Louisa Adams

First Lady

• Born: February 12, 1775
• Birthplace: London, England
• Died: May 15, 1852
• Place of death: Washington, D.C.

President:John Quincy Adams, 1825-1829

Overview

The only First Lady born outside the United States, Louisa Adams was a refined and intelligent woman who endured a difficult marriage to the son of the country’s second president. Her skills as a social hostess helped boost John Quincy Adams’s prominence in Washington, D.C., contributing to his election to the presidency in 1824. Her strong views against slavery are thought to have influenced her husband, who became a leading voice in Congress for abolition.

Early Life

Louisa was born in London in 1775 to a British mother, Catherine Nuth Johnson, and an American father, Joshua Johnson. She was the second child in a family of nine children. Her father was a successful tobacco importer who had moved to England from Maryland. Johnson’s brother, Thomas, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. When Louisa was three, Joshua Johnson again moved to pursue new business ventures; this time the family went to France. It was there that Louisa was raised, attending a convent school and an elite boarding school.

President George Washington later appointed Louisa’s father as U.S. consul to England, and the family returned to the city of her birth, where they lived near the famous Tower of London. Louisa’s upbringing was comfortable and defined by privilege. She enjoyed an impressive formal education, excelled in writing, and learned to speak French, Latin, and Greek. This intelligent young woman was known for her love of books, theater, and music.

Louisa and John Adams’s relationship would be a troubled one, defined by ups and downs throughout its duration. Both Louisa and John had courted prior to meeting each other; John’s relationship with a woman named Mary Frazer would have ended in marriage had his parents not voiced their disapproval. John never appeared to have the deep love for Louisa that he demonstrated for earlier romantic interests. Their courtship was interrupted on more than one instance, and John remained hesitant throughout the affair, apparently concerned about financial security and his formidable mother’s displeasure with Louisa as a potential daughter-in-law.

Marriage and Family

Despite a rocky courtship, John and Louisa were married on July 26, 1797. An unlikely couple, the two shared few interests. He was impulsive, demanding, and aloof, whereas Louisa was warm, sensitive, and somewhat shy. John did not appreciate his wife’s outspokenness and independence of thought. His political career was the dominant factor in their marriage, taking them on numerous diplomatic postings in Europe. Much of their early life together was spent living outside the United States.

Soon after their marriage, Adams accepted a position in Berlin. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, however, Adams was recalled. Back in the United States, Adams pursued a legal career before being elected to the Massachusetts senate. Following his ambition, he pursued higher office. Although he was unsuccessful in his bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, he was later elected to the U.S. Senate.

Louisa’s first child, George Washington Adams, was born in 1801, followed by John II in 1803. Louisa did not enjoy living in Massachusetts, so she welcomed the opportunity to join her husband in the nation’s capital, which she found more agreeable. In Washington, D.C., Louisa lived with her sister Nancy and her recently widowed mother, whose company she enjoyed.

In 1809, President James Madison appointed Adams as his minister to Russia, and Louisa again joined her husband abroad. Her voyage to Russia was made more difficult because she traveled with her young son Charles Francis, who was only two when the family crossed the Atlantic. The Russian winters did not agree with Louisa, and the death of her daughter Louisa Catherine in 1812, only a year after her birth, scarred Louisa for life. She remembered her time in Russia as difficult and lonely, although she was a popular figure at the Saint Petersburg court.

Louisa was frail; several difficult pregnancies and the birth of five children had further weakened her. In addition to suffering from her physical weakness, she often felt lonely in her marriage, because her husband neglected her as he pursued his political career. Louisa’s unhappiness was further exacerbated by the financial problems they faced during John’s diplomatic career. The pay for ministers was often insufficient to cover the high costs of entertaining, an expected part of a diplomat’s duty.

Presidency and First Ladyship

In 1817, Adams was named secretary of state in the administration of President James Monroe, and the Adamses finally returned to the United States. For perhaps the first time in their married life, Louisa began to take a more active interest in her husband’s career, distinguishing herself through the social events she hosted in Washington. Adams believed he deserved the presidency, but neither did his personality endear him to official Washington nor did he feel he had to work to attain the office. Thanks to his wife, who hosted important and well-attended socials to build support for his candidacy, Adams emerged as a leading candidate. On one occasion, standing in for First Lady Elizabeth Monroe, Louisa presided over a grand ball on January 8, 1824, with one thousand guests in attendance to celebrate General Andrew Jackson’s victory at the Battle of New Orleans, the last battle in the War of 1812. John Quincy Adams was elected president that November.

The presidency was a challenge for both John and Louisa from the outset, when John failed to receive the majority of the popular vote, winning the electoral college in a contest plagued by rumors that he cut a deal with influential House leader Henry Clay. John later appointed Clay as his secretary of state. The Adamses’ marriage suffered alongside the difficulties of governing, and John’s already foul disposition worsened. He failed to heed his wife’s advice not to read the negative stories about him in the press, which only further angered him. By 1826 John and Louisa were taking separate vacations and barely speaking to each other. Louisa also began to distance herself from the functions of the White House, finding solace in books and enjoying playing music in her room in the building’s private residence.

The First Lady was only too happy to leave the White House, but the event was dampened by the death in April, 1829, of her firstborn son of an apparent suicide. Louisa blamed the death on John, whom she thought was too critical of the boy.

Legacy

After leaving the White House, Louisa found solace in her books and music, composed poetry, and was a prolific writer. She was the first First Lady to write her memoirs, titled Adventures of a Nobody, which gave testimony to the bouts of depression she suffered despite her obvious talents and charm. She also wrote a play, The Metropolitan Kaleidoscope, which drew on her life experiences, for it was a story of a harsh politician consumed by ambition and his suffering wife. Narrative of a Journey from St. Petersburg to Paris, 1815, which she penned in 1836, was a remembrance of her bold trip to join her husband in Paris. It would be published years after her death by her grandson Brooks Adams.

The mercurial nature of the Adamses’ marriage improved in the years after John’s presidency. Adams’s retirement was ended when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and both John and Louisa seemed to find in his service the opportunity to pursue social reform. It appears that her strong views against slavery shaped her husband’s convictions, and he became a leading voicVe in Congress for abolition. Louisa also opposed the brutal Indian removal policies of the United States government, and her progressive views on the rights and role of women continued to develop. Even as a young girl, Louisa had expressed an interest in women’s issues and always believed that women were as intelligent as men, a progressive idea for her day. Louisa’s views and actions mark her as an early human rights advocate in the White House. She died in Washington in 1852, four years after the death of her husband.

Bibliography

Adams, Louisa Catherine. Adventures of a Nobody. In The Adams Papers. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1755-1889.

Adams, Louisa Catherine. “Diary.” In The Adams Papers. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1755-1889.

Adams, Louisa Catherine. “Narrative of a Journey from St. Petersburg to Paris in February, 1815.” In The Adams Papers. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1755-1889.

Shepherd, Jack. Cannibals of the Heart: A Personal Biography of Louisa Catherine and John Quincy Adams . New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980.