Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1832-12-03
Cloudy, rainy and warm morning — The snow and ice disappearing nearly as fast as it came. I went to the office and was occupied nearly all my time in Accounts and writing up the long Diary minute of yesterday. My time disappears with rapidity and I find I improve it little more than I used to. My general occupation however is of such a kind that I ought not to reprove or trouble myself particularly about it. Took a walk with Mr. Peabody notwithstanding the Rain and returned home early. We found a letter from my Mother in much improved spirits.1
Afternoon, busy reading over the whole of the materials I am working upon and I found them of great use. But it will be necessary 412to write over No. 5 and 6—A labour I might easily spare and which I do not know why I assume.
Evening quiet at home—Reading Malvina and the life of Mrs. Darner, Sculptress.2 Afterwards I stopped my German, for the sake of examining the Antimasonry.
Letter missing.
CFA here, or a few days earlier (above, entry for 30 Nov., note), began to supplement his reading of biographies of painters (entries for 10 and 25 Nov., above) with the lives of British sculptors which were contained in the 3d volume of Cunningham’s Lives of ... Painters and Sculptors: Mrs. Anne Damer, John Bacon, Louis Francis Roubiliac, Thomas Banks, and John Flaxman.
1832-12-04
Cloudy morning and mild. I went to the Office. Occupied some time in making up my Accounts and writing Diary. I then went to the Athenaeum for the purpose of examining the Anti Masonic Review in regard to the character of Morgan but although I had seen the book there some time ago, I could not now find it either on the shelves or in the Catalogue.1 I seized the opportunity however to read the article in Mr. Walsh’s Review upon the subject.2 Found it to be miserably barren.
Took a walk and returned home. After dinner I began to rewrite my No. 5. Amplified and new moulded the reasoning so as to appear in a better form. The exercise of writing sharpens the reasoning faculties, while that of reading much, dulls them. I think I improve in my style. At any rate I make my afternoons fly. And I do not know that I could do more good in any other manner.
Evening, I read to my wife two Chapters in the Bible and we accomplished some pages in Malvina. Mr. and Mrs. Frothingham then came in and passed two hours. I conversed with the former upon the explanations of the Bible, and felt desirous of ascertaining whether I could obtain any brief Commentary that would answer the purpose. It does not seem that there is such a thing. We had a pleasant little Supper and broke up at a little before ten. I omitted my German again and continued writing.
The Anti-Masonic Review, published at New York from Jan. 1828 to Dec. 1830, had become in 1831 the New York Register and Antimasonic Review.
An essay-review of Stone’s Letters on Masonry and Anti-Masonry in the American Quarterly Review, 12:57–87 (Sept. 1832).
1832-12-05
Morning cool and cloudy. I went to the Office. Time occupied much as usual. I wrote, calculated my accounts and went on with Mr. 413Lingard. But I am pretty tired of his perpetual labour to justify that which cannot be justified. His candour is just sufficient however to keep me not absolutely provoked with him. I took a walk with Mr. Cazenove. The political news is of somewhat an alarming character. South Carolina has assumed a warlike attitude. She is about to fence with the Union, and God knows what the end of it will be.
Afternoon. Worked upon No. 5 which I finished and extended. It is altogether the best of the series in my estimation. But what is the benefit of all my labour. Nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit. The amount of power necessary to produce an impression upon the Public is four times what it used to be. Talent has come forward so rapidly under the impulse given by our system of government.
Quiet evening at home. Read Malvina with my Wife, and the Life of John Bacon the Sculptor to her. Afterwards, instead of German, hammered away upon No. 6.