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What were the Articles of Confederation?
They were the United States' first constitution (plan of government for all 13 states together).
What's Independence Hall?
It's the place in Philadelphia, PA, where the Founders met to fix the Articles in 1787. They eventually drafted something else, however.
Who was George Washington?
He was named the president of the convention, and his stature and leadership helped make the meeting successful—he was the force that united everyone.
What's the Constitution?
The second and current national plan of government for the United States of America.
What's the Bill of Rights?
The first ten amendments to the Constitution that are explicit special guarantees of citizens' rights (e.g. freedom of speech, religion, right to bear arms, etc.).
What's important about Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia in the context of this chapter?
They were the big states that only ratified the Constitution with the promise of a bill of rights.
Who were anti-federalists?
Who were federalists?
Those who opposed ratifying the new Constitution.
Those who supported ratifying the new Constitution.
Who favored a strong central government that would dominate state governments and keep them in check at the convention?
Who favored a weak central government and the preservation of state sovereignty at the convention?
nationalists
anti-nationalists
What's impeachment?
an accusation that a government official has committed a crime
What are the legislative (lawmaking), executive (put laws into practice), and judicial branches (national judges)?
They are the three branches of government under the Constitution. They have separation of powers and check-and-balances against each other so one doesn't get too powerful.
Who is James Madison?
He was the main architect of the Constitution.
Who is Edmund Randolph?
He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and offered "The Virginia Plan," which favored large states with proportional representation in the legislature.
Who is Roger Sherman?
He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention who offered "The Connecticut Compromise" / "The Great Compromise". It was accepted before the Constitution was drafted.
He made this common-sense compromise by having two houses in the legislature: one that's proportional (House of Representatives) and one that's equal (Senate). This pleased the large and small states.
Who is William Paterson?
He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and offered "The New Jersey Plan," which favored small states with equal representation in the legislature.
Who were George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry?
They were the main supporters of including the Bill of Rights in the Constitution?
What is this three-step process/pattern?
1. Revolutionaries establish a new government.
2. There is a period of confusion.
3. After chaos and/or violence, there ends up being a dictatorship.
This is the pattern/course that revolutions have almost always followed in world history.
The United States avoided this course because they already had functioning representative governments in place in the states.
What is/are The Federalist (Papers)?
They are the authoritative interpretation of the Constitution supporting it and written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay; it helped New York finally ratify the Constitution.
What are the only things the national/central/federal government under the Constitution supposed to deal with?
Things that affect the nation as a whole
What does federal mean?
It means the sharing of power between the national government and state governments.
It separates (and shares) the spheres in which the national and state governments work.
Example: the national government guarantees all states' citizens freedom of speech; it does not make the speed limit the same everywhere (individual states get to vote on those local matters)
What are these?
1. A democratic model for national expansion; a procedure for dividing new land into local government units called townships that is still used today (the Ordinance of 1787 and the Northwest Ordinance).
2. The United States's first attempt to stop the spread of slavery.
These are the only two positives of the Articles of Confederation.
What's 1787 and 1789?
The draft of the Constitution was passed by the delegates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
The required 9/13 states ratified the Constitution in 1789, making it official.
Oddly enough, all 13 states ratified it by 1790.
What are these?
Governments printing more money resulting in higher prices and that money losing its value (inflation).
(Economic) depression: a period when economic activity slows and unemployment increases
Farmers not being able to sell their goods. Those farmers fell into debt. State officials seized farmers lands and/or threw them into jail. As a result of this, farmers in Massachusetts protested. They were called rebels, so they felt they had no choice but to be violent. 1,000 of them shut down courts and almost seized a federal arsenal. The state militia stopped them after shooting for of them.
These were economic problems under the Articles of Confederation.
The last paragraph was Shays's Rebellion, which scared national leaders into getting together to fix the Articles. However, they ended up getting rid of the articles at that 1787 meeting called the Constitutional Convention.
What were some reasons why people opposed ratifying the new Constitution?
What are these?
No power to tax.
No power to enforce laws.
No executive branch.
9/13 had to approve laws before passage.
States couldn't be forced to meet military quotas.
These are the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
What is this, from Massachusetts?
A legislature divided into two houses/sections (bicameral=two).
A governor who executed (carried out) laws, could veto the legislature, and appointed judges.
Judges who decided if acts of the executive and legislature were constitutional (within the rules).
This was John Adams's government for the state of Massachusetts.
The Virginia Plan and the final Constitution of the United States copied (almost exactly) Adams's government.
It's important because it is a mixed form of government: it's not a pure monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy—all of those have problems just by themselves.