John Adams was elected President in 1797 and it soon became

obvious to him that he would have to live austerely.

Everything had doubled or tripled in price in the past eight years and as a consequence Adams thought "all levees

and drawing rooms and dinners must be laid aside."

He also had to furnish the Presidental Mansion with glasses,

kitchen utensils, crockery, chairs, setees, secretaries, china, glass and firewood, etc. The house was nearly empty

and a shambles when the Washingtons left it, taking their personal belongings with them. The servants had made the house a scene of drunkeness and disorder between the time

the Washingtons left and the Adams moved in.

President Adams also had a cheese "as big as a chariot wheel", weighing 110 pounds, a gift from the state of Rhode Island to contend with. He was deeply discouraged about finances. " I expect to be obliged to resign in six months because I can't live."

The President created a controversy when he declined to attend a ball and festivities in honor of George Washington's birthday held by prominent citizens of Philadelphia. Adams felt it was an insult to the office, that

the President should never be asked to attend the birthday

celebration of a private citizen "however good, however great" the individual.

Abigail wasn't with the President in Philadelphia at the time of his inauguration nor was she present when he moved the household as well as the government to Washington.

She arrived in Washington in November 1800 and penned

a letter to her daughter complaining about the drawbacks of the Mansion. "It requires thirty servants to keep the apartments." One of the things she was so dismayed about was the lack of wood for all the fireplaces and no way to call the servants. It seems there were no bells and no one to cart the wood from the forests that surrounded the Mansion.

I suspect a lot of her complaints were legitimate because the house wasn't finished at the time the Adams moved in.

The "necessary" and the backstairs were completed just a few days after Abigail arrived.

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I'm still wondering what President Adams did with 110 pounds of cheese.