John was appointed minister to the Russian Empire in 1809, and they traveled to Russia without their two older sons, against Louisa's wishes.

She lived in Russia alone for a year while John negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, and when he asked her to join him in 1815, she made the dangerous 40-day journey across war-torn Europe.

[4]: 93 The Johnsons returned to England and settled in Tower Hill, while Louisa was placed in a London boarding school.

[5]: 81  She was teased for her French mannerisms, and the Catholicism that she had learned in France caused conflict with her Anglican religious education in England.

[1]: 43  He began showing up each day, and only later did the Johnsons realize that he intended to court Louisa, initially believing that his interest was in her older sister Nancy.

[5]: 83–84  She took a prominent role in diplomatic proceedings when she was not ill from pregnancy, and she was popular among the Prussian aristocracy, personally befriending the king and queen.

[3]: 170 [5]: 83  John was recalled from Berlin by his father after Thomas Jefferson was elected president, and the family left Prussia for the United States.

[9]: 168  Her opinion did not change after arriving in Saint Petersburg, which she found disagreeable, but her husband ignored her desires to return to the United States.

[9]: 173  Despite her success, Louisa was unhappy during her time in Russia, as she was separated from her family, regularly ill, and forced to contend with loss.

[5]: 87 When John was called to Ghent in 1814 to negotiate a peace agreement for the War of 1812, Louisa was left in Saint Petersburg, where she would remain for the next year.

[1]: 46  She left in February 1815, and for the next 40 days she made the dangerous journey across Europe, which had been ravaged by the Napoleonic Wars, in the cold winter.

[1]: 47 [6]: 57  Louisa lived more comfortably in London than she had elsewhere; the diplomatic responsibilities were lighter, and she had regular access to an Anglican church.

[3]: 211  Despite this, she worked to build political connections for her husband in Washington, hosting a party each Tuesday regularly visiting the wives of influential congressmen.

[9]: 261  Louisa's relationship with John struggled as he became increasingly occupied by his work,[3]: 207  but she finally earned her mother-in-law's respect after returning to the United States, and they shared a friendly reunion.

[5]: 89  Louisa's most celebrated accomplishment in this role was the ball that she threw for Andrew Jackson in January 1824, which came to be recognized as one of the city's grandest social events.

[3]: 209 [6]: 58  As John sought the presidency in the 1824 presidential election, Louisa effectively managed his campaign and worked beside him as an equal partner.

The administration was unpopular in Congress and unable to advance many of its policies, invoking a bitterness in John that was often directed toward Louisa.

[9]: 330 The White House itself was in poor condition when Louisa and John occupied it, as it had never been fully restored after the burning of Washington.

[9]: 328–329  Louisa herself became a target in political rhetoric against John, in which she was portrayed as an out of touch European that demanded to be treated as an aristocrat.

[9]: 360–361 Louisa had always been vulnerable to illness, but her health worsened during her years in the White House, and she was left bedridden on multiple occasions.

[9]: 332  Louisa's greatest responsibility as first lady came upon the deaths of former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on July 4, 1826.

[9]: 342  Against her husband's wishes, she left the White House and traveled to the Adams family home in Quincy[9]: 345–346  Louisa and John reconciled toward the end of the presidential term in 1828.

She blamed her husband in part for the failures and deaths of their two older sons, believing that they could have been given better lives had they not been separated from their parents in their childhood.

[5]: 92  Two years later, in improved spirits, she wrote another autobiography covering her journey from Russia to France in 1815, hoping that it would inspire other women.

[9]: 410 Though she shared society's dismissive attitudes toward black people,[6]: 64 [9]: 423  she became an abolitionist,[11]: 143  and she supported her husband in his anti-slavery work in Congress.

[5]: 93  Her position on the matter was even stronger than her husband's, who had aligned with the abolitionists primarily because of his principled opposition to the gag rule against discussing slavery in Congress.

[6]: 59  Though she did not accept feminism in its entirety, she began a correspondence with feminist Sarah Moore Grimké and engaged in Biblical studies to challenge the prevailing view that the Bible ordained the subservience of women.

[8] Louisa was widowed on February 23, 1848, two days after her husband lost consciousness due to a fatal stroke in the United States Capitol.

[1]: 51 Adams's role as a first lady has received relatively little scholarly analysis compared to the rest of her life, as she did not keep a diary during her years in the White House.

[15][16] Since 1982 Siena College Research Institute has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president.