Antifederalists

• Opponents of a strong central government who campaign against ratificaiton against the Constitution in favor of a confederation of largely independent states.

Articles of Confederation

• The Constitution drafted by the newly independent states in 1777 and ratified in 1781. It created a weak national government that could not levy taxes or regulate commerce.

Charles Beard

• A historian who published the book, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution.

Bill of attainder

• A law that declares a person, without trial, to be guilty of a crime. State legislatures and Congress are forbidden to pass such as by Article I of the Constitution.

Bill of Rights

• A list of individual rights and liberties, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press.

Checks and balances

• Power of the Legislature, executive, and judicial branches of government to block some acts of the other two branches.

Coalition

• An alliance among different interest groups or parties to achieve some political goal.

Constitutional convention

A meeting of delegates in 1787 to revise the Articles of

Confederation, which produced a totally new Constitution which is

still used today.

Ex post facto law

• A law that makes criminal an act that was legal when it was committed, that increases the penalty for a crime after it has been committed, or that changes the rules of evidence to make a conviction easier. They are not allowed to pass this law.

Faction

• According to James Madison, a group of people who seek to influence public policy in ways contrary to the public good.

Federalism

• A political system in which ultimate authority is shared between a central government and state or regional governments.

Federalist No. 10

• James Madison wrote about

Federalist papers

• A series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay that were published in New York newspapers in 1787-1788 to convince New Yorkers to adapt the newly proposed constitution.

federalists

• Supporters of a stronger central government who advocated ratification of the constitution. After ratification they founded a political party supporting a strong executive and Hamilton’s economic policies.

Great Compromise

• A compromise at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that reconciled the interests of small and large states by allowing the former to predominate in the Senate, and the latter in the House. Under the agreement each state received two representatives in the Senate, regardless of size, but was allotted representatives on the basis of population in the House.