ExclusiveThe First Lady Who Shook Thousands of Hands

In her second term, she was more focused on being a mother, so she was less involved with throwing parties, but she always was the hostess at the White House. She opened up the parlor very graciously and invited people in, despite concerns about the press. She personally would shake the hand of everyone who came by, to the point that she sometimes had to ice her hand because it became swollen from shaking thousands of hands, even when she wasn't doing well from the harsh conditions of traveling around on tours. She still was always gracious. She also started many traditions, which have remained for First Ladies. The letters which she wrote became form letters, which future First Ladies would use until the time that Eleanor Roosevelt changed them a bit. She also started the tradition of personally going around and thanking and saying goodbye to every member of the White House staff. After Grover Cleveland did not win re-election, when she was preparing to leave the White House, she said to the staff, don't change anything. I want everything to be the same as it is today when we come back in four years. She accurately predicted that they would come back in four years. In his campaign for the second time, he campaigned for a second term, her image was used a lot. That was one of the first times, if not the first time, that a president, or rather a president's press team, had used his wife in campaigning. But whoever had that idea had the right idea because people still loved her.