| A | B |
|---|
| T F The delegates to the Philadelphia convention were not popularly elected. | T |
| T F The American and French Revolutions of the late 1700s were both fought for the ideals of liberty, fraternity, and equality. | F The primary goal of the American Revolution was liberty. |
| T F The British Constitution was not a single written document. | T |
| T F Commonly listed among the natural rights to which colonists felt entitled were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. | F The list would have included life, liberty and property. |
| T F The Declaration of Independence contained more paragraphs naming specific complaints against the king than paragraphs announcing the goals of the Revolution. | T |
| T F Revolutionary colonists rejected the notion that the king of England had a natural prerogative to be their legitimate ruler. | T |
| T F Revolutionary colonists largely held that the legislative branch of government should have a greater share of governmental power than the executive. | T |
| T F The eleven years that elapsed between the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Constitution were years of turmoil, uncertainty and fear. | T |
| T F Under the Articles of Confederation the national government levied relatively modest taxes on the people. | F The national government had no power to tax under the Articles. |
| T F The Articles required nine votes for the passage of any measure. | T |
| T F John Hancock was elected president in 1785 but never showed up to take the job. | T |
| T F There was no national judicial system under the Articles of Confederation. | T |
| T F George Washington and Alexander Hamilton were strong supporters of the Articles of Confederation. | F Washington and Hamilton were both advocates of a strong national government, the kind which simply did not exist under the Articles. |
| T F The Constitutional Convention lasted about one month. | F It lasted about four months. |
| T F The Pennsylvania state constitution was the most radically democratic. | T |
| T F Shays’s Rebellion may have encouraged some delegates to meet in Philadelphia who may not have otherwise. | T |
| T F Rhode Island refused to send a delegate to Philadelphia. | T |
| T F Most of the Framers of the Constitution were experienced in government and were in their fifties or sixties. | F The Framers had amazing levels of political experience but were relatively young. |
| T F Thomas Jefferson and John Adams did not attend the Philadelphia Convention. | T |
| T F The Constitution of the United States is the world’s oldest written national constitution still in operation. | T |
| T F The Virginia Plan appeared to favor the larger states, whereas the New Jersey Plan was more acceptable to the smaller ones. | T |
| T F When the first decisive vote of the Convention was taken, the New Jersey Plan was favored over the Virginia Plan. | F The first vote favored the Virginia Plan. |
| T F The Great Compromise is sometimes called the Connecticut Compromise. | T |
| T F James Madison enthusiastically supported the Great Compromise. | F Madison opposed the Compromise. |
| T F The Great Compromise, which essentially saved the Convention from collapsing, was directly opposed by, or not supported by, the votes of eight of the thirteen states. | T |
| T F The author of the Virginia Plan refused to sign the Constitution. | T |
| T F At the time of the Convention, most European systems spread authority between state and national governments. | F At the times, most European systems were unitary. |
| T F The power to declare war would be a proper example of an “enumerated” power. | T |
| T F The power to issue licenses and to regulate commerce within a state would be proper examples of powers that are “reserved.” | T |
| T F The Founders assumed most people would seek their own advantage and that some would exploit others in the pursuit of self-interest. | T |
| T F James Madison, like Aristotle, thought that government had an obligation to cultivate virtue among those who were governed. | F Madison felt that the only way that a government could accomplish that goal would be for it to be too strong and, as a result, a threat to individual liberty. |
| T F The Framers considered the dispersion of power at both the state and federal levels to be a kind of “double security” to the rights of the people. | T |
| T F To be in effect, the Constitution had to be approved by ratifying conventions in all thirteen states. | F The Constitution called for ratification by only nine states. |
| T F The Constitution was initially rejected by ratifying conventions in two states. | T |
| T F The text suggests that many of the major fears and dour predictions of the Antifederalists turned out to be correct. | T |
| T F Federalist No. 51 argues that coalitions in large republics tend to be less moderate. | F The argument was quite the opposite, that large coalitions tend to be moderate. |
| T F The possible addition of a bill of rights was never considered at the Constitutional Convention. | F A bill of rights was suggested at the Convention, but the idea was voted down. |
| T F At the time of the Convention, most state constitutions contained bills of rights. | T |
| T F The Constitution did not contain a bill of rights originally, in part because the Founders did not believe that the national government would be able to infringe on those rights already protected in such bills. | T |
| T F The evidence suggests the personal economic circumstances of the Framers influenced their decisionmaking more than the interests of the states they were supposed to represent. | F The evidence suggests that the Founders voted, more often than not, in terms of the economic interests of the states that they represented. |
