Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3
1830-02-18
Morning mild and pleasant. Went to the Office as usual and to see Mr. Brooks who told me he had brought my Wife in with him so that I need not go out. His report of the condition of Mrs. B. is such that I think it likely she will not live many days longer. Returned to the Office and after finishing my usual Diary I sat down to read Plutarch’s Lives of Demosthenes and Cicero which I wish to set before me as constant studies. They are deeply interesting in themselves as exhibiting the greatest specimens on record of perfection in the highest powers of man.1 My morning was gone before I thought. Only one interruption. That not welcome. A man by the name of Haskell came to me to present a bill for lumber used in the House behind my Office.2 Mr. Hollis being the responsible man, I sent him off, but as this was one of poor George’s loose practices, I was obliged to pay it only calling Hollis pretty severely to account. I think I should benefit the Agency much if I could dismiss him.
Found Abby at home, but exceedingly dull and dispirited. I am sorry but cannot help it. She must now go through a hard trial, one of the first she has been subjected to. I called upon Dr. Stevenson to know his opinion—it is decided.3 I then for the rest of the afternoon read Demosthenes with usual interest. In the evening, resumed Clarissa Harlowe with my Wife, so long interrupted.4 After which I read part of Lord Kaimes.
166JQA, animated by CFA’s letters reporting his studies in the ancient orators, had recently returned to the reading of Cicero and found his old enthusiasm unabated. He sought to communicate his passion in a series of letters to CFA in the course of which he calls Cicero “the noblest spirit that ever lived in the Tide of Times” (22 Dec. 1829; 11, 17 Jan., 5 Feb. 1830, Adams Papers). CFA, deep in his studies of the Greeks and relying heavily on three articles in the Edinburgh Review (see above, entry for Jan. 29, note ), entered a strong defense of Demosthenes as the greater (CFA to JQA, 14 Feb., Adams Papers).
Perhaps Levi Haskell, who had a wood wharf at the foot of Poplar Street (
Boston Directory, 1830–1831).
Dr. J. Greely Stevenson had, along with Dr. Daniel Swan, been in regular attendance upon Mrs. Brooks since 25 January. Dr. John C. Warren had also been called in consultation on three occasions. Dr. Stevenson’s call on the 18th was the last. (Brooks, Farm Journal, 25 Jan.–18 Feb. passim.)
On 27 Jan., Clarissa Harlowe, which CFA had been reading aloud to ABA for three months, was put aside to be replaced on 31 Jan. by Sir Charles Grandison. The interruption can be explained if the copy of Clarissa they had been reading was the same copy which ABA sent to her mother at her mother’s request. After Mrs. Brooks’ condition worsened, Mr. Brooks and Charlotte Everett took the copy up and planned to read it through (Charlotte Everett to Edward Everett, 31 Jan., Everett MSS, MHi).
1830-02-19
The morning was extremely mild and agreeable. I went to the Office and occupied myself as usual in my reading going out only to see Mr. Brooks for a moment. He said Mrs. B. had been a little better yesterday and recommended my going out with Abby to see her this afternoon which we accordingly decided to do. I met Isaac P. Davis who asked me to get that business of the Picture done. But the principal part of my time was passed in reading Williston—The Speeches on the Panama Question made by Mr. Berrien in the Senate and Mr. Webster in the House. The surprising thing to me is to perceive how the ingenuity of man was occupied in perverting the objects of that measure. And how blindly men rushed into opposition on selfish ends of a measure intended for a great good. But so it is in human nature. And great national views must in a free government occasionally meet with great checks and discouragement. The surprising thing is that they prevail so much on the whole. Mr. Berrien is a narrow minded Sophist quibbling in a small way.1
I received this morning a letter from my Father in answer to mine upon business and allowing me my Fee for Administration. But where to get the Money a little puzzles me.2 We dined hurriedly, and I then with my Wife started for Medford. The riding was good and we went fast. But Mrs. Brooks was so sick that it was not thought advisable that I should see her. She had been quite revived yesterday, only to sink back further today. So I sat in the parlour and conversed with Mr. Brooks whose spirits are very much depressed. But getting upon 167indifferent subjects we managed tolerably well. Mrs. Everett looks sick and is dull.3 But my Wife bears all this very badly. It totally discomposes her system and makes her fit for nothing. I grieve for her, yet find it myself hard to bear.4 My maxim adopted many years ago is true. We in marrying and thus doubling our means of enjoyment and happiness also double the sources of pain. We returned just at dark which is now much later than it has been. And on arriving at home I sat down to get a little more comfortable and to read a little of Clarissa Harlowe, after which, Kaimes.
The speeches delivered in March 1826 by John Macpherson Berrien and in April by Daniel Webster are in Williston’s Eloquence at 4:14–96. CFA had been present in the House during several days of the debates on “the Panama Question,” one of the crucial issues arising during JQA’s Presidency; see vol. 2:39–41, 85. The Congressional debate was on the proposal, strongly urged by the President and by Secretary of State Henry Clay, to authorize sending United States representatives to the Inter-American Congress to be held at Panama and on restrictive amendments to that authorization that would limit the freedom of the United States representatives to negotiate. For an account of the episode in the vigorously pursued but ultimately unsuccessful effort of JQA and Clay to achieve a larger Latin-American policy and to foster the creation of a Congress of American Nations, see Bemis, JQA
, 1:550–561 and, for an even more extensive treatment, Arthur P. Whitaker, “Tempest over Panama” in his The United States and the Independence of Latin America, 1800–1830, Baltimore, 1941, p. 564–602.
In ordering that the matter of a fee for administering GWA’s estate be referred to JQA (above, entry for 8 Feb.), the Judge of Probate had said that he had decreed $100 in similar cases, but CFA had pointed out to him that in this case he (CFA) enjoyed the use of much of the inventoried property (CFA to JQA, 8 Feb., LbC, Adams Papers). JQA fixed the fee at $100 (JQA to CFA, 12–13 Feb., Adams Papers).
Although sisters of Mrs. Brooks and Mr. Brooks were in attendance, Charlotte Everett, pregnant, felt that, with her sister Ann Frothingham too ill to come to Medford, the family burdens upon her were overwhelming (Charlotte Everett to Edward Everett, letters of Jan.–Feb., Everett MSS, MHi).
CFA’s regard for Mrs. Brooks was beyond the ordinary (below, entry for 23 Feb., note ). To this had been added his awareness for more than a year that her illness was a mortal one. Combined, they had made “a strong reason for my urging my marriage so soon ... for she was exceedingly distressed at the idea that she should not live to see it” (CFA to LCA, 17 Feb. 1830, Adams Papers).