchants, and writers to begin calling for a stronger national government.
What is Electoral College?
The branch that interprets the laws and sees that they are fairly applied.
The principal that a ruler or a government is not all-powerful.
What is Limited Government?
A law that set up a government for the Northwest Territory and as a plan for admitting new states to the Union.
What is the Northwest Ordinance?
The first colony to organize as a state.
What is New Hampshire?
Meeting of state delegates in 1787 leading to adoption of a new Constitution.
What is the Constitutional Convention?
The part of the Constitution that states the goals and purposes of government.
What is the Preamble?
A system in which each branch of government is able to check, or restrain, the power of the others.
What is Checks and Balances?
The main parts of government, or the description for the way the government is set up.
What is the Articles?
A law that set up a plan for surveying western lands.
What is the Ordinance of 1785?
A form of government in which power is divided between the federal, or national, government and the state.
What is Federalism?
The first 10 amendments in the Constitution.
What is the Bill of Rights?
The names of the three powers of government that the constitution divided while creating a federal system.
What is enumerated powers, concurrent powers, and reserved powers?
A legislature consisting of two parts, or houses.
What is bicameral legislature?
The final authority in interpreting the Constitution.
What is the Supreme Court?
The clause in Article VI of the Constitution that makes federal laws prevail over state laws when there is a conflict.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
The split of authority among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
What is the Separation of Powers?