Chapter 10
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in 1800. Notice the twowords
capital
and
capitol
are said the same way. However,
theymeandifferent things. Capital refers to
the center of government for a nation or
state. Capitol refers to the building where
the legislativemeetings are held.
The United States Constitution is the
written plan for our country’s government.
It has 27 amendments, or changes. The first
ten rights, or amendments, protecting the
freedoms of people were called the Bill of
Rights. For more than 200 years, there
have been only 17 other
amendments added to our
Constitution.
It is also important to say
that no state can pass a law
that is against the U.S.
Constitution. For example, a
state cannot pass a law that
allows slavery. Our Con-
stitution says that it is not
allowed in our country.
An important idea in our
Constitution is that no one
group or person can hold too
much power over the people.
From this thinking came an
idea that suggested dividing
our government into branches
—much like a tree! Thiswould
provide a
balance of power
among the branches. No one
group could become more
powerful than the other. The
three branches of our national
government are called the
legislative
, the
executive
,
and the
judicial
branches.
National Legislative
Branch
T
he legislative branch is part of
government that makes the laws for
our nation. A written idea for a law
that has not been approved is called a
bill
.
A bill goes through many steps and group
meetings before it is voted upon. The bill
can be approved or defeated. There are
many national laws that are passed that do
