The following words were written on March 31, 1776 — 250 years and one day ago — by the wife of the man who would become the second President of the brand-new United States of America.

We weren’t even officially a nation yet when Abigail Adams urged her husband, John Adams, and the other members of the convening Continental Congress not to overlook the women of the country when declaring our independence from Great Britain. What she said, in part, was this:

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency. 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.”

– “This Day in History,” History.com, March 31, 2026.

Abigail was more than just the “little woman” offering moral support to her husband. She was a person of considerable intellect and clearly ahead of her time, giving forethought to a document — the Constitution of the United States — that would not be completed for another eleven years, or ratified for two years after that.

And it would be 150 years before Abigail Adams’ plea on behalf of American women would be codified as the 19th Amendment to that Constitution. But in the 18th century, she became the second First Lady of the United States, and later the mother of the sixth President, John Quincy Adams — clearly, the kind of FLOTUS this country needed, at exactly the moment she was needed.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/1/26