American Historical Trivia

JQA and the Potomac

(This is such a long ass picture.)

So since I just wrote a chapter on the "horrid" deeds of John Adams' troublemaker son, I thought I'd talk about John's less problematic son. John Quincy Adams.

John was the sixth president of the United Sates, a US Senator and Representative, and he had killer sideburns. He lived through the Revolution up to the Civil War, he was able to see more history be made than almost any other person. Not to mention he is the son of John (and Abigail, the real rockstar of the couple) Adams. All in all, John Quincy lived a fruitful existence full of life we could only dream of living.

While he was in office as a Secretary of State, John was approached by a woman who had been wronged. She claimed despite her husband leaving all his wealth to her in his will, she was robbed of his fortune by her male relatives and wanted justice. She approached JQ and was like, "Hey dude, I need your help. My bros screwed me over and now I'm a widow and penniless."

After her persistent pestering, JQ was like "Aight, aight, chill out. I'll help you."

So years passed... and more years passed...

(Johnny was the procrastination king.)

Fast forward to when John Quincy entered the Oval Office. He's partying it up at the White House (this is a complete lie- from what I am aware of- John Quincy did not 'party') and the poor widow was getting impatient.

While John Quincy was rising in the political sphere, the widow (her name has left me for some reason and it's killing me) was rising in the popularity of the reporting world. This is a piece of useless information until you piece together that she was able- through her job- to find out about John Quincy's daily routine.

Now, this guy's schedule was weird. (I can talk about his schedule in another chapter, because it deserves a part of its own.) Every morning he would leave the White House to bathe in the Potomac river. That's right if you had lived in the 1800's you could have potentially walked upon the president skinny dipping in the wee hours of the morning.

The widow somehow came across this piece of obscurity and took advantage of it. One day, seeking her opportunity, the widow used John Quincy's vulnerability against him.

While John was busy swimming in the Potomac, the widow gathered up all his clothes that lay askew on the beach and sat on them. When Johnny finally realized he had an audience he stood flabbergasted at the woman, staying well in the water.

Standing with the river up to his hips, John Quincy was forced to plead and negotiate with the clever girl. She refused to return the presidential garments without him guaranteeing he would fulfill the promise he gave her so many years ago. With no Secret Service or even bodyguards at the time, John was forced to accept the conditions.

Clever as she was, the widow was naive enough to think his loose promise would be enough. It took John years (like, try 20 years) after this encounter to fulfill reacquainting the widow and her rightful fortune. But, I digress, she still got what she wanted.

A determined woman can be almost unstoppable. And a man caught between a rock and a hard place will be nothing but submissive.

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I did some digging, the widow's name was Anne Royall, for anyone curious.