Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2
1826-12-04
This day the 2d Session of the Nineteenth Congress commenced. Whether the members who compose it have come with a disposition to be more mild than they were last Winter is yet to be seen. The 91parties which now divide the nation, are pretty distinctly marked but not yet so much so as to be able clearly to define which will prove the strongest. The governing party seems however to be in the best spirits.2
From D/CFA/5. CFA read Plutarch in the morning and played cards with his family in the evening (D/CFA/1).
The Southern supporters of Vice-President Calhoun and the Northern friends of Senator Van Buren were coalescing against the National Republicans led by Henry Clay and JQA. This new alliance of “southern planters and plain republicans of the North” became the triumphant Democratic party of Andrew Jackson (Bemis, JQA
, 2:77).
1826-12-05
The President’s message went in today. It is not so very powerful
CFA read Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene in the morning and played cards with his family in the evening (D/CFA/1). JA’s copy of Spenser, 2 vols., London, 1758, is among his books in the Boston Public Library (
Catalogue of JA’s Library
, p. 234).
JQA’s second annual message of 5 December 1826 merely reviewed the current state of public affairs and the actions taken by the administration to execute the laws. The President made no new proposals but referred the Congress to suggestions offered in his first message. See Richardson, ed., Messages and Papers
, 2:350–364 and entry for 6 Dec. 1825, above.
1826-12-06
A Drawing room in the evening. Recognized a great variety of my old acquaintances both in and out of Congress. But a vast crowd of entire strangers were here, principally members of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal Convention which assembled today, I believe for the purpose of counteracting the effect produced by the estimates of the cost of the work as made by the board of U.S. Engineers. They are made in the most liberal way, and perhaps after all, it would be better at once to accustom the public mind to that amount than to cheat them by prices too low.2
CFA was indolent in the morning, walked, read Spenser, and took a ride with his mother (D/CFA/1).
The Board of Engineers of the U.S. Army had estimated the cost of building the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal at $22,000,000 (JQA, Diary, 23 Oct. 1826). Congress subscribed for 10,000 shares of stock in the company (Bemis, JQA
, 2:75, note).
1826-12-07
Morning at home, weather cold, excessive lounging, walk, Spenser, evening with the family, Cards.
From D/CFA/1.