Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams couldn’t help herself from writing in letters and saying in public exactly what she thought. When she looked directly at Alexander Hamilton while speaking to him, for example, she declared that she had just" looked into the eyes of the devil himself."
Highly conscious of her position as the president's wife, Abigail Adams saw her role largely as a hostess for the public and partisan symbol of the Federalist Party. Abigail Adams made no attempt to hide her contempt for the Anti-Federalists loyal to Jefferson who looked for any chance to publicly attack the Federalist followers of Adams. Almost immediately, the President’s Lady became a popular target of attack. The sarcastic Anti-Federalist Albert Gallatin widely spread the story about a friend who “ heard her majesty as she was asking the names of different members of Congress and then pointed out which were ‘our people. ’” Abigail Adams gave as good as she got, sarcastically calling him "the sly, the artful, the insidious Gallatin..." Gallatin shot back, dubbing her “Mrs. President, not of the United States but a faction.” However sharp, the nickname was accurate. It would stick with Abigail Adams for the rest of history.
Abigail Adams supported the sentiment behind her husband's Alien and Sedition Acts as a legal means of imprisoning those who criticized the President in public print. Fearful of French revolutionary influence on the fledgling United States, she was unsuccessful in her urging the President to declare war with France. She remained an adamant advocate of equal public education for women and emancipation of African-American slaves.
Her entertainments were confined to a relatively small home in Philadelphia, turned into a hotel after the capital was moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. Although she did host a dance for her son and his friends, she received visitors formally, seated like a royal figure as she had witnessed at Buckingham Palace. She also attempted to influence fashion, believing that the more revealing Napoleonic-style clothing then popular were too indecorous. Since presidential families were responsible for covering the costs of their entertainments and the Adamses were enduring financial difficulties at the time of his presidency, Abigail Adams's receptions were somewhat spartan.
The first First Lady to live in the White House, she resided there for four months, arriving in November 1800. During that time she famously hung her family's laundry in the unfinished East Room to dry.
