Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2
1826-10-19
I was consequently glad when at three o’clock in the morning of the 19th I was directed to get up to accompany my father to Washington. He had just arrived and looked as well as I ever had seen him. We travelled very rapidly and arrived in time to hear Mr. Wirt deliver his Eulogy of Jefferson and my Grandfather.2 It was very good but not altogether what I expected. But I am of opinion that the facts of the case in their death, are above description and that their lives require a volume. I was consequently very anxious to reach home and obtain something to eat as I had tasted nothing during the day.
From D/CFA/5.
William Wirt, A Discourse on the Lives and Characters of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, Washington, 1826. Wirt, the attorney general, was reluctant to orate on both Presidents and preferred to discourse only of Jefferson, whom he had known. Members of the cabinet and other Washingtonians, however, persuaded him to include an account of JA so as to give an impression of national unity. (Of the many letters on the subject in the Adams Papers see especially Richard Rush to JQA, 27 July 1826.)