The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-03-26
BY JAMES MORGAN

AZ
~ American history was so litter
ed up with Adamses" that she
couldn't tell one from the other. Yet
this most distinguished family in our
national biography lived in America
one hundred and fifty years before it
broke into fame.
When the engagement was announ-
ed Of John Adams of Braintree, Mass.
to the daughter of Parson Smith Of
the adjoining town of Weymouth.
people were shocked that Abby should
marry SO beneath her station. Was
she not Quincy and a Norton? And
John, the son of small farmer, WaS
put down to fourteenth place among
his twenty-four classmates, when Har-
ward catalogues We're made up accord
| ing to social rank. After that he taught
school in Worcester to get enough
| money to study law. and the strictest
Of the Puritans looked on lawyers as
| ungodiy.
Father-in-Law Smith was game. and
| tradition says that he preached down
his gossiping parishioners from this
well-chosen text: John came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine, and
ye say he hath devil"
Although she never went to school,
this parsons daughter was by long
odds the cleverest in the entire line
of our presidents wives. her published
letters forming a delightfully."- human
document in our too often unhuman
history. When John Joined the faith
ers of the republic in the great work of
setting up the most masculine gov
eminent the world ever saw, this
mother Of the republic had to stay
home to rock the cradle, cook and
patch four little Adamses and to tend
the farm. Milking and churning, knit
ting and darning, teaching and pray
ing, toiling and saving, she supported
the family. inspired her husband in
his progress to the presidency, and
reared a son to follow in the fathers
footsteps. To Abigail Adams alone be-
longs the glory of having been the
wife OF oae president and the mother
of another.
Although lawyer Adams defended
the British soldiers on trial for shoot
ing down the citizens in what is called
the Boston Massacre, the patriots sent
him to Congress, where he sprang the
first proposal of Washington's appoint
ment as commandments. Not that
he ever cared much for George, but he
in the yet conservative congress tc
adopt the rebellious troops gathered
about Boston, thereby committing all
the colonies to the war; which until
then had been only local conflict il
New England.
In the war, it fell to Adams to d.
picket duty in Europe. Congress sem
him to France with a thoughtful warn
: ing to put in the bottom of his dis
/ patch bag plenty of lead or stone OF
: other weighty substance to sink his
. papers. For his own neck no protec
J ton was proposed in event of the Brit
ish capturing a signer of the rebe
manifesto of July 4, 1875. Neverthe
) less, he took with him on the perilou:
5 trip his ten-year-old son, John Quincy
On the next voyage, he carried no
only John Quincy, but also his secont
son, and they were Shipwrecked OF
the coast Of Spain. Having to ride
mule back over the mountains, the,
were three months Or the road It
Paris. Never lAind; the boys picket
/ up Spanish along the way!
, After five long. anxious years o
, separation from husband and children
| the mother herself sailed to Europe
, and the pioneer American woman t
t appear at the Court of St. James wa
Abigail, the faTEaerette of Braintree
| Her presentation costume. accOrdin.
/ to her own description, was white lutte
string covered with white crepe, fes
? TONED with lilac ribbon and mocl
, point lace, over a hoop of enormou
f extent, and with a narrow train thre
{ yards long; also ruffle cuffs, trebl
lace ruffles and dress cap. with lon
l. lace lappets and two white plumes.
: on will be stared at a great deal,
the Duke of Dorset kindly warned tn
\ Adamses. On the contrary, every bac'
!. in the court circle was turned uDOn TIL