American Government Ch2

Which of the following statements reflect the constitutional structure within the Articles of Confederation?

*policy and treaty ratification requiring nine affirmative votes *state courts having jurisdiction over most legal matters, except in cases of inter-state conflict *state governments being responsible for implementation and financing of congressionally-approved policies

A bicameral legislature has ______ chambers.

2

The total number of amendments to the Constitution that have been ratified is ______.

27

By the end of 1776, ______ of the 13 colonies had ratified their own state constitutions.

8

Which of the following statements about the procedure for amending the Articles of Confederation is accurate?

Amendment required a unanimous agreement of all 13 state delegations.

What was the name of Thomas Paine's pamphlet that considered war with Great Britain as necessary and unavoidable?

Common Sense

The supremacy clause states that the

Constitution and the treaties and laws created by the national government are the supreme law of the land.

What was the name of the formal document adopted by the First Continental Congress outlining their concerns and frustrations with the British crown?

Declaration of Rights and Grievances

How did the new constitution deal with slaves and the issue of slavery?

Each slave was counted as three-fifths of a person for both representation and taxation. The new government was barred from stopping the slave trade for twenty years.

Which of these statements best describes the relationship between the colonists and the British authorities in the early days of the American colonies?

Early British-colonist relations were relatively cooperative.

True or false: The Constitution allowed most citizens to vote, except for slaves and Native Americans.

False Reason: The Constitution allowed states to limit voting to mostly property-owning white males.

True or false: There was disagreement among the delegates as to whether the new constitution should be considered as the supreme law of the country.

False Reason: The delegates quickly came to the consensus that the new constitution should be established as the supreme law of the country.

In July 1775, the Second Continental Congress petitioned King George III to end hostile actions against the colonists. What was his response?

He refused the petition and sent more troops to quell the growing rebellion.

What was King George III's response to the First Continental Congress's Declaration of Rights and Grievances?

He refused to respond.

What two elements relating to representation in the national government were most contentious?

How will the states be represented in the national government? How should the government officials in each branch be selected?

Which of the following statements about the Second Continental Congress is accurate?

It authorized the Congress to prepare for war with Britain.

Which of the following is true of Richard Henry Lee's resolution?

It called for a drafting of a plan of union, which called for each colony to become an independent state.

Which of the following is true of the Articles of Confederation?

It designed a governing alliance among independent, sovereign states.

How did the new constitution deal with the issue of slavery?

It established the states' obligation to deliver all fugitive slaves back to their owners. It prohibited Congress from addressing the importation of new slaves until a future date.

Which of the following best describes the guiding principle of the Constitution as drafted by the framers?

It is up to the people to create a government that protects their natural rights.

In what ways did the Anti-Federalists believe that the Constitution, as proposed, would threaten citizens' natural rights?

It lacked a bill of rights to limit the vague powers of the national government. It delegated too much power to the executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch. It gave too much power to the national government at the expense of the state governments

Shays Rebellion was an uprising of farmers against the government of

Massachusetts.

The proposal that tended to favor the less populous states was called the

New Jersey Plan.

What caused a change in British-colonial relationships between the early 18th century and the latter half of the 18th century?

Parliament needed to raise revenue to pay off debts. Britain wanted to confirm its sovereignty over its colonists.

The Townshend Revenue Act of 1767 gave Parliament which authority over the American colonies?

Parliament was given unilateral power to impose taxes, while the colonists had no right to object.

In 1790, ______ was the last of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution.

Rhode Island

At the Second Continental Congress, who argued that "these united Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent States"?

Richard Henry Lee

Who formed the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence in 1772?

Samuel Adams

Which British policy taxed the paper that was used for most documents?

Stamp Act

Which of the reasons below describes why the authors of the Constitution did not originally include a bill of rights?

State constitutions already contained bills of rights.

Which British policy led to the Boston Tea Party?

Tea Act

What aspect of the congressional charge to the delegates at the Constitutional Convention ensured that the new constitution would preserve state sovereignty?

The constitution had to be approved by the current Congress, which was made up of state government representatives.

What part of the Virginia Plan made small states uncomfortable?

The legislative chambers were selected by proportional representation.

What aspects of the new constitution worried citizens who were apprehensive of a strong central government?

The new constitution did not include a bill of rights. The new constitution did not list the matters over which states had sovereignty.

Which of the following were some of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?

There was no centralized economic policy. Each state taxed goods coming into the state from foreign nations and other states. Several states had their own currency and required its use to conduct business within their borders.

How did the state constitutions put limits on government power to prevent the infringement of individuals' natural rights?

They included a bill of rights.

Under the Articles of Confederation, which of the following are true about state governments? (Select all that apply.)

They remained sovereign. They were more powerful than the national government.

With his radical views of governance, who was the principal writer of the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson

The northern-southern conflict over slave representation resulted in which compromise?

Three-Fifths

True or false: Because most inhabitants of the United States could not vote under state laws, representative government was very limited under the Constitution as ratified in 1787.

True Reason: State laws relating to suffrage placed tremendous limits on representative democracy.

True or false: One weakness of the Articles of Confederation is that it hindered the development of a mass national conscience.

True Reason: Under the Articles of Confederation, citizens' allegiance was to their own states and no mass national conscience developed.

The consequences of the Boston Tea Party for the colonists included

a ban on almost all town meetings. the closing of Boston Harbor. the imposition of martial law.

The Virginia Plan called for

a bicameral legislature.

Which of the following did Jefferson include in the Declaration of Independence in order to convince the colonists and other European powers that a break with Great Britain was both necessary and justified?

a list of grievances against King George III

The absence of which of the following in the new Constitution was a main focus of the critics of the proposed document?

a list of protected individual rights

At the Constitutional Convention, the northern states wanted

a strong national government that would promote commerce and trade.

The brief success of Shays Rebellion demonstrated the weaknesses of the national confederacy stemming from the Articles of Confederation and the need for

a stronger central government.

The Articles of Confederation created

a union of independent states in which each state retained its sovereignty.

When did the first shots of the Revolutionary War occur in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts?

before the Second Continental Congress

Because each state had its own economic policies under the Articles of Confederation,

both interstate and international commerce were hampered.

Because of its vague language, interpretation of the Constitution

can be contentious.

To ensure that the separation of powers worked, the founders created a structure called ________ , Incorrect Unavailable and __________ , Incorrect Unavailable, which empowers the branches to limit the authority of the other branches.

checks & balances

Which of the following did the Federalists argue would protect the individual liberties and states' rights that the Anti-Federalists were worried about?

checks and balances dual sovereignty separation of powers

Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense declared that only through independence would the colonists attain

civil and religious liberty.

The notion of checks and balances is meant to

complement the concept of separation of powers.

A(n) ________, Correct Unavailable, either written or unwritten, presents the fundamental principles of government and establishes the basic structures and procedures by which the government operates.

constitution

Which of the following were actions taken at the First Continental Congress?

creation of a plan to create a parliament for the colonies scheduling of a second meeting adoption and delivery to King George III of the Declaration of Rights and Grievances

Because the framers had to balance national sovereignty with existing state sovereignty, they focused on

delegating powers to the national government that were problematic under the Articles of Confederation.

The first three articles of the Constitution

describe the structure of the national government

Written constitutions usually begin with a(n)

description of the mission.

The New Jersey Plan

designated that all states would have an equal vote. called for a unicameral legislature. reworked the Articles of Confederation

The early governance model of colonist-British relations was a two-tier system in which the British Parliament and crown

did not much interfere in colonial life.

Early in the convention, consensus developed on the need for ______ of 1 sovereignty to address the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation.

dual

According to their new constitutions, the mission of each state government was to

ensure natural rights.

The authors of the the Constitution

expected that it would need to be amended over the years.

True or false: In a confederation, each state expressly delegates its sovereign authority to a central governing body.

false

The Articles of Confederation was a constitution written

for a national government.

The basic components of a constitution are the system's

foundational structures. essential operating procedures. mission.

The Great Compromise

gave the House population-based representation. gave each state equal representation in the Senate. called for a bicameral legislature. was also called the Connecticut Compromise.

Dual sovereignty is a system of government in which

governing authority is divided between two levels of government.

The Articles of Confederation laid out that every state

had one vote in Congress.

The new constitution limited the ideals of representative democracy by

having U.S. senators elected by state legislatures. limiting the right to vote to a minority of citizens. having the president elected by the Electoral College.

The Constitution originally limited representative democracy by

having the Electoral College elect the president. having the members of the Senate elected by state legislatures

The "Three-Fifths Compromise" was the result of negotiations between northern and southern states over

how to count slaves for purposes of representation.

Most of the new state constitutions explicitly stated that power

is derived from the people.

The Preamble to the Constitution:

is meant to lay out important principles of the government.

The language of the Constitution

is vague and ambiguous and can lead to political battles.

A main point of contention between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and an eventual stumbling block for ratification, was the Constitution's

lack of a bill of rights.

The function of the Preamble of the Constitution is to

lay out the mission of the government.

The prevailing view of the time the state constitutions were drafted was that the ______ offered the best prospects for representative government that would ensure popular sovereignty and the protection of natural rights.

legislature

The basic components of a constitution are the system's

mission. essential operating procedures. foundational structures.

Initially, the areas of consensus at the Constitutional Convention led to constitutional features such as

national supremacy. dual sovereignty. separation of powers.

Five states sent delegates to Annapolis, Maryland, to "remedy defects of the Federal Government" in part because

of the trade and commerce problems of the United States.

A bill of rights for the new constitution was

promised after ratification.

As submitted to the states for ratification, the Constitution

protected the rights of only property-owning white men.

Which of the following was among the top points of contention at the Constitutional Convention?

representation in the national government

A representative democracy, or _________, Correct Unavailable, is a type of government that derives its authority from the people and in which citizens elect government officials to represent them in the processes by which laws are made. (Remember to type only one word in the blank.)

republic

Which term refers to the arrangement created by the U.S. Constitution that divided authority among three distinct branches?

separation of powers

The Articles of Confederation

served as the first constitution of the United States of America.

The Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence and other groups

spread calls for rebellion among the colonists.

The Tenth Amendment helped to quell Anti-Federalist fears relating to

state power.

The ______ clause states that the Constitution and its treaties and laws created by the national government are the supreme law of the land.

supremacy

When Constitutional language is vague and ambiguous, who determines its meaning?

the Supreme Court

Crafting the Constitution required a number of compromises, including

the Three-Fifths Compromise that addressed slave representation. the creation of the Electoral College. the Connecticut Compromise, which created the bicameral legislative structure.

What prompted five states to send delegates to Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786 to discuss the "defects" of the federal government under the Articles of Confederation?

the inability of Congress to pay the costs of governing violent rebellions threatening peace and security in the states

What two major weaknesses of the confederal system were highlighted by Shays Rebellion?

the inability of the national government to defend against domestic uprisings the barriers to the development of national economic policies

On which of the following issues were delegates able to overcome conflict and reach a compromise during the Constitutional Convention?

the large state-small state conflict over congressional representation how to count slaves for the purposes of representation

A constitution presents

the structures and procedures by which the government operates.

Without a bill of rights, Anti-Federalists feared that the national government would

threaten state sovereignty and individual liberties.

What was the most important task of the first Congress in 1789?

to draft a bill of rights

Why did the British Parliament resort to taxing the colonists?

to help pay the costs of waging various wars

Why did critics of the new constitution want a list of protected individual rights to be included in the document?

to protect individual rights by restraining the power of the new national government

The Articles of Confederation gave the most power

to the individual states.

True or false: The new state constitutions instituted governments created by and for the people.

true

The British government tried to defray the cost of the Seven Years' War by

turning to the colonies for increased revenues.

The Articles of Confederation featured a one-house legislature. Another name for this is a ______ legislature.

unicameral

For the Federalists, the Bill of Rights

was a political necessity for ratifying the Constitution.

Amending the Constitution

was intentionally made to be difficult.

The national government under the Articles of Confederation

was much weaker than the state governments.

The Bill of Rights

was not necessary, according to Hamilton.

At the Constitutional Convention, the southern states wanted a

weak central government, in order to keep slavery.