Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3
1830-06-28
Morning very warm. I tried this morning Mr. Brooks’ shower bath before breakfast and found myself exceedingly refreshed by it.1 The feeling of the morning air though chilly is very delicious. There is a freshness about it, and the Country looks so verdant and still that it cheers the spirits to the task of the day. Rode to town and went to the Office. Mr. Spear my doubtful Tenant sent me two thirds of his Rent as did also Mrs. Wells. I believe in order to ensure punctuality it is 270highly necessary to keep persons in mind of their obligations. I was thus enabled to make a further deposit this month, and found that it had been the largest since my assuming the Agency. But this will avail little. My father seems equally satisfied if an Agent is minus a thousand dollars or if he scrapes faithfully every source. He came to town today much exhausted, and apparently depressed. I do not relish this in the least. He is in many respects an altered man. Returned to Medford to dine, but was caught in a very violent thunder shower which wet me very considerably.
Mr. Brooks and Mr. Frothingham did not dine at home, having gone to Charlestown to hear Mr. Everett deliver an Oration upon the Anniversary of it’s being two hundred years since the first settlement.2 I should like to have gone if I had not so violent a crowd to deal with. As it was I felt content in being able to sit and read Winthrop, though rather a dry study. The weather was showery. Evening, Mr. Stetson and Mr. Frothingham came home, afterwards Mr. Brooks. We got into a warm and animated conversation, or rather argument upon the subject of the Colonization scheme.3 I confess I am rather inclined to think well of it as the only cool and apparently reasonable scheme which has been presented. But Mr. Brooks and Mr. Frothingham were against me.
Peter C. Brooks had several years before constructed a “small house under the bank of the Canal” in which a shower bath was rigged. He delighted in the baths, prolonging them as late into the autumn as he could. CFA found the baths among the pleasant aspects of successive stays at Mystic Grove. See Brooks, Farm Journal, 24 Sept. 1826; below, vol. 4, entry for 22 Aug. 1832.
The ceremonies had begun at Town Hall from where a procession moved up Main Street to Charlestown’s First Church. There at 4 p.m. to an audience that crowded the hall “to excess,” Edward Everett delivered an address “eminently able and eloquent” (Boston Patriot, 28 June, p. 2, col. 5; 30 June, p. 2, col. 2). The address is printed in Edward Everett, Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions, Boston, 1850, 1:215–245.
The American Colonization Society addressed an appeal to the “Clergy and Congregations of all denominations of Christians throughout the United States” that was designed to be read in pulpits in support of “the establishment of colonies of the free people of colour on the African coast.” The advancement of the colony of Liberia, it was held, would “relieve our country of a class injurious to the public welfare, .... elevate its character and confer upon it the most precious social and political blessings, ... suppress the slave trade, ... [and create] in Africa a Christian Republic” (Boston Patriot, 24 June, p. 2, col. 2).
1830-06-29
Morning to town. At the Office nearly all day, busy in preparing my Quarterly Accounts, bringing them down to the present period and drawing out a Copy to present.1 This has been the best Quarter since 271I have had any thing to do with the Agency. Yet my father has the impression that his property in Boston is paying him nothing. So that aware as I am of the difficulty I have had to arrange it to the best advantage, I find that the expectations are always higher.
My reply to Mr. Foster’s Article upon Railways appeared in this morning’s paper, just after an article of his on the Constitutionality of it.2 I did not relish it’s appearance as I never do my own writing. Mr. Curtis called for a minute to see me, to speak of the Boylston affairs. After going to order a bathing tub for my Mother, I started for Medford.
The afternoon was again showery though with little thunder. I made great progress in Winthrop’s Journal. Mr. Savage is a Tory, and a maker of very indifferent Notes. Strange that the Puritans should have fallen into such hands. Strange that a descendant should become so infected with the spirit of European dominion. Evening, Mssrs. Angiers came in on a visit of an hour.3 Told us of a Robbery of the Branch Bank.
CFA to JQA, 30 June (LbC, Adams Papers). The quarterly statement of the Agency showed a balance of $906.21 after payment of all repairs undertaken on the property. This amount did not include quarterly payments of $565 due to be met on 1 July nor any of the receivables due on the same day. CFA urged that the surplus that would be deposited to JQA’s account be invested promptly. He reported as information that the income before expenses received by the Agency, 1 July 1829–30 June 1830, was $5,619.12.
The second letter of “Honest Industry” urged the constitutionality of a grant by the city toward the construction of a railroad. CFA’s letter, signed “A Calm Observer,” followed this letter but was an answer to the earlier letter published on 24 June. Opposing the city’s “dabbling in railways,” CFA argued that government operation was inefficient and uneconomical, that railroad building was an artificial stimulant to the Boston economy, that “where capital is, there it will naturally seek advantageous investments.” Summarizing, he wrote: “My choice is the slow jog of common sense, by which, though I lose in quickness of motion and perhaps opportunities for display, I am sure to get an equivalent—i.e. my journey’s end without risk of my neck” (Boston Patriot, 29 June, p. 1–2).
John and Luther Angier of Medford, masters of an academy for boys which several of ABA’s brothers had attended (vol. 2:405; Brooks, Waste Book, 1821). On John Angier, who later married Abigail Smith Adams, see vol. 2:206 and Adams Genealogy.