Only in the New England of John Winthrop and the Mathers, of John Quincy and the Adamses, would such a scene have been possible:  a land of self-conquest and self-control, of a deep love of the public welfare and a willingness to take trouble for a public object.

A little later Mrs. Adams writes her husband that there has been a conspiracy among the negroes, though it has been kept quiet, “I wish most sincerely,” she adds, “that there was not a slave in the province.  It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me—­to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.”

Nor were the sympathies of this clever logician confined to the slaves.  A month or two before the Declaration of Independence was made she writes her constructive statesman:—­“I long to hear that you have declared an independence.  And by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.  Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands!  Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could!  If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.  That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of master for the more tender and endearing one of friend.  Why, then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity?  Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex.  Regard us, then, as being placed by Providence under your protection; and in imitation of the Supreme Being, make use of that power only for our happiness.”—­a declaration of principles which the practical housewife follows up by saying:—­“I have not yet attempted making salt-petre, but after soap-making, believe I shall make the experiment.  I find as much as I can do to manufacture clothing for my family, which would else be naked.  I have lately seen a small manuscript describing the proportions of the various sorts of powder fit for cannon, small arms, and pistols.  If it would be of any service your way, I will get it transcribed and send it to you.”

She is interested in everything, and she writes about everything in the same whole-hearted way,—­farming, paper money, the making of molasses from corn-stalks, the new remedy of inoculation, ‘Common Sense’ and its author, the children’s handwriting, the state of Harvard College, the rate of taxes, the most helpful methods of enlistment, Chesterfield’s Letters, the town elections, the higher education of women, and the getting of homespun enough for Mr. Adams’s new suit.