Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 7
1836-12-13
A mild but cloudy day. I went to Market and from thence to the Office. Passed my time partly in assorting my papers and destroying superfluous ones, partly in making up accounts and partly in writing Diary. Nothing new. Short walk during which I called in and read the National Gazette which contains two remarkable papers. One the second letter of Mr. Biddle to my father upon the currency, which is certainly a very able one, and conclusively exposes the absurdity of the course of the Administration, the other Governor Ritner’s message which on some subjects is bold and equally conclusive.1 All the indications are that a vigorous opposition against Mr. Van Buren will be started at once and I do not think his party are very vigorous for the contest. The great security for him is in the implastic character of his opponents.
Home. Livy. Afternoon, walked down to an Auction room by request of Mr. Frothingham and employed the remainder of my Afternoon in assorting Letters. James Warren’s are not interesting. Evening at home. Read to my Wife. Mr. Brooks came in for an hour. After which, Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk which I finished and then wrote a letter or part of one to my father.
On 10 and 11 Nov., Nicholas Biddle addressed letters to JQA “on the condition of the currency of the United States and the Bank question in Pennsylvania.” The first of these had been published in Philadelphia in the National Gazette on 3 Dec., p. 2, cols. 3–6; the second in the issue of 13 Dec., p. 1, cols. 1–6, which also carried the Message of 6 Dec. of Gov. Joseph Ritner to the Pennsylvania Legislature, p. 2, col. 1 - p. 4, col. 1. The Daily Advertiser reprinted the two letters on 7 and 15 December. As so frequently happened, CFA was writing his journal entry a day or more afterward and must have mistaken the date on which he had read the second Biddle letter.