Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1838-07-25
The morning looked very threatening with rain but there was only a little and it cleared away. My time much taken up in my work a sketch of which I finally accomplished this day. But it is a mere skeleton of skin and bones which requires all of the filling up, and somehow or other my energy seems to be laid asleep. A great many books to consult 83and some to read more attentively than I am likely to do. Corrected some portion of text also.
I expected Mr. Brooks today to dine with me, but he did not come. My father whom I had asked to join him came and spent an hour, after which I went to ride accompanied by him. We went to Braintree, thence through Weymouth over the bridge to Quincy Point and home. I read a little of Pliny and but little. Evening my father, Mother and family at my house until nine.
1838-07-26
Quite a thunder shower during the night but it was beautifully clear this morning. I did not effect much. Strolled down to the other house and there got caught in reading desultorily for a couple of hours. My review must now wait for a pamphlet which has been promised me or rather a lecture of Mr. Felt’s to extend my information as to facts.1 Hutchinson is in these respects the fullest authority I have.
Corrected MS until dinner time, when Mr. Brooks came. This was not entirely expected but nevertheless he was welcome, and after dinner, he went with me in my vehicle to Mount Wollaston and Germantown, a pleasant ride, thence home by the new lane. We then walked over to the quarries on the farm and across the hill home. The family from the other house took tea with us and passed the evening and Mr. Brooks spent the night here.
Rev. Joseph Barlow Felt had earlier delivered a lecture at the Massachusetts Historical Society (see entry for 19 Dec. 1837, above) on the “old Currency of Massachusetts,” which he would expand and publish as A Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency, Boston, 1839. Whether the MS of the lecture said in the succeeding entry, below, to be available to CFA at the State House was as originally delivered or as it would be published is not clear.
1838-07-27
Morning clear and very pleasant. I went to town where I was occupied as usual. Accounts and various little commissions. Call from I. P. Davis about Felt’s Lecture which he does not get but promises if I go and get it, at the State House. Spoke of the dinner and then of his son Thomas whose course he seems to regret, and partly charges upon me. I told him that I leaned that way but did not sustain the Administration in its course of imbecility and error. I am myself sorry that Davis gives this uneasiness to his father, but like all sanguine temperaments he must be allowed to work his own way out of the evil. Home After-84noon, Pliny’s panegyric upon Trajan and evening down at the Mansion.