American Congress

the decision at the Constitutional convention to count slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of deciding the population and determining how many seats each state would have in Congress

number of people in the house of represenatives

the upper house of the United States Congress

lower house of congress based on state population

a vote that blocks a decision

4 years

supporters of the constitution

people who opposed the constitution

the first ten amendments to the Constitution, dealing mostly with civil rights.

Compromise made by Constitutional Convention in which states would have equal representation in one house of the legislature and representation based on population in the other house

A system that allows each branch of government to limit the powers of the other branches in order to prevent abuse of power

to interpret laws

executes or carries out laws

To create laws, and collect taxes

articles of confederation

Opposite of the Virginia Plan, it proposed a single-chamber congress in which each state had one vote. This created a conflict with representation between bigger states, who wanted control befitting their population, and smaller states, who didn't want to be bullied by larger states.

Virginia delegate James Madison's plan of government, in which states got a number of representatives in Congress based on their population. Also bigger states.

this conflict in Massachusetts caused many to criticize the Articles of Confederation and admit the weak central government was not working; uprising led by Daniel Shays in an effort to prevent courts from foreclosing on the farms of those who could not pay the taxes

The constitutional amendment that establishes the four great liberties: freedom of the press, of speech, of religion, and of assembly.

The gov . was feeling weak because they didn't actually have more power than the states. They were like not the head. It had no strengths.

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. Signifiicance: The Federalist papers were written by renowned Federalists such as Hamilton, Madison and John Jay.

popular sovereignty that was used to show independence?

one of the British colonies that formed the United States.

president- appoints federal judges, can grant reprieves and pardons for fereal crimes, can veto acts of congress, can call special sessions of congress

The powers to interpret laws, to determine their meanings, and to settle disputes in society

congress- can override veto, controls spending of money, establishes lower federal court, can impeach and remove federal judges

To become president there are many things that are involved. There are a total of 538 electoral votes. There are 435 from the house representatives, 100 from the senitors, and 3 from the district of Columbia. Therfore, at least 270 votes are needed to ecome president . The electors from each of those states are all apart of the Electoral College. This was created by our founding fathers because they didn't trust the people to elect fully. It was also a compromise on how to elect the president. The number of each electoral votes is based on that states population. The bad things about the system is that they risk the chance of electing a president tht didn't win the majority of the popular vote. Lastly, The "winner takes all system" is used in the election if a canidatee receives 1 more vote than the other in a state, so they would take all the votes from that state.

the conflict in the plans for the legislative branch was how New Jersey and Virginia had different beleifs on how the legislative branch should be run. Virginia beleived that they should be represented based on polulation, but New Jerey beleived that the representaion should be equal for all states. The Great Comprimise resolved this problem by creating a two house legislature, with the lower house being the House of Representitives, which was represented by population: then there was the upper house which is the senate, with equal representation {2}.