front 1 Republic | back 1 A group ruled by representatives of the people |
front 2 Articles of Confederation | back 2 A government document that created a union of 13 sovereign states in which the states, not the national government, were supreme |
front 3 Shay’s Rebellion | back 3 A popular uprising against the government of Massachusetts |
front 4 Constitution Convention | back 4 A meeting attended by state delegates in 1787 to fix the Articles of Confederation |
front 5 Writ of Habeas Corpus | back 5 The right of people detained by the government to know the charges against them |
front 6 Bills of Attainder | back 6 When the legislature declares someone guilty without trial |
front 7 EX Post Facto Laws | back 7 Laws punishing people for acts that were not crimes at the time they were committed |
front 8 Virginia Plan | back 8 A plan of government calling for a 3 branch government with a bicameral legislature, where more populous states would have more representation in congress |
front 9 New Jersey Plan | back 9 A plan of government that provided for a unicameral legislature with equal votes for each state |
front 10 Great Compromise | back 10 An agreement for a plan of government that drew upon both the Virginia and New Jersey plan; it settled issues of state representation by calling for a bicameral legislature with a house of representatives and a senate apportioned equally |
front 11 ⅗ th Compromise | back 11 An agreement reached by delegates at the Constitution Convention that a slave would count as ⅗ of a person in calculating a state’s representation |
front 12 Compromise on Importation | back 12 Congress could not restrict the slave trade until 1808 |
front 13 Separation of Powers | back 13 A design of government that distributes powers across institutions in order to avoid making one branch too powerful on its own |
front 14 Checks and Balances | back 14 a design of government in which each branch has powers that can prevent the other branches from making policies |
front 15 Federalism | back 15 The sharing of power between national government and states |
front 16 Federalist | back 16 Supporters of the proposed constitution who called for a strong national government |
front 17 Anti-Federalist | back 17 those opposed to the proposed constitution, who favored strong state government |
front 18 Federalist Papers | back 18 a series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madision, and John Bay and published between 1787 and 1788 that lay out the theory behind the constitution |
front 19 Faction | back 19 A group of self-interested people who use the government to get what they want, trampling the rights of others in the process |
front 20 Federalist 10 | back 20 An essay in which Madison argues that the dangers of faction can be mitigated by a large republican government |
front 21 Brutus I | back 21 An anti-federalist paper arguing that the country was too large to be governed as a republic and that the constitution gave too much power to the national government |
front 22 Federalist 51 | back 22 An essay in which Madison argues that separation of powers and federalism will prevent tyranny |
front 23 Bill of Rights | back 23 A formal declaration of the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals that a government promises to protect, such as freedom of speech and religion |
front 24 Charles Beard | back 24 An American historian who argued against the constitution |