Unit 3 Vocabulary
New Nation
Articles of Confederation
• A document adopted by the Second
Continental Congress in 1777 and approved by
the states in 1781.
• This was the first law of the land for the new
government of the United States
• Weaknesses: no executive, no courts, no
taxing power
Daniel Shays’ Rebellion
• A 1787 uprising of farmers that were angry at
the Massachusetts state government because
of debt and foreclosures, so they shut down
the state courts by force
• Showed the weakness of the Articles of
Confederation because Massachusetts asked
the federal government for help but they
didn’t have the power to do anything
Northwest Ordinance
• A law passed in 1787 under the Articles of
Confederation government
• Set up a plan for territories to become states
and contributed to westward migration
• Plan encouraged new state constitutions to
avoid slavery and include a plan for public
education
Constitutional Convention
• Founding fathers met at Pennsylvania State
House in May 1787 to revise the Articles of
Confederation, but ended up writing a whole
new Constitution
• Major conflicts at the Constitution over the
issues of representation in Congress and
slavery had to be resolved through
compromises
Great Compromise
• A compromise made at the Constitutional
Convention to resolve the conflict between
the Virginia Plan (large states) and New Jersey
Plan (small states)
• Proposed a bicameral legislature with the
House of Representatives, where
representation is based on population and the
Senate, where every state gets 2
representatives
3/5 Compromise
• A compromise between free states and slave
states over whether or not slaves should be
counted as part of the population for
representation purposes in the House of
Representatives
• Decided that slaves would count as 3/5 of a
person (Out of every 5 slaves, 3 would count
towards population)
U.S. Constitution
• America’s final law of the land, written at
Constitutional Convention after the AOC failed
because it was too weak
• Provided for a more powerful central
government, but this power was limited by
separation of powers, checks and balances,
and federalism
Popular Sovereignty
• The people have power in the government by
voting to elect representatives
• This idea is the same as what Jefferson
described as “consent of the governed” in the
Declaration of Independence
Separation of Powers
• The powers of the national government are
divided by the Constitution into three separate
branches to prevent any one person or branch
from having too much power
• The legislative branch (Congress) makes the laws,
executive branch (President) enforces the laws,
and judicial branch (courts) interprets the laws.
• This comes from French philosopher
Montesquieu
Checks and Balances
• Principle of the Constitution that gives each
branch of government the authority to limit
the power of the other two branches
• Examples:
– Congress passes laws, president can veto them
and Supreme court can rule them unconstitutional
– President appoints Supreme Court justices and
Congress approves them; Congress can impeach
the president
Federalism
• A system in which power is shared between
different levels of government
• For example, in the U.S. we have the federal
(national) government, state governments,
and local governments
Judicial Review
• The Supreme Court has the power to declare
laws unconstitutional
• This authority is a part of the system of checks
and balances
Limited Government
• Government is not all powerful
• The Constitution limits the power of the
federal government through separation of
powers, checks and balances, federalism and
the Bill of Rights
Federalists
• Group of political leaders that supported the new
U.S. Constitution in the debate over ratification
(approving and adopting the document)
• Wanted a strong federal government and were
led by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison
• Federalist Papers = a collection of essays written
to convince Americans to approve the
Constitution
Anti-Federalists
• Group of political leaders led by Thomas
Jefferson that were against ratification of the
new Constitution
• They wanted a weaker federal government
and strong state governments and refused to
ratify without a Bill of Rights
• The Anti-Federalist Papers = written to point
out problems in the Constitution
Bill of Rights
• First 10 amendments to the Constitution
• Anti-Federalists insisted on adding these
before ratification
• Designed to protectindividual rights (#1-9) and
states’ rights (#10) from the power of the
national government
Washington’s Presidency
• Important because he set precedents for how
the President would conduct himself and how
the executive branch would work
• Showed the strength of the new federal
government in Whiskey Rebellion, said
America should not get involved in European
affairs, and warned against factions/political
parties
Whiskey Rebellion
• Farmers in Pennsylvania refused to pay a tax
put on whiskey by the federal government
• President Washington ordered the militia to
go an and stop the rebellion, and the rebels
scattered without a fight
• Proved that the federal government was now
strong enough under the new Constitution to
handle a crisis
Non-Intervention in Europe
• The people of France asked Americans to help
in their revolution to overthrow the king of
France
• Washington thought America needed to stay
out of European problems and issued the
“Declaration of Neutrality”
Adams’ Presidency
• American diplomats effectively resolve the
XYZ Affair with the French, who tried to force
the U.S. to pay bribe or tribute money to
continue to deal with France
• Adams lost public support because of Alien
and Sedition Acts that set fines and jail time
for anyone speaking out against the
government (violation of 1st amendment)