CH2 - The U.S. Constitution

Parts 1, 2, & 3

Age of Enlightenment

A period in Western history (~1685-1815) marked by great advances and breakthroughs in the natural and social sciences, and that was propelled by a high level of optimism about the capacity for human beings to use reason to better understand their world and thereby improve the human condition.

America’s Creed

Four propositions stated in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence (1776) that reflect general political philosophical principles that heavily influenced the drafters of the U.S. Constitution and have inspired political leaders and social movements throughout American history.(See also Declaration of Independence.)

Antifederalists (or Anti-Federalists)

Those who opposed ratification of the original U.S. Constitution during the ratification debate in 1787-1788.

Articles of Confederation

The first constitution for the central government of the United States, which operated between 1781 and 1788. The Articles would be replaced by the U.S. Constitution, which was written in 1787 and ratified in 1788.

Atlantic Slave Trade

The transportation of millions of African slaves from Africa to the Americas that took place from the 16th through the 18th century.

Bicameral Legislature

A legislature with two chambers or houses. In a bicameral legislature there is an upper chamber and lower chamber. (See also Upper Chambers and Lower Chambers.

Bill of Rights

Name given to the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, all of which were ratified in 1791, and which are the primary source of civil liberties in the U.S. Constitution. The phrase "bill of rights" is sometimes used to refer to any list of civil liberties in a constitution. (See also Civil Liberties.)

Bills of Attainder

An act of a legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without a trial.

Birthright Citizenship

The constitutional rule (established in the first clause of the 14th Amendment) that every person (regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, etc.) born in the United States is, by right of birth, a citizen of the United States. This rule was adopted to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s white supremacist claim in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) that only white persons can be legal citizens of the United States.

Checks and Balances

A system in which each branch of government (legislative, executive, and judicial) has distinct powers that enable it to limit or “check” the actions of the other branches, ensuring that no single branch becomes dominant and that the branches remain separate and accountable.

Civil Liberties

Legal rights designed to protect individuals from abuse of power by government.

Civil Rights Era

Period in American history (in the 1950s and 1960s) in which the federal government, responding to grassroots social activism, took significant action to dismantle the Jim Crow system of racial segregation and secure the civil rights of African Americans and other traditionally oppressed social groups.

Civil Rights Era Amendments

Two amendments (the 23rd and 24th) to the U.S. Constitution passed during the Civil Rights Era that were primarily intended to extend and protect the voting rights of African Americans. (See also Civil Rights Era)

Cold War

Conflict between the United States (with its allies) and the Soviet Union (with its allies) that took place between 1947 and 1991. The two major powers did not directly engage in warfare with each other but did intervene on different sides in so-called proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. The period is best known for the constant fear of a catastrophic nuclear war and an ideological debate over the relative merits of American-style market capitalism versus Soviet-style state socialism.

Cold War Amendments

Two amendments (the 25th and 26th) to the U.S. Constitution that resulted from anxieties and conflicts associated with the Cold War.

Confederacy (or Confederal form of Government)

A system with a central government and state governments, but that is set up so the states maintain as much sovereignty and independence as possible. Most importantly, the central government only claims authority over state governments (i.e., is “a government over governments”) rather than over individual persons, and this is the leading cause of the central government’s weakness. (Contrast with Federalism and Unitary National Government)

Constitution

The body of fundamental laws that are either written in a single document (which is usually referred to as a constitution) or in several different documents. (See also Fundamental Laws)

Constitutional Convention

The meeting in Philadelphia between May and September of 1787 at which 55 delegates from 12 of the 13 states wrote the original U.S. Constitution that would be ratified in 1788.

Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was the political association through which Americans from the different colonies first sought to govern themselves independently from the British. The First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in 1774, and the Continental Congress would govern the states throughout the Revolutionary War before morphing into the Congress that governed the United States under the Articles of Confederation from 1781 to 1788.

Critical Period

A brief time after the Revolutionary War (1783-1789) in which several developments—including the apparent instability of the union, poor economic conditions, and political conflicts and armed rebellions at the state level—led many to worry that the Americans’ revolutionary experiment in democratic government was on the verge of ending in disaster.

Declaration of Independence

Document approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced and justified the thirteen American colonies’ decision to become politically independent from the British Empire and, thus, free and independent states.

Declaratory Act of 1766

Act of Parliament declaring the authority of Parliament to make laws binding on the American colonists in “in all cases whatsoever,” and thus rejecting the colonists’ argument that Parliament lacked authority to tax them without representation.

Divine Right of Kings

The idea--rejected by Americans in the Revolutionary War (and replaced by the principle of popular sovereignty)--that monarchs derived their authority directly from God and so their commands were absolute and any resistance was both unlawful and impious. (Contrast with Popular Sovereignty)

Electoral College

System established by the U.S. Constitution for selecting presidents. By this system, each state is allocated a number of individuals called Electors equal to the number of members each state is allocated in the House of Representatives and Senate. The person who becomes president is the person who wins the most votes from these Electors.

Equal State Representation

Approach to representation in Congress whereby each state is allocated an equal number of voting members. This was the approach used under the Articles of Confederation, proposed by the New Jersey Plan, and adopted for the U.S. Senate in the U.S. Constitution as part of the Great Compromise. (See also Articles of Confederation, New Jersey Plan, Small State Plan, and Great Compromise; contrast with Proportional Representation.)

Ex Post Facto Law

Law adopted after an act is committed making it illegal despite being legal when done, or that increases the minimum or maximum penalty for a crime after it is committed.

FDR Amendments

Three amendments (the 20th, 21st, and 22nd) to the U.S. Constitution that were significantly influenced by the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (aka FDR).

Federalism

Principle of government that means authority is partly divided and partly shared between the federal (aka central or national) government and the state governments. Unlike in a confederacy, the central government in a federal system claims direct authority over individual persons. (Contrast with Confederacy and Unitary National Government.)

Federalist Papers

85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay (under the pseudonym “Publius”) between October 1787 and August 1788. The essays were initially published in newspapers but later compiled into a book. Their primary purpose was to persuade New Yorkers to vote to ratify the Constitution, but they have long been seen as the best guide for understanding the theory behind the U.S. Constitution and the system of government it creates.

Federalists

Name given to those who supported ratification of the original U.S. Constitution during the ratification debate in 1787-1788. (A political party called the Federalist Party would form after the Constitution was ratified, but not all supporters of ratification of the Constitution became members of that political party. For example, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson supported ratification but ended up forming a political party that opposed the Federalist Party.)

Founders’ Constitution

That part of the U.S. Constitution that was written and ratified by the first (i.e., founding) generation (aka the Founding Fathers). It consists of the Original Constitution, Bill of Rights, 11th Amendment, and 12th Amendment. After the 12th Amendment was ratified in 1804, the U.S. Constitution would not be amended again for 61 years. The Reconstruction Amendments in the wake of the Civil War (1861-1865) fundamentally transformed the Founders’ Constitution. (See also Original Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Reconstruction Amendments.)

Freedom of the Press

The freedom to collect, publish and distribute information without government interference.

French and Indian War

War (1754-1763) in which Great Britain defeated France, resulting in the removal of France from all of the mainland of North America. The debt accumulated by the British during the war led them to impose taxes on the Americans, which led to American resistance and ultimately the American decision to declare independence.

Fugitive Slave Clause

Part of the Founders’ Constitution that (1) granted slave owners a constitutional right to recapture runaway slaves who had fled to other states, including states where slavery was illegal, and (2) took away the right of states to pass laws to protect and/or emancipate runaway slaves.

Fundamental Laws

Law that is supreme over ordinary laws and establishes processes of ordinary lawmaking and enforcement.

Great Compromise

Compromise (also known as the Connecticut Compromise) that sought to solve the disagreement between large and small states at the Constitutional Convention over how to apportion seats in Congress. By this solution, a lower chamber (i.e., the House of Representatives) has proportional representation and an upper chamber (i.e., the Senate) has equal state representation. (See also Proportional Representation, Equal State Representation, Virginia Plan, Large State Plan, New Jersey Plan, and Small State Plan.)

Gregory Watson Amendment

The most recent amendment (the 27th) to the U.S. Constitution. Ratified in 1992, the amendment says that when Congress votes to raise the pay of Congress members, the pay increase cannot take effect until after the next congressional election. This amendment was one of the twelve proposed by the First Congress in 1789—ten of which became the Bill of Rights.

Intolerable Acts

A set of repressive laws (known by the British as the Coercive Acts) passed by Parliament in 1774 that, among other things, closed the port of Boston and called for the British takeover of control of governance of the colony of Massachusetts.

Jim Crow System

System put in place (mostly in the Deep South) during the years between the Reconstruction Era and Civil Rights Era to deprive African Americans of their fundamental rights and to keep them socially, economically, and politically subordinated to whites. (See also Reconstruction Era and Civil Rights Era.)

Jurisdiction

The authority of a court of law to decide a legal case or controversy.

Large State Plan

Another name for the Virginia Plan because the Virginia Plan called for proportional representation in Congress, which was the scheme of representation favored by states with larger populations. (See also Virginia Plan and Proportional Representation; contrast with New Jersey Plan and Small State Plan.)

*Legal Rights

Rights written in ordinary or constitutional law. These are different from human rights (or natural rights), which are moral rights that all human beings have even when government does not recognize or secure them. Legal rights may or may not be in accord with human rights (or natural rights). (See also Human Rights and Natural Rights.)

Lower House (or Lower Chamber)

Name given to the house/chamber in a bicameral legislature that has more members than the other. Members in lower houses/chambers often serve shorter terms than members in upper houses/chambers. An example of a lower house/chamber is the U.S. House of Representatives. (See also Bicameral Legislature; contrast with Upper House (or Upper Chamber).)

Natural Law

A set of moral rules discoverable by reason that exist by nature, regardless of whether government recognizes it or not.

Natural Rights

Fundamental freedoms and claims—such as life, liberty, and property—believed to belong to every person by virtue of being human, existing prior to and independent of any government or written law. (Compare with Human Rights; Contrast with Legal Rights)

New Deal

Name for the far-reaching set of policies pursued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his fellow Democrats in Congress during the Great Depression that revolutionized the role of the federal government in the American economy. The policies aimed at providing immediate relief for those suffering from the Depression, stimulating economic recovery, and reforming the economic regulatory system so that another Depression would not occur in the future.

New Jersey Plan

Name given to William Paterson’s proposal (offered as the leading alternative to the Virginia Plan) to moderately reform the Articles of Confederation while maintaining its basic confederal structure of government. The Plan proposed equal state representation, which would be adopted for the Senate in the U.S. Constitution as part of the Great Compromise. Since equal state representation was favored by states with smaller populations, the New Jersey Plan is sometimes called the small state plan. (See also Virginia Plan, Articles of Confederation, Confederacy, Equal State Representation, Small State Plan, and Great Compromise.)

Original Constitution

A common way of referring to the pre-amended U.S. Constitution that was signed at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September of 1787 and that was ratified in 1788. The Original Constitution consists of the preamble and seven articles. It excluded the Bill of Rights, which was ratified in 1791. (See also Constitutional Convention and Bill of Rights.)

Parliament

The highest legislature in Great Britain, consisting of the House of Lords and House of Commons. At the time of the American Revolution, Parliament claimed sovereign power over the American colonies despite the fact that the colonists did not vote for representatives serving in Parliament.

Philadelphia Convention

Another name for the Constitutional Convention in 1787. (See also Constitutional Convention.)

Poll Taxes

Taxes that needed to be paid in order to vote. These were used during the Jim Crow era to disenfranchise African Americans.

Popular Sovereignty

The idea that the people of a particular territory have the highest authority to rule over that territory, and therefore only they have the right to create or alter the constitution by which the government derives its authority.

Progressive Era

Period in American history (1890s-1920s), marked by widespread democratic political reform and social activism throughout the United States.

Progressive Era Amendments

Four amendments (the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th) to the U.S. Constitution passed during the Progressive Era. (See also Progressive Era)

Prohibition

A period in American history (1919-1933) when the 18th Amendment outlawed the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages everywhere in the United States. Prohibition ended when the 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.

Proportional Representation

Approach to representation in Congress where the number of voting members allocated to each state is based on the population size of the state. Thus, larger states would have more voting representatives in Congress than smaller states. This was the approach proposed by the Virginia Plan and that was adopted for the U.S. House of Representatives in the U.S. Constitution as part of the Great Compromise. (NOTE

Ratifying Conventions

Temporary conventions that met in each state to decide whether or not to ratify the Original Constitution proposed by the Constitutional Convention in September of 1787. Unlike delegates who served at the Constitutional Convention, the delegates who served at the state ratifying conventions were selected to serve through popular elections. (See also Original Constitution and Constitutional Convention.)

Reconstruction Amendments

Three amendments (the 13th, 14th, and 15th) to the U.S. Constitution passed during the Reconstruction Era. These amendments made such a dramatic transformation of the Founders’ Constitution that their ratification is sometimes aptly referred to as America’s Second Founding. (See also Reconstruction Era and Founders’ Constitution.)

Reconstruction Era

A brief period (~1865-1877) in the wake of the Civil War in which the federal government, led by Radical Republicans in Congress, worked to abolish slavery and secure the rights of formers slaves and the descendants.

Right to Petition Government

The right to declare grievances to government and request that they be redressed.

Second Founding

A way of referring to the transformative effect (and potential) of the Reconstruction Amendments. (See also Reconstruction Amendments.)

Shays’ Rebellion

Armed uprising in Massachusetts led by (Revolutionary War veteran) Daniel Shays involving 4,000 soldiers and that lasted nearly six months (from August of 1786 until February of 1787). The scale and length of this rebellion, and other smaller ones like it, convinced a lot of people of the need for a new constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation.

Small State Plan

Another name for the New Jersey Plan due to the fact that the New Jersey Plan called for equal state representation in Congress, which was the scheme of representation favored by states with smaller populations. (See also New Jersey Plan and Equal State Representation; contrast with Virginia Plan and Large State Plan.).

Social Contract

An implicit or explicit agreement among free and equal individuals to form a government and obey its laws in exchange for protection of their natural rights and the benefits of orderly society.

Stamp Act

A tax levied by Parliament on the American colonists in 1765 that required colonists to pay for and use printed paper produced in London for, among other things, legal and commercial documents, newspapers, magazines, and playing cards. This was the first attempt by Parliament to impose taxes on the colonists in the wake of the French and Indian War in order to help pay the debt Britain had accrued to pay for that war. This and other taxes led to American resistance and ultimately the American decision to declare independence. (See also French and Indian War.)

Standing Armies

An army composed of full-time (typically professional) soldiers that is not disbanded during times of peace.

State of Nature

A hypothetical condition with no government, laws, or formal institutions in which individuals live solely under natural liberty; used by early modern political philosophers to explain why people create governments and social contracts.

Suffrage

The right to vote.

Supermajority

A majority larger than a simple majority (i.e., 50% plus one vote). An example of a supermajority requirement is the two thirds votes in Congress required for proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Supremacy Clause

A provision in Articled VI of the U.S. Constitution that declares the U.S. Constitution (and all lawful treaties and other federal laws) the supreme law of the land.

Three-Fifths Clause

Provision in the U.S. Constitution that allowed states to count each of their slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of calculating their share of seats apportioned in the House of Representatives. This was intended to help assure slave states that they would hold a majority of the seats in the House of Representatives. The clause also served to boost the power of slave states in presidential elections due to the way the Electoral College system was set up. (See also Electoral College.)

Three-Fifths Compromise

Name given to the decision by antislavery delegates at the Constitutional Convention to accommodate the demand by slave states that they be allowed to count their slaves as whole persons for purposes of apportioning seats in the House of Representatives. Antislavery delegates would have preferred to not allow slave states to count their slaves at all but chose to compromise by counting each slave as three-fifths of a person.

Trial by Jury

A trial by a group of citizens chosen at random to make judgments in one or more legal cases.

U.S. Constitution

The entire written fundamental law of the United State, which consists of the Original Constitution and 27 amendments. (See also Original Constitution.)

Unconventional Political Methods

Actions—such as boycotting and protesting—that are taken to exert control over government outside of ordinary political channels (such as voting).

Unicameral Legislature

A legislature with only one chamber or house. (Compare with Bicameral Legislature.)

Unitary National Government

A country with a supreme central government that either is the only government or does not share sovereign authority with lower (e.g., state) governments. (Contrast with Confederacy and Federalism.)

Upper House (or Upper Chamber)

Name given to the house/chamber in a bicameral legislature that has fewer members than the other. Members in upper houses/chambers often serve longer terms than members in lower houses/chambers. An example of an upper house/chamber is the U.S. Senate. (See also Bicameral Legislature; contrast with Lower House (or Lower Chamber.)

Virginia Plan

Name given to James Madison’s proposal (the first submitted at the Constitutional Convention) to replace the Articles of Confederation with a strong national government with extensive legislative authority. The plan called for separation of powers and a bicameral legislature. It would have based representation in both chambers of the legislature on the principle of proportional representation. This would end up being adopted for only the lower chamber (i.e., the House of Representatives) in the U.S. Constitution as part of the Great Compromise. Since proportional representation was favored by states with smaller populations, the New Jersey Plan is sometimes called the large state plan. (See also New Jersey Plan, Articles of Confederation, Proportional Representation, Large State Plan, and Great Compromise.)

Virtual Representation

Theory of representation that says people can be effectively represented in government even if they do not have actual representatives who are held accountable to the people through elections. According to this view, government officials can be expected to effectively represent people (even if they are not accountable to them via elections) if they have reason to sympathize with them and share their interests.

Writ of Habeas Corpus

A court order requiring government officials to bring a detained person before a judge to justify the legal basis for the detention; if the confinement lacks lawful grounds, the judge must order the individual’s release. It serves as a fundamental safeguard against arbitrary imprisonment, and is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.