aus·tere 
severe or strict in manner, attitude, or appearance.

1824  - A Yankee Misfit in the White House 
John Quincy Adams was a chip off the old family glacier. Short, thickset, and billiard-bald, he was even more frigidly austere than his presidential

father, John Adams. Shunning people, he often went for early-morning swims, sometimes stark naked, in the then-pure Potomac River. Essentially a closeted thinker rather than a politician, he was irritable, sarcastic, and tactless. Yet few individuals have ever come to the presidency with a more brilliant record in statecraft, especially in foreign affairs. He ranks as one of the most successful secretaries of state, yet one of the least successful presidents.

1844 - Polk the Purposeful 

Austere, severe, he held few people dear His oratory filled his foes with fear; The factions soon agreed He's just the man we need To bring about victory; Fulfill our manifest destiny And annex the land the Mexicans command; And when the votes were cast the winner was Mister James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump