Abigail Adams’s letter of March 31, 1776, was written from Braintree, Massachusetts, to her husband, John Adams—who was in Philadelphia at the Continental Congress urging the case for American independence. The letter, commonly referred to by her admonition to John to “remember the ladies,” first speaks of the fighting in Virginia and the recent British troop withdrawal from Boston. The British position had become indefensible after General George Washington placed fortifications at Dorchester Heights, overlooking the city. Abigail voices optimism about a “temporary peace” in the spring. She then turns to the outlook for the more distant future, in the forming of the new republic. In almost revolutionary language, she implores her husband in this context to keep in view the legal position of women and grant them more liberty.