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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What Webster speech in the Senate became known by the date it was given?
(a) The Seventh of March speech.
(b) The Christmas Day speech.
(c) The Independence Day speech.
(d) The First of January speech.

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

3. Where did Benton say he's rather see the Democratic Party rather than give one inch to Mr. Van Buren?
(a) A thousand miles north of the Mason Dixon Line.
(b) Out of politics altogether.
(c) Right in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
(d) 50 fathoms deep into the middle of hell fire.

4. Whom did the Adams family say that the magistrate must serve?
(a) His people.
(b) His family.
(c) His god.
(d) His party.

5. In PROFILES IN COURAGE, what does John F. Kennedy fear the American public has forgotten?
(a) Where to look for courage in a politician.
(b) The basic principles our country was founded on.
(c) How to tell if a man is honest.
(d) What courage actually is.

6. 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 had watered Texas soil with his blood.
(b) He said he paid his taxes regularly.
(c) He said he was the greatest general Texas ever had.
(d) He said he had authorized the funds to build that courthouse.

7. What is the example of some advice Kennedy received when he first became a Congressman?
(a) The way to go is to make your own decisions.
(b) The way to get along is to go along.
(c) Listen and do what the majority are doing.
(d) Follow the yellow brick road.

8. What is a constant that an elected official must understand?
(a) He or she is under scrutiny by the constituency.
(b) He or she will never hear from the constituency until election day.
(c) That once elected, the official is no longer responsible to the constituency.
(d) The media will not report anything the elected official does not want made public.

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

10. 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) His stance on big government over states' rights.
(d) He would do whatever was necessary to get re-elected.

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 was from the South and Webster was from the North.
(c) Clay was a republican and Webster was an independent.
(d) Clay had always opposed Webster in the Senate before.

12. What questionable arrangement kept Webster in the Senate when he was about to resign?
(a) Businesses who benefited from his help paid off his debts so he could remain in the senate.
(b) Webster appointed his relatives to Senate jobs.
(c) Webster was offered a bfribe which he nearly accepted.
(d) Webster lied under oath in a Senate hearing.

13. Who suggested that Senators were vulgar demagogues?
(a) A reporter.
(b) A cabinet member.
(c) A preacher.
(d) An ambassador.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How did one reporter categorize elected officials?

2. What does Kennedy say was a liability about Webster's immense popularity with both sides of the political spectrum?

3. What does Kennedy see as Webster's moral flaw?

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

5. Why was John Quincey Adams generally unhappy?

(see the answer keys)

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