Chapter 5: Shaping a New Nation
Experimenting with Confederation, pages 269-276
1. What two rules did John Dickinson say he followed as a member of the Continental
Congress? Put his words into your own words.
Americans Debate Republicanism
2. What was one of the challenges faced by those who were creating a new government?
3. What were the reasons why colonists were reluctant to unite under a strong central
government?
4. What is a democracy? Why did most 18th-century Americans oppose a democracy?
5. What is a republic? What is republicanism? What did John Dickinson say about
republicanism?
6. What was Republican Motherhood?
7. What did the followers of Adam Smith say about government?
8. What were some of the similarities in the new state constitutions?
9. How did voting rights vary from state to state? How were women able to vote in New
Jersey for approximately 30 years?
10. Why were the governments of ancient Greece and Rome honored by 18 th-century
Americans? What weaknesses did they find with these models? Why did Americans
have bad feelings about the short-lived republic of 17th-century England?
The Continental Congress Debates
11. Why was representation in the new national government an issue for the states? What
was the initial decision about representation?
12. What new type of government was proposed under the Articles of Confederation?
13. What is a confederation?
14. How did John Dickinson explain this new form of government?
15. What powers did the new national government receive under the Articles of
Confederation?
16. What branches of the government were missing in the new national government?
17. Why did Maryland resist signing the Articles?
18. What was the Land Ordinance of 1785?
19. What were the provisions of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787?
The Confederation Encounters Problems
20. What was considered the most serious problem the country faced under the
Confederation?
21. What were the political weaknesses of the Articles?
22. What was the most serious economic problem which the country faced? How did
Congress propose to solve this problem? What were the results of this proposal?
23. Explain the borrowers versus lenders problem, both in terms of taxes and the printing of
paper money.
24. What foreign relations problems did the country face with Great Britain?
25. What foreign relations problems did the country face with Spain?
26. Copy the chart of the Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation on page 276.
Section 2: Drafting the Constitution, pages 282-289
1. Who was Daniel Shays. Why did he and other Massachusetts farmers stage a rebellion?
Nationalists Strengthen the Government
2. What was the major result of Shays’s Rebellion?
3. Explain the problem of trade between the states.
4. What state did not send delegates to the convention which convened in May, 1787 in
Philadelphia?
5. What sorts of people made up the states delegations? Who was elected presiding
officer?
6. What was Madison’s Virginia Plan for representation in the new government?
7. Why did small states oppose the Virginia Plan? What was their solution?
8. Who was Roger Sherman? Explain his Great Compromise.
9. What was the issue, in terms of representation, of counting slaves as people? What was
the solution to this problem? [Explain the Three-Fifths Compromise.]
10. What was the solution to the slave trade?
Creating a New Government
11. What are delegated powers? What are some of the delegated powers?
12. What are reserved powers? What are some of the reserved powers?
13. What powers are shared by both the state and national governments?
14. What are the three branches of government and what is the role of each branch?
15. What is the system of checks and balances? Know much of the chart on page 288.
16. Why were the fears about the election of a president?
17. Explain the electoral college system.
18. How can the Constitution be changed?
Section 3: Ratifying the Constitution, pages 292-298
Federalists and Antifederalists
1. How would each state ratify the new Constitution? How many states were
needed to ratify the Constitution?
2. What were Federalists? What were Antifederalists?
3. What were the objections made by the Antifederalists?
4. Who were some of the leading Federalists? What groups of Americans
supported their arguments?
5. Who were some of the leading Antifederalists? What groups of
Americans/states supported their argument?
6. What was The Federalist? Who were the authors of the Federalist Papers?
7. What was the Letters from the Federal Farmer? What ideas did these letters
propose?
The Bill of Rights Leads to Ratification
8. What famous American was in France during the constitutional debates?
9. Why did the Antifederalists demand a Bill of Rights?
10. Why did Federalists think that a Bill of Rights was unnecessary?
11. What state was the first to ratify the Constitution? What state enabled the
document to become law? What two states’ votes were actually needed to
finish the process of ratification? What state did not accept the Constitution?
12. Copy the chart of the Bill of Rights on page 298.
13. What were the limitations of the Bill of Rights?