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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which delegate is the oldest?

2. Why is indigence a bad word for most delegates to the Convention?

3. Which delegate writes and publishes Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British colonies?

4. What is Shay's Rebellion?

5. In Chapter 10, the delegates vote that senators are chosen by whom?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are Lansing's arguments in favor of the New Jersey Plan?

2. What is the Committee of the Whole?

3. Why is there a secrecy rule at the Convention?

4. What are the "original principles" according to the delegates?

5. Why does Washington call sovereignty a "monster"?

6. What do the delegates see as the difference between a federal and a national government?

7. In Chapter Five, which Resolves are postponed for later discussion?

8. How does the report of the Annapolis Commission lead to the meeting of the Convention?

9. What does James Wilson mean by his statement that Federal liberty is to states what civil liberty is to individuals?

10. What kind of reception does John Adams receive in England?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Bowen's book is titled "Miracle at Philadelphia", where the "miracle" is the ultimate appearance of the Constitution itself. However, throughout the book, she provides several examples of smaller miracles, significant decisions that lead to the final drafting of the Constitution. Choose three (3) significant decisions that you consider to be miracles and describe the conflict and the outcome, demonstrating how the resolution of the conflict is a miracle.

Essay Topic 2

What does it mean to be an American in 1787? The delegates to the Convention address this question in various ways. Using the final Constitution as your guide, with supplementing evidence drawn from other chapters in Bowen's book, write a well-crafted essay that describes the delegates' understanding and perception of who is an American and what it means to be an American.

Essay Topic 3

Some of the delegates to the Convention are well-known figures from American history. Other delegates, however, are less well-known. Choose three of the delegates listed below and write an essay that presents their contributions to the Convention discussions and the final Constitution.

Examples are:

Rufus King

Elbridge Gerry

Edmund Randolph

Nathaniel Gorham

Pierce Butler

Gouverneur Morris

James Wilson

(see the answer keys)

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