Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, published in January 1776, urged colonists to replace British rule with what kind of government?
A republic without a king
✓
A limited monarchy under Parliament
A military government led by generals
A hereditary aristocracy of planters
Correct Answer
A republic without a king
Common Sense attacked hereditary monarchy and argued that the colonies should become an independent republic governed by elected representatives. A limited monarchy under Parliament was the system Paine wanted to escape. A military government led by generals and a hereditary aristocracy of planters were never part of his argument.
Category: Republican Ideals
Question 2
Why did many wealthy revolutionaries distrust democracy, which they understood as majority rule?
They believed it gave too much power to the king
They feared it would bring mob rule and threaten property
✓
They thought it would end the Atlantic slave trade
They believed it required an established national church
Correct Answer
They feared it would bring mob rule and threaten property
Many elite revolutionaries equated unchecked majority rule with disorder and feared that a majority of ordinary people might attack the property rights of the few. They believed it gave too much power to the king is backward, since democracy removes a king. They thought it would end the Atlantic slave trade was not their concern about democracy. They believed it required an established national church confuses democracy with religious policy.
Category: Republican Ideals
Question 3
What was a central objection the Anti-Federalists raised against the proposed Constitution?
It left the national government too weak to collect taxes
It gave small states too much power in the House
It lacked a bill of rights protecting individual liberties
✓
It abolished slavery in the southern states
Correct Answer
It lacked a bill of rights protecting individual liberties
Anti-Federalists feared a powerful central government and objected that the Constitution did not list protections for individual liberties, a demand that led to the Bill of Rights. It left the national government too weak to collect taxes describes the Articles of Confederation, not the Constitution. It gave small states too much power in the House is wrong because House seats were based on population. It abolished slavery in the southern states is false, since the Constitution protected slavery in several ways.
Category: Ratification Debate
Question 4
When George Washington resigned his military command in 1783 and returned to Mount Vernon instead of seeking power, admirers compared him to which hero of the Roman Republic?
Julius Caesar
Augustus
Nero
Cincinnatus
✓
Correct Answer
Cincinnatus
Cincinnatus was a Roman leader who accepted command in a crisis and then gave up power to return to his farm, the model of selfless republican virtue that Washington followed. Julius Caesar seized power and helped end the Roman Republic. Augustus became Rome's first emperor. Nero was a later emperor remembered as a tyrant.
Category: Republican Ideals
Question 5
What was one practical result of the ideal of republican motherhood?
New educational opportunities for girls
✓
Voting rights for married women
The end of coverture laws
Admission of women to state militias
Correct Answer
New educational opportunities for girls
Republican motherhood held that mothers had to raise virtuous citizens, so reformers such as Benjamin Rush argued that girls needed better schooling. Voting rights for married women did not follow from it. The end of coverture laws did not come with the Revolution. Admission of women to state militias was never part of the ideal, which kept women in the domestic sphere.
Category: Revolutionary Society
Question 6
In 1775, members of which religious group in Philadelphia took the lead in forming the first American antislavery society?
Puritans
Quakers
✓
Anglicans
Catholics
Correct Answer
Quakers
Quakers, who had already begun condemning slaveholding within their own meetings, led the founding of the antislavery society that became the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Puritans were the founders of New England, not Philadelphia antislavery leaders. Anglicans belonged to the Church of England, which had no such role. Catholics were a small minority with no part in founding the society.
Category: Revolutionary Society
Question 7
Which Massachusetts writer published essays arguing that women's minds were equal to men's and that girls deserved the same education as boys?
Abigail Adams
Mercy Otis Warren
Judith Sargent Murray
✓
Phillis Wheatley
Correct Answer
Judith Sargent Murray
Judith Sargent Murray argued in print that women and men had equal intellects and that women should be able to support themselves, and she earned income from her own writing. Abigail Adams made her case for women in private letters to her husband. Mercy Otis Warren is known for her political writing and history of the Revolution. Phillis Wheatley was a poet.
Category: Revolutionary Society
Question 8
How did enslaved people in Massachusetts use the state's 1780 constitution to challenge slavery?
They voted to abolish slavery in a referendum
They petitioned Parliament for emancipation
They appealed to the new federal Supreme Court
They sued for freedom in the state courts
✓
Correct Answer
They sued for freedom in the state courts
Enslaved people brought freedom suits in the 1780s, and Massachusetts courts ruled that slavery could not be squared with the constitution's declaration of rights. They voted to abolish slavery in a referendum is wrong because enslaved people could not vote and no such vote occurred. They petitioned Parliament for emancipation is wrong because Massachusetts was no longer under British rule. They appealed to the new federal Supreme Court is wrong because that court did not exist until 1789.
Category: Revolutionary Society
Question 9
What does the term manumission mean?
An enslaver's act of freeing an enslaved person
✓
A law that banned the import of enslaved people
A court order returning a fugitive to bondage
A tax paid on each enslaved person held
Correct Answer
An enslaver's act of freeing an enslaved person
Manumission is the voluntary freeing of an enslaved person by the person who held them, and private manumissions freed thousands of people in Virginia after the Revolution. A law that banned the import of enslaved people describes a slave trade ban. A court order returning a fugitive to bondage is the opposite of freedom. A tax paid on each enslaved person held is a property tax, not a release from slavery.
Category: Revolutionary Society
Question 10
How did the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War treat Native peoples?
It guaranteed them a separate state west of the Appalachians
It transferred British land claims without mentioning them
✓
It made them full citizens of the United States
It returned the Ohio Valley to the Iroquois Confederacy
Correct Answer
It transferred British land claims without mentioning them
Britain handed the United States its claims to land east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes, except Florida, even though Native nations still controlled much of it and were not mentioned. It guaranteed them a separate state west of the Appalachians is false. It made them full citizens of the United States did not happen. It returned the Ohio Valley to the Iroquois Confederacy is wrong because the treaty gave that region to the United States.
Category: Revolutionary Society
Question 11
In Federalist No. 10, what did James Madison argue?
Small republics were the only safe form of government
The states should keep full sovereignty over trade
A large republic would best control the dangers of faction
✓
Direct democracy would protect property most securely
Correct Answer
A large republic would best control the dangers of faction
Madison argued that in a large republic with elected representatives, so many competing interests exist that no single faction could easily seize control. Small republics were the only safe form of government was the traditional view he rejected. The states should keep full sovereignty over trade is not what Madison argued, and the Constitution gave Congress power over interstate and foreign commerce. Direct democracy would protect property most securely reverses his warning that democracies were turbulent and threatened property.
Category: Ratification Debate
Question 12
What is the purpose of the system of checks and balances built into the Constitution?
To let states cancel federal laws they oppose
To guarantee each state an equal vote in Congress
To ensure the president is chosen by popular vote
To keep any one branch from dominating the others
✓
Correct Answer
To keep any one branch from dominating the others
Checks and balances give each branch ways to limit the others: the president can veto bills, Congress can override a veto by a two-thirds vote of both houses, and the Senate must confirm major appointments and approve treaties. To let states cancel federal laws they oppose describes nullification, which the Constitution does not provide for. To guarantee each state an equal vote in Congress describes only the Senate, created by the Great Compromise. To ensure the president is chosen by popular vote is wrong because the Electoral College chooses the president.
Category: Constitutional Convention
Question 13
Which state's 1776 constitution was considered the most democratic, with a single-house legislature and voting rights for taxpaying men?
Pennsylvania
✓
Massachusetts
Maryland
South Carolina
Correct Answer
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania removed property requirements so that adult male taxpayers could vote and gave power to a single elected assembly, which John Adams criticized as too democratic. Massachusetts created a strong governor and two houses. Maryland set high property requirements that kept most White men out of office. South Carolina also required large estates for officeholders.
Category: State Constitutions
Question 14
The Massachusetts constitution of 1780, largely drafted by John Adams, provided for what kind of government?
A one-house legislature and no governor
A strong governor and a two-house legislature
✓
Voting rights for all adult women
Elected judges and no property requirements
Correct Answer
A strong governor and a two-house legislature
Adams believed in balanced government, so Massachusetts received a governor with broad veto power, two legislative houses and property requirements for voters and officeholders. A one-house legislature and no governor describes Pennsylvania. Voting rights for all adult women did not exist. Elected judges and no property requirements is wrong because judges were appointed and property rules were strict.
Category: State Constitutions
Question 15
Which power did the Confederation Congress lack under the Articles of Confederation?
The power to make treaties
The power to declare war
The power to levy taxes
✓
The power to borrow money
Correct Answer
The power to levy taxes
Congress could only request money from the states, which supplied far less than it asked, so it could not pay its debts. The power to make treaties belonged to Congress under the Articles. The power to declare war was also granted to Congress. The power to borrow money was granted as well, which is how the war was partly financed.
Category: Articles of Confederation
Question 16
Why did the 5 percent import tax that Congress proposed in 1781 to pay the national debt fail?
Britain threatened war if the tax was collected
The Supreme Court ruled that the tax was illegal
The president vetoed the tax after Congress passed it
Rhode Island refused, and changes needed every state's approval
✓
Correct Answer
Rhode Island refused, and changes needed every state's approval
Changes to the Articles required the consent of every state, so Rhode Island's refusal in 1782 was enough to block the 1781 import tax, and Virginia soon withdrew its own approval. Britain threatened war if the tax was collected did not happen. The Supreme Court ruled that the tax was illegal is impossible because the Articles created no Supreme Court. The president vetoed the tax after Congress passed it is impossible because the Articles created no executive with a veto; the president of Congress only presided over its sessions.
Category: Articles of Confederation
Question 17
What made the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 especially significant?
It banned slavery in the territory north of the Ohio River
✓
It granted Native nations permanent title to the Ohio Valley
It organized the whole region as one large state
It let settlers decide on slavery by popular vote
Correct Answer
It banned slavery in the territory north of the Ohio River
The ordinance kept slavery out of the Northwest Territory and set out how territories could become equal states, making it the Confederation Congress's most lasting achievement. It granted Native nations permanent title to the Ohio Valley is false, since it opened their lands to settlement. It organized the whole region as one large state is wrong because it allowed three to five states. It let settlers decide on slavery by popular vote describes popular sovereignty in the 1850s.
Category: Articles of Confederation
Question 18
What grievance drove farmers in western Massachusetts to close courthouses in 1786?
British troops quartered in their homes
Heavy taxes and debts they could not repay
✓
A new federal tax on whiskey
The state's ban on public support for churches
Correct Answer
Heavy taxes and debts they could not repay
Farmers, many of them veterans, faced high state taxes and private debts that had to be paid in scarce hard money, and courts were seizing their land. British troops quartered in their homes was a grievance from before the war. A new federal tax on whiskey caused the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790s. The state's ban on public support for churches is false, since Massachusetts continued to support churches.
Category: Articles of Confederation
Question 19
What did the Virginia Plan, drafted by James Madison, propose at the Constitutional Convention?
A one-house legislature with an equal vote for each state
Equal representation in an upper house and population in a lower house
A two-house legislature with representation based on population
✓
Keeping the Articles but adding a power to tax imports
Correct Answer
A two-house legislature with representation based on population
The Virginia Plan called for a strong national government with a bicameral legislature in which both houses were apportioned by population, which favored large states. A one-house legislature with an equal vote for each state was the New Jersey Plan. Equal representation in an upper house and population in a lower house was the Great Compromise. Keeping the Articles but adding a power to tax imports was closer to the New Jersey Plan and far weaker than Madison wanted.
Category: Constitutional Convention
Question 20
Which delegate proposed the compromise that gave each state two senators while basing the House of Representatives on population?
William Paterson
Gouverneur Morris
Alexander Hamilton
Roger Sherman
✓
Correct Answer
Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman of Connecticut, with fellow delegate Oliver Ellsworth, offered the plan known as the Connecticut or Great Compromise, which settled the dispute between large and small states. William Paterson presented the New Jersey Plan. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania is remembered for attacking slavery and for polishing the Constitution's final wording. Alexander Hamilton favored a far stronger central government and had little influence on this compromise.
Category: Constitutional Convention