Louisa Adams
Louisa Catherine Adams (née Johnson; February 12, 1775 – May 15, 1852) was the first lady of the United States from 1825 to 1829 during the presidency of John Quincy Adams.
Louisa Adams
Emily Donelson (acting)
May 15, 1852 (aged 77)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Joshua Johnson (father)
Catherine Nuth (mother)
She was born in England and raised in France. Her father was an influential American merchant, and she was regularly introduced to prominent Americans. After her family returned to England, she met John Quincy Adams in 1795, and the two began a tenuous courtship. They married in 1797 after being engaged for a year, beginning a marriage of disagreements and personality conflicts. She joined her husband on his diplomatic mission to Prussia, where she was popular with the Prussian court. When they returned to the United States, her husband became a senator and she gave birth to three sons. John was appointed minister to the Russian Empire in 1809, and they traveled to Russia without their two older sons, against Louisa's wishes. Though she was again popular with the court, she detested living in Russia, especially after the death of her infant daughter in 1812. She lived in Russia alone for a year while John negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, and when he asked her to join him in 1815, she made the dangerous 40-day journey across war-torn Europe.
The Adamses lived in England for two years before returning to the United States when John was appointed Secretary of State. Louisa became a prominent cabinet wife and regularly hosted important guests in her home. She worked to build connections for her husband's 1824 presidential run, allowing for his victory. She was unsatisfied in the White House, where she became reclusive and grew distant from her husband. She instead took to writing, producing plays, essays, poems, and an autobiography. She wished for retirement after her husband lost re-election, but he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. She took a more active interest in politics, supporting abolitionism and greater rights for women in society. She was widowed in 1848, and she had a stroke in 1849 that left her with limited mobility. She died on May 15, 1852, at the age of 77, and Congress adjourned for her funeral, the first time a woman was honored in this way.
She was the only foreign-born first lady of the United States until 2017, when Melania Trump became first lady. Her tenure as first lady is not as well studied as other parts of her life, due to her reclusiveness and the limited records she kept at the time. She is generally rated in the upper half of first ladies by historians.
Early life (1775-1788)[edit]
Louisa Catherine Johnson was born in London on February 12, 1775. She was the second daughter of American merchant Joshua Johnson and British woman Catherine Nuth.[1]: 43 The Johnsons were an influential family in American politics, with Louisa's paternal uncle Thomas Johnson being one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.[2]: 42 Little is known of her mother's life prior to her marriage.[3]: 160 [4]: 92 Louisa's parents may have only married ten years after her birth, potentially making Louisa the only first lady of the United States to be born out of wedlock.[5]: 81 She lived a comfortable life as a child in which all of her needs were seen to.[2]: 43 [6]: 54
Louisa's father supported American independence, and the Johnsons left England in 1778 in response to the American Revolutionary War.[7]: 18 They moved to Nantes, France, where they lived for the next five years. While in France, Louisa attended a Catholic boarding school. She performed well in school, becoming proficient in music and literature, and she learned to speak French fluently.[1]: 43 [5]: 81 She also practiced Catholicism.[8] Such was her immersion in French that she was later forced to relearn English.[6]: 54 She was also versed in Greek and Latin.[2]: 43 The Johnsons lived in luxury, even when they did not have the financial means to do so.[3]: 160 Their home in France was a mansion that came to be known as "The Temple of Taste".[4]: 93
The Johnsons returned to England and settled in Tower Hill, while Louisa was placed in a London boarding school.[5]: 81 She was teased for her French mannerisms, and the Catholicism that she had learned in France caused conflict with her Anglican religious education in England.[9]: 18 Her self-esteem suffered, and she kept a distance from her peers.[4]: 93 She was sent to be educated by John Hewlett, an Anglican minister and a family friend of the Johnsons. Hewlett became a strong influence on her upbringing, encouraging her intellectualism.[9]: 19 The Johnsons suffered financially in 1788, and she was pulled out of school to be educated by a governess.[5]: 81
Diplomat's wife (1797-1825)[edit]
Prussia[edit]
John was appointed American minister to Prussia in 1797, and the couple moved to Berlin.[6]: 55 Louisa experienced several miscarriages over the following years, causing poor health that further strained her relationship with her husband. She eventually gave birth to their first child, George Washington Adams, in 1801.[5]: 83–84 She took a prominent role in diplomatic proceedings when she was not ill from pregnancy, and she was popular among the Prussian aristocracy, personally befriending the king and queen.[3]: 170 [5]: 83 John was recalled from Berlin by his father after Thomas Jefferson was elected president, and the family left Prussia for the United States.[5]: 84
United States[edit]
Adams reunited with her family after arriving at the United States in 1801 while her husband went to his own family home in Quincy, Massachusetts.[5]: 84 [6]: 56 The journey from Washington to Quincy was interrupted by an uncomfortable dinner with the Jefferson family at the White House and a visit to Martha Washington at Mount Vernon, but it was otherwise long and punishing.[3]: 174 Reluctantly, she arrived in Quincy to meet her parents-in-law. While she quickly took to her father-in-law, her mother-in-law remained skeptical of her suitability as a wife.[5]: 84 [6]: 56
Adams's father Joshua died in 1802, severely affecting her and leaving the family with no financial support. When her husband was elected to the United States Senate in 1803, she joined him in alternating between Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., much preferring the latter. Unable to afford a home of their own, the family stayed with John's relatives in Massachusetts and with Louisa's relatives in Washington. She gave birth to John Adams II in 1803.[2]: 44 [5]: 85 She was often left behind while her husband traveled on his own, which she deeply resented. On one such occasion, she suffered a miscarriage.[5]: 85 Their third son, Charles Francis Adams, was born in 1807.[1]: 45 Her husband resigned from the Senate in 1808, having come in disagreement with the Federalist Party over matters of policy.[3]: 182 This disagreement was seen as a betrayal, and the family was thereby excluded from Boston social life.[3]: 183 [9]: 162
Russia[edit]
When John accepted the position as American minister to Russia in 1809, he did not consult Louisa. He determined that she would accompany him and that their two older sons would stay behind in the United States.[1]: 45 She came to regret these arrangements, feeling that she had failed her sons by leaving them.[7]: 25 She blamed and resented her husband for this, causing a rift in their marriage.[1]: 45 [3]: 183 The 80 day journey to Russia proved unpleasant, and they were constantly wary of French ships that were at war with Russia.[9]: 168 Her opinion did not change after arriving in Saint Petersburg, which she found disagreeable, but her husband ignored her desires to return to the United States.[3]: 184
Just as she did in Berlin, Louisa impressed the Russian court and received special attention from the monarch.[3]: 185 [7]: 27–28 Unable to afford the elaborate outfits expected of Russian courtiers, she came up with excuses to avoid frequent appearances, first feigning illness and then feigning mourning so that her less formal clothes could be excused.[9]: 173 Despite her success, Louisa was unhappy during her time in Russia, as she was separated from her family, regularly ill, and forced to contend with loss.[1]: 45–46 [6]: 57 After suffering another three miscarriages,[7]: 29 Louisa gave birth in 1811 to her first daughter, and the first American born in Russia, Louisa Catherine Adams II.[5]: 86 A year later, the infant died of dysentery, causing Louisa further grief and increasing her resentment against her husband.[5]: 87
When John was called to Ghent in 1814 to negotiate a peace agreement for the War of 1812, Louisa was left in Saint Petersburg, where she would remain for the next year.[5]: 87 John learned to afford her a greater level of trust and responsibility while living in Russia, and in December 1814, he tasked her with selling their property in Russia and traveling across Europe to meet him in Paris.[1]: 46 She left in February 1815, and for the next 40 days she made the dangerous journey across Europe, which had been ravaged by the Napoleonic Wars, in the cold winter. She was frequently in danger of bandits, and later of French soldiers hostile to her Russian carriage.[7]: 30–31 John and his parents gave Louisa a greater deal of respect after she completed the journey.[5]: 88
Later life (1829-1852)[edit]
After leaving the White House in 1829, Louisa and John moved to a home at Meridian Hill. Though the White House was still visible from her doorstep, she felt free from the place.[9]: 379 Her reprieve was short-lived, as shortly after she left the White House, her son George fell from a steamboat to his death. He had suffered from extensive personal and financial problems, and it was never conclusively determined whether his death was an accident or a suicide.[1]: 49 [5]: 92 For the first few months after her son's death, Louisa's focus was on consoling her husband.[3]: 221 Her grief overpowered her that August, when a trip to Quincy threatened to take her on the very boat from which George had died. She fell severely ill, and the trip was canceled.[9]: 388–389
In May 1830, Louisa and John moved to the home on the Adams estate in Quincy. Here her condition improved, as she found a home and the mental and physical toll of her depression subsided.[9]: 390 She was upset by John's return to public life when he ran for Congress that year, at first refusing to return to Washington and only giving in after it became apparent that the home in Quincy was not habitable in the winter.[9]: 393–395 She confessed her belief that having her husband in Congress would be a benefit to the country that outweighed her own suffering.[3]: 222 After John took office, Louisa took an active role in his political career.[6]: 59 Louisa's son John Adams II died of illness in 1834 with financial problems of his own. She blamed her husband in part for the failures and deaths of their two older sons, believing that they could have been given better lives had they not been separated from their parents in their childhood. In her grief, Louisa began writing a new autobiography, The Adventures of a Nobody.[5]: 92 Two years later, in improved spirits, she wrote another autobiography covering her journey from Russia to France in 1815, hoping that it would inspire other women.[9]: 410
Though she shared society's dismissive attitudes toward black people,[6]: 64 [9]: 423 she became an abolitionist,[11]: 143 and she supported her husband in his anti-slavery work in Congress.[5]: 93 Her position on the matter was even stronger than her husband's, who had aligned with the abolitionists primarily because of his principled opposition to the gag rule against discussing slavery in Congress.[9]: 419–421 Louisa contributed to a fund to free slaves, and she eventually purchased a slave for the purpose of freeing her.[6]: 64 Involvement in the abolitionist movement also opened her to feminism.[6]: 59 Though she did not accept feminism in its entirety, she began a correspondence with feminist Sarah Moore Grimké and engaged in Biblical studies to challenge the prevailing view that the Bible ordained the subservience of women.[5]: 93 [9]: 430 She was baptized in the Episcopal Church in 1837.[8]
Louisa was widowed on February 23, 1848, two days after her husband lost consciousness due to a fatal stroke in the United States Capitol. He was 80 years old.[1]: 50 She had arrived in Washington to visit him on his deathbed, but as a woman, she was asked to leave as his health failed.[9]: 452 She retained her schedule of living in Washington during the winters and Quincy during the summers until a stroke left her infirm in 1849. She was then left in the care of her daughter-in-law Mary. She died on May 15, 1852 at the age of 77.[1]: 51 She was the first woman to be honored by an adjournment of Congress for her funeral.[5]: 95 She was buried in the Congressional Cemetery, but she was moved to the United First Parish Church shortly after on the initiative of her son.[1]: 51