Chapter 2

Delegates to the constitutional convention decided that the Constitution would take effect for ratifying states when __________ of the 13 states approved it.

9

Identify some of the core principles of the Declaration of Independence.

All men are equal. The consent of the governed is fundamental. All men have fundamental rights.

Which document served as the first constitution of the United States?

Articles of Confederation

According to the Virginia Plan, who or what would exercise power in all areas "in which the separate states are incompetent"?

Congress

The power to impeach and remove the president from office is held by

Congress

One way to propose an amendment to the Constitution is to have

Congress pass it by at least a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate.

On what point concerning separation of powers did the framers disagree with Montesquieu?

Dividing government's authority along institutional lines would provide sufficient separation of power.

True or false: The Virginia Plan favored the states with smaller populations.

False

Which series of essays did James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay write in support of the Constitution?

Federalist Papers

What was the lesson of the Articles of Confederation?

Government must be granted the amount of power that is necessary for it to carry out its responsibilities.

The plan that accommodated both large and small states by creating a two-chamber Congress was known as the

Great Compromise.

How did George III react to the demands put forth by the First Continental Congress?

He rejected them outright

The notion of checks and balances

Is meant to complement the concept of separation of powers

The essay Federalist No. 10, written by ______, is considered one of the most influential writings on American government.

James Madison

The federal court case that established judicial review was

Marbury v. Madison.

The proposal that tended to favor the less-populated states was called the

New Jersey Plan.

When the states drafted new constitutions after the start of the Revolutionary War, ______ did not have separation of powers. Its negative experience, in which the all-powerful legislature ignored basic rights and freedoms, proved the necessity of separation.

Pennsylvania

Which of the following are reasons why the Constitution begins with the words "We the People"?

People need to exercise control over government. The U.S. government ultimately derives its power from the people.

The text describes one compromise as crucial to convince small states to support what became known as the Great Compromise. What was it?

Representation in the Senate would be equal for all states.

Which of the following statements about Shays' Rebellion are correct?

Shays' followers were a large group of farmers. The primary purpose of the rebellion was to prevent land foreclosures. The rebellion was led by a former captain in the American army.

Identify the events that led to creation of the U.S. Constitution. (Select all that apply.)

Shays' rebellion had shown the weakness of the national government under the Articles of Confederation. The Annapolis Convention did not have enough participants to revise the Articles of Confederation. Madison and Hamilton encouraged delegates at the Annapolis Convention to meet again to revise the Articles of Confederation.

In the U.S., what is the highest law of the land?

The Constitution

Which of the following are reasons that the system of government of the United States is in some ways seen as more democratic than those of many European countries?

The U.S. system uses primary elections to select party nominees for office. The U.S. system elects representatives to its larger legislative chamber more frequently.

What led the British navy to blockade Boston's port during the period of the Boston Tea Party?

The city refused to pay for the destroyed tea.

Which of the following statements describe the terms democracy and republic as understood by the framers of the Constitution?

The government of a republic responds to the needs of the majority while protecting the minority. In a democracy the power of the majority is unlimited. The separation of powers is a characteristic of republican government.

What were some of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?

The national government depended on the states for its funding, and they often didn't pay their full share. The national government did not have the power to regulate commerce between the states.

When did North Carolina and Rhode Island ratify the Constitution?

They ratified only after the other 11 states had done so.

As president, Andrew Jackson implemented much of what ______ had foreshadowed.

Thomas Jefferson

Who argued that "A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse or rest on inference"?

Thomas Jefferson

Who was the principal writer of the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson

The northern-southern conflict over slavery resulted in which compromise?

Three-Fifths Compromise

Natural rights are defined as those possessed by all people.

True

True or false: The U.S. Constitution provides the method for choosing the country's leaders.

True

Most historians assume that ______ role in the new government is what tipped the balance toward ratification of the Constitution?

Washington's

What was the central question that led to establishing judicial review?

Who was to decide whether officials were operating within the limits of their constitutional powers?

Historian Charles Beard described the founding fathers who wrote our Constitution as

a group of wealthy individuals whose main goal was to keep power in the hands of the wealthy.

The Boston Tea Party happened in direct response to

a tax on tea.

The framers' goal of a government that would not threaten liberty was to be accomplished by

an elaborate system of checks and balances.

John Adams believed that the nation was best governed by

an elite class.

The key point of Madison's Federalist No. 10 is that governments need to be structured carefully in order to ______ factions.

balance and control

Southern delegates to the Philadelphia convention were determined to

block any attempt to end slavery.

A dilemma that confronted the framers is that the threat to liberty is inherent in government because of its ______ power.

coercive

From the beginning of the Philadelphia convention, prominent delegates were determined to

create a stronger central government

The U.S. system of government is said to be ______ in providing for majority influence through elections.

democratic

The goal of the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia in 1774, was to

develop policy requirements for an improved relationship with Britain.

In choosing the president, the number of members of the House and Senate from a state determines the state's number of

electoral votes.

The mechanism by which political authority is divided between national government and the states is

federalism

John Adams publicly stated that the Constitution was designed

for a governing elite.

The U.S. president's term of service is

four years.

Under the Articles of Confederation, the states

had more power than the national government.

The U.S. Constitution placed limitations on popular rule in which of the following ways?

having the president elected by the Electoral College having U.S. senators elected by state legislatures having the president nominate federal judges

What tax policies did the South fear as the negotiations began that eventually resulted in the Three-Fifths Compromise?

heavy taxes on manufactured goods imported from Europe a tax of any kind on the importation of slaves heavy taxes on agricultural goods exported from the U.S.

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

how to count slaves for the purpose of taxation and representation.

Madison, Hamilton, and Jay wrote The Federalist Papers

in support of the Constitution.

A federal judge's term of service is

indefinite but subject to "good behavior."

The power of the federal judiciary to determine the constitutionality of the actions of the other two branches of government and to declare their actions null and void is called

judicial review.

In his criticism of the Constitution, historian Charles Beard noted that none of the delegates to the Philadelphia convention were

laborers or small farmers.

A government that is subject to strict legal limits on the uses of power so as not to threaten the people's liberty is a

limited government.

The Bill of Rights

limited the power of the national government.

Another term for "inalienable rights" is ______ rights.

natural

As defined by the framers, who or what limits the majority's power in a democracy?

nothing and no one

Historical evidence suggests that a majority of ordinary Americans ______ ratification of the Constitution.

opposed

One key risk of ______ government is the potential for tyranny of the majority.

popular

One goal of the framers of the Constitution was to

preserve the states as governing entities

Regular voters select their party nominees through ______ elections.

primary

Which of the following are constitutional grants of power to the national government?

raising an army declaring war against another nation taxation

Even if passed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, a constitutional amendment still must be _______ by three-quarters of the states.

ratified

Concerning banks, Andrew Jackson sought to

reduce their power.

Jefferson and Jackson had different views concerning the branch of government that was best equipped to

represent the views of the majority.

A government in which people govern by the selection of their representatives is called a

representative government.

The belief that the power of government can be controlled by dividing it into several branches instead of concentrating it in one area is known as

separation of powers.

The ratification of what constitutional amendment made the direct election of senators, a cause long supported by Progressives, the law of the land?

seventeenth

The House and the Senate (which together form the Congress)

share the lawmaking function in the United States.

Which British policy was the main source of dispute for the American colonists?

taxation without representation

Shays' Rebellion was an uprising of farmers against the government of Massachusetts over what two issues?

taxes back pay for military service

At the time the Constitution was created, what was the only institution that would be based on direct popular election?

the House of Representatives

Following the French and Indian War, Britain for the first time imposed what on the colonies?

the implementation of heavy taxation

The concept of judicial review means that

the judicial branch has the power to declare null and void government actions that it finds unconstitutional.

The branches of the federal government include

the judicial. the executive. the legislative.

In a majority of the state conventions to ratify the Constitution (8 of 13), it was claimed that ______ would have the power to nullify actions that violated the Constitution.

the judiciary

Anti-Federalists believed that

the national government was going to have excessive power under the Constitution.

Executive power is vested in

the president

Who or what has the power to pardon persons convicted in the courts?

the president

Who or what is responsible for executing court decisions?

the president

Who among the following felt threatened by Shays' Rebellion?

the wealthy

Amending the Articles of Confederation required ______ states to approve of the amendment.

thirteen

Andrew Jackson argued that electoral votes should be

tied to the popular vote.

Why does our Constitution contain checks and balances?

to prevent the arbitrary use of power

According to the New Jersey Plan, what power in addition to those in the Articles of Confederation would the national government have?

to tax

During the debate over ratification of the Constitution, what objections did the Anti-Federalists raise?

too much power being taken from the states and given to the national government the absence of a Bill of Rights

Americans' personal freedom at the time the Constitution was being created is best characterized as

unparalleled

The president's use of the ____ can prevent a congressional bill from becoming law.

veto