Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3
1830-02-23
Morning again delightful. I went to the Office, and was occupied in continuing the abstract of my brother’s Inventory. This took me nearly the whole morning—A very tedious and not an agreeable job. The result I am also a little in anxiety about. I finished however my little tribute to the memory of Mrs. Brooks and sent it to the Newspaper.1 It is not so good as I wish it was, but I do not now feel capable of doing any thing better. My head is not great at writing. I am unable to produce any thing very extraordinary or striking. But Mr. Brooks should pardon the effort in the good intention.
As Abby was occupied at Mrs. Frothingham’s in working, I went down to dine there. She looks better than she did, though still apparently an invalid. Mr. F. her husband has not yet returned which to her was matter of great regret.2
After dinner I went home and passed the afternoon in my study reading Demosthenes in which I progressed exceedingly. There are some difficulties occasionally but I have so many good Notes and commentaries that I get along easily. I attempted another number 171upon Oratory but without spirit. How much writing in it’s effect dwindles from the inspiration in which it is written. My ideas are not strong enough. The truth is that today I fell into a kind of melancholy train of ideas. My ambition seems to have lost it’s tone, my mind it’s hopes. I look to the future with some dread, for what will be likely to turn out as the result. My father must be my adviser and advocate in cases where I may feel too weak to stand for myself. The evening was passed in my Study reading Walker’s Rhetorical Grammar,3 a book I do not incline to think very favourably of. It makes too much of small matters. My Wife returned at nine, and I tried to sit up and read Lord Kaimes but found myself quite unable from weariness.
CFA’s unsigned tribute appeared in the Columbian Centinel for 24 Feb., p. 3, col. 2. It concluded: “The writer has known the subject of this, for a period in time perhaps comparatively short; but long, if that time is measured by the opportunities he has had of watching the rich abundance of her charity, of witnessing the strength of her parental attachments, and of experiencing the living warmth of her love.” His tribute privately expressed was no less warm: “Goodness of heart was her eminent attribute ..., her benevolence flowed as from a continual spring” (CFA to LCA, 17 Feb., Adams Papers).
Mr. Frothingham arrived on 24 Feb. in time for the funeral. Though he had left Washington the week before, his sister-in-law wrote that “his immoderate love of New York has kept him there, notwithstanding Ann wrote him of Mother’s illness, and of her being sick herself” (Charlotte Everett to Edward Everett, 23 Feb., Everett MSS, MHi).
John Walker, A Rhetorical Grammar or Course of Lessons in Elocution, London, 1785.