Chapter 5 GOV

Federalist Papers

85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay (under the pseudonym "Publius") between October 1787 and August 1788. The essays were initially published in newspapers but later compiled into a book. Their primary purpose was to persuade New Yorkers to vote to ratify the Constitution, but they have long been seen as the best guide for understanding the theory behind the U.S. Constitution and the system of government it creates.

Of the design features listed below, which were a design feature of the Original Constitution and NOT a design feature of the Articles of Confederation? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

A central government with power over the people (not just over the state governments. Democratic control by the people over the central government. Three distinct and separate (legislative, executive, and judicial) branches of government. An upper legislative chamber based on the principle of equal state representation and lower legislative chamber based on the principle of proportional representation.

Original Constitution

A common way of referring to the pre-amended U.S. Constitution that was signed at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September of 1787 and that was ratified in 1788. The Original Constitution consists of the preamble and seven articles. It excluded the Bill of Rights, which was ratified in 1791.

Supremacy Clause (Article VI)

A provision in the U.S. Constitution that declares the U.S. Constitution (and all lawful treaties and other federal laws) the "supreme law of the land."

Second Founding

A way of referring to the transformative effect (and potential) of the Reconstruction Amendments.

Lower Chamber

An example of a lower house/chamber is the U.S. House of Representatives.

Equal state representation

Approach to representation in Congress whereby each state is allocated an equal number of voting members. This was the approach used under the Articles of Confederation, proposed by the New Jersey Plan, and adopted for the U.S. Senate in the U.S. Constitution as part of the Great Compromise.

proportional representation

Approach to representation in Congress whereby the number of voting members allocated to each state is based on the population size of the state. Thus, larger states would have more voting representatives in Congress than smaller states. This was the approach proposed by the Virginia Plan and that was adopted for the U.S. House of Representatives in the U.S. Constitution as part of the Great Compromise.

Which of the following claims is NOT made in this section about the system of separation of powers and checks and balances built into the Original Constitution?

Based on their experience with the revolutionary state constitutions, the Founders believed that the judiciary is naturally the most powerful branch of government in a democracy and, thus, that the other branches need extra checks to protect themselves from that branch.

Why, according to this section, should the Antifederalists be thought of as "co-founders of the Constitution along with the Federalists"? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

Because they insisted, in exchange for their votes in favor of ratifying the Constitution, that a bill of rights be added to the Constitution immediately after ratification. Since this led to the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791, they deserve credit for that highly important part of the Constitution.

Which of the following were among the contentious conflicts that led to the most important compromises at the Constitutional Convention?

Conflicts between Northern states and Southern slave states. Conflicts between states with small population sizes and states with large population sizes.

Although the Original Constitution had only a short list of civil liberties, the list included all the civil liberties everyone deemed to be most important, including protecting the freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

False

The Supremacy Clause was designed to take all power away from the state governments.

False

Virginia Plan

Name given to James Madison's proposal (the first submitted at the Constitutional Convention) to replace the Articles of Confederation with a strong national government with extensive legislative authority. The plan called for separation of powers and a bicameral legislature. It would have based representation in both chambers of the legislature on the principle of proportional representation. This would end up being adopted for only the lower chamber (i.e., the House of Representatives) in the U.S. Constitution as part of the Great Compromise. Since proportional representation was favored by states with smaller populations, the New Jersey Plan is sometimes called the "large state plan."

New Jersey Plan

Name given to the William Paterson's proposal (offered as the leading alternative to the Virginia Plan) to moderately reform the Articles of Confederation while maintaining its basic confederal structure of government. The Plan proposed equal state representation, which would be adopted for the Senate in the U.S. Constitution as part of the Great Compromise. Since equal state representation was favored by states with smaller populations, the New Jersey Plan is sometimes called the "small state plan."

Federalist

Name given to those who supported ratification of the original U.S. Constitution during the ratification debate in 1787-1788

Which of the following alternatives to the Three-Fifths Clause would have given less power to slave states?

Not counting slaves as persons at all (Zero-Fifths).

Which of the following statements is / are true about the Civil Rights Era Amendments? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

One of the Civil Rights Era Amendments guaranteed Electoral College votes to Washington D.C. One of the Civil Rights Era Amendments outlawed poll taxes.

Which of the following is / are true about the Cold War Amendments? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

One of the Cold War Amendments provided clear constitutional procedures for determining when a President is no longer fit to serve. One of the Cold War Amendments extended voting rights to 18-year-olds.

Which of the following statements is / are true about the FDR Amendments? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

One of the FDR Amendments repealed the 18th Amendment and thereby ended Prohibition. One of the FDR Amendments mandated that Congress convene in January instead of December of the year after the most recent congressional election.

Which of the following statements is / are true about the Progressive Era Amendments? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

One of the Progressive Era Amendments guaranteed women the right to vote everywhere in the United States. One of the Progressive Era Amendments ended the practice of having state legislatures appoint U.S. Senators.

Civil rights Era

Period in America history (in the 1950s and 1960s) in which the federal government, responding to grassroots social activism, took significant action to dismantle the Jim Crow system of racial segregation and secure the civil rights of African Americans and other traditionally oppressed social groups.

Progressive Era

Period in American history (1890s-1920s), marked by widespread democratic political reform and social activism throughout the United States.

Constutional Convention

The meeting in Philadelphia between May and September of 1787 at which 55 delegates from 12 of the 13 states wrote the original U.S. Constitution that would be ratified in 1788

Article I, Section 8

Section of the Constitution that is the source of most of the legislative authority delegated to Congress—including its "enumerated powers" and (through the Necessary and Proper Clause) its "implied powers."

Upper Chamber

Senate

Which of the following were design features of the Original Constitution? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

Separation of Powers / Checks and Balances Bicameralism Federalism

Electoral College

System established by the U.S. Constitution for selecting Presidents. By this system, each state is allocated a number of individuals called "Electors" equal to the number of members each state is allocated in the House of Representatives and Senate. The person who becomes President is the person who wins the most votes from these Electors.

Ratifying Conventions

Temporary conventions that met in each state to decide whether or not to ratify the Original Constitution, which was proposed by the Constitutional Convention in September of 1787. Unlike delegates who served at the Constitutional Convention, the delegates who served at the state ratifying conventions were selected to serve through popular elections.

Which of the following is NOT a way that the Constitution expresses or reflects the principle of popular sovereignty?

The Article II claim that "In the United States of America, the people, and only the people, are the supreme sovereign power in the land."

The Three Fifths Clause was supposed to help form a "more perfect union" by assuring Southern slave states that an anti-slavery Northern majority would not control the House of Representatives or the Presidency. Which of the following statements accurately describes the failure of the Three Fifths Clause to do this (which ultimately led Southern slave states to secede from the union)? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

The Electoral College system, combined with the Three Fifths Clause, initially worked as intended: i.e., to prevent an openly anti-slavery candidate from being elected president. Southern slave states seceded when Abraham Lincoln was elected President partly because he was the first to be elected who did not win electoral votes in any slave state and the first to successfully campaign on an openly anti-slavery platform. Even though the Three Fifths Clause never enabled Southern slave states to control a majority of seats in the House of Representative, before the 1840s Southern slave states held on to half of the seats in the Senate, but this started to change in the 1840s as new states started to more often be admitted as non-slave-states. By 1861, slave states held only 45% of the seats in the Senate (in addition to only 38% of seats in the House).

Which of the following statements about the Great Compromise is / are true? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

The Great Compromise made the Senate based on the New Jersey Plan's principle of representation and made the House of Representatives based on the Virginia Plan's principle of representation. The Great Compromise broke the stalemate created by the disagreement between large states and small states over whether representation in Congress should be based on the principle of equal state representation or over the principle of proportional representation.

Which of the following claims is/are made in this section about the democratic (or aristocratic) character of the Original Constitution? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

The Senate was designed in part to promote the "aristocratic virtues" of knowledge, wisdom, experience, and patience. The House of Representatives was the institution of the national government that was designed to be the most closely accountable to (i.e., most tightly controlled by) the people.

Which of the following statements is true about the accommodations made to slave states in the Original Constitution?

The Three Fifths Clause protected slave states by giving them more representatives in the House of Representatives than they would get if slaves were not counted at all for purposes of apportioning seats in the House.

Antifederalists

Those who opposed ratification of the original U.S. Constitution during the ratification debate in 1787-1788.

Which of the following statements is / are true about the process by which the Original Constitution was "ordained and established"?

Those who supported the Original Constitution argued that the people are the highest authority in the land—i.e., that the people are supreme even over constitutions—and that this was what made the process of establishing the Original Constitution legitimate. The Original Constitution was established by "the people" through special popularly-elected ratifying conventions in the states.

Reconstruction Amendments

Three amendment (the 13th, 14th, and 15th) to the U.S. Constitution passed during the Reconstruction Era. These amendments made such a dramatic transformation of the Founders' Constitution that their ratification is sometimes aptly referred to as America's "Second Founding."

Which of the following was the most similar to the U.S. Constitution produced at the Constitutional Convention?

Virginia Plan

Which of the following claims is / are made in this section of the textbook about slavery and the Civil War? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

When the Southern slave states seceded, their leaders made it clear that the reason was that Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party was opposed to slavery and endorsed the idea that literally "all men" (regardless of race) are "created equal." Most of the soldiers who died in the Civil War probably did NOT view the war as about slavery or the principle of white supremacy.

Article VII ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

established the methods and requirements for the Original Constitution to be ratified.

Article IV ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

establishes Congress' authority to regulate U.S. territories and to admit new states into the union. declares that the federal government has a responsibility to guarantee each state a "Republican Form of Government" and also a responsibility to protect states from "Invasion" and "domestic Violence." stipulates that each state must respect and honor the state laws and court orders of other states.

Article III ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

establishes that Congress is responsible for the design of the lower federal court system and determining the number of Supreme Court justices. guarantees individuals the right to trial by jury in federal criminal cases and lays out the basics of federal court jurisdiction. focuses on the judiciary.

Article II ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

establishes that the executive power is vested in a single individual who serves four-year terms and is selected by the vote of Electors through the system we call "The Electoral College." enumerates the powers and responsibilities of the President

The Preamble ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

expresses the general aspirations of the Constitution.

Article I ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

lists some limits on the powers of the federal government and of the state governments. is the longest part of the Constitution and its primary topic is the legislative branch of the federal government. contains Congress' "enumerated powers" and the Necessary and Proper Clause. establishes bicameralism.

Article VI ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

mandates that all legislators, judges, and executive officers of both the federal and state governments must take an oath (or affirm) to support the U.S. Constitution. prohibits the use of "religious tests" for determining who is eligible to serve in office. establishes that federal law is supreme over state law.

The Gregory WatsonAmendment...

says that when Congress votes to raise the pay of Congress members, the pay increase cannot take effect until after the next congressional election. is the 27th (and most recent) amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Article V ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

singles-out two parts of the Constitution that may not be amended. describes the four different pathways by which the Constitution may be amended.

The Reconstruction Era ... (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY)

was a brief period (~1865-1877) in the wake of the Civil War in which the federal government, led by "Radical Republicans" in Congress, worked to abolish slavery and secure the rights of former slaves and their descendants. left, as a lasting constitutional legacy, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.