ABSTRACT
In the early years after the Adamses' return, friends dropped in on a regular basis to pay respects to their longtime neighbors. Sometimes strangers just dropped in to meet the celebrated former president and First Lady. Former fellow revolutionaries sought out John's company to reminisce and justify the past. Friends of Abigail since childhood, women with whom she had corresponded for 40 years, came to call, and if the journey had been made from Boston, they stayed for days. Seldom was Abigail to experience silence or loneliness in the home that attracted multitudes because of familial, social, or political ties. For all of this busy enterprise, Abigail presided as hostess as well as cook and housekeeper, partly because of her energy, which was too prodigious to retire in the face of work that needed to be done. Mostly, however, her roles conformed to her ethic of hospitality. "To be attentive to our guests is not only true kindness, but true politeness; for if there is a virtue which is its own reward, hospitality is that virtue," she admonished her granddaughter.2
