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Founding Fathers Quiz


For us, The United States of America is a fait accompli, but to the Founding Fathers it was an experiment—and one that much of the world expected to fail.  Test your knowledge of the men who helped make it happen.

1. To which of the following was George Washington personally opposed?
a. the formation of political parties
b. making long-term foreign alliances
c. fighting in foreign wars
d. all of the above
2. In the years before the American Revolution, John Adams quite famously defended whom in court?
a. the perpetrators of the Boston Tea Party
b. the British soldiers responsible for the Boston Massacre
c. Abraham Whipple (for leading the burning of the HMS Gaspée in 1772)
d. Benjamin Franklin (for public indecency)
3. Which of the following was Thomas Jefferson NOT?
a. an ordained minister and theologian
b. an architect and inventor
c. a horticulturist and paleontologist
d. an author and the founder of a university
4. In which of the following "un-American" activities did Thomas Jefferson engage?
a. He cultivated poppy to make his own opium.
b. He published his own version of the Bible - without the miracles.
c. He (allegedly) fathered children out of wedlock with one of his slaves.
d. all of the above
5. What law, passed under John Adams' administration, made it illegal to criticize anyone in government EXCEPT Thomas Jefferson (who, as Vice President at the time, was exempt)?
a. The Alien Friends Act
b. The Alien Enemies Act
c. The Sedition Act
d. The Dirty Liberal Traitors Act
6. In the famous "Federalist #10," James Madison argues against what form of government?
a. a representative republic
b. a democracy
c. a monarchy
d. a communism
7. What was the original intent of the "Monroe Doctrine," authored primarily by John Quincy Adams?
to declare the New World off limits to further European colonialism
b. to claim for the U.S. all territory between itself and the Pacific Ocean
c. to give the U.S. the right to unilateral intervention in the New World
d. to prevent Latin America from going communist
8. How long into his term as president did William Henry Harrison die?
a. one year
b. three years
c. one day
d. thirty days
9. During the "Nullification Crisis," President Andrew Jackson sent federal troops to do what?
a. to remove Cherokee tribes from Tennessee
b. to prevent Florida from becoming a refuge for runaway slaves
c. to disband the Second National Bank
d. to force South Carolina to abide by federal tariff laws
10. Abraham Lincoln nearly ruined his political career in the 1840's with his vocal opposition to what?
a. slavery
b. the Fugitive Slave Act
c. the Mexican War
d. the censoring of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass