Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2
1826-01-17
Morning at home, Blackstone, walk, Mr. Force, political opinions, Mr. Jefferson, Beaumont and Fletcher, evening out.
1826-01-18
Morning at home, weather cold, Blackstone, Beaumont and Fletcher, evening with the family, dull.
1826-01-19
Morning at home, unwell, violent cold, Blackstone, Beaumont and Fletcher, evening, walk.
1826-01-20
Morning at home, Uncomfortable from a cold, Blackstone, Beaumont and Fletcher, confined to my room, letter to Richardson.1
Missing.
1826-01-21
Morning at home. Influenza, unable to do anything, impatience, evening, a little better.
1826-01-22
At home all day, family sick, Influenza, the Subaltern,1 myself better, evening at home.
Anon., The Subaltern, Edinburgh, 1825.
1826-01-23
At home all day, Blackstone, indolent, evening with the family, Executive records.1
Beginning with this entry and continuing until the summer of 1828 (see entry for 10 June 1828, below), CFA’s diary makes frequent reference to the “Executive Record” (or sometimes “Executive Records”). JQA allowed his son to earn his allowance by making a copy of the executive proceedings of the United States Senate, a record which was at this time unpublished but which was subsequently printed as the Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America: From the Commencement of the First, to the Termination of the Nineteenth Congress, 3 vols., Washington, 1828. The Adams Papers contain five large bound volumes of these transcripts (M/JQA/65–69, Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel Nos. 257–261), of which all of Volumes 2–4 and part of Volume 1 are in CFA’s careful handwriting. The proceedings which CFA copied did not, like the
Annals of Congress
and the
Register of Debates in Congress
, contain speeches but were confined to a record of messages submitted by the Chief Executive and of motions and actions 29taken by the Senate on nominations, treaties, etc. For comment on these journals, see Laurence F. Schmeckebier and Roy B. Eastin, Government Publications and Their Use, Washington, 1961, p. 130–131.