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Who is this First Lady? She helped her husband forge a career and a campaign. She wanted him to be president even more than he did. Once he was elected, she had more goals and objectives for him and the country than he could dream of. She was definitely in the drivers seat on many issues. Her friends were often selected for positions in government. Some betrayed her. There was a suicide. Her husband philandered. She was terrified that his secret trysts would become public and embarrass her and the administration.
Who was she?
No, not Hillary Clinton, Florence Harding.
This shows how little we do know about First Ladies. There now is a First Ladies Library and there is more interest in women’s history, but many of their stories are unappreciated and untold. Most historians are uninterested. These women were bystanders to power but they could listen to the heartbeat of their spouse. Their closeness gave them hidden power.
I have chosen four First Ladies for this talk: Florence Harding (1920-23), Grace Coolidge (1923-29),Hillary Clinton (1993-2000),Laura Bush (2001-?)
Let us think about three questions.
1. Did these women help their husband in their jobs as U.S. Presidents?
2. What were the women’s backgrounds?
3. Did they have a separate agenda? Were they successful with it?
1. Did they help their husbands? Probably we have to refine this as teamwork in their personal lives and in public policy.
Hillary and Florence believed that their husbands would not have been U.S. Presidents without them. This belief gave them immense power over their husbands and within the administrations. A First Lady memo on any subject would send the bureaucrats scrambling. Both Hillary and Florence knew they added intellectual strength to public policy. Warren Harding wrote one women's group that he backed his wife's position, period. Florence ran his campaign and even directed his office at the convention. His campaign manager called her, 'the boss.' When they entered the White House, she asked her husband: 'Well, Warren Harding, I have got you the Presidency. What are you going to do with it?'
He answered: 'May God help me, for I need it.' When he was inaugurated, she asked him to open the White House gates to the public for the first time since 1917. 'Masses swarmed across the lawn and headed up to the house; even automobiles pulled up in the driveway. As the public clustered on the North Portico, watching guests come and go, some pressed their noses to the window, looking in. A startled maid immediately began pulling the curtains, but Florence saw this and yelled out, 'Let them look in if they want. It's their White House!'
Hillary Clinton had shaped Bill's campaign and knew she had power in the new administration. She moved her office into the West Wing , the heart of presidential action. Bill Clinton assigned a health care initiative to his wife, an unelected lawyer without health care credentials. She ran a Task Force on National Health Care Reform with 600 people reporting to her. Her decision to close the proceedings to the media and public was a problem. The Association of American Physicians sued to open the meetings but the U.S. Court of Appeals wrote that Mrs. Clinton was a 'full-time federal official', she was 'a de facto officer or employee of the government' so she could keep the meetings closed. Hillary testified before Congress; she refused to compromise. The health care plan was 'tangled' and finally defeated in August of 1994. She and her husband had a marked defeat, but The New York Times lauded her many trips to Congress as 'the official end of an era when Presidential wives pretended to know less than they did and to be advising less than they were.' The Times reporter Frank Rich commented that Hillary 'provokes so much hostility because she exercises the full power of her personality, not just political power. She refuses to censor or pigeonhole herself to fit any stereotyped image, pre-or post-feminist, that might freeze her image for easy mass consumption.'
Laura Bush and Grace Coolidge believed their roles were to keep a happy healthy family life for their husbands. They were not to 'meddle' in policy, but were to create a warm, loving atmosphere for their husbands to return to after a long day at the office. They offered unconditional love in a battered political world. Both me 'treasured' their wives and almost would not go through a day without them.
Calvin's reluctance to make small talk at social functions left it to Grace to make up 90% of the administration at dinners and receptions. Grace was to plan the social events of the presidency and she did. She organized musicales even incorporating movie stars and famous musicians. Grace was to make sure their two boys were functioning well at their prep school, Mercersburg Academy, about one hour from the capital. Grace was to look beautiful in lovely dresses as part of the 1920's fashionable era. She was also her husband's safety valve, the one he could tell about his stress. She handled her stress by taking up her needles, that is sewing, knitting or crocheting.' She also wrote and received many letters. As she said, 'I was a human being before I was a president's wife, and count myself lucky to have friends who still regard me as a human being.' Many of you know that Calvin Coolidge after serving out President Harding's term and one of his own, 'did not choose to run for president in 1928.' When asked by a Senator if she knew of his decision, she replied, 'Isn't that just like the man. He never gave me the slightest intimation of his intention. I had no idea!' In my research, I have found that she knew long before of this decision and she had helped shape it. She could not face more years of confinement and scrutiny. The couple wanted to spend more time in Vermont where Calvin set about designing an addition to the homestead at Plymouth.
Laura Bush, our current First Lady, is 'intelligent, well-read, organized and unflappable; all the right tools for meeting important guests at the White House with aplomb.' She is not George's advisor. She does not compete. When asked by a Bush relative as to what sport she would play in the family games, she replied, 'read.'
2. What are the backgrounds of these four First Ladies?
Florence Harding, the first child of Amos and Louisa Kling, was raised as a boy with male expectations during the1860's and 1870's, she studied piano and gave piano lessons. Her father was wealthy and powerful.. She had a son from her first marriage but he was raised by her parents. She did not have children with Warren. She refused to wear a wedding rin because she felt to do so detracted from a woman's own accomplishments. She managed their newspaper and built her base of power there.
Grace Coolidge, an only child, grew up to graduate from the University of Vermont and train as a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf. She taught deaf children before her marriage. She raised 2 boys in Northampton, MA. while her husband commuted to Boston and his political positions.
Hillary Rodham Clinton was the oldest child in her family and only daughter. She attended Wellesley College and was their first student commencement speaker. She was a Yale law school graduate and taught at the law school in Arkansas. She became a lawyer at the most high powered firm in the state, the Rose Law Firm. She was a political strategist for her husband as his career grew and he became the governor. She was the primary breadwinner. They had one daughter.
Laura Bush, an only child, grew up with a goal of being a teacher and went to Southern Methodist University near Dallas, Texas. She received a BA in education and earned her master's degree in library science at the University of Texas at Austin. She was a teacher and school librarian. She devoted herself to their twin girls after marriage.
3. Did these First Ladies have a separate agenda? Were they successful with it?
As the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher once said,: 'In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.'
All of these First Ladies faced their roles as helpmates to their husbands but also as opportunities to influence the nation. These are not 'Judy Steinberg Dean's' (Remember she did not want to use the office for political or social influence if her husband, Howard Dean had won in 2004. She would keep on being a doctor in Vermont or Washington DC)
Florence Harding's agenda put women's rights and help for disabled veterans to get proper medical care at the top. How did she do? In women's rights, she had to back down and stop supporting the National Woman's Party and their drive for the ERA. She had to fall into line with the GOP platform. Disabled veterans? She was vigilent about tracking down each and every complaint, but her choice of Charles Forbes and Doc Sawyer to build hospitals and improve conditions for veterans of World War I was disasterous. Forbes' corruption was disgusting. The very people she chose were disloyal in that they pocketed government money and let 'her boys' suffer.
Hillary Clinton after the Health Care debacle, chose smaller projects and was successful. Her book, 'It takes a Village: and other lessons Children Teach us' brought traditional success. Her speeches were serious and hard hitting. Her relations with the press were rocky. In 1996, her disapproval rating of 54% was a record for First Ladies. One author wrote, Hillary was 'like spinach or liver. You either hate it 'or you love it.' However, she was encouraged to look to her own political career. This she did accomplish from her rooms at the White House as she was voted in as a U.S. Senator from New York state. Her comments on her eight years as presidential spouse, 'It's more than being a political partner. I don't think there's any job like it in the world. You have to be a partner in the fullest sense of the word 'someone who's trying to support the President in a personal way that's not available to him elsewhere.'
Laura Bush made promotion of literacy and reading her special projects as First Lady. She helped create a nonprofit fund raising foundation to help school and classroom libraries buy books. She also hosted the first National Book Festival at the Library of Congress in 2001. Her agenda does not look ambitious compared to Ms. Harding and Clinton, but her husband did not expect her to be more than a 'helpmate.' As a columnist for the Houston Chronicle wrote, 'people who dismiss Laura Bush as a mousy librarian are missing her key role. She's the iron rod at her husband's back. She keeps him from going too far off the deep end when he gets all caught up in his cock-of-the-walk behavior.'
Grace and Calvin Coolidge were suddenly thrust into the presidency after the death of Warren Harding. They were not able to sit with an agenda and start forming policies. They were to extend the presidential goals of the Harding administration. Grace had large and sloppy shoes to fill since Florence Harding actually believed that she was the one running the administration behind the scenes. Grace took it step by step. At one point she heard some criticism and said, 'I don't know what they expect me to do. Hang my wash in the East Room, like Abigail Adams?' She assured everyone that she was not coming in with big changes. She would restore the antiques of the White House, renovate the third floor, and make holidays special there for her boys and the public. She created a radio program so people could sing Christmas Carols with a White House choir and she continued on the Harding musicales. She raised visibility for the disabled. Helen Keller was a noted visitor. Grace made sure the door was open to all. She did not give interviews and did not set policy. The division between her work and her husband's was distinct.
Remember each First Lady must gain approval from their husbands for their pet projects. These women were not accountable to the public. They were only accountable to their husbands. Therein lies the problem. Who was to monitor their projects in a fair and impartial way? Not the husbands, for sure.
Each First Lady had her own gifts and contributions. As Hillary Clinton wrote when she first came to the White House, 'I would have a 'position' but not a real 'job'. How could I use this platform to help my husband and serve my country without losing my own voice?' Jackie Kennedy even objected to the title of First Lady. 'It sounds like a saddle horse,' she once said.
In 1925, Grace Coolidge wrote her friends, 'This will be our third Christmas in the Nation's home. Every minute I grow more fond of it because of the many memories which cling about it and I try to picture those who have lived and worked and played within its high towering walls. And sometimes I make myself think that I hear the happy voices of the children of bygone days. Some of my happiest moments are those when the children come to see me.' Grace Coolidge enjoyed people and 'met a great number of them.' Was she appreciated by her husband? He wrote, 'For almost a quarter of a century, she has borne with my infirmities, and I have rejoiced in her graces.'
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