Who Was My Running Mate? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

Aaron Burr (1756-1836) is best known today as the man who dueled and killed former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. However, he was an active participant in governmental positions--serving in both the New York State Assembly and the United States Senate.

He served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. After his single term as vice president (1801-1805), Burr entered into a conspiracy which appears to have been attempt to separate some of the western territories of the United States.

Answer: John Quincy Adams

John Caldwell Calhoun (1782-1850) actually served as vice president under TWO US presidents--John Quincy Adams and his successor, Andrew Jackson. Calhoun served in both the House of Representative and Senate as well as Secretary of War under James Monroe.

The South Carolinian's time as vice president (1825-1832) was cut short when he resigned shortly before the end of his second term in order to serve as senator from South Carolina. He is associated with the idea of "nullification"--that a state government could nullify or declare void in its territory a federal law.

In 1957, a special Senate committee selected John Calhoun as one of the five greatest US senators of all time.

Answer: Martin Van Buren

Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky (1780-1850) was a rarity--a vice presidential candidate whose election had to be confirmed by the Senate. In the election of 1836, Virginia's electors refused to vote for Johnson as vice president, leaving him one vote short of a majority of electoral votes.

The election, as specified in the Constitution, went to the Senate where Johnson was confirmed on the first vote. The single-term vice president (1837-1841) was well known for his service in the War of 1812 where was thought by many to have personally killed the Shawnee leader Tecumseh.

Answer: William Henry Harrison

John Tyler (1790-1862) of Virginia served as vice president for only one month, from March 4 to April 4, 1841, because of William Henry Harrison's death from pneumonia. Before becoming president, Tyler had served as governor of Virginia and in both houses of Congress.

He was the first vice president to rise to the presidency after the death of the president and did much to ensure that he and others in the future would be considered presidents and not acting presidents. Late in his life he served in the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America.

He was elected to the first regular Congress, but died before he could serve.

Answer: James Buchanan

John C. Breckenridge (1821-1875) was sworn in as vice president at the young age of 36. James Buchanan's vice president served a single term (1857-1861). Before that he had served Kentucky as both a representative and a senator. After that he served in both the Confederate Army and government.

He was a candidate for the presidency in the 1860 election where he won 18% of the popular vote and 72 electoral votes.

Answer: Ulysses S. Grant

Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) was a member of the House of Representatives from Indiana and served three terms as Speaker of the House. He was the vice president for Ulysses Grant's first term (1869-1873). An opponent of slavery, he took the unusual step of voting for a House resolution when he voted in favor of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.

Answer: Benjamin Harrison

Levi Morton (1824-1920) of New York served as a member of the House of Representatives and Ambassador to France before being elected vice president. After his term as vice president (1889-1893) he served a term as governor of New York. Previously in 1880, presidential candidate James A. Garfield had asked him to serve as his running mate but Morton declined. Morton died on his 96th birthday.

Answer: Grover Cleveland

Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1835-1914) served as vice president for Grover Cleveland in the latter's second term (1893-1897). Before that he had served as a member of the House of Representatives and Assistant Postmaster General. In 1900, he served as the running mate to Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the latter's unsuccessful bid for the presidency. Stevenson's grandson, Adlai E. Stevenson II ran unsuccessfully for president in 1952 and 1956, both times against Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Answer: Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Marshall (1854-1925) served as governor of Indiana before being elected vice president. He served as vice president for both of Woodrow Wilson's presidential terms (1913-1921). When Wilson's declining health made him an invalid during the last two years of his presidency, Marshall was called upon but refused to force the issue.

While listening to a senator talk about "the needs of the nation", Marshall made his famous quote: "What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar."

Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt

John Nance Garner (1868-1967) served in Texas House of Representatives and US House of Representatives, where he was Speaker of the House for a term. He was vice president for the first two terms of Franklin Roosevelt (1933-1941). Not involved much in the decision making of the Roosevelt administration, he considered the vice presidency "not worth a bucket of warm piss". Breaking with Roosevelt over Roosevelt's attempted reorganization of the Supreme Court, Garner was replaced on the Democratic ticket in 1940 by Henry Wallace.