Revolutionary Ideals
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that people possessed natural rights, including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This Enlightenment philosopher heavily influenced those ideas.
Who is John Locke?
This document became the first written national constitution of the United States and was formally in effect from 1781 until 1789.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
This 1786–1787 uprising by Massachusetts farmers demonstrated the Confederation government's difficulty maintaining domestic order.
What is Shays’ Rebellion?
The Constitutional Convention met in this city during the summer of 1787.
What is Philadelphia?
This compromise created a House of Representatives based on population and a Senate in which every state received equal representation.
What is the Great Compromise, or Connecticut Compromise?
After the Revolution, this concept emphasized that women had an important civic responsibility to raise educated and virtuous citizens for the new republic.
What is Republican Motherhood?
Under the Articles, each state received this many votes in Congress regardless of population.
What is one vote?
Because Congress could not effectively regulate this between individual states, states sometimes imposed tariffs and competing commercial rules on one another.
What is interstate commerce?
Delegates originally assembled to revise this governing document but eventually decided to replace it with an entirely new Constitution.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
Under the Constitution's original formula for representation and direct taxation, this fraction of the enslaved population would be counted.
What is three-fifths?
Revolutionary ideas about natural rights contributed to challenges against this institution, particularly in northern states where gradual emancipation began to develop.
What is slavery?
The Articles created a national government centered on this type of legislature rather than separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
What is a unicameral legislature?
This 1785 law established a systematic method of surveying and selling western lands.
What is the Land Ordinance of 1785?
This proposal associated with James Madison favored a strong national government and representation in Congress based largely on state population.
What is the Virginia Plan?
Delegates compromised over the international slave trade by preventing Congress from prohibiting its importation before this year.
What is 1808?
This Virginia law, written by Thomas Jefferson and enacted in 1786, strengthened the principle that government should not compel individuals to support a particular religion.
What is the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom?
Congress could request money from the states, but it lacked this crucial power necessary to independently raise revenue.
What is the power to tax?
This major 1787 achievement established a government for the Northwest Territory and created a procedure through which territories could eventually become states.
What is the Northwest Ordinance of 1787?
William Paterson offered this alternative plan, favored by smaller states, that preserved equal state representation.
What is the New Jersey Plan?
During ratification, supporters of the Constitution who argued that a stronger national government was necessary became known by this name.
Who are the Federalists?
The Revolution expanded ideas about liberty and equality, but these two groups remained largely excluded from full political participation despite using Revolutionary rhetoric to challenge their status.
Who are women and African Americans?
The Articles deliberately created a weak central government largely because Americans had recently fought a revolution against what they considered this type of government.
What is a powerful or potentially tyrannical centralized government?
Although the Articles struggled with taxation, commerce, and enforcement, the Northwest Ordinance demonstrated that the Confederation government could successfully handle this major national issue.
What is the organization and admission of western territories and new states?
Identify the fundamental conflict separating supporters of the Virginia Plan from supporters of the New Jersey Plan.
What is proportional representation based on population versus equal representation for each state?
Anti-Federalist opposition helped produce this major addition to the Constitution, designed to explicitly protect individual liberties and limit government power.
What is the Bill of Rights?