Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1839-09-04
Fine day. At home. Dine at my father’s. Supervisors meeting. Pic Nic.
I cannot pass over yesterday without remembering that it completed ten years of my married life. Ten years which have been happy far beyond what is the ordinary lot of mortals. Perhaps of all my good fortune, a great share of which had unquestionably been mine, the circumstance of my marriage was the greatest incident. For it stimulated me in the right direction and prevented the preponderance of my constitutional shyness and indolence. And moreover it placed me in a connexion with relations which has proved entirely agreeable and satisfactory. Of my Wife I need not speak as the passage of time has only contributed to make me prize her more highly. And my children are healthy and promising. I will not look forward because I have no right to expect of the future as much as I have enjoyed in the past. God be praised for his goodness to me thus far. May no unworthiness of mine hasten its discontinuance hereafter. I trust in his mercy now as I have ever done.
I was at home until noon and worked steadily upon my Lecture, after which I went to my father’s to attend a meeting of the Supervisors of the Adams Temple and School fund and dined there with them after it was over. President Quincy, Mr. T. Greenleaf, Mr. Miller and Mr. Beale, Mrs. DeWint and her daughter Julia made the company. Dinner was very well. After it was over, we went to a Pic Nic being the same kind of entertainment which we had in this town one year ago. There was a tent on the green below where the citizens had assembled when we got there and where some of them danced, the sight was pretty and rural.
After returning to take tea at home, my father and Wife and Mary went to the Hotel where was a ball much like last year. The company was not so thoroughly well behaved, there was more noise and disturbance than at that time, but on the whole it was a nice shade only of difference. I was rather pleased than otherwise at the spectacle. It was one which could not be seen in any other country, and is characteristic of our Institutions. We returned home before ten and I felt fatigued from so much standing.