Building a Nation Flashcards
Man present at the Constitutional Convention who kept a detailed diary of the proceedings so that today we know what happened there.
James Madison
Man who stayed away from the Convention because he said that he “smelled a rat”.
Patrick Henry
Name given to an event (occurred at the Constitutional Convention) which resulted in the Constitution that we have today. The issue of representation was settled during this.
Great/Conn Compromise
Plan for representation in the new Congress to be based on equal representation for each state, like in the Articles of Confederation.
New Jersey Plan
Plan for representation in the new Congress to be based on Population, and for Congress to select the executive and the judicial branch.
Virginia Plan
The institution that elects the president of the United States.
Electoral College
An event in Massachusetts in 1786, where farmers took up arms against local officials in protest over farm foreclosures. This event influenced many to view the Articles of Confederation as having serious flaws.
Shay’s Rebellion
A legal doctrine where a woman’s legal identity is subsumed by her husband. She has no rights to own property, to testify in court or to custody of her children.
Coverture
A system of government in which power is divided between a central government and a regional or sub-divisional government that exists above the local unit. Each level must have some domain in which its authority is secure.
Federalism
A system of government where there is a loose union of states and each state retains its autonomy.
Confederation
Founding Father who thought that any self respecting country should have a King and proposed that George Washington become our first King.
Alexander Hamilton
A person who gains power by appealing to the fears, emotions and prejudices of the people.
Demagagoue
First African American Supreme Court Justice nominated by LBJ in the 1960s who argued in his famous speech given during the Bicentennial celebration of the Constitution in 1987, that we should hold the Framer’s responsible for including slavery in the Constitution. Their failure to resolve the issue resulted in horrific injustices, a civil war, a century of segregation and continuing racism and vast inequities that haunt our present and future.
Thurgood Marshall
Two house legislature.
Bicameral
Political philosopher who stated that governments should be established so that there is a separation of powers resulting in a system of checks and balances.
Montesquieu
Document written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 which set forth the ideals for which the new American nation would be known.
Declaration of Independence
The first Constitution of the United States.
Articles of Confederation
English political philosopher who stated that men have “natural rights”, such as life, liberty and property.
John Locke
French political philosopher who helped state the idea of a “social contract”.
Rousseau
Political scientist and Historian who wrote in An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the US, that the Constitution was written by men “whose property interest were immediately at stake”.
Charles Beard
Group of men who supported the ratification of the Constitution.
Federalism
The first ten Amendments of the Constitution.
Bill of Rights
Clause in the First Amendment and in some state constitutions, which prohibits the Government from favoring one religion over another; or as stated by both Jefferson and Adams there should be a “wall of separation between Church and State”.
Establishment Clause
Prominent Virginian Anti-Federalist who finally agreed to support the Constitution because he trusted that his friend James Madison would keep his word and amend the document in the First Congress to include “his words” into the text of the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson
