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Definition
| : An economic theory designed to increase a nation’s wealth through the development of commercial industry and a favorable balance of trade. |
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Term
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Definition
| : Meeting of representatives of nine of the thirteen colonies held in New York City in 1765, during which representatives drafted a document to send to the king listing how their rights had been violated. |
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Committees of Correspondence
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Definition
| : Organizations in each of the American colonies created to keep colonists abreast of developments with the British; served as powerful molders of public opinion against the British. |
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Term
| First Continental Congress: |
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Definition
| Meeting held in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26 1774, in which fifty-six delegates (from every colony except Georgia) adopted a resolution in opposition to the Coercive Acts. |
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| Second Continental Congress |
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Definition
| : Meeting that convened in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775 at which it was decided that an army should be raised and George Washington was named commander in chief. |
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Definition
| Type of government where the national government derives its powers from the states; a league of independent states. |
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Term
| Declaration of Independence |
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Definition
| : Document drafted by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 that proclaimed the right of the American colonies to separate from Great Britain. |
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Term
| Articles of Confederation |
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Definition
| : The compact among the thirteen original states that was the basis of their government. Written in 1776, the Articles were not ratified by all the states until 1781. |
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Term
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Definition
| : A 1786 rebellion in which an army of 1,500 disgruntled and angry farmers led by Daniel Shays marched to Springfield, Massachusetts, and forcibly restrained the state court from foreclosing mortgages on their farms. |
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Term
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Definition
| : A document establishing the structure, functions, and limitations of a government. |
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Term
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Definition
| The first general plan for the Constitution proposed by James Madison and Edmund Randolph. Its key points were a bicameral legislature, an executive chosen by the legislature, and a judiciary also named by the legislature. |
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Term
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Definition
| : A framework for the Constitution proposed by a group of small states; its key points were a one-house legislature with one vote for each state, the establishment of the acts of Congress as t he “supreme law” of the land, and a supreme judiciary with limited power. |
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Term
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Definition
| : A decision made during the Constitutional Convention to give each state the same number of representatives in the Senate regardless of size; representation in the House was determined by population. |
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Term
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Definition
| : Agreement reached at the Constitutional Convention stipulating that each slave was to be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of determined population for representation in t he House of Representatives. |
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Term
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Definition
| A way of dividing power among three branches of government in which members of the House of Representatives, members of t he Senate, the president, and the federal courts are selected by and r responsible to different constituencies. |
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Term
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Definition
| : A governmental structure that gives each of the three branches of government some degree of oversight and control over the actions of the others. |
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Term
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Definition
| : Plan of government created in the U.S. Constitution in which power is divided between the national government and the state governments and in which independent sates are bound together under one national government. |
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Term
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Definition
| : Seventeen specific powers granted to Congress under Article I, section 8, of the U.S. Constitution; these governments powers include taxation, coinage of money, regulation of commerce, and the authority to provide for a national defense. |
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Term
| Necessary and Proper Clause |
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Definition
| : The final paragraph of Article I, section 8, of the Constitution, which gives Congress authority to pass all laws “necessary and proper” to carry out the enumerated powers specified in the Constitution; also called the elastic clause. |
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Term
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Definition
| : Powers derived from the enumerated powers and necessary and proper clause. These powers are not stated specifically but are considered to be reasonably implied through the exercise of delegated powers. |
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Term
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Definition
| : Portion of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution mandating that national law is supreme to (that is supersedes) all other laws passed by the states or by any other subdivision of government. |
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Term
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Definition
| Those who favored a stronger national government and supported the proposed U.s. Constitution; later became the first U.S. political party. |
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Term
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Definition
| : Those who favored strong state governments and a weak national government; opposed the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. |
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Term
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Definition
| : A series of eighty-five political papers written b y John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison in support of the ratification of the Constitution. |
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Term
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Definition
| First ten amendments to the Constitution. |
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