Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 2

166 27th. JQA

1787-02-27

27th. Adams, John Quincy
27th.

Almost all our Class have arrived. This morning I was not waked by the ringing of the prayer bell and therefore did not attend the recitation. I declaimed this afternoon, part of one of Mr. Fox's speeches, from the Parliamentary debates, in December 1783.1 N. B. Did not speak loud enough, and changed feet too often. We danced in the evening at Putnams chamber till 9 o'clock. Read after I came home, a chapter or two in Gibbon.

1.

Charles James Fox was foreign secretary in the coalition ministry of the Duke of Portland. The speech was undoubtedly Fox's highly “republican” one of 17 Dec., filled with sound Whig principles and made because the King used his personal influence to defeat Fox's India bill. Fox passionately defended the rights of the Commons and liberties of England: “The deliberation of this night must decide whether we are to be freemen or slaves; whether the House of Commons is to be the palladium of liberty or the organ of despotism.” Fox and the rest of the ministers were dismissed the following day, and Pitt formed a government (The Parliamentary Register; Or a History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons..., 112 vols., London, 1775–1813, 12:428–429).

28th. JQA

1787-02-28

28th. Adams, John Quincy
28th.

Mr. Williams gave us an astronomical lecture this afternoon. The sodality met, in the evening at Putnam's chamber, and play'd till nine. Spent an hour with Mead after I return'd.

Benjamin Beale 1 was 18. the 6th. of June last. His father was from Braintree, but he was born at Liverpool in England. He entered the Class just before they commenced sophimores. His disposition is amiable, and he is a good scholar; but the government of the university have so repeatedly taken notice of him at exhibitions, that it has given offence to many of the young gentlemen in the Class, and they affect to despise his abilities; and to deny his scholarship. His talents have perhaps been rather overrated by the government, but I fear they are still more underrated in the Class; and he is not the only person whose popularity with his fellow students, has been greatly diminished by the favours of the government: notwithstanding all the reports circulated by malice and envy, I believe him very deserving: he displays no vanity, either of his person, which is elegant, or of his genius, which has been flattered by distinction, and this I think, is a sure mark of good Sense. Commerce, will probably be his profession, and from his general character, I think he has a good prospect of success. May he obtain it!

167
1.

Beale, son of the merchant Benjamin Beale and his English wife, who became the Adamses' nearest neighbors in Quincy after 1792. Young Beale studied law and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1792, but decided to turn to foreign trade a few years later ( Hist. of Suffolk County, Mass., 1:286; JA to AA2, 29 Oct. 1792, in AA2, Jour. and Corr., 2:124; JA to James Monroe, 6 March 1795, DLC: Monroe Papers).