Louisa (49 page)

1

They arrived at Gravesend
:
DJQA, October 18, 19, 21, 1797; JQA to JA, December 10, 1797, AFP.

She was sick
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:53; JQA to AA, December 28, 1797, JQA to JA, December 10, 1797, AFP.

From Hamburg they traveled
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:54; “Adventures,” DLCA 1:67, 71.

A lieutenant stopped
:
DJQA, November 7, 1797.

The tired travelers
:
DJQA, July 25, 1781.

What Louisa thought
:
Alexandra Richie,
Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin
(New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1998), 75; “Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:55.

It was a good place
:
DJQA, November 12, 1797; “Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:55.

At least her husband
:
DJQA, November 12–December 1, 1797; JQA to AA, February 5, 1798, AFP.

But as he returned,
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:56.

She was not locked
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:67.

Finally, Miss Dorville,
:
Ibid., 71; O'Brien,
Mrs. Adams in Winter,
145–46;
The Correspondence of Priscilla, Countess of Westmorland
, ed. Lady Rose Weigall (New York, 1909), 104; Princess Louise Radziwill,
Forty-five Years of My Life (1770 to 1815),
trans. A. R. Allinson (New York: McBride, Nast & Co., 1912), 431.

“a face like a horse”
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:57.

So arrangements were
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:57–59; O'Brien,
Mrs. Adams in Winter,
147–49.

The queen, though
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:57; Christopher Clark,
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 319–21.

It was not out
:
Michael O'Brien makes this point well in
Mrs. Adams in Winter,
121.

After her presentation
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:59; “Adventures,” DLCA 1:74.

2

John Quincy was determined
:
Writings of John Quincy Adams
, 1:158.

Here is where
:
Bemis,
John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy,
78.

The American Revolution
:
DJQA, February 23, 1795; Bernard Bailyn,
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1992), 135–36; Catherine Allgor,
Parlor Politics:
In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government
(Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000), 21–22.

John Quincy did not
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:108, 74.

It was not easy
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:78–82, 91–92; AA to Mary Smith Cranch, June 13, 1798, quoting LCA to Catherine Johnson (here after CJ), AFP; O'Brien,
Mrs. Adams in Winter,
148–50.

Louisa also spent countless hours
:
AA to Mary Smith Cranch, June 13, 1798, quoting LCA to CJ, AFP; “Adventures of a Nobody,” DLCA 1:79, 95; “Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:60.

Her husband was interested
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:82, 146, 86, 111–12, 150, 32. For Kant, see, for instance, JQA to AA, June 11, 1798, and JQA to JA, January 3, 1798, AFP. At the time, facts—and history—were considered men's pursuits, while emotions—and novels—were feminine. For an insightful discussion, see Lepore,
Book of Ages,
237–42.

The reading was
:
LCA to TBA, October 6, 1798, AFP.

Louisa and John Quincy celebrated
:
DJQA, July 31, 26, 1798.

Still, there were
:
LCA to Nancy Hellen, July 8, 1799, LCA to AA, June 12, 1798, AFP.

When the rare letters
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:113; LCA to Nancy Hellen, September 11, 1798, AFP.

And there was
:
“Adventures of a Nobody,” DLCA 1:82, 79; TBA, January 25, 1798,
Berlin and the Prussian Court in 1798: Journal of Thomas Boylston Adams, Secretary to the United States Legation at Berlin
, ed. Victor Hugo Paltsis (New York: New York Public Library, 1915) (hereafter DTBA); “Adventures,” DLCA 1:79.

Her success at court
:
JQA to AA, March 16, 1799, AFP.

The conflict arose
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:101, 103–4, 131; DJQA, February 13, 1799.

3

At the start
:
DJQA, February 16, 1798, March 21, 1798, July 14, 1798.

The exact number
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:113; DJQA, December 30, 1800.

Her body baffled
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:149.

It wasn't only
:
DJQA, December 4, 1799.

When it came
:
DJQA, April 27, July 17, 1798, December 31, 1799, February 28, 1800.

After yet another
:
JQA to TBA, August 2, 1800, Letterbook 10, AFP. JQA's account of the trip through Silesia, written to TBA, was published in the United States in 1801 and in London in 1804. John Quincy Adams,
Letters on Silesia, Written During a Tour Through that Country, in the Years 1800, 1801
(London: J. Budd, 1804).

He was tender
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:162.

He heard the news
:
JQA to TBA, February 7, 1800, AFP; DJQA, February 5, 1801; JQA to AA, March 10, 1801, AFP.

There were signs
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:143–44.

Six years later
:
JQA to LCA, February 16, 1807, AFP.

Queen Luise was
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:140, 138; JQA to TBA, March 28, 1801, Letterbook 10, AFP.

She and John Quincy
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:144, 152.

In mid-April, Louisa
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:154–56; JQA to AA, April 14, 29, 1801, AFP; DJQA, April 29, 1801.

PART
THREE
:
MY
HEAD
AND
MY
HEART

1

The
America
floated
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:157–58. In “Record of a Life,” Louisa places the revelation of John Quincy's love for Mary Frazier earlier. (“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:61).

But the city of Philadelphia
:
McCullough,
John Adams
, 75–84; DJQA, September 11, 1801.

She was not alone
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:158; LCA to JQA, September 16, 1801, AFP.

They crossed the limits
:
AA to JQA, September 13, 1801, AFP.

Did Louisa know
:
Papenfuse,
In Pursuit of Profit,
229–30; Catherine Johnson to LCA, April 26, 1798, AFP.

When Louisa arrived
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:158.

The morning after
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:158, LCA to JQA, September 16, 22, October 2, 4, 1801, AFP.

He responded to her
:
JQA to LCA, October 8, 1801, TBA to AA, September 20, 1801, AFP.

Louisa was in no
:
DJQA, October 30, 1801.

They had only
:
DJQA, November 3, 1801; “Adventures,” DLCA 1:176; JQA to AA, November 16, 1801, AFP; “Adventures,” DLCA 1:160; DJQA, November 14, 24, 1801.

Before that day
:
JQA to AA, November 16, 1801, AFP.

He thought the group
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:160; DJQA, November 14, 24, 1801.

2

“Quincy! What shall I”
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:162–65.

The shock she felt
:
Caroline Keinath,
Adams National Historical Park
(Lawrenceburg, IN: The Creative Company, 2008), 10–30; “Adventures,” DLCA 1:164–65; Ellis,
Passionate Sage,
22–24.

No doubt Abigail
:
AA to JQA, May 20, 1796, AA to TBA, July 5, December 27, 1801, AFP.

But this, as unfair
:
McCullough,
John Adams,
468; JA to AA, October 12, 1799, AA to JQA, January 29, 1801, AFP.

So there was a chasm
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:162.

Everything seemed to go
:
Ibid., 165.

She heard the way
:
AA to Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody, June 5, 1809, Shaw Family Papens, LC.

For the most part
:
Catherine Johnson to LCA, April 26, 1798, AFP. For the attitudes and expectations of republican women in the late eighteenth century, see Gelles,
Portia
; Rosemarie Zagarri, “Morals, Manners, and the Republican Mother,”
American Quarterly
44 (1992): 192–216; Mary Beth Norton,
Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750–1800
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1980); Jan Lewis, “Republican Wife: Virtue and Seduction in the Early Republic,”
William and Mary Quarterly
44 (1978): 689–721; Linda Kerber,
Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980). For Abigail as an intelligent and canny financial manager as well as a farmeress, see Woody Holton,
Abigail Adams
(New York: Free Press, 2009).

Louisa tried, but
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:167; AA to LCA, March 8, 1802, AFP.

The atmosphere around
:
JQA to TBA, January 9, 1802, AFP; “Adventures,” DLCA 1:174, 187.

Despite their sad
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:165, 183; DJQA, January 7, 1803; “Adventures,” DLCA 1:247.

As Louisa spent more
:
DJQA, January 28, 1802; JQA to TBA, January 2, 1803, AFP.

“Of course with so much”
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:171; DJQA, November 3, 1803; Bemis,
John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy,
112–14.

When Louisa heard
:
AA to TBA, June 20–26, 1803, AFP; “Adventures,” DLCA 1:188–89.

3

They drove through
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:192–95.

Now, because they
:
Samuel Allyne Otis to JQA, October 20, 1803, AFP; Bemis,
John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy,
119.

He planned on keeping
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:196; LCA to CFA, February 10, 1837, AFP. Joshua Johnson had four slaves living in his household in 1800. (1800 U.S. Census, “Joshua Johnson,” Washington Ward 2, District of Columbia, accessed through Ancestry.com.)

So life was different
:
LCA to AA, February 11, 1804, AFP.

She went to Congress
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:215, 204–6; Catherine Allgor,
A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation
(New York: Henry Holt, 2006), 176.

She may have felt
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:204–5; Meacham,
Thomas Jefferson,
398. This was one more example of the politics being played out through the battles of politesse. Jefferson had a political motivation—forced to accept Britain's paternalistic treatment and flagrant disrespect of its former colony because the United States could not afford a war, Jefferson was using the Merrys to send a message to Britain in a way that would not provoke a full rupture. He used the social sphere to rattle his baguettes. He had abstract ideas about republican equality and he wanted to try them out. In the name of simplicity, he asserted a “pell-mell” philosophy. There would be no special treatment or deference to rank, no pomp.