April: In Thoughts on Government , Adams anonymously advocates a three-tiered system of government: bicameral legislature, independent judiciary, and strong executive. June 7: In response to Virginian Richard Henry Lee's resolution calling for independence from England, Congress names a committee to draft a formal declaration of independence. Adams asks Jefferson to compose the document. He also writes the Plan of Treaties, an outline for an alliance with Europe's nations.
July 2: Lee's resolution is formally adopted, thanks in large part to Adams' impassioned arguments for independence. July 4: Congress formally adopts the Declaration of Independence. National celebrations begin as word of it reaches the colonies.
December In Trenton, New Jersey, Washington captures over Hessian troops and their weapons while losing fewer than 10 American soldiers. June Congress passes the Flag Resolution, calling for a design containing 13 white stars in a blue field and 13 alternating red and white stripes.
July Abigail gives birth to a stillborn daughter named Elizabeth on John Quincy's 10th birthday. States are responsible for their own judicial and legislative systems and are granted powers later held by the federal government, including coining money. Adams returns to Braintree where he resumes his law practice. February April 1: Traveling with year-old John Quincy, Adams joins the joint commission in Paris, only to learn that the alliance has already been secured.
It will serve as the model for the U. Constitution and remains in effect today. November: Adams sails for Europe to negotiate the peace treaty with England as the sole United States representative. John Quincy and nine-year-old Charles accompany him. May 4: Boston's American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded by Adams as a forum for the promotion of democratic ideals, is incorporated. May America suffers its worst defeat of the war in Charleston, South Carolina.
Nearly 6, Americans surrender. July: Before news of his commission reaches Adams, he travels to the Netherlands to explore the possibility of financial assistance.
He remains in Amsterdam until July , when he returns to Paris. The British agree to negotiate peace. By year's end, all Northern states follow suit. Adams travels to The Hague to meet up with John Quincy. They return to Paris the following month. October: Adams, along with John Quincy, leaves France for London where they spend several months taking in the sights.
On August 7, they reunite with John in London after a five-year separation. They move to Auteuil, near Paris, where Adams is serving with Franklin and Jefferson on a commission to secure commercial treaties for the new United States. In May the family moves to London, where they take up residence in the first American legation embassy in the coming months.
Three weeks later, Abigail and Nabby are presented to Queen Charlotte. He and Adams will attempt to negotiate commercial treaties with Tripoli, Portugal, and Great Britain, but they also take a garden tour across England. Summer: John and Abigail take pleasure trips around England, a first in their marriage. New York: Penguin Books, Two Volumes. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, Akers, Charles W. Gelles, Edith B. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Nagel, Paul C. New letters of Abigail Adams, Stewart Mitchell.
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co. Related Biographies. Abrams is now one of the most prominent African American female politicians in the United States.
Abigail herself passionately supported independence, and famously argued that it should be applied to women as well as men. During the Second Continental Congress, as John Adams and his fellow delegates debated the question of formally declaring independence from Great Britain, Abigail wrote to her husband from their home in Braintree, Massachusetts, on March 31, If particular attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no Voice, or Representation.
Abigail remained at home at first, keeping her husband well informed about domestic affairs in her letters. She joined him in Europe in , and they remained abroad for five more years, returning home in so John could assume the vice presidency under George Washington. Over the next decade, Abigail divided her time between the U. When Washington announced his intention to retire in , John Adams emerged as the leading candidate on the Federalist side, with Jefferson as his main opponent.
As first lady, Abigail maintained and voiced strong opinions about the political issues and debates of the day, including the Federalist vs. She famously disagreed with her husband during the XYZ Affair , with Abigail thinking war should be declared against France. During the bitterly contested presidential election, the Jeffersonian press attacked Abigail as being too outspoken and imperious. President, not of the United States but of a faction…It is not right.
Their son Charles, who had struggled with alcohol abuse, died a few days before the election, which hit both Adamses harder than the loss of the presidency. Indeed, Abigail Adams supported the sentiment behind her husband's Alien and Sedition Acts as a legal means of imprisoning those who criticized the President in public print. Fearful of French revolutionary influence on the fledgling United States, she was unsuccessful in her urging the President to declare war with France.
She remained an adamant advocate of equal public education for women and emancipation of African-American slaves. Her entertainments were confined to a relatively small home in Philadelphia, turned into a hotel after the capital was moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D. Although she did host a dance for her son and his friends, she received visitors formally, seated like a royal figure as she had witnessed at Buckingham Palace.
She also attempted to influence fashion, believing that the more revealing Napoleonic-style clothing then popular were too indecorous. Since presidential families were responsible for covering the costs of their entertainments and the Adamses were enduring financial difficulties at the time of his presidency, Abigail Adams's receptions were somewhat spartan.
The first First Lady to live in the White House, she resided there for four months, arriving in November During that time she famously hung her family's laundry in the unfinished East Room to dry. For myself…I have few regrets. At my age, and with my bodily infirmities, I shall be happier at Quincy. Neither my habits, nor my education, or inclinations have led me to an expensive style of living, so that on that score I have little to mourn over. While her central focus in retirement was on her home and raising her granddaughter Susanna Adams to maturity, Abigail Adams nevertheless remained interested in national political issues.
Upon learning of Maria Jefferson Eppes' death, Abigail Adams wrote to the girl's father, President Jefferson, thus initiating a renewal of their contact and while she remained mistrustful of his politics, a new friendship through correspondence opened between Jefferson and John Adams. She corresponded upon at least one occasion with her successor Dolley Madison.
Relieved at the return of her son John Quincy Adams from his diplomatic missions in Europe, Abigail Adams had an initially strained relationship with his English-born wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson. She did not live to see her son become President, which occurred six years after her death. When once approached for permission to publish some of her political letters, Abigail Adams refused, considering it improper for a woman's private correspondence to be publicly divulged.
However, one of her grandsons arranged for the publication of some of her famous letters in , becoming the first published book pertaining to a First Lady.
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