Not to be confused with his father, the second President of the United States with whom he shares the same first and last name, John Quincy Adams took the role of the sixth American President. Perhaps the “Q” stood for Quirky! As bright as his IQ indicates, he expressed some unusual character traits. He once swam naked in the Potomac, almost drowning, trying to paddle a leaky canoe. He kept an alligator in the White House. At Harvard on New Year’s Eve, he described a stupid kissing game as “profanation.” However, he liked dancing. At his inauguration, he wore long pants and his head of hair instead of a powdered wig. Very well educated, he studied law at Harvard. He traveled vastly throughout Europe as a child. Although seemingly aloof as President, he was adamantly against slavery. He found freedom for Africans who mutinied on the slave ship Amistad.