Key terms
To formally approve a treaty, agreement, or- in this case- a new Constitution.
What is to ratify?
This document was the first government established by the newly independent United States.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
The smaller states supported this plan, which proposed a unicameral legislature with equal representation for all states.
What was the New Jersey Plan?
This principle states that the power of the government comes from the will of the people.
What is consent of the governed, or popular sovereignty?
The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
What is the Bill of Rights?
The term for a system of government that is an alliance of independent states with a weak central government.
What is a confederation?
A weakness of this government was that the national government could not collect these, making it difficult to pay off war debts.
What are taxes?
The larger states supported this plan, which proposed a bicameral legislature with representation based on population.
What was the Virginia Plan?
This principle means that the government is not all-powerful and must follow the rules outlined in the Constitution.
What is limited government?
The anti-federalists refused to ratify the Constitution without this addition to protect individual freedoms.
What was the Bill of Rights?
A government where citizens rule through elected representatives.
What is a representative democracy?
One major weakness of the Articles was that it lacked a president and a system of courts, meaning it had no real executive or judicial branches.
What is a weakness of the Articles of Confederation?
Also called the Connecticut Compromise, this agreement created a two-house legislature with one house based on population and another with equal representation.
What was the Great Compromise?
A system where the powers of government are separated into three different branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.
What is the separation of powers?
This amendment protects the rights of free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government.
What is the First Amendment?
The term for a government where power is divided between a national government and several state governments.
What is federalism?
This uprising by Massachusetts farmers in 1786 demonstrated the major weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
What is Shays' Rebellion?
This compromise settled the issue of how enslaved people would be counted for both taxation and representation purposes.
What was the Three-Fifths Compromise?
The principle that gives each branch of government the ability to check or limit the power of the other two branches.
What are checks and balances?
This amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures of their property.
What is the Fourth Amendment?
A legislative body having a single chamber, like the one established under the Articles of Confederation.
What is unicameral?
In order to change or amend the Articles, a supermajority of all 13 states was required, making it nearly impossible to fix the government.
What is a rule for amending the Articles of Confederation?
The framers of the Constitution created this indirect process for selecting the President, which was a compromise between election by a vote in Congress and election by a popular vote of qualified citizens.
What is the Electoral College?
This principle divides power between the national government and the state governments.
What is federalism?
This addition to the Constitution was significant because it provided clear limits on the government's power, helping to secure the consent of anti-federalists and leading to the Constitution's ratification.
What is the Bill of Rights?