First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis

Author:Joseph J. Ellis
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: United States, Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), Patriot Bookshelf, History
ISBN: 9780307269621
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2010-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

ETIQUETTE AND EMULATION

“We are most delightfully situated,” Abigail explained to her sister. “The prospect around us is Beautiful in the highest degree, it is a mixture of sublime & Beautiful.” She was describing the new Adams residence at Richmond Hill, a thirty-acre estate overlooking the Hudson, located about a mile north of the city in what is now the west side of Greenwich Village. While it was not quite up to the magisterial standards of their mansion at Auteuil, it was the most elegant American home that John and Abigail had ever occupied. Soon after Abigail’s arrival in June 1789, it immediately became social headquarters for the second-ranking official in the new American government and his famously impressive wife. “Our House has been a Levee ever since I arrived,” Abigail observed. “Had visits from 25 ladies, all [the wives of] senators and all foreign ministers.”10

No couple in the country was more experienced at managing the social obligations of political office than Abigail and John. Their diplomatic duties in Paris and London had provided an unmatched education in courtly etiquette at the highest levels of refinement. John recognized that Abigail was his greatest asset on the all-important social front, and he expressed his impatience when she delayed her departure from Braintree to make arrangements for their farm. “You must sell Horses, Oxen, Sheep, Cowes, anything at any Rate rather than not come on—if no one will take the Place, leave it to the Birds of the air and Beasts of the Field.” He needed her by his side.11

Since a nation-size republic was a novelty—no such creature had ever existed before—and since the courtly etiquette of European monarchies seemed to defy the very core of republican values, no one was quite sure what the social side of a republican government was supposed to look like. One solution was a weekly open house called the levee, where the president and vice president, along with their respective wives, greeted elected officials, foreign dignitaries, and distinguished guests in a format that attempted to strike the proper middle note between courtly formality and republican simplicity.

Abigail described the scene, which was thoroughly choreographed. She always stood to the right of Martha Washington, who received curtsies from the women guests and bows from the gentlemen: “The president then comes up and speaks to the lady, which he does with a grace, dignity, and ease that leaves Royal George far behind him.” The guests were passed on to Abigail and John with the requisite curtsies and bows; then the assembled throng made small talk for about fifteen minutes while consuming small portions of ice cream and lemonade—substantive conversations about matters of policy were strictly forbidden—then more curtsies and bows when Washington exited the room. It was a somewhat awkward contradiction in terms, a republican court, and the major venue in which Abigail and John were on display as ranking members of—another contradiction—republican royalty.12

Abigail was the point person for the Adams family at the levees as well as the weekly dinners she hosted at Richmond Hill.

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