Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1839-02-15
Cloudy and wet. Time as usual. Evening to see Edmund Quincy.
I devoted much of my time to the reading of the trial of Burr. Never was a case so embarrassed with preliminary motions, challenges of jurymen, questions of bail &ca. I have as yet no idea of the merits. A struggle of wit among acute lawyers seems the only characteristic of the work.
Antigone, and went in the evening to see Edmund Quincy who is recovering. Mrs. Quincy was not there but he was, and we sat an hour. Letter from my Mother today covering some bad intelligence.1 The public news is also of great disaster from a furious storm in the British Channel.
LCA, in her letter to CFA (11 Feb., Adams Papers), reported “a disgusting tale” involving Thomas Baker Johnson Frye, son of the Nathaniel Fryes: “You and Abby will start with astonishment and disgust to learn that he has been married some time, and is the Father of a Son by Miss Catherine Johnson, the immaculate Saint of thirty three, who was a visitor at Mrs. Frye’s when you were with us last April