“The dynastic temptation was very real. The country was lucky that there was so little material for temptation to work with. Of the first five presidents, only John Adams had sons who survived to adulthood. Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, whose administrations covered the first quarter of the nineteenth century, were known as the ‘Virginia dynasty,’ but if the seducing channel of immediate (male) offspring had flowed from any of them, the dynasty might have extended into a second generation. How much more likely would this have been the case for literal sons of Washington. None of these men would have tolerated a son becoming president by any means except election. But a gaggle of junior Washingtons, Jeffersons, Madisons, and Monroes could have crowded the political landscape intolerably. As it was, John Adams’s eldest son, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth president.”

–Richard Brookhiser, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington