chapter 4 review Flashcards
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Outlined a process to create new states based on democratic principles such as outlawing slavery, establishing public education, respecting Native Americans, and implementing a bill of rights. The Northwest Ordinance guaranteed that citizens of new states would be treated the same as citizens from other states.
Shays Rebellion
Shays got together a militia to fight the foreclosure courts. It was a very large militia. Shays’s “rebel” militia overwhelmed Massachusetts’s courts and shut them down. Then Shays’s militia marched toward Springfield, Massachusetts, the militia intended to capture the federal arsenal, or storage facility for weapons. This rebellion brought light to the fact that many people were struggling with the debt from the war, and their current government system was not working.
Constitutional Convention
55 delegates from most of the states came together to attempt to improve the Articles of Confederation. They soon realized that there was no hope for the Articles, and they needed to start from scratch. The Framers all worked together to build a new constitution. This convention went on for a long time.
Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan wanted all representation in the legislative branch to be based on a state’s population, giving larger states more power in the government.
New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey Plan wanted all states to have an equal number of representatives, like how it was under the Articles of Confederation. This way all states would have equal representation and power in the government.
Great Compromise
Roger Sherman came up with the Great Compromise. This was where the legislative branch would be split into two houses, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. In the Senate, every state would have two representatives. In the House of Representatives, the representation would be based on population.
Three-Fifths Compromise
There was a problem of who would be counted in the population. The South wanted enslaved people to be counted, so that the slave-dense South would have more power. The North wanted enslaved people to not count for the population. They then came up with the ⅗ compromise. This is where one enslaved person counts as ⅗ the population of one free white person. For example, for 5,000 enslaved people, only 3,000 would be counted towards the population.
enumerated powers
The powers that rest solely with the national government.
reserved powers
If a power was not listed for the national government, it was reserved for the states.
Separation of Powers
To avoid putting too much power on a few people, the Framers decided to split the power on three different branches. Each branch has its own specific powers and tasks.
Checks and balances -
Each branch makes sure that the other branches aren’t getting too powerful, so they check on each other to balance the power.
Federalists
They wrote essays to prove anti-federalists wrong, they wanted to leave the constitution as it is, and put it in act. They are all for the federal government system, and federalism.
Anti-Federalists
Argued that no federal government could pass laws that would be suitable for all states. They were against federalism, they believed it was too powerful.
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights was a compromise that the Framers put into the Constitution to make the Anti-Federalists feel better about accepting the Constitution for their country.
Popular sovereignty
It’s the principle that all of the government’s power (state and central) is sustained and based on the consent of the people, and what they people want.
