Royal Court / Republican Court

The text panel in front of you reads:

George Washington knew that the new nation had to impress foreign diplomats who were used to the sparkle of European courts. At the same time, a “republican court” could not emulate monarchy too closely. Washington asked his friend Gouverneur Morris to pick out appropriate tableware in France for the president’s house. Morris assured the president that everything he chose was “substantially good and majestically plain.”

Abigail Adams experienced both the royal and republican courts. She met George III and Queen Charlotte in London when her husband, John Adams, was the first American minister to Britain. When he became Washington’s vice president, she played a key role in establishing the new republican court.

The display case to your right contains six objects:

1 & 2. “We live in a Constant Bustle”

In this letter to her husband, Queen Charlotte complains about the public appearances she had to make, including promenades on the terrace at Windsor Castle. “We live in a Constant Bustle,” she wrote, “I may now begin to feel the consequences of that life.”

Exhibit Item(s)

• Queen Charlotte to King George III, January 22, 1797. Lent by His Majesty King Charles III (105.00.00). Left: A page from a handwritten letter beginning with the words “Since the Unpleasant affairs of the Prince and Princess of Wales began.” Right: A page from a handwritten letter beginning with the words “I trust that my Sincerity in telling Your Majesty the Truth.”
• James Fittler, after George Robertson. South East View of Windsor Castle, 1783. Engraving. Lent by His Majesty King Charles III (104.00.00). A black-and-white engraving depicting the royal family in front of Windsor Castle.

3. Women and Politics

In George III’s Britain, as in George Washington’s America, women could neither vote nor hold office. But they did participate in politics as bearers of news, wielders of influence, and hostesses of social events. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, was notorious for her public participation in political campaigns. She supported the Whigs, the King’s political opponents. This cartoon shows her (at right) holding a fox meant to represent the Whig leader Charles James Fox.

Exhibit Item(s)

• A Meeting of the Female Canvassers in Covent Garden, 1784. Engraving. W. Holland, London, 1784. British Cartoon Prints Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (097.00.00). A black-and-white political cartoon depicting two pairs of women discussing politics. In the foreground, one is holding a fox (representing Whig leader Charles James Fox) and the other is holding a badger with a human head, labeled Ministerial Badger.

4. Coaches for a King and a President

On becoming king in 1760, George III commissioned this new state coach with decorations by the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Cipriani. When George Washington became president, he also wanted an elegant coach. He had his old coach refurbished and decorated with a series of paintings, The Four Seasons, by the same artist.

Exhibit Item(s)

• William Chambers and Giovanni Battista Cipriani. “Design for the King’s State Coach,” 1760 (reproduction).© Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2025 | Royal Collection Trust. A color drawing of a heavily decorated gold carriage with paintings on the side and a crown on the top.

5 & 6. Dining at the President’s House

After dining at the president’s house in 1794, Connecticut Congressman Joshua Coit wrote this letter to his wife, Nancy Coit. In it, he describes the porcelain figurines Gouverneur Morris bought for Washington in France. Coit wondered if Washington’s style of entertaining was insufficiently American and too reminiscent of the ostentatious glitter of royal courts.

Exhibit Item(s)

• Joshua Coit to Nancy Coit, February 21, 1794. Joshua Coit Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (107.00.01). A handwritten letter beginning with the words “but that is brought on after the folios are removed consisting of plum pudding, ice cream, tarts, trifles.”
• President Washington’s table ornament, Venus et deux amours by Charles Gabriel Sauvage, 1790 (reproduction). Courtesy of The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. A color photograph of ceramic table ornament depicting a woman and two cherubs.

On the back panel above the objects is a quote that reads:

“The center of a long table at which we sit is occupied with a parcel of imagery done in plaster of paris . . . These images are Cupid and goddesses & such kind of nonsensical things not good to eat.”
—Connecticut Congressman Joshua Coit to his wife, Nancy Coit, February 21, 1794, after dining at the president’s house in Philadelphia

To the right of the labels are two quotes that read:

Royal Court
“ We were presented last thursday at a very full drawing room, and stood more than four hours. His Majesty . . . look’d very jovial and good humourd when I was presented to him. Her Majesty was evidently embarassed and confused.”
— Abigail Adams, London, to her son, John Quincy Adams, June 26, 1785

Republican Court
“ In the Evening I attended the drawing Room, it being mrs W——s publick day. it was as much crowded as a Birth Night at St James, and with company as Briliantly drest.”