John Quincy Adams was twenty-nine when he married. His bride was twenty-three.

Bride and Groom

By the time John Quincy Adams was eighteen and ready to enter Harvard, he was already the most cosmopolitan young man in the country. As a boy, he had accompanied his father on diplomatic missions, representing the USA in Paris and later London. JQ was exceptionally bright, exposed to the finest education possible in Europe, fluent in several languages, and by fourteen, was engaged as secretary (and translator) to a diplomatic mission in St. Petersburg, Russia.

He returned to the US at eighteen, sailed through Harvard, read law, passed the Massachusetts bar… then realized that the mundane practice of law bored him to death. Politics and international diplomacy were high on his list of alternative career choices. 

JQA (as he called himself) published prescient essays in the newspapers regarding the new US government, which brought the attention of President Washington. He developed a high opinion of the young man, (to the delight of Vice President John Adams) and started him on his diplomatic career. 

As minister to the Netherlands, his assignments frequently took him to London and the home of the prominent and well-to-do American merchant Joshua Johnson, who had settled in Britain years before the Revolution, married, and raised a family. His daughter Louisa Catherine was twenty, pretty, French convent educated, well-mannered, and adept at all the social graces of a well-to-do Englishwoman. JQ was moderately interested; his passions were for intellectual pursuits rather than people. But he also knew that he was ready for marriage and family, a necessary step in his professional advancement. Louisa likely realized that being courted by the son of the American Vice President was a coup! And her father was delighted!

Their courtship last about two years – mostly by correspondence. Louisa Johnson had ample time to assess the cool disposition of her fiancé, as well as his controlling nature. Nevertheless, the courtship persisted, and in 1797 they married.

The Bad News

Shortly before their wedding, the bride and groom were apprised of the financial embarrassment of Joshua Johnson, who had overstretched his shipping enterprises. Bankruptcy was looming. Whatever JQ might have expected as a dowry would not be forthcoming. 

John Quincy Adams was not born to wealth, nor did he aspire to anything more than comfortable middle class. The Johnson financial distress affected Louisa perhaps more subliminally than she realized at first. It bothered her throughout her life. She felt personally embarrassed, even perhaps devalued, and ashamed of her family. In her diaries, she wondered if her husband’s coolness was predicated on his disappointment in her dowry. (It probably was not; JQ was just cool by nature.)

The only thing Joshua Johnson could give the newlyweds was an opulent honeymoon trip on his last remaining ship. They set sail for Portugal, which was JQ’s new diplomatic post. But the good news, was that his new post was reassigned to Prussia – larger, and far more important.

Prussia

Their new assignment was exciting for both the young Adamses. He already knew passable German, and would quickly improve to fluency, both written and spoken. Louisa, already fluent in both English and French, also learned sufficient German for the expected pleasantries. Their social life glittered. Frederick William III, the young King of Prussia took a liking to his new American diplomat, and Queen Louise considered his bride delightful. 

JQ, without intending to hurt his new wife, was an inconsiderate husband. He focused most of his “socio-diplomatic” attentions on his fellow diplomats and their man-stuff: brandy and pipes, card games, and political discussions. JQA thrived in that environment – and usually forgot that his young wife was left to fend for herself in a sea of opulently-dressed strangers. JQ had brought his brother Thomas along as his secretary, charged with escort duty and dancing partner for his sister-in-law. Fortunately they got on well. But Louisa was neglected, and JQ was oblivious. 

Rouge: Part I

Rouge is a cosmetic, used since ancient time to add an attractive “blush” to the feminine cheek. It was also expensive, and as such, an affectation of the upper class. It was common in Europe, particularly in court circles.

In 18th century America, rouge had not yet hopped the pond. Some young women pinched their cheeks for added color, but that was about it. 

The Queen of Prussia was a socially sophisticated woman, born into royalty and exposed to all the nuances of feminine graces. She was close in age to Louisa Adams and found her companionable. 

The Queen had married at sixteen, and already had two babies. She noticed that Mrs. Adams seemed particularly pale and quickly surmised the reason. It was she who suggested a bit of rouge to brighten her complexion. She even gave her a little tub of rouge as a personal gift. 

Rouge: Part II

The Queen had been correct in her suspicions. Louisa was indeed pregnant – the first of fifteen pregnancies, although only four were completed to term, and only three lived to maturity. 

The next time the Adamses were invited to the palace, Louisa had applied some of the rouge. When her husband saw his wife wearing cosmetics, he was livid, and insisted that she remove it immediately! She refused, saying that it was a gift from the Queen, and she felt obliged to use it. 

JQA thought otherwise, and personally scrubbed her face with soap and water. According to one source, she then refused to go to the palace with him. The source continues saying that Louisa considered it a “victory” by not attending. Another source says that Louisa reapplied the dab of rouge, and went alone to the palace. 

Maybe.

But JQA “erasing” the rouge part is true. 

Sources:

Nagel, Paul C. – Descent From Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family – Oxfvord University Press – 1983

Shepherd, Jack – Cannibals of the Heart – 1980, McGraw Hill

Unger, Harlow Giles – John Quincy Adams – DeCapo Press, 2012

https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Quincy-Adams

http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=6