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Clancy: What is the test of an American patriot?

In the middle of next week Americans will celebrate themselves on July 4, the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Right?


Most signers put their John Hancocks on the document on Aug. 2, 1776. After signing, Hancock remarked, “Gentlemen, we must now all hang together,” setting up on a tee a response for Ben Franklin: “Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Franklin’s wit contains the bravery of the men in Philadelphia that summer, all understanding that if things turned out badly the document they had just signed guaranteed they’d wind up swinging from the wrong end of an English rope.

By the way, don’t get down if you missed that opening question. America is the land of second chances, and so is this column, so here’s an opportunity to prove your knowledge of our country’s history.

Answers at the bottom.

Eyes on your own paper.

Check your work at the end.

Begin … now.

1) Who said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”?

a: Richard Nixon

b: Barack Obama

c: Samuel Johnson


2) What American president imported Spanish fly for personal use?

a: George Washington

b: Andrew Johnson

c: William Henry Harrison


3) How many presidents are not buried on American soil?

a: Five

b: One

c: None


4) Who said that along with age and citizenship, business experience should be a qualification for the presidency?

a: Mitt Romney

b: Ronald Reagan

c: Steve Jobs


5) Name the last three businessman presidents.


6) What political leader compared himself to Charles DeGaulle, Margaret Thatcher, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay, Marion Barry and Ho Chi Minh?

a: Anthony Weiner

b: Newt Gingrich

c: Barack Obama


7) What does the recently coined Japanese word “Bushusuru” mean?

a: Choking on a pretzel

b: Stealing an election

c: Publicly vomiting


8 ) Name the president who once worked as a hangman.

a: Grover Cleveland

b: Ulysses S. Grant

c: John Adams


9) Who was the only president who held a license to tend bar?

a: Abraham Lincoln

b: George W. Bush

c: Ulysses S. Grant


10) Harry S. Truman and Ulysses S. Grant share the same middle initial. What does the “S” in both cases stand for?

a: Simpson

b: Samuel

c: Nothing


11) Who said: “Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change government.”?

a: Barack Obama

b: Ronald Reagan

c: Abraham Lincoln


12) What was the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr fought over?

a: Money

b: Defamation charges in newspapers

c: Sarah Anne Lippincott


13) Which Supreme Court chief justice rejected calls to adopt a judicial code of conduct?

a: John Marshall

b: Earl Warren

c: John Roberts


14) What did Dolly Madison save from the White House before it was torched by the British?

a: A portrait of George Washington

b: An ice cream maker and baking sheet

c: The silver


15) In Thomas Jefferson’s editing of his Declaration of Independence, what did he change to make the final “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?”

a: “… life, liberty and the pursuit of the indolency of the body and the possession of outward things”

b: “… life, liberty and property”

c: “… life, liberty and the pursuit of slaves”


Answers: 1) c 2) a 3) a – Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama 4) a 5) Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, George W. Bush 6) b 7) c 8 ) a 9) a 10) c 11) c 12) b 13) c 14) a and c 15) b

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  1. I would challenge your answer to question #5. One of the last businessmen to serve as President of the U.S. was James Earl Carter (Jimmy Carter) who was a peanut farmer and therefore a businessman from Georgia before — and after — he became President.

  2. living on long island

    Right on Arthur

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