Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1832-08-06
Cloudy with an Easterly Wind, which in the afternoon produced heavy rain. I went into town, accompanied by James Field, the son of Mrs. Field, the child’s Nurse, who had come from Boston to see her. I had a quiet morning reading Major Hordynski and one or two of the Essays by Mr. Southey lately published in a separate volume. They are very amusing.1 I also read Mr. Slade’s Speech in the House of Representatives which is a severe invective upon the Administration of Gen. Jackson.2
Notwithstanding this account of my time I feel sensible that I am doing nothing for the benefit of myself or of others. But I do not clearly see any mode of amending my ways. The thing must be endured until some opening shall take place by which my labours can have a direction.
Dined at the Tremont House and went from there in a shower of rain to the Boylston Market, where a Meeting of the Directors was held according to custom. As usual a discussion arose which lasted until nearly six o’clock without any prospect of a termination. I was obliged to make a move, so that the business was transferred to a Committee.
Heavy rain during my return to Quincy. Quiet evening. There was an alarm respecting the Cholera in Boston in consequence of sickness at the State Prison.
Robert Southey’s earlier periodical contributions were collected and published as Essays, Moral and Political, 2 vols., London, 1832. Dr. George Parkman had lent the first volume to JQA a few days earlier. JQA’s opinion of the essays differed from CFA’s initial response to them: “They are like the withered flowers of a hortus siccus. Like stale Champaign wine. Like an almanack of a year long gone by. Like an old letter of my own writing. Like anything that once was fresh and lively and brisk and now is obsolete, flat and unprofitable. He 342republishes them as if they were the vaticinations of Cassandra” (JQA, Diary, 7 Aug.).
The Speech on the Resolution Relative to the Collector of Wiscasset (Washington, 1832) by William Slade of Vermont in the House of Representatives on 5 May, which proceeded from a consideration of the case of the Wiscasset, Maine, collector to a general attack on official corruption, was listed in CFA’s catalogue of his pamphlet collection (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 326).