Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1832-05-21
Morning clear but windy, cold and disagreeable. I continued my Catalogue and then went to the Office. Received a letter from my father informing me of the departure of my Mother from Washington and the probability of her being here some day this week. He also gives me news about the Tariff &ca. not of a very agreeable nature. He deserves credit for his very independent political course, but it is rather an injurious one in this Quarter, and likely to add to his unpopularity.1
After dinner, I went to Quincy. Found every thing in very good order. On the whole, more progress has been made in setting things right this year than during the three last. I am myself surprised at the result.2 I gave all the directions that remained to give which were not in great number, and returned home.
The Dr. pronounces the child better, and I think she is, but I still doubt the expediency of carrying her away from him. He does not however, so that I ought to be satisfied. My Wife and I paid old Mrs. Dexter a visit this evening. She is a woman of sane mind with a rather broken body. Returned home and continued Catalogue.
“I expect to report a [Tariff]
Billtomorrow; but what is to become of it and of myself for reporting it, is in the Council of higher Powers. My Bank Report extinguishes all the fire of my Southern friends. I suppose the Tariff Bill will demolish me in the North, and then —“Why then for the Biography of the last and the Oaks of the next Century”
(JQA to CFA, 16 May, Adams Papers; 302printed in part in MHS, Procs., 2d ser., 19 [1905]:519).
LCA, on her arrival, expressed her pleasure in the changes she found at the Old House. To JQA she wrote, “I find every thing here in beautiful order and you would hardly know the Place” (26 May, Adams Papers); and to CFA, “I thank you very much for the improvements which you have made in the house which looks altogether different from what it was last year. And the Garden seems to be in fine order” (26 May, Adams Papers).