Early Influences
King John was forced to sign this document that was meant to limit the monarchy's power.
What is The Magna Carta?
Colonists responded to Parliament's harsh new taxes in the mid-1760s with this quotable phrase.
What is "no taxation without representation"?
Rights that no one has the power to take away.
What are unalienable rights?
This document created a loose alliance of states.
What is the Articles of Confederation?
This plan called for congressional representation to be based on state population.
What is the Virginia Plan?
Government leaders, even monarchs, must act according to this.
What is the Rule of Law?
Colonists attacked tax collectors and their homes because of this act.
What is the Stamp Act?
The list of abuses put forth by delegates to legitimize the need for independence.
What are grievances?
In the American confederacy system, each state was able to retain this unique power.
What is sovereignty?
The framers agreed on how to set up the legislative branch in what is now know as...
What is the Great Compromise?
Parliament's Coercive Acts prompted colonists to send delegates to Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, in this initial governmental gathering.
What is the First Continental Congress?
As a result of this event, the states finally saw the need to strengthen the central government.
What is Shays Rebellion?
Through this agreement Southern states gained more representation in Congress.
What is the 3/5 compromise?
A two-house legislature with an upper and lower house
What is bicameral?
New laws that tightened British control over the colonies and pushed them to Independence.
What are the Intolerable Acts?
This governmental group gathered in Philadelphia to create the Declaration of Independence.
What is the Second Continental Congress?
Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress did not have the power to perform this necessary function.
What is tax?
After the Constitution was written, it was passed to the states for approval.
What is ratification?
Together the Magna Carta, Petition of Right, and English Bill of Rights helped form the basis for these two concepts of the American governmental system.
What are limited and representative government?
John Adams formed organized resistance through these groups beginning in Boston in 1772.
What are Committees of Correspondence?
The foundational concept of democracy, stated in the Declaration of Natural Rights, that set the Declaration of Independence apart from older, traditional government systems such as monarchies or dictatorships.
What is "the consent of the governed"?
These two states initiated the move toward forming a stronger central government by meeting at George Washington's home in Mount Vernon to settle trade disputes on the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay.
What are Virginia and Maryland?
The first capital of the newly formed United States of America.
What is New York City?