Northeast Minneapolis (and towns due north of us) feature Avenues named after our country's presidents. Some of them anyway. I've decided to make a series based on their lives, but I absolutely refuse to look anything up. So... I advise you not to use this for your term paper.
Several interesting facts about John Quincy Adams
There's a town in Massachusetts named Quincy, but John Quincy Adams is from Braintree, born on his parents farm. There he studied hard, learned his letters, and enjoyed frolicking in the fields with nary a stitch on him, natural as the day he was born,
J.Q. (as he was known to his friends) was not in most respects a "free-thinker." He joined the Whig Party as it formed, so named because of the whigs they whore on their wheads. They believed in things like cod-liver-oil as national currency, a tax on anything pleasurable, and long walks in the snow. They tended to attract New Englanders. J.Q. discovered saunas when he was ambassador to the Netherlands (it's a long story), and introduced then to his Whiggish friends. They found the whole hitting-yourself-with-birch-branches thing especially entertaining.
Adams spent a lot of time in Washington: he was Secretary of State, then Senator, and then was elected president. He took to swimming in the Potomac every morning, rain, shine, or whatever was floating by. Though he kept it secret for a while, eventually the press corps caught on and insisted on asking him questions as he emerged. And no, people didn't wear swimsuits in those days. They hadn't been invented yet. And thus began the short, one-term career of our first and only (so far) nudist president. His cabinet rebelled when he proposed clothing-optional meetings, and indeed, it has been suggested that the campaign slogan for his re-election campaign—"Adams has nothing to hide!"—backfired among more prudish voters.
After being defeated by Jackson, J.Q. ran for and won a seat in the House of Representatives. They quickly adopted a dress code, which included "All Members shall wear pants within the Chamber." He continued his daily swim in the Potomac, however, until his untimely death in 1848 at 79 years of age, when he was eaten by a confused Great White Shark, who thought he must be a salmon.
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