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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Kennedy's third pressure that he feels is the most damaging?
(a) Making decisions that will satisfy everyone in one way or another.
(b) Making decisions when you do not have enough information to make good ones.
(c) Making decisions when to satisfy a constituancy will not be what is best for the nation.
(d) Making decisions when a fellow Senator or Congressman needs to get a pet project going.

2. What well-known military leader had Houston served under?
(a) Robert E. Lee.
(b) George Washington.
(c) Ulysses S. Grant.
(d) Andrew Jackson.

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

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

5. What advantage do minority special interest groups have to influence elected officials?
(a) Being articulate and able to sway the public.
(b) Being watchdogs on everything the official does.
(c) Not needing money to get their message across.
(d) Being able to get medial coverage without a budget.

6. Who said that courage is grace under pressure?
(a) Ernest Hemingway.
(b) Jesus Christ.
(c) John Quincy Adams.
(d) Bret Hart.

7. Which of the following public offices did John Quincey Adams NOT hold?
(a) President.
(b) Senator.
(c) Congressman.
(d) Supreme Court Justice.

8. In a speech, how did Houston justify his right to deliver an address in a Texas town where he had been turned away from the courthouse?
(a) He said he paid his taxes regularly.
(b) He said he had watered Texas soil with his blood.
(c) He said he had authorized the funds to build that courthouse.
(d) He said he was the greatest general Texas ever had.

9. John Quincey Adams was a Senator from what state?
(a) Massachusetts.
(b) Virginia.
(c) Connecticutt.
(d) New York.

10. For what prestigious university did Adams once work as a professor?
(a) Dartmouth.
(b) Princeton.
(c) Yale.
(d) Harvard.

11. What was so strange about Henry Clay's enlisting Webster in his cause for compromise?
(a) Webster had given many speeches opposing Henry Clay.
(b) Clay had always opposed Webster in the Senate before.
(c) Clay was a republican and Webster was an independent.
(d) Clay was from the South and Webster was from the North.

12. Although thought of as a crazy politician, what did John F. Kennedy see as a mark of courage in the man?
(a) He would do what he thought was right regardless of his party or his popularity.
(b) He would stand up in the Senate without a gun.
(c) He would do whatever was necessary to get re-elected.
(d) His stance on big government over states' rights.

13. What traits indicate that Adams suffered common human emotions?
(a) His hate and retribution against his enemies.
(b) Adams secret life of debauchery.
(c) Times of disappointment and hurt at loss of popularity.
(d) Lapses in his Puritanical beliefs.

14. Why did Houston define himself as an old fogy?
(a) Because, he said, he had been made a martyr for Texas.
(b) Because, he said, I don't always practice what I preach.
(c) Because, he said, I have been around far too long and need to retire.
(d) Because, he said, I cling devotedly to the principles upon which our government was founded.

15. What was the result of Webster's courageous stand in giving the Seventh of March speech?
(a) Webster was honored by his constituents as a man of courage.
(b) Webster changed his position of slavery to agree with Clay.
(c) Webster sacrificed his potential presidential run and his popularity.
(d) Webster would have become president but he died 2 years later.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Houston deliver his acceptance speech after being elected Governor as an independent?

2. What is the first pressure of Americans that keeps them from acting courageously according to Kennedy?

3. What metaphor does Kennedy use to describe the relationship between the elected official and the electorate?

4. What is ironic about Houston as an Indian fighter?

5. What was rumored to be the cause of Houston's breakdown and resigning as Governor of Tennessee?

(see the answer keys)

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