Finish the American Revolutionary War Quote Quiz

Question: Benjamin Franklin (attributed): “We must all hang together, or most assuredly…

Answer: Benjamin Franklin reportedly said this during the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Signatories knew the document was an act of treason against the British crown, possibly punishable by death.

Question: Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty or…

Answer: Patrick Henry, a Virginian, reportedly said this during a 1775 speech in support of the Massachusetts colony, following the British Empire’s imposition of sanctions on Boston Harbor. The first written account of this line being said was in a biography published 42 years after that speech.

Question: Thomas Jefferson (in the Declaration of Independence): “We hold these truths to be self-evident,…

Answer: “…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Thomas Jefferson was heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Francis Hutcheson, and Montesquieu.

Question: Thomas Paine: “These are the times that…

Answer: In the pamphlet series The American Crisis (1776–83), Thomas Paine wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

Question: John Paul Jones: “I have not yet…

Answer: Captain John Paul Jones said these words (or words to this effect) during a 1779 sea battle. Jones’s ship was burning and sinking, yet he denied British orders to surrender. Jones’s forces eventually won the battle, and he moved his command to the captured British frigate.

Question: Israel Putnam or William Prescott (attributed): “Don’t fire till…

Answer: Israel Putnam and William Prescott were both officers commanding troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and historians disagree over who first came up with this order, meant to preserve gunpowder. The phrase predates the American Revolutionary War, as it had been used decades before by the British navy for judging when to open fire with cannons.

Question: John Parker (attributed): “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war…

Answer: The first bloodshed of the American Revolutionary War happened on April 19, 1775, when British troops marched to Concord, Massachusetts, to seize weapons held by the militia. Captain John Parker led a group of more than 70 colonists to oppose the British on their way, at Lexington. The colonists were quickly dispersed, with 8 dead and 10 wounded.

Question: Nathan Hale: “I only regret that I have but one…

Answer: Nathan Hale was captured by British forces on New York’s Long Island while trying to gather intelligence for George Washington, whose forces were stuck in nearby Manhattan. Hale reportedly said these words (or words to this effect) at his execution. The Central Intelligence Agency once declared that Hale was “the country’s first intelligence officer.”

Question: John Hancock (attributed): “There, John Bull can read my name…

Answer: This quotation sometimes is rendered as “King George will be able to read that!” (John Bull is a personification of England, similar to Uncle Sam of the United States.) There is no evidence of John Hancock saying anything like this. His name, now synonymous with signatures, is prominent on the Declaration of Independence because he was the president of the Continental Congress at the time of signing.

Question: John Adams: “I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study…

Answer: In a letter to his wife, Abigail, John Adams wrote: “My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.”

Question: Thomas Paine: “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day…

Answer: In the pamphlet series The American Crisis, Thomas Paine concludes that everyone in America knows separation from England will happen and that it is just a matter of when. He recounts hearing the parent of a young child hoping to avoid war, and he suggests war now is better than war later.

Question: Thomas Jefferson: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with…

Answer: “It is [its] natural manure.” Thomas Jefferson wrote these words in 1787 with regard to Shays’s Rebellion, an uprising in Massachusetts over high taxes and economic hardships fought three years after the American Revolution ended. Jefferson was pleased the young country hadn’t lost its will to fight: “What country can preserve [its] liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?”

Question: John Adams: “I know of no better Definition of a Republic than this, that it is an Empire of…

Answer: John Adams used phrases similar to “government of laws, and not of men” to define republic several times. Using the pen name Novanglus in 1775, he described the British Empire as a republic and claimed that its monarch, though having many privileges, was still bound to the law.

Question: George Washington: “Having now finished the work assigned me…

Answer: George Washington was commander in chief (now a title held by the U.S. president) of the Continental Army when he voluntarily resigned before the Continental Congress in 1783, helping cement civilian authority over the military. Washington’s selflessness was widely recognized and admired, and he was elected president in 1789.

Question: Benjamin Franklin: “There never was a good War…

Answer: Benjamin Franklin wrote this in a letter to his friend after helping negotiate the Treaty of Paris, which formalized the end of hostilities with Britain. He wrote: “We are now Friends with England and with all Mankind. May we never see another War!”