Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1838-04-18
The second of my letters appeared today and reads so well that I think it will not fail of an effect. I have got beyond the time for being smothered, I suspect. There appears however at the head of it a distinct announcement of the editor’s disposition not to be responsible for them which looks as if he had been assaulted about them.1
I went to Quincy where I found things advancing. The interior of the house begins to look like a human habitation. I gave a multitude of directions which may be of service during my absence and found many things done as directed. Home. The soft Southerly wind made it feel a very different thing today from Monday, and my return particularly was pleasant. Home.
26Afternoon resumed my coins which have suffered a few days interruption by my other work. Evening Mr. and Mrs. Frothingham came and passed an hour very pleasantly. They come without form and take a little something sociably and go early. I sent today my last letter to Mr. Biddle. These four letters have cost me no great labour to write and yet on the whole I like them as well as any thing I ever did.
The disclaimer read: “The Publishers of the Courier wish it to be distinctly understood, that, until the editor announces, under his own hand, his ability to resume his duties, he must not be considered as concurring in, or responsible for, any opinion expressed in its columns” (18 April, p. 2, col. 1).
1838-04-19
My third letter was printed today, that which I think the best. They evidently make some sensation as there was besides a feeble attempt to array a quotation from Mr. Webster’s Speech against me, a very short editorial betraying the fact of private remonstrances against their publication on the ground of their being loco foco in the extreme.1 Such are the perversions of principle prevailing at this time here. It is matter of great surprise that they were admitted at all.
I was at the Office engaged partly in affairs and partly in executing various commissions, a little in translating Sismondi although I have abandoned my project of publication. Call upon T. K. Davis and settle our intention of departure for Tuesday.
Rainy all day. Afternoon engaged in working up the remainder of the coinage. Evening, Mr. Brooks spent with us. After which I rather dawdled.
Accompanying the publication of CFA’s third letter to Biddle in the Courier were two items related to it. The first was a brief editorial comment on the letters, headed “Mr. Biddle and the Banks,” saying, “We see no reason, loco foco or not, why the public should not have advantage of the writer’s opinions.... why we should refuse hearing to a respectable correspondent.” The second, immediately following the first, was a letter to the editor, unsigned, with the heading, “Specie Payments and Mr. Biddle,” in which Webster’s position on specie payments in his sub-treasury speech is quoted, summarized, and praised (p. 2, col. 5).
1838-04-20
My fourth and last letter came out today. It is not quite so well written as the rest and is also defaced by misprints, but on the whole terminates the thing well. That they make some impression is clear from the announcement of an answer to appear tomorrow. I see it also in men’s faces who look constrained before me. The pieces are thought 27very radical. Perhaps they may be, but I shall think better hereafter of radicalism if they are.
I went to Quincy this morning and occupied as usual in directions and so forth. They have gone on swimmingly and now really make the House look cheerful. I begin to feel as if there was some probability of an end. It has been irksome to me from the fact of my having to do the whole. Home in a cold wind.
Did some business at the Office and then to dinner. Afternoon, at work on coins, and finishing up all odd things. Evening at home. Read Walter Scott’s melancholy Diary. Alas, what clouds over the pleasantest landscape. Such is life, and happy for us in the end, it is so, for what would be man’s feeling if this was Paradise when he was called to leave it.