First Ladies For Dummies. Marcus A. Stadelmann, PhD

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СКАЧАТЬ alt="Remember"/> Abigail has the distinction of being one of two First Ladies who was married to a president and gave birth to a future president. The other one was Barbara Bush.

      Abigail was one of the first feminists in American history. She fought for equal rights for women as early as the late 18th century. In a 1776 letter she sent to John Adams while he was attending the second Continental Congress, which was working on the Declaration of Independence, she wrote:

      

I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors… . Do not put such power into the hands of the husbands, … Remember that all men would be tyrants if they could… . If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.

Abigail was also opposed to slavery. She called slavery antithetical to Christian principles of doing onto others as we would have others do onto us.

      Becoming a revolutionary

      Abigail and John Adams had five children, with four surviving into adulthood. Her oldest son and future President John Quincy Adams was born in 1767. John Adams became active in politics, was an advocate for independence from England, and became a delegate to the Continental Congress after the Boston Tea Party in 1773 (see later in this section). He was gone for long periods of time, and during that time, Abigail managed their property and business affairs. Both she and her husband were raised in a culture of civic virtue where the public good takes precedence over self and thus were willing to sacrifice being together. However, the two stayed in touch by literally writing thousands of letters to each other during their lifetimes. Overall, 1,160 letters have survived to this day, and the most famous one is the one Abigail wrote to John while he was serving in the Second Continental Congress and was working on the Declaration of Independence.

      

More than 2,000 of Abigail’s letters to family and friends in which she discussed the major events of the Revolutionary War have been preserved. The revolution changed her from a naïve traditional woman to a worldly opinionated woman on par with her husband. Her letters also show that she was opposed to slavery and a very religious women, because in her letters she consistently references the Bible.

      

The British Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773. This act allowed the British East India Company to take over the American tea business. Disgusted, the colonists responded with the Boston Tea Party, where people disguised as Indians boarded three British ships and dumped 342 crates of tea into the Boston harbor. Parliament responded with the so-called Intolerable Acts, closing Boston harbor and repealing many basic Colonial rights, including the right to local self-government.

      

Abigail became a revolutionary herself. She melted pewter spoons to make bullets for the minutemen, American patriots fighting the British military.

      Living life abroad

After most of Massachusetts had been liberated from the British by 1776 and the Declaration of Independence, which John Adams helped edit, was signed in March of 1776, John Adams was sent to England in 1777 as a diplomat. Abigail raised their children, ran the family farm, and managed the couple’s finances by herself for almost seven years. Abigail finally joined her husband after six years of separation and then went with him to France after he had been appointed U.S. minister to France. Between 1784 and 1788, she lived with her husband in both France and England.

      

Back then, Congress didn’t provide funding for running a diplomatic residence, and being minister almost ruined the Adams family. The couple had to pay for the expected social events held in their London and Paris homes out of their own pocket.

      Abigail was happy to return home in 1788, and after John Adams was elected Vice President of the United States, she moved with him to New York, the first capital of the United States, and later Philadelphia after the capital moved. In Philadelphia, she became close friends with Marth Washington and hosted formal dinners every Wednesday for members of Congress and foreign dignitaries.

      In 1794, her health began to decline, and she moved back to Massachusetts. She and John corresponded almost daily by letters discussing both national and local politics.

      Becoming First Lady

      After John Adams became President of the United States in 1797, he urged Abigail to move back to the capital still in Philadelphia. She took up the role of hostess, receiving visitors to the presidential mansion and held dinners attended by lawmakers and foreign diplomats.

      She had become America’s second First Lady. Her functions included supervising a large staff and planning formal dinners in the President’s mansion.

      

Being president was similar to being a diplomat. Back then, presidents received a very low presidential salary but still were expected to entertain. This imposed a great financial burden on not only the president but the whole family. For an average July 4th celebration, the Adamses had to buy 200 pounds of cake and two ¼ casks of wine and rum to entertain all members of Congress and their families.

      Turning into Mrs. President

      Informally, Abigail discussed policy options with John Adams and gave him frequent advice. Soon, the political elite in Washington referred to her as an informal cabinet secretary.

Abigail was frequently called Mrs. President because of the influence she had over John. She discussed important problems with him, helped draft official letters, and basically became a minister without portfolio. For this reason, Abigail became a heroine for women who believed in women’s rights.

      Abigail supported John’s policies, including the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts (see nearby sidebar). She believed that her husband and family were unfairly attacked by the press, which made libelous statements, and she believed that the press needed to be punished.

      At the same time, Abigail was the first First Lady to attempt to manipulate the media to shape public opinion toward her husband and family. She planted stories in the Boston newspapers by sending them selected letters and news stories that she approved of.

      THE ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS

      The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed at the urging of President Adams and consisted of four separate acts designed to silence any opposition to his rule:

       The Naturalization Act made it more difficult to become a U.S. citizen. It mandated living in the country 14 years instead of 7 to acquire citizenship.

       The Alien Act allowed the government to deport foreigners who were considered a threat to the United States.

       The Alien Enemies Act allowed the government to imprison foreigners who were considered a threat to the United States.

       The Sedition Act made it a crime СКАЧАТЬ