View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What thoughts did Mr. Wilson express at the convention?
(a) Popular election will give people confidence in the government.
(b) Popular election will lead to a tyranny of the masses.
(c) Popular election will allow the people to mislead each other.
(d) Popular election will debase public discourse.

2. What did William Paterson offer the convention?
(a) The New Jersey Plan.
(b) The Missouri Compromise.
(c) The Great Compromise.
(d) The Virginia Plan.

3. What did James Madison argue with relation to the New Jersey Plan?
(a) It cannot settle arguments between the states.
(b) It cannot support itself with tax revenue.
(c) It will not protect small states from bigger states.
(d) It will give too much power to small states.

4. Where on the political spectrum were Alexander Hamilton's opinions?
(a) Closer to monarchy than democracy.
(b) Closer to democracy than republicanism.
(c) Closer to anarchy than democracy.
(d) Closer to republicanism than democracy.

5. What did Madison and Jefferson feel about Virginia?
(a) That the taxation rates were too low.
(b) That the executive was too weak.
(c) That democracy restricted the leaders.
(d) That international trade would solve its budget problems.

6. What was James Madison's feeling about the compromise?
(a) He felt that the convention was striking the right balance.
(b) He felt that the convention was sacrificing large states to small states.
(c) He felt that the convention was sacrificing justice for the small states.
(d) He felt that the convention was sacrificing federalism to distributed power.

7. Where did James Madison argue government legitimacy came from?
(a) The righteousness of laws.
(b) Consent of the governed.
(c) The political process itself.
(d) The power of the government.

8. What reason did delegates give for Senators being elected in state legislatures?
(a) They would already know the laws.
(b) They would have the contacts they needed within the state.
(c) They would therefore be men of character.
(d) They would therefore be essentially promoted from within.

9. What were Americans concluding by the 1780s?
(a) That there was too much power in the federal government.
(b) That representation could have been earned without warfare.
(c) That the federal executive was too weak.
(d) That mercantile colonialism had been a working model before the revolution.

10. What complaints were lodged against the proposal to elect Senators in state legislatures?
(a) It would dissipate federal power among the states.
(b) It would over-represent the small states.
(c) It would give too much power to large states.
(d) It would create a plutocracy.

11. How would government service be seen if government officers did not receive salaries, in the opinion of the man who proposed this?
(a) As a duty.
(b) As an entitlement.
(c) As a privilege.
(d) As a stepping stone.

12. What were Americans and Britons discussing a great deal during the 1770s?
(a) Political thought and theory.
(b) The Massachusetts charter.
(c) Warfare against the French.
(d) Warfare against the Native Americans.

13. What were the delegates' intentions when they argued for election of Senators from state legislatures?
(a) Raising the Senate above popular opinion.
(b) Improving upon the process by which the people were represented.
(c) Insulating the federal government from individuals in the states.
(d) Creating a check against popular democracy.

14. What power was missing from the Articles?
(a) The power to conduct war.
(b) The power to regulate foreign trade.
(c) The power to amend the Articles.
(d) Executive power.

15. What did Mr. Paterson argue about the New Jersey Plan?
(a) That it did not protect the states enough.
(b) That it did not give the executive too much power.
(c) That it diminished the power of the states.
(d) That it made the federal government too independent.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Mr. Wilson's feeling about the compromise?

2. Which form of government includes direct voting by the people?

3. What did the Southern economy rely on at the time of the constitutional convention?

4. What did Dr. Johnson advocate during the debate over federal power?

5. Where did Mr. Sherman say election should take place?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 696 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample