Conclusions

Abstract

In the introduction, we noted that nineteenth-century playwrights avoided centering their work around presidents for fear of offending audiences. Early in the twentieth century, this problem was solved by writing about idealized versions of great presidents, especially Abraham Lincoln. Poetic license frequently exaggerated the difficulties of their pre-presidential lives and invented details to make their romances more dramatically interesting. In portraying what made these men great, playwrights stressed success in times of crisis while glossing over or even entirely ignoring such serious faults as the ownership of slaves. In the approved picture, these men began as reluctant politicians pushed into running for office by others in their lives, especially ambitious women. For example, Lincoln was frequently depicted as resisting a pushy Mary Todd. They disliked elites, preferring the company of ordinary citizens whose wisdom informed their policy decisions. In The First Lady of the Land, the stuffy Europeans make fun of Dolly Todd but James Madison falls in love and marries her. The plot of That Awful Mrs. Eaton centers on Andrew Jackson’s defense of Peggy Eaton against the snobbery of the other cabinet officers’ wives. In The Patriots, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington remove their wigs to sneak away for an afternoon of fishing.