My child is this day three years old. May God bless her and preserve her. I returned to town after breakfast.

The Community seemed to be in great agitation and alarm, nothing else being talked about but the outrage. Yet no clue seems to have been afforded to solve the mystery. The prejudices against the Institution appear to be very general in the County and the act to have resulted from the coarse prejudices of the ignorant and little principled. These repeated outrages in our Country are alarming indications of our condition. The idea that justice must be done by direct violence is becoming familiar to all and the lower part of the population are the persons who think themselves perfectly fitted to administer it. Soon there will be no toleration of any expression of opinion contrary to the popular one. This is the freedom of America. Heavens! what a thought—That man can not be trusted with power. I am afraid it is so.

Much engaged in Commissions. To Medford to dine. Afternoon. Company, Commodore Hull, Mr. Goldsborough of the Navy board and a Mr. Cumming from Georgia.1 The two former I knew in Washington. Quiet evening, read the third volume of Puckler Muskau. Amusing enough.