Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1838-04-19
My third letter was printed today, that which I think the best. They evidently make some sensation as there was besides a feeble attempt to array a quotation from Mr. Webster’s Speech against me, a very short editorial betraying the fact of private remonstrances against their publication on the ground of their being loco foco in the extreme.1 Such are the perversions of principle prevailing at this time here. It is matter of great surprise that they were admitted at all.
I was at the Office engaged partly in affairs and partly in executing various commissions, a little in translating Sismondi although I have abandoned my project of publication. Call upon T. K. Davis and settle our intention of departure for Tuesday.
Rainy all day. Afternoon engaged in working up the remainder of the coinage. Evening, Mr. Brooks spent with us. After which I rather dawdled.
Accompanying the publication of CFA’s third letter to Biddle in the Courier were two items related to it. The first was a brief editorial comment on the letters, headed “Mr. Biddle and the Banks,” saying, “We see no reason, loco foco or not, why the public should not have advantage of the writer’s opinions.... why we should refuse hearing to a respectable correspondent.” The second, immediately following the first, was a letter to the editor, unsigned, with the heading, “Specie Payments and Mr. Biddle,” in which Webster’s position on specie payments in his sub-treasury speech is quoted, summarized, and praised (p. 2, col. 5).