QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Creating a New Government Questions Part 1.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Creating a New Government Questions Part

1

Solving Problems

You could not do the last two based on this reading passage.

Problems Solutions Western Lands 

 The Northwest OrdinanceCongress surveyed and divided up the land for settlement.

 Postwar Depression 

 Congress called a meeting to revise the Articles of Confederation that turned into the Constitutional Convention.

 Representation in the New Government 

 Slavery 

1) Who were the Founding Fathers?

The people who made the greatest contributions to the establishment of our country.

2) List some (3) of our Founding Fathers

Any three of the following George Washington Thomas Jefferson James Madison John Adams Benjamin Franklin Alexander Hamilton Patrick Henry Thomas Paine

3) What was the first form of a constitution for America called?

The Articles of Confederation

4) When was it written?

The same time as the Declaration of Independence

5) What Georgian was on the committee that wrote it?

Button Gwinnett

6) According to the Articles of Confederation power was divided between

The national government and the individual state governments.

7)

Congress could declare war, sign treaties, deliver the mail, and create money.

8)

States had the most power. States could collect its own taxes, issue its own money, and support its own militia.

9)

Each state had one vote in congress.

10) Why did some small states not want to ratify the Articles?

They wanted states that had land west of the Appalachian Mountains to give it to the federal government.

11) What happened in 1781 to cause all 13 colonies to ratify the Articles?

All states had agreed to give up their western lands.

12) The Northwest Territory eventually became what states?

Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota

14) List four successes of the Continental Congress:

a. governed the nation during the revolutionb. negotiated the treaty of Parisc. passed the land ordinance of 1785d. passed the northwest ordinance(1787)

15) List the four weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation:

a. lacked power to enforce lawsb. lacked power to levy taxesc. lacked power to regulate traded. required all 13 states to approve changes

16) What did many Revolutionary War soldiers receive after the war instead of money?

land

17) In three sentences or less tell the story of Shays’s Rebellion.

Daniel Shay served in the Continental Army and could not pay his taxes because he had not been paid. In January 1787 he led an attack on a gun storage facility in Springfield, Massachusetts. Shays’s rebellion did not last long, but it alarmed many people.

18) Who represented Georgia at the meeting at Independence Hall on May 25, 1787?

Abraham Baldwin and William Few

19) What did these meeting come to be known as?

Constitional Convention

20) What two requirements made the job of the delegates difficult?

The government had to be strong enough to protect people’s rights, but the government itself did not have too much power.

21) How do we know that they did a good job?

The Constitution is still the supreme law of the land

22) What was the first thing the delegates did?

Elect George Washington as president of the convention

23) Why did they decide to keep the discussions secret?

They wanted everyone to be free to speak his mind or change it.

24) What is a democratic republic?

A republic is a government in which people choose their representatives. Democratic means that the government reflects the will of the people.

25) How do we know what happened at the Constitutional Convention?

James Madison took thorough notes.

Do you agree with the Founders’ decision to keep the convention secret? Why or why not?

I do not agree with the Founders’ decision to keep the convention secret because a person living in a democracy should know the beliefs of their officials. It was wrong for our leaders to wheel and deal behind closed doors. It is our right in a democratic republic to know the leanings of the people making decisions for us.

I agree with the Founders’ that the convention should be secret because this allowed the men that were faced with this serious challenge to speak freely and openly without considering how they might have to defend themselves later should they change their mind. If current leaders had this kind of freedom perhaps more would get done because people would be able to solve problems rather than worry about what their constituents might say.