Quotes from Diane Jacobs

Her husband, Abigail knew, had a vivid imagination for disasters that might befall her or the children while he was in Philadelphia. Only after the deed was done did she acknowledge her mission in Boston.

John's explosion left Abigail in a quandary. Priding herself on being a good wife, she cheerfully accepted that her main role was to soothe the cares of her adored if sometimes baffling spouse. Being a wife required at least the appearance of submission. On the other hand, it would be cruel to abandon a husband altogether to his follies when it was so easy to correct him with a little tact.

Discipline in an Army is like the Laws, in civil Society," he told Abigail. No community on earth could dispense with hierarchy, which he did not need to remind her was the backbone of their religious faith. "Obedience is the only Thing wanting for our Salvation—Obedience to the Laws, in the States, and Obedience to Officers in the Army.

Writing and conversation were vital for success in the world, Elizabeth sounded the family creed and, like Mary and Abigail when their sons left for Harvard, exhorted: "Committing our thoughts to paper makes us more attentive—more close observers—of everything which obliges us to think." Writing a mother was particularly salubrious.

Adams had retained his Puritan belief in hierarchy, while Jefferson, for all his aristocratic airs, was committed to leveling power. John still feared the many (as he had observed long ago in Paris), Jefferson the few.

Just as variety was a boon to happiness, ritual was a great duller of pain,

The west, for Perkins's post-war generation, symbolized everything from the end of the rainbow to a last resort. Its vastness was double-edged, for chaos as well as freedom thrives on opportunity.

For no matter how weak she felt, Betsy could wield words as a weapon. When an acquaintance insisted it was impossible to acquire a knowledge of the world without being deeply infected with its vices, she retorted that knowledge was a precaution rather than a trap, "for as soon as [we] have found out where [we] are mostly likely to be overcome, there let [us] place [our] strongest guard.