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Government
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Constitutional Convention | meeting held in Philadelphia to create a new constitution |
| James Madison | a leading convention delegate from Virginia |
| Virginia Plan | a plan giving supreme power to the central government and creating a bicameral legislature made of two groups, or houses, of representatives |
| New Jersey Plan | a plan creating a unicameral, or one-house, legislature |
| Great Compromise | an agreement that gave each state one vote in the upper house of the legislature and a number of representatives based on its population in the lower house |
| Three-Fifths Compromise | only three-fifths of a state's slaves were counted when deciding representation in Congress |
| popular sovereignty | the idea that political power belongs to the people |
| federalism | the sharing of power between a central government and the states |
| legislative branch | a Congress of two houses that proposes and passes laws |
| executive branch | the president and the departments that help run the government |
| judicial branch | a system of all the national courts |
| checks and balances | a system that keeps any branch of government from becoming too powerful |
| The Bill of Rights | The first ten amendments of the Constitution that defines our individual rights. |
| The Constitution | The law of the United States. Defines the rights of the government, the states, and individual citizens. |