Unit 3 Vocabulary

New Nation

Articles of Confederation

• A document adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1777 and approved by the states in 1781.

• This was the first law of the land for the new government of the United States

• Weaknesses: no executive, no courts, no taxing power

Daniel Shays’ Rebellion

• A 1787 uprising of farmers that were angry at the Massachusetts state government because of debt and foreclosures, so they shut down the state courts by force

• Showed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation because Massachusetts asked the federal government for help but they didn’t have the power to do anything

Northwest Ordinance

• A law passed in 1787 under the Articles of Confederation government

• Set up a plan for territories to become states and contributed to westward migration

• Plan encouraged new state constitutions to avoid slavery and include a plan for public education

Constitutional Convention

• Founding fathers met at Pennsylvania State House in May 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation, but ended up writing a whole new Constitution

• Major conflicts at the Constitution over the issues of representation in Congress and slavery had to be resolved through compromises

Great Compromise

• A compromise made at the Constitutional Convention to resolve the conflict between the Virginia Plan (large states) and New Jersey Plan (small states)

• Proposed a bicameral legislature with the House of Representatives, where representation is based on population and the Senate, where every state gets 2 representatives

3/5 Compromise

• A compromise between free states and slave states over whether or not slaves should be counted as part of the population for representation purposes in the House of Representatives

• Decided that slaves would count as 3/5 of a person (Out of every 5 slaves, 3 would count towards population)

U.S. Constitution

• America’s final law of the land, written at Constitutional Convention after the AOC failed because it was too weak

• Provided for a more powerful central government, but this power was limited by separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism

Popular Sovereignty

• The people have power in the government by voting to elect representatives

• This idea is the same as what Jefferson described as “consent of the governed” in the Declaration of Independence

Separation of Powers

• The powers of the national government are divided by the Constitution into three separate branches to prevent any one person or branch from having too much power

• The legislative branch (Congress) makes the laws, executive branch (President) enforces the laws, and judicial branch (courts) interprets the laws.

• This comes from French philosopher Montesquieu

Checks and Balances

• Principle of the Constitution that gives each branch of government the authority to limit the power of the other two branches

• Examples: – Congress passes laws, president can veto them

and Supreme court can rule them unconstitutional– President appoints Supreme Court justices and

Congress approves them; Congress can impeach the president

Federalism

• A system in which power is shared between different levels of government

• For example, in the U.S. we have the federal (national) government, state governments, and local governments

Judicial Review

• The Supreme Court has the power to declare laws unconstitutional

• This authority is a part of the system of checks and balances

Limited Government

• Government is not all powerful • The Constitution limits the power of the

federal government through separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism and the Bill of Rights

Federalists

• Group of political leaders that supported the new U.S. Constitution in the debate over ratification (approving and adopting the document)

• Wanted a strong federal government and were led by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

• Federalist Papers = a collection of essays written to convince Americans to approve the Constitution

Anti-Federalists

• Group of political leaders led by Thomas Jefferson that were against ratification of the new Constitution

• They wanted a weaker federal government and strong state governments and refused to ratify without a Bill of Rights

• The Anti-Federalist Papers = written to point out problems in the Constitution

Bill of Rights

• First 10 amendments to the Constitution • Anti-Federalists insisted on adding these

before ratification• Designed to protectindividual rights (#1-9) and

states’ rights (#10) from the power of the national government

Washington’s Presidency

• Important because he set precedents for how the President would conduct himself and how the executive branch would work

• Showed the strength of the new federal government in Whiskey Rebellion, said America should not get involved in European affairs, and warned against factions/political parties

Whiskey Rebellion

• Farmers in Pennsylvania refused to pay a tax put on whiskey by the federal government

• President Washington ordered the militia to go an and stop the rebellion, and the rebels scattered without a fight

• Proved that the federal government was now strong enough under the new Constitution to handle a crisis

Non-Intervention in Europe

• The people of France asked Americans to help in their revolution to overthrow the king of France

• Washington thought America needed to stay out of European problems and issued the “Declaration of Neutrality”

Adams’ Presidency

• American diplomats effectively resolve the XYZ Affair with the French, who tried to force the U.S. to pay bribe or tribute money to continue to deal with France

• Adams lost public support because of Alien and Sedition Acts that set fines and jail time for anyone speaking out against the government (violation of 1st amendment)