First Family (41 page)
Authors: Joseph J. Ellis
My agent, Ike Williams, negotiated the contract with a minimum of
fuss, then called periodically to see how things were going. Our conversations invariably became passionate digressions into the prospects of the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics.
Although I had no research assistants—I have this stubborn conviction that reading the sources with my own eyes is the only way—Linda Fernandes was my assistant in all the other ways, including technological, clerical, and therapeutic. I wrote the drafts in longhand on the blank back sides of junk mail, sometimes late at night, when the slant of my scrawl defied translation. Linda put it all into printed form on a disk, periodically offering suggestions that I could not afford to ignore.
Twenty students at Mount Holyoke took a research seminar with me on Abigail and John in the spring of 2008. Our conversations and their papers influenced my thinking about Abigail as a proto-feminist, the perils of parenting, and, most important, what to leave out. Undergraduates are supposed to be incapable of irony, but that was the interpretive edge they insisted upon.
As I took notes and wrote words in my study, I was accompanied by an aging golden retriever, a young Labradoodle, a feisty Jack Russell terrier, and a defiant cat. They offered no advice that I could understand, but their sheer presence created serenity.
My wife, Ellen Wilkins Ellis, as the dedication suggests, merely provided the ballast. I have a hunch that this was essential.
Joseph J. Ellis
Amherst, Massachusetts
The notes below represent my attempt to provide documentation for all quotations in the text, the vast majority of which come from the published and yet unpublished correspondence between Abigail and John. When the story I try to tell crosses over contested historical terrain that has spawned a formidable scholarly literature, I have tried to cite books and articles that strike me as sensible and seminal. But my accounting on this score is far from exhaustive, in part because such a standard would burden the book with notes that outweighed the text itself, in part because I think the conversation between Abigail and John should take precedence over the conversation among several generations of historians.
That said, previous biographers of John and Abigail have blazed the trail in ways that have influenced my reading of the primary sources and, therefore, deserve mention at the start. For John there are three distinguished predecessors: Page Smith,
John Adams
, 2 vols. (New York, 1962); John Ferling,
John Adams: A Life
(Knoxville, 1995); and David McCullough,
John Adams
(New York, 2001). For Abigail there are also three biographical pioneers: Lynn Withey,
Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams
(New York, 1981); Phyllis Lee Levin,
Abigail Adams: A Biography
(New York, 1987); and Edith Gelles,
Portia: The World of Abigail Adams
(Bloomington, 1992). A new biography by Woody Holton,
Abigail Adams
(New York, 2009), appeared just in time to influence my final draft.
Because the relationship between Abigail and John was so seamless, any biographer of one almost automatically ends up writing about both. And all the biographers mentioned above do just that. But there is a difference between a biographer who leans in the direction of the partner and a historian of the partnership itself. I aspire for the latter.
…
P.S.—While this book was being copyedited, a study appeared of the Adams partnership, entitled
Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage
(New York, 2009), by Edith B. Gelles. Gelles is a distinguished student of Abigail and a friend. I look forward to comparing her version of the story with mine.
TITLES
| AFC | Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds., Adams Family Correspondence , 9 vols. to date (Cambridge, Mass., 1963–). |
| AJ | Lester G. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters , 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, 1959). |
| AP | The Microfilm Edition of the Adams Papers , 608 reels (Boston, 1954–59). |
| DA | Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds., The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams , 4 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1961). |
| EDJA | Lyman H. Butterfield, ed., The Earliest Diary of John Adams (Cambridge, Mass., 1966). |
| HP | Harold Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton , 26 vols. (New York, 1974–92). |
| JCC | Worthington C. Ford, ed., The Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 , 34 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1904–37). |
| JM | James Morton Smith, ed., The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1776–1826 , 3 vols. (New York, 1995). |
| JP | Julian Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , 28 vols. to date (Princeton, 1950–). |
| NEQ | New England Quarterly |
| PA | Robert J. Taylor et al., eds., The Papers of John Adams , 11 vols. to date (Cambridge, Mass., 1983–). |
| UFC | Unpublished correspondence of the Adams family transcribed by the editors of the Adams Papers . |
| WMQ | William and Mary Quarterly , 3rd series. |
| Works | Charles Francis Adams, ed., The Works of John Adams , 10 vols. (Boston, 1850–60). |
| AA | Abigail Adams |
| AA(2) | Abigail Adams Smith |
| AS | Abigail Smith (before marriage to John) |
| CA | Charles Adams |
| CFA | Charles Francis Adams |
| JA | John Adams |
| JQA | John Quincy Adams |
| LCA | Louisa Catherine Adams |
| TBA | Thomas Boylston Adams |
| TJ | Thomas Jefferson |
| WSS | William Stephens Smith |
. 1759–74
1.
DA
1:108.
2.
DA
1:109, for the derogatory quotation about the Smith sisters.
3.
JA to AS, 4 October 1762,
AFC
1:2.
4.
JA to AS, 14 February 1763,
AFC
1:3.
5.
AS to JA, 11 August 1763,
AFC
1:6.
6.
JA to AS, 30 December 1761,
AFC
1:1; AS to JA, 12 September 1763,
AFC
1:8.
7.
AS to JA, 19 April 1764,
AFC
1:44–46; JA to AS, 9 May 1764,
AFC
1:46–47.
8.
AS to JA, 4 October 1764,
AFC
1:50–51.
9.
DA
3:256–61, for John’s autobiographical account of his family history and childhood.
10.
All of John’s biographers cover these early years, but see David McCullough,
John Adams
(New York, 2001), 37–53, for the most recent and comprehensive account.
11.
DA
3:272–76, for the start of his legal career and the decision to delay marriage.
12.
Phyllis Lee Levin,
Abigail Adams: A Biography
(New York, 1987), 3–9.
13.
DA
1:21.
14.
DA
1:26–27, 57.
15.
DA
1:63, 95.
16.
DA
1:6–8.
17.
DA
1:13–14.
18.
DA
1:25.
19.
DA
1:33.
20.
EDJA
, 73; John Ferling and Lewis E. Braverman, “John Adams’s Health Reconsidered,” (January 1998), 82–104.
21.
Edith B. Gelles, “The Abigail Industry,”
WMQ
45 (October 1988), 656–83, for a cogent assessment of the scholarly literature on Abigail’s primary identity as a traditional wife and mother.
22.
For Abigail’s upbringing, I find Lynn Withey,
Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams
(New York, 1981), 1–10, most sensible. The “wild colts” quotation is from a letter to John Quincy in 1804, when Abigail recalled her grandmother’s advice.
23.
JA to AA, 20 April 1763,
AFC
1:4–5, for John’s clearest acknowledgment that Abigail possessed a personal serenity that he envied and would never be able to match.
24.
Editorial note on the smallpox epidemic in Boston,
AFC
1:14; JA to AS, 11 April 1764,
AFC
1:22.
25.
AS to JA, 12 April 1764,
AFC
1:25–27.
26.
AS to JA, 8 April 1764,
AFC
1:19.
27.
The best and most recent synthesis of the scholarship on the constitutional crises is Gordon S. Wood,
The American Revolution: A History
(New York, 2002), 3–62.
28.
AA to JA, 14 September 1767,
AFC
1:62; JA to AA, 23 May 1772,
AFC
1:83; JA to AA, 29 June 1774,
AFC
1:111.
29.
PA
1:46–48, for the moralistic essays;
DA
1:172–73, for John’s diary account of tavern life.
30.
PA
1:58–94.
31.
DA
3:284, for the composition of
Dissertation
.
32.
PA
1:103–28.
33.
PA
1:132–35, 152.
34.
DA
1:263.
35.
JA to AA, 6 July 1774,
AFC
1:128–29; AA to Mary Smith Cranch, 31 January 1767,
AFC
1:60–61.
36.
DA
3:294–95.
37.
AA to Isaac Smith Jr., 20 April 1771,
AFC
1:76–77.
38.
DA
3:276.
39.
PA
1:155–73.
40.
PA
1:174–211.
41.
PA
1:252–309.
42.
DA
1:324, JA to William Tudor, 15 May 1817,
AP
, reel 123. For a more sympathetic portrait of Hutchinson, see Bernard Bailyn,
The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson
(Cambridge, Mass., 1974).
43.
DA
3:287–88; JA to AA, 9 July 1774,
AFC
1:135.
44.
JA to AA, 1 July 1774,
AFC
1:119.
45.
DA
3:291–94; the authoritative study is Hiller B. Zobel,
The Boston Massacre
(New York, 1970); on the role of Sam Adams behind the scenes, see Mark Puls,
Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution
(New York, 2006), 99–111.
46.
JA to AA, 7 July 1774,
AFC
1:131;
DA
3:292.
47.
JA to Isaac Smith Jr., [1771?],
AFC
1:82.
48.
JA to AA, 12 May 1774,
AFC
1:107.
49.
JA to AA, 6 July 1774,
AFC
1:126–27, for John’s sense that there was no turning back.
50.
JA to AA, 2 July 1774,
AFC
1:121; also JA to AA, 12 May 1774,
AFC
1:107.
51.
Editorial note,
AFC
1:136–37.
52.
JA to AA, 23 June 1774,
AFC
1:108–9.
53.
Editorial note,
AFC
1:140.
. 1774–78
1.
AA to JA, 22 October 1775,
AFC
1:310; JA to AA, 23 October 1775,
AFC
1:311–12.
2.
AA to JA, 29 August 1776,
AFC
2:112–13.
3.
JA to AA, 28 April 1776,
AFC
1:400; JA to AA, 22 May 1776,
AFC
1:412.
4.
JA to William Tudor, 7 October 1774,
PA
2:188.
5.
AA to JA, 16 July 1775,
AFC
1:247, 250.
6.
JA to AA, 2 June 1776,
AFC
2:3.
7.
JA to James Warren, 25 June 1775,
PA
2:99. See also, in the same vein,
DA
2:134–35.
8.
DA
2:150.
9.
DA
2:121, 173, 182; JA to AA, 25 September 1774,
AFC
1:163. See also JA to AA, 9 October 1774,
AFC
1:166.
10.
JA to William Tudor, 29 September 1774,
PA
2:177.
11.
On Macauley’s view of English history, see Lucy M. Donnelly, “The Celebrated Mrs. Macauley,”
WMQ
6 (April 1949), 173–207.
12.
On Mercy Otis Warren, see Katherine Anthony,
First Lady of the Revolution: The Life of Mercy Otis Warren
(New York, 1958).
13.
AA to Catharine Sanbridge Macauley, [1774],
AFC
1:177–79; AA to Mercy Otis Warren, 2 May 1775,
AFC
1:190–91. See also AA to Mercy Otis Warren, 14 August 1777,
AFC
2:313–14.
14.
JA to AA, 17 June 1775,
AFC
1:216.
15.
See the editorial note on John’s role in the First Continental Congress,
PA
2:144–52. For his own somewhat melodramatic version of his role, see
DA
2:124–54. His contribution to the Declaration of Rights and Grievances is recorded in
JCC
1:54–55.
16.
See the editorial note on
Novanglus, PA
2:216–26. For the thirteen essays, see
PA
2:226–387.
17.
JA to AA, 2 May 1775,
AFC
1:192; JA to AA, 8 May 1775,
AFC
1:195–96.
18.
AA to JA, 18 June 1775,
AFC
1:22–24.
19.
See the editorial note on John Quincy’s latter-day recollections in 1843,
AFC
1:224; JA to AA, 7 July 1775,
AFC
1:242; AA to JQA, 13 March 1802,
UFC
.
20.
AA to JA, 8 September 1775,
AFC
1:276–78; AA to JA, 16 September 1775,
AFC
1:278–79. See also Elizabeth A. Fenn,
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775–82
(New York, 2001).
21.
AA to JA, 3 June 1776,
AFC
2:4; AA to Mercy Otis Warren, January 1776,
AFC
1:422.
22.
JA to AA, 26 September 1775,
AFC
1:285–86; JA to AA, 19 October 1775,
AFC
1:302.
23.
JA to AA, 7 October 1775,
AFC
1:295.
24.
AA to JA, 12 November 1775,
AFC
1:324.
25.
Paul C. Nagel,
Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family
(New York, 1983), is the best survey of the subject, though I find his treatment of Abigail unduly harsh. See also David F. Musto, “The Youth of John Quincy Adams,” American Philosophical Society
Proceedings
113 (1969), 269–82.
26.
JQA to JA, 13 October 1774,
AFC
1:167; AA to JA, 5 November 1775,
AFC
1:322.
27.
AA to JA, April 1777,
AFC
2:229.
28.
JA to TBA, 6 May 1774,
AFC
1:234; AA to JA, 7 May 1776,
AFC
1:403.
29.
JA to AA, 22 May 1776,
AFC
1:412–13.
30.
JA to AA, 8 July 1777,
AFC
2:277.
31.
DA
3:355; the fellow delegate was none other than Thomas Jefferson, quoted in my
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
(New York, 1997), 242.
32.
JA to Moses Gill, 10 June 1775,
PA
3:21.
33.
JA to AA, 1 October 1775,
AFC
1:290.
34.
JA to AA, 17 June 1775,
AFC
1:215; AA to JA, 16 July 1775,
AFC
1:246.
35.
JA to AA, 15 April 1776,
AFC
1:383.
36.
JA to John Trumbull, 13 February 1776,
PA
4:22; for the arrival of news about the Prohibitory Act, see Jack N. Rakove,
The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress
(New York, 1979), 91–92.
37.
AA to JA, 27 November 1775,
AFC
1:329–30.
38.
PA
4:65–73, for the text and an editorial note on John’s later comments on
Thoughts
. I have discussed the significance of
Thoughts
at greater length in
American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic
(New York, 2007), 46–49.
39.
AA to JA, 31 March 1776,
AFC
1:370.
40.
JA to AA, 14 April 1776,
AFC
1:382.
41.
AA to Mercy Otis Warren, 27 April 1776,
AFC
1:396–98; AA to JA, 7 May 1776,
AFC
1:402.
42.
AA to JA, 14 August 1776,
AFC
2:94; JA to AA, 25 August 1776,
AFC
2:108.
43.
JA to James Sullivan, 26 May 1776,
PA
4:208–12.
44.
For the style and message of
Common Sense
, see Eric Foner,
Tom Paine and Revolutionary America
(New York, 1776). For Paine as the ultimate advocate for implementing the radical implications of the revolutionary agenda, see Harvey J. Kay,
Thomas Paine and the Promise of America
(New York, 2005).
45.
AP
4:185; JA to James Warren, 15 May 1776,
AP
4:186.
46.
JA to AA, 17 May 1776,
AFC
1:410.
47.
AA to JA, 2 March 1776,
AFC
1:352–56; AA to JA, 16 March 1776,
AFC
1:358.
48.
JA to AA, 3 July 1776,
AFC
2:27–31. He wrote Abigail two separate letters on this day.
49.
For a longer exegesis of this point, as well as the primary sources on which it was based, see my
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams
(New York, 1991), 64.
50.
JA to AA, 3 July 1776,
AFC
2:30.
51.
For the best synthesis of this crowded moment, see Pauline Maier,
American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
(New York, 1997), 97
_
153.
52.
JA to Benjamin Rush, 21 June 1811, quoted in Ellis,
Passionate Sage
, 64.
53.
For John’s appointment as chair of the Committee on War and Ordnance and the difficult logistical and strategic problems he faced, see JA to AA, 26 June 1776,
AFC
2:23–24.
54.
AA to JA, 20 September 1776,
AFC
2:129.
55.
JA to AA, 16 July 1776,
AFC
2:50–51.
56.
AA to JA, 29 July 1776,
AFC
2:65–67; AA to JA, 14 August 1776,
AFC
2:93; AA to JA, 17 August 1776,
AFC
2:98.
57.
AA to JA, 19 August 1776,
AFC
2:101; JA to AA, 27 July 1776,
AFC
2:63.
58.
JA to AA, 28 August 1776,
AFC
2:111.
59.
AA to JA, 1 August 1776,
AFC
2:72–73; AA to JA, 25 August 1776,
AFC
2:106.
60.
JA to AA, 30 August 1776,
AFC
2:114–15; JA to AA, 8 October 1776,
AFC
2:140.
61.
AA to JA, 2 September 1776,
AFC
2:116; AA to JA, 29 September 1776,
AFC
2:134–36.
62.
JCC
5:723–35, for the conference with Howe. See also the editorial note in
AFC
2:124–25.
63.
John’s latter-day recollection of the episode with Franklin is in
DA
3:414–30.
64.
PA
4:260–302, for the Plan of Treaties.
65.
Ira D. Gruber,
The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution
(New York, 1972), 127–57, and Kevin Phillips,
The Cousins’ Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America
(New York, 1999), 291–99, provide different but compatible interpretations of Howe’s fateful decision.
66.
JA to AA, 7 October 1776,
AFC
2:139; JA to AA, 11 October 1776,
AFC
2:141.
67.
JA to AA, 10 February 1777,
AFC
2:159; JA to AA, 3 February 1777,
AFC
2:152–53.
68.
AA to Mercy Otis Warren, [January?] 1777,
AFC
2:150–51; all previous accounts are superceded by David Hackett Fischer’s
Washington’s Crossing
(New York, 2004).
69.
AA to JA, 8 February 1777,
AFC
2:157; JA to AA, 3 April 1777,
AFC
2:199–200.
70.
AA to JA, March 1777,
AFC
2:173.
71.
JA to AA, 22 May 1777,
AFC
2:245; JA to AA, 21 February 1777,
AFC
2:166.
72.
JA to JQA, 16 March 1777,
AFC
2:177–78; JA to TBA, 16 March 1777,
AFC
2:178; JA to AA, 17 March 1777,
AFC
2:178–79; JA to CA, 17 March 1777,
AFC
2:179–80.
73.
JA to AA, 13 April 1777,
AFC
2:209.
74.
JA to AA, 16 March 1777,
AFC
2:175–77.
75.
JA to AA, 15 May 1777,
AFC
2:238–39.
76.
AA to JA, 1 June 1777,
AFC
2:250–51.
77.
AA to JA, 30 July 1777,
AFC
2:295.
78.
JA to AA, 6 April 1777,
AFC
2:201; JA to AA, 10 July 1777,
AFC
2:278.
79.
AA to JA, 9 July 1777,
AFC
2:278.
80.
JA to AA, 18 July 1777,
AFC
2:284–85; JA to AA, 30 July 1777,
AFC
2:296–97.
81.
AA to JA, 10–11 July 1777,
AFC
2:278–80; AA to JA, 16 July 1777,
AFC
2:282–83; AA to JA, 23 July 1777,
AFC
2:287.
82.
JA to AA, 28 July 1777,
AFC
2:292.
83.
AA to JA, 5 August 1777,
AFC
2:301; JA to AA, 25 October 1777,
AFC
2:360.
84.
JA to AA, 30 September 1777,
AFC
2:349–50.
85.
JA to AA, 14 November 1777,
AFC
2:366.