Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1832-12-17
Morning warm with heavy rain. I went to the Office and from thence to Faneuil Hall. A meeting of the Citizens had been called for the purpose of expressing an opinion in answer to the President’s Proclamation.1 As one of the Community, I doubted the expediency of the call,2 but I went to hear what could be said about it. The hall was quite full. Mr. F. Dexter began. He said not much and was quickly done. And one third of what he did say might in my humble opinion have been left entirely unsaid. Mr. Webster made some remarks, merely pledging himself here and elsewhere to support the proclamation. The most remarkable point was a poor excuse for absence from his public duty under the plea of private affairs. Mr. H. G. Otis then took up the Cudgel and laid about him handsomely. His striking point was a justification of the Hartford Convention. The old sore place. Seventeen years have not yet healed it. I pitied him and his Apology.3 The Stone will roll backwards. Mr. J. T. Austin concluded.
I returned before he finished, and wrote a letter to my Father.4 Part of the Afternoon was taken up in copying it. The rest in reading the beginning of Villemain’s Life of Cromwell.5 A miserably superficial production. I have been cheated in the book.
In the evening. Progressed in Malvina, in the Life of Burns and in my German. This last however goes on very slowly indeed. I find myself a tremendous time upon a single sentence. Not that it is the construction, but the singular difficulty of fixing the meaning of the words.
The call, signed by the leading political figures of Boston, including surviving Federalists, was addressed to “friends of the Union of the States and of the Constitution of the United States” and had as its stated purpose “to take into consideration the late proceedings of the Legislature, and the Convention of the State of South Carolina, and to express their opinion thereon, and to respond to the sentiments expressed in the late Proclamation of the President” (Boston Daily Advertiser & Patriot, 17 Dec., p. 2, col. 3).
In this view CFA agreed with his father, who had written, “I think there 423is no occasion, and there would be little wisdom in a public Meeting at Boston at this time. Wait at least until the whole policy of the Administration shall be disclosed. It is rotten ice” (JQA to CFA, 11 Dec., Adams Papers).
JQA, when he received CFA’s letter (17 Dec., Adams Papers) reporting Harrison Gray Otis’ speech, was led to revert to the old question of publication of his “Reply to the Appeal of the Massachusetts Federalists” (see vol. 3:63 and entry for 23 Sept. 1831, above): “I am now much nearer the disposition to have it committed to the flames. I rejoice that I did not publish it; and so totally is my resentment disarmed by his advances to a reconciliation, and by the modesty of his present position, that I am determined henceforth to bury it in oblivion” (JQA to CFA, 25 Dec., Adams Papers). By Otis’ “advances to a reconciliation” JQA doubtless refers to the recent visit Otis and Col. Thomas Handasyd Perkins had paid him at Quincy (JQA, Diary, 14 Aug.).
See the preceding note. For more on the letter see above, entry for 14 Dec., note. In his reply to CFA’s detailed report of the meeting, JQA commented on the positions taken by the various speakers and suggested additional implications.
In the edition of Abel François Villemain’s Histoire de Cromwell at MQA (2 vols., Brussels, 1829) are CFA’s bookplate, a quotation on the flyleaf from Montaigne, and copious marginalia throughout in CFA’s hand. For more on these annotations see entry for 26 Dec., below.
1832-12-18
Morning cloudy with very high winds. I went to the Office as usual. Very busy in writing Diary which my engagement yesterday put me behind hand in. I afterwards made a good deal of progress in Lingard. He is now upon the track which I have pretty well beaten. His account is generally tolerable. But he is too severe upon most of the British men of genius. Every thing that is not Catholic, is open to his darts. He speaks with little severity of the Jesuit pamphlets or the Jesuit doctrines, he conceals the efforts of the Catholics against the Government, and he deprecates censure of Catholic noblemen. But Coke, Bacon, Raleigh, Burleigh, Walsingham and Hatton all are not to be spared. This is not fair. England has no names to be more proud of than some of these. Took my usual walk although it was very windy.
Afternoon, finished No. 8 of my Papers. Their publication is at a dead stand still. Why should I plague myself to continue them? Nothing but the want of something else to do more useful induces me. Read more of Villemain’s miserable book. A Frenchman can form no distinct ideas of Constitutional liberty. Evening as usual. Malvina, Lockhart’s Burns and Wieland, a discourse before the Abderites upon the Shadow of an Ass.
1832-12-19
Fine morning although somewhat colder than it has been. I went to the Office. Nothing particular. My spirits somewhat depressed. It is 424my wish to do something in the world, not to be a creature entirely useless. I have laboured a good deal and what has been the success? Little indeed in comparison. Yet is it not for me to be discouraged? I will bear up as well as I can under a species of ostracism which exiles me by negatives. My services are not wanted. The world can get along exactly as well if I do nothing. Perhaps better as there would be one less to crowd it. But this tone is incorrect. So long as I am placed in it, I must not reject my duty, because others do so. It is essential to me that my conscience should be clear.
I read Lingard, finishing the reign of James which does on the whole, reconcile me to continuing the book. Walk as usual. Afternoon, began No. 9 of my work, wrote a page and then read Villemain. Not worth a sixpence. I continued in the evening however, as my Wife had gone out to tea. I went for her at nine to Mrs. Gorham’s. Miss Julia and Miss Carter, besides Mrs. Gorham and the young men. On my return, read German. I work slowly.