2021年7月
Louisa Catherine 亚当斯 describes the Fourth of July address by her husband, Secretary of State John Quincy 亚当斯, in a letter to 他们的儿子, 约翰·亚当斯, dated Washington, 5 July 1821. Louisa Catherine addresses her letter to “约翰·亚当斯, Jr.", then a college student at Harvard, to distinguish him from his illustrious grandfather, the former president. She writes:
Your father yesterday performed his part to admiration and their [原文如此] was as much general satisfaction expressed as could possibly be expected in a place where so many great interests and powerful passions are ever at work.
而 John Quincy 亚当斯’s speech has become famous —championing political rights as the source of good government but also as an admonition against foreign interventions even for humanitarian purposes—Louisa Catherine 亚当斯’s comments are almost entirely given over to her husband’s performance. She notes the surprise of many in the audience “who had taken it for granted that the apparent coldness of his character would necessarily make his oratory flat and insipid.” 而 President Monroe was only at the beginning of his second term, prospective candidates already were maneuvering for positions in the 1824 presidential race, 和夫人. 亚当斯 was about to become, in effect, her husband’s “campaign manager."
The extraordinary life of Louisa Catherine 亚当斯 has often been overshadowed by her more famous mother-in law, Abigail 亚当斯, but Louisa Catherine’s influence on the public career of her husband, 虽然 very different, was as important as Abigail’s on the career of 约翰·亚当斯.
Born in 1775 in London, the daughter of Maryland merchant Joshua Johnson and Catherine Nuth Johnson, a young Englishwoman whose life and family background remain obscure, Louisa Catherine grew up in England and France. In 1795 she met John Quincy 亚当斯, a young American diplomat who was visiting London, and their complicated courtship—almost everything between them over more than fifty years would be “complicated”—led to their marriage in 1797.
直到1821年, their married life had been divided between overseas diplomatic postings, including five years in St. 彼得堡, and time spent at “home” (虽然 Louisa Catherine came to America for the first time in 1801) in Quincy and Washington. In the years between his foreign assignments, John Quincy served in the U.S. Senate and taught rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University. By 1821, they had three sons old enough to be away at Harvard, 虽然 Louisa Catherine had endured many additional unsuccessful pregnancies, and they had lost an infant daughter while they lived in Russia.
As secretary of state, John Quincy 亚当斯 was seen to be “next in line” for the presidency, 虽然, as Louisa Catherine noted, his reputation for a cold, austere manner made him an unlikely candidate. Earlier in 1821, she had written that as a leading figure in Washington society, “The eye of the public is already upon me.” Her ambition was to bring that “eye” to bear upon her husband and to “manage” his path to a presidential nomination.
In 1821, John Quincy 亚当斯 had been asked to give the annual Fourth of July address in the United States Capitol. A former Harvard professor of rhetoric, 亚当斯 wore his academic gown to indicate that he was speaking as a private citizen. 而 he celebrated the overthrow of all governments based upon conquest, he went on to argue strongly for nonintervention in foreign conflicts: “She [America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator of only her own.”
During the course of his speech, 亚当斯 paused to read the Declaration, using as his text the official “engrossed” copy on parchment that the Continental Congress had authorized on 19 July 1776, the copy now on display at the National 存档s.
The recipient of Louisa Catherine 亚当斯’s letter, her middle (and favorite?) son, 约翰·亚当斯, had been born on 4 July 1803, so as she notes:
It was the anniversary of your eighteenth birthday and the mingled feelings of publick and private interest thus excited will stamp its memory with more than its wonted respect. You will I proudly hope my son live to see it celebrated many many a year and in your turn assist in adding 它s festivity and joy.
It was not to be. John was dismissed from college for riotous behavior in 1823. He served as presidential secretary during his father’s term in office, during which time he was the victim of a notorious assault in the Rotunda of the Capitol. He struggled with alcoholism, 疾病, and business failures, and died in 1834, leaving John Quincy and Louisa Catherine 亚当斯, who already had lost their eldest son, 乔治, overwhelmed by grief, but also responsible for John’s young widow and her children.
Louisa Catherine 亚当斯 mourned John’s death in memorial poetry. She lived on to bury her husband in 1848 and to create a memorable impression on a grandson, the historian Henry 亚当斯. When she died in Washington in 1852, members of both houses of Congress adjourned their sessions to attend her funeral.
亚当斯, John Quincy. An Address Delivered at the Request of a Committee of the Citizens of Washington; on the Occasion of Reading the Declaration of Independence, on the Fourth of July, 1821. Washington: Printed by Davis and Force, 1821.
John Quincy 亚当斯 circulated copies of his Address within a few days of delivering it. It was widely reprinted in newspapers and in other pamphlet editions.
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿. 演说. 1821年7月4日. 16 pp.
Corrected manuscript draft of the Fourth of July address by John Quincy 亚当斯. There are substantial differences between the manuscript and the speech as published, not least the famous line in the peroration: “But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” which originally read, “But she has no political Quixoticsim in her composition.”
In the 亚当斯 Papers microfilm, “John Quincy 亚当斯—Lectures and 演说s,” reel 452.
亚当斯, Louisa Catherine. Diary and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine 亚当斯. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2013. Ed. 朱迪思·S. Graham, et al. 2波动率.
There is a break in Louisa Catherine 亚当斯’s diary between 28 March and 19 July 1821, but her published writings contain many references to her son John, their close emotional bond, and the memorial poetry she wrote after his death in 1834.
Allgor, Catherine. Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000.
而 Parlor Politics describes Washington women as political actors throughout the early national period, 第四章, “Louisa Catherine 亚当斯 Campaigns for the Presidency,” provides context for her description of her husband’s Fourth of July oration.
Bemis, Samuel Flagg. John Quincy 亚当斯 and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy. New York: Alfred A. 克诺夫出版社,1965年.
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿. “A Scuffle in the Rotunda: A Footnote to the Presidency of John Quincy 亚当斯 and the History of Dueling,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society,卷. 71 (October 1953-May 1957), pp. 156-166.
Heffron, Margery M. Louisa Catherine: The Other Mrs. 亚当斯. Ed. by David Michelmore. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014.
Thomas, Louisa. Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. 亚当斯. New York: Penguin, 2016.
Thomas explores and documents the close relationship of Louisa Catherine 亚当斯 with her son John and the wrenching circumstances of his death.
Traub, James. John Quincy 亚当斯: Militant Spirit. New York: Ba原文如此 Books, 2016.
Traub describes John Quincy 亚当斯’s Fourth of July address as the “most famous words” he ever spoke. He describes the important role Louisa Catherine 亚当斯 played in her husband’s political career.
Whitaker, Arthur P. The United States and the Independence of Latin America, 1800-1830. New York: Norton, 1964. First published by the Johns Hopkins Press in 1941.
The author devotes a chapter (Chapter 12: “The Reply to Lexington and Edinburgh,” pp. 344-369) to John Quincy 亚当斯’s 1821 Fourth of July address and provides references to contemporary printings of the address, 亚当斯’s correspondence following its publication, and the widespread public reaction, both positive and negative, 它.
Family of John Quincy 亚当斯 [MHS og体育官网 Online]
This silhouette was created after John Quincy 亚当斯 left the presidency in 1829, about eight years after the speech, and illustrates the key figures in this story in the form of silhouettes of John Quincy 亚当斯, Louisa Catherine 亚当斯, 他们的儿子, 约翰·亚当斯 (1803-1834) and his wife and daughter, along with a family friend and an 亚当斯 niece.
