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MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. All of the following problems posed an immediate challenge to the young nation, except
a. It had amassed a huge debt from fighting for independence.
b. It suddenly had vast lands to control in the west.
c. Loyalists continued to attack the nation's central institutions with guerilla warfare.
d. It had to recreate a system of trade after England's protections had been withdrawn.
e. The revolutionary ideology of republicanism warned against a strong central authority that
could address its issues forcefully.
ANS: C REF: p. 117
3. Which of the following best describes John Adams' concept of "mixed government"?
a. Both men and women would play a role in the nation's politics.
b. African Americans deserved their place in the political arena next to white Americans.
c. The powers of government were separated into the legislative, executive, and judiciary
branch.
d. A bicameral legislature of senators and representatives would temper the volatility of
simple majority rule.
e. Northern and Southern states would mix evenly in the Senate and thereby avoid an
escalation of the debate over slavery.
ANS: C REF: p. 118
5. Which of these was not a power of the Continental Congress under the Articles?
a. To declare war and make peace
b. To make international treaties
c. To establish a currency
d. To select a president
e. To create and maintain a postal service
ANS: D REF: p. 120
6. The feature of the Articles of Confederation that made it virtually impossible to make any changes to
them was
a. the necessity of having all states agree on any proposed legislation.
b. the lack of power to tax.
c. the inability to keep a standing army.
d. the lack of a national bank.
e. their focus on states' rights.
ANS: A REF: p. 120
7. The most pressing challenge of the new nation under the Articles of Confederation concerned
a. raising taxes.
b. printing currency.
c. settling land in the West.
d. dealing with foreign powers.
e. managing the adverse economic and political consequences of the inflationary
Revolutionary War debt.
ANS: E REF: p. 123
8. The effort to establish the first United States national bank in 1781 failed because
a. states did not see the importance of a national bank.
b. Congress did not know how to raise the capital for the bank.
c. Massachusetts farmers rose in rebellion against the bank and stormed its first branch in
Boston.
d. the state of New York objected the power such a national financial institution would
exercise on state banks.
e. Rhode Island used its unilateral power under the Articles of Confederation to block it
because it disliked the imposition of a 5 percent import tax with which the bank was to be
funded.
ANS: E REF: p. 120
10. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is significant for all of the following reasons except
a. It stipulated that a territory could elect a legislature when its male population reached
5,000.
b. It contained a bill of rights.
c. It left to each new state the decision of whether to allow slavery.
d. It created boundaries for the territories.
e. It allowed territories to enter the Union as states once their total population reached
60,000.
ANS: C REF: p. 121
11. All of the following turned the debt of the young nation into a pressing political challenge, except
a. Wall Street used the debt it owned as leverage against the young government and
threatened to derail it.
b. Those who held the debt wanted to be repaid.
c. Farmers grew angry because inflation had priced them out of the life they had lived before
the war.
d. The rank and file of the army became enraged when the government could not pay all the
back pay it owed its soldiers.
e. The new national government still lacked the ability to raise revenue to pay off its debts.
ANS: A REF: p. 123
13. The farmers who came out in protest in Massachusetts in 1786 demanded
a. the payment of government subsidies in specie rather than promissory notes.
b. equal access to land.
c. a moratorium on taxes and lawsuits against debtors.
d. that government live within its means and stop the spending spree.
e. new elections after allegations of voter fraud had emerged.
ANS: C REF: p. 123
14. The main way in which individual states competed with each other under the Articles of Confederation
was through
a. undercutting prices of goods also produced in other states.
b. the implementation of higher tariffs on goods entering their respective states.
c. non-importation of goods from neighboring states.
d. jostling for the small amounts of money available for loans by the federal government.
e. lowering their respective tariffs on goods from other countries.
ANS: E REF: p. 124
15. All of the following is true about the members of the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, except
a. They were relatively young.
b. They wanted to strengthen the national government.
c. They were ardent advocates of democracy.
d. They were mostly lawyers.
e. They were wealthy.
ANS: C REF: p. 125
16. Roger Sherman's compromise plan on representation in Congress finally was accepted after Benjamin
Franklin added the stipulation that
a. the Senate would propose all tax plans.
b. all funding measures would originate in the lower house.
c. the House would consist of one representative for every 20,000 people living in a state.
d. the Senate would consist of two people from each state.
e. the legislature would have two houses.
ANS: B REF: p. 126
18. One political compromise at the Constitutional Convention stated that in 1808
a. a census would begin.
b. the issue of slavery would be addressed directly.
c. the state of Virginia would not present a presidential candidate.
d. the slave trade would end.
e. new states could begin to join the Union.
ANS: D REF: p. 126
19. The Virginia Plan included all of the following provisions except
a. revising the Articles of Confederation.
b. creating a Congress with two houses.
c. establishing a federal judiciary.
d. establishing a president, elected by Congress.
e. creating a central government in which Congress had veto power over the states.
ANS: A REF: p. 125
21. The president would have the power to do all of the following except
a. declare war.
b. appoint diplomats.
c. veto acts of Congress he believed to be unconstitutional.
d. execute laws passed by Congress.
e. oversee the army and navy as commander in chief.
ANS: A REF: p. 128
22. The Electoral College was put in place
a. to oversee the appointments of presidential candidates and determine who should run for
office.
b. to oversee the qualifications of candidates for Congress and the number of elected officials
for each state.
c. to appoint federal judges.
d. because the Constitutional Convention didn't trust democracy or the masses to elect the
most qualified person as president.
e. to nominate presidential candidates.
ANS: D REF: p. 128
24. All of the following are true statements about the Anti-Federalists except
a. They included many prominent patriots such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
b. They preferred a weaker confederation of states.
c. They wanted to see a strong national government.
d. They sought to protect the "spirit of '76" and its democracy.
e. They wanted to safeguard individual liberties.
ANS: C REF: p. 129
28. All of the following is true about the Bill of Rights, except
a. Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York had all agreed to ratify the Constitution on the
condition that Congress draft amendments to protect individual freedom from
encroachment by the federal government.
b. Many of the protections that Congress contemplated were borrowed from the various state
constitutions.
c. Of the twelve proposed amendments, ten passed.
d. The first amendment to pass was stipulated compensation for congressmen.
e. Congress began the task of crafting the Bill of Rights even before the Constitution was
fully ratified.
ANS: D REF: p. 130-131
30. The Bill of Rights addressed all of the following grievances Americans had suffered as colonists,
except
a. abridgements of free speech.
b. an established church.
c. unreasonable searches by the federal government.
d. the denial of a trial by one's peers.
e. authoritarian and undemocratic local governments.
ANS: E REF: p. 131
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What were the major problems the country faced under the Articles of Confederation? Why was it
impossible to "fix" these problems?
ANS:
Students' answers will vary
REF: p. 119-124
2. Explain how the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 organized the division of lands in the new territories.
ANS:
Students' answers will vary
REF: p. 121-122
3. Explain the most significant parts of the Bill of Rights, addressing each amendment separately.
ANS:
Students' answers will vary
REF: p. 130-131
4. Compare and contrast the Virginia and New Jersey Plans that were presented at the Constitutional
Convention. Explain the compromise that brought the two sides together.
ANS:
Students' answers will vary
REF: p. 125
5. How does the idea of "separation of powers" apply to the three branches of the U.S. government?
ANS:
Students' answers will vary
REF: p. 118-119
TRUE/FALSE
1. Neither the Articles of Confederation nor any state constitution directly addressed powers expressly
reserved to the states.
2. For the Constitution to take effect, nine of the thirteen states had to ratify it.
3. The only large state to ratify the Constitution by the end of 1788 was Virginia.
4. To gain ratification of the Constitution, the Federalists promised that adding a Bill of Rights to the
Constitution would be the first order of business once the new Congress met.
5. The Land Ordinance of 1785 established territorial governments in the Great Lakes region and set a
pattern for future western development.
7. At the Constitutional Convention, the issue of the slave trade raised such heated feelings that the
delegates refused to even talk of a time in the future for ending that practice.
8. The Articles of Confederation did attempt to set forth a national policy on internal trade and
commerce, but the plan was too vague to be of much use.
9. The Articles had no power to force states to cede their extra land to the federal government, so it was
not until 1802 that all of the western lands had been ceded back to the government.
10. The Anti-Federalists preferred a weaker confederation of states and more direct democracy than
provided for in the Constitution.