Two founding documents, one idea

Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Asking the Government to Listen (two documents)

   Background: [1] Before they declared independence, the colonists sent many formal requests, called petitions, asking the king and Parliament to change their policies. [2] Near its end, the Declaration of Independence says what became of those requests. [3] Fifteen years later, the First Amendment, ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, named the right to petition among the freedoms that Congress may not limit.

   Document A, from the Declaration of Independence (1776): [4] He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. [5] In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

   Document B, from the First Amendment (1791): [6] Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

   Word notes: [7] In Document A, Representative Houses are the colonial assemblies that the colonists elected, and dissolved means closed down. [8] Redress means setting a wrong right, and grievances are complaints. [9] Peaceably means without fighting. [10] Abridging means cutting short or limiting. [11] The cut in Document B leaves out the amendment's first two clauses, which are on a different subject. [12] The amendment names Congress, the branch that makes the nation's laws.

2. 1.

   Ari draws an arrow from Document A, sentence 5, to Document B. How does Document B answer that complaint?

   • It protects the right to petition, which A says the king answered with injury.
   • It shows that the petitions of 1791 led to the complaint of 1776.
   • It repeats Document A's complaint that the people's petitions were met with injury.
   • It requires Congress to grant whatever a petition asks it to do.
3. 2.

   Bo needs proof of a two-part claim: “The colonists' elected assemblies were closed for resisting the king, and a later law protects people who gather peaceably.” Which sentences prove both parts?

   • Sentences 5 and 6.
   • Sentences 4 and 6.
   • Sentences 4 and 5.
   • Sentences 7 and 9.
4. 3.

   Esme reads sentence 6 closely, without adding anything. Which statement about its words is accurate?

   • It protects speech and the press but does not mention petitions.
   • It forbids any government in the country to limit speech or petitions.
   • It protects fewer freedoms than the full amendment, because two clauses are cut.
   • It limits what Congress may do, and its words do not mention the states.
5. 4.

   Jun traces the idea of the people's voice from Document A to Document B. How does the idea develop?

   • A complains that petitions were ignored; B guarantees that the people's petitions will succeed.
   • B names the people's rights first, and A later complains that the king ignored those rights.
   • Both documents list wrongs that a ruler did to the people's assemblies and petitions.
   • A complains assemblies and petitions were shut out; B makes them rights Congress may not limit.
6. 5.

   Kira needs proof of a two-part claim: “The colonists asked humbly for wrongs to be fixed, and a later law protects asking the government to fix wrongs.” Which sentences prove both parts?

   • Sentences 4 and 6.
   • Sentences 1 and 3.
   • Sentences 5 and 6.
   • Sentences 4 and 5.

7. A Promise of Equality, Spoken and Then Written (speech and amendment)

   Background: [1] President Abraham Lincoln gave a short speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in November 1863, during the Civil War. [2] Four score and seven years means eighty-seven years, so the opening line points back to 1776 and the Declaration of Independence. [3] In 1868, three years after the war ended, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, and its first section limits what any state may do to people.

   Document A, from the Gettysburg Address (1863), the Bliss copy: [4] Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. [5] …government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

   Document B, from the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1 (1868): [6] No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

   Word notes: [7] A proposition is an idea put forward to be tested or proved. [8] The second quotation is the end of the speech's last sentence. [9] Due process of law means fair legal steps, followed the same way each time. [10] Within its jurisdiction means inside the area where the state's laws apply. [11] Equal protection of the laws means a state must apply its laws to each person in the same way.

8. 6.

   Milo draws an arrow from Document A, sentence 4, to Document B. How does Document B develop that idea?

   • A states equality as the founding idea; B makes each state give any person equal protection.
   • B's rule about the states came first, and A's speech praises it as the nation's founding idea.
   • Both are laws that require the states to treat the people who live in them equally.
   • A states equality as the founding idea; B ends unequal treatment by any government or person.
9. 7.

   Noah needs proof of a two-part claim: “Lincoln tied the nation to equality, and a later law forbids a state to take liberty without fair legal steps.” Which sentences prove both parts?

   • Sentences 4 and 5.
   • Sentences 4 and 6.
   • Sentences 5 and 6.
   • Sentences 2 and 9.
10. 8.

    Sentence 4 says “all men are created equal,” and sentence 6 protects “any person.” Pia asks: what does sentence 6's wording show?

    • Its due process and equal protection rules cover any person, not citizens alone.
    • Its rules protect citizens alone, so its reach is narrower than the speech's.
    • It shows that the speech was written into the Constitution word for word.
    • It shows that both documents use the word equal for exactly the same group of people.
11. 9.

    Ren compares who each document speaks to. How does the focus move from Document A to Document B?

    • Both documents address the national government in Washington.
    • A speaks of the new nation; B places its rules on each State.
    • B's limits on the states led Lincoln to speak of a new nation.
    • A speaks of a new nation; B lets each State decide who counts as a person.
12. 10.

    Zee writes one sentence that links the speech and the amendment. Which link goes no further than their words?

    • The speech calls equality the founding idea; the amendment bars states from denying equal protection.
    • The amendment was passed in order to carry out the promise that Lincoln made at Gettysburg.
    • Both excerpts are rules that the courts of each state must follow.
    • The speech says the nation had already made its people equal to one another by 1863.