Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1838-08-11
Cloudy but no rain. I sat down to work upon my Review of Grahame. But on the whole I find I can do little with it. My inclination is to give it up as a bad job. The vis does not seem to be in me to make a good thing of it, and if I could summon it, the result would be to unfit it for appearance before the public.
My father came in just then and I followed him down to his house soon after where I wasted some time over the papers. This settled the matter for the day, so on my return I went to work upon the MS and read a large part of J. A’s answer to Hamilton already never published.1 This is the work to which I must and will turn my attention—The arranging all these papers and reading the material ones. Afternoon, Lucretius and Bayle. Evening to tea at the Mansion and an hour afterwards. But returned early home.
JA’s published answer to the Letter from Alexander Hamilton Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq., President of the United States, N.Y., 1800, first appeared in the form of 18 letters to the Boston Patriot, 15 April – 24 June 1809. It was reprinted in part as Correspondence of the Late President Adams, Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809.
CFA’s word “already,” over which he wrote “never,” would suggest that at the time he first wrote the journal entry, he believed that the MS he had found among his grandfather’s papers had provided the text for the published reply. At a later date, but before he came to prepare the papers for publication in JA’s Works
, 1850–1856, he became aware that the versions already printed did not derive from the 90-page MS draft, probably written in 1801 (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 399). For the Works CFA chose to use as his text the letters in the Patriot, deleting some passages but supplementing that text with footnote additions of paragraph length taken from the 92draft; see
Works
, 9:240.
In a note in his hand attached to the 1801 MS, CFA wrote that the “Draught ... [is] unsuited for publication.” That view seems to derive from the tone of vindictiveness and bitterness in it. His editorial practice generally was to excise passages from the papers where JA had indulged his emotions about Hamilton; see JA, Diary and Autobiography
, 1:lii; 3:386 – 388, 434–435. His action seems partly dictated by sensitivity to the “belligerent measures in which we have for two generations been involved” and partly by an admiration for Hamilton which a younger Adams could admit to after an interval of nearly fifty years; see vol. 6:358–359, and entry for 28 July 1838, above.
1838-08-12
A clear fine day in which the beauty of the landscape again shone out with the greater effect from the previous days of mist. I read a little of the Horae Paulinae in the morning and found the MS Paper book which had been omitted during my revisal of the copy, so I corrected it in part.
Attended divine service and heard Mr. N. Hall of Dorchester preach from James. 4. 14. “What is your life?” Afternoon Psalms.
After service I read a discourse by Dr. Clark from the English Preacher. Proverbs 14. 9. “Fools make a mock at sin.” The definition of courage as distinct from audacity or insolence which disregards religion, and hence the unreasonable nature of their behaviour. A sensible sermon but not great—the characteristic by the way of most of those from the British Church. Read a little of Lockhart’s last volume, which has a very interesting piece of Diary, and Bayle. Evening at the Mansion. Spirits a little affected.
1838-08-13
The air was clear and it was warm today but not oppressive. I went to town instead of my regular day, tomorrow, because the Probate Court proposes to meet at Quincy tomorrow and I wish to attend to poor Thomas Adams’s affairs. My time was taken up in a variety of Commissions which kept me going pretty steadily from the moment of arrival until that of departure. This was somewhat fatiguing as it involved the walk over a pretty large space of ground. Home.
Afternoon, Lucretius who writes vigorously upon a subject too 93crabbed for Poetry. Bayle, and the last volume of Lockhart which is interesting from it’s melancholy tone. The great charm of Scott is to be found in that of Terence’s line, “Homo sum; nihil humani alienum a me puto.”1 Evening, lady visitors but we spent an hour notwithstanding at the Mansion. Louisa seven years old this day. Heaven be praised.
That is, “I am a man, and nothing that is human is uninteresting to me.” The passage, slightly altered by CFA, is from Terence’s play Heautontimoroumenos, I, 1, 25. CFA, along with his brothers, had studied this and Terence’s five other comedies at school in England in 1816 and, at the same time, been the beneficiary of extensive notes on them in letters from JA. In 1834, on rereading the plays, he entered JA’s comments and translations of selected passages, including the present one as translated above, in his own copy of the London, 1825, edn. now in MQA. See vol. 5:xviii, 265–269.