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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is ironic about Texas secession on March 2?
(a) It was the day Houston became governor.
(b) It was the anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto.
(c) It was the anniversary of Houston's election to the Senate.
(d) It was Houston's brithday.

2. John Quincey Adams' mother was fond of saying John had been groomed to do what?
(a) Become a Puritan minister.
(b) Become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
(c) Write great books.
(d) Uphold the American legal system.

3. How did Webster view the Compromise of 1850 in terms of his anti-slavery convictions?
(a) He viewed it as a short-term compromise.
(b) He thought it would give him power to run for President.
(c) He wanted to bring the prospect of Civil War to a head.
(d) He believed that compromise would eventually lead to abolition.

4. What act of inconsistency brought his Missouri constituents to brand him a traitor?
(a) His voting with the Republicans.
(b) His opposition to annexting Texas.
(c) His willingness to allow the country to go to war.
(d) His opposition to the Missouri Compromise.

5. What did the historian Wharton say about Houston's courage as he fought against Texas' secession from the Union?
(a) It took a thousand times more courage than charging up the hill at San Jacinto.
(b) He relapsed into alcoholism and went back to the Cherokee.
(c) No one paid any attention as Houston entered the Secessionist Convention.
(d) Houston finally lost his courage and gave in to popular opinion.

6. What is another difficult situation for an elected official besides the interests of the nation and those of the constituency?
(a) Party pressure to vote the party line.
(b) Presidential arm twisting.
(c) Political differences within the official's own family.
(d) National opinion polls.

7. What earned Houston the name of traitor and pro-Abolitionist?
(a) His vote against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.
(b) His vote against the Missouri compromise.
(c) His support of President Lincoln.
(d) His friendship with Senator Calhoun.

8. What metaphor does Kennedy use to describe the relationship between the elected official and the electorate?
(a) A lawyer-client relationship.
(b) A father-child relationship.
(c) A doctor-patient relationship.
(d) A coach-team relationship.

9. What Senator pulled a gun on Benton once?
(a) Senator Henry Foote.
(b) Senator Martin VanBuren.
(c) Senator William Cooper.
(d) Senator Aaron Burr.

10. Why was John Quincey Adams generally unhappy?
(a) He never couold live up to his mother's expectations.
(b) He never traveled abroad.
(c) He never married his childhood sweetheart.
(d) He never felt he had accomplished enough.

11. Why was Webster not bothered by what many would consider as bribes?
(a) He never let that happen to him.
(b) The moral question of accepting money and gifts for Webster was not an issue for him.
(c) He accepted money and gifts but always did only what he thought was right.
(d) He felt he was entitled to extra benefits for his service to the Union.

12. How did one reporter categorize elected officials?
(a) That they were gluttons for mental punishment.
(b) That they needed to be good public speakers.
(c) That people elected them on their looks.
(d) That people thought everything they said was untrue.

13. What does Kennedy say was a liability about Webster's immense popularity with both sides of the political spectrum?
(a) He had the ability to disappoint twice as many people than most elected officials.
(b) Being popular made it difficult for him to compromise.
(c) People rarely took him seriously because of his ability to argue both sides.
(d) He was a politician of popular opinion rather than high principles.

14. Kennedy sees as a weakness in John Quincey Adams an emotional attachment to whom?
(a) His religious congregational members.
(b) His parents and God.
(c) His college friends and professors.
(d) His wife and his mistress.

15. How did Daniel Webster describe and define himself?
(a) As a citizen of the world.
(b) As a free thinker opposed to the Union.
(c) Not as a Massachusetts man but as an American.
(d) As a debator who loved to take any opposing view.

Short Answer Questions

1. What advantage did John Quincey Adams have as a politician?

2. What effect did Webster's three-hour-long speech in the Senate have in 1850?

3. What was the result of Webster's courageous stand in giving the Seventh of March speech?

4. What is the irony of Houston's defending the Northerner's rights to abolition?

5. What made Sam Houston a household word in the United States?

(see the answer keys)

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