Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2
1828-12-18
Morning occupied at the Office in reading Law. The day passed without any thing to render it notable. I was busily engaged in my various avocations and hardly heeded the course of time. It began to be cold again and reminded us that Winter was at last coming. Afternoon, interested in Pitkin’s Sketch of the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States. This is a subject with which I am anxious to become familiar. In the evening I dropped in to a Meeting of the Citizens in general to nominate a Mayor. Mr. Otis seemed universally the favourite. How strange are the fluctuations of popular feeling. This gentleman is now up, who was down, and in neither case was there any assignable reason for it. And this nomination from an Administration Committee.1 I went to the Office and read Dr. Johnson.
After Josiah Quincy withdrew from the mayoralty contest (see entries for 11 and 16 Dec., above), a meeting of citizens was held at the Exchange Coffee House on 18 December to choose his successor on the ballot. A large majority favored Harrison Gray Otis, who consented to be a candidate (Columbian Centinel, 20 Dec. 1828). From CFA’s point of view it was ironical that Otis, one of the principal Federalists attacking JQA, should have been selected by an Administration committee.