Sharp Rubber Duck

Hail to the chief! A Presidents Day quiz

February 18, 2008

Once a compromise between Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday, Presidents Day – to be celebrated this year on Feb. 18 – has become a holiday to honor all of the American presidents, from titans such as Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt to lesser-known luminaries such as James K. Polk and Rutherford B. Hayes.

Test your knowledge of the presidents with this 25-question quiz, and grade yourself by the scale at the bottom.

1. Name the president who cautioned Americans: “Let me now warn you in the most solemn manner against the baleful effects of the spirit of party.”

2. One vice president, who would subsequently serve as president, said of the two posts, “The second office of the government is honorable and easy, the first but a splendid misery.” Who said it?

3. Which college has sent the most graduates on to the nation's top office?

4. While only one state, Washington, is named for a president, four states have capital cities named after presidents. Name them.

5. Once upon a time, a single state supplied the nation with three chief executives in a row. Who were they, and from which state did they hail?

6. His admirers called this president “The Colossus of Debate,” but critics sometimes referred to him as “His Rotundity.” Who was he?

7. Which city has hosted the most major-party nominating conventions – Chicago, Philadelphia or New York?

8. Which president married at the youngest age?

9. Which American first lady came to that high state at the earliest age?

10. Which first lady had the longest life?

11. Name the president who said: “The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This honor now beckons America.”

12. Name the president whose credo was: “The chief business of the American people is business.”

13. Besides their high office, what did George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison (1809-1817), James Monroe (1817-1825), John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison (1841) have in common?

14. During the presidential campaign of 1800, the electoral college deadlocked, with 73 votes each going to candidates Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, left. This threw the hotly contested election into the House of Representatives, which took six days and many ballots to finally choose Jefferson. How many ballots constituted “many?”

15. American history records a good many land battles, and also a good many naval engagements. How many generals have made it to the presidency?

16. And how many admirals have made it to the highest office?

17. The separation of church and state is a cherished tenet of American politics, and yet two presidents were nominated at conventions held in churches. Who were they?

18. “I would rather be right than be president.” Who would?

19. Name the president who laid out his international agenda by saying: “The responsibility of the great states is to serve and not to dominate the world.”

20. What do the following names have in common: Abram, Birchard, Knox, Gamaliel, Rudolph and Simpson?

21. Who is credited with coining the word “veep?”

22. What was the longest major-party nominating convention on record?

23. Only two vice presidents were appointed rather than elected to office. Who were they?

24. Which religious denomination has claimed the most presidents?

25. First ladies haven't all been housewives. Lou Henry Hoover (1929-1933) served for a time as president of the Girl Scouts of America. Florence Harding (1921-1923) was circulation manager of her husband's newspaper, The Daily Star of Marion, Ohio. Lady Bird Johnson (1963-1969) owned and ran a sizable media empire. Which first lady was a student of modern-dance icon Martha Graham, above, and later formed her own dance troupe?

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PRESIDENTIAL ANSWERS

1. The warning against the partisan spirit came from George Washington in his Farewell Address, delivered on Sept. 17, 1796.

2. Thomas Jefferson praised the vice presidency, at the expense of the presidency, in a letter to Elbridge Gerry on May 13, 1797.

3. Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., has graduated five future presidents: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

4. The four state capitals honoring presidents are Jackson, Miss.; Jefferson City, Mo.; Lincoln, Neb.; and Madison, Wisc.

5. Ohio gave us Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield.

6. “The Colossus of Debate” – ironic, given his small stature – was our second president, John Adams. Rather portly as president, he was criticized as “His Rotundity” but also was nicknamed “the Atlas of Independence” for his role as a champion of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and as “the Father of the American Navy” for his role in founding that service.

7. The champion host of major-party national conventions, perhaps because its central location made it most accessible in the days before air travel, is Chicago by a wide margin, with 25 conventions to date. In this category “The Second City” is “The First City.”

8. Andrew Johnson married Eliza McCardle when he was 18 years and 137 days old, making him the youngest groom yet to become president. She was 16.

9. Frances Folsom became the youngest first lady at 21 when she married President Grover Cleveland at the White House in 1886.

10. Bess Truman, who lived 97 years and 247 days, was America's longest-lived first lady.

11. Richard M. Nixon praised the role of peacemaker above all others.

12. Calvin Coolidge famously didn't say much, but much of what he did say was pro-business.

13. Although born in North America, the first eight presidents – Washington through W.H. Harrison – were all born British subjects.

14. It took 36 ballots for the House of Representatives to select Thomas Jefferson as president.

15. Generals who made it to the White House include Washington, Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Andrew Johnson, a military governor with the rank of general, making 10 in all.

16. Nary a one! No former admiral has ever made it to the Oval Office.

17. Martin Van Buren was nominated by the Democrats at a convention held in Baltimore's First Presbyterian Church. William Henry Harrison was nominated by the Whigs, also in Baltimore, at the First Lutheran (or Zion) Church.

18. Henry Clay, a distinguished senator and perennial presidential hopeful, said he'd rather be right than president. A waggish opponent responded that most likely he would never be either.

19. “To serve and not to dominate,” said Harry S. Truman in his first message to Congress on April 16, 1945.

20. They are middle names of U.S. presidents: James Knox Polk, James Abram Garfield, Ulysses Simpson Grant, Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Warren Gamaliel Harding and Gerald Rudolph Ford.

21. Derived from the abbreviation V.P., “veep” first came into usage with Vice President Alben Barkley, who served as veep under Harry Truman. Barkley's grandson is sometimes credited with the innovation.

22. In 1924, the Democrats took 14 days and 103 ballots before nominating John William Davis of West Virginia for president.

23. Gerald R. Ford became the first unelected vice president after being nominated by President Richard M. Nixon to replace Vice President Spiro Agnew, who resigned amid a scandal. It had taken 197 years for America to get its first appointed vice president, but it took only one more for the second to arrive: When Nixon resigned in 1974, Ford became president and nominated Nelson Rockefeller to take his place, a choice likewise confirmed by the Congress.

24. 13 presidents have been Episcopalian. The Presbyterians, with seven, are in the runner-up spot.

25. Among dance legend Martha Graham's legion of alumni was Betty Ford, first lady from 1974-1977.

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SCOREING

25 right: As Arlen & Harburg wrote, with the thoughts you'd be thinkin', you could be another Lincoln.

21-24: Well, all right, so you're human, you could be another Truman.

16-20: If you'd just quit relaxin', you could be another Jackson.

11-15: One or two things a-curin', you could be a new Van Buren.

6-10: With a touch of improver, you could be another Hoover.

0-5: 'less your knowledge you're fixin', you could be another Nixon.

 

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