Adams Papers Digital Edition

Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8

383 Chronology Chronology

Chronology

Charles Francis Adams, 1836–1840

1836

Resides in Boston with wife and three children at 3 Hancock Avenue and maintains an office at 23 Court Street.

1836	June 15–July 22	Travels to Niagara with wife ABA, via the Hudson River and Erie Canal, then to Montreal and Quebec, and returns via Saratoga and Lebanon Springs.
1836	July 24, 25	His article “The Slavery Question Truly Stated,” completed before his departure, is published in the Boston Daily Advocate.
1836	July 11	President Jackson orders the Treasury to issue the Specie Circular, which made gold and silver the “sole acceptable payment for public lands” and led to hoarding and weakened confidence in the state banks.
1836	Aug. 2 – Nov. 1	His annual summer residence at the Old House in Quincy with JQA and LCA continues while construction proceeds on his new house, nearby, for the growing family.
1836	Sept. 1 – 24	His series in five numbers supporting the election of Van Buren, entitled “To the Unpledged Voters” and signed “One of the People,” is published in the Advocate.
1836	Sept. 3	JQA presents to him the “Pine Tree, Deer, and Fish” seal crafted in London in 1816 by JA’s order to emblemize JA’s contributions to the definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783 and JQA’s success in reasserting the same rights in the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.
1836	Nov. 2	His article supporting the candidacy for Congress of A. H. Everett, entitled “A Word for the Wise” and signed “A Friend to Mr. Everett,” is published in the Norfolk Advertiser.
1836	Nov. 14	JQA is reelected to the House of Representatives from the 12th Massachusetts District with scattered opposition.
1836	Dec. 7	Martin Van Buren is elected president.

384 1837

1837	Jan. 25 – Feb. 8	His series in six numbers, with the title “Mr. Webster and the Currency and signed “A,” is published in the Boston Daily Advocate.
1837	Feb.	His pamphlet Reflections Upon the Present State of the Currency, Boston, 1837, 34 p., a reworking of “Mr. Webster and the Currency” and including additional papers not printed in that series, is published. Efforts to expel or censure JQA for his persistent effort in the House of Representatives to introduce petitions from women and slaves in defiance of the “gag rules” adopted in May 1836 fail after bitter debate.
1837	March 13	His article on the collectorship of the port of Boston is printed as an editorial in the Advocate.
1837	May 10	The New York banks suspend specie payments and are followed by banks at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Boston.
1837	May 20	Resumes summer residence at the Old House in Quincy, pending completion of his new house in October.
1837	June 17 – 20	His article “Calm Thoughts Upon Our Money Affairs,” signed “A,” is published in the Quincy Patriot.
1837	June 21	In England, Victoria becomes queen.
1837	Aug. 18	Breaks relations with the Advocate over the paper’s editorial support of the Van Buren Administration’s policy on money and banks with which CFA was in profound disagreement.
1837	Sept. 2 – Oct. 7	His series in four numbers, “The Annexation of Texas” signed “One of the People,” the first of his many efforts to prevent admission, is published in the Quincy Patriot.
1837	Oct. 25, Nov. 1	Delivers two lectures in Quincy on the Northern Discoveries, twice repeated for other audiences on later occasions.
1837	Nov.–Feb.	Prepares biographical notice of LCA, which would appear with her portrait in vol. 4 of Longacre and Herring, National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, Phila., 1839.
1837	Dec. 4	Publishes an article signed “One of the Many” in the Boston Morning Post expressing outrage at the murder of abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy in Illinois and opposition to the action of Boston officials in denying use of Faneuil Hall for a public meeting of protest.
1837	Dec. 14	Lt. Thomas Boylston Adams Jr., oldest son of JQA’s brother TBA, dies of a fever in Florida while serving in the Second Seminole War.
385
1837	Dec. 26	Publishes under his own name a pamphlet, Further Reflections Upon the State of the Currency in the United States, Boston, 1837, 41 p., a sequel to his earlier pamphlet but containing no material earlier published.

1838

1838	Jan. 23	Delivers a lecture entitled “Materials for History” upon invitation of the Massachusetts Historical Society at the Masonic Temple, Boston, on the spirit of the American Revolution as seen in the correspondence of AA and JA. During the next two years the lecture would be repeated for eight other audiences. The occasion marks the first time any substantial number of letters from the Adams family archives were communicated to the public.
1838	Feb. 16	Henry Brooks Adams (HA), his fourth child, is born in Boston and later christened in Quincy.
1838	April 17 – 20	His four “Letters to Nicholas Biddle, President of the Bank of the United States,” signed “A Citizen,” are published in the Boston Courier. They undertake to justify his shift from support to opposition of Biddle’s policies, particularly Biddle’s stand against the resumption of specie payments.
1838	April 25 – May 31	Visits Washington, D. C., with ABA and his friend Thomas K. Davis.
1838	May 3	His “Letters to Biddle” are reprinted in the New York Journal of Commerce.
1838	May 11	The Courier publishes his letter signed “A Citizen” restating the independence of his views and clarifying further his position, under attack.
1838	May 14	A disagreement with his friend Davis leads to a complete break in November over whether it is possible to seek political office without thereby sacrificing one’s personal principles to the demands of party.
1838	May 21	The Specie Circular is suspended.
1838	June 13 – Nov. 6	Spends his first complete summer at his new house in Quincy.
1838	Aug. 2–8	His article in the Courier in four parts, “The Democratic Address” signed “A Conservative,” is an unfavorable review of a paper circulated by a committee of Administration supporters in the Congress on currency questions and their bearing upon the slavery issue.
386
1838	Aug. 17	Publishes in the Courier a rejoinder, signed “A Conservative,” to a Washington Globe attack on his recent four-part article.
1838	Nov. 13	JQA, though opposed, is reelected to the House of Representatives from the 12th Massachusetts District.
1838	Nov. 15 – Dec. 1	His unsigned series in seven numbers directed against Van Buren and Calhoun and titled “Political Speculations Upon the Carolina Policy” is published in the Courier.
1838	Dec. 14	Replies in the Courier to a renewed attack in the Washington Globe on “The Democratic Address.”
1838	Winter	To counter ABA’s prolonged malaise, the Adamses participate more actively than in earlier years in Boston’s social season.

1839

1839	Jan. 31	Dispatches to the trustees the 120-page “Catalogue of Brass Coins of the Roman Empire belonging to the Boston Athenaeum” he has had in preparation since Feb. 1838.
1839	March 14–23	His series in four numbers, unsigned, with the title “The Prospect for the Currency,” taking issue with the secretary of the treasury’s report, is published in the Courier.
1839	May 9	His daughter, LCA2, is seriously injured when hit by a wagon.
1839	May 18 – Nov. 6	Renews residence in Quincy.
1839	July	His essay-review of Matthew L. Davis’ Memoirs of Aaron Burr and of Burr’s Private Journal is published in the North American Review , and “The State of the Currency, by Charles F. Adams” is published in Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine .
1839	July 6–18	His unsigned series in four numbers, “The Southern Commercial Conventions,” directed at the anti-Union activities rife in the South, is published in the Courier.
1839	Aug.	“The Theory of Money and Banks,” his review of George Tucker’s The Theory of Money and Banks Investigated, is published in Hunt’s. The author’s name is attached to this and to subsequent articles in Hunt’s . Begins preparing a volume of AA’s letters which would be published in 1840, the first fruits of his work on the family papers.
1839	Sept.	His “Banks and the Currency” is published in Hunt’s .
1839	Oct. 24 – 29	His article “The Philadelphia Manifesto,” signed “A,” is published in the Courier in three parts.
1839	Oct. 30	Is offered and declines nomination by the whigs for the Massachusetts legislature.
387
1839	Nov. 20	Georgeanna Frances, the younger child of his dead brother JA2, dies in Quincy.
1839	Dec.	His “The State of the Currency,” and amplified version of “The Philadelphia Manifesto,” is published in Hunt’s .

1840

1840	Jan. 7, 9	His letter, unsigned, criticizing the President’s Message, is published in the Courier.
1840	Jan. 20 – 27	Journeys to New York City to address the Mercantile Library Association in Clinton Hall.
1840	Jan. – Feb.	Two essays, “The Principles of Credit” and “The Politics of the Puritans,” are completed. The first would be published in the March issue of Hunt’s , the second in the April issue of the North American Review .