Abigail Adams Quotes
When men know not what to do, they ought not to do they know not what
Adams, Abigail. Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 1, edited by L. H. Butterfield, Harvard University Press, 1963.
This seemingly innocuous quotation became a cause celebre about freedom of speech and separation of church and state. Ms. Nootbaar, a brilliant, straight A student had a theme in her valedictory address of young people not being sure of their future aspirations. The audience laughed at the line and applauded her speech. However, her use of the word “hell” was considered a great sin by the school principle, David Smith. Smith refused to deliver Kaitlin’s diploma unless she apologized, which the young woman refused to do as it would be insincere and that lying would be a sin. Prague is in the middle of the “Bible Belt” where religious fundamentalists want the schools to enforce their view of acceptable behavior and using the word “hell” in that way was cursing and hence a sin. Nootbar was accepted at College anyway and the issue of her entitlement to the diploma went into the legal and political arena.
Abigail Adams was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. She is sometimes considered to have been a Founder of the United States, and is now designated as the first Second Lady and second First Lady of the United States, although these titles were not used at the time. She and Barbara Bush are the only two women to be married to one U.S. president and the mother of another.
