Documents
Ello Governor!
Letter of the Law
We're All in this together
Particulars
100

Every state has a document that explains the powers it does and doesn’t have over the people who live there. What is the name of these documents?

What is the State Constitution?

100

What is the reasoning behind the idea of limited government?

What is to eliminate the possibility of abuses by a powerful government?

100

An enslaved women who after hearing talk about the Massachusetts State Constitution sued for her freedom and won.

Who was Elizabeth Freeman?

100

Congress could declare war and make peace. It could make treaties and alliances with other nations. Congress could settle arguments between the states about their boundaries. It could borrow money, set up a postal service, and create a currency, or money system.

What were some of the powers established by the Articles of Confederation?

100

What did the Northwest Ordinances prohibit?

What is slavery?

200

The state governments could not search a person’s home without good reason. They could not put a person in jail without a good reason. And they could not keep a person in jail without a trial. They most certainly could not take away a person’s right to trial by jury. Finally, they could not stop people from assembling peaceably, and they could not take away the people’s right to ask or even to demand that their government do something they wanted done.

What provisions were part of early state constitutions?

200

What are some of the benefits of limited government?

What is more freedom, less taxes, and fewer responsibilities? 

200

What two principles did the delegates of the Second Continental Congress firmly believe in?

What is the concepts of self-rule and government by consent?

200

Congress could not raise funds, regulate trade, or conduct foreign policy without the voluntary agreement of the states.

What were some of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?

200

In Article IX of the Articles of Confederation how many states were needed out of 13 to establish a new law?

What is 9?

300

Where did the states get the idea for the rights they included in their constitutions?

What is the Rights of Englishmen?

300

What are the drawbacks of limited government?

What is the inability to pay debts, raise money, protect the people and accomplish goals?

300

The Articles of Confederation

What was America’s first plan of government?

300

What weakness of the Articles of Confederation did Shays’s Rebellion demonstrate?

What is it could neither raise the money to pay the veterans nor raise an army to put down the uprising.

300

All men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.

How did Virginia’s Constitution protect a person’s freedom of religion?

400

 “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg.”

How did Thomas Jefferson argue for freedom of religion?

400

No, five northern states passed laws to abolish slavery while some phased out the institution over a period of years but no southern states was willing to do so.

Did all the states abolish slavery immediately after writing their constitution?

400

In the Articles of Confederation how did people become members of Congress?

What is members of Congress were appointed by the states.

400

Who was the head of the government under the Articles of Confederation?

Who is nobody?

400

How did the Articles of Confederation reflect Americans’ experiences with Great Britain before the Revolutionary War?

The fear that a powerful government would be abusive, that it should derive its power from the consent of the people and the need for self-governance.

500

When did some of the states see the contradiction that all humans were created equal?

What is while writing their state constitution?

500

A central government with too much power.

What was a major fear for the delegates at the Second Congenital Congress?

500

What was an important difference between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitutions of individual states?

What is the individual state constitutions had a lot of power and the Articles of Confederation had very little power?

500

What was the Northwest Ordinances was an important vehicle for the creation of?

What is adding new states?

500

to intrude on someone’s rights or possessions

What is infringe?