Terms : Hide Images
| 1682322584 | Federalists | Those who wrote and campaigned for ratification of the Constitution | 0 | |
| 1682322585 | Anti-Federalists | Those who opposed ratification of the Constitution | 1 | |
| 1682322586 | Constitution | Basic governing document of the United States | 2 | |
| 1682322587 | Divine Right | Doctrine that says God selects the sovereign for the people | 3 | |
| 1682322588 | Royal Colony | Colony governed by the king's representative with the advice of an elected assembly. | 4 | |
| 1682322589 | Mayflower Compact | First document in colonial America in which the people gave their express consent to be governed | 5 | |
| 1682322590 | Proprietary Colony | Colony governed either by a prominent English noble or by a company | 6 | |
| 1682322591 | Colonial Assembley | Lower legislative chamber elected by male property owners in a colony | 7 | |
| 1682322592 | Colonial Council | Upper legislative chamber whose members were appointed by British officials upon the recommendations of the governor | 8 | |
| 1682322593 | Patronage | Appointment of individuals to public office in exchange for their political support. Widely practiced in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and continues to present day | 9 | |
| 1682322594 | Stamp Tax | Passed by Parliament in 1765, it required colonists to purchase a small stamp to be affixed to legal and other documents | 10 | |
| 1682322595 | Taxation Without Representation | Levying of taxes by a government in which the people are not represented by their own elected officials | 11 | |
| 1682322596 | Stamp Act Congress | A meeting in 1765 of delegates from nine colonies to oppose the Stamp Act; the first political organization that brought leaders from several colonies together for a common purpose | 12 | |
| 1682322597 | Patriots | Political group defending colonial American liberties against British infringements | 13 | |
| 1682322598 | First Continental Congress | Organized in 1774, the first quasi-governmental institution that spoke for nearly all the colonies | 14 | |
| 1682322599 | Second Continental Congress | Political authority that directed the struggle for independence beginning in 1775 | 15 | |
| 1682322600 | Declaration of Independence | Document signed in 1776 asserting the political independence of the United States from Great Britain | 16 | |
| 1682322601 | Tories | Those colonists who opposed independence from Great Britain | 17 | |
| 1682322602 | Separation of Powers | A system of governments in which different institutions exercise the different components of governmental power | 18 | |
| 1682322603 | Whigs | Political opposition in eighteenth-century England that developed a theory of citizen rights and representation | 19 | |
| 1682322604 | Articles of Confederation | The first (1781-1789) basic governing document of the United States and forerunner to the constitution | 20 | |
| 1682322605 | Shays's Rebellion | Armed uprising in western Massachusetts in 1786 led by revolutionary War captain Danial Shays | 21 | |
| 1682322606 | Annapolis Convention | Meeting in 1786 to discuss constitutional reform | 22 | |
| 1682322607 | Virginia Plan | Constitutional proposal supported by convention delegates from large states | 23 | |
| 1682322608 | New Jersey Plan | Small-state proposal for constitutional reform | 24 | |
| 1682322609 | Connecticut Compromise | Constitutional Convention proposal that created a House proportionate to population and a Senate in which all states were represented equally (also known as the Great Compromise) | 25 | |
| 1682322610 | Great Compromise | Connecticut Compromise | 26 | |
| 1682322611 | Necessary and Proper Clause | Says Congress has the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution" its other powers | 27 | |
| 1682322612 | Advice and Consent | Support for a presidential action by a designated number of senators | 28 | |
| 1682322613 | Electoral College | Those chosen to cast a direct vote for president by a process determined by each state | 29 | |
| 1682322614 | Judicial Review | Court authority to declare laws null and void on the grounds that they violate the Constitution | 30 | |
| 1682322615 | Supremacy Clause | Part of the Constitution that says the Constitution is the "supreme Law of the Land," to which all judges are bound | 31 | |
| 1682322616 | Three-Fifths Compromise | Constitutional provision that counted each slave as three-fifths of a person when calculating representation in the House of Representatives; repealed by the Fourteenth Amendment | 32 | |
| 1682322617 | Bill of Rights | The first ten amendments to the Constitution, which guarantee civil liberties and protect states' rights | 33 | |
| 1682322618 | The Federalist Papers | Essay that were written in support of the Constitution's ratification and have become a classic argument for the American constitutional system | 34 | |
| 1682322619 | Checks and Balances | Constitutional division of power into separate institutions, giving each institution the power to block the actions of the others | 35 |
