John Quincy Adams was, to put it bluntly, a total weirdo. Most people remember him as the stiff, balding guy in history books who was the son of a Founding Father. But the reality? He was basically the 19th-century version of that one over-achieving, slightly neurotic friend who wakes up at 4:00 AM to do something intense while everyone else is still asleep.
He didn't just "serve" as president. He lived a life that felt like a fever dream. We're talking about a man who traveled across Europe as a teenager, spoke enough languages to confuse a modern diplomat, and spent his retirement getting into screaming matches on the floor of the House of Representatives.
The Skinny Dipping Legend (And That One Feisty Reporter)
You've probably heard the most famous of all the John Quincy Adams fun facts: he loved to swim naked in the Potomac River.
This wasn't just a once-in-a-while thing. It was a ritual. Rain or shine, the leader of the free world would trudge down to the riverbank at sunrise, peel off his clothes, and dive in. He usually did this for about an hour. He once wrote in his diary—which he kept for over 60 years, by the way—that the swim was "conducive to health, cleanliness and comfort."
But things got weird.
Legend says a journalist named Anne Royall, desperate for an interview, found him mid-soak. Knowing he couldn't exactly walk out of the water and face her without his pants, she supposedly sat on his clothes and refused to move until he gave her an exclusive.
Honestly? It's a great story. Historians at the White House Historical Association and Boundary Stones have dug into this, and while Royall definitely interviewed him, the "hostage clothes" part is likely a bit of 19th-century clickbait. Still, the image of a sitting president treading water and talking policy with a reporter on the shore is 100% on brand for him.
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He Was a Language Machine
While most of us struggle to remember high school Spanish, Adams was out here collecting languages like Pokémon cards.
Because his dad, John Adams, took him to Europe when he was just a kid, John Quincy grew up in a very different world. By the time he was a teenager, he was already serving as a translator for the American legation in Russia.
- French: Totally fluent. He used it for diplomacy in St. Petersburg at age 14.
- Dutch: Learned it while living in the Netherlands.
- German: Picked it up during his time in Prussia.
- Latin and Greek: Standard Harvard stuff, but he actually liked it.
He even had a "smattering" of Russian and Italian. Basically, if you were a world leader in the 1820s, there was a good chance JQA could talk trash about you in your native tongue.
The Alligator in the East Room?
This is one of those facts that people love to share, but we have to set the record straight. For years, people claimed that the Marquis de Lafayette gave Adams a pet alligator. The story goes that JQA kept the beast in a bathtub in the East Room to scare his guests.
It's a hilarious mental image. A president pointing at a reptile and laughing while a senator jumps in fear.
However, the Presidential Pet Museum and various fact-checkers have noted that there is zero evidence in his incredibly detailed diaries about an alligator. He wrote about everything—even the most boring crackers he ate—so it’s pretty unlikely he’d forget to mention a giant lizard in the bathtub. The "alligator in the White House" honors actually go to Herbert Hoover’s son, Allan, about a century later.
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He Danced (Even If He Hated the Kissing)
Adams had a reputation for being "aloof" and a "gloomy misanthropist." He knew it, too. He once described himself as "an unsocial savage."
But the man had rhythm.
Despite his grumpy exterior, he actually enjoyed dancing. He called it "one of the most innocent and rational amusements that was ever invented." He was known to bust a move at parties well into his 80s.
On the flip side, he absolutely hated "kissing games" at parties. He once attended a New Year's Eve bash where people started playing a game that involved a lot of social kissing. He went home and vented to his diary about how "stupid" and "profane" the whole thing was.
Basically, he'd dance with you, but don't try to get weird.
The Most Badass Post-Presidency in History
Most presidents finish their term and go write a book or build a library. Not JQA. After he lost the election of 1828 to Andrew Jackson—a man he truly could not stand—he didn't go home to Massachusetts to knit.
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He ran for Congress.
He is the only former president to serve in the House of Representatives after being in the Oval Office. They called him "Old Man Eloquent." He spent 17 years in the House, and he was a nightmare for his opponents.
He became a fierce opponent of slavery. At the time, there was a "gag rule" that prevented any petitions about slavery from even being read out loud. Adams fought it for eight years. He would find every legal loophole possible to force the conversation. His head would apparently turn bright red when he got angry, which was often.
He literally died on the job. In 1848, at the age of 80, he suffered a stroke right on the floor of the House of Representatives. He died two days later in the Speaker's Room.
A Few More Bits of JQA Trivia
- The First Photo: He was the first president to ever have his photograph taken (though it was long after he left office). He didn't look happy in it.
- The Wardrobe: For his inauguration, he broke tradition by wearing long pants instead of the old-school knee breeches. He also refused to wear a powdered wig. He was the "modern" guy of 1825.
- The Billiard Table: He bought a billiard table for the White House with his own money, but his political enemies used it to claim he was turning the mansion into a "gambling den." Politics never changes.
How to Use This Knowledge
If you're looking to dive deeper into the mind of this bizarrely brilliant man, your best bet is to look at the Massachusetts Historical Society's digital archives. They have his diaries online. Reading his actual handwriting as he complains about bad singers at a party or describes a near-drowning incident (which actually happened in 1825) is wild.
If you ever find yourself in Quincy, Massachusetts, you can visit the United First Parish Church. He’s buried there in a family crypt alongside his dad and their wives. It’s one of the few places where you can stand in a room with two presidents at once.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Read the Diaries: Search for the "John Quincy Adams Digital Diary" to see his daily life in his own words. It's surprisingly catty.
- Watch "Amistad": If you want to see his legal brilliance, check out the 1997 movie where Anthony Hopkins plays him defending enslaved people in front of the Supreme Court. It's a real case he won.
- Visit Peacefield: If you're near Boston, tour the Adams National Historical Park. You can see the library where he kept his massive collection of books.