Colvin’s Weekly Messenger, in which she referred to herself in the third person. In June 1827, she published an anonymous, but transparently autobiographical, treatise in the pro-Adams paper, Mrs. Shortly before her husband sought reelection, Adams became the first ever First Lady to defend herself in print. The papers went wild, claiming his well-heeled wife was using public funds to buy “gambling furniture” to remind herself of the castles of Europe’s “rich and great.” Rumors swirled that the Adams lived like European royalty, with her at the helm that her skills as a hostess were the product of ostentatious foreign wealth and even that the First Lady was embroiled in a curious sex scandal involving the Russian Czar. He had hoped to leave it at the White House at the end of his time as president, and so sought reimbursement to turn it into government property. These tensions came to a head when Adams bought an expensive billiard table. Louisa Adams was horrified as she realized the nation’s voters were swayed not by rational reasoning, but by their emotions. For the next years, she took particular pains to describe herself as “the daughter of an American Republican Merchant.” It was a challenging political time: America’s fledgling political system lent itself to factionalism. Louisa Adams was painted in the press as a foreigner and a Tory of aristocratic birth. Louisa Adams did not approve of the deal and did not attend her husband’s inauguration in 1825.įor the four years of Adams’ presidency, virtually every aspect of his life was placed under media scrutiny-and his wife was no exception. Clay’s coalition secured the White House for Adams. Adams made a deal with the speaker of the House, Henry Clay, in which he promised the congressman Secretary of State if he brought with him a voting block of southern-Midwestern states. But because nobody had received a majority of votes in the electoral college, the House of Representatives had to choose between the top two candidates. Despite being selected by the House of Representatives, he had lost the popular and electoral vote to Andrew Jackson. To an extent, it worked: In 1824, Adams was elected president, but under circumstances many found uncomfortable. Many guests attended the balls hosted by Louisa Adams, including Andrew Jackson, seen in the center to the right of President John Quincy Adams. And despite claiming an active disinterest in politics, she watched Congress debates, read newspapers assiduously, advised her husband, and did whatever she could as part of her “campaigne.” She was the dominant hostess of the day, holding balls and Tuesday evening soirées to keep her husband in the limelight. Louisa Adams saw herself as his “diplomate,” organizing social events and entertaining the ladies of Washington D.C. ![]() John Quincy Adams had ambitious political aims, but lacked the charisma many believed was a necessity. At first, Adams struggled to adjust to her new home, finding the Adams family home in Massachusetts provincial and boorish: eventually, however, she grew to love the United States. ![]() Louisa Adams was sophisticated and urbane, and spoke French as though it were her mother tongue. Louisa Adams did not step foot on American soil before her 26th birthday-the same age as the second foreign-born first lady, Melania Trump, when she came to the United States nearly 200 years later. She and Adams lived overseas for years before returning to the United States in 1801, after the birth of her first son. Louisa Catherine Johnson, as she was then known, was young, charming and a wonderful hostess-but she was also British-born, to a British mother.ĭespite the warnings, the two were married in the United Kingdom, and the American papers made their position clear-as the Boston Independent Chronicle declared on September 14, 1797, “Young John Adams’ Negotiations have terminated in a Marriage Treaty with an English lady…”Īs Adams’ mother had foreseen, Louisa Adams was forced to spend much of her husband’s time in office defending not just their union, but also her loyalty to the Union. When John Quincy Adams fell for the woman who would become his wife, his mother worried about the effect it might have on his political dreams, while the future bride’s American ex-pat father worried that Yankees made poor husbands.
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