8th History Chapter 5
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33 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Magna Carta | A charter of liberties agreed to 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 Statue 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 | 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 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 establish 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: established by the Northwest 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 the reduced value of money |
| depression | A steep drop in economic activity combined with rising unemployment |
| Daniel Shays | 1747?-1825) Revolutionary War officer who led Shay's Rebellion, an uprising of farmers in western Massachusetts that shut down the courts so that farmers would not lose their farms for tax debts. He was defeated and condemned to death, but pardoned |
| Shay's Rebellion | Uprising of Massachusetts faremers led by Daniel Shay - to protest high taxes, heavy debts and farm foreclosures |
| Constitutional Convention | a meeting held in Philadelphia at which delegates from the states wrote the Constitution. |
| James Madison | (1751-1836) American statesman, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, the fourth president of the US, the author of some of the Federalist Papers, and is called the father of the Constitution for his proposals at the Constitutional Convention. He led the United States through the war of 1812. |
| Virginia Plan | the plan for 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 of states rather than representation by population; rejected at the Constitutional Convention |
| Great Compromise | agreement worked out at the Constitutional Convention establishing that a state's population would determine 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 | Agreement worked out at the Constitutional Convention stating that three-fifths of the slaves in each state should be counted as part of the state's population for determining 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 division 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 up of the national courts; interprets laws, punishes criminals, and settles disputes between states |
| checks and balances | a system established by the constitution that prevents any branch of government from becoming too powerful |
| Antifederalists | People who opposed ratification of the Constitution |
| George Mason | American patriot who became an Antifederalist and refused to sign the Constitution. |
| Federalists | people who supported ratification of the Constitution |
| Federalist Papers | a series of essays that defended and explained the Constitution and tried to reassure Americans that the states would not be overpowered by the proposed national government |
| amendments | Official change, correction, or additions to a law or constitution. |
| Bill of Rights | The first 10 amendments to the Constitution; ratified in 1791 |
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