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50 free James Madison trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
James Madison was five foot four, sickly, never joined the bar and never fought in the Revolution, yet he drafted the Virginia Plan, wrote the most famous of the Federalist Papers, pushed the Bill of Rights through the first Congress, co-founded a political party with Jefferson and then led the country into the War of 1812, fleeing Washington as the British burned the White House. He is the only president to have a Supreme Court landmark, Marbury v. Madison, named against him. This quiz covers the whole arc: Princeton in two years alongside Aaron Burr, the gerrymandered 1789 race against James Monroe, the Compromise of 1790, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Embargo, Dolley and the Washington portrait, the Hartford Convention, the Second Bank, the Bonus Bill veto, and his retirement spent editing his own letters. Fifty questions in sets of ten, from facts every civics class covers to the details only serious students of the founding will know.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01James Madison was which number president of the United States?
4th
He served from 1809 to 1817, between Jefferson and Monroe.
Q 02Madison is popularly known by which paternal nickname?
Father of the Constitution
He also drafted and pushed through the Bill of Rights.
Q 03What was the name of Madison's plantation home in Virginia?
Montpelier
His family moved into the newly built house in the early 1760s; he died there in 1836.
Q 04Madison's proposal that formed the basis of the convention's debates was called what?
Virginia Plan
It called for three branches and a bicameral Congress apportioned by population.
Q 05With which two men did Madison write The Federalist Papers?
Alexander Hamilton and John Jay
The 85 essays appeared under the pseudonym Publius.
Q 06Under what pseudonym were The Federalist Papers published?
Publius
Hamilton recruited Madison after John Jay dropped out of the project.
Q 07How many essays make up The Federalist Papers?
85
36 argued against the Articles of Confederation and 49 for the new Constitution.
Q 08Which Federalist essay, Madison's first, warns of majority factions and argues for a large republic?
No. 10
Federalist No. 51 is his essay on checks and balances.
Q 09Where did Madison enrol in 1769 instead of William & Mary?
College of New Jersey
Williamsburg's lowland climate was thought to threaten his health; the school is now Princeton.
Q 10Madison completed Princeton's three-year degree in two years alongside which classmate?
Aaron Burr
Burr later introduced him to Dolley Payne Todd.
Q 11Which Princeton president deeply shaped Madison's Enlightenment thinking?
John Witherspoon
Madison stayed on after graduating to study Hebrew and political philosophy under him.
Q 12How many children were in Madison's family, of which he was the eldest?
Twelve
Only six siblings lived to adulthood.
Q 13Madison's sudden attacks of nervous incapacity have been likened to which condition?
Epilepsy
Modern historians have compared the episodes to epilepsy; he otherwise enjoyed good physical health until his final years.
In October 1775 Madison was commissioned colonel of which local militia?
Q 21The Compromise of 1790 traded Hamilton's debt assumption for what?
A federal capital on the Potomac
Congress passed the Residence Act establishing Washington, D.C.
Q 22Which Philadelphia newspaper did Madison and Jefferson help Philip Freneau found?
National Gazette
It attacked Hamilton's proposals.
Q 23Which 1794 agreement with Britain ended Madison's friendship with Washington?
Jay Treaty
Robert R. Livingston wrote that it 'prostrates the honor of our country'.
Orange County
He served as his father's second-in-command but never fought in the war.
Q 15Which 1786 law drafted by Madison and Jefferson disestablished the Church of England?
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
Madison drafted it with Jefferson.
Q 16By what vote did the Virginia convention ratify the Constitution on June 25, 1788?
89–79
It came a week after New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify.
Q 17Which former Virginia governor led the anti-Federalist case against ratification?
Patrick Henry
Henry later gerrymandered Madison's district and recruited a rival to run against him.
Q 18What percentage of the vote did Madison win in the 1789 race for Virginia's 5th district?
57 percent
He won by promising to support amendments protecting individual liberties.
Q 19On what date did Madison introduce the Bill of Rights in the House?
June 8, 1789
He had studied more than 200 amendments proposed at the state ratifying conventions.
Q 20How many amendments were finally ratified on December 15, 1791?
Ten
Madison was disappointed his proposal to bind the states was dropped by the Senate.
Q 24Whom did Madison marry on September 15, 1794?
Dolley Payne Todd
She was a 26-year-old widow whose Quaker husband had died in a yellow fever epidemic.
Q 25Who formally introduced Madison to his future wife?
Aaron Burr
Burr knew her from a Philadelphia boardinghouse.
Q 26What was the name of Dolley's surviving son whom Madison adopted?
John Payne Todd
His mismanagement later helped ruin the plantation's finances.
Q 27Madison's response to the Alien and Sedition Acts favoured which doctrine over nullification?
Interposition
A state would declare a law unconstitutional without actively blocking its enforcement.
Q 28What did Madison call his rebuttal that became the party's platform against Adams?
Report of 1800
It became the unofficial Democratic-Republican platform that year.
Q 29Which 1803 Marshall ruling over undelivered commissions established judicial review?
Marbury v. Madison
Marshall held Madison had wrongly withheld commissions but that the Court lacked jurisdiction.
Q 30Which act banning all exports did Madison and Jefferson push through Congress in 1807?
Embargo Act
It proved unpopular and was replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act in March 1809.