

“Old Man Eloquent”
Presidential Basics
- Full name: John Quincy Adams
- Years in office: 1825–1829
- Political party: Democratic-Republican
- Vice president: John C. Calhoun
- Age at inauguration: 57
- Nicknames: “Old Man Eloquent,” “Accidental President”
Random Trivia
- Congressman after president: John Quincy Adams is the only president to serve in the House of Representatives (1831-1848) after his presidency.
- Amistad: As a lawyer appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, Adams successfully defended the freedom of Africans aboard the Amistad slave ship.
Birth & Death
- Birthday: July 11, 1767
- Birthplace: Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts
- Death date: February 23, 1848
- Place of death: Washington, D.C.
- Place of burial: First Unitarian Church in Quincy, Massachusetts

Family
- Father: John Adams (1735–1826); Lawyer, Vice President, President
- Mother: Abigail Smith Adams (1744 –1818)
- Wife: Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775-1852)
- Marriage: July 26, 1797 in London, England
- Kids: Four
- George Washington (1801–1829)
- John (1803–1834)
- Charles Francis (1807–1886)
- Louisa Catherine (1811–1812)
- Home: Peacefield in Quincy, Massachusetts
Other Facts
- Height: 5’7”
- Eye color: Dark brown
- Ancestry: English
- Religion: Unitarian
- Born in a log cabin: No
- Owned enslaved people: No
- Freemason: No
Education
- Early education: Studied in Paris, Amsterdam, Leyden, and the Hague
- College degree: Yes
- College: Harvard (graduated in 1787)
Career
- Military service: No
- Lawyer: Yes
- Secretary to U.S. Minister to Russia (1781)
- Lawyer (1791–)
- Minister to Netherlands (1794)
- Minister to Berlin (1797–1801)
- U.S. Senator (1803–1808)
- Minister to Russia (1809–1811)
- Peace Commissioner at Ghent (1814)
- Secretary of State: Monroe administration (1817–1825)
- President (1825–1829)
- House of Representatives (1831–1848)
- Writer
Writings
- Memoirs
- Writings of John Quincy Adams
Election

John Quincy Adams won the 1824 election – the first election in which the popular vote was counted. All candidates were basically from the same political party, the Democratic-Republicans. No candidate received a majority of the electoral votes, so the House of Representatives decided the election. Adams won; Jackson called it a corrupt bargain.
Spotlight Artifact
1843 Daguerreotype of John Quincy Adams
As a member of the House of Representatives, John Quincy Adams sat for a photographer in New York in March 1843. According to the New York Times, this is the oldest known photograph (technically daguerreotype) of a president.
John Quincy Adams’s Home
