Founding Documents
This agreement signed aboard a ship in 1620 helped establish the tradition of written self-government in America.
What is the Mayflower Compact?
He served as chairman of the Constitutional Convention.
Who is George Washington?
This group supported ratification of the Constitution and favored a stronger central government.
Who were the Federalists?
This article establishes the legislative branch.
What is Article I?
This is the name for a proposed new law.
What is a bill?
This is the power to make laws.
What is legislative power?
This is the congressional group/assembly to which a proposed bill is usually referred for initial consideration.
What is a committee?
This document served as America's first national constitution.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
He is known as the Father of the Constitution.
Who is James Madison?
This city served as the first temporary capital under the new Constitution.
What is New York City?
This article establishes the judicial branch.
What is Article III?
What is General Election Day?
This is the president's power to reject a bill passed by Congress.
What is a veto?
This is the stage when members of the House or Senate debate and vote on a bill.
What is floor action?
What is Shay's Rebellion
He called for prayer at the Constitutional Convention.
Who is Benjamin Franklin?
This plan proposed a two-house legislature with representation based on population.
What is the Virginia Plan?
This article establishes the executive branch.
What is Article II?
This official presides over the Senate when the VP is absent.
Who is the president pro tempore?
These powers are explicitly granted to Congress by the Constitution.
What are expressed powers?
This is a temporary committee of members from both houses that works to reconcile different versions of a bill.
What is a conference committee?
This meeting in Maryland was one of two preliminary meetings leading to the Constitutional Convention.
What is the Annapolis Convention?
He wrote the final draft of the US Constitution.
Who is Gouverneur Morris?
This plan proposed a one-house legislature with equal representation for each state.
What is the New Jersey plan?
This article contains the process for amending the Constitution.
What is Article V?
This process determines the distribution of House seats among states based on population.
What is apportionment?
This constitutional principle divides power between national and state governments.
What is federalism?
This procedure can bring extended Senate debate toward a close.
What is cloture?
This law provided for the surveying and selling of western lands
What is the Land Ordinance of 1785?
He wrote the majority of the Federalist Papers, and later became the first Secretary of the Treasury.
Who is Alexander Hamilton?
What is the Connecticut Compromise? (Great Compromise)
This article declares the Constitution to be the supreme law of the land.
What is article VI?
This is a counting of the population in a specific area.
What is a census?
This clause authorizes Congress to make laws needed to carry out its enumerated powers.
What is the necessary and proper clause?
This term describes a prolonged speech used to delay or prevent a Senate vote.
What is a filibuster?
This ordinance established territorial government and protected religious freedom in the Northwest territory.
Who is John Jay?
This agreement addressed how enslaved people would be counted for representation and taxation.
What is the three-fifths compromise?
This article sets forth the procedure for ratification of the Constitution.
What is Article VII?
This is the practice of manipulating district boundaries to favor a political party.
What is gerrymandering?
This is the congressional monitoring of the executive branch to ensure laws are faithfully executed.
What is oversight?
This fraction of each house is needed to override a Presidential veto.
What is two-thirds?
This type of government states that the central government is subordinate to the state governments.
What is confederacy?
Who is Charles de Montesquieu?
These two locations hosted preliminary meetings that led to the Constitutional Convention.
What are Annapolis and Mount Vernon?
This article describes the relationship between the state and federal government.
What is article IV?
This is a meeting of political party members to decide policy or choose candidates.
What is a caucus?
This is the greatest disciplinary penalty that either house of Congress may impose upon one of its members.
What is expulsion?
This is what happens to a bill if the President doesn't sign it within ten days while Congress remains in session.
What is becoming a law without the president's signature?