Abigail Adams
Wife of John Adams, 2nd President
Abigail at 22 years of age
On this Presidents Day, as we especially remember those presidents whose lives reverberated with faith in Jesus Christ and the founding of America on those Christian truths and principles, I think of Abigail Adams and the encouragement she was to her husband through her many letters and prayers.
Oh, that all our First Ladies would follow in like manner!
On February 8, 1797, on the occasion of his election as Second President of the United States of America, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John:
You have this day to declare yourself head of a nation. "And now, O Lord, my God, thou hast made thy servant ruler over the people. Give unto him an understanding heart, that he may know how to go out and come in before this great people; that he may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this thy so great a people?" were the words of a royal sovereign; and not less applicable to him who is invested with the Chief Magistracy of a nation, though he wear not a crown, nor the robes of royalty.
My thoughts and my meditations are with you, though personally absent; and my petitions to Heaven are that "the things which make for peace may not be hidden from your eyes." My feelings are not those of pride or ostentation upon the occasion. They are solemnized by a sense of the obligations, the important trusts, and numerous duties connected with it. That you may be enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself, with justice and impartiality to your country, and with satisfaction to this great people, shall be the daily prayer of your
Abigail Adams
- Letters of Mrs. Adams, The Wife of John Adams With an Introductory Memoir by Her Grandson, Charles Francis Adams, Volume II, 1840.
