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BY MEREDITH HINDLEY

When they are defending their policies or the honor of their country, American presidents can get downright testy. But they have a softer side, which they show to the women who have captured their hearts. Below are snippets from letters written by presidents to girlfriends, wives, and lovers. Match the words with the president who poured out his heart.

1. “You are more wonderful and lovely in my eyes than you ever were before; and my pride and joy and gratitude that you should love me with such a perfect love are beyond all expression, except in some great poem which I cannot write.”

a. Theodore Roosevelt
b. Woodrow Wilson
c. Calvin Coolidge
d. Herbert Hoover

2. “And if I could but enjoy my Retreat in silence and solitude, there would be nothing Wanting but Obliviscence of your Ladyship, to make me as Happy as a Monk in a Cloyster or an Hermit in his Cell. You will wonder, perhaps at my calling in Monks and Hermits, on this Occasion, and may doubt about the Happiness of their situations: Yet give me leave to tell you freely, the former of these are so tottally absorbed in Devotion and the latter in Meditation, and such an Appetite, such a Passion for their Respective Employments and Pleasures grows habitually up in their Minds, that no Mortals, (excepting him who hopes to be bound to your Ladyship in the soft Ligaments of Matrimony) has a better security for Happiness than they.”

a. John Adams
b. John Quincy Adams
c. Thomas Jefferson
d. James Madison

3. “I suppose that I am too crazy about you anyway. Every time I see you I get more so if it is possible. I know I haven’t any right to but there are certain things that can’t be helped and that is one of them. I wouldn’t help it if I could you know.”

a. Herbert Hoover
b. Franklin Roosevelt
c. Harry Truman
d. Dwight Eisenhower

4. “. . . I go fully trusting in that Providence, which has been more bountiful to me than I deserve, & in full confidence of a happy meeting with you sometime in the Fall—I have not time to add more, as I am surrounded with Company to take leave of me—I retain an unalterable affection for you, which neither time or distance can change. . . .”

a. George Washington
b. John Adams
c. Thomas Jefferson
d. James Madison

5. “Still this is the day, the day that marks 31 years of such happiness as comes to few men. I told you once that it was like an adolescent’s dream of what marriage should be like. That hasn’t changed. . . . I more than love you, I’m not whole without you. You are life itself to me. When you are gone I’m waiting for you to return so I can start living again.”

a. George Bush
b. Ronald Reagan
c. Dwight Eisenhower
d. John F. Kennedy

6. “This morning I’m ambitious, proud, energetic and very madly in love with you. I want to see people—want to walk thru’ the throngs—want to do things with a drive. If I had a box I would almost make a speech this minute. Plans, ideas, hopes—I’m bubbling over with them.”

a. Richard Nixon
b. John F. Kennedy
c. Lyndon Johnson
d. Jimmy Carter

7. “But that you may not be discouraged from a correspondence which begins so formidably, I will promise you on my honour that my future letters shall be of a reasonable length. I will even agree to express but half my esteem for you, for fear of cloying you with too full a dose. But, on your part, no curtailing. If your letters are as long as the bible, they will appear short to me. Only let them be brimful of affection. I shall read them with the dispositions with which Arlequin, in Les deux billets spelt the words “je t’aime,” and wished that the whole alphabet had entered into their composition.”

a. Thomas Jefferson
b. John Adams
c. John Quincy Adams
d. James Madison

8. “It now one Oclock in the morning the candle nearly out, and I must to bed, May the angelic hosts that rewards & protects virtue and innocence, and preserves the good, be with you untill I return—is the sincere supplications of your affectionate Husband.”

a. Abraham Lincoln
b. Andrew Jackson
c. Martin Van Buren
d. William Henry Harrison

ANSWERS

1. b.—Woodrow Wilson to Edith Bolling Galt, September 19, 1915

Wilson was still mourning the death of his wife when he met Edith in early 1915. The president, who thrived on the companionship of women, took an instant liking to Edith and they were married in December 1915. Their quick courtship scandalized Washington, D.C., society.

2. a.—John Adams to Abigail Smith, April 11, 1764

Only John Adams could have equated monks with love. Frequent letter writers before and during their marriage, the Adamses used correspondence to bridge the loneliness caused by separation as John built up his legal practice, helped fight for independence, and worked to establish a new government.

3. c.—Harry Truman to Elizabeth “Bess” Wallace, December 21, 1911

Truman was taken with Bess from the moment he laid eyes on her in Sunday school. He diligently courted her for seven years, despite her turning down his first proposal. After Truman enlisted in the Army in 1917 to fight in World War I, Bess told him she thought they should get married. Reluctant to make her a widow and worried he might be injured, Truman refused until he returned. They married in 1919.

4. a.—George Washington to Martha Washington, June 23, 1775

In a letter sent five days before, George informed her that he had been chosen to lead the Continental Army. In this letter, he tries to assuage her worries about taking up such post. Before her death, Martha destroyed nearly all of George’s letters to her, leaving only a handful behind.

5. b.—Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan, March 4, 1983

Reagan constantly wrote his wife, whom he met in 1949, while they were both actors. After a courtship that was tame by Hollywood standards, they married in 1952. Of all the letters, Nancy has said that she always looked forward to the special ones she received for their anniversary.

6. c.—Lyndon Johnson to Claudia “Lady Bird” Taylor, October 23, 1934

LBJ was so taken with Lady Bird when they met in the summer of 1934 that he proposed almost immediately. This letter was sent from Washington, D.C., where he was working as a legislative assistant to Congressmen Richard Kleberg. They were married in November 1934.

7. a.—Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, October 12, 1786

While serving as the American minister to France, widower Jefferson became enchanted with the married Maria, an Anglo-Italian painter and composer. In the letter, Jefferson writes of his struggle to reconcile his head and his heart. The letter was also a struggle for a different reason: he wrote it with his left hand, having broken his right wrist. The true story behind the injury remains obscure, owing to Jefferson’s own reticence to reveal the actual circumstances behind what he called his “folly.” One account has Jefferson trying, and failing, to hurdle a fence, so that he could help Maria over. Another has him tripping while attempting to jump a reflecting pool in a rush to see her. Still another claim is that he fell off his horse.

8. b.—Andrew Jackson to Rachel Jackson, January 8, 1813

Jackson, who was in command of the Tennessee militia, was en route to New Orleans to help defend the port against the British, when he wrote his wife Rachel. A devoted husband, Jackson fought thirteen duels defending her honor.