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GOVT - Ch 2
The Constitution
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Mayflower Compact | A document drawn up by Pilgrim leaders in 1620 on the ship Mayflower stating that laws were to be made for the general good of the people. |
Bill of Rights | The first ten amendments to the US Constitution listing the freedoms that a citizen enjoys and that cannot be infringed on by the government. |
First Continental Congress | A gathering of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies, held in 1774 to protest the Coercive Acts. |
Second Continental Congress | The congress of the colonies that met in 1775 to assume the powers of a central government and to establish an army. |
unicameral legislation | A legislature with only one chamber. |
confederation | A league of independent states that are united only for the purpose of achieving common goals. |
Articles of Confederation | The nation's first national constitution, which established a national form of government following the American Revolution providing for a confederal form of government in which the central government had few powers. |
Shays' Rebellion | A rebellion of angry farmers in western Massachusetts in 1786, led by former Revolutionary War captain Daniel Shays emphasizing with other similar uprisings the need for a true national government. |
Great Compromise | A plan for a bicameral legislature in which on chamber would be based on population and the other chamber would represent each state equally resolving the small-state/large-state controversy. |
Federalists | A political group led by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams that supported the adoption of the Constitution and the creation of a federal form of government. |
Anti-Federalists | A political group that opposed the adoption of the Constitution because of the document's centralist tendencies and because it did not include a bill of rights. |