Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1838-05-18
We had showers in the morning which moderated the heat a little. Mr. Frye called after breakfast and I gave him the papers of Lt. Casey sent to settle T. B. A.’s affairs. I then accompanied my father in the carriage to the capitol, returning the visits of the Russian Minister1 on the way.
But the House did not appear disposed to take any thing up so I walked home, calling upon Mr. Meredith who had left town2 and upon Johnson Hellen.3 The latter I found in his room complaining of his condition much. He does not look sick, but has the appearance of a heautontimorumenos.4 I could not help pitying the condition to which a man can by his own art reduce himself. He reminds me much of the passage of years. After a slight conversation, the entrance of a client interrupted us and I promised to call again.
Home where I amused the rest of the day in reading the report upon the West India Emancipated Colonies, and the Bank Report made by Mr. Woodbury.5 Quiet evening at home.
Baron de Maltitz.
Probably George Augustus Meredith, a Harvard classmate of CFA; see vol. 2:
On Johnson Hellen, a nephew of LCA and brother of Mrs. JA2, see vol. 5:195.
A self-tormentor, adapted from the title of a play by Terence (
Webster, 2d edn.); and see vol. 5:265.
An essay on the results of emancipation in the British colonies in the West Indies was in the current issue of the Eclectic Review of London (68:450, 532). The text of the Bank Report of Levi Woodbury as transmitted by the President to the Senate on 10 May appeared in the Washington Globe, 11 May, p. 2, col. 1.