First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role by Jeanne E. Abrams (review)

America's founding fathers have long been the focus of biographers, but over the past few decades, scholars have used the insights of women's history to examine the lives of the founders' wives. Jeanne E. Abrams's First Ladies of the Republic draws together recent historiography on women and politics, biographies, and published correspondence to create the first monograph to address America's earliest first ladies collectively. Abrams argues that Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Dolley Madison all contributed to the development of the role of first lady, each building on her predecessor. Telling their stories together allows Abrams to show clearly how the women influenced one another and identify each woman's unique contributions. It is clear that all three women had significant political influence, but Abrams notes that they all prioritized their domestic roles. This is not contradictory; rather, Abrams contends that we need to understand the "key players" of the era "as a family unit rather than as individuals" (7).

The book proceeds chronologically, with chapters focused on the three women in order. With the longest career and the largest corpus of surviving correspondence, Abigail Adams appropriately has two chapters devoted to her while Martha and Dolley each have one. Abrams briefly addresses each woman's upbringing and education, marriage, family tragedies and difficulties, and political careers. Her focus is squarely on the women's political influence, which is helpful in keeping the book from becoming overly long. However, it means that she glosses over some of the dynamics of the family that she argues are so intertwined with politics.

Abrams's chapter on Martha Washington argues more forcefully than many previous scholars have for Martha's political role. Martha's support for George and involvement in the American Revolution, Abrams argues, trained her for her political role as first lady. She successfully established social spaces for politicians and their spouses in New York and later Philadelphia. Her drawing rooms became "the first political salon in the United States" (73) and it was Martha—not Abigail or Dolley—who was first referred to as "Presidentess" (93). After George's retirement, Martha remained politically engaged and, after his death, was more openly partisan than ever before. Throughout this chapter, Abrams also emphasizes Martha's friendship with Abigail Adams as both an emotional bond and a political apprenticeship.

Indeed, the first of Abrams's two chapters on Abigail Adams is subtitled "The Long Apprenticeship to the White House." Abrams notes that Abigail was "involved in public life from almost the beginning of her marriage" (103) and thus had a decades-long "apprenticeship" before becoming first lady. She held public roles during the American Revolution, serving on a committee to question suspected loyalist women and as a vote counter in the 1780 Massachusetts election. She was an astute political observer and sharply reflected on women's rights, European politics, and the quickly unraveling events of the new republic. As wife of the vice president, she took on a full social schedule and built alliances with the capital's politicians and their wives.

As first lady, Abigail reached the apex of her public profile and political influence. Her version of the so-called republican court was "more frugal and somewhat more austere" than Martha's (165). Many recognized Abigail as a close advisor to John; indeed, some newspapers criticized her for it. She was loyal and supportive of John's decisions, even, Abrams notes perceptively, when he changed course. Abigail was also recognized for her partisan political influence, exercised both in writing and through social interactions. As the party split widened, Abigail took sides, causing Albert Gallatin to criticize her for being "Mrs. President not of the United States … but of a faction" (182). Like her husband and son, however, Abigail...