Deck 8: Crisis and Constitution 1776-1789

Question 1

The chapter introduction discusses the dilemma of citizens identifying with state and nation after the Revolution to make the point that

A) immediately after the Revolution, no one had a sense of identity or loyalty toward the nation, so it was predictable that the new United States would be politically decentralized.
B) because of the Revolution, most felt a sense of identity and loyalty with the united cause, but political jealousies prevented a strong governmental structure until the crises of the 1780s forced the politicians to act.
C) Americans created one kind of united government with the Declaration of Independence; needing a better union, they overwhelmingly supported the new Constitution.
D) Americans had to experiment to find a way to create a united republic that confronted the realities of separate identities and inequalities.

Answer 1

Americans had to experiment to find a way to create a united republic that confronted the realities of separate identities and inequalities.

Question 2

The Constitution represented the triumph of compromise, and Americans who accepted the Constitution had to change many of their basic beliefs about government. These included all the following EXCEPT

A) the assumption that republics were best suited to small geographic areas.
B) the preoccupation with severely limiting executive power.
C) the instinct to give ultimate loyalty and sovereignty to one's own state.
D) the ability of free citizens to govern themselves through disinterested representatives.

Answer 2

the ability of free citizens to govern themselves through disinterested representatives.

Question 3

The constitutions written by the states provided several important precedents for the later federal system created by the Constitution of 1787. One of the most important was the principle of

A) a weak executive.
B) county divisions within a state structure.
C) direct popular rule.
D) creating a written document as supreme law.

Answer 3

creating a written document as supreme law.

Question 4

When peace was restored in the 1780s, Americans were forced to face some unanswered questions raised by their revolution. Which of the following was NOT among their questions?

A) Could the individual states establish treaties and agreements with foreign countries, excluding the other states?
B) Would the lands in the West eventually become part of the United States, and how would this take place?
C) Would factions and self-interest groups pull the states apart and make union impossible?
D) What tax system would be installed by the newly elected government?

Question 5

Following the revolution, while most states did not alter the basic structure of their governments, they did alter the balance of power among the different branches of government. Which of the following did they NOT do?

A) severely restricted the power of the governor or abolished the office completely
B) significantly strengthened the powers of the state legislatures
C) insisted on written state constitutions
D) abolished the state legislative assemblies

Question 6

The first state constitutions tried to make the government accountable to the people through

A) annual elections and representation by district.
B) elections by secret ballot and representation of each social group.
C) restricting executive power and requiring a popular referendum for tax bills.
D) itemizing rights and prescribing virtual representation.

Question 7

America's first governing document was called the

A) Articles of Confederation.
B) Constitution.
C) Bill of Rights.
D) Jefferson Doctrine.

Question 8

The Articles of Confederation provided for a government by

A) national legislature.
B) national executive.
C) judicial authority.
D) All these answers are correct.

Question 9

What is the best description of the United States of America under the Articles of Confederation?

A) an integrated republic with a decentralized structure of national government
B) thirteen independent state republics loosely joined together under a virtually powerless representative body
C) a political system functioning like a corporate conglomerate with thirteen wholly-owned subsidiary companies
D) thirteen independent nations affiliated in a defensive alliance, like today's NATO

Question 10

Which of the following was a weakness of Congress under the Articles of Confederation?

A) Only it could levy taxes.
B) It could not declare war or regulate Indian affairs.
C) Only it could regulate trade.
D) Its structure meant that national leadership was marked by weakness and discontinuity.

Question 11

The two most pressing problems for the new nation, which neither the states nor the Confederation Congress could solve, were

A) divisions between the states, and border disputes with Britain and Spain.
B) slavery, and the Indian question.
C) republicanism and federalism.
D) political ineffectiveness, and the need to industrialize.

Question 12

The young United States confronted strong challenges from which foreign power(s) at its borders?

A) the Spanish and British
B) the French to the west
C) the Dutch to the north
D) the French in the West Indies

Question 13

Immediately after the Revolution, the United States began to have difficulties with Spain. The disputes related to the boundaries of Florida and

A) ownership of Cuba.
B) the boundaries of Texas.
C) navigation rights on the Mississippi.
D) illegal trade with Spanish colonies.

Question 14

One of the chief controversies that delayed initial ratification of the Articles of Confederation turned out to be the one area of substantial achievement by the Confederation Congress. This related to

A) Indian policy.
B) slavery.
C) western lands.
D) the location of the national capital.

Question 15

The Northwest Ordinance, which established a basis for territorial government for lands between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, included which of the following provisions?

A) freedom of the Indians
B) protection of civil and political rights for Indians
C) encouragement of education
D) eventual creation of a new border with Canada

Question 16

Which of the following is a true statement concerning African Americans following the Revolution?

A) The number of blacks in slavery quickly declined dramatically.
B) Communities of free blacks faded in numbers and health.
C) Most northern states abolished slavery by law either immediately or gradually.
D) Most African Americans were forced to flee to Canada.

Question 17

In American society after the Revolution, people believed more and more in ________, while in reality many parts of society were becoming ________.

A) religion; secular
B) capitalism; neo-feudal
C) equality; unequal
D) reforming society; complacent about the Republic's future

Question 18

One result of the harsh treatment of loyalists during and following the Revolution was that

A) most of the urban merchant class was lost.
B) revolutionary governments demonstrated their commitment to justice even for those who disagreed.
C) the British army shrank in numbers.
D) new opportunities were created for enterprising Americans to move up the ladder of wealth and influence.

Question 19

Republican ideology viewed what as the key to independence and power?

A) liberty
B) equality
C) representative democracy
D) property

Question 20

The Society of Cincinnati, a veterans' club for former Continental Army officers, attracted criticism because it

A) advocated the education of women in the West.
B) was perceived as aristocratic.
C) advocated abolishing slavery.
D) constituted a federal standing army in the Ohio valley.

Question 21

What was the most important result of the uprising of western Massachusetts debtor farmers led by Daniel Shays?

A) It supported the belief that the people should take the law into their own hands.
B) It proved that the country's revolutionary spirit was still alive.
C) It gave crucial momentum to the growing movement to strengthen the national government.
D) It prompted the Massachusetts legislature to ratify the Constitution.

Question 22

The most significant reform of the republican campaign against artificial privilege was the

A) dismantling of state-supported churches.
B) elimination of inheritance taxes.
C) elimination of inherited political privilege.
D) None of these answers is correct.

Question 23

Which of the following leaders shaped the framing of the federal Constitution more than anyone else?

A) George Washington
B) James Madison
C) Thomas Jefferson
D) Alexander Hamilton

Question 24

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention, though from twelve different states, had two important things in common. These were that

A) they were men with a great deal of political experience, and they all favored weakening the central government.
B) they were all relatively inexperienced politically, and they favored establishing a constitutional monarchy.
C) they were all former loyalists, and they all favored establishing strong ties with Great Britain.
D) they were all men of considerable political experience, and they all recognized the need for a stronger national union.

Question 25

The Constitutional Convention deadlocked until it could find a compromise solution to the issue of

A) whether to keep or discard the Articles.
B) whether there was truly a need for a stronger national government.
C) representation in Congress.
D) the powers of the executive.

Question 26

How did James Madison imagine that a federal republic with a strong central government might work, especially one that governed such a vast land area as that of the United States?

A) He simply believed that a strong central government would lead to tyranny and was therefore against it.
B) He believed that a strong central government would have to be opposed by a well-organized opposition party.
C) He believed that various interests and factions would cancel each other out in a large republic, and that virtuous national leaders would govern on behalf of all the people.
D) He believed that he would be forced to run for president in order to save the union.

Question 27

The Federalist Papers presented strong and convincing arguments in favor of

A) adopting the Constitution of 1787.
B) keeping the Articles of Confederation.
C) creating a unitary form of government.
D) becoming a federated unit within the British Empire.

Question 28

In the debates over ratification, a major fear of the Anti-Federalists was that

A) the most powerful groups in society would dominate and eventually rule in a corrupt and arbitrary fashion.
B) the common people would have too much control over the government.
C) elected officials would be too narrowly and directly concerned with the interests of their own constituents, rather than those of the nation as a whole.
D) poorer groups would be favored over the more substantial citizens in society.

Question 29

In the debates over ratification, the Federalists argued that the Constitution

A) would solve the immigration problems of the nation.
B) was merely a temporary means to regain stability.
C) would protect the nation from itself by providing a system of checks and balances.
D) safeguarded individual freedoms through its built-in Bill of Rights.

Question 30

From most theorists of republicanism, Americans learned that republican governments were best suited to ________ territories.

Question 31

The ________ branch of government gained most of the power in the governments created by the initial state constitutions.

Question 32

The first framing of government for the whole nation was known as the Articles of ________.

Question 33

For Americans after the Revolution, the greatest problems and greatest opportunities beckoned in the rapidly developing ________.

Question 34

The term that refers to an arrangement of government that divides power between the state and national governments is ________.

Question 35

Due to the expansion of rice culture and the spread of cotton production to the interior, slavery continued to grow in the Lower ________.

Question 36

State legislators gradually abolished state support for ________ as a reform against artificial privilege.

Question 37

The rejected Jay-Gardoqui Treaty and ________ were the two crisis events that gave momentum to calls for strengthening the central government.

Question 38

More than anyone else, future president ________ was the architect of the Constitution.

Question 39

The core of Anti-Federalist opposition to the Constitution of 1787 was its lack of a(n) ________.

Question 40

Discuss the ways in which the frontier influenced national politics during the Confederation period.

Question 41

Describe the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, and discuss the reasons why Americans created a weak national government.

Question 42

In what ways was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 a failure? In what ways was it a success?

Question 43

Describe the impact of the Revolution on the lives of African Americans.

Question 44

Why did the more democratic West clash with the East in political battles in state legislatures?

Question 45

How did the Jay-Gardoqui Treaty and Shays's Rebellion contribute to the convening of the Constitutional Convention?

Question 46

Compare the New Jersey and the Virginia plans at the Constitutional Convention. What caused each state to favor the plan it proposed?

Question 47

Describe the new state constitutions, and discuss the ways in which they reflected the fears and concerns among Americans that had been fostered by the controversy with Britain.

Question 48

The historian Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the American frontier was a "safety valve"that, by siphoning off surplus population from settled areas and providing families with land and employment, reduced social and political conflict. Does the history of the West during the Confederation period confirm or disconfirm Turner's "frontier thesis"?

Question 49

To what extent did the American Revolution effect a fundamental change in American society? How far had Americans gone by 1790 in fulfilling the ideal of equality? What limited the pursuit of full equality in the new nation?

Question 50

What concepts of equality directed the actions of revolutionary leaders? Why did they stop short of extending equality to a full range of all Americans? What goals of equality did they pursue?

Question 51

Consider this statement: "The Revolution gave rise to a new sense of social identity and a new set of ambitions among several groups of men who had once accepted a humbler status."Explain how that happened, and relate your discussion to the following groups: westerners, urban artisans, and women.

Question 52

Did the Constitution advance or set back the principles of the Revolution? Defend your answer by showing clearly the changes in political philosophy that the Constitution demonstrated.

Question 53

Compare and contrast the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution. What were the strengths and weaknesses in each document? What were the similarities/differences of each document? Why did the change occur?

Question 54

Why is the Bill of Rights so important to the ideals of Democracy?

Question 55

What was the influence of the Ordinance of 1785 upon the nation in the years that followed?

Question 56

Describe the problem of sectionalism. How did the North and the South divide? What caused this division? How was the division further wedged? Did the separation ever end?