Enlightenment Thinkers
He wrote Leviathan in 1651 and said life without government would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
Who is Thomas Hobbes?
The Articles of Confederation described the United States as a "league of" this.
What is friendship?
This plan proposed representation based on population, favoring the large states.
What is the Virginia Plan?
Supporters of ratifying the Constitution were known by this name.
Who are the Federalists?
This is the president's power to reject a bill passed by Congress.
What is the veto?
He argued that people are born with natural rights to life, liberty, and property that exist before any government is created.
Who is John Locke?
Under the Articles, Congress could request money from the states but completely lacked this power.
What is the power to tax?
This plan proposed equal representation for every state regardless of size.
What is the New Jersey Plan?
The first ten amendments to the Constitution are collectively known as this.
What is the Bill of Rights?
Congress can override a presidential veto with this fraction of both houses.
What is two-thirds?
This French thinker's The Spirit of Laws proposed dividing government into three branches so that power would check power.
Who is Montesquieu?
Under the Articles, the national government had a legislature but was missing these two branches entirely.
What are the executive and the judicial branches?
This agreement resolved the fight by creating a two-chamber Congress — one house by population, one with equal representation.
What is the Great Compromise? (also accept the Connecticut Compromise)
This was the Anti-Federalists' single biggest objection to the Constitution as written.
What is that it had no bill of rights?
The House does this to a president by simple majority — but it is not the same thing as removing them from office.
What is impeach?
He argued for religious toleration and against state-enforced religion — an argument that shows up in the First Amendment.
Who is Voltaire?
This 1786–87 uprising of indebted Massachusetts farmers exposed the national government's inability to respond to a crisis.
What is Shays' Rebellion?
This compromise counted three of every five enslaved people for purposes of both representation and taxation.
What is the Three-Fifths Compromise?
Written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay under the pen name "Publius," this collection of essays argued for ratification.
What are the Federalist Papers?
A president is impeached by the House, but is only removed from office if the Senate convicts by this fraction.
What is two-thirds? (accept 67 senators)
Locke used this Latin phrase, meaning "blank slate," to argue humans aren't born violent — the heart of his disagreement with Hobbes.
What is tabula rasa?
Changing the Articles required this level of agreement among the states — which is why they were abandoned rather than amended.
What is unanimous consent — all thirteen?
This clause establishes that the Constitution and federal law outrank conflicting state law.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
Madison originally proposed this many amendments to Congress; ten of them were ratified in 1791.
What is twelve?
After Congress proposes an amendment, it must be ratified by this fraction of the states — the reason only 27 have ever passed.
What is three-fourths? (accept 38 states)