ABSTRACT
The time of his life when Henry Adams, in the company of his wife, lived quietly by Lafayette Square was one in which his interests and abilities steadied and intensified. It is hard to see in him the desperate youth of Berlin or the unsure one of London. Henry and Marian Adams were to see during these years, November, 1877, to December, 1885, four Presidents living in the large white house across the square: Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, and Cleveland. Adams was to see his country changing, and in spite of a darkening intellectual scheme he enjoyed, rather than fretted at, the political spectacle. He had a world of thought that was more solid and more compelling than anything he saw happen on Lafayette Square. What this world of thought produced in books and ideas will be discussed more fully later.
