7-2 and 7-3 Flashcards
(18 cards)
Constitutional Convention
A meeting in Philadelphia in 1787 that produced a new constitution.
executive branch
Branch of government that carries out or enforces the laws.
judicial branch
Branch of government that decides if laws are carried out fairly and are constitutional.
legislative branch
Branch of government that makes the laws.
Great Compromise (1787)
An agreement between large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that created the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It proposed a bicameral legislature, resulting in the current United States Senate and House of Representatives.
Virginia Plan
Virginia delegate James Madison’s plan of government, in which states got a number of representatives in Congress based on their population.
New Jersey Plan
The proposal at the Constitutional Convention that called for equal representation of each state in Congress regardless of the state’s population.
Three-Fifths Compromise
Agreement that each slave counted as three-fifths of a person in determining representation in the House for representation.
Alexander Hamilton
New York Federalist who helped write The Federalist Papers
James Madison
“Father of the Constitution,” one of the authors of The Federalist Papers, creator of the Virginia Plan and fourth President of the United States.
John Jay
New York Federalist who helped write The Federalist Papers.
George Washington
President of the Constitutional Convention and later first President of the U.S.
George Mason
Anti-Federalist from Virginia who felt the Constitutional Convention went too far and that the Constitution needed a bill of rights. He did not sign the Constitution.
Delaware
First state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
Federalists
A term used to describe supporters of the Constitution during ratification debates in state legislatures.
Anti-Federalists
Opponents of the American Constitution at the time when the states were debating ratification.
Bill of Rights (1791)
The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. These were written by James Madison.
First Amendment
Five freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition.
