[Illustration: 0040]
|The Letters of Mrs. Adams are well known to American readers. Her
history and character have been so well unfolded in these and in
the memoir by her grandson, that an extended sketch of her would be
superfluous. Only a brief notice, therefore, is here required.
Abigail Smith was descended from the genuine stock of the Puritan
settlers of Massachusetts. Her father, the Reverend William Smith,
was for more than forty years minister of the Congregational Church at
Weymouth. The ancestors of her mother, Elizabeth Quincy, were persons
distinguished in the sacred office, and first in honor among the leaders
of the church. From this ancestry, it may be inferred that her earliest
associations were among those whose tastes and habits were marked by the
love of literature. She was the second of three daughters, and was born
at Weymouth, Nov. 11th, 1744. Not being sent to any school, on account
of the delicate state of her health, the knowledge she evinced in after
life was the result of her reading and observation, rather than of what
is commonly called education. The lessons that most deeply impressed her
mind were received from Mrs. Quincy, her grandmother, whose beneficial
influence she frequently acknowledges. Her marriage took place, October
25th, 1764. She passed quietly the ten years that succeeded, devoting
herself to domestic life, and the care of her young family. In 1775 she
was called to pass through scenes of great distress, amid the horrors of
war and the ravages of pestilence.
She sympathized deeply in the sufferings of those around her. "My hand
and heart," she says, "still tremble at this domestic fury and fierce
civil strife. I feel for the unhappy wretches, who know not where to
fly for succor. I feel still more for my bleeding countrymen, who
are hazarding their lives and their limbs!" To the agonized hearts of
thousands of women went the roar of the cannon booming over those hills!
Many a bosom joined in breathing that prayer--"Almighty God! cover the
heads of our countrymen, and be a shield to our dear friends."
When the neighborhood was no longer the field of military action, she
occupied herself with the management of the household and farm. Mr.
Adams was appointed joint commissioner at the court of France, and
embarked in February, 1778, with his eldest son, John Quincy. During
the years in which Mrs. Adams was deprived of his society, she devoted
herself to the various duties devolving on her, submitting with
patience to the difficulties of the times. In all her anxieties,
her calm and lofty spirit never deserted her; nor did she regret the
sacrifice of her own feelings for the good of the community. After the
return of peace, Mr. Adams was appointed the first representative of the
nation at the British court, and his wife departed to join him; moving
from this time amidst new scenes and new characters, but preserving,
in the variety and splendor of life in the luxurious cities of the old
world, the simplicity and singleness of heart which had adorned
her seclusion at home. In the prime of life, with a mind free from
prejudice, her record of the impressions she received is instructive as
well as interesting. She resided for a time in France, and visited the
Netherlands, enjoying all she saw, with that delicate perception of
beauty which belongs to a poetic spirit. When the official duties of Mr.
Adams called him to the court of St. James, the unaffected republican
simplicity, and exquisite union of frankness and refinement in her
manners, charmed the proud circles of the English aristocracy. As was to
be expected, neither she nor her husband were exempted from annoyances
growing out of the late controversy. She writes to Mrs. Warren: "Whoever
in Europe is known to have adopted republican principles must expect to
have all the engines of every court and courtier in the world displayed
against him." *
The aspect of independence she maintained, considering what was due
to her country, did not tend to propitiate the pride of royalty; yet
notwithstanding the drawbacks that sometimes troubled her, her residence
in London seems to have been an agreeable one. Her letters to her
sisters are a faithful transcript of her feelings. She observed with
mingled pleasure and pain the contrast between the condition of her own
country and that of the prosperous kingdoms she visited. Writing to Mrs.
Shaw she says--"When I reflect on the advantages which the people of
America possess over the most polished of other nations, the ease
with which property is obtained, the plenty which is so equally
distributed,--their personal liberty and security of life and property,
I feel grateful to Heaven who marked out my lot in that happy land;
at the same time I deprecate that restless spirit, and that baneful
ambition and thirst for power, which will finally make us as wretched as
our neighbors." **
* Unpublished letter.
** Unpublished letter, 1787.
When Mr. Adams, having returned with his family to the United States,
became Vice President, his wife appeared, as in other situations--the
pure-hearted patriot--the accomplished woman--the worthy partner of his
cares and honors. He was called to the Presidency, and the widest field
was opened for the exercise of her talents. Her letter written on
the day that decided the people's choice, shows a sense of the solemn
responsibility he had assumed, with a spirit of reliance upon Divine
guidance, and forgetfulness of all thoughts of pride in higher
sentiments--honorable to the heart of a Daughter of America. Well might
the husband thus addressed bear the testimony he does in one of
his letters, in the midst of the perils of war: "A soul as pure, as
benevolent, as virtuous, and pious as yours, has nothing to fear, but
every thing to hope and expect from the last of human evils."
In her elevated position, the grace and elegance of Mrs. Adams, with
her charms of conversation, were rendered more attractive by her frank
sincerity. Her close observation, discrimination of character, and clear
judgment, gave her an influence which failed not to be acknowledged. Her
husband ever appreciated her worth, and was sustained in spirit by her
buoyant cheerfulness and affectionate sympathy, in the multiplicity of
his cares and labors. It was hers, too, to disarm the demon of party
spirit, to calm agitations, heal the rankling wounds of pride, and pluck
the root of bitterness away.
After the retirement of her husband, Mrs. Adams continued to take a deep
interest in public affairs, and communicated to her friends her opinions
both of men and measures. Writing to Mrs. Warren, March 9th, 1807,
she says: "If we were to count our years by the revolutions we have
witnessed, we might number them with the Antediluvians. So rapid have
been the changes that the mind, though fleet in its progress, has been
outstripped by them, and we are left like statues gazing at what we can
neither fathom nor comprehend. You inquire, what does Mr. Adams think of
Napoleon? If you had asked Mrs. Adams, she would have replied to you in
the words of Pope,=
```'If plagues and earthquakes break not heaven's design,
```Why then a Borgia or a Napoline?'"=
Her health was much impaired; and from this time she remained in her
rural seclusion at Quincy. With faculties unimpaired in old age, her
serenity and benign cheerfulness continued to the last; the shadows of a
life full of changes never deepened into gloom; she was still a minister
of blessing to all within her influence, and in the settled calm of
Christian contentment awaited the change that was to terminate her
connection with the things of earth. To this she was summoned on the
twenty-eighth of October, 1818.
Her character is a worthy subject of contemplation for her countrywomen.
With intellectual gifts of the highest order she combined sensibility,
tact, and much practical knowledge of life. Thus was she qualified for
eminent usefulness in her distinguished position as the companion of
one great statesman, and the guide of another. Few may rise to such
pre-eminence; but many can emulate the firmness that sustained her
in all vicissitudes, and can imitate her Christian virtues. These are
pictured in her Letters, the publication of which was the first attempt
to give tradition a palpable form, by laying open the thoughts and
feelings of one who had borne an important part in our nation's early
history.
[Illustration: 0050]
|The mother of Abigail Adams, it is said, took her last illness from a
soldier who had served in her daughter's family, and whom she visited at
Braintree, he having returned sick from the army.
She was the daughter of the Hon. John Quincy, of Braintree, and died in
1775, at the age of fifty-three. Without the least tincture of what is
called pride of family, she possessed a true dignity of character,
with great kindness of heart; and her efforts to relieve those in
need extended to all objects of distress within her reach. Prudent and
industrious in her own domestic management, she was attentive to provide
employment for her poor neighbors; and was mild, frank and friendly in
her intercourse with the parishioners, who regarded her with unbounded
esteem and affection.
Another of her three celebrated daughters--Elizabeth--was remarkable in
character and influence. She was born in 1750, and married the Rev. John
Shaw of Haverhill. Her second husband was the Rev. Stephen Peabody,
of Atkinson. Like her sister, she possessed superior powers of
conversation, with a fine person, and polished and courtly manners. Her
reading was extensive, and when speaking to youthful listeners on some
improving topic, she would frequently recite passages from Shakespeare,
Dryden, and the other English poets. Attentive to her domestic duties,
and economical from Christian principle, to purity of heart and highly
cultivated intellectual powers she united the most winning feminine
grace. Her house at Haverhill was the centre of an elegant little circle
of society for many years after the Revolution, and resorted to by the
most cultivated residents of Boston and its vicinity. In Atkinson
her gentle and friendly deportment won the lasting regard of the
parishioners. She loved to instruct the ignorant, feed the poor, and
comfort the afflicted; and the young were particularly the objects of
her solicitude. Thus dispensing light and joy wherever she moved, she
passed a useful, and therefore a happy life, which terminated at the age
of sixty-six.
Mrs. Peabody formed an early and enduring friendship with Mrs. Warren,
for whose character and intellect her letters express the highest
respect.
Her correspondence contains frequent remarks upon the prospects of the
country, and the movements of the army. "Lost to virtue," she says to
John Adams--"lost to humanity must that person be, who can view without
emotion the complicated distress of this injured land. Evil tidings
molest our habitations, and wound our peace. Oh, my brother! oppression
is enough to make a wise people mad."
On her road to Plymouth to visit Mrs. Warren, her MS. journal mentions
that she stopped at the house of Dr. Hall, where she dined on salt bacon
and eggs. Three of the daughters were grown, and appeared sensible as
well as pretty. "But," she says, "in order to discover whether their
sensibility reached further than their faces, I sat down after dinner,
while they were quilting a very nice homespun bedquilt, and read in a
book I had brought with me several detached pieces--"Virtue and
Constancy rewarded," "Zulima the Coquette, etc." This little memorandum
throws light not only on the writer's character, but the manners of the
time. The result appeared satisfactory; the young ladies being so well
pleased with the reading that they begged their visitor to continue it.
The eldest daughter, Mary, was married in 1762, to Richard Cranch,
afterwards Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Massachusetts. In 1775,
the family removed from Boston to Quincy, then a part of Braintree,
where they continued to reside till 1811. In October of that year both
Mr. and Mrs. Cranch died, and were buried on the same day. The life
of Mrs. Cranch was spent in deeds of charity and kindness. She was
remarkable for her cheerfulness and fortitude, with earnestness in the
discharge of her Christian duties. The Hon. Judge William Cranch, of
Washington, is her son.
In those portions of the country which were, at different periods, the
scene of military operations, the energy, heroism, and magnanimity of
woman were called by necessity into continual exercise. But there were
other women whose more homely heroism was not without its effect; whose
unacknowledged influence extended widely into the future. Their sphere
of action limited to the bosom of their own families, the influence
wrought quietly and unmarked, yet sent forth an impulse and an energy,
like the life-blood propelled from the heart, through our whole national
system. The mothers, who through years of adverse fortune were true to
American principles, and who kept them pure in their homes in the
season of prosperity, although no brilliant acts illustrate their simple
history, rendered real service to the country. Their duties during
the war, or after the return of peace, were fulfilled in a spirit of
self-sacrifice, without the wish or expectation of reward. The noblest
reward, however, was theirs; the sons in whose minds they had nursed the
germs of patriotism and virtue, rose up to call them blessed.
Our country offers abundant examples of men who have attained the
highest eminence, ascribing all to early maternal influence and
training. For the mother of Henry Clay, that great man--the pride and
honor of his country--has ever expressed feelings of profound affection
and veneration. Though her life afforded no incidents of striking or
romantic interest, she was what expresses the perfection of female
character--an excellent mother. She was the youngest of two daughters,
who were the only children of George and Elizabeth Hudson. Her name also
was Elizabeth. She was born in the county of Hanover, in Virginia, in
1750. Her early education was such as was attainable at that period
in the colony. In her fifteenth year she was married to John Clay, a
preacher of the Baptist denomination, and became the mother of eight
children. Mr. Clay died during the war of the Revolution. Some years
afterwards, Mrs. Clay contracted a second marriage with Mr. Henry
Watkins; and in course of time eight children more were added to her
family. The cares devolving upon her, in the charge of so many children,
and the superintendence of domestic concerns, of course occupied her
time to the exclusion of participation in matters of public interest.
She must, however, have borne her share in the agitations and dangers
of the time, in behalf of those who claimed her maternal solicitude and
guidance.
Her son, Henry, was separated from her when only thirteen years of age,
having before that period been occasionally absent from home for months
in going to school. In 1792, his step-father removed, with his mother
and family, from Hanover County to Woodford County in Kentucky, leaving
him at Richmond, in Virginia. He did not again see his mother till the
fall of 1797, when he himself emigrated to Kentucky. His estimable and
beloved parent died in 1827, having survived most of her children, of
whom there are now but four remaining--two by her first, and two by her
last marriage.
She was from her youth a member of the Baptist Church, and eminent in
piety. Her distinguishing traits of character were energy and industry;
and she was most faithful in the performance of all her domestic duties.