She was absent for John's inauguration

When her husband started working as the American minister to Britain in 1784, Abigail traveled to Europe to join him. She writes about British aristocracy, French customs, and the superiority of the tranquil life of an American farmer in her letters from Paris and London. Early in 1788, she stated that she greatly preferred her "own little farm" to "the court of Saint James's where I seldom meet with people so inoffensive as my Hens and chickings." When John became vice president in 1789, Abigail split her time between the nation's capital (first New York City, then, in 1790, Philadelphia) and the family residence in Massachusetts. Later that year, the Adamses moved back to the country.

To tend to his ailing mother, she missed her husband's inauguration as president in March 1797. Throughout his term, she frequently stayed in Massachusetts to handle family concerns. Abigail was kept away from Philadelphia, the nation's capital at the time, by a particularly harsh New England winter, much to the dismay of the new Chief Executive. He wrote to her, "The times are urgent and hazardous, and I must have you here to help me." That April, she moved in with him in the City of Brotherly Love.