Chapter 2 IDs
Unalienable: A human right based on nature or God
The unalienable rights were used to justify a revolution against the British for their unfair treatments. In the Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers wrote about our unalienable rights given by the Creator, which were guaranteed to all people.
Articles of Confederation: went into effect in 1781, created little more than a “league of friendship” that could not levy taxes or regulate commerce. Each state retained its sovereignty and independence.
The Articles of Confederation was the original constitution, however it was not very crucial in the US and only lasted couple of years. To replace the Articles of Confederation the US then replaced it with the US Constitution in 1789. With the transition to a new constitution the question arose on how to divide the new territories when acquired.
Constitutional Convention: Advertised and authorized by Congress as a meeting to revise the article. However it was the gathering that drafted the Constitution of the United States in 1787
This Constitution drafted at the Constitutional Convention is still being used today. The drafting or the fixing of the Article required all states to send delegates. The Constitutional Convention was crucial in that it revised the weaknesses of the Article and set the foundation for the US.
Shays’s Rebellion: An uprising led by a former militia officer, Daniel Shays, which broke out in western Massachusetts in 1786.
Daniel Shays was a poor farmer who felt that he was being unfairly taxed. Because the United States had no military at that time due to the Articles of Confederation giving the federal government no power, Daniel Shays was able to lead a rebellion that lasted for several days. This later caused the founding fathers to realize the flaws of the Articles of Confederation and draft the US Constitution that would last for hundreds of years.
Great Compromise: Also known as the Connecticut Compromise was an agreement of delegate representation between the large and small population states, which reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
During the drafting of the Constitution, the founding fathers decided that there was a need for a legislative branch. The large states wanted these delegates to be selected by the population size of the state, which would give them more power in the legislative branch. However, the smaller states disagreed as they would become under represented. They proposed that every state has the same number of delegates to provide equal distribution of power. This angered the large states as the smaller state’s citizens would gain more of a say as their votes would matter more than the large amount of people in big states.In the end, they compromised that they would have both with the House of Representatives being based off population and the Senate being based off states. This system is still in use today in our government.
Republic: A government in which a system of representation operates. Supreme power is held by the people and they decide and elected their own representatives.
The US wanted a republic government after the harsh treatment of the British monarch. In the US, they wanted representative that would aid the people and not abuse their powers, therefore the republic government elects a president instead of an monarch. The hate against the monarch caused the US to draft a Constitution in which it states that the country would be governed by elected officials selected by the citizens instead of a single ruler based off blood.
Judicial Review: The power of the Supreme Court to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional. Also a way of limiting the power of popular majorities.
The Judicial review greatly increased the power of the Supreme Court. Today its power is comparable to the executive or the legislative branch. This power of judicial review was given to the Supreme Court by the Chief Justice John Marshall. He stated in the Marbury vs. Madison court case that the act was unconstitutional and was not valid.
Federalism: Government authority shared by national and state government
Divided the governmental powers in the country into three categories. Only given to the national government was the enumerated powers, which included the power to declare war, conduct foreign affairs, etc.The power given to the state was called the reserved power which gave the states to issue licenses and regulate commerce. The third category was called concurrent powers which was used to collect taxes, etc.
Checks and balances: Way to balance power in a system of government.
The checks and balance system is still used in our government today and is used to ensure that certain branches of the government (executive, legislative, or judiciary) does not have more power than the others. All three branches check and balance each other to ensure that only a few gain too much power and become governing like the old monarch in Britain.
Separation of powers: Separation of powers is an act of vesting the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of government in separate bodies.
This system is used in the US government as we are separated into three different branches of government. The reason behind this separation is to ensure no one person or branch gets too much power. With this system the government is made to be able to run as a democracy.
Faction: A group with distinct political interest.
A faction is a small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, especially in politics. In the US, it consists of two major political parties or faction, Democrats and the Republicans. The majority of Americans reside in one of these two factions, however there consists of many third parties that occasionally fight the other major factions or parties.
Federalists: also known as the nationalists were the proponents of the Constitution.
During the ratification process of the new Constitution there was a debate between the federalists and the anti-federalists. These people believed that the US Constitution gave the government the power needed to run the country as effectively as possible unlike the Articles of Confederation. Many of these federalist referred to the events of Shays rebellion to justify the ratification of the new Constitution. After several months of debates, the federalists won over the anti-federalists with the addition of the Bill of Rights. Among the Federalists were famous people like Alexander Hamilton and George Washington.
Anti Federalists: Also known as the state righters, the antifederalists were people who opposed the ratification of the Constitution.
They felt that the Constitution gave the federal government too much power. They believe with the abundance of power the government would turn towards the system run by the British monarch, abusing its power and letting the citizens suffer. To avoid this events from happening the Anti federalists believed that the states themselves would runs their own people to reduce the power and make the systems more fair.
Federalists papers: The federalists paper were papers written by the federalists to convince the American population who were on the edge to adopt the Constitution.
They were working against the anti-federalists who felt that the Constitution gave the federal government too much power which they would eventually abuse. The federalist papers played a crucial role in allowing the Constitution to ultimately be ratified by all thirteen states.
Coalition: An alliance of factions.
Many of the coalitions were temporary alliance of political parties forming a government or of states. An example of this can be seen when they US fought the British to gain their independence. Because the colonies had the same interest to become independent, the formed a coalition to fight the world power holder. However, after the dispute the coalition disputed as they looked into their own self interest
Writ of habeas corpus: A writ of habeas corpus is a court order to the imprisoned individual to the court issuing the order for that person's detention.
This was unique to the United States because it provided the colonists a fair trial to prove that a person was guilty. This caused implementations of rules that required a court trial of an individual in order to declare a person guilty of their actions. A habeas corpus cannot be suspended according to the Bill of Rights.
Bill of attainder: A bill of attainder is the the forfeiture of land and civil rights suffered as a consequence of a sentence of death for treason or felony.
This occured to people who declared themselves as loyalists before the start of the American Revolutionary War. After the patriots succeeded in driving out the British, they looked at the Loyalists as traitors and confiscated all the property as a punishment for aiding British troops during the war. In the Bill of Rights it states that no bill of attainder may be passed by Congress or the states.
Ex post facto law: A law that makes illegal an act that was legal when committed or increases the penalties for an infraction after it has been committed.
This law was legal in most other countries around the world at this time, but the founding fathers felt that this law was unfair and did not allow for this law to occur in the Constitution. This caused the federal government to not be able to raise the punishment for certain violators of the law even if their case was more severe. In the Bill of Rights it states that no ex post facto law may be passed by Congress or the states.
Bill of Rights: The Bill of Rights were a list of rights added to the Constitution shortly after its ratification. The Bill of Rights were crucial in getting the antifederalists to approve of the Constitution who felt that without the addition of the Bill of Rights, the federal government would abuse their power due to the enormous power that the Constitution gave the federal government. The Bill of Rights became the first ten amendments made to the Constitution.
Amendments: An amendment is a minor change in a document. In total there are twenty seven amendments that have been ratified by the states. The first ten amendments were collectively known as the Bill of Rights. The amendments made to the Constitution were made based off of how American as a society was changing by giving more rights to African American and women, as well as making changes in politics such as limiting president to only serving two terms.
Line-item veto: The power of a president, governor, or other elected executive to reject individual provisions of a bill. The line-item veto permits the president to veto certain parts of the bill that he does not see fit which allowing certain parts of the bill of pass and eventually become law. The line-item veto was used countless times throughout American history with numerous presidents when the laws did not agree with their ideals for society.