Constitution Vocabulary

The group of presidential electors who cast the official votes for president and vice-president after a presidential election. Each state has a number of electors equal to the total of its number of its members in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

• The Electoral College
• The Supreme Court
• The Senate
• The House of Representatives

The plan presented at the Philadelphia Convention that provided for a national government composed of three branches. It proposed a Congress of two houses, both of which would be based on proportional representation. The Virginia Plan favored a strong national government.

• The New Jersey Plan
• The Connecticut Compromise
• The Articles of Confederation
• The Virginia Plan

The plan presented at the Philadelphia Convention that called for a one-house national legislature with each state having equal representation. The New Jersey Plan followed the framework of the Articles of Confederation and favored a weak national government.

• The Virginia Plan
• The New Jersey Plan
• The Connecticut Compromise
• The Hamilton Plan

A tax on imported or exported goods or a list or system that describes such taxes.

• Income Tax
• Sales Tax
• Tariff
• Property Tax

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which stated that slaves who escaped must be returned to their owners. It was later abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment.

• The Fugitive Slave Clause
• The Emancipation Proclamation
• The Three-Fifths Compromise
• The Missouri Compromise

The clause provided that each slave should be counted as three-fifths of a person in determining the number of representatives a state might send to the House of Representatives.

• Three-Fifths Compromise
• Great Compromise
• Missouri Compromise
• Connecticut Compromise

change or addition to a document or plan, such as the Constitution.

• Amendment
• Addendum
• Appendix
• Footnote

first 10 amendments to the Constitution.

• Bill of Rights
• Declaration of Independence
• Articles of Confederation
• Federalist Papers

system in which the power of each branch of government is balanced and checked by the powers of the other branches.

• Checks and Balances System
• Monarchy System
• Dictatorship System
• Communist System

official representative of some group or body, like a state assembly.

• Delegate

• President
• Prime Minister
• Governor