Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3
1830-02-02
The morning was cloudy and cold though not to be compared with what has preceded. I went to the Office and employed myself as usual. I have directed Whitney to be sued, but am fearful the project was not a wise one. We must wait and see. I occupied myself in drawing up a Letter upon business to my Father in which I stated to him very exactly the condition of the Property, to relieve myself from much of the weight which I feel hangs upon me.1 This now hangs considerably upon my spirits. I called to see Mr. Brooks about the News from Medford which was good, and to see Josiah Quincy about the Note of my Father but could not see him. Thus as usual vanished my morning without my being able fully to account for it. And thus it is always, and thus I am afraid it ever will be in future, but we must have Courage, and go on with the task assigned us.
After dinner I read a portion of my Demosthenes as usual and gained time enough after it to draw off a copy of my first Number of Essays upon Oratory. I am now resolved upon offering it, and on the 152whole am tolerably well satisfied with the neatness of the style. It is a good study to me and whatever may be it’s failure to attract attention, I shall feel a little more confidence in my own powers for appearing before the public. I design offering this to the Editor of the Massachusetts Journal,2 if he accepts it, Well, if not, try again. That is my father’s motto, and I will follow it.
I left off to go to Mrs. Frothingham’s to the weekly Meeting which had been omitted last week on account of the sickness of Mrs. Brooks. The number commonly present was increased by the addition of Miss Parks, Miss Phillips and Miss Wells, a niece of Mrs. Edward Brooks.3 The Meeting professed to be lively but was not a whit more agreeable to me than they usually are. After my return, I sat up some time to read a part of Lord Kaimes.
LbC in Adams Papers. Although he writes at length on the generally depressed state of business, CFA’s principal concern is about the $1,134.24 in accumulated past-due rentals.
That is, David Lee Child.
Frances Boott Wells was the daughter of Frances (Boott) and William Wells Jr., see vol. 2:258, 268.
1830-02-03
Morning cloudy with snow but it soon stopped and produced a pleasant day. I went to the Office as usual and was engaged in the transaction of business for some time. I claimed the Dividend upon the Middlesex Canal Stock for my father, my brother’s Estate and myself, and deposited the amount in the Bank. This sum relieves me from all embarrassment but I had hoped for better results. My anticipations of having a sum sufficiently large to make a handsome investment is entirely vanished, and if I can now from the proceeds of the Quarter pay expenses of repairs and have a fund sufficient to pay off the charges accruing on the first of April without trenching upon next Quarter I shall think I have done very well—Which is one of the vicissitudes to which property is liable. I do not much relish this management of property, it has too many cares, troubles and vexations attending it to make the business agreeable, particularly in depressed times.
At my Office I was occupied in copying my Letter to my Father, and preparing it to send away. I also sent to Mr. Child my first Number thus taking the final leap. It will come out on Saturday, and I must begin to prepare another Number.1 I had a number of visitors, Chardon Brooks about some Tickets to the Theatre, and Workmen to get Orders about the Houses. Returning home I found that Miss Elizabeth Phillips was going to Charlestown instead of to the Theatre which put me in some quandary for I had a Ticket for her. I sent it back however to be 153disposed of. Abby was disturbed by the cross occurrence. It was not very well.
At four I went to a Meeting of the Directors of the Middlesex Canal at the Office of Mr. William Sullivan.2 We proceeded to elect the Officers for the year and do all the necessary business. The Company has been of late years managed by a standing Committee in connection with Mr. Eddy the Agent.3 I do not know how far this plan is entirely correct, but I do not feel as yet at all qualified to make any motion to alter it. It took the afternoon and I came away with a report made to the Board of Directors by Mr. Sullivan which I design copying for information.4 On returning home, I prepared myself directly to go to the Theatre with Abby and Miss Parks who came from Mrs. Frothingham’s. The play was King John, the two leading parts taken by Mr. Booth and Mr. E. Forrest.5 I was on the whole agreeably disappointed in the piece and the acting. Booth ranted less than I had expected but he hardly went through a buffoon afterpiece without evincing symptoms of his infirmity. Returned in a shower of snow, Miss Parks coming to our House.
The first number of CFA’s essay on Eloquence appeared in the Massachusetts Journal on 20 Feb.; see the entry for that date and note 3 there. No further numbers were published.
A member of the directors’ Standing Committee, Sullivan had his office on Court Square (
Boston Directory, 1830–1831). His father, James Sullivan (1744–1808), attorney general and governor of Massachusetts, had been an originator of the plan for the Canal and the principal figure in its early history. See Roberts, The Middlesex Canal, 1793–1860, p. 28, 30, 31, 34, 222.
Caleb Eddy, who served as superintendent, treasurer, and clerk of the corporation, had assumed the agency in 1825 and would continue until 1845 (same, p. 222).
The history, problems, and prospects of the Middlesex Canal were matters of continuing interest to CFA. In Feb. 1829 he undertook a thorough study of the Canal; see vol. 2:339–344. His paper and his copy of the Sullivan report are preserved in one of his composition books (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 315). CFA’s early position on railroad building was clearly affected by his interest in canal enterprises (CFA to JQA, 2 Feb., LbC, Adams Papers; below, entry for 26 Feb.). The Middlesex Canal, joining the Charles River basin and the Merrimac and planned as a first link in a water route from Boston to the St. Lawrence, was particularly vulnerable since the most insistent proposal being advanced was for a railroad paralleling the Canal from Boston to Lowell. The Canal’s obsolescence was rapid after trains loaded with cargo began to ply the route in 1835. See Roberts, The Middlesex Canal, 1793–1860, p. 26–27, 154–158, 170–175, 191–196. A part of the canal’s route is shown on the “map of Boston and the adjacent towns” reproduced in the present volume.
The performance, the play’s first in Boston, was at the Tremont Theatre before a “crowded and fashionable audience.” John was played by Junius Brutus Booth (1796–1852), Falconbridge by Edwin Forrest (1806–1872), Lady Constance by Mrs. Duff. In the farce, Amateurs and Actors, which followed, Booth was Geoffrey Muffincap (Columbian Centinel, 3 Feb., p. 3, col. 4; 6 Feb., p. 2, col. 6). An engraving of Tremont Street and Theatre is reproduced in this volume.