SparkNotes: James Madison: Review Test

1. Which church was James Madison raised in as a boy?

(A) Anglican Church

(B) Unitarian Church

(C) Presbyterian Church

(D) Roman Catholic Church

2. Where did James Madison go to college?

(A) College of William and Mary

(B) Harvard College

(C) College of New Jersey

(D) University of Virginia

3. As a young man, right out of college, James Madison could best be described as

(A) Personable and ambitious in his desire to go into politics

(B) Depressed and aimless in his professional ambitions

(C) Athletic and desirous to make a career as an Army officer

(D) Uncertain about a political career but very pro-British in his political convictions

4. Madison entered into politics as a member of which political body?

(A) Virginia House of Burgesses

(B) Continental Congress

(C) Virginia's Orange County Committee of Safety

(D) U.S. House of Representatives

5. Which issue was of chief concern to Madison as young Virginia politician?

(A) Making sure that Virginia did not move hastily into war with the British

(B) Drafting a Bill of Rights for the U.S. Constitution

(C) Ridding America of the influence of the French

(D) Opposition to the established Anglican Church in Virginia

6. In 1779, Madison served on the Council of State to which Virginia governor who also became his life-long friend?

(A) Thomas Jefferson

(B) Patrick Henry

(C) Elbridge Gerry

(D) George Washington

7. In 1780, 29-year-old James Madison was the youngest member of which political body?

(A) Continental Congress

(B) Virginia House of Delegates

(C) Presidential cabinet

(D) U.S. Senate

8. Before the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the American states were provisionally governed by

(A) The Articles of Confederation

(B) The Bill of Rights

(C) The Declaration of Independence

(D) The Virginia Plan

9. What is a central idea in the doctrine of Federalism?

(A) The American states are sovereign powers united by the common agreement of their individual legislatures

(B) The national legislature has sovereign authority over the American people, taking the place formally held by King and Parliament

(C) The people at large, represented in a central government, are the seat of the national sovereignty of the United States

(D) The Judicial branch is by right the most powerful of the several branches of the government

10. Which issue concerned Madison while he was a member of the Continental Congress in the early 1780s?

(A) The U.S. Constitution was being interpreted too loosely in favor of strengthening the nation government

(B) President George Washington refused any sort of military alliance with the French

(C) American trade along the Mississippi was threatened by Spanish control of the river's delta

(D) The Federalists were urging the creation of a National Bank

11. What personal disappointment did Madison suffer in 1783?

(A) Some of his lands at Montpelier were overrun and burned by invading British troops

(B) His fiancée Catherine Floyd broke their engagement and married another man

(C) His wife, Dolley Madison, was very ill for several months

(D) He was disowned by the Quaker community for marrying outside the faith

12. Who was Madison's chief opponent in the effort to disestablish the Anglican Church in Virginia in favor of religious liberty?

(A) Patrick Henry

(B) Thomas Jefferson

(C) James Mason

(D) His father, James Madison, Sr.

13. Which European thinker greatly influenced Madison's thinking on constitutional questions?

(A) Karl Marx

(B) Edmund Burke

(C) Montesquieu

(D) St. Thomas Aquinas

14. What was the Virginia Plan?

(A) Madison's design for the Constitution which was adopted by the Convention of 1788 as its working model

(B) A rival plan to Madison's for the Constitution

(C) An anti-Federalist plot against the government headed by Patrick Henry

(D) A series of resolutions drafted by Madison in opposition to President Adams's Alien and Sedition Acts

15. With whom did Madison write The Federalist papers in 1788 and 1789?

(A) Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry

(B) James Mason and Elbridge Gerry

(C) Alexander Hamilton and John Jay

(D) James Monroe and DeWitt Clinton

16. What was the main purpose of The Federalist?

(A) To dissuade people from supporting the doctrine of Federalism

(B) To convince delegates to state conventions to ratify the proposed U.S. Constitution

(C) To defend the idea of true democracy against classical republicans

(D) To challenge the idea that there should be a strong, centralized government in the new American nation

17. In 1789, James Madison took a seat in which legislative body?

(A) U.S. Senate

(B) Virginia House of Delegates

(C) Constitutional Convention

(D) U.S. House of Representatives

18. In 1789, as a U.S. congressman, James Madison drafted which important document?

(A) Proclamation of Neutrality

(B) Virginia Resolutions

(C) Bill of Rights

(D) U.S. Constitution

19. What was James Madison's nickname when he took office as a U.S. congressman?

(A) "Our first man"

(B) "Old Ironsides"

(C) "Father of our country"

(D) "Publius"

20. What nation did Madison favor in foreign affairs?

(A) France

(B) Great Britain

(C) Canada

(D) Prussia

21. In 1790, Madison opposed Alexander Hamilton in his effort to establish

(A) Anglicanism as the state religion

(B) A pro-French foreign policy

(C) The First National Bank

(D) Nationalized public schooling

22. Madison was a key figure in the formation of which political party?

(A) Federalists

(B) Whigs

(C) Nationalist-Democrats

(D) Democratic-Republicans

23. Which of President Washington's policies greatly disappointed Madison?

(A) Alien and Sedition Acts

(B) Embargo Act

(C) Proclamation of Neutrality

(D) Treaty of Ghent

24. Who became President in 1797?

(A) John Adams

(B) Thomas Jefferson

(C) George Washington

(D) James Madison

25. How old was Madison when he married?

(A) 27

(B) 32

(C) 43

(D) 51

26. How many children did Dolley Madison have from her first marriage?

(A) 0

(B) 1

(C) 2

(D) 4

27. Dolley left which religious community upon her marriage to James Madison?

(A) Roman Catholics

(B) Quakers

(C) Anglicans

(D) Shakers

28. In which office did Madison serve President Thomas Jefferson's Administration?

(A) Secretary of State

(B) Ambassador to France

(C) Vice President

(D) Secretary of the Treasury

29. What year did the United States acquire the Louisiana territory?

(A) 1783

(B) 1803

(C) 1809

(D) 1814

30. Who was William Marbury?

(A) One of the three men at the Constitutional Convention who refused to sign the finished document

(B) The man who won the Supreme Court decision against Madison which established the practice of judicial review

(C) James Madison's first Vice President

(D) Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of State

31. What was the purpose of the Embargo Act of 1807?

(A) Stop commerce with the French, who were fighting against America's British ally

(B) Cut off American foreign commerce in retaliation against the British

(C) Establish a policy of neutrality during the Anglo-French wars

(D) Block Spanish ships from entering the Mississippi River

32. James Madison's presidential term spanned which years?

(A) 1801–1809

(B) 1805–1813

(C) 1809–1813

(D) 1809–1817

33. Which political fight shook up Madison's cabinet during his first term as President?

(A) Debate over renewing the charter to the National Bank

(B) Marbury v. Madison Supreme Court case

(C) Debate over the Jay Treaty

(D) Repealing the Alien and Sedition Acts

34. Who served Madison simultaneously as Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury?

(A) William Henry Harrison

(B) Elbridge Gerry

(C) James Monroe

(D) John Jay

35. What was the name of the Shawnee chief who attempted a unification of American Indian tribes but saw defeat for his movement at the battle of Tippecanoe?

(A) Geronimo

(B) Pontiac

(C) Tecumseh

(D) The Prophet

36. What were the names of Madison's Vice Presidents?

(A) DeWitt Clinton and James Monroe

(B) John Jay and William Marbury

(C) John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay

(D) George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry

37. What spurred on the War of 1812?

(A) French blockades against American trade

(B) British invasion of New York from Canada

(C) Disputes over states' rights between southern and northern interests

(D) British aggression against American merchant ships and sailors

38. What was "Old Ironsides"?

(A) Nickname of the American navy ship, the Constitution

(B) President Madison's nickname

(C) Name of the British ship which launched the invasion of Washington, D.C., in 1814

(D) Thomas Jefferson's nickname

39. Dolley Madison became a heroine for what action taken during the War of 1812?

(A) Intercepting a British dispatch before the battle of Fort McHenry

(B) Saving the Declaration of Independence from desecration by the British

(C) Saving a portrait of George Washington before the White House was set aflame

(D) Going ahead with White House balls and other social events to keep up Washingtonians' morale before the British invasion of the capital

40. What treaty ended the War of 1812?

(A) Treaty of Ghent

(B) Treaty of Paris

(C) Treaty of Amiens

(D) Treaty of Brussels

41. Victory in the War of 1812 and President Madison's subsequent popularity coincided with the death of which national political party?

(A) Whigs

(B) Democratic-Republicans

(C) Nationalist-Democrats

(D) Federalists

42. Who succeeded James Madison as President?

(A) Thomas Jefferson

(B) James Monroe

(C) John Quincy Adams

(D) Andrew Jackson

43. President Madison was how old when he left office?

(A) 85

(B) 76

(C) 66

(D) 58

44. What was the name of Madison's great Virginia estate?

(A) Montpelier

(B) Mount Vernon

(C) Monticello

(D) Tara

45. National politics after Madison's retirement was characterized by the rise of what troublesome development?

(A) Sectionalism

(B) Anti-democratic feeling in the population

(C) Women's suffrage movement

(D) Anti-Federalism

46. What was the main goal of the American Colonization Society which Madison helped to found?

(A) Emancipation of slaves

(B) Establishing a world-wide American colonial empire

(C) Agricultural reform

(D) Conquering the American Indian nations

47. Madison opposed which American congressman's doctrine of Nullification?

(A) Andrew Jackson

(B) Thomas Jefferson

(C) John Calhoun

(D) Henry Clay

48. Madison became rector of which institution in 1826?

(A) Anglican Church

(B) College of William and Mary

(C) American Colonization Society

(D) University of Virginia

49. Why was Madison accused of hypocrisy during the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1829?

(A) He distanced himself from the strong states' rights language of the 1798 Virginia Resolutions

(B) He seemed to turn his back on his former support of Federalism

(C) He became an abolitionist in his views on slavery

(D) He defended the doctrine of states' rights as never before

50. By 1831, Madison was distinguished among the Founding Fathers for what reason?

(A) He had been the only one to oppose slavery

(B) He was the only one still alive

(C) He had turned his back completely on Federalism

(D) He had served two terms as President