Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1839-06-27
Warm day. At home. Evening at the Mansion.
Mrs. Adams was so unwell that she could not get up this morning, and I felt more exhausted than I have done for many years. I am at a loss for a cause. The day was however passed in a pretty languid way. I began our examination of the Report of the Southern convention which I am satisfied I can show to be unreasonable and absurd.1 This took most of my active time.
After dinner, finished Lucan. A work which I admire on the whole, particularly when I remember it the work of so young a man. Invention is the attribute of the young but perfecting comes by age, and Lucan was cut off in his prime. Evening at my Mother’s.
As is suggested here and amplified in the entry for 3 July, below, CFA had JQA’s help in the preparation of the series of articles that would eventuate from an examination of the report of a committee of the Southern Convention held in April in Charleston, S.C. The report, in essence, undertook to demonstrate that national policies had brought about, over a long period, severe decline in the export and import trade in the southern states. Tables from the report in support of this thesis were published in the Daily Centinel & Gazette, 18 June, p. 2, col. 3. On CFA’s articles in rebuttal, see entry for 4 July, below.