Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8

Tuesday 8th. CFA

1839-01-08

Tuesday 8th. CFA
Tuesday 8th.

Morning clear, and a pleasant day, time as usual. Evening at Edward Brooks’.

There is no very important record to be made of my mornings. They pass in conning over newspapers, reading accounts and paying money the whole process of which however interesting does not make much figure in a Diary.

Electra in which I make rather slow progress also. After dinner, 169continue the coins which now come down to Maximin. I begin to see the end.

Evening, by request, went down to Edward Brooks to see his Wife who is without occupation and therefore catches events to be delighted with such as that of the marriage of Miss Sumner this day to Mr. Nathan Appleton.1 Here is one of the Revolutions of this life, a transfer at a bound from extreme penury to unlimited abundance. Miss Sumner yesterday a lady of a certain age with little attention but from her rather oldish friends, is today Mrs. Appleton the Wife of a millionaire. Conversation with Edward very pleasant as it always is. Home at ten. Crevier.

1.

Nathan Appleton had taken as his second wife, Harriet Coffin Sumner ( DAB ).

Wednesday 9th. CFA

1839-01-09

Wednesday 9th. CFA
Wednesday 9th.

Fine day. To Cambridge. Afternoon at home, coins. Evening Mr. Dexter’s.

I was up early to be off on the examination of one division of the Junior class in Cambridge University. The arrangement has been much altered, and now imposes upon the Committee much heavier burdens.1 A Carriage called for me which contained Mr. Forbes and Mr. Hillard, and at Cambridge, we found T. K. Davis had come in another carriage with the Latin Committee. Was this accident or a desire to escape me? I neither know nor care which. He seated himself at dinner at the other end of the table which also betrays very much the nature of his feelings. In other respects however there was no difference in his manner, and we were all as pleasant as usual, with due regard to distance.

The examination was an indifferent one. The class is the same with which I first entered into the examinations and does not appear to me to have gone a step forward since the close of the Freshman year. The Professor himself appears to me to be a good scholar but not an effective teacher. We returned to town immediately after dinner, having as a fourth Professor Longfellow in the carriage. Continued coins as usual.

Evening, attended a circle of ladies who form a charitable gossip society and meet at each other’s houses at stated periods. This was by invitation of Miss Catherine Dexter at her brother’s, George M. Dexter’s. A great number of ladies and very few gentlemen. However I got along pretty well, home early.

170 1.

CFA here seems to have reverted to the usage of his grandfather who in his draft of the Massachusetts constitution had been the first to speak of Harvard College as the “University at Cambridge” (Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard , p. 160). The new arrangement for the examiners was communicated to CFA in a letter from President Quincy (1 Jan., Adams Papers).