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Declaration of Independence
America’s mad at Great Britain, King is ruling America, America creates document, in Philadelphia in 1776, that declares independence from Great Britain. First draft by Thomas Jefferson. Revised by Ben Franklin and John Adams. -
Articles of confederation
Created an alliance of independent states. Much debate arose in 1777 so they decided to create the articles of confederation. -
Land ordinance
Land Ordinance system that surveys and settles North West Territory. Surveyed and then divided into townships. Township has 36 sections. Each sections costs $640. -
Shay's rebellion
In 1786, Shay’s Rebellion fought at Bunker hill and Saratoga, they attacked court houses and prevented the states from seizing farms because they didn’t think it was fair how prices fell and some of the farmers couldn’t pay back their loans as a result of the Articles of Confederation not working. -
The Constitutional Convention
Opened on May 25, 1787 in Philadelphia. Wanted to revise the Articles of Confederation. 55 delegates joined. Ben Franklin was the oldest. Best prepared was James Madison. -
Virginia Plan
Delegates argue about the representation the Virginia plan consist of the Convention that had three branches of government and two houses based on state population. The more people represent the more power they have. -
New Jersey Plan
Jersey be bringing to the convention a government with three branches and one house in the legislature with one vote per state, well that’s convenient since they’re so small. -
3/5s compromise
Slave states were trying to add slaves when calculating their population, when slaves didn’t even get to vote. Sure good for the small populated states counting slaves would give them more power but they didn’t get to vote so. -
Northwest Ordinance
In 1787, Northwest Ordinance passed as a law. Set up a government for the Northwest Territory, guaranteed rights to settlers. Outlawed slavery. Provided a way to admit new states once it had 60,000 free settlers. -
Great Compromise
Roger Sherman’s idea. Two house legislature. Lower house elected by popularity. Lower house seats were awarded to states according to population. Upper House chosen state legislator. Each state no matter what had two senates. Approved on July 16. -
The Constitution is signed
American’s celebrated, George Washington was elected president, John Adams was elected vice president and the farmers had to find a way to change or amend the constitution. -
Agreement over slavery
To reach compromise, Northerners agreed that congress could not outlawed slave trade for 20 years. Also North agreed to return fugitive slaves to their owners. -
The states vote to ratify
States vote. Delaware first in December 1787. New Hampshire ninth, so law went into effect. New York and Virginia were held back to ratify even though they one of bigger states. -
The Federalist Position
The federalists were people who were in favor of the ratification of the Constitution, the main ones were: James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton -
The Anti-Federalist Position
Anti-Federalists are people who were fighting against ratification of the Constitution, the main one was: Patrick Henry. -
The amendment process proposed
Difficult to accomplish. To start, amendment has to be proposed in one of two ways. Two-thirds of house can vote on it or two-thirds of states can have special conventions. Ratified after, three-fourths of states must ratify. Only 27 been approved. -
The Bill of Rights
Spell out basic rights of the people. Freedom of speech and religion for example. Federalists said Constitution protect those rights. They argued it was hard to spell out all of the rights of the people.
