Abigail Adams and Her Times

her father, of course, "remarkably lively and animated in all his public performances," as we learn from his tombstone. Doubtless his company was stimulating to the bright little girl;

he was a lad of eighteen; had graduated the year before from Harvard College and had already begun a brilliant mercantile career. John was handsome and always fond of good clothes and gay colors. We have no description of his youthful costumes, but we know that one day in later life he wore "a re

gardens. We may fancy them, the little maid in bib and apron, mitts and kerchief; the little lad in flapped coat, knee-breeches, and waist-coat reaching to his knees; both have

, having graduated in this very year 1755, which I have chosen for a survey of my heroine's surroundings. He came of good New England stock, his father being a substantial far

le acknowledging the kinship, went on energetically to remark that, could he 'ever suppose that family pride were any way excusable, [he] should think a descent from a line of

of the family estate, worth some thirteen hundred pounds, or of having a "learned education" for all his inheritance. There was no

cester. This must have been a doleful change from his college life, with its gay and stimulating c

ear made memorable by the cruel expulsion of the French from Nova Scotia, by the destruction of General Braddock's army, by the unfortunate attempt of Sir William Johnson against Crown Point. These were incidents in the so-called French and Indian War, a war in some respects more dreadful than any other up

t confess that two events, one actual and terrible, the other co

e year when

h open and g

oing down over the edge of a terrifying circle like a round Niagara Falls; another of Peruvian Indians pulling up plants by the roots, and collecting quicksilver by the quart, it would appear. The third, and by far the most thrilling and terrifying, was of the Lisbon Earthquake. The ground was opening in every directi

ery one of my r

terrible Ea

n finished the

prising that 1755 is an

considerable disturbance, though no serious damage was done. November the first was Lisbon

haracteristic brevity: "A great a

were falling, that Neighbor Wibird's great elm was down; daughter Mary bringing the

th will not help us. His next entry is: "Married David

; it was probably cattle hair, to u

nder to us. His

n Braintree, and awoke out of my sleep in the midst of it. The house seemed to rock and reel and crack, a

abbreviations here; no dry statistics of birth, death, marriage, as if they were of no human inte

committed from time to time to paper, probably without the design of preserving them; self-examinations at once severe and stimulative; reflections upon others, sometimes, not less sev

patriotism was already forecasting the future of his beloved country. Shortly bef

likely to me; for if we can remove the turbulent Gallicks, our people, according to the exactest computation, will in another century become more numerous than England itself. Should this be the case, since we have, I may say, all the naval stores of the nation in our hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery of the seas; and th

make the subject of every conversation. I sit and hear, and after having been led through a maze of sage observations, I sometimes retire

r resemblance to unembodied intelligences than in anything else. From this I expect to receive the chief happiness of my future life; and am sorry that fortune has thrown me at such a distance from those of my friends wh

n Ad

important part in John Adams' life; but it w

hing; witness another

of affliction. A large number of little runtlings, just capable of lisping A B C, and troubling the master. But Dr. Savil tells me, for my comfort, 'by cultivating and pruning these tender plants in the gar

the value of his work. We

as much fire and impetuosity as Alexander fought, and very often sit down and cry as heartily upon being outspelt, as C?sar did, when at Alexander's sepulchre he reflected that the Macedonian hero had conquered the world before his age. At one table sits Mr. Insipid, foppling and fluttering, spinning his whirligig, or playing with his fingers, as gaily and wittily as any Frenchified cox-comb brandishes his cane or rattles his snuff-box. At another, sits the polemical divine, plodding and wrangling in his mind about 'Adam's fall, in which we sinned all,' as his Primer has

t the Massachusetts bar. His ability was recognized at once. A few years later, Governor Barnard, wishing to attach this promising young lawyer to th

oor of Parson Smith of Weymouth, asking the hand of his dau

er thinks the letters are sufficiently purified. Did you never rob a bird's nest? Do you remember how the poor bird would fly round and

rove a villain, impossible,-I, therefore, still insist upon it, that I neither do nor can fear thee. For my part, I know not that there is any pleasure in being feared; but, if there is, I hop

rds-a whole wagon load of them, sent you f

hear from you by Mr. Ayers, and excuse this very bad writing; if you had mended my pen it would have been better. Once

.

ail

early

to his son; a man of parts himself, he would quickly perceive the intelligence and character of the young lawyer. But the Family at Large was mightily disturbed. Lawyers were looked askance at in those days; the law was a new profession, probably a dangerous, possibly an i

t the contracting parties and the Parson, seems to have approved of Abigail's marrying John Adams. This, however, troubled none of the three overmuch. It is true that John had to do his courting without assistance from his future "in-laws." He must tie his horse to a tree and find his Abigail as he

had it been offered. He has nothing to say about his court

early, from ten or eleven years of age, was very fond of the society of females. I had my favorites among the young women, and spent many of my evenings in

he dead or the living. This, I will say:-they were all modest and virtuous girls, and always maintained their character t

October, I was married to Miss Smith, second daughter of the Rev. William Smith, minister of Weymouth, granddaughter of the Honorable John Quincy, of Braintree, a connection which has been the sourc

ily and parishioners by preaching a sermon from Luke vii:33: "For John ca