Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
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This US Constitution trivia quiz has 70 free questions with answers and covers the whole story of America's founding document: the secret summer in Philadelphia, the compromises that produced the House and Senate, the nine-state ratification fight, and every amendment from the Bill of Rights to the congressional-pay amendment that waited 202 years. You will meet the calligrapher who inked the parchment, the delegates who refused to sign, the student whose C-grade paper changed the Constitution, and the mother whose letter won women the vote. It is written for Constitution Day classrooms, civics students, pub quiz hosts and anyone who wants to test how much they actually remember from government class. About a third of the questions are easy, a third medium, and the rest hard to expert, so it works for a mixed room. Every answer has been checked against the text of the Constitution or a primary encyclopaedic account of the debates and ratifications, so you can quote them with confidence.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which building did the delegates meet to draft the Constitution in the summer of 1787?
Independence Hall, Philadelphia
The same room had hosted the signing of the Declaration of Independence eleven years earlier.
Q 02In what year was the U.S. Constitution signed by the convention delegates?
1787
Signing came on September 17, a date now marked every year as Constitution Day.
Q 03How many times has the Constitution been amended since it took effect in 1789?
27
The first ten arrived together in 1791 and the most recent, on congressional pay, in 1992.
Q 04What collective name is given to the first ten amendments?
The Bill of Rights
They were added in 1791 to honour a promise made to critics during the ratification debates.
Q 05The Constitution superseded which earlier framework of national government on March 4, 1789?
The Articles of Confederation
Under the old system the chief problem, in Washington's words, was simply "no money".
Q 06Which three words open the Preamble to the Constitution?
We the People
The phrase signalled that the people, not the states, were the source of the government's authority.
Q 07Which Pennsylvania delegate is credited with mainly writing the Preamble?
Gouverneur Morris
His draft replaced a list of the thirteen states with "of the United States" and added the six goals.
Q 08Whom did the delegates unanimously elect as president of the Constitutional Convention?
George Washington
Adams and Jefferson were both abroad as diplomats and took no part in the convention.
Q 09Which of the thirteen states refused to send any delegates to the convention?
Rhode Island
It also became the last of the original states to ratify, holding out until May 1790.
Q 10How many states had to ratify before the Constitution could take effect?
9
Delegates chose nine, roughly two-thirds, because they suspected at least one state would never sign on.
Q 11Which state was the first to ratify the Constitution, by a unanimous 30-0 vote?
Delaware
Its licence plates still carry the boast "The First State".
Q 12Which state's ratification on June 21, 1788, was the ninth and made the Constitution operative?
New Hampshire
Virginia and New York followed within weeks, but the deed was already done.
Q 13Who was the calligrapher who engrossed the original Constitution on parchment?
Jacob Shallus
He was assistant clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and did the job over a single weekend.
Q 21The Great Compromise, creating a House by population and a Senate of equal state votes, is named after which state?
Connecticut
Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of that state pushed the deal through in July 1787.
Q 22The Three-Fifths Compromise let states count three-fifths of those enslaved for what purpose?
Representation in Congress
The clause was effectively erased by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.
Q 23How many articles does the original Constitution contain?
7
They cover the legislature, executive, judiciary, the states, amendments, federal supremacy and ratification.
Q 14How many delegates signed the Constitution on September 17, 1787?
39
Fifty-five men attended at some point, but thirteen had left and three present refused to sign.
Q 15Which Virginia delegate refused to sign the Constitution without a written list of rights?
George Mason
His Virginia Declaration of Rights later fed directly into the amendments of 1791.
Q 16Franklin mused about a rising or setting sun painted on what object in the convention hall?
The president's chair
He decided it was rising, not setting, once the document was signed.
Q 17Whose detailed notes of the secret convention debates were not published until after his death in 1836?
James Madison
The official secretary, William Jackson, kept records so brief that Madison's notes became the main record.
Q 18Under what shared pseudonym were the Federalist Papers published?
Publius
The 85 essays were written by Hamilton, Madison and Jay to win over New York voters.
Q 19How many essays make up the Federalist Papers?
85
The first 77 ran in New York newspapers between October 1787 and April 1788.
Q 20Which proposal kept a one-chamber Congress in which every state had a single vote?
The New Jersey Plan
Delegates rejected it on June 19, 1787, by seven states to three.
Q 24Which article of the Constitution establishes the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary?
The third
Article I covers Congress and Article II the presidency, so the courts come third.
Q 25What is the minimum age to serve as President of the United States?
35
The president must also have lived in the country for fourteen years.
Q 26For how many years must someone have been a U.S. citizen before serving in the House of Representatives?
7
Senators need nine years of citizenship and must be at least 30 years old.
Q 27Who presides over the Senate when a President is tried on impeachment charges?
The Chief Justice
Conviction needs the votes of two-thirds of the senators present.
Q 28Which chamber holds the sole power of impeachment?
The House
The House impeaches, then appoints "managers" to prosecute the case at the Senate trial.
Q 29According to Article III, federal judges hold their offices for how long?
During good behaviour
In practice that means life tenure unless a judge is impeached and removed.
Q 30A treason conviction requires a confession in open court or the testimony of at least how many witnesses?
Two
Treason is the only crime the Constitution itself defines.