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Home › Politics

Conversation | 05/14/2008 6:02 pm

Part Two Cokie Roberts: Who Was John Adams's Political Compass? His Wife Abigail, Of Course

With Lesley Stahl

Editor’s Note: ABC News Correspondent Cokie Roberts discusses her bestselling new book Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation.

LESLEY: Let’s talk about your timely book about the women close to our founding fathers, called the Ladies of Liberty. And, let’s jump right into specifics, because the first chapter is on Abigail Adams, when John was already president. And you make this very original and brilliant observation about why John Adams seemed to have lost his political compass once he got in the White House.

Click here to read Part One Cokie Roberts: Eliza Hamilton, the Silda Spitzer and Pearls Behind Swine of Her Day.

Click here to read Part Three: ‘The Administration of Mr. Madison Was Saved by Dolly Madison.’

Click here to read Part Four: First Ladies Throughout History Have Just ‘Done What Women Do; Whatever’s Needed, Whenever That May Be.’

COKIE: Well, as you well know, Lesley, having covered many White Houses, what often happens inside the White House is that people develop a bunker mentality. They’re in there working long hours, feeling like they’re doing the right thing for the country and they don’t understand why the rest of the world doesn’t just allow them to do the good that they believe that they are doing. And they come to be resentful of the opposition and to hate the press. And that was certainly true in the Adams administration. The opposition was led by his own vice president, Thomas Jefferson. And the press was vicious. And Abigail Adams was so undone by that, that she became an ardent supporter of the Alien and Sedition Acts. And John Adams was so used to listening to her political advice — and normally her political astuteness was high — but in this case she really just had it wrong. And it went a long way toward helping defeat him for president.

LESLEY: Yeah. Another historian once told me that David McCullough never really understood why John Adams supported the Alien and Sedition Acts. He never really got it. And you have figured it out: she was his political compass.

COKIE: That’s right.

LESLEY: And when she got swept up …

COKIE: That’s exactly right. In the years when he was in the Continental Congress and then, especially, when he was abroad for all those years, she was the person who was giving him political intelligence, giving him political advice. And so he was very used to her being the person to go to for guidance. She got it …

LESLEY: She got it right.

COKIE: For years and years and years she got it right. And then she got it wrong.

LESLEY: And, I think, she got it wrong because — and this is probably true of all first ladies right from Martha all the way up to Laura — the spouse takes these attacks on their husbands even more to heart than the politician president …

COKIE: Absolutely. I think that’s absolutely true. As you know, I am a political child, with both of my parents having been in Congress. And I think it is much harder on the family than it is on the politician.

LESLEY: Right. So Abigail, with her wonderful instincts, got thrown off by the attacks on her husband.

COKIE: Right. Because she really loved him. And she also thought that he was doing the right thing for the country and how could anybody question that.

LESLEY: Now she was the only one who loved him, though. We should point that out.

COKIE: What?

LESLEY: She was the only one who did love him.

COKIE: Oh, you mean in terms of romance or in terms of …

LESLEY: I mean in terms of everything. He was a tough customer.

Read more about: Books, Cokie Roberts, History, Politics, U.S.

4 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Corinne M.
This conversation doesn’t really address why Abigail Adams was able to persuade John to sign the Alien & Sedition Acts. It was more than being his “political compass.” You have to understand the context in which those acts were passed. At the time America was on the brink of war with France, the so-called Quasi-War. There was a lot of partisanship and Adams, a Federalist, didn’t support his party’s desire for a full war and agreed with the Republicans, who were led by Adams’ VP, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson believed that diplomacy would end the crisis. Complicating matters was that Jefferson and Adams didn’t get along, in part because Jefferson wanted the Federalist Party to fail, which meant that Adams would fail along with it. Some Federalists were accusing Adams of siding with the French and anti-French sentiment was fierce. Adams was under a lot of pressure; the press was attacking him and Abigail was really afraid for his physical safety. Adams was afraid of riots and the really ultra-conservatives were afraid of a French Revolution happening in America. Abigail was a great woman who was full of her own contradictions. While she believed in America’s independence, she thought revolution was a threat to the social order. She didn’t understand the criticism from the press. She strongly advocated the Alien and Sedition Act because it addressed what she considered the two most serious threats to the security of the United States: that of foreigners and criticism of the government by the press. Unlike this unnamed someone who told Lesley that McCullough got it wrong, I think McCullough got it exactly right. I would also refer people to Lynne Withey’s biography of Abigail Adams and to the Library of Congress for more information (http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Alien.html).
By Corinne M. on 05/14/2008 8:13 am
Bella Mia
Abigail is nothing less than a founding mother of our country.
By Bella Mia on 05/14/2008 8:13 am
mary lou s
bella, you are so right!
By mary lou s on 05/17/2008 10:00 pm
Chrome Toe
This conversation speaks to something of the Hillary campaign and criticism of her. The company my husband and I own is an almost exclusively male dominated business. It’s construction. And for the most part women are barely on the horizon in terms of the power positions. they are growing in the trades. but as far as owning and running and decision making… they are barely there. At least in the fore front. I hear the men around me scoffing all the time that Hillary claims her time in the white house gives her any experience. they say things like “so could Brett Farves wife go out and be a quarterback” (yes they think thats a valid comparison). However… being the wife of the guy in power myself. I can attribute to both how much influence I have on his decisions and how much I know and have learned from being by his side during this past seven years. And Hillary basically “worked for the company” when her husband was in the whitehouse. she wasn’t just by his side. she was an active participant in that organization and had been for many years. But men don’t like to readily acknowledge the reality of the partnership with their wives in power positions. But it is a partnership. And the influence is often immense. And Hillary’s stint as the first lady does provide “experience” that even Obama and McCain cannot match.
By Chrome Toe on 05/24/2008 8:47 am