Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2
1829-05-27
Morning at the Office. Engaged very busily all day in arranging my new Office, which is now ready for removal. I am pleased with it as it promises to be something permanent. It is probable that it will serve me for an Office during my life and this reflection is agreeable after having been tossed about as I have been from place to place. My brother’s papers are as yet an incumbrance, but I hope presently to make a disposal of these. The weather was very warm and it was Elec-382tion day, which is commonly a season of great bustle and noise, but with me today no inconvenience was perceived. In the afternoon, I continued reading Clarendon, though not now so interesting. The detail of the miserable intrigues of the Court faction is disgusting. Again no letters. I felt disappointed tonight because I begin to think that it is not at all probable, that my father proposes coming at present. Procrastination is the character of our family. In the evening, after paying a visit to Susan Tufts who is now sufficiently recovered to be about to return to Weymouth, I walked an hour on the Common.
1829-05-28
Morning at the Office. Occupied as usual in writing and engaged in making my changes. Mr. Farmer called upon me and had some Conversation upon my brother’s affairs. I was a little shocked by what he told me.1 George’s fate was melancholy but on the whole, I have been forced to the unpleasant conclusion that it was not untimely. He would have lived probably to give much misery to his friends and more to himself, and he died when his fate was not so evident as not to admit of a doubt, and a favourable construction so that his memory will be cherished by his friends, and his end lamented.
I commenced reading Starkie on Evidence. Went out to Medford in the Carriage with Mr., Mrs. and Abby Brooks. Afternoon and evening pleasant with her.
Miles Farmer looked after the Boston real estate, located on Hanover and Mechanic streets, owned by Martin Thayer, of Amherst; as partial payment for his services, he, along with his wife and four children, was allowed to live rent free in one of these houses. In January 1829, allegedly at GWA’s request, Dr. David Humphreys Storer persuaded Farmer to take Eliza Dolph (see entry for 13 May, and note, above) and her illegitimate child, now six or seven weeks old, into his family, as a measure “to restore the mother to her friends and society again.” According to Farmer’s subsequent account, GWA’s continued attentions to Eliza aroused the suspicion of other tenants and imperiled Farmer’s job. To persuade him to keep Eliza and their child, GWA offered to tell the whole story to Thayer or to give Farmer $100 in order to secure “the agency of the Union Soap Stone Factory,” on Front Street. Then GWA’s suicide deprived Farmer of both his character reference and his financial backer. Having lost his job with Thayer, he was now laying the groundwork for an attempt at blackmail (
Farmer-Storer Trial
, passim). See entry for 16 July, below.
1829-05-29
Returned to town with Mr. Brooks in a shower of rain, the wind was very chilly and I was in a very light dress, so that I was extremely apprehensive, I had caught cold. Morning at my new Office. After having removed all the remainder of my things from my other Office. 383I sat down and read Starkie with a great feeling of comfort. I take more pleasure even than I expected in the change. Afternoon Clarendon. Account of the death of the King, together with Hume’s Apology for his Character. Still no letters. The day was cloudy with rain, so that in the evening, I remained at home, conversing with Mr. Fuller who was a visiter and a certain Mr. Williams.1
James Williams Jr. See entries for 24 and 30 July, below, and CFA to JA2, 30 July 1829, LbC, Adams Papers.