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Louisa Adams Facts

Louisa Adams Facts
Louisa Adams was the wife and First Lady of the sixth United States President, John Quincey Adams, from 1825 to 1829. As one of the First Ladies, Louisa was in many ways learning her role in the White House as she went, although she did have the benefit of being the daughter-in-law to the second American President, John Adams, so she was familiar with much of the protocol. She was born Louisa Catherine Johnson on February 12, 1775 to American merchant Joshua Johnson and Englishwoman Catherine Newth in London, England. Louisa was the first foreign born First Lady and the only one until Melania Trump, who was born in Slovenia. Louisa was born out of wedlock, which was quite scandalous at the time, although less so in London and Paris where she spent much of her early years with her six sisters and one brother. She met her future husband in 1795 in London while her father was working for the U.S. consulate. The couple married in 1797, moved to Massachusetts, and had three sons and one daughter, although the daughter died in infancy.
Interesting Louisa Adams Facts:
She was one of the more cultured and worldly First Ladies, speaking French fluently and having knowledge of other European languages. She also traveled extensively and lived in Europe at a time when most people rarely traveled more than fifty miles from their homes during a lifetime.
Neither set of parents initially agreed to the match: the conservative Adams family due to her background, while the Johnsons were concerned that John Q. could not provide for their daughter financially.
Louisa traveled with her husband to his government posts in Russia, Belgium, and England in the early 1800s. The travels were sometimes dangerous as it brought her through Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.
When her husband was the Secretary of State for President James Monroe, Louisa began helping him for his future presidential run by networking in Washington. She wrote in her diary, "That a man who is ambitious to become President of the United States must make his wife visit the Ladies of the members of Congress first. Otherwise he is totally inefficient to fill so high an office."
She preferred the more cosmopolitan nature of the new capital city of Washington to what was at the time backwater rural Massachusetts, although she intensely disliked the politics that had come to characterize the city at the time.
Her father died in 1802 from fever and her mother passed away in 1811.
Louisa's father suffered bankruptcy before he died, which was a constant source of embarrassment for her.
Louise Adams died from a heart attack on May 15, 1852 in Washington, D.C. She was seventy-seven years old.
She was interred next to the other members of the Adams family in Quincy, Massachusetts.


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