abigail rather challenged. adams said to him, you know men have not a good track record with regard to their exercise of power over or for women or husbands actually put it over wives habit of tyranny. so what she to paraphrase but she was ready to give him and his colleagues another chance but that you know if it did not deliver as promised she expected that women would to, in her words, foment a rebellion for a voice and representation. and that's exactly what happened and she was making a really important point in that letter that power is reserved only to some arbitrary power control over others, power corrupts as we know. you cannot deliver on the promise of protecting natural rights for all by reserving power only to the few. you need voice and representation for all in order to make a good on the commitment of principle. that is basically the first official error and puzzle that i believe we've been wrestling through as a country for the sub6 250 years. so that's the shape of the essay i plan to offer you all

lindsey mentioned abigail adams when george washington died. i mean, one of the smartest things she said and she said a lot of smart things is that simple. should be his his eulogy. and part of that simple truth that he had flaws. he made mistakes. but he also left this incredible legacy and so so, you know, a note of optimism. i'm encouraged by what we saw in the poll. i think just i want to add one amendment or additions not amendment additions, which right which that actually celebrating flawed people is so much more useful and and allows us to actually appreciate their contributions more because if their heroic person than doing heroic things is to be expected if they are flawed humans and they do extraordinary things, then that is much more impressive to me and is a much more useful thing. understand about how that was possible than some sort of worship you. yeah. and the other interesting poll result had to do with whether the founding fathers should inform our decisions today. and once again, there was unanimity by republican and democra

celebrated founding mothers including martha washington, the wife of president george washington and abigail adams. the wife of president john adams, were followed by lesser known wives, daughters and daughters in law of presidents of the antebellum era. as women became increasingly confined to the private sphere, so too were first ladies of the antebellum era generally less visible publicly? although julia tyler was an exception. next slide, please. jolene madison, the wife of president james madison, served as first lady from 1809 to 1817 before julia tyler was even born as white house hostess. she provided a space where the official masculine sphere of politics and the unofficial feminine sphere of hostessing interacted, bringing people of different, differing political persuasions together. even northerners and southerners. with the goal of national unity, a widow, dolley, returned to washington city in 1837 and mentored several presidential wives and other white house hostesses, including julia tyler. at the age of 76, dolley madison took 24 year old julia tyler. the new bride, and the new fi

we axley saw with the next first, abigail adams was sometimes referred to as many president tests. -- presidentess. it would be misses washington, the president's lady. people knew how they were related. >> what did that due to the family and how involved with the now teenage grandchildren and the politics surrounding them? >> i think it is surprising because we tend to think george washington was such a popular president but if you look at his second term, it got very ugly. there was a pamphlet published that imagined the attaining -- guillotining him like the french president. he can be above those tensions. just thinking about the fact that his office is in the house, it had to have permeated the atmosphere of the house. it had to have been stressful for them. nelly becomes very politicized. she is publishing for the federalist. washington considered was sum above party but he certainly identified more with the federalists. he was described as being very anti-french. he does not seem to have been part of these public events very much. toward the end of the second term, he has found

adams. the force that he was the force that abigail was he was the driver of american independence. my reaction to them was, oh my god, david, that was my civic spark. when i was 16 years old, my american government teacher, jim powers in my american history, teacher john ellis, and i still keep in touch with jim powers, took our classes talked about the merger civics in history. the hodge kentucky. i grew up in cincinnati, birthplace of abraham lincoln, and then down to knob creek, just down the road. and then we didn't go to pigeon creek farm in indiana or springfield. but we learned about them and. i said, you know, we leaedthat 6 year old kid. he had eight massive decisions payments and losing office or nominations so. he lost his sweetheart. he had a depressive breakdown that caused to go to bed for six months. and yet became one of our greatest presidents. and it it david was right it humor nice to the civic and historic story a way and it inspired then the other thing we learned we read gettysburg address and the two inaugural addresses on the on the way back if you can imagi