The weather we now have is remarkably fine. I remained at home all day engaged in pretty constant superintendence of the men who were at work upon the hill, they harrowed the ground over with very little apparent effect. I was occupied in staking out the lines of the road and walk this morning and they then began clearing them out. A little more finishing was also done to the banks which will now be sodded directly. I had time to read one hundred lines of the Iliad and this was pretty nearly the sum of my studies.

Read attentively the message of President Van Buren to Congress. This got to Boston yesterday in the short space of a day and a half.1 It 311does not appear to me a paper which would do any credit to a statesman, but it is well calculated as an appeal to the democratic principle which works wider and wider in our high places. He recommends a separation of the Government from all banking Institutions and an entire withdrawal of its agency in the matter of currency. This is coming back to the confederation. There is no knowing whether the people will or will not sustain these opinions, but I very much misunderstand them if they do one moment after they understand their practical effect.