John Quincy Adams was the only President who was the son of a President. (Until G W Bush) As a boy, his mother had told him that some day the state would rest upon his shoulders. It did not rest lightly.

Never publicly popular, often reviled by his political enemies, he nevertheless ended his life in the sunshine of national esteem. The presidency was only one of his careers, sandwiched between being a successful diplomat and Secretary of State, and, after the interlude of being President, an equally successful tenure as a Congressman who opposed slavery.

Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were life-long members of First Parish Church, Quincy, Mass. Their tombs stand in a crypt within the church, beside those of their wives, Abigail and Louisa Catherine.