Question

from address at the national american convention of 1916

one of the most striking facts about the history of the united states is that at the outset it was a lawyers history. almost all of the questions to which america addressed itself, say a hundred years ago, were legal questions; were questions of methods, not questions of what you were going to do with your government but questions of how you were going to constitute your government: how you were going to balance the powers of the state and the federal government; how you were going to balance the claims of property against the processes of liberty; how you were going to make up your government so as to balance the parts against each other, so that the legislature would check the executive and the executive the legislature. the idea of government when the united states became a nation was a mechanical conception and the mechanical conception which underlay it was the newtonian theory of the universe. if you take up the federalist you see that some parts of it read like a treatise on government. they speak of the centrifugal and centripetal forces and locate the president somewhere in a rotating system. the whole thing is a calculation of power and adjustment of parts. there was a time when nobody but a lawyer could know enough to run the government of the united states.

(from \address at the national american convention of 1916\ by president woodrow wilson)

what is wilson’s main argument in the passage?

1. that a focus of the u.s. government should be on how it can help people rather than how it should function

1. that a main requirement of the u.s. government should be that leaders have a strong background in law

1. that the success of the u.s. government depended absolutely on the balance of powers between offices

1. that the conception of the u.s. government focused on how to balance power rather than how to use government

Explanation:

To determine Wilson's main argument, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: The passage doesn't focus on helping people vs. government function, so eliminate.
• Option 2: There's no mention of leaders needing a legal background as a main requirement, eliminate.
• Option 3: While power balance is discussed, the passage emphasizes the historical focus on "how to constitute government" (balance power) over "what to do with government" (using it), so this is too narrow.
• Option 4: The passage states early U.S. government was about "how you were going to constitute your government" (balancing power, e.g., state/federal, branches) rather than "what you were going to do with your government" (using it for action). This matches the main idea.

Answer:

1. that the conception of the U.S. government focused on how to balance power rather than how to use government