Quiz 2 (3.6-3.15)

Republican Motherhood

A concept proposed by some American political leaders in the 1790’s, which supported women’s education so that they could in turn instruct their sons in principles of republican government.

Statute of Religious Freedom

A 1786 law passed by the Virginia Assembly that ensured the seperation of chruch and state and largely guaranteed freedom of religion. Enactment of the statute established a legal precedent followed by other states and was latter included in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution.

Articles of Confederation

Plan for national government with limited powers proposed by the Continental Congress of 1777 and ratified in March 1781. The Articles were replaced by the constitution in 1789.

Northwest Ordinances of 1785 and 1787

The 1785 act of the confederation congress provided for the survey, sale, and eventual division into states of the Northwest Territory and set aside land for public schools.

A 1787 act then clarified the process by whcih settled territories could become states and banned slavery across the Northwest Territory.

Shays’s Rebellion

A rebellion in 1786-1787 by western Massachusetts farmers, many of whom were war veterans, caused mainly by economic hardships and taxation policies they saw as benefitting an easern elite in the aftermath of the American Revolution. The rebellion encouraged political leaders to consider strengthening the Articles of Confederation.

Constitutional Convention

The meeting in Philadelphia from May to September 1787 at which delegates drafted the Constitution to replace the articles of confederation.

Virginia plan

A plan put forth at the beginning of the constitutional convention that propose a strong central government and the system of representation based on population.

New Jersey plan

A proposal at the constitutional convention endorsed by small states for a one house legislature with each state having an equal vote.

3/5 compromise

The compromise between Northern and southern delegates at the 1787 constitutional convention to count enslaved persons as 3/5 of a free person deciding the population of representation in the House of Representatives and taxation by the federal government. It had the long-term effect of granting slave holding states a larger amount of voting power.

Separation of powers

A system of government advocated by Baron de montesquiu dividing Powers across multiple branches of government in the US Constitution. Federal powers are distributed among legislative executive and judicial branches.

Checks and balances

The specific ways a branch of government can limit or modify the behavior of other branches. The system of checks and balances in the US Constitution was designed to keep any one branch from exercising. Too much power.

Electoral college

A group of electors whose vote is the formal election of the president and vice president after the general election votes are tallied states decide how to choose their electors and most instituted a system requiring their electors to vote in accordance with the state's popular vote, resulting in the state's vote winner receiving all of the states electoral votes.

Federalist

A supporter of ratification of the Constitution of 1787, many of whom came from Urban and commercial backgrounds. Federalists supported a strong central government with vigorous powers.

Anti-Federalist

An opponent of ratification of the Constitution of 1787 anti-federalists were generally from more rural and less wealthy backgrounds than the Federalist and oppose increasingly powers of the central government.

The Federalist papers

A series of 85 essays by Federalist, Alexander, Hamilton, James, Madison and John Jay published in newspapers throughout the country. The Federalist papers promoted the ratification of the Constitution.

Bill of Rights

The first 10 amendments to the Constitution explicitly guaranteeing all Americans basic rights these amendments promised by federalists during the ratification debates helped reassure Americans who feared that the federal government established under the Constitution when infringe on the rights of individuals and states.

Bank of the United States

A national bank established in 1791. The bank was responsible for holding large proportions of federal funds, distributing loans and currency and funding the national debt.

Neutrality proclamation

A 1793 proclamation declaring us neutrality in any conflicts between other nations, including France and Great Britain. Despite French aid and the revolutionary war effort, the proclamation also warned American citizens against favoring either party Britain largely ignored U.s neutrality and seized American merchant vessels heading to France

Jay treaty

Controversial 1796 treaty between the United States and Great Britain negotiated by John Jay that required British forces to withdraw from us. Soil required American repayment of debts to British firms. Limited us trade with the British West Indies and permitted Britain to continue to stop neutral vessels

Whiskey rebellion

An uprising beginning in 1791 by Western Pennsylvania farmers who led protests against the excise tax on whiskey. The federal government used military force to crush that rebellion demonstrating the increased federal powers under the new constitution in contrast to the confederations Congress inability to respond to Shay's rebelling in 1786.

Democratic Republicans

A political party that emerged out of opposition to Federalist policies in the 1790s. The Democratic Republicans chose Thomas Jefferson as their presidential candidate in 1796 1800 and 1804.

Alien and sediction Acts

Two security acts passed in 1798 by the Federalist controlled Congress. The alien act allowed the president, then John Adams to imprison or deport non-citizens. This addiction act outlawed certain public criticisms of the federal government.

Naturalization act

And act past in 1798 by The Federalist controlled Congress that raised the residency requirement for citizenship. From 5 to 14 years. It was designed to delay the naturalization of immigrants who largely voted Democratic Republican. The ACT included only three white persons meaning that it excluded indentured serve in American Indians, free black persons and enslaved persons from gaining citizenship.

Virginia and Kentucky resolutions

Resolutions passed by legislatures in Virginia and Kentucky in protest of the alien and sediction acts. The resolutions claimed the acts passed by the Federalists were unconstitutional and politically motivated. Thus void and of no force in their estates.

Treaty of Greenville

A 1795 treaty signed following the Battle of fallen timbers. The treaty entered the Northwest Indian war and ceded vast tracts of lands claimed by American Indians in the Northwest Territory to the United States.

Pinckney treaty

A treaty between Spain and the United States ratified in 1796 that defied the boundary between us and the Spanish territory in the South and opened The Mississippi River and New Orleans to US shipping. It allowed the free movement of goods from the far interior to the Atlantic via the Mississippi