SparkNotes: The Constitution (1781

1. The Articles of Confederation granted Congress all of the following powers except

(A) The power to conduct foreign relations

(B) The power to levy taxes

(C) The power to maintain armed forces

(D) The power to resolve disputes among the states

2. The Land Ordinance of 1785

(A) Guaranteed certain rights and liberties to western settlers

(B) Was passed after Shays's Rebellion threatened the security of eastern cities

(C) Established an orderly system for surveying land in the West

(D) Allowed Native Americans to sell their land to the United States

3. Why did Daniel Shays attack the federal arsenal in Springfield, Massachusetts, with 1,200 men in 1787?

(A) He wanted the legislature to offer relief to impoverished debtors

(B) He was protesting the Land Ordinance of 1785

(C) He was protesting the Articles of Confederation

(D) He did not want the Constitution to be ratified

4. How was the government under the Constitution different from that under the Articles of Confederation?

(A) Congress had the authority to declare war under the Articles but not under the Constitution

(B) Congress had the power to levy taxes under the Constitution but not under the Articles

(C) The president was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces under the Articles but not under the Constitution

(D) The federal government was divided into three distinct branches under the Articles but not under the Constitution

5. Which of the following was true under the Articles of Confederation?

(A) Each state had one vote in Congress

(B) Amendments to the Articles could be made only by unanimous vote

(C) Congress had the authority to print money

(D) All of the above

6. The term “checks and balances” refers to

(A) The system of weights and measures created under the Articles of Confederation

(B) The fact that the Constitution gave each branch of government distinct powers

(C) The fact that the Constitution gave each branch of government certain powers over the actions of the other branches

(D) The balance of power between the federal government and the individual states as expressed in the Tenth Amendment

7. The New Jersey Plan presented at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 proposed that

(A) Congress should be divided into two chambers, in which the number of representatives in both should be apportioned according to population

(B) Congress should be divided into two chambers, in which the number of representatives in one chamber should be apportioned according to population while all states should have equal representation in the other chamber

(C) Congress should have only one chamber, in which the number of representatives should be apportioned according to population

(D) Congress should have only one chamber, in which all states should have equal representation

8. The Great Compromise refers to the agreement between

(A) Slave states in the South and free states in the North to admit Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state

(B) Small states and large states at the Constitutional Convention to create a bicameral Congress that would preserve the balance of power among the states

(C) Federalists and Anti-Federalists to ratify the Constitution on the condition that the first Congress draft a Bill of Rights

(D) Federalists and Anti-Federalists to designate Washington, D.C., as the new national capital in exchange for debt relief to impoverished farmers

9. Under the Constitution, the president of the United States has the authority to do which of the following?

(A) Declare war

(B) Levy taxes

(C) Veto legislation

(D) All of the above

10. All of the following are true about the framers of the Constitution except

(A) They were all wealthy

(B) Most of them had not been zealous leaders in the Revolutionary War

(C) All were experienced statesmen

(D) All believed that the Constitution they created was too weak

11. Many Anti-Federalists refused to ratify the Constitution unless

(A) Alexander Hamilton conceded that agriculture was more important than manufacturing

(B) The United States promised to uphold the Franco-American alliance of 1778

(C) A Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution

(D) George Washington would be the first president of the United States

12. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers to convince

(A) Anti-Federalist New Yorkers to ratify the Constitution

(B) Congress to create a stronger Supreme Court

(C) Delegates at the Constitutional Convention to incorporate a system of checks and balances within the Constitution

(D) Western Pennsylvanians not to participate in the Whiskey Rebellion

13. What does the Tenth Amendment state?

(A) That Americans have the right to bear arms

(B) That Americans have the right to free speech, press, assembly, and petition

(C) That those powers not granted to federal government are reserved for the states

(D) That Americans have additional rights beyond those enumerated in the Constitution

14. What did the Judiciary Act of 1789 do?

(A) Granted the Supreme Court the power of judicial review

(B) Created the federal court system

(C) Limited the powers of the Supreme Court over Congress

(D) Declared Adams's “midnight judges” unconstitutional

15. Hamilton's fiscal policy for the United States included all of the following except

(A) Creating a Bank of the United States

(B) Having Congress assume all national and state debts incurred during the Revolutionary War

(C) Encouraging the development of agriculture over manufacturing

(D) Levying an excise tax

16. What did the loose constructionists believe?

(A) That the Constitution forbade all governmental actions that it did not expressly permit

(B) That the Constitution permitted all governmental actions that it did not expressly forbid

(C) That the United States should be a loose confederation of states

(D) That the Articles of Confederation should be interpreted loosely to allow for the ratification of the new Constitution

17. Jeffersonians generally believed that

(A) The Constitution should be interpreted strictly

(B) The United States should uphold the Franco-American alliance of 1778

(C) Agriculture should be fostered and protected

(D) All of the above

18. Why did Alexander Hamilton propose the excise tax in 1790?

(A) He wanted the revenue in order to pay off the national and state debts

(B) He disliked western farmers' reliance on whiskey

(C) He wanted to punish Pennsylvanian farmers for the Whiskey Rebellion

(D) He planned to use the revenue to create the Bank of the United States

19. Hamiltonian Federalists hoped that the United States would make a firm alliance with

(A) France

(B) Britain

(C) Spain

(D) Canada

20. The Federalist and Democratic-Republican political parties were born out of

(A) Disagreements at the Constitutional Convention of 1787

(B) A disagreement among the states as to who should be the first president

(C) The debates over ratification of the Constitution

(D) Ideological differences within George Washington's cabinet

21. Western farmers, such as those who revolted in the Whiskey Rebellion, were angry because

(A) Spain had denied Americans access to the Mississippi River

(B) British troops were still stationed in the American Ohio Valley

(C) Native Americans were harassing white settlements

(D) All of the above

22. Why was French Citizen Edmond Genêt rejected as ambassador to the United States in 1793?

(A) He refused to comply with the Neutrality Proclamation

(B) He threatened American shipping interests

(C) All foreigners were deported according to the terms of the Alien Act

(D) He violated the Sedition Act by speaking out against the government

23. What did delegates at the Hartford Convention petition against?

(A) The War of 1812

(B) The ratification of the Constitution

(C) The Alien and Sedition Acts

(D) The Battle of Tippecanoe

24. From what did the delegates at the Hartford Convention draw inspiration for their petition?

(A) The Albany Congress

(B) The Constitutional Convention

(C) The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

(D) The Stamp Act Congress

25. All of the following helped cause the War of 1812 except

(A) The impressments of American sailors onto British warships

(B) Royal Navy seizures of American merchant ships and cargos

(C) Britain's refusal to remove troops from the Louisiana Territory

(D) Citizen Genêt's efforts to spread anti-British propaganda in order to bring the U.S. into the France's war against Britain

26. How was the Non-Intercourse Act different from the Embargo Act?

(A) The Embargo Act forbade American merchants from trade with all foreign countries; the Non-Intercourse Act banned trade only with Britain and France

(B) The Non-Intercourse Act forbade trade with all foreign nations; the Embargo Act banned trade only with Britain and France

(C) The Embargo Act banned trade with Britain and France; the Non-Intercourse Act promised to restore trade relations with the first country that agreed to respect American neutrality

(D) The Embargo Act banned trade with Britain; the Non-Intercourse Act banned trade with France

27. Why did Congress pass Macon's Bill No. 2 in 1810?

(A) The Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts had not been effective

(B) American shippers were still illegally trading with foreign countries

(C) Congress was desperate to stimulate the economy

(D) Anti-French sentiment was growing among the American populace

28. The War Hawks in Congress came primarily from

(A) New England

(B) The West and South

(C) The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast

(D) New York

29. The American victory at the1811 Battle of Tippecanoe

(A) Forced the British to withdraw from the Louisiana Territory

(B) Ended organized Native American resistance to white settlement in the Mississippi basin

(C) Convinced the French to abandon their dreams of retaking Québec

(D) Encouraged Spain to cede Florida to the United States

30. What was the Northwest Confederacy?

(A) The name Congress gave to the territories governed by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787

(B) The collection of states represented at the Hartford Convention

(C) A pan–Native-American alliance west of the Mississippi River

(D) A nickname for the 1810 Congress dominated by War Hawks

31. The 1814 Treaty of Ghent gave Americans all of the following except

(A) A new sense of national pride

(B) Clearly defined eastern borders with Canada

(C) British guarantees to respect American shipping rights as a neutral country

(D) British promises to withdraw troops stationed in American territory

32. What did the 1803 Supreme Court decision Marbury v. Madison do?

(A) Reaffirmed the Court's power of judicial review

(B) Reaffirmed the Court's supremacy over state courts

(C) Found the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional

(D) Reaffirmed the Court's right to hear appeals cases

33. In the early 1800s, most Americans were

(A) Merchants

(B) Farmers

(C) Indentured servants

(D) Plantation owners

34. Why did Napoleon sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States?

(A) He didn't want to open another theater in the war against Britain and Spain

(B) He was having trouble controlling the Native Americans in the region

(C) He didn't want the U.S. to become allies with Britain

(D) He needed the money

35. What did Thomas Jefferson's 1808 Embargo Act do?

(A) Forced Britain to declare war on the United States

(B) Prompted France to revoke the Franco-American alliance of 1778

(C) Caused a severe depression in the United States

(D) All of the above

36. The election of 1800 is often referred to as the Revolution of 1800 because

(A) The Democratic-Republicans came to power without any bloodshed

(B) The Federalist Northeast almost seceded from the Union

(C) The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation

(D) Daniel Shays marched to Washington, D.C., with 1,500 men to contest the outcome of the election

37. All of the following actions by Thomas Jefferson were in accordance with his interpretation of the Constitution except

(A) Authorizing the Louisiana Purchase

(B) Eliminating the national debt

(C) Downsizing of the federal government

(D) Granting more power to the state governments

38. The Chesapeake Affair aroused American anger toward

(A) The illegal impressment of American sailors

(B) French attempts to persuade Congress to declare war on Britain in defiance of the Neutrality Proclamation

(C) The Northwest Confederacy west of the Mississippi

(D) New England delegates at the Hartford Convention

39. Jefferson encouraged Congress to pass the Embargo Act in 1808 to punish Britain and France for

(A) Allowing American ships to sail to their countries

(B) Trying to convince the United States to enter the war in Europe

(C) Refusing to recognize U.S. rights as a neutral nation on the high seas

(D) Demanding enormous bribes

40. The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions stipulated that

(A) States could nullify acts of Congress that they deemed unconstitutional

(B) Women should be granted the right to vote

(C) The War of 1812 was unconstitutional and a purely sectional conflict

(D) The states desired to secede from the Union

41. Jay's Treaty of 1794 stipulated that

(A) Britain would withdraw troops from the Ohio Valley

(B) The United States would pay outstanding debts owed to British merchants

(C) American shippers would receive compensation for illegal seizures

(D) All of the above

42. The motto “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute” arose as a response to which event?

(A) The XYZ Affair

(B) The passage of the Alien Act

(C) Illegal British seizures of American merchant ships

(D) The Battle of Tippecanoe

43. What effect did the Alien and Sedition Acts have?

(A) Ruined the Democratic-Republican Party

(B) Ruined the Federalist Party

(C) Helped unify the Democratic-Republican Party

(D) Helped unify the Anti-Federalist Party

44. The three-fifths clause of the Constitution stated that

(A) All constitutional amendments had to be approved by three-fifths of the states

(B) All new laws had to be approved by three-fifths majority vote in Congress

(C) Each slave counted as three-fifths of a free person for census purposes

(D) Each Native American counted as three-fifths of a white person for census purposes

45. The authors of the Federalist Papers argued against which widespread belief?

(A) That republican governments in general were impractical and unrealistic

(B) That only small countries could successfully be republican

(C) That slavery is antithetical to republicanism

(D) That the United States would eventually collapse because it was too divided

46. Federalists cited the elastic clause to justify

(A) The Bank of the United States

(B) Assuming all state and federal debts

(C) Creating the cabinet

(D) The Alien and Sedition Acts

47. What act did the Northwest Confederacy's leaders believe that the U.S. government had violated?

(A) The Dawes Severalty Act

(B) The Indian Intercourse Acts

(C) The Indian Removal Act

(D) The Sedition Act

48. Federalists passed the Alien Act in 1798 out of fear that

(A) Democratic-Republicans would contest Adams's election

(B) War Hawks would declare war on Britain

(C) Too many indentured servants from Britain would take American jobs

(D) French immigrants would cause trouble in the United States in the event of a war with France

49. Why did Federalists pass the Sedition Act in 1798?

(A) To weaken or destroy the Democratic-Republican Party

(B) To prevent French revolutionaries from inciting rebellion in the United States

(C) To stifle opposition voiced in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

(D) To punish the French for their impudence in the XYZ Affair

50. The first president of the United States was

(A) George Washington

(B) Alexander Hamilton

(C) John Adams

(D) Benjamin Franklin

The Constitution (1781–1815)

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