| A | B |
|---|
| Unalienable rights | Rights thought to be based on nature and providence rather than on the preferences of people |
| Articles of Confederation | A constitution drafted by the newly independent states in 1777, creating a weak national government. |
| Constitutional convention | A meeting of delegates in 1887 to revise the Articles of Confederation, which produced a totally new constitution still in use today |
| The Federlist Papers | A series of 85 essaies written by Hamilton, Madison,and Jay in New York published to convince people to adopt the new Constitution. |
| Great Comprimise | A compromise at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that reconciled the interests of small and large states by allowing the former to predominate in the Senate and the latter in the House. |
| republic | A from of democracy in which power is vested in representatives selected by means of popular competitive elections. |
| judicial review | The power of the courts to declare acts of the legislature and of the executive to be unconstitutional and hence null and void |
| federlalism | A political system where ultimate authorit is shared between national and state governments. |
| seperation of power | A principle of American governement whereby constitutional authority is shared by three seperate branches of power- the legislative, judicial, and executive. |
| checks and balences | The power of the legislature, executive, and judicial branches of government to block some acts by the other two branches. |
| faction | According to James Madison, a group of people who seek to influence public policy in ways contrary to the public good. |
| federalists | Supporters of a stronger central governement who advocated ratification of the Constitution. |
| Antifederalists | Opponents of a strong central government who were against ratification. |
| coalition | An alliance among different interest groups to achieve some political goal. |
| writ of habes corpus | Designed to prevent illegal arrests and imprisonment. |
| bill of attainder | A law that declares a person, without a trial, to be guilty of a crime. |
| ex post facto law | "after the fact" A law that makes a criminal act that was legal when it was committed, a retroactive criminal law. |
| bill of rights | The first ten amendments to the US Constitution that contains a list of individual rights. |
| amendment | Change in, or addition, in the Constitution. |
| line-item veto | The power of an executive to veto some provisions in an appropriations bill while approving others. |
| Charles Beard | A historian who argued that the Constitution was designed to protect the econimic self-interest of its framers. |
| Federalist No. 10 | An essay composed by James Madison which argues that liberty is safest in a large republic because many interests exist. |
| natural rights | A philosophical belief expressed in the DEclaration of Independence that certain rights are ordained by God, are discoverable in nautre and history, and essential to human progress. |
| New Jersey Plan | A plan of government propesed by William Patterson as a substitute for the Virginia Plan in an effort to provide greater protection for the interests of small states. |
| Virginia Plan | A plan submitted to the Constitutional Convention that proposed a new form of government, not a mere revision of the Articles of Confederation. |
