John Quincy Adams was inaugurated March 4, 1825 as America’s sixth president. He was principled, intelligent and eloquent, though his principles occasionally tripped him up. For instance, he believed it wrong to campaign because elected officials performed a service. All his predecessors felt the same way, and used surrogates to stump for votes.
John Quincy Adams by George Peter Alexander Healy
During the reelection campaign, however, Andrew Jackson embarked on some first-ever personal campaigning. But John Quincy Adams refused to follow suit. The second president to come from New England held firm. If the country wanted his services, he declared, she must ask for them. She didn’t. Andrew Jackson ascended to the presidency in 1829.
John Quincy Adams also came across as aloof, lacking the charm of many of the politicians that swirled around the Washington social scene. Though he travelled widely, possessed sophistication and great intelligence, Adams had simple tastes. He liked to dine on crackers in a city that teemed with bon vivants.
John Quincy Adams Wears Pants
His inauguration reflected his personal style.
- He was the first president inaugurated wearing pants rather than knee breeches. Styles changed slowly, but Adams was the first president who found it acceptable to be sworn in wearing a homespun, black suit with full-length trousers. He also followed the new fashion by eschewing powdered wigs.
- Adams did not attend the inauguration of his successor, Andrew Jackson, which happened only two other times among living presidents until 2021. His father, John Adams, didn’t attend the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Johnson did not attend Ulysses S. Grant’s inauguration. This happened a third time if you want to count Richard Nixon, who resigned and took a helicopter out of Washington during Gerald Ford’s swearing in.
Andrew Jackson took the oath of office on the Capitol steps. John Quincy Adams skipped the inauguration.
- John Quincy Adams earned the dubious distinction as the first president elected who had won neither the popular vote nor the vote in the Electoral College. Andrew Jackson got more votes in both cases. Adams prevailed the first time when the House of Representatives settled the election.
- Adams went to his inaugural ball stag. His wife Louisa fell ill, suffering fainting spells the day before the inauguration. She could receive visitors the day of the inauguration, but did not attend the ball.
An Awful Speech
- He delivered an awful inauguration speech. Though often a powerful speaker, even earning the nickname ‘Old Man Eloquent,’ John Quincy Adams had a hard time writing the speech. The reason? Because of the way he wrangled the win. Thus, he began his speech with the stirring line:
In compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our Federal Constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in your presence and in that of Heaven to bind myself by the solemnities of religious obligation to the faithful performance of the duties allotted to me in the station to which I have been called.
It didn’t get much better…
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Check out this entertaining and informative cookbook, Eat Like a President, about the six New England presidents by the New England Historical Society. Click here to order your copy today.
This story about John Quincy Adams was updated in 2026.
4 comments
I look at my ancestors and their times to see how they handled their lives to see how I should handle mine. The family could get pretty stuffy and stiff at times even in these days. Guess I’m more black sheep playing the Devil’s music ( blues and such ).
Is it true that the actress Amy Adams is a descendant of him?
I don’t know about Amy Adams, but the line on my mother’s side heads back to one of his uncles. I’m fortunate to possess a copy of the book with the full genealogical lineage in this country, starting with the original land grant. The published genealogy ends somewhere early in the beginning of the last century. My grandfather kept the info updated with birth and death notices, up to about 30 years ago. The Adams mouth seems to be the continuum all the way back; every one of us has it — the thin, straight upper lip, not overly full mouth. Amy’s mouth looks like it might fit the bill. (On any of the many portraits of the early Adams, cover the face from the nose up. They all have the same mouth. My mother and her mother had that mouth.)
In the end, though, I think virtually every single person in this country, born within the bloodline of the name Adams, descends from the Adams of the original land grant: Henry Adams of Braintree, MA, early 1600s.
good guy
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