| A | B |
|---|
| The end of the War for Independence | The Revolution continues to establish a stable government and society as an independent nation |
| The desire to avoid an aristocratic society | Abolition of primogeniture laws, backlash against the Society of the Cincinnati |
| The desire to separate church and state | The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and the First Amendment |
| A realization that slavery was incompatible with the ideas of the Revolution | Many Northern states abolished slavery, more slaves were freed in masters' wills than any other time in U.S. history, the anti-slavery provisions of the Northwest Ordinance, etc. |
| Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin | Reinvigoration of slavery and ended the Founding Fathers' hope that slavery would die a natural death |
| The Revolution's impact on women | Women do not gain political rights and were expected to fulfill the role of republican mothers |
| The Revolution's impact on the economy | Shortages, inflation, high war debts, and being shut off from the benefits of the British Empire |
| A weak, young republic | Foreign powers (Spain, France, and Britain) pick on the young republic whose republican experiment is a threat to their monarchies |
| The U.S. failing to fulfill its obligations in the Treaty of Paris to compensate loyalist property losses | Britain refuses to evacuate its posts in the Ohio Valley |
| Western farmers using rivers to get their goods to market | The Mississippi and the port of New Orleans is not only a strategic location but essential to the U.S. economy |
| The British no longer providing naval protection and the U.S. lacking the means to pay the Barbary Pirates | U.S. commerce is subject to seizure in the Mediterranean by city-states such as Tripoli |
| The need to clear up who has the right to negotiate with the Indians: the states, federal government, or both? | The passage of the Indian Intercourse Act |
| Writing state constitutions, in some cases multiple times | Provided valuable practice for drafting the U.S. Constitution |
| The Founding Fathers' idea that only the best people should vote | Property requirements for white males for suffrage rights |
| Large states giving up their western lands to the federal government | Small state holdouts ratify the Articles of Confederation |
| Bad experience with British colonial governors and courts | No chief executive, no Supreme Court, and little power granted to the central government in the Articles of Confederation |
| 2/3 majority to pass laws, all states required to ratify an amendment to the Articles of Confederation | The government is gridlocked under the Articles of Confederation and it is very inflexible |
| The Articles handling of the issue of western lands | One of the few lasting successes of the Articles of Confederation |
| The Northwest Ordinance | Established an orderly process for states, all new states would be equals of the original 13, and slavery was prohibited in the area north of the Ohio River |
| Mounting debts and foreclosures in western Massachusetts | Shays' Rebellion |
| Shays' Rebellion | Made many influential people realize the Articles of Confederation were too weak and major changes were needed |
| The Annapolis Convention | The first attempt to revise the Articles of Confederation but not enough states were present to conduct business |
| The delegates at the Constitutional Convention realized compromise was such a major priority | Oath of secrecy of delegates and guards were stationed at the door of the convention hall |
| The most contentious issue of the Constitutional Convention was representation | The New Jersey and Virginia Plans were reconciled with the Great Compromise |
| The delegates of the Constitutional Convention fearing the masses ("mobocracy") | The government created by the Constitution is a representative democracy, not a direct democracy, creation of the Electoral College, and state legislatures appoint U.S. Senators, etc. |
| The Founding Fathers did not want any branch to become too powerful | An elaborate system of checks and balances was created |
| The question at the Constitutional Convention of how slaves should be counted for taxation and representation purposes | The Three-Fifths Compromise |
| Adding the Necessary and Proper Clause to the Constitution | The Elastic Clause give the Constitution the ability to be flexible beyond what is specifically written in the document |
| The Constitution needing to be ratified by 9 of 13 states by special ratifying conventions | The Federalists write the Federalist Papers to sway important states to ratify the Constitution |
| The Anti-Federalist fears that the Constitution does not specifically protect basic rights such as speech, press, and religion | The Federalists promise the addition of a Bill of Rights during the ratification process |
| An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution by Charles M. Beard | Offers a cynical view of the Founding Fathers' motives at the Constitutional Convention |
