1. Where was the Constitutional Convention held? Philadelphia.
2. What are the first seven words of the Preamble to the Constitution? We the people of the United States…
3. According to the Constitution, what is the minimum age to qualify for the presidency? 35, and it’s 30 for a Senate, 25 for a member of the House.

Which of the following members of the founding generation were present at the Constitutional Convention? Answer yes or no to each.

1. John Adams. No. (He was in England at the time.)
2. Aaron Burr. No.
3. Ben Franklin. Yes.
4. Alexander Hamilton. Yes. (Proposed a life term for the presidency, with monarch-like powers.)
5. John Hancock, No.
6. Patrick Henry. No (Henry refused to go, saying he smelled a rat, and was among the fiercest opponents of ratification.)
7. Thomas Jefferson. No. (He was in France.)
8. James Madison. Oh yes. (Known as “Father of the Constitution.”)
9. Gouverneur Morris. Yes. (The most talkative member.)
10. Tom Paine. No.
11. Roger Sherman. Yes. (Proposed the famed Connecticut Compromise, which enabled small and large states to agree on the makeup of the Congress.
12. George Washington. Yes. (Presided at the convention.)

This is the advanced level. Three prominent members of the Constitutional Convention, stayed to the end but decided not to sign the draft and opposed ratification. Can you name them?

• One of them has given his name to a small university that made an improbable run to the Final Four in last year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament. George Mason of Virginia.
• One of them has a name that lives on in an eponymous word for a way of drawing legislative districts to gain partisan advantage. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. (The word is gerrymander.)
• One of them was a member George Washington’s cabinet. Edmund Randolph. Despite his opposition to ratification, he agreed to serve as the first attorney general under fellow Virginian George Washington.

This last question is very hard. No one on whom I have tried it out has gotten it.:

What is the most recent amendment to the U.S. Constitution?

The 27th amendment provides that if Congress should vote itself a pay raise, it cannot take effect until after the next congressional election. This has an amazing story behind it. It was proposed in 1788-89 as part of the original package of amendments that became the Bill of Rights. But this was one of the proposed amendments that wasn’t ratified. In 1982, a university rediscovered it and started a new movement to ratify it. The courts ruled that the first six state ratifications that had occurred in the 1780s and 90s still counted. Other states added their ratifications and the Amendment took effect in 1992.