Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2
1826-10-23
I shall proceed in this Journal with a mere short detail of the interesting occurrences of my life whatever they may be, skipping over the monotonous pursuits of every day life. In the succeeding week to that which I spoke of in my last page,2 Mr. Sergeant spent the few days he had to pass in Washington previous to his departure for South America on the famous mission which occupied so much of every body’s attention.3 He is an amiable man with some mind, but not so much as would entitle him as I should suppose to the appelation of a great man, although he certainly has it. But this title is so common with us in this country, that it has almost lost it’s weight. The races occupied us three days but I saw very little extraordinary running.
From D/CFA/5.
His entry for 21 Oct., above.
John Sergeant was on his way to attend the second meeting of the Inter-American Congress in Mexico. The United States had had no representatives at the first gathering, held that past summer in Panama, because of prolonged quarreling between the President and Congress. See entries for 4 and 14 April, above, and Bemis, JQA
, 1:550–561.