The Constitution Study Questions

#1

Executive Powers

· Approves or vetoes federal bills

· Carries out federal laws

· Appoints judges and other high officials

· Makes foreign treaties

· Can grant pardons and reprieves to federal offenders

· Acts as commander-in-chief of armed forces

Legislative Powers

· Passes federal laws

· Establishes lower federal courts and the number of federal judges

· Can override the president’s veto with two-thirds vote

Judicial Powers

· Interprets and applies the law by trying federal cases

· Can declare laws passed by congress and executive actions unconstitutional.

#2

Checks on Executive Powers

· Congress can override vetoes by two-thirds vote

· Senate can refuse to confirm appointments or ratify treaties

· Congress can impeach and remove the President

· Congress can declare war

· Supreme court can declare executive acts unconstitutional

Checks on Legislative Powers

· Presidential veto of federal bills

· Supreme court can rule laws unconstitutional

· Both houses of congress must vote to pass laws checking power with legislature

Checks on Judicial Powers

· Congress can propose constitutional amendments to overturn judicial decisions

· Congress can impeach and remove federal judges

· President appoints judges

#3

· Two house legislature

· Three-fifths compromise – a slave counted as three-fifths of a person

· Slave trade – they band the slave trade and the northerners agreed that they the congress could not interfere with the southern slave trade until 1808

· George Mason proposed the bill of rights to be included in the constitution.

#4

· James Madison

· Alexander Hamilton

· John Jay

#5

· Protection of individuals’ rights, people were worried the government would get to much power and their rights would be taken away.

#6

· Their worry was that their new constitution would take away the liberties Americans had fought to win from Great Britain. The constitution would create a strong central government and would ignore states and favor the wealthy.

Zinn Chapter 5 Summery

The chapter describes pre-Revolutionary War. They were having a hard time getting white men to fight and Indians and southern blacks weren’t allowed to fight. So they ended up getting a lot of men who are basically poor. Except for a few rich men that became generals there really aren’t any rich men in the war. The rich are trying to keep the poor people at a disadvantage by having them fight. Whereas the poor men are thinking by joining the war they will get respect, but they don’t. Instead after the war when they get home they find out that they were in debt and would loose everything. Luckily, the Blacks started fighting for freedom and rights in the North. And as the slavery in the north decreased the slavery in the south increased. Other then the slave change the social ladder stays the same after the war. The Indians continued to loose land and the poor white people stayed poor.

Then Zinn talks about making the constitution and how those who wrote it were rich men. Also how some laws and amendments were as good as they could have been and that some of them should have been worked on a little more.

Study Questions For Revolutionary War

1) What rebel leaders does Paul Revere ride at midnight to warn?

The british are coming

• April 18th, 1775
• He had volunteered to be an alarm rider
• Milisha men, ready to fight whenever.
• April 19th they were ready to fight

2) In detail, describe how the battle of Concord looked?

Some man accidentally fired a shot
Which started the war
8 colonist dead 2 wounded
first taste of battled
they fired at their own british troops
minute men and milisha men

march back to boston – bloody mess
one in the three hundred bullets one hit
they didn’t have good guns
the red coats were attacked from all side
73 british were killed
it would not end before involving all military powers of the world in the war

3) Why was the Revolutionary War the most important event in U.S. History?

Leagallly greated nation in 1776
Infused into our culture
Things we still stand for today
The war of our independence
Revolutionary war was just a part of the revolution the revolution was

4) How many cities over 10,000 where there in America at the time of the Revolution?

Four

5) Describe the country before the Revolutionary War? Why might not we, in the 21st century, recognize it?
Because of the modernization that we have achieved.

• There were only 2.5 million people
• 4 citys that had population over 10,000
• rivers were highways
• wooded
• colonists saw themselves as the freest people in the world
• land was cheap
• social ladder was short
• wealth was accesable through hard work

6) Why was James Otis important?

Boston lawyer
His writings were the inspiration for all leaders after
Mind be hind it Sam Adams mouth


7) What was Samuel Adams known for?

Organized a political action group called sons of liberty

8) Describe the Patriotic Leaders.

• Noble idealists
• They had self interested motives and they were cunning, they would do whatever they had to get what they wanted

9) What percent of the population, according to John Adams, wanted liberty?

One third wanted it one third didn’t and one third didn’t care.

10) Discuss how the events of the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party lead to the Revolutionary War.

Boston Massacre
• a clash between British troops and townspeople in Boston in 1770, before the Revolutionary War. The British troops fired into a crowd that was threatening them, killing five.
• The soldiers had been sent to help the British government maintain order and were resented even before the incident
• The killing of the townpeople increased the colonists' desire toward revolution.
Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was the effect of the Tea Act, in which all tea incoming to America was greatly taxed. The events of the Boston Tea Party sparked rebellion in the People, and was one of several intolerable acts made by the British which led to the founding fathers creating the continental congress. The year before Benjamin franklin had come up with the idea of the continental congress but it failed until the tea party.

Extended Activities

• Treaty of Hartford:

• Treaty was created to settle Pequot war.

• Massachusetts Bay Colony, Connecticut River Colony, and Mohegan and Narragansett were the tribes at the party. The Pequots weren’t even at the signing of the treaty.

• Surviving Pequot prisoners were divided between the tribes.

• 40% of the Pequots were divided among the tribes that attended the party, and 20% were sent to the tribes on Long island who supported the Narragansett tribe.

• Connecticut River (towns) got Pequot lands

• It outlawed Pequot language, name, and any survivors would be called Mohegans or Narragansett.


• No Pequot town/settlement would be allowed

Questions

3) So they could spread their own religion. They intended to take over with there religion.

4) The puritans thought that if you didn’t build buildings and such on the land then you don’t really own it and the Pequot people thought that you temporarily live there and that you don’t really say that its your land. The Puritan people thought that the men should do all the work and the women just did household chore, whereas the Pequot people thought that the women should do all the farming and all the work while the men hunted. The Pequot people didn’t believe in war, they settled it by talking and through spirits and the Puritan people believed in genocide.

5) Dutch came to the new world not land so they got along with the natives better, but the British fought natives for the land.

12) Well it essentially whipped out the Indians and changed the way people thought and acted in the Americas. Most Indians believed in peace and talking things through and they lived a complete different life style. Then the English came over with there opinions about the way things should be ran and they whipped the Indians out, whereas if this hadn’t happened the united states may not have even existed or advanced the way it has. After this massacre people started attacking all the Indians everywhere

Primary Source:

1) He envisions it as a perfect community. Everyone works together, mourns together, basically he is saying that the people unit as one big family that supports each other. This might have been possible back then for the puritans because the type of environment he describe was a lot like what the puritans believed in and so they wouldn’t of had a hard time abiding by his rules, but I think in the modern day it probably isn’t possible.
2) He means that they are going to be the perfect city and that everyone will look up to them. By everyone I mean the other cities and religions.
3) I don’t think that he had the Native Americans in mind because they were much more peaceful and in tune with one another than the puritans. They truly believed in peace and talking things over instead of fighting. When the puritans attacked the Pequot people I don’t think they upheld Winthrop’s vision in anyway.

Chapter 3 sections 3 - 4 numbers 1-6

Section 3

Patroon – the wealthy Landowners who acquired these riverfront estates

Proprietary Colony – a colony in which the owner owned all the land and controlled the government

Pacifist – people who refuse to use force or fight in wars.

1. New Amsterdam was taken over by Patroons, wealthy land owners. After that they renamed the colony New York and then ran as a Proprietary colony. New York has much religious diversity, as well as the rest of Pennsylvania. The Quakers lived there and were seen as a threat to establish traditions. They were Pacifists, people who refuse to use force to fight wars.

2. They granted them the right to elect representatives to the legislature assembly.

3. He that since the land belonged to the Native Americans, the settlers should pay for it, and so he helped make a deal with the Native Americans so there would be peace between them.

4. The puritans believed that the church services and officials were necessary when the Quakers don’t. The Quakers believed that everyone had and “inner light” that could guide them to salvation. Quakers were Tolerant of the views of others.

5.

Colony	Type Of government
New York	Proprietary Colony
New Jersey	Representative Assembly
Pennsylvania	Able to elect representatives (to Legislative assembly)

6 the title is THE MIDDLE COLONIES:

In the key is Grain, Cattle, Fish, Lumber, Rum and Iron.

In Pennsylvania Grain, Cattle, Lumber, Rum and iron were important.

Section 4

Debtor – those who are unable to pay debts

Mission – religious Settlements to convert particular faith.

1) There were many different ways people governed, employed and believed during this time. In most successful colonies they had some type of constitution, or at least some governmental structure in their colony. they also had different levels of people, Rich, poor, slaves and indentured servants—people who worked for a certain amount of time until they pay of their debt to their owner, who paid their way over to America. they were also known as Tenant farmers, people who paid and annually and worked for an estate folder for a certain number of days a year. There were debtors too who were not treated kindly for not repaying their debt. At this time, missions were also occuring which are religious settlements established to convert people to a particular faith.

2 They didn’t really care about the large-scale settlement in North America, their main focus was fishing and hunting and capturing animals for their fur.

3. She was the first Woman lawyer in America. She rebelled against Virginia and then later moved there after demanding the government give her two votes, one for herself—being a landowner—and one for being a legal representative for Lord Baltimore. She was a brave and forceful woman in their government.

4. Bacon’s rebellion gave other people the idea that if someone disagrees with the government then they would be able to rebel against them. Since Bacon made it possible, others were bound to do the same thing, which made caused a lot of difficulty.

5. Spain controlled most of mexico, the Caribbean, and South and Central America. They also expanded into the western and southern parts of America, France controlled Northern Canada.

6. Virginia – Norfolk.

Main products in Georgia – indigo and rice.

Charlestown – major town in South Carolina.

Chapter 3 sections 1&2 #'s 1-6

Charters – the right to organize settlements in an area

Joint-stock company – when investors buy stock or part ownership in the company in the return for a share of its future profits.

Burgesses – two representatives from each town

Section 1

1) Because the settlers had to take orders from the Virginia company they became very irritated so the Virginia company allowed them to send 2 representatives called burgesses to the assemblies. The Virginia Company was also a joint-stock company, which is where people buy stocks in the company in the return for a share of its future profits. Several of the groups of merchants also wanted Charters from king James I.

2) So they could find gold and establish trade with fish and furs.

3) John Rolfe and the business and growth of tobacco.

4) So England’s businesses would grow and they could become wealthy.

5) Effects of Jamestown’s growth: production of tobacco and Start a sort of government

6) 30%

SECTION 2

Dissent – disagreed with the beliefs or practices of the Anglicans

Persecute – treated harshly

Puritan – the Protestants who wanted to reform the Anglican Church

Separatist – those who wanted to leave and set up their own churches

Pilgrim – a peoples journey that has a religious purpose

Mayflower compact – a formal document that stated the rules they were going to follow

Toleration – allowing something to continue that is annoying or frustrating.

1) Many people Dissented the Anglican church that King Henry III formed. Those who did agree with it however, were called puritans. Those who didn’t believe were called separatists and the Puritans had very little tolerance with them so many of were persecuted. Those who weren’t, wanted religious freedom, so they headed to the Americas, and were then known as pilgrims. When they arrived on the mayflower they decided they needed to set up some rules like a government for them to abide by so they didn’t have to be under anyone else’s rule, this document was and is known as the mayflower compact.

2) So they can have religious freedom and believe in whatever religion they wished to

3) Freedom of religion

4) They both played a huge role in the constitution and in representative government in America

5) The colonists interact with the native Americans in three ways: trade, war, and the Native Americans helped the colonists adapt to the land.

6) Rum, furs and lumber.