Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3
1830-07-02
Morning clear and warm. I arose very early to enjoy the freshness of the morning air. After breakfast, rode down with my Wife to Mr. E. Everett’s at Charlestown where I left her, to pass the morning, and proceeded to town. My morning was taken up in usual little things. My hurry of business for the three last days prevented my writing my Journal for that time so that I had to make it all up at once today.
I forgot to mention that my Article drew me into Controversy, for Mr. Foster answered me and I took notice of his answer immediately. Whether he knows who it is I cannot, say, but from certain allusions I conclude that he does. My reply was hurried and imperfect but a great point is to put it in quickly.1
I read today Mr. Alex H. Everett’s article in the new Number of the North American Review upon British Opinions of American Literature written in his very best style.2 This consumed the morning and I returned to Medford taking up my Wife on the way. Afternoon reading the second Volume of Winthrop, confirmed in my dislike of Savage. The Misses Osgood and Miss Ward3 paid a visit to the House this evening, but I was so fatigued as to care very little about entering into Conversation. The Evening was brilliant and delicious.
Foster in his reply charged that the arguments of “A Calm Observer” neglected the public benefit that would accrue and were addressed only to the question of whether the construction of a railroad would be advantageous to the wealthy (Boston Patriot, 1 July, p. 2, col. 3). CFA’s answer asserted that the private and public interest are the same, “but a large body is always acting more blindly, and is therefore liable to be led wrong when a private man can clearly see his way.” Further, “I do not mean to be understood as opposing railways. If they are good, my belief is that capitalists will take hold of them, and that their’s are the proper hands to undertake them” (same, 3 July, p. 2, col. 4).
North Amer. Rev.
, 31:26–66 (July 1830). A. H. Everett’s observations on “An Article in the 99th Number of the Edinburgh Review.”
Perhaps Mary Gray Ward, daughter of Thomas W. and Lydia (Gray) Ward (Medford Vital Records, Boston, 1907, p. 160). See also entry for 26 July, below.