John is finally released from quarantine. John and Abigail spend the summer getting their house ready, looking for servants, for when they will move in after their wedding. As a lawyer, John traveled a lot for his cases. He wrote diligently to Abigail during every separation. In this letter he expresses for the first time something that will be a continuing theme through their long long marriage, where they spent so much time apart. He relied on her perspective. He began to lose it during separations, he needed to run things by her, he needed to hear her thoughts … She brought out a more forgiving person in him. Without it, at times he would descend into paranoia, or bitterness. When he was President, and she was still up in Quincy – the press would openly refer to her absence as something that needed to be rectified, because without her he clearly lost his mind. This was an exaggeration, but there was a grain of truth to it. She was like a compass for him.<\/i><\/p>\n
John to Abigail Septr. 30th 1764<\/i><\/p>\n Oh my dear Girl, I thank Heaven that another Fortnight will restore you to me — after so long a separation. My soul and Body have both been thrown into Disorder, by your Absence, and a Month of two more would make me the most insufferable Cynick in the World. I see nothing but Faults, Follies, Frailties and Defects in any Body, lately. People have lost all their good Properties or I my Justice or Discernment.<\/p>\n But you have always softened and warmed my Heart, shall restore my Benevolence as well as my Health and Tranquility of mind. You shall polish and refine my sentiments of Life and Manners, banish all the unsocial and ill natured Particles in my Composition, and form me to that happy Temper, that can reconcile a quick Discernment with a perfect Candour.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n