ALL THE PRESIDENTS’ VIEWS
History shows that a first lady’s influence can be a powerful thing.
“The Constitution of the United States does not mention the First Lady,” Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president, once wrote. “She is elected by one man only. The statute books assign her no duties; and yet, when she gets the job, a podium is there if she cares to use it. I did.” Here are 15 first ladies who used the podium to advance the role, pursue special causes and contribute in their own way to the progress of our nation. Known as Lady Washington, Martha Washington was keenly aware of the precedent she set as the nation’s first first lady (1789–1797). “I think I am more like a state prisoner than anything else,” she wrote. “There [are] certain bounds set for me which I must not depart from.” Ambivalent about her duties, she bore them stoically, seeing to her husband’s comfort while being a gracious hostess. Abigail Adams, who followed Martha Washington into the role, became the first first lady to reside in the White House (1797–1801). An intellectual peer to her brooding husband, the two exchanged myriad letters during their long separations, in which she often appealed to his conscience and took care to remind him of the importance of recognizing the contributions of women to the nation’s cause.
James Madison, the fourth president, was described as a “withered little applejohn.” His wife, the charming Dolley Madison (1809–1817), compensated for her husband’s shortcomings, making their home the center of Washington social activity not only during her husband’s time in the White House but during the administration of widower Thomas Jefferson, for whom her husband served as secretary of state.
Mary Todd Lincoln (1861– 1865), in many ways a tragic figure, embodied the country’s divisions during the Civil War. She actively supported Union troops, some of which were quartered in the White House East Room for a time. But the Kentucky native was considered a traitor by members of her family who fought on the side of the Confederates. After the death of her son Willie in 1862, likely from typhoid fever, Mrs. Lincoln’s activity in the White House as first lady diminished significantly.
Widowed in 1914, shortly into his first term in office, Woodrow Wilson married Edith Wilson the following year. In 1919, after her husband suffered a stroke that rendered