Elizabeth Kortright was the daughter of a retired captain in the British Army, who, after the peace of 1783, remained in New York. She married Mr. Monroe there during a session of Congress, but later the seat of government was removed to Philadelphia, where they resided until 1794, when Monroe was made Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to France. Her husband’s several foreign positions of trust obliged them to live much abroad. She saved the life of Madame de Lafayette, who, upon the very day of Mrs. Monroe’s call at the prison, was to have been beheaded; but the powerful support of the American Minister’s wife caused her liberation. Mrs. Monroe was elegant, accomplished, dignified and charming, and her “drawing rooms” were more ceremonious than those of Mrs. Madison. She died suddenly, one year before her husband, who spent the remainder of his life with his daughter Mrs. Gouverneur in New York. [Illustration: _ELIZABETH KORTRIGHT MONROE_ _Copyright 1903, by Bureau of National Literature & Art._] Louisa Catherine Adams SIXTH PRESIDING LADY 1825-1829 Louisa Catherine Johnson was born and educated in London. She met John Quincy Adams there, and they were married in 1797. His father, becoming President, transferred him to Berlin, where she accompanied him. During Jefferson’s terms America was their home, after which Monroe appointed Mr. Adams Minister to Russia, where nearly six years were spent. In 1815 he was made Minister to England. When Napoleon was returning from Elba, Mrs. Adams, traveling from Russia to rejoin her husband at Paris, after several escapes entered the city just after Napoleon’s arrival and the flight of the Bourbons. Having graced such high positions, she was eminently fitted to preside at the White House, but ill-health incapacitated her, although at the time Mr. Adams was Secretary of State they entertained most agreeably. When Lafayette last visited America he was entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Adams at the Executive Mansion. [Illustration: _LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS_ _Copyright 1903, by Bureau of National Literature & Art._] Rachel Donelson Jackson SEVENTH PRESIDING LADY