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50 free John Quincy Adams trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
John Quincy Adams was a teenage diplomat in St. Petersburg, a Harvard professor of rhetoric, America's minister in The Hague, Berlin, St. Petersburg and London, the secretary of state who won Florida and drafted the Monroe Doctrine, and then — almost as an afterthought — a one-term president who lost the popular vote, won in the House, and spent four years being called a crook by Andrew Jackson's men. Two years after leaving the White House he went back to Congress, the only ex-president ever to do so, and fought slavery and the gag rule there until he collapsed at his desk in 1848. These 50 questions cover all of it: the Braintree boyhood and the diary he kept for almost seventy years, the London-born wife, the Treaty of Ghent, the 49th parallel, the "corrupt bargain" with Henry Clay, the national university and observatory nobody wanted, the Tariff of Abominations, the Amistad argument before the Supreme Court, the Smithsonian bequest and the famous last words. Easy questions stick to the family and the dates; the expert tier asks about Fletcher v. Peck, the Anti-Masonic Party and the earliest photograph of a president. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
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Q 01John Quincy Adams was which number president of the United States?
Sixth
He followed James Monroe and preceded Andrew Jackson, serving a single term from 1825 to 1829.
Q 02Adams's father was which number US president?
Second
He was the first presidential son to win the White House; George W. Bush repeated the feat 176 years later.
Q 03In which Massachusetts town was Adams born in 1767?
Braintree
The part of Braintree where he was born is now Quincy, named for his great-grandfather Colonel John Quincy.
Q 04After whom was Adams given his middle name?
His mother's grandfather
Colonel John Quincy died two days after his great-grandson's birth; the city of Quincy is also named for him.
Q 05At 14, Adams went to which city as secretary to diplomat Francis Dana?
Saint Petersburg
He returned to Russia as US minister in 1809 and befriended Tsar Alexander I.
Q 06Which university did Adams graduate from, near the top of his class, in 1787?
Harvard
He had attended Leiden University in the Netherlands as a boy and later held Harvard's Boylston chair of rhetoric.
Q 07Which president appointed the 27-year-old Adams minister to the Netherlands?
George Washington
His chief job in Amsterdam was keeping the Dutch loans that propped up US finances.
Q 08In which city did Adams marry Louisa Catherine Johnson in 1797?
London
They wed at All Hallows-by-the-Tower; her merchant father then fled his creditors and the promised dowry never came.
Q 09Louisa Adams was the first First Lady to be what?
Born outside the United States
She was born in England and did not see the United States until adulthood.
Q 10Adams was the lone Federalist in Congress to back which Jefferson policy?
The Louisiana Purchase
His drift from the party cost him his Senate seat; Massachusetts Federalists denied him re-election.
Q 11While a senator, Adams held the Boylston professorship in which subject?
Rhetoric and oratory
He also taught logic at Brown; classical rhetoric shaped his public style for life.
Q 12Which 1809 Supreme Court case did Adams argue, winning on the Contract Clause?
Fletcher v. Peck
The Court agreed Georgia could not cancel a land sale to out-of-state buyers.
Q 13Which president made Adams the first US minister to Russia in 1809?
James Madison
Louisa dreaded the posting but became a popular figure at the Russian court.
Q 21Who won the most electoral votes in 1824 yet lost the presidency to Adams?
Andrew Jackson
Jackson took 99 of 261 electors to Adams's 84; with no majority, the House decided.
Q 22Which body chose Adams as president in February 1825?
The House
He won the contingent election on the first ballot with 13 of 24 state delegations.
Q 23Which Speaker of the House threw his support to Adams and became his secretary of state?
Henry Clay
Clay thought Jackson a dangerous demagogue and Crawford too ill to serve.
Q 14Adams led the American negotiators for which 1814 agreement that ended the War of 1812?
The Treaty of Ghent
The British had wanted an Indian barrier state near the Great Lakes; the Americans unanimously refused.
Q 15Under which president did Adams serve as secretary of state?
James Monroe
Monroe wanted a Northerner in the job for national unity; the last three presidents had all held it first.
Q 16The 1818 treaty Adams negotiated set the US–Canada border along which line?
The 49th parallel
It ran from the Great Lakes to the Rockies; Oregon was left to joint occupation.
Q 17Which territory did the United States acquire from Spain under the Adams–Onís Treaty?
Florida
In return the US gave up claims to Spanish Texas and fixed its first transcontinental boundary.
Q 18The Adams–Onís Treaty set the boundary with Spanish Texas along which waterway?
The Sabine River
Expansionists wanted the Rio Grande; Adams accepted the Sabine but made Spain drop its claim to Oregon.
Q 19Which Spanish minister signed the 1819 treaty with Adams?
Luis de Onís
The treaty was formally terminated only in 1902.
Q 20Which 1823 statement warning Europe off the Americas did Adams chiefly draft?
The Monroe Doctrine
It warned European powers against recolonising the Americas.
Q 24What two-word phrase did Jacksonians use for the Adams–Clay deal of 1825?
Corrupt bargain
The charge was the Democrats' main campaign theme for the next four years.
Q 25On what did Adams place his hand when taking the presidential oath in 1825?
A book of constitutional law
His inaugural promised to avoid party-building and politically motivated appointments.
Q 26Which of these did Adams propose to Congress in his ambitious 1825 message?
A national astronomical observatory
He also wanted a national university and a naval academy; Congress killed most of it.
Q 27Which highway did the Adams administration extend towards Zanesville, Ohio?
The National Road
The Army Corps of Engineers surveyed roads, canals and railroads across the country from 1824 to 1828.
Q 28What nickname did Southern opponents give the protective duties of 1828?
The Tariff of Abominations
Jacksonians designed it to woo the West while hitting New England; Van Buren shepherded it through.
Q 29Adams suspended a treaty forced on the Muscogee (Creek) by the governor of which state?
Georgia
Governor George Troup had pushed the Treaty of Indian Springs through; Adams favoured consensual, gradual assimilation.
Q 30Adams said America "goes not abroad in search of" what?
Monsters to destroy
The line comes from his 1821 Fourth of July address urging neutrality towards Latin America's revolutions.