The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1900-09-27

eking out q scanty education by study,
listening to the British artillery Mt Bos.
ton. writing letters of encouragement to
her Observation-Disclosures so full Of patriotism
and sound judgment as to rank almost as
classes.
After a years absence he returned.
only to tell her that he had been called by
his country to go to France. When
the years passed and the uncertainty OF
his return faced them, and everything
looked toward residence abroad, Mrs.
Adams at last closed her home, took her
children, and sailed for England. where
her son met her. She had not seen him
in six years, and he had grown out of all
appearance of his former self. They lived
a year in France, and then Mr.. Adams
was made Minister to the Court of st.
James. Mrs. Adams was the first woman
TO represent the United States at this
Court. Who among our Nations makers
did more or suffered more for her coun-
try's sake than Abigail Adams? 1t has
been said that institutions form men,
but it Is no less true that the women OF
those early days gave much of the color
ing and tendency to institutions. Who
formed the compact of homes, held famil-
les together, raised the crops that fed the
armies, spun the wool that made the cloth
that clothed them? Were they not the
great important factor in the New World
economics? Such a one was Abigail
Adams. With the marked characteristics
which gave her the consciousness that
there was place for her in the world of
thought as well as action, also equipped
her for true representation of her coun-
trywomen in the courts of Europe. In
the Summer of 1888, after one year in
France and three years in England, she
returned to America.
In 1889 Mr.. Adams was elected Vice
President, and eight years after he was
elected President. Mrs. Adams training
and advantages had fully equipped her
for the station she was to fill as first Lady
of the Land. Even Lady Washington,
whose life in the quiet haunts of old Nir-
ginia, was not in many ways so well pre-
pared for the position. Mrs. Adams let
tiers to her husband and her correspond
ence with Jefferson show that she was
not only a woman of action, but deepest
thought, and the entanglements of politi-
clans never swerved her from independ-
ence of thought, and through good and
evil report to believe in the success of the
new Republic.
She took up the duties of wife of the
President and carried them on with dig
nifty and honor. She was first to live in
the White House. She arrived in Novem-
Der, and January /. 1901, she had brought
order out of the chaotic condition of her
surroundings, and held the first levee of
the W mite House. L ne mouse was par
tally furnished, and the guests were re-
ceived in the oval room up stairs. The
formal etiquette established by Mrs.
Washington, which prevailed in New
York and Philadelphia, was carried out
in the wilderness city by Mrs. Adams.
An incipient fever which Mrs. Adams had
contracted in Philadelphia compelled her
to return to Quincy after a life of only
four months in the White House, but the
imprpSS of her praCanca for that short
period has been felt through the century.
She has stamped the position with her in
dividuality, and she stands before the
people to-day without rival, and her
fame will go down to posterity as a true
American woman.