Chapter 8 Study Guide

1. The Articles of Confederation were too weak to govern the nation after the war ended.

2. The weakness of the Articles of Confederation led to the writing of the U.S. Constitution.

3. In 1775, Daniel Boone and 30 woodsmen cut the Wilderness Road over the Appalachian Mountains into Kentucky.

4. Settlers were drawn to Kentucky’s rich river valleys, where tensions between Native Americans and settlers led to violent confrontations.

5. Once the American colonies declared independence, each of the states set out to create its own government.

6. Some states included a bill of rights in their constitutions as a way to keep the government under control.

7. A republic, is where the people choose representatives to govern them.

8. During the Revolutionary War, Silas Deane, a diplomat from Connecticut, wrote, “United we stand, divided we fall.”

9. In the Articles of Confederation the national government had few powers, because many Americans were afraid that a strong government would lead to tyranny.

10. The Land Ordinance of 1785 called for surveyors to stake out six mile- square plots, called townships..

11. The Northwest Ordinance (1787) described how the Northwest Territory was to be governed.

12. Debt was a critical problem for the government, much of that money was owed to soldiers of its own army.

13. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress did not have the power to levy taxes.

14. In Massachusetts taxes were so high that farmers fell deeply into debt and ended up in jail.

15. Farmers asked the Massachusetts legislature to provide debt relief, but the legislature refused and the farmers rebelled.

16. Shays’s Rebellion, as the uprising came to be known, the farmers won the sympathy of many people.

17. The states sent delegates to a convention to solve the problems of the Articles of Confederation.

18. The Constitutional Convention formed the plan of government that the United States still has today

19. The news of Shays’s Rebellion caused many Americans to think that the national government needed strengthening.

20. In the summer of 1787 the states sent delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to rewrite the Articles of Confederation.

21. Patrick Henry, who had been elected as a delegate from Virginia, refused to attend; he said he “smelled a rat in Philadelphia, tending toward monarchy.”

22. George Washington was elected a president of the convention.

23. They did not want to be pressured by the politics of the day so they decided that their discussions would remain secret.

24. The Virginia Plan proposed a government that would have three branches.

25. The first branch of government was the legislature, which made the laws.

26. The second branch was the executive, which enforced the laws.

27. The third branch was the judiciary, which interpreted the laws.

28. The Virginia Plan proposed a legislature in which the number of representatives from each state would be based on the state’s population or its wealth. (Did not pass, wealth was not adopted)

29. Larger states supported the Virginia plan the smaller states opposed this plan.

30. The Great Compromise created two houses in the legislation branch of government.

31. To satisfy the smaller states, each state would have an equal number of votes in the Senate.

32. To satisfy the larger states, representation in the House of Representatives was set according to state populations.

33. The Three-Fifths Compromise addressed how slaves would be counted for taxes and representation.

34. Americans across the nation debated whether the Constitution would produce the best government.

35. The U.S. Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, today protects American liberties.

36. The framers of the Constitution knew that the document would cause controversy.

37. Federalism is a system of government in which power is shared between the central government and the states.

38. Linking themselves to the idea of federalism, the people who supported the Constitution took the name Federalists.

39. People who opposed the Constitution were called Anti-federalists.

40. A series of essays were written in support of the new Constitution later became known as the Federalist Papers.

41. Three well-known politicians wrote The Federalist papers—James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.

42. The patriot Patrick Henry and George Mason fought against ratification.

43. The Anti-federalist wanted the power to remain with the States.

44. The Anti-federalist feared that a strong executive might become a king or a tyrant.

45. Most of the newspapers supported the Constitution, giving the Federalists more publicity than the Anti-federalists.

46. Many states ratified the Constitution, asking that it be amended to include a bill of rights.

47. The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution became known as the Bill of Rights.

48. Who was the first President of the United States? George Washington

49. When was Jamestown Founded? 1607

50. When was the Declaration of Independence signed? 1776