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Details Title: Chapter 2 Description: Chapter 2 Vocab Total Flash Cards: 17 Created: 02/01/2007 18:19:56	To study from this set of flash cards, or to create your own your own study flash cards, register HERE. If you are already a registered user, CLICK HERE.
Cards Term Articles of Confederation Definition The government charter of the states from 1776 until the Constitution of 1787. Term Charles A. Beard Definition A historian who argued that the Founders were largely motivated by the economic advantage of their class in writing the Constitution. Term Constitution Definition A set of principles, either written or unwritten, that makes up the fundamental law of hte states. Term Constitutional Convention Definition A meeting of delegates in Philadelphia in 1787 charged with drawing up amendments to the Articles of Confederation. Term Declaration of Independence Definition A document written in 1776 declaring the colonists' intentions to throw off British rule. Term federalism Definition A constitutional principal reserving separate powers to the national and state levels of government. Term Federalist Papers Definition A series od political tracts that explained many of the ideas of the Founders. Term Great Compromise Definition A constitutional proposal that made membership in one house of Congressproportional to each state's population and membeship un the other equal for all states. Term John Locke Definition A British philosopher whose ideas on civil government greatly influenced the Founders. Term James Madison Definition A principal architect of the Constitution who felt that a government powerful enough to encourage virtue in its citizens was too powerful. Term Massachusetts Constitution Definition A state constitution with clear seperation of powers but considered to have produced to weak a government. Term natural rights Definition Rights of all human being that are ordained by God, discovereable in nature and history, and essential to human progress. Term New Jersey Plan Definition A constitutional proposal that would have given each state one vote in a new congress. Term Pennsylvenia Constitution Definition A governing document considered to be highly democratic yet with a tendancy toward tyranny as the result of concentrating all powers in one set of hands. Term seperation of powers Definition A constitutional principle seperation teh personnel of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Term Shays's Rebellion Definition An armed attempt by revolutionary War veterans to avoid losing their property by preventing the courts in western Massachusetts from meeting, Term Virginia Plan Definition A constitutional proposal that the smaller states' representatives feared would give permanent supremacy tot eh larger states.