Name _______________________________________ Desk #_________ Class Period______________
Mrs. Adams’ STAAR Review
III. The Early Republic
1. The Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania State House during
the summer of (year) 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation; instead the delegates wrote a
new Constitution forming a new government.
2. George Washington was elected president (presiding officer) of the Constitutional Convention.
3. The Constitution created a government which divided power between a national government
and individual states; this system of government is known as federalism.
4. James Madison, a delegate from Virginia, wrote the official minutes of the proceedings and
came to be known as the “Father of the Constitution.”
5. The idea of dividing the power of government among separate branches (separation of powers)
was based upon the writings of a French political writer named Montesquieu.
6. William Blackstone was the English judge, law professor and member of Parliament who wrote
Commentaries on the Laws of England which greatly influenced the writing of the U. S.
Constitution.
7. The Constitution created a Constitutional Republic a representative form of government whose
representatives derive their authority from the consent of the governed, serve for an
established tenure, and are sworn to uphold the Constitution.
8. The U. S. Constitution is a written form of government written in 1787 by our founding fathers
which establishes a set of laws by which the U. S. is governed.
9. The Great Compromise was a compromise that called for a bicameral legislature with
representations that satisfied both small and large states. It was a compromise reached over the
issue of representation and was a combination of the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan.
10. The principle of popular sovereignty, “the power rests with the people,” was established in the
Constitution.
11. A foreign national who is granted citizenship in the United States after fulfilling certain
requirements is a naturalized citizen.
12. The system by which each of the 3 branches of federal government may control or check the
power of the other two branches is known as checks and balances.
13. The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments, guarantees the protection of individual rights.
14. The compromise between Southern and Northern states reached during the Constitutional
Convention of 1787 in which 3/5’s of the population of slaves would be counted for
enumeration purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the
members of the House of Representatives was called the 3/5’s Compromise.
15. The Federalist Papers written by leading Federalists-- Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and
John Jay --supported the ratification of the Constitution.
16. Anti-federalists were a group of individuals who opposed the ratification of the Constitution
because they felt it gave the federal government too much power and because it did not
contain a bill of rights. Leading anti-federalists were Patrick Henry and George Mason. Both
men were from Virginia.
a. Patrick Henry believed the new Constitution would cause the states to surrender too
much power to the federal government.
b. George Mason believed it did not adequately protect individuals from potential
government abuse.
17. The 10th Amendment provides for federalism by reserving certain powers to the states.
18. The 1st Amendment provides for freedom of speech, religion, and press.
19. Due process of law is addressed in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th amendments.
20. The 6th Amendment provides for the right to a trial by jury.
21. Alexander Hamilton, who would later become the nation’s first Secretary of Treasury, was a
leading Federalist who supported a strong central government and ratification of the
Constitution.
22. President Washington laid the basis for the nation’s foreign policy in his Farewell Address by
urging the leaders of the nation to adhere to a policy of neutrality.
23. A large debt from the Revolutionary War was a challenge faced by our nation’s first president,
George Washington.
24. The Judiciary Act of 1789 established the nation’s court system.
25. Political parties began in the 1790s largely because of political differences between Thomas
Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.