| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Shay's Rebellion | A protest of farmers in Massachusetts that many historians point to as showing a weakness in the Articles of Confederation because it was an event beyond the ability of one individual state to deal with adequately |
| Northwest Ordinance (Land Ordinance of 1787) | the lone accomplishment of the Articles of Confederation-it created a system for admitting new states from the territory acquired originally during the French and Indian war |
| Central government | the idea of government located in one place managing an entire country |
| Magna Carta | the document signed by King John in 1215 where the English king guaranteed certain rights to the nobles-it is the first in a long string of changes limiting the monarch's power over Parliament over the course of several hundred years |
| Legislature | the group that writes the laws |
| Executive | The group or individual who enforces the law |
| Judicial | The group or area of government responsible for interpreting what the laws mean and the legitimacy of how they are enforced |
| constitution | a group of laws that set out the fundamental laws for a nation |
| conservative | someone who does not like change |
| liberal | someone who likes change |
| republican | the idea of an elected representative government making laws and decisions |
| Continental dollars | the mony paid to Americans by the Continental Congress during and after the American Revolution, few people wanted to receive this scrip which was not backed by gold or any metal |
| Hard Money | money that has an intrinsic value |
| Inflation | the economic condition where prices are continually rising |
| Tariffs | duties or taxes on imported goods |
| unconstitutional | an act or law that violates a supreme law |
| unicameral | a legislature made up of one elected body |
| bicameral | a legislature made up of two elected bodies |
| confederations | a loose collection of governments who come together for mutual benefit, who retain their individual anatomy and which are ultimately sovereign |
| 3/5 compromise | the decision at the Constitutional convention to count slavs as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of deciding the population and determining how many seats each state should have in Congress |
| Alexander Hamilton | a strong national leader who favored monarchy and who wrote some of the strongest defenses of the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention |
| Edmund Randolph | a delegate from Virginia at the Constitutional Convention. He proposed a large state plan of a government with three branches including a bicameral legislature where both houses were selected based on the population of a state |
| William Patterson | a delegate from New Jersey at the Constitutional Convention. He proposed the small state plan of a government with a unicameral legislature where each state has an equal vote |
| James Madison | the principal author of the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, also known as the father of the constitution |
| Framers/Founders | names given to american figures from the period when the Constitution was written |
| Annapolis Convention | A meeting in Annapolis Maryland between representatives from New JErsey, NEw York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia to discuss future changes in the Article of Confederation |
| Impost | a tax on imports that Congress had the power to control after the Constitution was put into law. Congress used these imposts to gain money for the government after the US gained its independence |
| Federalist | a federalist was someone who supported the new federal government |
| Anti-federalist | someone who was against the new federal government |
| Rule of 4 | the informal tradition that if four Supreme Court justicies want to hear a case then the case will be heard before the Supreme Court |
| Petitioner | the person who brings a case to the court |
| Writ of Certiorari | a formal document issued by the Supreme Court to call up a case from a lower court |
| Precedent | a prior decision made by the court |
| Referendum | when the government puts a law on the ballot to be voted on directly by the people |
| Recall | signatures gathered to place someone's name on the ballto to vote on whether the elected official should be recalled |
| Initiatives | a system of gathering signatures to place a specific law on the ballot that the people vote on directly |
| Progressives | those who want to change laws and improve society by expanding democracy |
| Ex post facto law | a law which makes you guilty of something you did before it was declared illegal |
| Bill of attainder | making a person guilty and punished before a trial has been held |
| Oral argument | oral presentations given by the attorneys for the two sides of a case the Supreme Court has agreed to accept |
| Opinion | the official decision or interpretation of the court |
| Concurring opinion | to agree with an opinion but for a different reason |
| Dissent | to disagree with the majority opinion |
| Mirandize/Miranda rights | from the case of Miranda v. Arizona that all accused criminals must be read their rights |
| Writ of Habeas Corpus | literally to produce the body, the principle that someone must be told why they are accused of a crime |
| Bail | money paide by arrested persons to be able to walk free and guarantee they will return for trial |
Combine with other sets
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