Abigail adams. She uses their letters as evidence of their strong and successful partnership. Professor gelles spoke regarding the 250th wedding anniversary of john and abigail. This 45 minute event was covered cohosted by the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Abigail Adams historical society. And i am thrilled and honored to present our keynote speaker, edith gelles, she is a Stanford University historian and the scholar at Clayman Institute for gender research. She is the author of numerous articles, reviews, and books among them are portia the world of Abigail Adams, which won the award from the american historical association, also Abigail Adams writing life, and also her most recent book, abigail and john portrait of a marriage. This was a finalist for the George Washington prize. Edith has appeared widely in the media talking about the adamses. She has also been, among her appearances has been cspans first ladies series. She is currently working on editing a collection of Abigail Adamss letters for the library of america. I would like you to welcome edith gelles. [applause] according to adams family lore, when Abigail Adams married john adams on october 25, 1764 the reverend smith, abigails father, preached a sermon from on a text from matthew. For john came, neither neither drinking wine were eating bread, and you say he has the devil. John records the story in his memoir, and explains the choice of text as a response to the weymouth congregation. He suggests that a portion of the parishioners thought that the son of a small farmer in the middle class of braintree was scarcely good enough to match with the ministers daughter, descendentd from so many of the shining lights of the colony. The reverend smiths cryptic message may have included his more personal reflections, which Charles Francis preferred to disregard or excuse. For many reasons, the reverend smith and his wife Elizabeth May have disapproved of the marriage of their middle daughter. Abigail was not yet 20 years old when she married. Young for the middle of the 18th century, where on average women married at the age of 22. Further, she appears to not have had previous suitors to john adams, when she home and she whom she met when she was 16. That adams was a full 10 years her senior may have been an advantage, if he had not been a lawyer. But abigails roots went deep into the colonial area. Her mother was the solid bedrock of massachusetts society. The smith family, more recently arrived, represented the other respectable strain of new england society. The merchant class. Adamss father was a farmer and a shoemaker. Given parental or social disapproval of the match it is , clear that Abigail Smith acted on her own will when it came to marriage. She chose to marry john adams because she loved him and because she believed they were compatible. During their more than three years of courtship, she had measured his character, tested his own intuition, as he had in return, and in the end, abigail believed that she could live her lifetime in partnership from which there was no escape. The adamss marriage has become legendary in American History. Just the mention of abigail and john calls forth an image of an ideal marriage, one founded on love, loyalty, friendship, and courage. Which in many respects, it was. But the adamss marriage is his is mythologized for other reasons. It appears modern. In fact, it possesses many of the attributes of a modern marriage. It was a love match that endured. It produced at least one famous son and established a dynasty of great citizens. It overcame adversity intact. It was a match of intellectual equals, lending legitimacy to the claim of womens more egalitarian status. Above all, the adams marriage is idealized because abigail was visible. Probably the most visible first lady until the mid20th century, because her correspondences have survived. No other correspondence of this magnitude by a woman of her era exists, which makes her our best chronicler from a womans point of view. Further, the survival of this correspondence is what makes the adamss marriage appear more modern than it was. The ideal as we read it into the , letters, survives as a testimony to an ideal correspondence, if not an ideal marriage. In fact, scholarship in history and anthropology makes it clear that all human institutions are functions of the culture in which they exist. Marriage, as much as anything else. 18th century new england was no exception to this rule, and the prevailing culture of the world into which john and abigail married was that of their puritan forbearers. While puritanism had transformed and modified over time into a more liberalized and secular social beliefs and practices, it conventions were maintained. And these protocols became the Foundation Upon which all marriage in mid18th century new england was premised. Its salient characteristic in terms of marriage was patriarchy. The marriage was dedicated upon its existence within this patriarchy. When abigail chose to marry john, it was the most spectacular act of will available to her for the remainder of her years. Never again would she make a decision of that magnitude to control the direction of her life. There existed no easy exit clause from her decision once the vows were taken. She had little control over the kind of work she performed or her reproductive life. Marriage with its obligations became her destiny in that world. The rules that followed from the existing patriarchy also had clear separation of male and female spheres, and these spears spheres were not equally, but were hierarchically organized. In her statement requesting john to remember the ladies, she closed her remarks by writing regardlesseth them as being placed by providence and make use of that power only for our happiness. The lens through which abigail viewed her world revealed a divinely prescribed patriarchy in which it was her destiny to live in the domestic sphere under the terms of john adamss work and his choice of place manner, and style. Abigail accepted that world. She wrote, i believe nature has assigned each sex its particular duties and sphere of actions and to act well your part is where honor lies. At the same time, abigail was neither slave nor servant, and she knew that as well. She had leverage within the marriage bond, both with her character and johns. And because the patriarchy that existed in new england was flexible. The physical magnetism that charged their early relationship remained alive, mellowed into tender familiarity and a deep, loving commitment. And rather than contracting under the weight of domestic drudgery, the scope of her knowledge developed over her lifetime so that she became wise and erudite. But the emotional and intellectual aspects of their companionship overflowed from life into letters once they were parted. In addition to patriarchy, hierarchy, and separate spheres, two additional aspects in a of puritanism marked the adamss marriage. They were the concepts of contractualism and duty. As all of puritanism was contractual, binding on human relations, so marriage was a contract from which there was no easy exit clause. Finally, there is the theme of duty, which of all qualities, we can discern as primary to the adamss sense of themselves within the human community. Duty refers to the principles of virtue service, and sacrifice as the governing rules of human behavior. In the best sense, then, the adamses with their puritan background, represent what historians call a companionate marriage. Meaning a love match in which there exists in during endearing friendship and respect. It is that reason why there are why their marriage is idealized. At its best, it represents the ideal accommodation of woman to man in western culture. We know this because they wrote all of this to each other, and we can read quite intimate letters that provide amazing insights into their private lives. As they picked apart for a large portion of their married years letters became their way of maintaining their relationship and sustaining their bond. When they married in 1764, both adamses expected their lives to repeat their parents, family and friends. And for a decade, this was more or less the case. After their marriage, they moved to their braintree home that john had inherited from his father. Their first child arrived within the year, and she was followed at approximate twoyear intervals by john quincy susanna, who died after a year charles, and thomas, and a last child was still born in 1777. All the while, john practiced johns law practice groupew. He traveled the circuit when courts were in session, and therefore was frequently away from home. Abigail remained at home with children and servants. She visited or was visited by her parents, sisters, and friends, but often she was lonely. After eight years she wrote to him, alas, how many snowbanks divide thee and me . My warmest wishes will not melt one of them. They moved twice to boston returning to braintree in 1770 after john apparently had a breakdown. They moved to boston. This was the pattern for their first decade of marriage. John built his law practice and his reputation, and he wrote i had more business at the bar in than any longer in the less than any longer in boston. Abigail gave birth and ran her household. All of this occurred within the context of the closely knit extended family, and among many friends, and it was during this time also that abigail met her indomitable friend and mentor, the great historian and patriot, mercy otis wharton. During the same decade of marriage, however, Public Events were taking place and taking an increasingly dangerous course. The quarrel with Great Britain was growing that would lead to breach and war. The contest was begun over taxes. It escalated to rebellion with the tea party. In 1764, john was elected to the congress of philadelphia, and for that occasion abigail sewed him a new vest. He wrote off to he rode off with Thomas Cushing for an undetermined amount of time and they did not know what the duration would be or what would be his role in congress. It is important to acknowledge at this point he was not famous, and he went off to philadelphia, and he wondered how he would measure up to the other delegates, and it was very quickly that he discovered that he could speak, and that he could project, and that he was one of the big shakers and movers of the first Continental Congress. And in the end, congress lasted for more than two months, and john had discovered his power among the delegates. He returned home in november to practice law, but the momentum to hostilities was relentless and he was elected once again to the Continental Congress in philadelphia. By this time, lexington and concorde had occurred in the had occurred and the revolutionary war had begun. In 1776, 1777, and 1779, and the adamses were separated for a decade. John traveled to france twice the last time with his two younger sons. What is important to realize is that at no point during this long period, at no point was abigail or john able to predict the duration of their separation. What may we conclude about the adams during this decade . Abigails role changed during wartime. She became the manager of the farm and director of family finances, which she did for the rest of her marriage. After two years of wrestling with labor and labor shortages and other responsibilities, she rented out the farm to tenants. With her uncle as advisor at first, she purchased property and invested in securities. She also began a business, merchandising items that john had sent to her. She managed her childrens lives, including their education, which was very difficult. Schools had closed down, she tried to tutor them, and she had reached the limit of her own abilities to teach them, the end of her knowledge, and she had hired tutors or send them relatives for their education. She also decided to take the smallpox inoculation in 1776. She said she would not have done it for herself but she wanted to do it for her children. She educated herself reading in johns library. She famously read the great ancient history when she was helping john quincy with his history lessons. But the great correspondence between them had begun. The war ended, and john did not return from france. So she finally traveled to europe in 1784 with her daughter to join him. It was an immense challenge for her. She was rightly fearful of ocean travel, and she was also concerned about her lacking manners and cultures to move in the same circles as john was now accustomed to moving. She wrote near as american as i am, i do not know how i will fit in. During this long hiatus in a marriage, each had hugely different experiences that changed who they were in many ways. John became worldly. Moving into the high ranks of European Society and diplomatic states. Abigail remained a diplomatic provincial new england matron. However, she was no longer the naive woman of 1764 or even 1774, but because of her experience as a single mother in wartime, she had matured strengthened, and became erudite. So she went to europe, and they came together again. And this is the most remarkable thing i can note about their marriage. That marriage came together again when they met after really a decade of separation. With all of the passion, interests, caring, sympathy and generosity of their early marriage. Separation had altered who they were, but not altered their relationship. So the adamses now became public figures. After 10 months in france, they moved to england for two years. And then they returned to america. A new constitution had been adopted. John was mentioned for various offices in government, even fleetingly mentioned for the presidency, but that went to George Washington. John accepted the vice presidency. Abigail would have preferred retirement. She would have preferred it because it was her style, her personal style, to live in a much more local and personal community. But her health was not good, and one of the remarkable things throughout her letters is her declining health and the immense amount of illness that they all lived in, all of the time. But she wanted also to be with her family and live among her children and her grandchildren. But john could not resist the call of duty. And probably ambition. He had expected a role and he settled on the vice presidency. Abigail, as always, overcame her reservations and went along. She lived, after all, in a patriarchy where mens decisions became womens destinies. At a personal level as well, she understood him completely and she believed the nation needed him specifically. She had long rationalized his leaving the family as destiny. The war and the new nation would not survive without johns active participation. It was her way of thinking, with her it was an article of faith there grew out of her deeply religious convictions and perspective. It was his duty to serve, and thus it became her duty to sacrifice. John served two terms as fights as vice president. Abigail was with him in new york city, which was the first capital, and then in philadelphia, for three years, and then returned home for the following five years of his vice presidency. He served one term as president , she was there as often as health and her home care commitments permitted. And then the presidency ended in 1801, and they retired. We often hear that retirement and old age are not for the fainthearted, and that is certainly the case with the adamses. At first, abigail concerned about whether john could retire. What would his life be like without politics . She discovered he returned to the ground and to farming. She returned to her Domestic Household and friends. There were always People Living with them. Family members, thomas and his family lived there for a while john quincy and his family came and went, the widow of Charles Francis lived with them, and charles their third son, their second son, lived there for long periods of time, they always had grandchildren with them, and they had visitors. They were celebrities, after all, and people liked to drop in to say hello to the expresident and the first lady. They also had financial problems. The collapse in 1803 wiped out their securities in england that they had purchased in england through john quincy. They were not like the other founders. They had immense family difficulties. Charles died in 1801, 1800 there was the mastectomy and death of Abigail Adams smith, their daughter. Abigail herself nearly died several times. There was the absence of john quincy, they longed for him, he was in st. Petersburg, and then as they aged, family members began to die and friends died. They stayed together for those last 18 years, and when people would request that abigail would come and visit she would say , no, i wont leave john. There were no long separations again for the last 18 years of their marriage, until abigail died at the age of 76. So what can we say about the marriage . In the end, they had each other. It was a remarkable marriage. What made it work . Theresirs was a love match that grew into deep commitment over their lifetimes. I love speculating about what made marriage work. I was asked this question earlier, which was the better marriage . We all have our ideas and our opinions about it, and here are mine. It was a love match that endured, and they stayed in love. Was it as jim suggested to me earlier, because they were separated . Did separation make the heart grow fonder . There was compatibility, of legacy, of common culture that they came from, of religion, of intellect, they were both immensely religious, but abigail especially, abigails letters throughout quote from the bible. And she particularly would become more religious in times of an emergency, and she almost back to the original calvinist belief that a disease happened because we had done something sinful or an epidemic or a smallpox epidemic had been caused by something sinful. They shared values. They knew the difference between right and wrong. They had a shared belief system about right and wrong and how to do right rat. They have tolerances for the differences and encouraged each others growth. Finally, they had humor. They teased and joked. Humor is a method of relating that deescalates potential hotspots. It eases social relations. At critical times, both of them used humor. Remember the ladies. A new tribe has arisen to protest. So in the end, the adamses provide us with more than insights about their personal lives and more than a window into an era. They are more than their letters, more than their portraits, more than their artifacts. Their very famous marriage offers us a moral compass. A guide to behavior i believe derives from their puritan background. They obeyed a set of values that were biblical, that were tempered by history and philosophy. That said some things are right and some things are wrong. They were people who understood that the highest human calling was that of duty. The idea that individual virtue entailed service and sacrifice for the larger community. They were citizens who sacrifice d personal happiness for a lifetime for the greater good. On october 23, 1814, abigail summed up her assessment of marriage to her beloved granddaughter caroline. And she wrote, yesterday completed a halfcentury since i entered into the married state then just your age. I have a great cause for thankfulness that i have lived so long and enjoyed such a large portion of happiness that has been my lot. The great source of unhappiness that i have known has arisen from the long and cruel separations which i was called on in a time of war and with a young family around me to submit to, that you and the rest of my posterity may enjoy the fullest as large a share of felicity that has fallen to me is my sincere wish and prayer of your affectionate grandmother. When she was dying, john wrote to a friend, i wish i could lie down and die beside her. He lived for eight more years, stunningly dying on july 4 1826, the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence. Their marriage had lasted 54 years. In most respects, it was an ideal marriage. Thank you. [applause] thank you, if anyone has questions for edith, we have our mics in action. I have the first question, it is specifically [indiscernible] i am wondering about johns relationship with his own mother, and how that colored his relationship with abigail . Do we know much about that . There are references here and there in his diary and so forth, and so people read into these very few references, what the relationship had been about. Depending on the historian, you can read a lot into very little evidence. And that is what has happened. I think it was a fine relationship he had with his mother. Everyone tends to blame mothers for whatever goes wrong with any kids whatsoever. [laughter] and that is an easy route to travel in our postfreudian age. So indeed, i think his relationship with his mother was just fine, and she lived a very long life, to his presidency and he wrote letters at her death about how much he would miss his mother, that she had been a very kind and warm and generous mother. So thats what. [applause] [indiscernible] that was her son, john quincy. John quincy who had many, many languages. John adams no, he was great at english. He was really fluent. Reading john adams is a real reading john adams is a real pleasure. I think of all the founders, i think he was the greatest of the and i think, of course we dont have recordings, but his spoken language when he is responsible for the acceptance of the declaration of independence, he spoke, and they say between 24 hours, i dont know, its just extemporaneous he had good english. He learned french when he went to france, and he probably played around with dutch when he was in holland, but i dont think he was a very great linguist. She had a little bit of french but she and she studied it when she went to france, she bred moliere, she read the plays, she went to the theater in an attempt to learn french, but i dont think either of them became as fluent as their son did. How did abigail make the transition to europe . In london, did she enjoy herself . She was very nervous about it. She was extremely anxious about going to europe, and she was concerned about what she wore, she was concerned about the manners, and what kind of a figure she would strike, she was a quick study. She learned quickly. And she adapted very well. And she was soon entertaining and being entertained, and did she enjoy it . Did she enjoy it . I suppose so, the way one enjoys travel, it is work, and it is different, it is not at home. She certainly made a lot of observations, she studied, she went to museums, she went to various places and took little side trips and so forth, and always recorded for her sisters back at home and for members of the family. I think she was interested in it, i think she loved being at home, and probably like many of us, are very happy to travel and go and see different places, and like being at home. Does that answer your question . I was wondering, there was a letter and i know you are working closely with the letters now, and i cannot remember the date of it, that was abigail to her youngest son thomas, in which she says she is commiserating with him at some level because he is afraid he is going to be an old bachelor, he has not married yet. And in commiserating she says, you know i married too young. Now, was she really meaning that she married too young, or was it just trying to make him feel better . She possibly was reflecting. That is a good one, jim. You know, she was concerned about all of her childrens marriages, and she did lots of meddling. She did lots of meddling, and it is to her credit that she meddled, because she was trying to protect them, and she was looking for ways to ensure that they would have good lives. She knew very well that who you married was your destiny, and how your life would unfold, and happiness in life very much depended on what marriage would be like. Nevertheless, she was always promoting it, so she was always on the lookout for a match for thomas, yes, and he donald in donald in dawdled in philadelphia for a while, and she was saying, are there single women in philadelphia . There are some in boston that would be fine. She did that also for the other children as well. Particularly, with thomas, and eventually he did come back and marry very well. You mentioned thomas and the letters. As i have been reading the letters now very closely, and my impression of thomas has changed so much, the youngest son. First of all, there is a lot of bad press about her relations with her sons generally. And how thomass life turned out, thomas was ill a lot of the time, and she identified with that. She said he had inherited the family disease, rheumatism, and he was apparently very ill a lot of the time. She sent him incredible formulae for medical treatments. How they lived with the medicines, how anyone survived with the kind of therapies that she suggested bleeding and , purgatives, and on and on. But nevertheless, thomas was ill. She was very close to him and cared a lot about who he married and was very happy with nancy, i believe, her daughterinlaw. Does that answer your question jim . Was that more than you asked . Yeah . How did john handle those last eight years, was he miserable, was he sick, was he well . John continued to live an interesting life, and he was very frail, he was probably blind and deaf, and he had many, many relatives all of the time who lives around him and many friends, and he was cared for by the woman who was abigails niece who had lived with them for their entire life and she became a housekeeper and so forth. I presume lonely, always, but he interested himself in the world, he carried on this incredible correspondence with thomas jefferson, benjamin rush, and the old founders began a correspondence about what it was like. And they said, no one will ever know what it was like, and once we are gone, they will never understand what it was like. And they were right. We dont need we struggle understanding what it was about and what it was like. You know, it was a good old age. With disease and all of the frailties that come along with aging, and he did it magnificently. And to the very end, he was going to boston, he was a celebrity, he was a very famous man. People came to him, and he went to boston. He was invited to the constitution of massachusetts, which was being rewritten, and he was invited to be on the commission to rewrite it but he could not do it, he was not well enough, anyway it was a good last eight years, given the constraints. You mentioned the Puritan Church a number of times, and i was just wondering, how much of a role did her faith play and and who she was on her development . Central, absolutely central. Abigail was a very religious woman, and religion played just an immensely important part in her life. Intellectually, she knew the bible, she knew it well, she was the daughter of a minister. And she quotes it all the time one imagines that she just spoke extemporaneously quoting from the bible and understood it. But her belief system was very deep and sustained her absolutely, particularly through the deaths of her children, she lived through the deaths of two of her children, charles and abby. Religion was of great solace to her. [applause] you made a glancing reference to her closeness to her family and circle of friends, could you comment on how her relationship with her two sisters was central to her throughout her life . Well, it was, she was very close to her two sisters, she was probably closer to mary and spent more time with mary, they had shared a room together as girls and lived together. And then mary was two years older than she. And she was i think six years older than elizabeth, her younger sister. She and mary were particularly close, but she trusted her sisters. They were her best friends, they were the people whom she trusted more on this planet, other than john, and whom she shared background and experiences. When she was concerned during the war, the revolutionary war about how to educate the children she had at home, she decided she would send them to elizabeth, whose husband was running a private school. When john quincys children live d with her in the later years, she sent them to mary to be educated. The letters that someone was talking about that came later during the president ial years with mary, especially, are very revealing about their intimate lives. They could talk to each other. They were, in a true sense sisters. I called my chapter in portia the threefold cord, and that was the reference that abigail made to her sisters and to herself. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Thank you again to the first church for letting us hold this symposium here. Thank you to our amazing speakers, and thank you to you all for coming. Thank you very much. [applause] sundays in february, American History tv will air a selection with former korean war pows recorded by the korean war legacy foundation. The first interview is with charles, who after enlisting in the army, became a sergeant in charge of a small unit in south korea. He was captured by the chinese and held as a pow from 19501953. Thats sunday at 10 00 on cspan3. The Political Landscape has changed with the 114 congress. There are 12 new republicans and one new democrat in the senate. There are also 108 women in congress, including the first
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