Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1839-06-26
Fine day. Trip to Cohasset. Evening at the Mansion.
This day has been fixed upon for the party to Cohasset which has been in agitation ever since my marriage without ever having before been executed. The Carriage took my Wife, Miss Cutts and three children while I went in the Carryall hired for the occasion, with Mrs. John Adams and two girls. We had a pleasant trip down and met there Elizabeth C. Adams and her brother with Mr. Campbell, and subsequently Dr. and Mrs. Frothingham with three children. Our amusements were much as they usually are at this barren spot.1 Walking to one beach and riding to Nantasket. The day was lovely. We then dined and had some agreeable singing from the gentlemen, after which we made an arrangement to return home. We arrived before sunset and upon getting there, how I did wonder that people could leave such a spot to seek diversion at Cohasset. In the evening passed an hour at my father’s, but my Wife and I had both of us very bad nights.
On the long associations the Adamses had with the Cohasset Rocks, see above, entry for 3 Aug. 1837; also JA, Diary and Autobiography
, 4:7.
1839-06-27
Warm day. At home. Evening at the Mansion.
Mrs. Adams was so unwell that she could not get up this morning, and I felt more exhausted than I have done for many years. I am at a loss for a cause. The day was however passed in a pretty languid way. I began our examination of the Report of the Southern convention which I am satisfied I can show to be unreasonable and absurd.1 This took most of my active time.
After dinner, finished Lucan. A work which I admire on the whole, particularly when I remember it the work of so young a man. Invention is the attribute of the young but perfecting comes by age, and Lucan was cut off in his prime. Evening at my Mother’s.
As is suggested here and amplified in the entry for 3 July, below, CFA had JQA’s help in the preparation of the series of articles that would eventuate from an examination of the report of a committee of the Southern Convention held in April in Charleston, S.C. The report, in essence, undertook to demonstrate that national policies had brought about, over a long period, severe decline in the export and import trade in the southern states. Tables from the report in support of this thesis were published in the Daily Centinel & Gazette, 18 June, p. 2, col. 3. On CFA’s articles in rebuttal, see entry for 4 July, below.