Five Historic First Ladies

And the Scandals of Their Day

First Ladies, to me, have always seemed so much more interesting than their husbands. Absent the political wrangling necessary to arrive at their lofty positions, Presidential wives are more serene in their role, and more times than not their charm, and verve, are ever on display. Not that scandal spared their lives, but it is interesting to observe how a select few dealt with such misfortune.

Dolley Madison

Personally, my favorite First Lady is Dolley Madison. Born into the strictures of Quaker society, with a reprobate son from her first marriage, she wed James Madison, a member of the Virginia landed gentry whose head barely reached her chin, and his dour demeaner earned him the nickname "Cold Fish." Yet Dolley (or Dorothea, or Dollie, or Dolly...historians for more than a century cannot agree) clad in the formidable headdress and low decolletage of the era, queened over Washington society until she was eighty years of age. When financial hardship befell her in later years, she capitalized on her husband's role in the founding of the country and negotiated handsome payments from the government for his personal papers. Alas, she was not the first White House resident to serve ice cream as long-standing myth credits her with doing, that honor goes to Thomas Jefferson, but so lasting is her reputation as a hostess that a snack company even today bears her name.

Rachel Jackson

Rachel Jackson, the First Lady who never was, is a tragic figure of history. Her beauty was legend in the late 18th century western frontier. She had already attracted many suitors, and acquired a husband, when she encountered a living force of nature named Andrew Jackson, in 1790. To the shock and scandal of Nashville society they eloped down the Natchez trace to be married in Spanish territory along the Mississippi River. Three years later, after her husband had obtained a divorce from Rachel for bigamy, she and Andrew married again in a quiet ceremony in Nashville.

True love often comes with a heavy price: their marriage was childless, and Rachel was often left alone while Andrew was away on military campaigns. Rachel turned to religion and was equally renowned in middle age for her piety as she had been for her beauty in youth. The 1824 and 1828 Presidential elections were rocked by a sex scandal so great that later historians have compared it to the 1998 Monica Lewinsky testimony in the impeachment trial of President William Clinton. Jackson and his wife were accused of licentious living, John Quincy Adams was accused of procuring prostitutes for the Russian Tsar. When she learned that her reputation was being sullied for political gain, Rachel Jackson pointed to her record of more than thirty years as a devoted wife and said that she would rather be a door keeper in the house of God than live in the Presidential mansion. She got her wish, dying of a heart attack while trying on her inaugural gown. So great was Andrew Jackson's grief, that when the body of his wife was laid upon a table he clung to it.

Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln is afforded scant credit for her excellent education, high level of culture, and her advocacy for the emancipation of enslaved Americans. The spoiled child of a prominent Kentucky family, so august that Abraham Lincoln often quipped that "God was happy with just one 'D' but the Todds had to have two..." Mary Todd had her pick of political beaux, counting not only Lincoln, but also Stephen Douglas, and Jefferson Davis among her admirers. She selected the rising young lawyer, who danced in the "worst way" according to her account, and they settled down to a turbulent domestic life. Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon, is most likely the only primary biographical source for the early years of Abraham Lincoln, and his account is distorted by sycophantic devotion to Lincoln, and absolute derision of his wife. It was Herndon who recorded a bombshell in his exhaustive biography of Lincoln: the madness of Mary Todd Lincoln was the direct result of Abraham giving her syphilis. The story runs further, that President Lincoln privately feared that the transmission of this, then incurable, disease was also responsible for the early death of one son, and the physical disabilities of another. Because of this personal guilt, Lincoln had saintly patience with the erratic behavior of his wife, which was viewed by many as a political liability.

Florence Harding

Florence Harding: martyr to her marriage? Or secret murderer? When President Warren Harding died suddenly in 1923 tongues wagged in Washington. His term as President had already been rocked by scandal, including accusations of cronyism and an alleged illegitimate daughter. Now his untimely death caused the gossips to buzz afresh, only this time it was his wife Florence, rather than the late President who was the subject of their whispers. Had she quietly poisoned him? Their wild speculations seemed well founded when the First Lady, draped in widowed weeds, insisted that there be no autopsy. Certainly, she had motive: President Harding was embroiled in a public affair with his secretary, Nan Britton, and rumor was rife that he was the father of her daughter. President Harding's doctor begged the First Lady to allow an autopsy, since he was only 57 years of age, but his pleas were met with "complete and final refusal." More recently historians have had opportunities to review President Harding's personal papers, including his medical record, which relate his poor health and dietary habits. Frequent, alleged, trysts in a White House broom closet with Nan Britton probably did not help the Presidential blood pressure either.

Edith Wilson

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson was American's version of an "Iron Lady," quietly fulfilling her husband's duties as President after his crippling stroke. She was revered and feared among post World War I politicians for the unelected power she wielded. She and President Woodrow Wilson were married in 1915 after the death of his first wife. From the beginning there was rumor and scandal, which probably contributed to her unpopularity after she took the Presidential reigns from her suffering husband. A popular joke in newspapers dating from the time of their engagement goes as follows: "What did Mrs. Galt do when the President asked her to marry him?" The answer: "She fell out of bed."

On another occasion the Washington Post was particularly cruel with a typographical error: a reporter from the paper mentioned the President's attendance at the theater and noted, "Rather than paying attention to the play, the President spent the evening entering Mrs. Galt" meaning to write that the President "spent the evening entertaining Mrs. Galt." The Editor apologized to both Edith and the President, but it was grist for the mill of Washington gossips. Edith Wilson, like Dolley Madison, outlasted her detractors by outliving them. First Lady Wilson was present at the Inauguration of President John. F. Kennedy in 1961.

Many of the President's wives have possessed the charm, elegance, and wisdom to eclipse their husbands, and the historical record has dealt kindlier with them. Despite the wagging tongues of gossips, the virtues of the ladies mentioned above, in my view, outweigh their vices, and each has earned the right to be called "a lady for all seasons."

Read more by William Shelton