Articles of Confederation
This first plan of government created a “league of friendship” among sovereign states.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
Delegates met in Philadelphia in 1787 with this goal in mind.
What is to amend or replace the Articles of Confederation?
This constitutional principle ensures that each branch of the government has its own defined roles, which don't overlap.
What is separation of powers?
This group supported ratification and a strong national government.
Who were the Federalists?
He is known as the “Father of the Constitution.”
Who is James Madison?
The Articles created this type of one-house legislature with equal votes for all states.
What is a unicameral legislature?
This plan, favored by large states, proposed representation based on population.
What is the Virginia Plan?
This clause in Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the flexibility to carry out its enumerated powers.
What is the Necessary and Proper Clause?
This group demanded that a Bill of Rights be added to protect individual liberties.
Who were the Antifederalists?
This Federalist Paper warns of factions and argues for a large republic to control their effects.
What is Federalist No. 10?
This rebellion in Massachusetts revealed the weakness of the national government under the Articles.
What is Shays’s Rebellion?
This compromise created a bicameral legislature with one house based on population and one with equal representation.
What is the Great (Connecticut) Compromise?
This power allows the president to reject a bill passed by Congress.
What is the veto?
"Publius" - a pen name for Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay - wrote these essays supporting the ratification of the Constitution
What are the Federalist Papers?
This Federalist Paper argues that separation of powers and checks and balances prevent tyranny.
What is Federalist No. 51?
Congress lacked these major powers under the Articles, making it hard to fund or regulate the nation.
What are the powers to tax, regulate commerce and raise an army?
This agreement counted enslaved people as a fraction of a person for purposes of representation.
What is the Three-Fifths Compromise?
This system divides power between national and state governments.
What is federalism?
Antifederalists feared that the republic laid out in the Constitution would not work because of this feature of the United States.
What is its large size?
This Antifederalist Paper argued the country was too large for a republic and that the Constitution gave too much power to the national government.
What is Brutus No. 1?
Fear of this led the framers to make the Articles intentionally weak.
What is centralized tyranny (or a strong central government like England's)?
This clause in Article VI establishes that federal law outranks state law.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
Amending the Constitution requires 2/3 of Congress and this amount of states to agree on the amendment.
What is 3/4?
In Federalist #10, Madison argued that this feature of a large republic would help prevent tyranny by majority factions.
What is diversity of interests or factions?
In Brutus No. 1, these two clauses were cited as dangerous sources of federal power.
What are the Necessary and Proper Clause and the Supremacy Clause?