2.6 Interactive Knowledge Check: Principles of the American Revolution

1. A key principle of the American Revolution is the idea of Natural Rights. The notion is that these rights come from _________ and humans are entitled to them ________

2. The principle of Popular Sovereignty holds that, in the most legitimate form of constitutional government, the power of government comes from _________

3. Another important principle is the Rule of Law, the idea that we have a government of laws, not of men. Under this theory, ______

4. Many of the founders were students of this 17th- and 18th-century movement that focused on intellectual, philosophical, and political thought

5. Justice Neil Gorsuch once told the story of the Roman Emperor Caligula, who wrote down laws in small print and posted them on a very high pillar so that no one could read them. According to Justice Gorsuch, this was an example of _________

6. An alienable right is a right we can give to the government, for example the right to punish. According to John Locke’s Second Treatise, the people surrender some of these rights to the government in exchange for ________

7. An inalienable (or unalienable) right is something that is ours alone and we can’t give it away to the government. An example of an inalienable right is ________

8. The study of the relationship between the government and the people, where the people give away some of their rights in exchange for protection is known as _________

9. According to the founders, what was the solution to tyrannical misrule by the government?

10. Which of the following are essential to the Rule of Law?

11. Which of these three principles can be seen in the Declaration of Independence?

12. One of the Declaration’s most famous passages asserts that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are __________.”

13. According to Thomas Jefferson in his letter to Henry Lee, what was the object of the Declaration of Independence?

14. In a powerful vision of popular sovereignty, the Declaration says that “governments are instituted among men.”  Where does the Declaration say the power of government comes from?

15. According to the Declaration, in what way did King George III abuse his rule of the American people?

16. The Principles of the American Revolution would also serve as the foundation for the government of the United States, established by this document _________

17. Many key founders, including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, drew important lessons about happiness and virtue from ancient philosophers. How would they have defined happiness?

18. In response to the taxation policies of Great Britain, this founder published a series of essays titled, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies (1768).

19. Thomas Paine became one of America’s all-time best-selling authors with his dramatic publication of this work in 1776.

20. According to Thomas Paine, the idea that monarchs get their authority directly from God, known as the divine right of kings was _______