HUSTON-AP US GOVT CHAP 2
Terms
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- "No taxation without representation"
- Political cry of colonists against Britian taxes: To raise money to pay for the French and Indian War and the colonies, Britain imposed the Sugar Act of 1764 on the colonies. Out cry from the colonist exploded with the subsequent Stamp Act(1765). Initiated revolution movement
- Alexander Hamilton
- Federalist leader who wrote some of the Federalist Papers First Secertary of treasury. Killed in a duel 1804 by Aaron Burr
- Anti-Federalist
- Those who favored strong state governments and a weak national government; opposed the ratification of the US Consitution
- Article I
- Establishes the Legislative branch, make up of the House of Reps and Senate, election and meetines, organization and rules, passing of laws, powers of Congress, powers denied to the fed gov, powers denied to the states,. : necessary and proper clause ; commerce clause
- Article II
- Establishes the Executive branch,
- Article III
- Establishes the Judicial branch
- Article V
- The amendment process
- Articles of Confederation
- The compact among the thirteen original states that was the basis of their government. Written in 1776, articles were not ratified by all states until 1781
- Bill of Rights
- the first 10 amendents to the Consitution
- Charles A. Beard's Economic Interpretation of the Constitution
- Merchants wanted a strong national government to protect their private property and to promote industry and trade.
- checks & balances
- A governmental structure that gives each of the three branches of government some degree of oversight and control over the actions of the others
- Committees of Correspondence
- Organization in each of the American colonies created to keep colonists abreast of developments with the British, served as powerful molders of public opinion against the British
- confederation
- Type of government in which the national government derives its powers from the states; a league of independent states
- Connecticut Plan
- Do you mean New Jersey?
- critical period
- About 250 years ago, Americans were more loyal to their states than to the nation as a whole. Therefore the citizens were reluctant to give power to the national government. The Articles of Confederation were created, but by 1784, the new nation under the Articles was unsuccessful. Historians refer to this period after the Revolutionary Army was disbanded from 1781 to 1789 as the critical period. Congress could rarely assemble and there was little agreement when it did. The national government could coin money, but it had no way to regulate commerce.
- Declaration of Independence
- Document drafted by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 that proclaimed the right of the American colonies to separate from Great Britain.
- enumerated powers
- Seventeen specific powers granted to Congress under Article I, secion 8, of the U.S. Constitution; these powers include taxation, coinage of money, regulation of commerce, and the authority to provide for a national defense.
- full faith and credit clause
- Part of the IV Amendment that says that states honor the laws and judicial proceedings of the other states.
- Great Compromise
- A descision made during the Philadelphia Convention to give each state the same number of representatives in the Senate regardless of size; representaion in the House determined by population.
- implied powers
- Based on the "necessary and proper" or elastic clause; powers required by the federal government to carry out its duties as stated in the Constitution; not listed, but based in expressed powers.
- informal methods of amending constitution
- judicial interpretation (declaring Congressional programs unconstitutional), social/cultural/legal change (new technology and culture)
- James Madison
- delegate to constitutional conventions, author of the Federalist Papers, and framer of the Constitution; feared factions and too-powerful government
- judicial review
- no judiciary in Articles of Confederation; judicial system in Constitution and Judiciary Act of 1789 did not guarantee judicial review powers (were assumed under Marshall Court)
- natural rights
- Defined by political philospher John Locke to be freedoms undeniable by any political authority, including kings, that were given to every man.
- New Jersey Plan
- A framework for the Constitution proposed by a group of small states; its key points were a one-house legislature with one vote for each state, a multiperson "executive", the establishment of the acts of Congress as the "supreme law" of the land, and a supreme judiciary with limited power.
- Philadelphia Constitutional Convention
- The convention that created the Constitution of the United States. All the states except Rhode Island sent representatives.
- Preamble to Constitution
- The Preamble was written last at the convention. The words "We the People" decided in whom sovereignty was vested. It came from the people, not the states.
- ratification process
- the act of approval of a proposed constitutional amendment by the legislatures of the States; the Senate process of advice and consent to treaties negotiated by the President.
- Second Continental Congress
- A meeting that convened in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, at which it was decided that an army should be raised and George Washington of Virginia was named commander in chief.
- self-evident truths
- A truth that does not require proof or explanation; for example, in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal is a self-evident truth.
- separation of powers
- A way of dividing power among three branches of government in which members of the House of Representatives, members of the Senate, the president, and the federal courts are selected by and responsible to different constituencies.
- Shays's Rebellion
- A 1786 rebellion in which an army of 1,500 disgruntled and angry farmers led by Daniel Shays marched to Springfield, Mass. And forcibly restrained the state court from foreclosing mortgages on their farms.
- Stamp Act Congress Congress
- Meeting of representatives of nine of the thirteen colonies held in New York City in 1765, during which representatives drafted a document to send to the king listing how their rights had been violated.
- supremacy clause
- Portion of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution that mandates that national law is supreme to (that is, supercedes) all other laws passed by the states or by any other subdivision of government.
- The Federalist Papers
- a series of 85 political papers written by John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in support of the ratification of the U.S. constitution
- Thomas Paine/Common Sense
- A pamphlet forcefully arguing for independence from Great Britain. In laymenÂ’s term he denounced the corrupt British monarchy and offered reasons to break with Great Britain.
- Three-fifthe Compromise
- Compromise between the Northern and Southern states at the Constitutional Convention stipulating that slaves would be counted as 3/5 of a person for purposes of representation and taxation.
- Virginia Plan
- Offered at the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, it urged the delegates to create a legislature based on the population of each state.