Morning cloudy after the rain but it cleared away before night. I read Basil Hall’s visit to Loo Choo which I think is the most amusing of all his works.1 He has less of the pretension of authorship and more good will to his subject which renders him extremely disposed to flatter. This sooths the pettish irritability of his natural temper and thus puts out of sight all rough and unsightly points.

I attended divine service and heard Mr. Frothingham preach all day, though without the power of clearly fixing my attention. His Texts were first from 1. Thessalonians 5. 14. “Support the weak,” second from 2 Kings 2. 9. “And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” I must candidly confess I can say little about the discourses beyond what the Texts suggest. My mind will wander into fancies which are perhaps of very little service to any body.

Read a Sermon of Atterbury 1. Acts 3. “To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” The points discussed were three. 1. Why the Saviour remained forty days with his disciples. 2. Why he appeared only to his friends. 3. What was the employment of his time and consequent purpose of his return. I do not see that Atterbury strengthens the argument materially. When you discuss the motives of the Deity in governing the world, it is very natural, that you should be set afloat upon an unknown Sea. It is sufficient to me that the facts are duly authenticated.

In the evening I went with my Wife to spend the evening at Mrs. Frothingham’s. Mr. and Mrs. Wales with their family were there and a Mr. and Mrs. Clement—She being one of the Phillipses of Andover.2 Dry talk and return home at ten. Wrote some letters.3

Cloudy with a thunder storm in the evening. I went to the Office and was tempted from thence to study General Jackson’s new Protest against the usurpations of the Senate.1 He is irritated by the vote of censure passed there and replies to them in a manner very well calculated to make the Nation awake. The paper is written with skill and ingenuity. It maintains that the Senate have prejudged his case and thereby violated their duties as final Judges in cases of impeachment, that he had a right to remove the Secretary of the Treasury and every other Officer but the Judges of the U.S., that he has the custody of 299the Treasury without control of the two Houses and that he is the representative of the People as contradistinguished from the Senate who do not, and who are an aristocratic body arrogating to themselves all the powers of Government. The intent of all this can hardly be misunderstood. It is a blow at the independence of the Senate, and the contest which will convulse the Nation for twelve months to come will be a final one between these two powers. The House of Representatives being divided so nearly in equal portions will not exercise much influence upon the result. Whatever it has will now be for the President. The times are growing fearful. This is a new ingredient in the political cauldron and may lead to results in comparison with which all that has gone before will be as nothing. The Country is certainly in a state of crisis.

Thomas Doyle called upon me and I despatched him to Washington. What the result of his mission will be I do not know. But I a little mistrust his capacity. Accounts and walk.

Afternoon, Maritime Discovery and the remainder of Briseis to Achilles. There is much beauty in the style of Ovid and he seems to have penetrated into the heart and been imbued with the feelings of a woman more perhaps than was perfectly appropriate. Evening at home. Miss Edgeworth’s Belinda, and afterwards German.