On this day 250 years ago in Braintree, Massachusetts, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John:

I can not say that I think you very generous to the Ladies, for whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to Men, Emancipating all Nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over Wives. But you must remember that Arbitary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken—and notwithstanding all your wise Laws and Maxims we have it in our power not only to free ourselves but to subdue our Masters, and without voilence throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet

Source: “Abigail Adams to John Adams, 7 May 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0259. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 1, December 1761 – May 1776, ed. Lyman H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 401–403.]