U.S. Constitution - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) The Articles of Confederation. The Second Continental Congress created the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union on November 15, 1777, but unanimous consent was needed, and Maryland held out until New York and Virginia agreed to give up their stakes in the Ohio River valley.
• A2) Rhode Island. The state was happy with the weaker powers of the Articles of Confederation and did not want to create a stronger central government.
• A3) 2. George Washington and James Madison both represented Virginia. Thomas Jefferson was then the Minister to France, while John Adams was the Minister to Great Britain.
• A4) James Madison. His diaries give a detailed account of the proceedings that led to the final Constitution.
• A5) Alexander Hamilton. The future Secretary of the Treasury suggested a strong government not unlike the one the colonies had just broken away from, which was enough to doom its chances of acceptance.
• A6) William Paterson. Paterson's New Jersey Plan, favoring the less populous states, was eventually merged with Madison's Virginia Plan, favoring the more populous states. Roger Sherman's Connecticut Compromise created a Senate with equal representation and a House of Representatives with proportional representation.
• A7) The Three-Fifths Compromise. The southern states, whose population was forty percent slaves, wanted each slave to count fully toward their proportional representation but not toward their taxation. Wilson proposed that each slave count as three-fifths of a person for both purposes, and the compromise was agreed to.
• A8) 39. Although 55 people attended the Philadelphia Convention, some either disagreed with the final form or refused to sign without a Bill of Rights appended.
• A9) Rhode Island. By a slim majority of 34 to 32, the Ocean State agreed to the document on May 29, 1790, only after the Bill of Rights had been introduced (the state ratified the latter a mere nine days later). The state did not want the U.S. government to control currency and wanted slavery to be abolished.
• A10) 27. Before the Constitution was even finished, the framers knew that the Bill of Rights would be added. Congress proposed those first ten amendments on September 25, 1789, and they were ratified on December 15, 1791. The most recent amendment, the 27th, was ratified on May 5, 1992, when Alabama became the 38th state to approve it.
• A11) 20th century. The last twelve amendments were ratified between February 3, 1913 and May 7, 1992, while only one other amendment besides the Bill of Rights was ratified in the 18th century. The remaining four amendments were ratified in the 19th century.
• A12) The Enterprise. Following a successful write-in campaign, the test shuttle was dedicated in honor of the Star Trek starship on Constitution Day in 1976.