Chp.8 Vocab Flashcards
A social philosophy that embraced representative institutions (as opposed to monarchy), a citizenry
attuned to civic values above private interests, and a virtuous community in which individuals work to promote the public good.
Republicanism
A law passed in five northern states that balanced civil rights against property rights by providing a multistage process for freeing slaves, distinguishing
persons already alive from those not yet born and providing benchmark dates when freedom would arrive for each group.
Gradual emancipation
A bogus threatened coup staged by Continental army officers and leaders in the congress in 1782–1783, who hoped that a forceful demand for military back pay and pensions would create pressure for stronger taxation powers. General Washington defused the threat.
Newburgh Conspiracy
1784 treaty with the Iroquois Confederacy that established the primacy of the American confederation (and not states) to negotiate with Indians and resulted in large land cessions in the Ohio Country (northwestern Pennsylvania). Tribes not present at Fort Stanwix disavowed the treaty.
Treaty of Fort Stanwix
Land act of 1787 that established a three-stage process by which settled territories would become states. It also banned slavery in the Northwest Territory. The ordinance guaranteed that western lands with white population would not become colonial dependencies.
Northwest Ordinance
Uprising (1786–1787) led by farmers centered in western
Massachusetts. Dissidents protested taxation policies of the eastern elites who controlled the state’s government. Shays’s Rebellion caused leaders throughout the country to worry about the confederation’s ability to handle civil disorder.
Shays’s Rebellion
Plan drafted by James Madison, presented at the opening of the Philadelphia constitutional convention. Designed as a powerful three-branch government, with representation in both houses of the congress to be tied to population, this plan eclipsed the voice of small states in national government.
Virginia Plan
Alternative plan drafted by delegates from small states, retaining the confederation’s single-house congress with one vote per state. It shared with the Virginia Plan enhanced congressional powers, including the right to tax, regulate trade, and use force to stop popular uprisings.
New Jersey Plan
Clause in the Constitution that stipulated that all free persons plus “three-fifths of all other Persons” would constitute the numerical base for apportioning both representation and taxation. The clause tacitly acknowledged the existence of slavery in the United States.
Three-fifths Clause
Originally the term for the supporters of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787–1788. In the 1790s, it became the name for one of the two dominant political groups that emerged during that decade. Federalist leaders of the 1790s supported Britain in foreign policy and commercial interests at home. Prominent Federalists included George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams.
Federalists
Opponents of ratification of the Constitution. Antifederalists feared that a powerful and distant central government would be out of touch with the needs of citizens. They also complained that the Constitution failed to guarantee individual liberties in a bill of rights.
Antifederalists
The written document defining the structure of the government from 1781 to 1788 under which the union was a confederation of equal states, with no executive and limited powers, existing mainly to foster a common defense.
Articles of Confederation
