New Nation Study Guide 

 
Constitutional Convention​: a meeting in which 55 delegates traveled to 
Pennsylvania to discuss how to change the Articles of Confederation 
● James Madison, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin were among 
the ​major leaders of the convention 
● Issues debated: 
○ Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation 
■ No respect​ - people didn’t respect the central government 
because it could not enforce many laws 
■ Land/boundary disputes​ - the states argued over where their 
territories ended; the central government could not solve 
these problems 
■ Quarreling states​ - each state had their own money, which 
caused disputes. The states wanted to make their own laws 
which caused them to not work together as a nation 
■ No money​ - Congress could not tax the states to raise money 
■ No power​ - Congress could declare war, make treaties, and 
make agreements with other nations. These are very few 
powers! 
○ Federal system: ​a system in which each level of government has 
certain powers they can use in governing the people 

Federal Powers  State Powers 

Powers the federal government  Powers the states possess 
possesses 

Shared Powers 
Powers that both the federal government and the state governments possess 
 
○ Great Compromise​: Proposed by Roger Sherman; Congress should 
be divided into two parts, called houses 
1. The Senate - each state has an ​equal amount of 
representatives 
2. The House of Representatives - each state’s representation 
would be ​based on its population 
○ Three-Fifths Compromise​ (slavery): every 5 slaves would be 
counted as 3 free people when determining a state’s population 
 
What is the meaning of…? 
 ● Natural rights​ = rights that the colonists felt they were entitled to. Colonists 
wrote the Declaration of Independence to assert their natural rights to 
King George III 
● “We the People”/Consent of the Governed​ ​= the power to govern belongs 
with all the people 
● Representative democracy/Republic​ = the people elect their leaders to 
represent them 
 
The First Amendment guarantees the following freedoms... 
● Freedom of religion - you may practice whichever religion you want 
● Freedom of speech - you may say what you want 
● Freedom of the press - you may print whatever you want in the news 
● Freedom to petition - you may ask others to support you in writing a 
petition to change something 
● Freedom of assembly - you may assemble together to support a common 
cause 
 
Our Government 
● There are THREE (3) branches to our government:  
1. Legislative​: creates the laws 
2. Judicial​: interprets the laws 
3. Executive​: enforces the laws 
● Checks & balances: system that ensures that no one branch has too much 
power 
● Separation of powers: each branch limits the powers of the other branches 
 
The Bill of Rights 
● What is it? The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the Constitution 
● What does it do? Protects the essential rights of citizens 
● Why did they decide to include this in the Constitution? To make a promise 
to the United States people that their rights would be protected 
Key Terms 
Constitutional  Articles of  Federal system  Great  Senate 
Convention  Confederation  Compromise 

House of  Three-Fifths  Natural rights  We the People  Consent of the 

Representatives  Compromise  Governed 
 

Republic  First Amendment  Legislative  Judicial  Executive 

  Separation of  Bill of Rights  Checks &   

powers  balances