When John Quincy Adams was informed by a committee that he was elected president by the House of Representatives, for the first and only time through the procedure set by the Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution, he responded in writing. “The answer was not very gracious,” writes historian George Dangerfield. “If it were possible, wrote Mr. Adams, by declining the office to cause an immediate election that would bring about a clearer result, he would gladly do so. But since this was not Constitutionally permissible, he accepted the Presidency.”