“Pray what is become of your Judas?”
In the letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams dated July 5, 1775 she refers to an unidentified someone on as Judas. John does not directly reply to this statement and so it is a characterization that has been left to historians to determine. The common consensus—never factually verified within the correspondence—is that Judas refers to a member of the Pennsylvanian delegation to the Continental Congress named Joseph Galloway who would, in fact, eventually become an official traitor by switching his allegiance to the British.
"Relic of the Saints"
In her letter to John dated June 16, 1775, Abigail engages a simile to exhibit how important it is to her for John to continue writing. As the art of letter-writing and the pain of waiting for the mail to take its time has disappeared into the archives of personal communication, the full extent of this comparison becomes more heartbreaking as an example of how time and distance have almost been literally demolished in the face of technology.
“Don’t fail of letting me hear from you by every opportunity, every line is like a precious Relic of the Saints.”
It the era of disposable digital communication, the very concept of written communication between man and wife being compared to something of such precious value seems almost inconceivable.
Washington
Abigail Adams writes on July 16, 1776 of her first meeting with George Washington. She appears to be overcome by this first impression and is even moved to write out a full stanza from a poem by John Dryden to put into metaphorical context what her own words fail to convey:
“Mark his Majestick fabrick! he’s a temple
Sacred by birth, and built by hands divine
His Souls the Deity that lodges there.
Nor is the pile unworthy of the God.”
"Genius in his Eyes"
Washington is not the only historical figure of renown who impresses a member of the Adams family beyond the capacity to put into his own words. In describing the author of Common Sense, Adams defers to General Lee and his metaphorical description of Paine as a figure to be reckoned with:
“The writer of “Common Sense” and “The Forester” is the same person. His name is Paine, a gentleman about two years ago from England, a man who, General Lee says, has genius in his eyes.”
The Declaration of Independence
The bulk of the correspondence between John and Abigail were written during the heady period when the nation of America was being conceived at the Continental Congress. Abigail writes reading the Declaration and what it means to her for her husband to have been so intimately involved before waxing poetic on the sheer magnitude of what it really means through Biblical allusion as metaphor:
“May the foundation of our new Constitution be Justice, Truth, Righteousness! Like the wise man’s house, may it be founded upon these rocks, and then neither storms nor tempests will overthrow it!”
