Presidents Day in the City of Presidents: Fun facts on John Adams and John Quincy Adams

QUINCY − Presidents Day is a big deal in Quincy. The city is home to the second and sixth U.S. presidents. It calls itself the City of Presidents. Quincy High School's nickname is The Presidents. Even one of its three golf courses is called Presidents Golf Course.

Quincy doesn't merely boast two presidents, but two of the most remarkable: John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams. Both participated in the most pressing political and social questions of their day − independence from Great Britain and independence of America's enslaved population.

Here are 10 fascinating and perhaps less known facts about John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

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John Adams, 2nd President and coauthor of the Declaration of Independence

• He didn't like the title "president": For Adams, the word president lacked the grandeur that would command respect in European capitals. "There are presidents of fire companies and cricket clubs," he quipped. According to History.com, Adams suggested “His Majesty the President,” or “His Highness, the President of the United States of America, and Protector of the Rights to the Same.” Mocking his plump physique, critics suggested “His Rotundity” as a fitting title for the nation’s second president.

• Was the primary author of the oldest democratic constitution still in use: The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 was drafted by Adams, along with Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin, in the John Quincy Adams birthplace, which still stands today on Franklin Street. Though a celebrated political philosopher in his day, Adams influence on the U.S. Constitution of 1787 was indirect. According to Mass.gov, Adams was serving as ambassador to England during the Constitutional Convention.

• His reelection campaign was among the nastiest in American history: In his failed reelection bid, Adams was the target of a smear campaign that makes today's mudslinging seem tame. A supporter of his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, wrote in a pamphlet that Adams was a hermaphrodite because of his short stature and high voice. Adams and his supporters reciprocated by depicting Jefferson as a French radical and an atheist who would steal everyone's Bible if elected, according to History.com.

• Clamped down on civil liberties under threat of French invasion: Adams passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts came when many thought war with France was unavoidable, according to historian of Gordon S. Wood. Federalist like Adams feared a fifth column of pro-French Jeffersonians with a popular base among new immigrants would invite an invasion. Adams implemented repressive laws that made anyone who criticized Adams or his Federalist government liable to arrest and prosecution. Wood compared the violation of civil rights to the interment of Japanese Americans.

• Died on July 4: Adams died on July 4, 1826, the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson died on the same day. Despite earlier animosity, Adams and Jefferson grew friendly over the course of a long correspondence. According to WhiteHouse.gov, Adams last words were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.” Unfortunately he was wrong. Jefferson died just a few hours earlier in Monticello.

John Quincy Adams, 2nd President and tireless opponent of slavery

• Fell head over heels with a Parisian stage actress: In his boyhood, Quincy Adams accompanied his father on diplomatic missions to Europe and attended private school in Paris. According to Britannica.com, the 13-year-old Adams fell in love with an actress he saw in a Paris theater, and was so smitten that he confessed to dreaming of her. Quincy Adams later married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of a U.S. Consul and English mother.

• Hated Andrew Jackson: Like his father, Quincy Adams failed to win a second term and was defeated by a southerner, Andrew Jackson, in a bitter campaign. The Massachusetts Historical Society quotes the following excerpt from his voluminous diary expressing disgust at Harvard University's bestowing an honorary degree upon his hated rival: "I would not be present to witness (Harvard's) disgrace in conferring her highest Literary honours upon a barbarian, who could not write a sentence of Grammar, and hardly could spell his own name.”

• Defeated southern "gag rule": Returning to congress after his presidency, Quincy Adams proposed legislation granting freedom to anyone born in the United States, including slaves, and barring slavery in newly admitted states. The southern slave power responded by passing a "gag rule" that tabled petitions to ban or mitigate slavery. Quincy Adams fought the rule tirelessly and won its repeal eight years later.

• Represented Mende Africans taken captive on Amistad slave ship: In 1841, Quincy Adams successfully defended the Amistad captives, who two years prior mutinied on board a Spanish ship, escaped their captors, and landed near Long Island, New York. The liberated Africans thanked Quincy Adams by giving him the Bible they read while waiting trial in prison, according to the National Parks Service.

• Died in the House of Representatives: Quincy Adams suffered a cerebral stroke while delivering a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives opposing the bestowal of honorary swords to victorious generals in the Mexican American War. Quincy Adams saw the war as "unrighteous" and intended to extend slavery into newly annexed territory, the Massachusetts Historical Society says.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: 10 fun facts about John Adams and John Quincy Adams on Presidents Day