A Teacher's Guide to Ladies of Liberty by Cokie Roberts Amy Jurskis

Author:Cokie Roberts, Amy Jurskis [Cokie Roberts, Amy Jurskis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, General, Social Science, Women's Studies, Feminism & Feminist Theory
ISBN: 9780062374301
Google: X8abAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2014-07-08T22:34:20+00:00

Immortal patriots rise once more

Defend your rights—defend your shore

Abigail too received her share of attention on the streets of Philadelphia; only the Republican newspaper run by Richard Bache continued to criticize Adams, “Wherever I passed, I received a marked notice of bows. . .in short we are now wonderfully popular except with Bache & Co. who in his paper calls the president old, querulous, bald, blind, crippled, toothless Adams.” Even that outlandish ridicule couldn’t suppress Abigail’s good humor. She was more than ready for her husband to request a declaration of war. Instead, Adams announced a day of fasting, putting religion on his side. He was following in the footsteps of Washington, whose Thanksgiving proclamations had caused one clergyman to voice a complaint echoed so many times in the centuries since, “I feel ministers have stepped out of line and preached politics instead of the Gospel.” It was Thomas Jefferson’s turn to sulk in his tent, telling his daughter Martha, “Politics and party hatreds destroy the happiness of every being here.”

Unaware of the reaction to the XYZ affair at home, John Marshall and Charles Pinckney demanded diplomatic passports for their departure from Paris. Elbridge Gerry, at the invitation of Talleyrand, decided to stay behind. “He has been false to his colleagues and wanting to his country,” Mary Pinckney judged Gerry. “If he is not lost to all sense of feeling, his duplicity must have planted a thorn in his breast.” Gerry had been secretly negotiating with Talleyrand, who thought the pro-French American could convince the U.S. government to come up with his bribe. When she heard the news, Abigail Adams was dismayed to think that her old friend Gerry could turn on her husband, “You may easily suppose how distressed the president is at this conduct, and the more so because he thought Gerry would certainly not go wrong, and he acted his own judgment, against his counselors.”

Since the sentiment in the U.S. had turned against France unbeknownst to him, Gerry thought Marshall and Pinckney would be vilified when they returned home. Instead, “an immense concourse of citizens” of Philadelphia greeted John Marshall as a conquering hero when he arrived in June. Here was the man who had refused to allow his country to be humiliated. Marshall told the president that Gerry’s decision to stay behind wasn’t an act of treachery—that he had accepted Talleyrand’s invitation because he thought war was certain if he left. Peace was still possible but preparations for war were going forward. Congress had not yet adjourned. “I believe they will declare war against the French first,” Abigail observed hopefully. “France can pour in her armies upon us,” she warned, and spread “her depravity of manners, her Atheism in every part of the United States.” It was unfathomable to her that the lawmakers did not call the country to arms: “Congress would not proceed to a declaration of war, they must be answerable for the consequences.” The First Lady’s views became so well known that a Republican politician referred to her as “Mrs.

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