QUESTIONS FOR THE CONSTITUTION

  1. All of the following statements concerning The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union are true, EXCEPT:
  1. Although the final draft of the Articleswas drawn upand approved by the 2nd Continental Congress in 1777, final ratification by all 13 states only occurred in 1781
  2. Each individual state in the league retained its sovereignty and every power, jurisdiction, and right not specifically delegated to the Confederation Congress
  3. The Confederation Congress was delegated broad powers of taxation and regulation of foreign and interstate trade
  4. The Confederation Congress passed the 1785 Land and Northwest Ordinancesestablishing the protocol for dividing territorial lands in the west and admitting new states into the union
  1. The Articles of Confederation were considered by some to be insufficient to the needs of the United States of America because of all of the following EXCEPT:

a.It made no provision for a strong executive or a judicial branch of government

b.The ConfederationCongress could not compel any state to provide military personnel or supplies

c.The Confederation league failed to achieve recognition by the great powers of Europe

d.The Confederation government failed to raise funds needed to fulfill wartime promises of bounties and land grants for veterans orredeem debts incurred during the war

  1. Job Shattuck was:

a.The author of the first draft of the Articles of Confederation

b.A spy and agent of the British bent on reversing the outcome of the War of Independence

c.A staunch advocate of the federalist system of governance

d.A revolutionary war veteran and leader of a populist revolt of farmers in Western Massachusetts

  1. In 1786 and1787, discontented western Massachusetts farmers banded together as “regulators” and took all of the following actions EXCEPT:
  1. Forming armed militias, forcing the closure of court houses, and marching on the Springfield armory to seize weapons
  2. Erecting "liberty poles" and "liberty trees" to symbolize their democratic right and duty to resist tyranny
  3. Organizing popular conventions to petition for redress against imprisonment for debt and confiscation proceedings
  4. Marching on Boston with the intent of tarring and feathering Gov. James Bowdoin
  1. All of the following statements about the impact of Shays’ Rebellion on the reorganization of the early Republic are true EXCEPT:

a.The Regulators’ grievances grew out of the Confederation government’s inability to meet its financial obligations to veterans or deal with the war debt crisis

b.The permanent disenfranchisement of former “Shaysites” permitted eastern urban interests in Massachusetts to ratify the Constitution without opposition

c.It revealed the dangers posed to the Republican institutions by mobs moved by “revolutionary” rhetoric and extralegal acts done in defense of “liberty”

d.The failure of the Confederation to field an army to deal with the revolt caused many founding fathers to question the defensive capacity of the league

e.The resurgence of “Shaysites” back into politics in the wake of the failed revolt divided Massachusetts over ratification of the Constitution

  1. All of the following statements concerning theConstitutional Convention, which took place in Philadelphia between May 25th and September 17th, 1787, are true EXCEPT:

a.It met and deliberated in closed sessions not open to public scrutiny

b.It was presided over by George Washington and attended by 55 delegates including Patrick Henry, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and other revolutionary war heroes

c.Was convened with the original aim of merely revising the Articles of Confederation

d.Was boycotted by Rhode Island

  1. All of the following statements about Mercy Warren are true Except:

a.An important colonial American women who penned a history of the American Revolution

b.A critic of the “nationalist” and “centralizing” policies of the Federalist party

c.An strong critic of the Constitution

d.The only woman delegate sent to the Constitutional Convention

  1. Slavery proved to be a contentious issue at the Constitutional Convention. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE:
  1. The Southern states, where slaves made up 40% of the population, threatened to refuse to join the union if the institution of slavery was disallowed
  2. The Three-fifths compromise between Northern and Southern states provided for three-fifths of the slave population to be counted for purposes of taxation and apportionment in the Houseof Representatives
  3. The delegates to the convention agreed to ignore the question of slavery in the states, but to immediately outlaw the slave trade
  4. A special committee granted Congress the potential power to ban the importation of slaves, but only after twenty years had passed
  1. Which of the following statements about the Anti-federalists is NOT TRUE:

a.The diverse group included such prominent and outspoken revolutionary generation figures as: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, Richard Henry Lee, Mercy Otis Warren, and George Mason

b.Influential anti-federalists penned numerous speeches and articles under pseudonyms opposing ratification of the Constitution

c.Most anti-federalists were placated by the immediate ratification of ten amendments to the Constitution

d.New York anti-federalists proposed an alternative model for government known as the Albany Plan of Union

  1. Which of the following statements about the Federalist Papers is NOT TRUE:
  1. Between Oct. 1787 and Aug. 1788, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay penned and published 77 serial essays in defense of the ratification of the Constitution in NY under the pseudonym Publius
  2. The Federalist was intended to serve as a handbook for pro-Constitution debaters
  3. The Federalist papers directly influenced the positive outcome of ratification votes in 5 key swing states
  4. Federalist 84 argued that a Bill of Rights was neither necessary nor desirable
  1. All of the following statements about the United States Constitution are true, EXCEPT:
  1. The Virginia Plan, drafted by James Madison, served as the basis for the Constitution
  2. All amendments to the original constitution had to be proposed by a two-thirds vote in Congress, and afterwards ratified by three-fourths of the states
  3. The first 10 amendments to the Constitution have been enshrined as the Bill of Rights
  4. The Constitution strippedthe states of any and all powers other than those specifically delegated to them in Article Four
  1. The Whiskey Rebellion erupted in the 1790s over:
  1. Western Pennsylvania farmers’ dissatisfaction over excise taxes imposed on whiskey
  2. Attempts by temperance advocate Carrie Nation to close down saloons and to pass federal legislation prohibiting the production and consumption of hard liquor
  3. The federal government’s attempt to impose prohibition over the objections of “states rights” advocates
  4. Attempts by Federal marshals to crack down on illegal moonshine distillers
  1. All of the following statements concerning the Whiskey Rebellion are true, EXCEPT:
  1. The rebellion in the backcountry included such violent acts as the tarring and feathering of a tax collector and warrant server
  2. Washington’s army encountered fierce resistance and fought 5 pitched battles with the rebels before crushing the insurrection
  3. Some contemporaries accused Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton of deliberately provoking the uprising
  4. The federal army drafted to deal with the rebellion was larger than that led by Washington at times during the Revolutionary War, and conscription efforts were met with several large protests and draft evasion
  1. President Adams’s Federalist Party in Congress passed 4 laws in 1798 known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. All of the following statements concerning theseacts are true, EXCEPT:
  1. The Naturalization Act declared aliens resident in the United States for less than 28 years ineligible for citizenship
  2. The Alien and Alien Enemies Acts empowered the President to arrest, imprison, and deport alien agitators in times or war or peace
  3. The Sedition Act declared the publication of any “false, scandalous and malicious” criticism of the government a treasonous act punishable by fine and imprisonment
  4. The Sedition Act was used by Federalists to strike at the Republican opposition party but the arrest of 25 editors provoked apopular backlash
  1. The election of Thomas Jefferson to the Presidency in 1800 signaled all of these EXCEPT:
  1. President John Adams’ disenchantment with the “hawks” and war-mongers in his own Federalist Party
  2. The growing popular distaste for Federalist political “deference” and desire for the repeal of the excesses of the Alien and Sedition Acts
  3. The unanticipated emergence of a two-party system and notion of the “loyal opposition” in American politics
  4. the disenfranchisement of Federalists, a complete reversal of American foreign policy,and a radical shift ineconomic policies favoring southern agrarian interests