Elizabeth Willing Powel

Elizabeth Willing Powel (February 21, 1743 – January 17, 1830) was an American socialite and patriot.

Quotes

• I presume your Grand Children are with you, and doubt not that they will afford you every consolation that existing Circumstances will admit. Present me affectionately and sympathetically to them they also have lost a protecting affectionate Connection, and I have lost a much valued Friend.
  • To Martha Washington upon the death of George Washington, as quoted in U.S. Presidents: George Washington: The Washington Papers Condolences: Personal And Public. University of Virginia Miller Center. Retrieved on 4 February 2020.

• I have certainly experienced severe trials, and some hard dispensations of Providence … To travel with some dignity, innocence, and usefulness, down the Road which leads from the Morning of Youth to the Night of the Grave, is perhaps as much as we can flatter ourselves with accomplishing.
  • As quoted in Maxey, David W. (2006). "A Portrait of Elizabeth Willing Powel (1743–1830)". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 63 (4). DOI:10.2307/20020407.

• Powel: Well, Doctor, what have we got?
  Benjamin Franklin: A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.
  Powel: And why not keep it?
  Franklin: Because the people, on tasting the dish, are always disposed to eat more of it than does them good.
  • As quoted in Brockell, Gillian (December 18, 2019). "'A republic, if you can keep it': Did Ben Franklin really say Impeachment Day's favorite quote?". The Washington Post. Retrieved on February 3, 2020. 

• Your resignation wou'd elate the Enemies of good Government...They would say that you were actuated by Principles of self-Love alone—that you saw the Post was not tenable with any Prospect of adding to your Fame. The antifederalists would use it as an argument for dissolving the Union, and would urge that you, from Experience, had found the present System a bad one, and had, artfully, withdrawn from it that you might not be crushed under its Ruins.
  • Letter to George Washington, on his intent to step down after his first term as president, as quoted in Richard Beeman (17 March 2009). Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution. Random House Publishing Group. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-58836-726-6. 

• [You] have frequently demonstrated that you possess an Empire over yourself. For Gods sake do not yield that Empire to a Love of Ease, Retirement, rural Pursuits, or a false Diffidence of Abilities which those that best know you so justly appreciate. Convince the World then that you are a practical Philosopher, and that your native Philanthropy has inducted you to relinquish an Object so Essiential to your Happiness...That you are not indifferent to the Plaudits of the World I must conclude when I believe that the love of honest Fame has and ever will be predominate in the best the noblest and most capable Natures. Nor is the Approbation of Mankind to be disregarded with Impunity even by you.
  • Letter to George Washington, on his intent to step down after his first term as president, as quoted in Myron Magnet (2014). The Founders at Home: The Building of America, 1735-1817. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-393-24021-4. 

Quotes about Powel

• Contrary to American custom, [Mrs. Powel] plays the leading role in the family. What chiefly distinguishes her is her taste for conversation [and] her wit and knowledge.
  • Credited to "a French noblemen", as quoted in Anishanslin, Zara (October 29, 2019). "What we get wrong about Ben Franklin's 'a republic, if you can keep it'". The Washington Post. Retrieved on February 3, 2020. 

• [The Powels were] difficult to separate from each other, who lived together not as man and wife… but as two friends, happily matched in point of understanding, taste, and information.
  • François Jean de Beauvoir, Marquis de Chastellux, as quoted in Error on call to template:cite web: Parameters archiveurl and archivedate must be both specified or both omittedSnyder, Samantha. Elizabeth Willing Powel. Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. Archived from the original on January 7, 2020. Retrieved on February 3, 2020.

• Dined at Mr. Powells -- A most sinfull Feast again! Every Thing which could delight the Eye, or allure the Taste.
  • John Adams in his diary, as quoted in Snyder, Samantha. Elizabeth Willing Powel. Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. Archived from the original on January 7, 2020. Retrieved on February 3, 2020.

• Like Mira, Virtue’s Self possess
  Let her adorn your Mind
  For Virtue in a pleasing dress
  Has Charms for all Mankind
  Her spotless Mantle shall be shown
  When its blest Owner flies
  The Flaming Chariot make it known
  When Soaring to the Skies.
  • Lines, by a Friend, addressed to Mrs Elizabeth Powel on her Birth Day of Fifty Years February 21. 179⟨3⟩, poem by Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson commissioned by George Washington for Powel as a gift for her 50th birthday, as quoted in From George Washington to Elizabeth Willing Powel, February 1793. National Archives. Retrieved on 6 February 2020.

• When in society she will animate and give a brilliancy to the whole Conversation; you know the uncommons command she has of Language and her ideas flow with rapidity.
  • Anne Willing Francis, as quoted in Snyder, Samantha. Elizabeth Willing Powel. Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. Archived from the original on January 7, 2020. Retrieved on February 3, 2020.

External links

• The Power Broker and the King Maker: The Life of Elizabeth Willing Powel with Samantha Snyder (podcast), from the series Conversations at the Washington Library