| A | B |
|---|
| Magna Carta, | (1215)a charter of liberties agreed by King John of England,it made the king obey the same laws as citizens |
| constitution, | a set of basic principles that determines the powers and duties of a government |
| Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, | a document that gave people in Virginia freedom of worship and prohibited tax money from being used to fund churches |
| suffrage, | voting rights |
| Articles of Confederation, | (1777)the document that created the first central government for the United States;was replaced by the Constitution in 1789 |
| ratification, | an official approval |
| Land Ordinance of 1785, | legislation passed by the Congress authorizing surveys and the division of public lands in the western region of the country |
| Northwest Ordinance of 1787, | legislation passed by Congress to stablish a political structure for the Northwest Territory and create a system for the admission of new states |
| Northwest Territory, | lands including present-day Illinois,Indiana,Michigan,Ohio,and Wisconsin;organized by the Norwest Ordinance of 1787 |
| tariffs, | a tax on imports or exports |
| interstate commerce, | trade between two or more states |
| inflation, | increased prices for goods and services combined with value of money |
| depression, | a steep drop in economic activity combined with rising unemployment |
| Daniel Shays, | a poor farmer and Revolutionary War veteran led a forced shutdown of the Supreme Court in Springfield,Massachusetts |
| Shays's Rebellion, | an uprising of Massachusett's farmers,led by Daniel Shays,to protest high taxes,heavy debt,and farm foreclosures |
| Constitutional Convention, | (1787)a meeting held in Philadelphia at which delegates from the states wrote the Constitution |
| James Madison, | A well educated delegate,Revolutionary War hero |
| Virginia Plan, | (1787)the plan of government proposed at the Constitutional Convention in which the national government would have supreme power and a legislative branch would have two houses with representation determined by state population |
| New Jersey Plan, | a proposal to create a unicameral legislature with equal representation by populationnnnnn;rejected at the Constitutional Convention |
| Great Compromise, | an agreement worked out at the Constitutional Convention stablishing that a state's population would deternine representation in the lower house of the legislature,while each state would have equal representation in the upper house of the legislature |
| Three-Fifths Compromise, | (1787)an agreement worked out at the Constitutional Convention stating that only three-fifths of the slaves in a state would count when determining a state's population for representation in the lower house of Congress |
| popular sovereignty, | the idea that political authority belongs to the people |
| federalism, | U.S. system of government in which power is distributed between a central government and individual states |
| legislative branch, | the dision of the government that proposes bills and passes them into laws |
| executive branch, | the division of the federal government that includes the president and the administrative departments; enforces the nation's laws |
| judicial branch, | the division of the federal government that is made of the national courts;interprets laws,punishes criminals,and settles disputes between states |
| checks and balances, | a systems established by the Constitution that prevents any branch of government from becoming to powerful |
| Antifederalists, | people who opposed the ratification of the Constitution |
| George Mason, | Opposed the Constitution,Believed the Constitution needed a section guaranteeing individual rights |
| Federalists, | people who supported ratification of the Constitution |
| Federlists Papers, | a series of essays that defended and explain the Constitution and tried to reasure Americans that the states would not be overpowered by the proposed national government |
| amendments, | official change,correction,or addition to a law or constitution |
| Bill of Rights, | the first 10 amendments to the Constitution;ratified in 1791 |
