Founding Mothers

John Quincy Adams subscribed to the thesis that his mother's generation was unique when he complained to [his wife] that there were no modern women like her. Abigail, God love her, shot back that women might act frivolous and flighty, but only because men wanted them to.

Cornwallis voiced his lament that even if he destroyed all the men in America, he’d still have the women to contend with.

Harty Choak Pie Translation: Artichoke pie. This old English recipe comes from an old recipe book in Martha Washington’s family. The coffin used, lest you become alarmed, was a pastry-lined dish or pan shaped like a (you guessed it!) coffin. The verges mentioned is verjuice or green juice—any sour juice of a green fruit used in place of vinegar. Grape juice was commonly used this way. Artichokes Sugar Pastry Verges (green juice) Butter Cinnamon Marrow bones Ginger Take 12 harty choak [artichoke] bottoms, good and large and boil them. Discard the leaves and core, and place the bottoms on a coffin of pastry, with 1 pound butter and the marrow of 2 bones in big pieces, then close up the coffin, and bake it in the oven. Meanwhile, boil together ½ pound sugar, ½ pint verges, and a touch of cinnamon and ginger. When the pie is half-baked, put the liquor into it, replace it in the oven until it is fully baked.

Nelly still seemed somewhat untamed. Eliza Powel once told her, "You look as if your clothes were thrown on with a pitchfork!

He simply trusted Abigail to handle everything without masculine oversight, and she did.

Though she hadn’t seen other countries, she was convinced that America was the best because of the equality of its people, “there being none so immensely rich as to lord it over us, neither any so abjectly poor as to suffer for the necessaries of life.

May our Country be always prepared for War, but disposed to Peace

Benjamin Franklin had another suggestion for the vice president: “His Superfluous Excellency.