Vocabulary
This word means to think about something very carefully before reaching a final decision.
What is to deliberate?
This person was the author of the Declaration of Independence.
Who was Thomas Jefferson?
This is the type of legal document that each state wrote after the Declaration of Independence, which laid out a framework for each state's system of government.
What is a constitution?
This is a group of states that have banded together through an official agreement or alliance. (Hint: think of what came before the Constitution!)
What is a confederation?
This is where the power of a limited government comes from.
What is the consent of the people, or the permission of the people?
This word is a synonym for "law" or "rule" in government.
What is an ordinance?
This person was the ambassador to Great Britain during the time when the Constitution was being written, so he was not present at the convention.
Who was John Adams?
This is the number of states that had to ratify the Constitution before it could take effect.
What is nine?
This is something delegates had to do many times when writing the Constitution in 1787. Examples of this include creating two chambers of Congress instead of one, and letting Southern states count every five slaves as three people.
What is a compromise?
This right or freedom protected by the Constitution guarantees that people may believe and worship as they like.
What is freedom of religion?
This is the adjective used in the Declaration to describe how people's rights cannot be taken away.
What is unalienable?
This person did more than anyone else to support the addition of a Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution after it was ratified.
Who was James Madison?
These were the predecessor of the U.S. Constitution. This early government framework was written by the Second Continental Congress in 1777, and it failed since it did not give the central government enough power over the states.
What were the Articles of Confederation?
This idea put forth in the Declaration of Independence means that the people of a country have the ability and the right to choose what kind of government they should have.
What is self-determination?
These are three powers that the federal government does NOT have, that belong to the states. (Name any three.)
What are:
-Running elections
-Deciding who gets to vote
-Controlling trade within the state
-Establishing local governments
-Creating laws about marriage and divorce
-Creating public schools
These are the names of the three branches of government (in order). The first is the branch that makes and votes on laws, the second is the branch that signs bills into law and carries them out, and the third is the branch that settles arguments about the law by determining whether or not a law is constitutional.
What are the legislative, executive, and judicial branches?
This is the name of the patriot who chose not to attend the Grand Convention of the States in 1787, because he "smelt a rat" and did not want to strengthen the central government.
Who was Patrick Henry?
These are two rights protected by the states in their constitutions. (Name any two.)
What are:
-Freedom of assembly
-Freedom of speech
-Freedom from the government searching your home without a good reason
-Right to trial by jury
This is the idea that there should be different levels of government that each perform the tasks they do best (such as federal, state, county, and local government).
What is federalism, or a federal system of government?
This compromise settled the dispute between large and small states by creating a bicameral legislature - one chamber with the same number of representatives for each state (the Senate), and another chamber with membership based on state population (the House of Representatives).
What is the Great Compromise?
This is a system in which power is divided or shared among different levels of government.
What is federalism, or a federal system of government?
This group of people opposed ratification of the Constitution because they thought that it gave the central government too much power, and that the Constitution went beyond the original purpose of the Grand Convention of the States. This group of people agreed to support ratification in exchange for the promise to add a Bill of Rights to the Constitution.
Who were the Anti-Federalists?
This important law passed under the Articles of Confederation guaranteed the same rights to settlers of territories east of the Mississippi River that people had in the states. It also banned slavery in the Northwest Territory, divided the region into multiple territories, and outlined a path to statehood for those territories.
What is the Northwest Ordinance?
This vision for a central government, proposed by Edmund Randolph at the Grand Convention of the States in 1787, called for the replacement of the Articles of Confederation and for the central government to have power over the states in some areas.
What is the Virginia Plan?
This is the word that describes when charges are brought against a member of the government for doing something illegal or something that violates the Constitution. This is also one way that Congress can check the power of the President.
What is impeachment/to impeach?