Abigail Adams and Her Times

h other, the days were hastening on, and the first

but was in danger of becoming rotten for want of it"; when the notable Committee of Five was appointed, charged with the duty of preparing a Declaration of the Independence of the thirteen colonies. Everyone knows their names: Roger Sherman, Robert

in his own words

right ought to be, free and independent States, and as such they have, and of right ought to have, full power to make war, conclude peace, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which other States may rightfully do.' You wi

as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with

claration and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is mor

d of the second, when it was determined upon by Congress. It matters little; these words of John Adams' shine like a

st unspeakable. We can see her gathering the children around her, Abby and John, Charles and even little Tommy, and reading the letter out to them in faltering but exultant tones. Yes, and we can see young

sober and discreet, l

at it will, yet it was greatly heightened by the prospect of the future happiness and glory of our country. Nor am I a little gratified when I

ghteousness! Like the wise man's house, may it be founded upon th

in on t

Colonel Crafts read from the balcony of the State House the proclamation. Great attention was given to every word. As soon as he ended, the cry from the balcony was, 'God save our American States,' and then three cheers which rent the air. The bells rang, the privateers fired, the forts and batteries, the cannon were discharged, the platoons followed,

t, though he bore the same color; a foe whose little scarlet flag sti

on to the small-pox; in fact, a fearful epi

every town in New England. It is some small consolation that the scoundrel savages have taken a large dose of it. They

s took all the children into Boston for this purpose, and a miserable time they had of it. Her eyes were muc

hand would have been found to let me know something about you. Do my friends think that I have been a politician so long as to have lost all feeling? Do they suppose I have forgotten my wife and children? Or are they so panic-struck with the loss of Canada as to be afraid to correspond with me? Or have they forgotten that you have a husband, and yo

were all well. This might be a kind intention, and if the design had succeeded, would have made me very joyous. But the secret is out, and I am left to conj

s later h

n, or pretty well recovered? By this time, you are well

riend, Mr. Garry, "an old bachelor, and what is worse a politician." I must add, "what is worse still, an absent-minded person!" for he carried the tea to Mrs. Samuel Adams, who received it with great delight. Meantime, John Adams was fla

. Samuel Ad

a card to Mrs. S. A., and let her know that the canister was intended for you, and she may send it you, if she c

Abigail w

. Garry. I said nothing, but thought my sweetheart might have been equally kind, considering the disease I was visited with, and that it was recommended as a bracer. A little after, you mentioned a couple of bundles sent. I supposed one of them might contain the article, but found they wer

" unless you are sure of the

mendous excitement, of breathless waiting for mails and despatches. We can see Mr. Adams in his arm chair, one January day, trying to read-let us say Xenophon

rts on parasangs of his own up and down the room. Madam Abigail probably suggests pati

!) is here. The gate clicks, and Master Johnny's legs come flying up the path. He is waving a paper over his head; I don't

Trenton, amid ice and snow, storm and tempest. He surprised the British camp

ace to face with the British at Trenton, surrounded by them; they had him fast.

where they fell upon another body of British, routed them in twenty minutes, and carried off three hund

waistcoats, shouting and huzzaing; Abby, very likely, shedding tears of happiness over her tambour frame; Father John striding up and down the room again, but now in different mood, probably declaiming lines from Horace in a voi

for Mr. Adams to mount and ride, leaving his dear ones t

is way back to

although I had the presence of mind to appear composed. May God Almighty's providence protect you, my dear, and all our little ones. My good genius, my guardian angel,

hillings; rye, eleven and twelve shillings, but scarcely any to be had even at that price; beef, eight pence; veal, sixpence and eightpence; butter, one and sixpence; mutton, none; lamb, none;

ished to redress a grievance. He wore a horrible mask, and in this case "was mounted on horseback, with a red coat, a white wig, and a drawn sword, with drum and fife following. A concourse of people to the amount of five hundred followed. They proce

men who take matters

mber of people, and the coffee and sugar carried into the market and dealt out by pounds. It was rumored that an eminent, wealthy, stingy merchant (who is a bachelor) had a hogshead of coffee in his store, which he refused to sell to the committee under six shillings per pound. A number of females, some say a hundred, some say more, assembled with a cart and tru

m; but this, I believe, was not true. A large concourse of m

coffee. I assure you the best families in this place have left off, in a great measure, the use of West India goods. We must bring ourselves to live upon th

alarm, and all was confusion, people packing up and carting out of town their hous

them, I am told, asked a hundred dollars a load; for carting a hogshead of molasses eight miles, thirty dollars. O human nature! or rather O inhuman nature! what art thou

iless ravagers, our habitations laid waste, and if our flight preserved our lives, we must return to barren fields, empty barns, and desolate habitations, if any we find (perhaps not where to

anxious for your safety, but hope prudence will direct to a proper care and attention to yourselves.

this letter is

ter, to whose instigation a great part of their merit is to be ascribed. You will find a curious example of this in the case of Aspasia, the wife of Pericles. She was a woman of the greatest beauty and

eems the women in Boston begin to think themselves able to serve their country. What a

tions than we do. This is our good fortune. A woman of good sense would not let her husband spend five weeks at

later h

. But what shall we do for sugar and wine and rum? Why truly, I believe we must leave them off. Loaf sugar is only four dollars a pound here, and brown o

e and rose. On Augus

dollars a pair. Salt, twenty-seven dollars a bushel. Butter, ten shillings a pound. Punch, twenty shillings a bowl. All the old women and young children are gone down to the Jersey shore to make salt. Salt water is boiling all round the coast, and I hope it will increase. For it is nothing but heedlessness and shiftlessness that prevents

nd may be boiled down to sugar. Thus you see," he adds, "we go from step to step in our improvements. We can live much better than we deserve within ourselves. Why should we borrow foreign luxuries? Why should we wish to bring ruin upon ourselves? I feel as contented when I have breakfasted upon milk as ever I did with Hyson or Souchong. Coffee and sugar I us

from thoroughwort, from strawberry and currant leaves. "Hyperion tea," called by a good patriot, "very delicate and most excellent," was made from raspberry leaves; "Liberty tea" from the four-leaved loose-strife. So there was grea

of the able-bodied men being in the field (for the war was now in full swing) there were not enough hands to gather in the crops. Abigail fears that "if it is necessary to make any more

daughters, they worked side by side: and we read that "towards the end of August, at the Forks of Brandywine, girls were harnessing the pl

ight hand, should hold in his left a history of the

ia, where John Adams and his brother Congressmen were sitting. All through the spring and summer Washington had been harrying the British with varying fortunes. On August 24th, he entered Philadelphia with his army: four regiments of light horse, writes John Adams, four grand divisions of infantry, and the artiller

t of brown linen. But the brown faces above the shirts were strong and keen, and alight with purpose and resolve; their horses were in prime condition: the green boughs they wore lent a touch of color; there was even a hint of

ams, after watching the parade, is convinced that he, in military life, should be a decisive disciplinarian. "I am convinced there is no other effective way of indulging benevolence, humanity, and the tender social passions in the army. There is no other way of preserving the health and spirits of the men.

y trained soldiers, bent on taking Philadelphia and driving ou

e know not how it will end, for the battle is not always to the strong. . . . But if it should be the will of Heaven that our army shou

oli, when Anthony Wayne first measured swords with Cornwallis, and found his

en on the 14th, "nor about our great and sacred c

its work. Mr. Adams, describing the removal briefly, says, "I shall avoid everything like

5th, 1777, A

ho hath so remarkably delivered our enemies into our hands. And, hearing that an express is to go off tomorrow morning, I have retired to write you a few lines. I have received no letters from you since you left Philadelphia, by the post, and but one by any privat

mily, mounted his horse, and rode joyfully home to Braintree. We can well imagine the rejoicings that greeted his return; but they were short-lived. He had barel

ng up without my care in their education, and all my emoluments as a member of Congress for four years had not been sufficient to pay a laboring man upon my farm. . . . On the other hand, my country was in deep distress and in great danger. Her dearest interests would be involved in the relations she might form with foreign nations. My own plan of these relations had been deliberately formed and fully co

Franklin was already there, but

d it, we know not which; and preparations were made for the departure. Fortunately, the frigate took longer to prepare than the trunks; it was not till February that all was ready,

s a stormy one and threatened other dangers beside. They f

ld give them something that should make them remember him. I said, and did all in my power, to encourage the officers and men to fight them to the last extremity. My motives were more urgent than theirs; for it will easily be believed that it would have been more eligible for me to be killed on board the Boston, or sunk to the bottom in her, than to be taken prisoner. I sat in the cabin, at the windows in the stern, and saw the enemy gaining upon us very fast, she appearing to h

ed a terrible one.

s; the sailors, their countenances, language, and behavior, is impossible. No man could keep upon his legs and nothing could be kept in its place; an universal wreck of everything in all parts of the ship, chests, c

but I thought myself in the way of my duty, and I did not repent of my voyage. I confess I often regretted that I had brought my son. I was not so clear that it was my duty to expose him as myself, but I had been led to it by the child's inclination, and by the ad

et more thrilling event.

h the chase, gave her a gun and she returned me three, one shot of which carried away my mizzen yard. She immediately struck. Out boat. Got the prisoners on board. She proved the ship

and one of her shot went through our mizzen yard. I happened to be upon the quarter deck, and in the direction from the ship to the yard, so that the ball went

although against the dictates of prudent duty. Tucker, however, stipulated that Mr. Adams should remain in the lower part of the ship, as a place of safety. But no sooner had the battle commenced, than he was seen on deck, with a musket in his hands, fighting as a common marine. The Commodore peremptorily ordered him below; but called instantly away, it was no

least not till long afterward. She, poor lady, was meantime cheering herself as well as she could; visiting the French fleet

with them. Perhaps I feel more anxious to have them distinguished, on account of the near and dear connections

in it we actually find Portia reproaching her John, a strange thing i

nce which is in it. Could you, after a thousand fears and anxieties, long expectation, and painful suspense, be satisfied with my telling you that I was well, that I wished you were with me, that my daughter sent her duty, that I had ordered some articles for you, which I hoped would arrive, et

for a hundred of sugar, and fifty dollars for a hundred of flour; four dollars per day for a laborer, and find him, which will amount to four more. You will see, by bills drawn before the date of this, that I had taken the method

board. John was writing constantly, and Portia's complaining letter was not a consoling one to rec

what conveyance is safe. . . . I know nothing of many vessels that go from the sea-ports, and if I knew of all, there are some that I should not trust. Notwithstanding all this, I have written to you not much less than fifty letters. I am astonished that you have received no more. But almost every vessel has been taken. . . . God knows I don't spend my time i

h, Abigail writes a letter that

e had four of the coldest days I ever knew, and they were followed by the severest snow-storm I ever remember. The wind, blowing like a hurricane for fifteen or twenty hours, rendered it impossible for man or bea

a whole winter alone? Some part of the dismal season has heretofore been mitigate

ersons, for the heart of my friend is in the bosom of his partner. More than half a score of years has so riv

our hearts,

beings

uite a different effect, and the native simplicity of it had all the power of a well-wrought tragedy. When I could conquer my sensibility I begged the song, and Master Cha

oot has mu

mes up t

art danced to the

I see his

l I hear

answer my daily petition,

this finds its way to you, it will go by the Alliance. By her I have written before. She has not yet sailed, and I love to amuse myself with my pen, and pour out some of the tender sentiments of a heart overflowing wi

rti

plies t

Scotch song, which is a charm

to you about politics,

se have I comm

l as any man whatever. But the world don't know this. Therefore if I were to write my sentiments to you, and the

nce than help to him. Moreover, Congress, in the excitement of the treaty, forgot, for a time, all about John Adams and his mission. In short, he came too late for

lk quick, and for an hour, so that I go a league; I make a point of religion of it.' I replied, 'That as the commandment, "thou shalt not kill," forbids a man to ki

to follow Franklin's advice and wait quietly for further orders. There was nothing for him to do, and he would go home in the first

und; corn twenty-five dollars, rye thirty, per bushel; flour fifty pounds per hundred; potatoes ten dollars per bushel; butter twelve shillings a pound, cheese eight; sugar t

welve dollars in prospect; goods of all kinds at

d; West India goods full as high; molasses at twenty dollars per gallon; sugar four dollars per pound, bohea tea at forty dollars; and o

up my soul. Yet must the common lot of man one day take place, whether we dwell in our own native land or are far distant from it. That we rest under the shadow of the Almighty

nd was spreading his wings-or rather, the broad white