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Hollywood Cemetery

412 South Cherry Street

Richmond, VA 23220

Phone: (804) 648-8501

www.hollywoodcemeter y.org

“As his health declined, Monroe became a near recluse. . . .”

—Richard Norton Smith

Monroe’s final years had been demeaning. Shadowed by debt, grief-stricken over the loss of his wife, Elizabeth, the last of the Virginia Dynasty was compelled to sell his Loudoun County estate and take up residence with his daughter and son-in-law in New York City. As his health declined, Monroe became a near recluse, dosing himself with syrup of horehound for a tubercular condition. On the afternoon of July 4, 1831, he became the third American president to succumb on the nation’s birthday. (Madison fell just short, dying on June 28, 1836.) Thousands turned out to watch a hearse bear his remains slowly up Broadway to a “temporary” vault, where they remained until the Virginia legislature in 1858 decided to observe the centenary of Monroe’s birth with an elaborate homecoming and burial in the most bizarre of presidential tombs—a black iron birdcage-like affair that only Charles Addams could love.

—RNS

Elizabeth Monroe’s grave lies next to her husband’s birdcage-liketomb in Hollywood Cemetery

John Quincy Adams

Buried: United First Parish Church (Church of the Presidents), Quincy, Massachusetts

Sixth President - 1825-1829

Born: July 11, 1767, in Quincy, Massachusetts

Died: 7:20 p.m. on February 23, 1848, in Washington, D.C.

Age at death: 80

Cause of death: Stroke

Final words: “I am content” or “I am composed” (accounts vary)

Admission to United First Parish Church: $4.00

The easygoing Monroe was followed by John Quincy Adams who candidly described himself as reserved and austere. The son of our second president arrived at the White House in 1825 after a fractious election. None of the four presidential candidates captured a majority of electoral votes, so the race was decided in the House of Representatives.

Our sixth president kept in shape by walking between the White House and the Capitol. As befit his cold personality, he was also fond of skinny-dipping in the chilly waters of the Potomac. His British-born wife, Louisa, was the only first lady born outside the United States. Unhappy in her position, she avoided social occasions whenever possible.

After losing the presidency to Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828, John Quincy Adams embarked on yet another political career as the only former president to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1830, he was elected to represent a Massachusetts district. He returned to Washington and resumed his early morning swims, a habit he continued until just before his death.

Eighteen years later, at age eighty, though his health had deteriorated after a minor stroke in 1846, he was still serving in Congress. On February 21, 1848, at his desk in the House chamber, Adams suffered a second and more serious stroke. After vehemently voting to reject more decorations for some Mexican War generals, the Congressman fell into the arms of Ohio Representative David Fisher. His colleagues carried him to the Speaker’s Room, just off the House floor, where he was attended by five physicians, four of whom were fellow Representatives. Accounts of Adams’s last words vary. Some claimed to have heard him whisper, “I am content.” Others recalled the words, “I am composed.” He slipped into a coma and died at the Capitol two days later.

Adams’s body lay on view in a House committee room for two days, where thousands filed past to see him. Funeral services were conducted by the House chaplain on February 25, with the coffin resting before the Speaker’s rostrum in the House chamber. Adams’s body was taken in a grand procession to a receiving vault at Congressional Cemetery in Washington. A few days later, it was transported back to Massachusetts by train, accompanied by a member of Congress from each state. Mourners lined the route and a public memorial service