AP®︎ US History: Topic 3.8 Flashcards

1785 meeting where Virginia and Maryland settled navigation and commercial issues, demonstrating the value of interstate cooperation

1786 interstate-commerce meeting attended by only five states that recommended a broader convention in Philadelphia

Philadelphia meeting from May to September 1787 where delegates from 12 states replaced revision of the Articles with a new constitutional framework

Presided over the Constitutional Convention and lent prestige to its work; later supported ratification as a Federalist

Convention intellectual leader whose ideas shaped the Virginia Plan; coauthored the Federalist Papers and later introduced Bill of Rights amendments

Introduced the Virginia Plan but later refused to sign the completed Constitution

Large-state proposal for a strong three-branch national government and a bicameral legislature with representation based on population or financial contribution

Small-state delegate who presented the New Jersey Plan at the Constitutional Convention

Small-state proposal retaining equal state representation in a unicameral legislature while strengthening federal revenue and commerce powers

Connecticut delegate who helped devise the Great Compromise between large and small states

Created a bicameral Congress with population-based representation in the House and two senators for every state

Principle that legitimate government derives its authority from the people

Compromise system in which each state appoints electors equal to its representatives and senators to choose the president rather than using a direct national vote

Counted three-fifths of enslaved people for House representation and direct taxes, increasing slave-state power in Congress and the Electoral College

Required people held to service or labor who escaped into another state to be returned rather than freed by that state's laws

Supporters of ratification who argued that effective but constitutionally limited national power was necessary to preserve order, liberty, and the Union

Opponents of ratification who feared distant centralized power, weak representation, and threats to state authority and individual rights

Leading Federalist who coauthored the Federalist Papers and defended a strong national government and energetic executive

Eighty-five essays written as “Publius” by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay to defend ratification and explain Federalist constitutional principles

Madison's argument that faction is unavoidable but a large representative republic can prevent any one faction from dominating

Madison's argument that divided governmental power and institutional checks are necessary because both citizens and rulers are fallible

Hamilton's defense of a single energetic executive as necessary for decisiveness, accountability, and effective administration

Pseudonymous Anti-Federalist who argued that an extensive republic would produce distant, unrepresentative, and increasingly consolidated government

Convention delegate and Anti-Federalist who refused to sign because of objections including the missing declaration of rights and slave-trade protections

Agreement to ratify the Constitution first while recommending later amendments, helping Federalists win closely divided states

First ten amendments, ratified in 1791, that enumerated individual liberties and explicitly restricted federal power after Anti-Federalist pressure

State-convention approval process in which Delaware ratified first, New Hampshire became the required ninth state in 1788, and Rhode Island joined last in 1790

Granted Congress power over interstate and foreign commerce, prohibited federal taxes on state exports, and prevented Congress from banning the international slave trade before 1808

Reserved powers not delegated to the United States or prohibited to the states to the states or the people