I wish I knew what mighty things were fabricating. If a form of Goverment is to be established here what one will be assumed? Will it be left to our assemblies to chuse one? I am more and more convinced that Man is a dangerous creature, 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 perogatives of Goverment.
You tell me of degrees of perfection to which Humane 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 Reigns of Goverment have been so long slakned , 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 seperate from Brittain, what Code of Laws will be established.
How shall we be governd so as to retain our Liberties? Can any goverment be free which is not adminstred by general stated Laws? Who shall frame these Laws? Who will give them force and energy? Tis true your Resolution[s] as a Body have heithertoo had the force of Laws. But will they continue to have? When I consider these things and the prejudices of people in favour of Ancient customs and Regulations, I feel anxious for the fate of our Monarchy or Democracy or what ever is to take place.
I soon get lost in a 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 surmounted, by patience and perseverance. How in the first paragraph does Adams parallel the plight of women with the political condition of the colonies? She does so by making the same case against men that the Patriots make against the King of England.
They and he are tyrants. They give women no voice in the laws that govern their lives, just as the King gives the colonies no voice in the laws that govern them. She means that some men can overcome their natural tendency to be tyrants and treat women justly and that such men will be happier for doing so. What argument does she make in the second paragraph? Cite evidence from the text.
Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and 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 Beings placed by providence under your protection and in immitation of the Supreem Being make use of that power only for our happiness. In this letter Abigail specifically writes about the laws which she thinks should be changed.
Which laws are those? Why does she think these laws to protect women are necessary? His tone was derisive and mocking. He laughed at her suggestions, stating that the current state of rebellion had led to a lessening of respect for laws in a number of groups children, apprentices, students, Indians, and Negroes and that he would now add women to that list. John Adams is alluding to the familiar and often invoked power-behind-the-throne argument, which holds that, for all their seeming power, husbands really follow the dictates of wives.
We dare not exert our power in its full latitude. We are obliged to go fair and softly, and, in practice, you know we are the subjects. We have only the name of masters…[giving up power] would completely subject us to the despotism of the petticoat…. I think I will get you to join me in a petition to Congress. I thought it was very probable our wise Statesmen would erect a New Goverment and form a new code of Laws. She was the daughter of John Quincy, a member of the colonial Governor's council and colonel of the militia.
Quincy was also Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly, a post he held for 40 years until his death at age He died in ; three years into his granddaughter Abigail Smith's marriage to John Adams, and his interest in government and his career in public service influenced her. One of her great-great-great-great grandmothers came from a Welsh family.
Her well-researched ancestral roots precede her birth some six centuries and are traced back to royal lines in France, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Holland, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Switzerland. Religious Affiliation: Congregationalist; she was buried in the Unitarian faith of her husband.
Education: Although Abigail Adams was later known for advocating an education in the public schools for girls that was equal to that given to boys, she herself had no formal education. She was taught to read and write at home, and given access to the extensive libraries of her father and maternal grandfather, taking a special interest in philosophy, theology, Shakespeare, the classics, ancient history, government and law. Occupation before Marriage: No documentation exists to suggest any involvement of Abigail Adams as a young woman in her father's parsonage activities.
She recalled that in her earliest years, she was often in poor health. Reading and corresponding with family and friends occupied most of her time as a young woman. She did not play cards, sing or dance. Marriage: 19 years old, married , October 25 to John Adams, lawyer , in Smith family home, Weymouth, Massachusetts, wed in matrimony by her father, the Reverend Smith.
After the ceremony, they drove in a horse and carriage to a cottage that stood beside the one where John Adams had been born and raised. This became their first home. They moved to Boston in a series of rented homes before buying a large farm, "Peacefield," in , while John Adams was Minister to Great Britain. Children: Three sons and two daughters;.
Occupation after Marriage: Abigail Adams gave birth to her first child ten days shy of nine months after her marriage, thus working almost immediately as a mother. She also shared with her husband the management of the household finances and the farming of their property for sustenance, while he also practiced law in the nearby city of Boston.
The separation prompted the start of a lifelong correspondence between them, forming not only a rich archive that reflected the evolution of a marriage of the Revolutionary and Federal eras, but a chronology of the public issues debated and confronted by the new nation's leaders. The letters reflect not only Abigail Adams' reactive advice to the political contentions and questions that John posed to her, but also her own observant reporting of New England newspapers' and citizens' response to legislation and news events of the American Revolution.
As the colonial fight for independence from the mother country ensued, Abigail Adams was appointed by the Massachusetts Colony General Court in , along with Mercy Warren and the governor's wife Hannah Winthrop to question their fellow Massachusetts women who were charged by their word or action of remaining loyal to the British crown and working against the independence movement.
This was the first instance of a First Lady who held any quasi-official government position. As the Second Continental Congress drew up and debated the Declaration of Independence through , Abigail Adams began to press the argument in letters to her husband that the creation of a new form of government was an opportunity to make equitable the legal status of women to that of men.
Despite her inability to convince him of this, the text of those letters became some of the earliest known writings calling for women's equal rights. Separated from her husband when he left for his diplomatic service as minister to France, and then to England in , she kept him informed of domestic politics while he confided international affairs to her.
Abigail Smith Adams Edited by Debra Michals, PhD Works Cited. Detroit: Gale, History in Context. Accessed February 2, Abigail Adams. Butterfield, L. Cambridge: Belknap Press, Roberts, Cokie.
Weatherford, Doris. New York: Macmillan General Reference, How to Cite this page. Additional Resources. Adams, Charles Francis. New York: Penguin Books,
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