The Constitution

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  1. 3. A political ideology centered on the belief that government should be based on the consent of the governed and that representatives should be elected to serve the people.
  2. 5. The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution that guarantee individual liberties and rights, including freedom of expression (speech, religion, and the press), as well as property rights, due process protections, and rights of the accused.
  3. 10. The first written constitution of the United States, which established a weak central government and was eventually replaced by the Constitution.
  4. 12. The division of government responsibilities into distinct branches to prevent any one branch from exercising the core functions of another, typically into legislative (law-making), executive (law-enforcement), and judicial (law-interpretation) branches.
  5. 13. A system that ensures that no one branch of government becomes too powerful by giving each branch some measure of influence over the other branches.
  6. 14. A clause in the Constitution that grants Congress the power to pass all laws "necessary and proper" for carrying out its enumerated powers; also called the "elastic clause" and is used to justify giving the federal government more power than is directly stated in the Constitution.
  7. 15. A constitutional agreement that counted three-fifths of the enslaved population for representation and taxation purposes, addressing the balance of power between slave and free states.
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  1. 1. A series of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution and explaining its principles.
  2. 2. A political principle that restricts government powers to protect individual liberties and prevent governmental overreach.
  3. 4. An armed uprising in 1786-1787 led by Daniel Shays and other farmers in Massachusetts protesting against economic injustices and the lack of government response to their debts and foreclosures.
  4. 6. A gathering in Philadelphia in 1787 where delegates drafted the current United States Constitution, addressing the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. Created representative government influenced by Enlightenment ideas such as federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances, and ratification was the result of many compromises.
  5. 7. A system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units, such as states. (i.e. national government and state governments).
  6. 8. The legislative branch of the United States government, composed of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate, responsible for making laws.
  7. 9. An agreement during the Constitutional Convention that established a bicameral legislature, balancing the needs of states with large and small populations. Large states would have more law-makers in the House of Representatives, while small states would have equal representation in the Senate.
  8. 11. A law passed in 1787 that established a method for admitting new states to the Union from the Northwest Territory and outlined the process of governance for these territories; Slavery was prohibited in the NW Territory, and the Ohio River became the boundary separating free and slave states