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ABIGAIL ADAMS AND HER TIMES

       *       *       *       *       *

Books By Laura E. Richards

    Abigail Adams and Her Times
    Pippin
    Elizabeth Fry
    Florence Nightingale
    Mrs. Tree
    Mrs. Tree's Will
    Miss Jimmy
    The Wooing of Calvin Parks
    Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe
    Two Noble Lives
    Captain January
    A Happy Little Time
    When I Was Your Age
    Five Minute Stories
    In My Nursery
    The Golden Windows
    The Silver Crown
    The Joyous Story of Toto
    The Life of Julia Ward Howe
    _With Maud Howe Elliott,
    etc., etc._

       *       *       *       *       *


[Illustration: ABIGAIL ADAMS

From an original painting by Gilbert Stuart]


ABIGAIL ADAMS AND HER TIMES

by

LAURA E. RICHARDS

Author of "Elizabeth Fry, the Angel of the Prisons,"
"Florence Nightingale, the Angel of the Crimea," etc.

[Illustration]

Illustrated







D. Appleton and Company
New York     London
1917

Copyright, 1917, by
D. Appleton and Company

Printed in the United States of America




    TO
    THE HONORED MEMORY OF
    FRANKLIN BENJAMIN SANBORN
    THE FRIEND OF MY PARENTS AND OF MY CHILDREN;
    TO THREE GENERATIONS A FAITHFUL,
    AFFECTIONATE, AND BELOVED
    COUNSELLOR.




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                  PAGE
     I. BEGINS AT THE BEGINNING                               1
    II. GIRLHOOD AND MARRIAGE                                24
   III. THE BOSTON MASSACRE                                  40
    IV. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY                                 60
     V. AFTER LEXINGTON                                      88
    VI. BOSTON BLOCKADE                                     112
   VII. IN HAPPY BRAINTREE                                  124
  VIII. INDEPENDENCE AT LAST                                142
    IX. MR. ADAMS ABROAD                                    181
     X. THE COURT OF ST. JAMES                              197
    XI. VEXATIOUS HONORS                                    231
   XII. AFTERNOON AND EVENING                               260




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  Abigail Adams                                  _Frontispiece_

                                                         FACING
                                                           PAGE
  Abigail Adams                                              36
  John Adams                                                188
  South Elevation of the President's House                  252




For much of the local and contemporary color in this little book, the
author is indebted to the admirable works of the late Mrs. Alice Morse
Earle.




ABIGAIL ADAMS AND HER TIMES




CHAPTER I

BEGINS AT THE BEGINNING


SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR! George the Second on the throne of
England, "snuffy old drone from the German hive"; Charles Edward Stuart
("bonnie Prince Charlie") making ready for his great _coup_ which, the
next year, was to cast down said George from the throne and set Charles
Edward thereupon as "rightful, lawful prince--for wha'll be king but
Charlie?", and which ended in Culloden and the final downfall and
dispersion of the Scottish Stuarts.

In France, Louis XV., Lord of Misrule, shepherding his people toward the
Abyss with what skill was in him; at war with England, at war with
Hungary; Frederick of Prussia alone standing by him. In Europe,
generally, a seething condition which is not our immediate concern. In
America, seething also: discontent, indignation, rising higher and
higher under British imposition (not British either, being the work of
Britain's German ruler, not of her people!), yet quelled for the moment
by war with France.

I am not writing a history; far from it. I am merely throwing on the
screen, in the fashion of today, a few scenes to make a background for
my little pen-picture-play. What is really our immediate concern is that
on November eleventh of this same year, 1744, was born to the wife of
the Reverend William Smith of Weymouth, Massachusetts, a daughter,
baptized Abigail.

Parson Smith was a notable figure of the times; not a great man, but one
of character, intelligence and cultivation. He married a daughter of
Colonel John Quincy, so my heroine was a cousin--I cannot tell in what
precise degree--to Dorothy Q. of poetic-pictorial fame; cousin, too,
(her grandmother having been a Norton) to half Boston, the cultivated
and scholarly half.

Parson Smith kept a diary, as dry a document as I have often read. He
had no time to spare, and his brief entries are abbreviated down to the
finest possible point. For example, we read that

"By my Gd I am as'd and Ev. am as'd at my S and do now ys D Sol prom By
Thy God never to T. to s. ag."

This is puzzling at first sight; but the practiced reader will, after
some study, make out that the good Parson, writing for himself alone,
was really saying,

"By my God I am assured and Even am assured at my Strength, and do now
this Day Solemnly promise By Thy God never to Tempt to sin again."

Even this is somewhat cryptic, but we are glad of the assurance, the
more that we find the poor gentleman still troubled in spirit a week
later.

"Lord g't me S to res the e. so prej'd to me. Lord I am ashamed of it
and resolve to s. e. T. by thy S."

Which being interpreted is: "Lord, grant me Strength to resist the evil
so prejudicial to me. Lord, I am ashamed of it and resolve to shun evil
Temptation by thy Strength."

What the temptation was, we may not know. Possibly he was inclined to
extravagance in certain matters of personal dignity and adornment: we
read of his paying fifteen pounds "for my wig"; and again, "At Boston.
Paid Mr. Oliver for a cut whigg L10.00." But this is nothing. Parson
Smith came of "kent folk," and may have had private means beside the
salary of eight hundred dollars. Do we not read that Samuel Adams'
barber's bill "for three months, shaving and dressing," was L175, paid
by the Colony of Massachusetts?

Necessary expenses were also heavy. "Dec. 4th, 1749. Paid Brother Smith
for a Barrel of Flower L15.11.3." But on the other hand, he sold his
horse to Mr. Jackson for L200.

1751 was an eventful year. On April 23d we read,

"Weymouth Meeting House took fire about half an hour after 10 o'clock at
night and burnt to the ground in abt 2 hours."

This is all Parson Smith has to say about it, but the Boston _Post-Boy_
of April 29th tells us that:

"Last Tuesday Night the old Meeting-house in Weymouth was burnt to the
Ground: and three Barrels of Gunpowder, the Town-Stock, being in the
Loft, blew up with a great noise. 'Tis uncertain by what Means the Fire
happen'd."

Paul Torrey, the town poet, says of it:

    Our powder stock, kept under lock,
      With flints and bullets were
    By dismal blast soon swiftly cast
      Into the open air.

The poem hints at incendiaries.

    I'm satisfied they do reside
      Somewhere within the town:
    Therefore, no doubt, you'll find them out,
      By searching up and down.

    On trial them we will condemn,
      The sentence we will give:
    Them execute without dispute,
      Not being fit to live.

This was a heavy blow to minister and congregation, in fact to the whole
community; for the meeting-house was the centre and core of the village
life.

Meeting-house: (Cotton Mather found "no just ground in Scripture to
apply such a trope as 'church' to a home for public assembly.") Sabbath,
or more often Lord's Day: these are the Puritan names, which happily we
have not yet wholly lost. The early meeting-houses were very small; that
of Haverhill was only twenty-six feet long and twenty wide. They were
oftenest set on a hilltop, partly as a landmark, partly as a lookout in
case of prowling Indians. The building or "raising" of a meeting-house
was a great event in the community. Every citizen was obliged by law to
share in the work or the expense. Every man must give a certain amount
of "nayles." Contributions were levied for lumber, for labor of horses
and men, and for "Rhum and Cacks" to regale the workers. "When the
Medford people built their second meeting-house, they provided for the
workmen and bystanders, five barrels of rum, one barrel of good brown
sugar, a box of