Click here and add this page to your favorites!

Abigail Adams (1744-1818), was the wife of 2nd President, John Adams and the mother of 6th President, John Quincy Adams.  At the age of twenty she married John Adams and they had five children.  She strongly supported her husband's career.  Her letters and memoirs are now considered major historical documents revealing life during the Revolutionary era.

On October 16,1774, just prior to the outbreak of war with Great Britain, Abigail wrote to John Adams from their home in Braintree:

"I dare not express to you, at three hundred miles distance, how ardently I long for your return ... And whether the end will be tragical, Heaven only knows.  You cannot be, I know, nor do I wish to see you, an inactive spectator; but if the sword be drawn, I bid adieu to all domestic felicity, and look forward to that country where there are neither wars nor rumors of war, in a firm belief that through the mercy of its King we shall both rejoice there together...  Your most affectionate, Abigail Adams." ¹

On June 18, 1775, in the midst of the conflict with Britain, Abigail Adams writes to her husband John:

"The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but the God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power unto His people.  Trust in Him at all times, ye people, pour out your hearts before Him; God is a refuge for us.  Abigail Adams." ²

Near the time of November 5, 1775, Abigail wrote to her friend, Mercy Warren:

"A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without the fear of God.  Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind, can have any real Good Will towards Men?  Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of Society?...  The Scriptures tell us "righteousness exalteth a Nation." ³

On February 8,1797, Abigail writes to her husband John at the occasion of his election as the 2nd President of the United States:

"You have this day to declare yourself head of a nation.  'And now, O Lord, my God, Thou hast made thy servant ruler over the people.  Give unto him an understanding heart, that he may know how to go out and come in before this great people; that he may discern between good and bad.  For who is able to judge this thy so great a people?' were the words of a royal Sovereign; and not less applicable to him who is invested with the Chief Magistracy of a nation, though he wear not a crown, nor robes of royalty.

"... though personally absent... my petitions to Heaven are that 'the things which make for peace may not be hidden from your eyes.'  ...That you may be enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself, with justice and impartiality to your country, and with satisfaction to this great people, shall be the daily prayer of you.  Abigail Adams." 4  

¹ October 16, 1774, writing to her husband John Adams form their home in Braintree.  Letters of Abigail Adams to Her Husband (Old South Leaflets, No. 6, Fourth Series, 1886), pp. 1-3.  Catherine Millard, The Rewriting of America's History (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon House Publishers, 1991), p. 85.

² June 18, 1775, in writing to her husband John Adams.  Charles Francis Adams, ed., Familiar Letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams - during the Revolution, p. XXVI, pp. 3-4.  Catherine Millard, The Rewriting of America's History (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon House Publishers, 1991), p. 88.

³ L.H. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963), Vol. I, p. 323, from Abigail Adams to Mercy Warren, circa Nov. 5, 1775.  David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 95, 249.  Also Jan Payne Pierce, The Patriot Primer III (Fletcher, NC: New Puritan Library, Inc., 1987), p. 44.  Warren-Adams Letters, Vol. I, p. 72.  Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart 'N Home, Inc., 1991), 3.11.

4 February 8, 1797, in writing to her husband John at the occasion of his election as the 2nd President of the United States.  Charles Francis Adams, ed., Familiar Letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams - during the Revolution. p. XXII.  Catherine Millard, The Rewriting of America's History (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon House Publishers, 1991), p. 86.