APUSH Chapter 7 Key Terms

checks and balances

refers to the way the Constitution seeks to prevent any branch of the national government from dominating the other two

separation of powers

refers to the way the Constitution seeks to prevent any branch of the national government from dominating the other two

international commerce

In September 1786, delegates from six states met at Annapolis, Maryland, to consider ways for better regulating it

Shay's Rebellion

In late 1786 and early 1787, crowds of debt-ridden farmers closed the courts in western Massachusetts to prevent the seizure of their land for failure to pay taxes.

Treaty of Greenville

1795, twelve Indian tribes ceded most of Ohio and Indiana to the federal government

gradual emancipation

Assumed that former slaves would remain in the country, not be colonized abroad

ethnic nationalism

Defines the nation as a community of descent based on a shared ethnic heritage, language, and culture.

Land Ordinances of 1784 and 1785

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Ordinance of 1784 established stages of self-government for the West. A second ordinance, in 1785, regulated land sales in the region north of the Ohio River, which came to be known as the Old Northwest.

civic nationalism

Envisions the nation as a community open to all those devoted to its political institutions and social values

Letters from an American Farmer

One of the era's most widely read books, published in France in 1782 by Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, popularized the idea, which would become so common in the twentieth century, of the United States as a melting pot

Miami Confederacy

Open warfare continued in the Ohio Valley. In 1791, Little Turtle, leader of the Miami Confederacy, inflicted a humiliating defeat on American forces led by Arthur St. Clair, the American governor of the Northwest Territory.

Anti-Federalists

Opponents of ratification, insisted that the Constitution shifted the balance between liberty and power too far in the direction of the latter.

Notes on the State of Virginia

Published in 1785, by Thomas Jefferson, claimed blacks lacked, partly due to natural incapacity and partly because the bitter experience of slavery had (quite understandably, he felt) rendered them disloyal to the nation.

three-fifths clause

Slaves would be counted on a 3/5 basis for determining how much taxes the states would pay

"high crimes and misdemeanors"

The president can be impeached by the House and removed from office by the Senate for this

The Federalist

To generate support, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay composed a series of eighty-five essays that appeared in newspapers under the pen name Publius and were gathered as a book. Today, the essays are regarded as among the most important American contributions to political thought.

"open immigration"

With no debate, Congress restricted the process of becoming a citizen from abroad to "free white persons"

"annuity system"

Yearly grants of federal money to Indian tribes that institutionalized continuing govern- ment influence in tribal affairs and gave outsiders considerable control over Indian life

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

called for the eventual establishment of from three to five states north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi.