First Ladies Research

“The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.”

Martha Jefferson died 18 years before Thomas Jefferson was elected President in 1800. Her daughter Patsy Jefferson Randolph on occasion served as hostess during the White House years. Both women are included in the biography and bibliography.

Despite the fact that Elizabeth Monroe was First Lady for 8 years, very little primary source material exists for her. During the last days of the French Revolution she made a name for herself by her courageous visit to the imprisoned wife of Marquis de Lafayette.

“…I am glad of it for Mr. Jackson’s sake, because it is his ambition. For me it is but one more burden. Even if I was qualified in other ways to do the honors of the White House, my health is not good enough to bear the strain.”

“We are here for four years. I do not look beyond that, as many things may occur in that time, but I am very anxious to see the family of the President provided for properly…”

“I very well know every eye is upon me, my dear mother, and I will behave accordingly.”

After praying mightily for her husband, Zachary Taylor, to lose the 1848 election, Margaret Taylor viewed the image of Washington with horror after the election.

“Oh how I wish he (Franklin Pierce) was out of political life! How much better it would be for him on every account!”

“I do not belong to the public; my character is wholly domestic, and the public have nothing to do with it.”

“I became an enthusiastic politician.”

“I’m going to try harder than ever before to be the best little wife possible.”

“I have not had a life yet. It is all before me…” (after leaving the White House)

(following her husband’s assassination) “Nothing can make me happy again. . .”

“I had always had the satisfaction of knowing almost as much as he about the politics and intricacies of any situation in which he found himself, and my life was filled with interests of a most unusual kind.”

“So began my stewardship. I studied every paper, sent from the different Secretaries or senators, and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the President. I myself never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband.”.”

“...this was I and not yet I, this was the wife of the President of the United States and she took precedence over me; my personal like and dislikes must be subordinated to the consideration of those things which were required of her...”

“…but there isn’t going to be any First Lady. There is just to be plain, ordinary Mrs. Roosevelt…I never wanted to be the president’s wife, and don’t want it now. You don’t quite believe me, do you? Very likely no one would-except possibly some woman who had had the job.”

“Of course, being mistress of the White House is a terrific responsibility, and I am truly grateful for my Army wife training.”

“The first lady is, and always has been, an unpaid public servant elected by one person, her husband.”

“I don’t feel that because I’m First Lady, I’m very different from what I was before. It can happen to anyone. After all, it has happened to anyone.”

“I think it’s an important, legitimate role for a First Lady to look after a President’s health and well being. And if that interferes with other plans, so be it. No first lady need to make apologies for looking out for her husband’s personal welfare…The First Lady is, first of all, a wife.”

“The American people have made the role of the First Lady one of the most important jobs in the country. ... It is a tribute to American women that, coming from different social and economic backgrounds, from many different geographical regions, and with diverse educational preparation, each First Lady served our country so well. Each left her own mark, and each teaches us something special about our history.”

"Policies that support families aren't political issues. They're personal. They're the causes I carry with me every single day."