Constitutional Principles

During the debate over the Constitution, James Madison made this argument in an essay we now call The Federalist 45:

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

Which principle best describes Madison’s argument about the federal government?

• Popular Sovereignty

• Checks and Balances

• Limited Government

• Individual Rights

• Separation of Powers

In The Federalist 39, James Madison explained this:

“The House of Representatives, like that of one branch at least of all the State legislatures, is elected immediately by the great body of the people. The Senate, like the present Congress, and the Senate of Maryland, derives its appointment indirectly from the people. The President is indirectly derived from the choice of the people, according to the example in most of the States. Even the judges, with all other officers of the Union, will, as in the several States, be the choice, though a remote choice, of the people themselves.”

Which principle best describes Madison’s argument about the federal government?

• Popular Sovereignty

• Checks and Balances

• Limited Government

• Individual Rights

• Separation of Powers

Article 2, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution says this:

“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Which principle best applies to this section?

• Popular Sovereignty

• Checks and Balances

• Limited Government

• Individual Rights

• Separation of Powers

Article 1, Section 7 states:

“Every bill shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate before it becomes a law, be presented to the P resident of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated …and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law … ”

Which principle best describes what Article 1, Section 7 concerns?

• Popular Sovereignty

• Checks and Balances

• Limited Government

• Individual Rights

• Separation of Powers

In The Federalist 48, James Madison made this argument:

“Unless [the three branches] be so far connected and blended as to give to each a constitutional control over the others, the degree of separation...essential to a free government, can never in practice be duly maintained.”

Which principle best describes Mason’s concern?

• Popular Sovereignty

• Checks and Balances

• Limited Government

• Individual Rights

• Separation of Powers