Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 7
1837-12-18
Morning colder and a change in the temperature so as to bring on heavy rain. I remained at home upon my coins as long as I could and then went to the Office. The world is in much of a ferment about Mr. Fletcher who has equivocated himself into a very false position and has been sacrificed by the Atlas and its cabal here with extraordinary promptitude.1 What trials in the career of a public man in the United States.
Had a call from Stanwood who at last came and paid me a sum of interest which much relieves me from my anxiety about Mr. Johnson’s affairs, and also from Mr. Hallett but I presume accidental. He talked of Fletcher’s affair and of the meeting at Faneuil Hall and informed me that he tried to find me to act as Secretary to that Meeting. I told him that if asked I should have accepted it. But he never came near me. He was interrupted and left me. I am not sorry that I was not in the meeting officially and I am not very anxious to renew my relations with him.
Home to Herodotus. Afternoon looking over the letters, for my lecture and wrote to my father for permission to use these papers.2 Evening, Mr. Walsh came in for a short time.
Richard Fletcher, representative from Mass., a whig and a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, had delivered a speech in Faneuil Hall on 6 Nov. in which he alleged acts of undue subservience to the Executive by the Democratic majority of the Committee. His allegations were controverted in a statement made by the six Democrats on the Committee published in the Washington Globe and widely reprinted. Fletcher found it necessary to disavow, in a speech in the House, his earlier speech as it was reported. The controversy was featured in the Boston Atlas, 16 Dec., p. 2, cols. 1–2; 18 Dec., p. 1, cols. 3–5, p. 2, col. 1.
To JQA, 18 Dec., LbC, Adams Papers: “I have been requested to deliver a Lecture before the Historical Society and have consented conditionally—that is, if I can obtain the use of the papers in my possession. My intention would be to use such of my grandmother’s letters most especially as would illustrate the female character of the age of the Revolution.... [T]here would be no publication.”