Diary of John Adams, volume 3

August 6. 1796. Saturday. JA

1796-08-06

August 6. 1796. Saturday. Adams, John
August 6. 1796. Saturday.

Billings and Bass off by Day for Seaweed. Twin oxen sent to be shod.

Omnium Rerum Domina, Virtus. Virtue is The Mistress of all Things. Virtue is The Master of all Things. Therefore a Nation that should never do wrong must necessarily govern the World. The Might of Virtue, The Power of Virtue is not a very common Topick, not so common as it should be.

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Bass and Billings brought another Load of Seaweed in the Evening for the Swine. Sullivan Lothrop went home. Mrs. A. paid him 15 dollars. Mr. Flynt called at Evening. Tomorrow is the last Sunday of his Engagement at Milton. He then goes a Journey for 3 Weeks after which he returns.1 Mr. Whitcomb supplies Us in the mean time. Rode up to the burnt Swamp.

1.

Jacob Flint, Harvard 1794, who was afterward for many years minister at Cohasset (E. Victor Bigelow, A Narrative History of the Town of Cohasset, Mass., Cohasset, 1898, p. 367, 506).

August 7. 1796. Sunday. JA

1796-08-07

August 7. 1796. Sunday. Adams, John
August 7. 1796. Sunday.

I am reading a Work of Cicero that I remember not to have read before. It is intituled M. Tullii Ciceronis Si Deo placet Consolatio.1 Remarkable for an ardent hope and confident belief of a future State.

Mr. Whitcomb preached and dined with Us. Prince, having provoked beyond bearing by his insolent Contempt of repeated orders, got a gentle flogging, and went off, i.e. run away. Thomas Lothrop return'd from Bridgwater.

1.

Cicero's Consolatio is a work of which only fragments, some of them known to be spurious, survive.

August 8. 1796. Monday. JA

1796-08-08

August 8. 1796. Monday. Adams, John
August 8. 1796. Monday.

Billing and Bass gone to mowing Salt Grass at the Beach Meadow. T. Lothrop unloading the Sea weed. No Negro but James, who shall be the last.—Agreed with Mr. Reed of Abington to plough for me next Monday &c. Trask half a day mowing bushes.

August 9. 1796. Tuesday. JA

1796-08-09

August 9. 1796. Tuesday. Adams, John
August 9. 1796. Tuesday.

4 hands mowing Salt Grass. Finished the Beach Meadow. Trask mowing Bushes to make room for the plough upon Penns hill. T. Lothrop, threshing Corn—Brisler winnowing Barley.

August 10. 1796 Wednesday. JA

1796-08-10

August 10. 1796 Wednesday. Adams, John
August 10. 1796 Wednesday.

Billing and Bass collecting Compost. Brought up two Loads of Seaweed and carted several Loads of Earth from behind the Outhouse.

Mr. Howell of Rhode Island came up to see me and conversed the whole Evening concerning St. Croix and his Commission for settling that Boundary.1

1.

David Howell, a lawyer and a former member of the Continental Congress, was one of the commissioners appointed to arbitrate the disputed boundary between the United States and Canada under Article V of Jay's Treaty ( DAB ; see also entry of 2 Aug., above, and note there).

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