Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3
1830-02-12
The cold was again extremely severe with us. But I have now become so much accustomed to the temperature which now is common that I mind it very little. Such a thing is habit, and such a change does the agreeable difference of a comfortable home of one’s own produce. At the Office as usual, where I was occupied as usual in reading Williston. My morning however was considerably wasted as is commonly the case. I must labour to introduce a change. Tried to find Mr. Isaac P. Davis but could not succeed. Went to the City Bank to get an old Book balanced which belonged to my Brother. Called upon Mr. Brooks for a moment and paid a short visit to Kinsman. Mr. Whitney appears to make no start in any way, and the City Guards affairs progress slowly.
After dinner I continued reading my Demosthenes, which became a little more difficult—But on the whole still very fascinating. Mr. Sparks called to see me about my letter to him, and seemed a little startled by my father’s words.1 He was for returning the whole, but I thought this would not do, so that I talked over the matter and advised to the withdrawal of several Letters not excepted to heretofore by me, and going on a little more cautiously in the future.2 I was glad to get over this business so well, for I feared it would lead me into a scrape.
I began in the evening to read Sir Charles Grandison to the ladies, but we were soon interrupted by the entrance of Mr. and Mrs. Walker from Charlestown, who passed the evening with us. He is an able and an agreeable man and I was glad to see him. She as I have said before is my Wife’s Cousin. We passed a very pleasant evening. They were quite agreeable, and we all finished with a little Supper and some Whiskey Punch which had a very sensible influence in enlivening the group. They left us at ten.
On 11 Feb. CFA had written to Jared Sparks (LbC, Adams Papers) communicating JQA’s decision stated in a letter to CFA, 5 Feb. (Adams Papers), to withhold consent for Sparks to use a letter about which CFA had asked on 24 161Jan. (Adams Papers). The letter in question was upon public matters and was therefore eligible under the terms JQA had originally fixed, but in it JA had expressed views about Franklin intended as private observations.
Acting on JQA’s instructions, CFA had also had to go beyond this and reverse decisions previously made allowing the use of a number of other letters written to individuals on public matters. Permission thereafter would be restricted only to “such public dispatches from JA to Congress as were not in the Department of State but which ought to be included in a publication ordered by Congress.”
Sparks was so “nettled” by the new decision that he seemed inclined to use nothing on these terms. CFA, wishing to avoid a public charge of “illiberality” against his father, modified JQA’s strict rule so as to allow the use of letters written to public characters on public subjects as long as private observations upon individuals were not included (CFA to JQA, 14 Feb., Adams Papers).
CFA’s new rules, in point of fact, conformed to Sparks’ earlier statement of intent (Sparks to JQA, 18 Jan., Adams Papers). However, in the period since JQA granted access to the letterbooks (above, entry for 26 Nov. 1829, note), he had come to regret that he had done so (JQA to CFA, 5 Feb., Adams Papers). This change had been brought about (1) by the appearance in the
North Amer. Rev.
for Jan. 1830 (p. 1–25) of Sparks’ review of Timothy Pitkin’s A Political and Civil History of the United States, 1763–1797, a review which JQA viewed as a “gross and wanton outrage upon the memory of John Jay” (to CFA, 5 Feb.), and which had provoked a bitter public controversy between Sparks and John Lowell (Boston Advertiser, 7, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 19 Jan.); (2) by JQA’s becoming aware of opinions held by Sparks about Arthur Lee that JQA felt constituted “an outrage equally unjust” (see above, entry for 30 Nov. 1829, note); and (3) by sharp differences between Sparks and JQA over James Grahame’s, The History of the Rise and Progress of the United States (JQA to Sparks, 24 Jan., LbC, Adams Papers).
Contributing also to CFA’s difficulties were the crustiness and arrogance of Sparks (CFA to JQA, 24 Jan., Adams Papers).