Today is our 6th president's birthday. So, despite the fact that the guy was super depressed, an awful lot crazy, and his dinners consisted of crackers, fruit and water, we're celebrating all things John Quincy Adams.
The boys had their owl mail this morning as always.
Then, a little after lunch we started in with our toy timeline. JQA was born on July 11th, 17-something or other-whatever 248 years ago was in Braintree, Massachusetts (which has since been renamed Quincy, not for the president, but for his great-grandfather and namesake Colonel John Quincy). His parents, obviously, were John and Abigail Adams. They had four kids live to adulthood, but I didn't make his siblings, we'll see them later when we celebrate John Adam's birthday (and I didn't want to change the little aliens out from George H.W. Bush's birthday just for siblings since I'll be using them again soon.)
Anyway, Abigail was pretty stern and had some serioulsy high expectations for her kids. She didn't want her kids to grow up to be drunks like her brother (one of her son's, Charlie, however would suffer this fate anyway, but again more on that later). John, meanwhile, wasn't home much. He was off with his buddies Tom and Ben writing a little thing called the Declaration of Independence. JQA actually learned about the Declaration from a letter John sent home to Abigail.
Then, we have a Revolution, and the first major battle of the war his right outside JQA's house. As an eight year old kid, Quincy stands on his front porch and watches the Battle of Bunker Hill take place.
A few years later JQA would start a journal of sorts. He kept this journal the rest of his life (it would eventually consist of 50 volumes), and historians LOVE them, because it's all these crazy first person accounts of like everything that happened in history from the start of our country until JQA died.
He wrote about the Battle of Bunker Hill, and how terrifying it was to see from his house. He really thought he was going to die then. But, obviously, he was fine.
John Adams headed off to Europe, and took his oldest son with him. Because Quincy went to Europe with his dad, and saw all the pretty important things his dad and his dad's friends were doing, he would grow up with an intense drive, a sense of duty, and an unstoppable quest for perfection in the pursuit of serving his country (and living up to his father's expectations). It's worth noting Quincy was taught by tutors and incredibly intelligent. By 14, he could speak French fluently. French, at the time was the official language of diplomacy, and so Quincy's ability to translate made him valuable. He became an interpreter for the American minister (ambassador) to Russia-- and he was only FOURTEEN!
By 16, his dad, Tom, and Ben were negotiating the treaty to end the Revolutionary War, and Quincy was taking notes as Secretary at the Treaty of Paris-- at SIXTEEN!
After that little spat with the British was over, JQA was back in Massachusetts, and going to Harvard, where shockingly enough he studied law.
But, here's the thing about JQA, he was self-loathing, depressed, and socially awkward. Despite his impressive CHILDHOOD record, he just never felt good enough, and he was bothered by his physical appearance (I mean, he wasn't really a looker, but still). JQA stood about 5 foot 7, and spoke in a high, shrill voice, besides that his depression often made him look angry. He much preferred staying at home reading than going to any social engagements, and several times had to be pressured by others to remain in public service.
But you see, his father was now Vice President, and his father wanted Quincy to join him in politics, so he pulled some strings. George Washington was all "hey, Quincy, you want to be the Ambassador to the Netherlands?", and Quincy was all like "ehhhhh..I mean..... um....." and John Adams was all "Of COURSE he does!" So, off Quincy went.
When George left office, Quincy's dad became president.
...And was all "hey son, congrats you're the ambassador to Prussia" (which equates to Germany and Poland/Baltic Sea area today). And JQA in his best sarcastic voice, is like "Thanks dad".
JQA was a pretty amazing diplomat (though he would never say so, he took less credit for things than I do). It's not like he ONLY had the job because daddy was looking out for him, breathing down his neck to be somebody. He was REALLY good at his jobs. Legendary in fact.
Plus, while he was ambassador he met Louisa. (Although he first had his eye on her sister, which I'm sure made for some awkward family dinners later on).
Louisa was born in England (though her father was an American), and John was not thrilled when Quincy married her, because she was 'foreign', but he eventually got over it. Louisa was a lot like JQA minus the self-loathing part. But, she was often depressed, and would much rather stay home and read books and play her harp than go out and about. Part of that might have been because she suffered from fainting spells and migraines (she was pretty sickly over all.)
The couple had their first son and named him George Washington Adams. I know he sounds promising, with a name like that and all, but don't get your hopes up for this guy.
John Adams was not thrilled his son named his first kid after GW instead of him, so JQA made it up to him with his second son: John Adams II. They had a third son, Charlie, too, and a daughter who died in infancy (I think). All in all, Louisa, a sickly person, had 19 pregnancies in 22 years, and it only equated to three boys.
When good old TJ became president, JQA returned back to the U.S. to work in the Massachusetts Senate
You might think so far this is a pretty impressive resume. But not for JQA. The guy STILL believes he's a total failure who will never be good enough.
When James Madison becomes president, JQA adds two more countries to his ambassador list. (Seriously, a LEGENDARY diplomat!)
When James Monroe became president, he picked JQA as his Secretary of State, when according to history (not Quincy himself), he was one of the best Secretaries of State this country has ever seen. He helped broker the deal for Florida (thanks Quincy!)....
....and wrote the Monroe Doctrine (you know, that great big 'get off my lawn, don't call us, we'll call you dealio).
Yet Quincy still didn't think he was good enough.
As Secretary of State, JQA should have been a shoe in for the presidency when James Monroe was done, but a war hero by the name of Andrew-freakin-Jackson showed up, and it was NOT smooth sailing for Quincy.
Plus, Speaker of the House, good old Henry Clay (making his 10,000 appearance in the toy time line-- or something like that), and William-Secretary-of-the-Treasure-last-name-not-important both threw their hats into the ring.
And if Ross Perot taught us anything, we know more candidates sure can throw a wrench in things. Andrew Jackson won the popular vote, but not a majority. So, the House of Representatives were tasked with picking between the top finishers: JQA or Andrew Jackson.
Henry Clay, you might remember, HATED Andrew Jackson, and apparently wasn't frightened Jackson would murder him if he didn't rally the House behind him, fought to make JQA president.
Henry Clay succeeded (in both making JQA president AND making an enemy out of Andrew Jackson), and Quincy was inaugurated as our 6th president. His dad, John, was alive to see it, his mom, Abigail, sadly, was not. Quincy became the first man inaugurated while wearing pants. If that's not an exciting fun fact for you, he also brought a pool table to the White House for the very first time. If that STILL isn't exciting to you, he ALSO brought along his pet alligator who lived in a bath tub in the East Room.
Oh, and Louisa, while as you can imagine, was not thrilled with being First Lady. Although she is still today the only foreign born First Lady, but that's about all she is remembered for. Having to be in the spotlight like that made her reclusive and terribly depressed, and her husband was not exactly warm and loving. For a time she even regretted marrying into the family.
Besides a less than personable First Lady, Quincy's administration had some serious problems. You see, Andrew Jackson is the sorest of all the sore losers. He was not about to go away quietly, and so he threw an Andrew Jackson sized fit for the next four years. JQA made two serious mistakes. First, he had Henry Clay become his Secretary of State, causing everyone to scream there was a "Corrupt Bargain" between the two to get JQA into the White House (a you scratch my back and make me President, I'll make you Secretary of State kind of dealio.) Besides that, JQA refused to fire people from the Monroe Administration who had backed Jackson, thinking that would be unfair. But, instead, people in his own administration were less than helpful.
Congress refused to pass pretty much ANYTHING JQA put in front of them, forr fear of Andrew Jackson shooting them in a "duel", or beating them with his cane or something, and JQA couldn't so much as get a tax or transportation bill to pass.
The press slandered JQA pretty much every chance they got. It's worth noting he was the first president interviewed by a female reporter. I could end right there. (Yay woman's rights- or something), BUT the only reason she got the interview is because she stole JQA's clothes while he was swimming naked in the Potomac River and refused to give them back until he granted her an interview.
So why exactly was JQA swimming naked in the Potomac? (Which he did EVERY.SINGLE.MORNING. at 5 am) Well, besides the fact he enjoyed nudity I'm talking going for naked walks and preferring intimacy outside even in freezing cold temperatures (poor Louisa!), he was punishing himself. You know his whole self-loathing thing? This guy took it to the extreme.
He'd work out hours upon hours as physical punishment for just not being good enough at anything he did. He took ice cold baths and scrubbed his body raw with a horsehair mitten (which is not nearly as present as it sounds).
It was time for re-election, and Andrew Jackson was ready for a rematch. By now, JQA's Democratic-Republican party had split in two. The people who wanted Jackson became the Democrats.
Meanwhile, Quincy supporters had become National Republicans.
The campaign is known for as the birthplace of modern politics. Here is where things got ugly for the first time. It was just one personal attack after another. JQA made personal attacks on Jackson, calling him a bigamist (technically true), and a crude, uneducated man always ready for a brawl (which, well, I mean JQA did have a point there.) Meanwhile, Jackson called JQA a corrupt cheater who thinks he's better than everyone. So, all those AWFUL political ads on TV today, go ahead and blame these two.
Jackson's "grassroots" campaign (the first of it's kind) won out. The "common man" rejoiced because it was the first time there wasn't a rich-elitest in the White House. JQA, for either fear of being beaten up, or just sore-loser-ship, refused to go to Jackson's innaguration. This only happened FOUR times in history, 3 if you don't count Nixon skipping out on Ford's. Anyway, John Adams didn't go to TJ's (like father, like son?) and Andrew Johnson didn't go to Sam Grant's (but then again, neither did Sam's parents).
JQA was out of office, and the biggest disappointment was that he never got to send those explorers to the North Pole to dig into the center of the earth to find that it was hallow and filled with mole people we could trade with. WAIT- WHAT? Yea, no, that's a real thing JQA was trying to do. He loved Science, and when a scientist came to him with the idea, Quincy thought it was visionary and he was SUPER excited about. But, the idea was even too crazy for ANDREW JACKSON (just think about THAT for a second) and the project got shut down with the new administration.
Besides the fact that JQA wasn't president anymore, he had some personal tragedies. You see, his oldest son was a womanizer, and a drunk. He was also terribly depressed (I mean he did grow up with an equally as depressed JQA and Louisa for parents). Maybe the pressure of being George Washington Adams was just too much, or maybe he was just really drunk, but he ended up committing suicide.
The death of his brother was too much for John Adams II, and he would eventually die of his alcoholism as well. (Charlie was the only son to live past his 30's).
Out of politics, Louisa was excited to move back to Massachusetts, but JQA had other plans. He wanted to run for elected office again. Only two years out of the presidency, the people of Massachusetts elected him to the U.S. House of Representatives. (Can you imagine what Andrew Jackson thought of this, oh my goodness!?!)
JQA proved to be much more successful in his stay at the House. He served for 18 years under Jackson, Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and James Polk. He fought to get rid of the "Gag" order Congress was under, in which they could not even discuss slavery, and then fought very hard to end it. He even surmised that if there was a Civil War, the president could use his war powers to free the slaves (which is exactly what Abraham Lincoln did with the Emancipation Proclamation). He helped avoid (even if it was just a delay) a Civil War when he helped end the Nullification Crisis under Andrew Jackson, and worked hard for the development of the Smithsonian.
JQA was pretty outspoken in the House. He gave some great speeches, giving him the nickname "Old Man Eloquent", but he also had some serious outbursts. (He liked to yell his opinion A LOT-- even when nobody asked for it.) When he was 80, he was arguing on the floor of the House of Representatives when he had a stroke. He died two days later (in the House Chamber, where he wanted to be.) His last words: "This is the last of earth. I am content."
Despite his inability to get anything through Congress, he was a beloved Representative (I mean he was there for 18 years!), and had some huge accomplishments before he took office. He's earned a spot in the middle ranking of presidents because if nothing else he was one of the greatest diplomats this country has ever seen.
But JQA would never feel that way. He would write in his journal near the end of his life that his "whole life has been a series of disappointments. I can scarcely recollect a single instance of success to anything I ever undertook." If JQA was not an accomplished man, then we are all just losers. Holy geez man, you did good things! Chin up!
We added our props to our JQA part of the giant American flag with his quotes...
...presidential issues....
...and fun facts...
We watched our president in 60 seconds video (you can check out the link if you want to watch too!)
Since JQA was the first president to be photographed, and since I wasn't feeling up to putting together anything too complicated, we did a photo scavenger hunt. Basically, the boys went through the alphabet taking pictures of something for each letter.
Like A was Asa...
..H was Hayden...
O was owl...
T was tree...
U was Ulysses...
That sort of thing. Also, by the way today I learned my kids are not photographers (holy blurry pictures!)
We also made our birthday cards, which the boys kept pretty simple. I didn't complain, it's been a tough week, and I was just glad to get JQA's birthday in today.
His board is up...
...and we made a tweet for him. We found it fitting with Andrew Jackson right below him, also tweeting at Henry Clay.
With that, six out of our first seven presidents are done. (John Adams isn't until the very end of October, it was a little weird to do the son before the father, I much preferred the Bush's order.)
For dinner we made Louisa Adam's chicken croquettes. But really, JQA didn't eat much. For dinner he often had a couple of crackers, and water. (Maybe part of his punishments?). I knew that wouldn't do, so we found this recipe from our book.
I paired it with peaches (JQA was a fan of fresh fruit, peaches in particular) and a salad (both John and Quincy enjoyed fresh veggies from their garden). Asa had a rough time with this one, but we all thought it was really good.
I think tonight we're making a run for Boston Creme Donuts, since Dunkin Donuts is a Massachusetts thing (as well as Boston Creme, obviously) and so is JQA!
Besides president's birthdays, I did take Hayden to his build and grow today.
He made another Avenger's vehicle.
I don't have much else for you. It was a really hard week, as we had to let our dog, Gracie go on Monday. We're all pretty heartbroken about it, she was part of our family for 11 and a half years, and was with us through a lot. (She was with me before Asa or Hayden). I miss her terribly, and I've become super attached to Sophie (her litter mate) in the last few days.
I'm not really wanting to write about it, but I also didn't want to not mention it. (She's the black one in the picture with her big dumb smile we all loved so much, in case you didn't personally know her.) Anyway, if you were here Monday looking for George W. Bush's birthday, that's why we didn't get to it. It's on the agenda as a make-up day sometime next week.
Next Up: I'm still not feeling up to much, but if nothing else, I'll be back in three days with Gerald Ford.
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