Question | Answer |
Magna Carta | a charter of liberties agreed by King John of England, it made the king obey the same laws as citizens, inspired the constitution |
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 | legislation passed by congress to establish a political structure for the Northwest territory and created a system for the admission of new states |
land ordinance of 1785 | set up a system of surveying dividing up western lands, split into townships, 6 square miles, 36 lots of 640 each, one reserved for schools, 4 reserved for veterans, rest sold to the public |
issues with ratification of Articles of Confederation | passed by congress in 1777, had to ratified (official approval) before becoming a new national government, slowed because of conflicts over western lands, march 1781 ratified and in full effect |
Northwest ordinance | included Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, created new system for bringing new states into the union, decide northwest territory would be divided into several smaller territories with a governor appointed by congress, when |
continued... | population of a territory would reach 60,000 settlers could draft own constitution and ask to join the union, had laws that protected civil liberties and required public education, NO SLAVERY ALOUD |
issues with Spain | closed the lower Mississippi river to US shipping, congress negotiated with Spanish to reopen Mississippi, but negotiations failed |
problems with articles of confederation | congress could not force states to provide an army to deal with issues with foreign countries, congress could not issue taxes and could not combat the low prices of British goods, congress did not have the power to control the country's economic system |
continued... | leading to inflation, depression, and rebellion, congress did not have the power to control trade between states, causing different trade laws to develop from state to state |
Depression | loss of trade with Britain combined with inflation created a depression, Depression- a period of low economic activity combined with a rise in unemployment |
inflation | States had a difficult time paying off the war debt and struggled to collect taxes, states like Rhode island began to print large amounts of money resulting in inflation, inflation- large amounts of pare money printed with no gold or silver to back up |
continued... | the value, decreasing overall value of the pare money (price of goods were increasing) |
trade with Britain | British trade laws were unfair, closed their ports to American ships, charged American merchants high tariffs or taxes forcing merchants to raise prices to cover the cost of the tariff |
interstate commerce | trade between two or more states |
constitutional convention who came? | all states accept Rhode island |
Virginia Plan | author- James Madison, 3 branch legislature, representatives based on population |
Mew Jersey plan | William Patterson, power comes from state governments, each state had one representatives, all equal |
3/5 compromise | roger Sherman, congress had two parts 1. senate 2. house of reps, reps in senate were all equal, reps in house of representatives based on population, to enact a law both states had to agree |
checks and balances | keeps any branch of government from becoming to powerful, creates a balance of power among the 3 branches |
federalism | the sharing of power between the central government and the states that make up a country, enumerated- powers only the federal government has, reserved- powers only the state has, concurrent powers both state and federal governments share |
antifederalists | opposed the constitution, feared it gave too much power to the central Gov.., main prob. was it didn't guarantee individual rights, supporters: Patrick henry and Jefferson, VA, NY, NC |
federalists | supported the constitution, wanted a strong central Gov., thought it offered a god balance of powers, famous supporters: Washington, franklin, Madison, Hamilton, john jay, states- NJ, MD, GA, CONN |
federalist papers | played a important role in the fight for ratification of the constitution, series of essays supporting the constitution, written anonymously by alexander Hamilton, john jay, and Madison, argued that new federal gov. would not overpower states, explained |
continued... | and defended the constitution |