No More Learning

Worst of all, he was a lawyer, and the prejudice of colonial society
reckoned a lawyer hardly honest. He won this most important of
his cases, however, and Parson Smith's marriage sermon for the bride
of nineteen was preached from the text, «For John came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, He hath a devil. ”
For ten years Mrs. Adams seems to have lived a most happy life,
either in Boston or Braintree, her greatest grief being the frequent
absences of her husband on circuit. His letters to her are many and
delightful, expressing again and again, in the somewhat formal
phrases of the period, his affection and admiration. She
She wrote
seldom, her household duties and the care of the children, of whom
there were four in ten years, occupying her busy hands.
Meanwhile, the clouds were growing black in the political sky.
Mr. Adams wrote arguments and appeals in the news journals over
Latin signatures, papers of instructions to Representatives to the
General Court, and legal portions of the controversy between the
D


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86
ABIGAIL ADAMS
can
ror.
delegates and Governor Hutchinson. In all this work Mrs. Adams
constantly sympathized and advised. In August, 1774, he went to
Philadelphia as a delegate to a general council of the colonies called
to concert measures for united action. And now begins the famous
correspondence, which goes on for a period of nine years, which was
intended to be seen only by the eyes of her husband, which she
begs him, again and again, to destroy as not worth the keeping, yet
which has given her a name and place among the world's most charm-
ing letter-writers.
Her courage, her cheerfulness, her patriotism, her patience never
fail her. Braintree, where, with her little brood, she is to stay, is
close to the British lines. Raids and foraging expeditions are immi-
nent. Hopes of a peaceful settlement grow dim.
“What course you
or will take,” she writes her husband, is all wrapped in the
bosom of futurity. Uncertainty and expectation leave the mind great
scope. Did ever any kingdom or State regain its liberty, when once
it was invaded, without bloodshed? I cannot think of it without hor-
Yet we are told that all the misfortunes of Sparta were occas-
ioned by their too great solicitude for present tranquillity, and, from
an excessive love of peace, they neglected the means of making it
sure and lasting. They ought to have reflected, says Polybius, that,
(as there is nothing more desirable or advantageous than peace, when
founded in justice and honor, so there is nothing more shameful, and
at the same time more pernicious, when attained by bad measures,
and purchased at the price of liberty. ) »
Thus in the high Roman fashion she faces danger; yet her sense
of fun never deserts her, and in the very next letter she writes,
parodying her husband's documents: -« The drouth has been very
severe. My poor cows will certainly prefer a petition to you, setting
forth their grievances, and informing you that they have been de-
prived of their ancient privileges, whereby they are become great
sufferers, and desiring that these may be restored to them. More
especially as their living, by reason of the drouth, is all taken from
them, and their property which they hold elsewhere is decaying, they
humbly pray that you would consider them, lest hunger should break
through stone walls. ”
By midsummer the small hardships entailed by the British occu-
pation of Boston were most vexatious. “We shall very soon have no
coffee, nor sugar, nor pepper, but whortleberries and milk we are
not obliged to commerce for,” she writes, and in letter after letter
she begs for pins. Needles are desperately needed, but without pins
how can domestic life go on, and not a pin in the province!
On the 14th of September she describes the excitement in Boston,
the Governor mounting cannon on Beacon Hill, digging intrenchments


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
87
so
on the Neck, planting guns, throwing up breastworks, encamping a
regiment. In consequence of the powder being taken from Charles-
town, she goes on to say, a general alarm spread through all the
towns and was soon caught in Braintree. And then she describes
one of the most extraordinary scenes in history. About eight o'clock
on Sunday evening, she writes to her husband, at least two hundred
men, preceded by a horse-cart, passed by her door in dead silence,
and marched down to the powder-house, whence they took out the
town's powder, because they dared not trust it where there were
many Tories, carried it into the other parish, and there secreted it.
On their way they captured a notorious “King's man,” and found on
him two warrants aimed at the Commonwealth. When their patriotic
trust was discharged, they turned their attention to the trembling
Briton. Profoundly excited and indignant though they were, they
never thought of mob violence, but, true to the inherited instincts of
their race, they resolved themselves into a public meeting! The
hostile warrants being produced and exhibited, it was put to a vote
whether they should be burned or preserved. The majority voted
for burning them. Then the two hundred gathered in a circle round
the single lantern, and maintained a rigid silence while the offending
papers were consumed. That done -- the blazing eyes in that grim
circle of patriots watching the blazing writs — «they called a vote
whether they should huzza; but, it being Sunday evening, it passed
in the negative! ”
Only in the New England of John Winthrop and the Mathers, of
John Quincy and the Adamses, would such a scene have been pos-
sible: a land of self-conquest and self-control, of a deep love of the
public welfare and a willingness to take trouble for a public object.
A little later Mrs. Adams writes her husband that there has been
a conspiracy among the negroes, though it has been kept quiet. "I
wish most sincerely,” she adds, that there was not a slave in the
province. It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me - to
fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from
those who have as good a right to freedom as we have. ”
Nor were the sympathies of this clever logician confined to
the slaves. A month or two before the Declaration of Independence
was made she writes her constructive statesman:--"I long to hear
that you have declared an independence. And by the way, in the
new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to
make, I desire you would remember the ladies, and be more gener-
ous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such un-
limited power into the hands of the husbands! Remember, 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


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88
ABIGAIL ADAMS
will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice
or representation. That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth
so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you
as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of master for
the more tender and endearing one of friend. Why, then, not put
it out of the power of the vicious and the lawless to use us with
cruelty and indignity with impunity ? Men of sense in all ages abhor
those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex. Regard
us, then, as being placed by Providence under your protection; and
in imitation of the Supreme Being, make use of that power only for
our happiness,” — a declaration of principles which the practical house-
wife follows up by saying :-"I have not yet attempted making salt-
petre, but after soap-making, believe I shall make the experiment.
find as much as I can do to manufacture clothing for my family,
which would else be naked. I have lately seen a small manuscript
describing the proportions of the various sorts of powder fit for can-
non, small arms, and pistols. If it would be of any service your
way, I will get it transcribed and send it to you. ”
She is interested in everything, and she writes about everything
in the same whole-hearted way,— farming, paper money, the mak-
ing of molasses from corn-stalks, the new remedy of inoculation,
(Common Sense) and its author, the children's handwriting, the state
of Harvard College, the rate of taxes, the most helpful methods
of enlistment, Chesterfield's Letters, the town elections, the higher
education of women, and the getting of homespun enough for Mr.
Adams's new suit.
She manages, with astonishing skill, to keep the household in
comfort. She goes through trials of sickness, death, agonizing sus-
pense, and ever with the same heroic cheerfulness, that her anxious
husband may be spared the pangs which she endures. When he is
sent to France and Holland, she accepts the new parting as another
service pledged to her country. She sees her darling boy of ten go
with his father, aware that at the best she must bear months of
silence, knowing that they may perish at sea or fall into the hands
of privateers; but she writes with indomitable cheer, sending the lad
tender letters of good advice, a little didactic to modern taste, but
throbbing with affection. “Dear as you are to me,” says this tender
mother, “I would much rather you should have found your grave in
the ocean you have crossed than see you an immoral, profligate, or
graceless child. ”
It was the lot of this country parson's daughter to spend three
years in London as wife of the first American minister, to see her
husband Vice-President of the United States for eight years and Pres-
ident for four, and to greet her son as the eminent Monroe's valued


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
89
Secretary of State, though she died, seventy-four years young,"
before he became President. She could not, in any station, be more
truly a lady than when she made soap and chopped kindling on her
Braintree farm. At Braintree she was no more simply modest than
at the Court of St. James or in the Executive Mansion. Her letters
exactly reflect her ardent, sincere, energetic nature. She shows a
charming delight when her husband tells her that his affairs could
not possibly be better managed than she manages them, and that she
shines not less as a statesman than as a farmeress. And though she
was greatly admired and complimented, no praise so pleased her as
his declaration that for all the ingratitude, calumnies, and misunder-
standings that he had endured, — and they were numberless, - her
perfect comprehension of him had been his sufficient compensation.
lucia Liiket Ruble
Puukee
TO HER HUSBAND
BRAINTREE, May 24th, 1775.
My Dearest Friend :
OUR
L.
UR house has been, upon this alarm, in the same scene of
confusion that it was upon the former. Soldiers coming
in for a lodging, for breakfast, for supper, for drink, etc.
Sometimes refugees from Boston, tired and fatigued, seek an
asylum for a day, a night, a week. You can hardly imagine
how we live; yet —
« To the houseless child of want,
Our doors are open still;
And though our portions are but scant,
We give them with good will. ”
My best wishes attend you, both for your health and happiness,
and that you may be directed into the wisest and best measures
for our safety and the security of our posterity.
I wish you
were nearer to us: we know not what a day will bring forth,
nor what distress one hour may throw us into. Hitherto I have
been able to maintain a calmness and presence of mind, and
hope I shall, let the exigency of the time be what it will.
Adieu, breakfast calls.
Your affectionate
PORTIA.


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90
ABIGAIL ADAMS
WEYMOUTH, June 15th, 1775.
HOPE we shall see each other again, and rejoice together in
happier days; the little ones are well, and send duty to papa.
Don't fail of letting me hear from you by every opportunity.
Every line is like a precious relic of the saints.
I
me.
I have a request to make of you; something like the barrel
of sand, I suppose you will think it, but really of much more
importance to me. It is, that you would send out Mr. Bass, and
purchase me a bundle of pins and put them in your trunk for
The cry for pins is so great that what I used to buy for
seven shillings and sixpence are now twenty shillings, and not
to be had for that. A bundle contains six thousand, for which
I used to give a dollar; but if you can procure them for fifty
shillings, or three pounds, pray let me have them. I am, with
the tenderest regard,
Your
Portia.
BRAINTREE, June 18th, 1775.
My Dearest Friend :
TH
HE day - perhaps the decisive day is come, on which the
fate of America depends. My bursting heart must find vent
at my pen. I have just heard that our dear friend, Dr. Warren,
is no more, but fell gloriously fighting for his country, saying,
Better to die honorably in the field than ignominiously hang
upon the gallows. ” Great is our loss. He has distinguished
himself in every engagement by his courage and fortitude, by ani-
mating the soldiers, and leading them on by his own example. A
particular account of these dreadful but, I hope, glorious days,
will be transmitted you, no doubt, in the exactest manner.
«The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong;
but the God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power unto
His people. Trust in Him at all times, ye people: pour out your
hearts before Him; God is a refuge for us. " Charlestown is laid
in ashes. The battle began upon our intrenchments upon Bunker's
Hill, Saturday morning about three o'clock, and has not ceased
yet, and it is now three o'clock Sabbath afternoon.
It is expected they will come out over the Neck to-night, and
a dreadful battle must ensue. Almighty God, cover the heads of
our countrymen, and be a shield to our dear friends! How many


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
91
have fallen we know not. The constant roar of the cannon is so
distressing that we cannot eat, drink, or sleep. May we be sup-
ported and sustained in the dreadful conflict. I shall tarry here
till it is thought unsafe by my friends, and then I have secured
myself a retreat at your brother's, who has kindly offered me part
of his house.
I cannot compose myself to write any further at
present. I will add more as I hear further.
Your
PORTIA.
Со
If a
BRAINTREE, November 27th, 1775.
OLONEL WARREN returned last week to Plymouth, so that I
shall not hear anything from you until he goes back again,
which will not be till the last of this month. He damped
my spirits greatly by telling me that the court had prolonged
your stay another month. I was pleasing myself with the thought
that you would soon be upon your return. It is in vain to repine.
I hope the public will reap what I sacrifice.
I wish I knew what mighty things were fabricating.
form of government is to be established here, what one will be
assumed? Will it be left to our Assemblies to choose one ? And
will not many men have many minds? And shall we not run into
dissensions among ourselves ?
I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creat-
ure; and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever
grasping, and, like the grave, cries, “Give, give! ” The great fish
swallow up the small; and he who is most strenuous for the rights
of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the pre-
rogatives of government. You tell me of degrees of perfection to
which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but
at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the
scarcity of the instances.
The building up a great empire, which was only hinted at by
my correspondent, may now, I suppose, be realized even by the
unbelievers; yet will not ten thousand difficulties arise in the
formation of it ? The reins of government have been so long
slackened that I fear the people will not quietly submit to those
restraints which are necessary for the peace and security of the
community. If we separate from Britain, what code of laws will
be established ? How shall we be governed so as to retain our
liberties? Can any government be free which is not administered
THE UNIVERSITY OF


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92
ABIGAIL ADAMS
by general stated laws ? Who shall frame these laws ? Who will
give them force and energy? It is true, your resolutions, as a
body, have hitherto had the force of laws; but will they continue
to have ?
When I consider these things, and the prejudices of people in
favor of ancient customs and regulations, I feel anxious for the
fate of our monarchy, or democracy, or whatever is to take place.
I soon get lost in the labyrinth of perplexities; but, whatever
occurs, may justice and righteousness be the stability of our times,
and order arise out of confusion. Great difficulties may be sur-
mounted by patience and perseverance.
I believe I have tired you with politics. As to news, we have
not any at all. I shudder at the approach of winter, when I
think I am to remain desolate.
I must bid you good-night; 'tis late for me, who am much
of an invalid. I was disappointed last week in receiving a packet
by post, and, upon unsealing it, finding only four newspapers.
I think you are more cautious than you need be. All letters, I
believe, have come safe to hand. I have sixteen from you, and
wish I had as many more.
Your
PORTIA.
[By permission of the family
BRAINTREE, April 20th, 1777.
T"
HERE is a general cry against the merchants, against monopo-
lizers, etc. , who, 'tis said, have created a partial scarcity.
That a scarcity prevails of every article, not only of luxury
but even the necessaries of life, is a certain fact. Everything
bears an exorbitant price. The Act, which was in some measure
regarded and stemmed the torrent of oppression, is now no more
heeded than if it had never been made. Indian corn at five shil-
lings; rye, eleven and twelve shillings, but scarcely any to be had
even at that price; beef, eightpence; veal, sixpence and eight-
pence; butter, one and sixpence; mutton, none; lamb, none; pork,
none; mean sugar, four pounds per hundred; molasses, none;
cotton-wool, none; New England rum, eight shillings per gallon;
coffee, two and sixpence per pound; chocolate, three shillings.
What can be done? Will gold and silver remedy this evil ?
By your accounts of board, housekeeping, etc. , I fancy you are
not better off than we are here. I live in hopes that we see the


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
93
most difficult time we have to experience. Why is Carolina so
much better furnished than any other State, and at so reasonable
prices?
Your
Portia.
BRAINTREE, June 8th, 1779.
ix months have already elapsed since I heard a syllable from
S,
opportunity of conveying a line to you. Letters of various
dates have lain months at the Navy Board, and a packet and frig-
ate, both ready to sail at an hour's warning, have been months
waiting the orders of Congress. They no doubt have their rea-
sons, or ought to have, for detaining them. I must patiently wait
their motions, however painful it is; and that it is so, your own
feelings will testify. Yet I know not but you are less a sufferer
than you would be to hear from us, to know our distresses, and
yet be unable to relieve them. The universal cry for bread, to
a humane heart, is painful beyond description, and the great price
demanded and given for it verifies that pathetic passage of Sacred
Writ, “All that a man hath will he give for his life. ” Yet He
who miraculously fed a multitude with five loaves and two fishes
has graciously interposed in our favor, and delivered many of the
enemy's supplies into our hands, so that our distresses have been
mitigated. I have been able as yet to supply my own family,
sparingly, but at a price that would astonish you. Corn is sold at
four dollars, hard money, per bushel, which is equal to eighty at
the rate of exchange.
Labor is at eight dollars per day, and in three weeks it will be
at twelve, it is probable, or it will be more stable than anything
else. Goods of all kinds are at such a price that I hardly dare
mention it. Linens are sold at twenty dollars per yard; the most
ordinary sort of calicoes at thirty and forty; broadcloths at forty
pounds per yard; West India goods full as high; molasses at
twenty dollars per gallon; sugar, four dollars per pound; Bohea
tea at forty dollars; and our own produce in proportion; butch-
er's meat at six and eight shillings per pound; board at fifty and
sixty dollars per week; rates high. That, I suppose, you will re-
joice at; so would I, did it remedy the evil. I pay five hundred
dollars, and a new Continental rate has just appeared, my pro-
portion of which will be two hundred more. I have come to this
determination, -- to sell no more bills, unless I can procure hard


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94
ABIGAIL ADAMS
money for them, although I shall be obliged to allow a discount.
If I sell for paper, I throw away more than half, so rapid is the
depreciation; nor do I know that it will be received long. I sold
a bill to Blodget at five for one, which was looked upon as high
at that time. The week after I received it, two emissions were
taken out of circulation, and the greater part of what I had
proved to be of that sort; so that those to whom I was indebted
are obliged to wait, and before it becomes due, or is exchanged,
it will be good for - as much as it will fetch, which will be noth-
ing, if it goes on as it has done for this three months past. I
will not tire your patience any longer. I have not drawn any
further upon you.
I mean to wait the return of the Alliance,
which with longing eyes I look for. God grant it may bring
me comfortable tidings from my dear, dear friend, whose welfare
is so essential to my happiness that it is entwined around my
heart, and cannot be impaired or separated from it without rend-
ing it asunder.
I cannot say that I think our affairs go very well here. Our
currency seems to be the source of all our evils. We cannot fill
up our Continental army by means of it. No bounty will prevail
with them. What can be done with it? It will sink in less than
a year.
The advantage the enemy daily gains over us is owing
to this. Most truly did you prophesy, when you said that they
would do all the mischief in their power with the forces they had
here.
My tenderest regards ever attend you. In all places and situ-
ations, know me to be ever, ever yours.
.
A
AUTEUIL, 5th September, 1784.
My Dear Sister :
UTEUIL is a village four miles distant from Paris, and one from
Passy. The house we have taken is large, commodious,
and agreeably situated near the woods of Boulogne, which
belong to the King, and which Mr. Adams calls his park, for he
walks an hour or two every day in them. The house is much
larger than we have need of; upon occasion, forty beds may be
made in it. I fancy it must be very cold in winter. There are
few houses with the privilege which this enjoys, that of having
the salon, as it is called, the apartment where we receive com-
pany, upon the first floor. This room is very elegant, and about


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
95
a third larger than General Warren's hall. The dining-room is
upon the right hand, and the salon upon the left, of the entry,
which has large glass doors opposite to each other, one opening
into the court, as they call it, the other into a large and beauti-
ful garden. Out of the dining-room you pass through an entry
into the kitchen, which is rather small for so large a house. In
this entry are stairs which you ascend, at the top of which is a
long gallery fronting the street, with six windows, and opposite to
each window you open into the chambers, which all look into the
garden.
But with an expense of thirty thousand livres in looking-
glasses, there is no table in the house better than an oak board,
nor a carpet belonging to the house. The floors I abhor, made
of red tiles in the shape of Mrs. Quincy's floor-cloth tiles. These
floors will by no means bear water, so that the method of clean-
ing them is to have them waxed, and then a manservant with
foot brushes drives round your room, dancing here and there like
a Merry Andrew. This is calculated to take from your foot every
atom of dirt, and leave the room in a few moments as he found
it. The house must be exceedingly cold in winter. The dining-
rooms, of which you make no other use, are laid with small
stones, like the red tiles for shape and size. The servants' apart-
ments are generally upon the first floor, and the stairs which you
commonly have to ascend to get into the family apartments are
so dirty that I have been obliged to hold up my clothes as though
I was passing through a cow-yard.
I have been but little abroad. It is customary in this country
for strangers to make the first visit. As I cannot speak the lan-
guage, I think I should make rather an awkward figure. I have
dined abroad several times with Mr. Adams's particular friends,
the Abbés, who are very polite and civil, — three sensible and
worthy men. The Abbé de Mably has lately published a book,
which he has dedicated to Mr. Adams. This gentleman is nearly
eighty years old; the Abbé Chalut, seventy-five; and Arnoux
about fifty, a fine sprightly man, who takes great pleasure in
obliging his friends. Their apartments were really nice. I have
dined once at Dr. Franklin's, and once at Mr. Barclay's, our con-
sul, who has a very agreeable woman for his wife, and where I
feel like being with a friend. Mrs. Barclay has assisted me in
my purchases, gone with me to different shops, etc. To-morrow
I am to dine at Monsieur Grand's; but I have really felt so


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96
ABIGAIL ADAMS
happy within doors, and am so pleasingly situated, that I have
had little inclination to change the scene. I have not been to one
public amusement as yet, not even the opera, though we have
one very near us.
You may easily suppose I have been fully employed, beginning
housekeeping anew, and arranging my family to our no small
expenses and trouble; for I have had bed-linen and table-linen to
purchase and make, spoons and forks to get made of silver,
three dozen of each, — besides tea furniture, china for the table,
servants to procure, etc. The expense of living abroad I always
supposed to be high, but my ideas were nowise adequate to the
thing. I could have furnished myself in the town of Boston with
everything I have, twenty or thirty per cent. cheaper than I have
been able to do it here. Everything which will bear the name of
elegant is imported from England, and if you will have it, you
must pay for it, duties and all. I cannot get a dozen handsome
wineglasses under three guineas, nor a pair of small decanters for
less than a guinea and a half. The only gauze fit to wear is
English, at a crown a yard; so that really a guinea goes no further
than a copper with us. For this house, garden, stables, etc. , we
give two hundred guineas a year. Wood is two guineas and a
half per cord; coal, six livres the basket of about two bushels;
this article of firing we calculate at one hundred guineas a year.
The difference between coming upon this negotiation to France,
and remaining at the Hague, where the house was already fur-
nished at the expense of a thousand pounds sterling, will increase
the expense here to six or seven hundred guineas; at a time, too,
when Congress has cut off five hundred guineas from what they
have heretofore given. For our coachman and horses alone (Mr.
Adams purchased a coach in England) we give fifteen guineas a
month. It is the policy of this country to oblige you to a certain
number of servants, and one will not touch what belongs to the
business of another, though he or she has time enough to per-
form the whole. In the first place, there is a coachman who does
not an individual thing but attend to the carriages and horses;
then the gardener, who has business enough; then comes the cook;
then the maître d'hotel, — his business is to purchase articles in
the family, and oversee that nobody cheats but himself; a valet de
chambre, — John serves in this capacity; a femme de chambre,
Esther serves for this, and is worth a dozen others; a coiffeuse,–
for this place I have a French girl about nineteen, whom I have


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
97
(
((
been upon the point of turning away, because madam will not
brush a chamber: “it is not de fashion, it is not her business. ”
I would not have kept her a day longer, but found, upon inquiry,
that I could not better myself, and hair-dressing here is very
expensive unless you keep such a madam in the house. She
sews tolerably well, so I make her as useful as I can. She is
more particularly devoted to mademoiselle. Esther diverted me
yesterday evening by telling me that she heard her go muttering
by her chamber door, after she had been assisting Abby in dress-
ing. Ah, mon Dieu, 'tis provoking "— (she talks a little Eng-
lish). —“Why, what is the matter, Pauline: what is provoking ? ”
—“Why, Mademoiselle look so pretty, I so mauvais. ” There is
another indispensable servant, who is called a frotteur: his busi-
ness is to rub the floors.
We have a servant who acts as maître d'hotel, whom I like at
present, and who is so very gracious as to act as footman too,
to save the expense of another servant, upon condition that we
give him a gentleman's suit of clothes in lieu of a livery. Thus,
with seven servants and hiring a charwoman upon occasion of
company, we may possibly make out to keep house; with less, we
should be hooted at as ridiculous, and could not entertain any
company. To tell this in our own country would be considered as
extravagance; but would they send a person here in a public char-
acter to be a public jest ? At lodgings in Paris last year, during
Mr. Adams's negotiation for a peace, it was as expensive to him
as it is now at housekeeping, without half the accommodations.
Washing is another expensive article: the servants are all
allowed theirs, besides their wages; our own costs us a guinea a
week. I have become steward and bookkeeper, determined to
know with accuracy what our expenses are, to prevail with Mr.
Adams to return to America if he finds himself straitened, as I
think he must be.
Mr. Jay went home because he could not
support his family here with the whole salary; what then can be
done, curtailed as it now is, with the additional expense ? Mr.
Adams is determined to keep as little company as he possibly
can; but some entertainments we must make, and it is no
unusual thing for them to amount to fifty or sixty guineas at
a time. More is to be performed by way of negotiation, many
times, at one of these entertainments, than at twenty serious con-
versations; but the policy of our country has been, and still is,
to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. We stand in sufficient
$
THE UNIVERSITY
1-7


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
need of economy, and in the curtailment of other salaries I
suppose they thought it absolutely necessary to cut off their
foreign ministers. But, my own interest apart, the system is bad;
for that nation which degrades their own ministers by obliging
them to live in narrow circumstances, cannot expect to be held in
high estimation themselves. We spend no evenings abroad, make
no suppers, attend very few public entertainments, or specta-
cles, as they are called, — and avoid every expense that is not
held indispensable. Yet I cannot but think it hard that a gentle-
man who has devoted so great a part of his life to the service
of the public, who has been the means, in a great measure, of
procuring such extensive territories to his country, who saved their
fisheries, and who is still laboring to procure them further advan-
tages, should find it necessary so cautiously to calculate his pence,
for fear of overrunning them. I will add one more expense.
There is now a court mourning, and every foreign minister, with
his family, must go into mourning for a Prince of eight years old,
whose father is an ally to the King of France. This mourning is
ordered by the Court, and is to be worn eleven days only. Poor
Mr. Jefferson had to hie away for a tailor to get a whole black-
silk suit made up in two days; and at the end of eleven days,
should another death happen, he will be obliged to have a new
suit of mourning, of cloth, because that is the season when silk
must be left off. We may groan and scold, but these are expenses
which cannot be avoided; for fashion is the deity every one
worships in this country, and from the highest to the lowest, you
must submit. Even poor John and Esther had no comfort among
the servants, being constantly the subjects of ridicule, until we
were obliged to direct them to have their hair dressed. Esther
had several crying fits upon the occasion, that she should be
forced to be so much of a fool; but there was no way to keep
them from being trampled upon but this, and now that they are
à la mode de Paris, they are much respected. To be out of
fashion is more criminal than to be seen in a state of nature, to
which the Parisians are not averse.
AUTEUIL, NEAR PARIS, 10th May, 1785.
ID you ever, my dear Betsey, see a person in real life such
as your imagination formed of Sir Charles Grandison ? The
Baron de Staël, the Swedish Ambassador, comes nearest to
that character, in his manners and personal appearance, of any
D"


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
99
1
1
1
gentleman I ever saw.
The first time I saw him I was prejudiced
in his favor, for his countenance commands your good opinion:
it is animated, intelligent, sensible, affable, and without being per-
fectly beautiful, is most perfectly agreeable; add to this a fine
figure, and who can fail in being charmed with the Baron de
Staël ? He lives in a grand hotel, and his suite of apartments, his
furniture, and his table, are the most elegant of anything I have
seen. Although you dine upon plate in every noble house in
France, I cannot say that you may see your face in it; but here
the whole furniture of the table was burnished, and shone with
regal splendor. Seventy thousand livres in plate will make no
small figure; and that is what his Majesty gave him. The dessert
was served on the richest china, with knives, forks, and spoons
of gold. As you enter his apartments, you pass through files of
servants into his ante-chamber, in which is a throne covered with
green velvet, upon which is a chair of state, over which hangs
the picture of his royal master. These thrones are common to all
ambassadors of the first order, as they are immediate representa-
tives of the king. Through this ante-chamber you pass into the
grand salon, which is elegantly adorned with architecture, a beauti-
ful lustre hanging from the middle. Settees, chairs, and hangings
of the richest silk, embroidered with gold; marble slabs upon
Auted pillars, round which wreaths of artificial flowers in gold
entwine. It is usual to find in all houses of fashion, as in this,
several dozens of chairs, all of which have stuffed backs and
cushions, standing in double rows round the rooms. The dining-
room was equally beautiful, being hung with Gobelin tapestry, the
colors and figures of which resemble the most elegant painting.
In this room were hair-bottom mahogany-backed chairs, and the
first I have seen since I came to France. Two small statues of a
Venus de Medicis, and a Venus de (ask Miss Paine for the
other name), were upon the mantelpiece. The latter, however,
was the most modest of the kind, having something like a loose
robe thrown partly over her.
From the vedish Ambassador's
we went to visit the Duchess d'Enville, who is mother to the
Duke de Rochefoucault. We found the old lady sitting in an easy-
chair; around her sat a circle of Academicians, and by her side a
young lady. Your uncle presented us, and the old lady rose, and,
as usual, gave us a salute. As she had no paint, I could put up
with it; but when she approached your cousin I could think of
nothing but Death taking hold of Hebe. The duchess is near
RSITY OF THE


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Іоо
ABIGAIL ADAMS
>
eighty, very tall and lean. She was dressed in a silk chemise,
with very large sleeves, coming half-way down her arm, a large
cape, no stays, a black-velvet girdle round her waist, some very
rich lace in her chemise, round her neck, and in her sleeves; but
the lace was not sufficient to cover the upper part of her neck,
which old Time had harrowed; she had no cap on, but a little
gauze bonnet, which did not reach her ears, and tied under her
chin, her venerable white hairs in full view. The dress of old
women and young girls in this country is detestable, to speak in
the French style; the latter at the age of seven being clothed
exactly like a woman of twenty, and the former have such a fan-
tastical appearance that I cannot endure it. The old lady has all
the vivacity of a young one.
She is the most learned woman in
France; her house is the resort of all men of literature, with
whom she converses upon the most abstruse subjects. She is of
one of the most ancient, as well as the richest families in the
kingdom. She asked very archly when Dr. Franklin was going to
America, Upon being told, says she, “I have heard that he is a
prophet there;" alluding to that text of Scripture, “A prophet is
not without honor,” etc. It was her husband who commanded
the fleet which once spread such terror in our country.
TO HER SISTER
I
LONDON, Friday, 24th July 1784.
My Dear Sister:
Am not a little surprised to find dress, unless upon public occas-
ions, so little regarded here. The gentlemen are very plainly
dressed, and the ladies much more so than with us.
'Tis true,
you must put a hoop on and have your hair dressed; but a com-
mon straw hat, no cap, with only a ribbon upon the crown, is
thought dress sufficient to go into company. Muslins are much in
taste; no silks but lutestrings worn; but send not to London for
any article you want: you may purchase anything you can name
much lower in Boston. I went yesterday into Cheapside to pur-
chase a few articles, but found everything higher than in Boston.
Silks are in a particular manner so; they say, when they are
exported, there is a drawback upon them, which makes them
lower with us. Our country, alas, our country! they are extrava-
gant to astonishment in entertainments compared with what Mr.
Smith and Mr. Storer tell me of this. You will not find at a


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
IOI
gentleman's table more than two dishes of meat, though invited
several days beforehand. Mrs. Atkinson went out with me yes-
terday, and Mrs. Hay, to the shops. I returned and dined with
Mrs. Atkinson, by her invitation the evening before, in company
with Mr. Smith, Mrs. Hay, Mr. Appleton. We had a turbot, a
soup, and a roast leg of lamb, with a cherry pie.
The wind has prevented the arrival of the post. The city of
London is pleasanter than I expected; the buildings more regu-
lar, the streets much wider, and more sunshine than I thought to
have found: but this, they tell me, is the pleasantest season to be
in the city. At my lodgings I am as quiet as at any place in Bos-
ton; nor do I feel as if it could be any other place than Boston.
Dr. Clark visits us every day; says he cannot feel at home any-
where else: declares he has not seen a handsome woman since he
came into the city; that every old woman looks like Mrs. H—,
and every young one like — like the D-1. They paint here nearly
as much as in France, but with more art. The head-dress disfig.
ures them in the eyes of an American. I have seen many ladies,
but not one elegant one since I came; there is not to me that
neatness in their appearance which you see in our ladies.
The American ladies are much admired here by the gen-
tlemen, I am told, and in truth I wonder not at it. Oh, my
country, my country! preserve, preserve the little purity and
simplicity of manners you yet possess. Believe me, they are
jewels of inestimable value; the softness, peculiarly characteristic
of our sex, and which is so pleasing to the gentlemen, is wholly
laid aside here for the masculine attire and manners of Amazonians.
I
LONDON, BATH HOTEL, WESTMINSTER, 24th June, 1785.
My Dear Sister :
HAVE been here a month without writing a single line to my
American friends. On or about the twenty-eighth of May we
reached London, and expected to have gone into our old quiet
lodgings at the Adelphi; but we found every hotel full. The sit-
ting of Parliament, the birthday of the King, and the famous
celebration of the music of Handel, at Westminster Abbey, had
drawn together such a concourse of people that we were glad to
get into lodgings at the moderate price of a guinea per day, for
two rooms and two chambers, at the Bath Hotel, Westminster,
Piccadilly, where we yet are. This being the Court end of the


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city, it is the resort of a vast concourse of carriages. It is too
public and noisy for pleasure, but necessity is without law. The
ceremony of presentation, upon one week to the King, and the
next to the Queen, was to take place, after which I was to pre-
pare for mine.
It is customary, upon presentation, to receive visits
from all the foreign ministers; so that we could not exchange our
lodgings for more private ones, as we might and should, had we
been only in a private character. The foreign ministers and sev-
eral English lords and earls have paid their compliments here,
and all hitherto is civil and polite. I was a fortnight, all the
time I could get, looking at different houses, but could not find any
one fit to inhabit under £200, beside the taxes, which mount up
to £50 or £60. At last my good genius carried me to one in
Grosvenor Square, which was not let, because the person who had
the care of it could let it only for the remaining lease, which was
one year and three-quarters. The price, which is not quite two
hundred pounds, the situation, and all together, induced us to
close the bargain, and I have prevailed upon the person who lets
it to paint two rooms, which will put it into decent order; so that,
as soon as our furniture comes, I shall again commence house-
keeping Living at a hotel is, I think, more expensive than
housekeeping, in proportion to what one has for his money. We
have never had more than two dishes at a time upon our table,
and have not pretended to ask any company, and yet we live at a
greater expense than twenty-five guineas per week. The wages
of servants, horse hire, house rent, and provisions are much
dearer here than in France. Servants of various sorts, and for
different departments, are to be procured; their characters are to
be inquired into, and this I take upon me, even to the coachman.
You can hardly form an idea how much I miss my son on this,
as well as on many other accounts; but I cannot bear to trouble
Mr. Adams with anything of a domestic kind, who, from morning
until evening, has sufficient to occupy all his time. You can have
no idea of the petitions, letters, and private applications for
assistance, which crowd our doors. Every person represents his
case as dismal. Some may really be objects of compassion, and
some we assist; but one must have an inexhaustible purse to
supply them all. Besides, there are so many gross impositions
practiced, as we have found in more instances than one, that it
would take the whole of a person's time to trace all their stories.
Many pretend to have been American soldiers, some have served


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ABIGAIL ADAMS
103
as officers. A most glaring instance of falsehood, however,
Colonel Smith detected in a man of these pretensions, who sent
to Mr. Adams from the King's Bench prison, and modestly
desired five guineas; a qualified cheat, but evidently a man of
letters and abilities: but if it is to continue in this way, a galley
slave would have an easier task.
The Tory venom has begun to spit itself forth in the public
papers, as I expected, bursting with envy that an American min-
ister should be received here with the same marks of attention,
politeness, and civility, which are shown to the ministers of any
other power.
When a minister delivers his credentials to the
King, it is always in his private closet, attended only by the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, which is called a private audience,
and the minister presented makes some little address to his
Majesty, and the same ceremony to the Queen, whose reply was
in these words: “Sir, I thank you for your civility to me and
my family, and I am glad to see you in this country;” then she
very politely inquired whether he had got a house yet. The
answer of his Majesty was much longer; but I am not at liberty
to say more respecting it, than that it was civil and polite, and
that his Majesty said he was glad the choice of his country had
fallen upon him. The news-liars know nothing of the matter;
they represent it just to answer their purpose. Last Thursday,
Colonel Smith was presented at Court, and to-morrow, at the
Queen's circle, my ladyship and your niece make our compli-
ments. There is no other presentation in Europe in which I
should feel as much as in this. Your own reflections will easily
suggest the reasons.
I have received a very friendly and polite visit from the
Countess of Effingham. She called, and not finding me at home,
left a card. I returned her visit, but was obliged to do it by leav-
ing my card too, as she was gone out of town; but when her
ladyship returned, she sent her compliments and word that if
agreeable she would take a dish of tea with me, and named her
day. She accordingly came, and appeared a very polite, sensible
woman. She is about forty, a good person, though a little mas.
culine, elegant in her appearance, very easy and social. The Earl
of Effingham is too well remembered by America to need any
particular recital of his character.