Year the US Constitution was approved and signed by delegates in Philadelphia; would then be sent to states for ratification

Official approval

Author of the Virginia Plan which became the basic framework for the US Constitution; due to his contributions he became known as the "Father of the Constitution"; Federalist and one of the authors of the Federalist Papers

Delegate from Virginia who was selected as President of the Constitutional Convention

Written by James Madison; proposed a government with three branches (executive, legislative, judicial); proposed that the legislative branch consist of two houses with representation in each house based on the population of the state which pleased the large states

The proposal at the Constitutional Convention that called for equal representation of each state in Congress regardless of the state's population which pleased the small states

A compromise that proposed two houses of Congress; one where a state's population would determine representation (House of Representatives) to pleased the large states and another (Senate) where all states were represented equally with two votes per state to please the small states

Legislative Branch

House of Congress in which number of representatives for each state is determined by the state's population; part of the Great Compromise that pleased the large states

House of Congress in which each state has 2 representatives; part of the Great Compromise that pleased the small states

Constitutional compromise for counting enslaved people as part of a states population for determining both representation in the House of Representatives and the amount of taxes each state would send to the federal government; 3 out of every 5 enslaved person would be counted in the state's population

Slave trade would be banned; enslaved people could no longer be imported into the US

Group that opposed the Constitution; felt it gave too much power to the national government and took too much power from the state governments; worried it did not protect individual rights and demanded a Bill of Rights be added

A meeting in Philadelphia in 1787; called to revise the Articles of Confederation after Shay's Rebellion; 55 delegates ended up writing a new plan for government: the US Constitution

Group that supported the ratification of the Constitution; supported a strong federal government and felt it created a good balance of federal and state powers

An Anti-Federalist; demanded a Bill of Rights be added to Constitution

An Anti-Federalist; did not attend Convention because he "Smelled a rat in Philadelphia tending towards monarchy."; feared national government would be too strong and executive was too much like a king

A delegate to the Constitutional Convention from NY: was a Federalist; one of the authors of the Federalist Papers

A series of essays written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to convince states to ratify the US Constitution

The first 10 amendments to the US Constitution; purpose is to protect personal freedoms; added to gain support from Anti-Federalists for the new Constitution

He did not attend the Constitutional Convention because he was serving as US Ambassador to England

He did not attend the Constitutional Convention because he was serving as the US Ambassador to France

An official representative of a country's government sent to establish relations with another nation

Goods sold to other countries; according to Constitution, Congress can not tax them

Goods purchased from other countries; Constitution allows Congress to place taxes on them