APUSH Vocab 7

Articles of Confederation

Articles of Confederation

First frame of government for the United States; in effect from 1781-1788, it provided for a weak central authority and was soon replaced by the Constitution

Ordinance of 1784

A law drafted by Thomas Jefferson that regulated land ownership and defined the terms by which western land would be marketed and settled; it established stages of self-government for the West; first Congress would govern a territory, then the territory would be admitted to the Union as a full state

Ordinance of 1785

A law that regulated land sales in the Old Northwest; the land surveyed was divided into 640-acre plots and sold at $1 per acre

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Law that created the Northwest Territory (area north of the Ohio River and west of Pennsylvania), established conditions for self-government and state-hood, included a Bill of Rights, and permanently prohibited slavery

Empire of Liberty

The idea, expressed by Jefferson, that the United States would not rule its new territories as colonies, but rather would eventually admit them as full member states

Shay’s Rebellion

Attempt by Massachusetts farmer Daniel Shays and 1,200 compatriots, seeking debt relief through issuance of paper currency and lower taxes, to prevent courts from seizing property from indebted farmers

Constitutional Convention

Meeting in Philadelphia, May 25—September 17, 1787, of representatives from twelve colonies (except Rhode Island) to revise the existing Articles of Confederation; the convention soon resolved to produce and entirely new constitution

Virginia Plan

Virginia’s delegation to the Constitutional Convention’s plan for a strong central government and a two house legislature apportioned by population

New Jersey Plan

New Jersey’s delegation to the Constitutional Convention’s plan for one legislative body with equal representation for each state

Federalism

System of government in which power is divided between the central government and the states

Division of Powers

The division of political power between the state and federal governments under the U.S. Constitution (also known as federalism)

Checks and Balances

A systematic balance to prevent any one branch of the national government from dominating the other two

Three-Fifths Clause

A provision signed into the Constitution i 1787 that 3/5s of the slave population would be counted in determining each state’s representation in the House of Representatives and its electoral votes for president

The Federalists

Collection of 85 essays that appeared in the New York press in 1787-88 in support of the Constitution; written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay and published under the pseudonym “Publius”

Anti-Federalists

Opponents of the Constitution who saw it as a limitation on individual states’ rights; their demands led to the addition of a Bill of Rights to the document

Bill of Rights

First ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1791 to guarantee individual rights against infringement by the federal government

Treaty of Greenville

1795 treaty under which 12 Indian tribes ceded most of Ohio and Indiana to the federal government, and which also established the “annuity” system

Gradual Emancipation

A series of acts passed in state legislatures throughout the North in the years following the Revolution that freed slaves after they reached a certain age, following lengthy “apprenticeships”

Letters From An American Farmer

1782 book by Hector St. John de Crevecoeur that popularized the notion that the United States was a “melting pot” while excluding people of color from the process of assimilation

“Open Immigration”

American immigration laws under which nearly all white people could immigrate to the United States and become naturalized citizens