The Second Continental Congress Flashcards
“If the principles on which the present civil war is carried on by the American colonies, against the British arms, were universally adopted and practiced upon by mankind, they would turn a vale of tears, into a paradise of God: whereas opposite principles, and a conduct founded upon them, has filled the world with blood and slaughter, with rapine and violence, with cruelty and injustices, with wretchedness, poverty, horror, desolation, and despair: We cannot therefore doubt, that the cause of liberty, united with that of truth & righteousness, is the cause of God.”
-Source: Abraham Keteltas, God Arising and Pleading His People’s Cause, 1777
A HISTORIAN WOULD MOST LIKELY USE THIS PASSAGE TO ILLUSTRATE WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING?
HOW RELIGION STRENGTHEN COLONISTS´ VIEW THAT THEY ARE BLESSED WITH LIBERTY
CORRECT (SELECTED)
how religion strengthened colonists’ view that they were blessed with liberty
In the excerpt, the author writes that the American colonists should go to war with Britain because they could turn America “into a paradise of God.” He continues on to say that he believes the cause of liberty “is the cause of God.”
“We have heard the Rights of Man called a levelling system; but the only system to which the word levelling is truly applicable, is the hereditary monarchical system. It is a system of mental levelling. It indiscriminately admits every species of character to the same authority. Vice and virtue, ignorance and wisdom, in short, every quality, good or bad, is put on the same level. Kings succeed each other, not as rationals, but as animals. It signifies not what their mental or moral characters are.”
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791
BASED ON THE EXCERPT, PAINE WOULD MOST LIKELY ALSO SUPPORT WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING?
UNIVERSAL MALE SUFFRAGE
In some of his other works, Paine urged the Constitutional Convention to institute universal male suffrage to discourage giving men power based on hereditary privilege. During this period, only white, property-owning men had the right to vote. This gave men from wealthier families an unfair advantage in influencing political decisions.
“My country men, I know from their form of government and steady attachment heretofore to royalty, will come reluctantly into the idea of independency, but time and persecution brings many wonderful things to pass, and by private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find Common Sense is working a powerful change there in the minds of many men.”
-Source: George Washington, in a letter to Joseph Reed, 1776
AFTER 1776 WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOST FULFILLED THE “POWERFUL CHANGE” THAT THE EXCERPT REFERS TO?
THE CREATION OF A REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
When developing the Constitution, the Framers created a republican form of government in which people elect leaders to represent their interests. In Common Sense, Thomas Paine argued for the colonies to separate from Britain and create a republican form of government.
“We have heard the Rights of Man called a levelling system; but the only system to which the word levelling is truly applicable, is the hereditary monarchical system. It is a system of mental levelling. It indiscriminately admits every species of character to the same authority. Vice and virtue, ignorance and wisdom, in short, every quality, good or bad, is put on the same level. Kings succeed each other, not as rationals, but as animals. It signifies not what their mental or moral characters are.”
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791
ENLIGHTENMENT IDEAS EMPHASIZING INDIVIDUAL TALENT OVER HEREDITARY PRIVILEGE
In the excerpt, Paine critiques the “hereditary monarchical system” which other Enlightenment thinkers critiqued as well! He writes that “Kings succeed each other, not as rationals, but as animals,” which shows how he disagrees with hereditary succession.
“To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho’ himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them.”
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING DEVELOPMENTS BEST REPRESENTS A LOGICAL EXTENSION OF THE IDEAS EXPRESSED IN THE EXCERPT?
THE CREATION OF A REPUBLIC FORM OF GOVERNMENT
Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence expressed colonists’ belief in the superiority of republican forms of government based on the natural rights of the people. These documents helped to shape the ideals of the US government.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
-Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776
WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING DEVELOPMENTS IN THE 1780s BEST REPRESENTS A LOGICAL EXTENSION OF THE IDEAS EXPRESSED IN THE EXCERPT?
THE DIRECT ELECTION OF REPRESENTATIVES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Declaration of Independence states that governments can only function with the “consent of the governed.” One example of consent is when citizens vote for their representatives, essentially saying “I trust this person to represent my interests in government and if they do not, I’ll vote them out.”
“Could it be made a decree in nature, or an registered in heaven, and man could know it, that virtue and wisdom should invariably to hereditary succession, the objection to it would be removed; but when we see that nature acts as if she disowned and sported with the hereditary system; that the mental characters of successors in all countries, are below the average of human understanding; that one is a tyrant, another an idiot, a third insane, and some all three together, it is impossible to attach confidence to it, when reason in man has power to act.”
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791
THE EXCERPT IS BEST UNDERSTOOD AS A RESULT OF WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS?
THE ENLIGHTENMENT
In the excerpt above, Paine makes the argument that a person’s talent and intelligence do not depend on their hereditary background. Enlightenment ideas inspired many American political thinkers like Thomas Paine to emphasize individual talent over hereditary privilege.
“My country men, I know from their form of government and steady attachment heretofore to royalty, will come reluctantly into the idea of independency, but time and persecution brings many wonderful things to pass, and by private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find Common Sense is working a powerful change there in the minds of many men.”
-Source: George Washington, in a letter to Joseph Reed, 1776
WASHINGTON´S REMARKS IN THE EXCERPT MOST DIRECTLY REFLECTED WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY?
THE RISE IN SUPPORT WITHIN THE COLONIES FOR A REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT
In the excerpt, Washington writes that his fellow Virginians supported monarchy and would “come reluctantly into the idea” of independence from Britain. But, he continues on to say that Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense, which argued for the superiority of a republican form of government, “is working a powerful change” in the minds of Virginia colonists.
“Could it be made a decree in nature, or an registered in heaven, and man could know it, that virtue and wisdom should invariably to hereditary succession, the objection to it would be removed; but when we see that nature acts as if she disowned and sported with the hereditary system; that the mental characters of successors in all countries, are below the average of human understanding; that one is a tyrant, another an idiot, a third insane, and some all three together, it is impossible to attach confidence to it, when reason in man has power to act.”
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791
WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING BEST REPRESENTS CONTINUITY IN THE YEARS AFTER 1791 WITH THE IDEAS THAT THE AUTHOR EXPRESSED IN THE EXCERPT?
THE EXPANSION OF SUFFRAGE TO ALL WHITE MEN
Paine would most likely be in favor of expanding the right to vote to all men, regardless of whether they own property. Paine writes in the excerpt that people cannot pass down “wisdom and virtue” as traits. He continues to write that just because someone comes from a powerful family does not mean that leadership suits them.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
-Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776
THE EXCERPT BEST SERVES AS EVIDENCE FOR WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING?
THE COLONISTS´ BELIEF IN THE SUPERIORITY OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT BASED ON THE NATURAL RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE
In the excerpt above, Thomas Jefferson points to three natural rights that the American colonists were born with: life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He also says that people may change or replace a government if that government has violated those rights or lost ¨consent of the governed¨.
“If the principles on which the present civil war is carried on by the American colonies, against the British arms, were universally adopted and practiced upon by mankind, they would turn a vale of tears, into a paradise of God: whereas opposite principles, and a conduct founded upon them, has filled the world with blood and slaughter, with rapine and violence, with cruelty and injustices, with wretchedness, poverty, horror, desolation, and despair: We cannot therefore doubt, that the cause of liberty, united with that of truth & righteousness, is the cause of God.”
-Source: Abraham Keteltas, God Arising and Pleading His People’s Cause, 1777
THE IDEAS ABOUT LIBERTY EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE MOST CONSISTENT WITH WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING?
THE BELIEFS OF THE FIRST GREAT AWAKENING
Some historians point to the First Great Awakening as a long-term cause of the American Revolution. Following the First Great Awakening, many colonists believed that God blessed them with liberty. We can see that sentiment echoed in the excerpt as the author writes that the cause of liberty “is the cause of God.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
-Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776
A HISTORIAN WOULD MOST LIKELY USE THIS PASSAGE TO ILLUSTRATE WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING?
THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT ON AMERICAN COLONISTS
In the text above, Thomas Jefferson references natural rights as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” John Locke, an Enlightenment philosopher, described natural rights as the rights to one’s own “life, health, liberty, or possessions.”
“Could it be made a decree in nature, or an registered in heaven, and man could know it, that virtue and wisdom should invariably to hereditary succession, the objection to it would be removed; but when we see that nature acts as if she disowned and sported with the hereditary system; that the mental characters of successors in all countries, are below the average of human understanding; that one is a tyrant, another an idiot, a third insane, and some all three together, it is impossible to attach confidence to it, when reason in man has power to act.”
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791
WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS BEST SUMMARIZES PAINE´S ARGUMENT?
A PERSON´S TALENT AND INTELLIGENCE IS NOT DEPENDENT ON WHICH FAMILY THEY COME FROM
In the excerpt above, Paine argues that any objection to hereditary succession would go away if there is some guarantee that a person´s family line assures their talent and intelligence. But according to Paine, that´s not the case. He writes in the last line of the excerpt that those who inherit positions of power are often tyrants, idiots, insane or sometimes all three.
“To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho’ himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them.”
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
The excerpt above contributed most directly to which of the following developments?
THE COLONISTS´ BELIEF IN THE SUPERIORITY OF REPUBLICAN FORMS OF GOVERNMENT
Paine points to the “evil of monarchy” and advocates for a republican form of government in other sections of Common Sense.
Problem
“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger. . . The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. . . . The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable–and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.”
-Source: Patrick Henry, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death,” 1775
THE POINT OF VIEW EXPRESSED IN THE QUOTATION ABOVE IS MOST LIKELY OF THAT OF A MEMBER OF WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING GROUPS?
A PATRIOT
Patrick Henry was one of the most active supporters of the Patriot cause.
