Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1838-07-31
A cool morning. I accompanied my father to Mr. Greenleaf’s Wharf where we took a bath. The water many degrees cooler than yesterday. After breakfast went to town. Time taken up in commissions. Called to see Mr. Felt and procured the Lecture of which I was in quest. He showed me the State Records and his work in compiling them and arranging their order for binding. A very valuable labour which does as much credit to him as to the State that authorized it.1
Then to my own house to get from there some specie about which I had become uneasy and therefore proposed to change it into Treasury Notes. This done with various other commissions, I returned home better satisfied with my day’s work than I commonly am.
Sent my papers to the Courier. They will furnish another experiment upon the popular feeling. The letters to Biddle are the first of my efforts which ever broke the walls of party. It remains to be seen if these will do the same. Afternoon, Pliny, and Bayle. My father came 86up in the evening with his glass which we found and amused ourselves looking at the Islands of the bay.
Joseph Barlow Felt had in process the arrangement of the state records of Massachusetts in categories and, ultimately, their binding in 326 volumes. They remain in the State Archives as “The Felt Collection.”