The morning opened fine and mild. We were very busy making our final dispositions of things, packing trunks, paying bills, and all the apparatus incident to a departure for some length of time. Friend still came dropping in but I refused to see any excepting Mr Dana who sat with me until the carriages came for our departure. He said there were rumors about every where of a difference between Mr Sumner and myself, and he wished to know if there was any course for it. I told him exactly how it stood—that there had been no quarrel, but I had reason to suppose there was an alienation mainly on his part, though I could not deny on my own that his late behavior and especially his very extraordinary display of his foibles had gone far to reconcile me to it. The most marked indication of the causes at the bottom of this grow out of his utter silence and separation from me about my departure. This can be construed only as mortifications at his not having had the mission. Hence the deep bitterness of his invective against Mr Seward for having been the cause of my appointment. If such be the construction to be placed in vanity upon his action, then is he not the man I took him for. At a quarter past eleven, we arrived in carriages at the wharf in East Boston at which the steamer Niagara lay decked out in colors to receive us. Here we found members of warm friends ready to meet us. P C Brooks, Mr Palfrey, Mr Peter Butler, Mr Goodrich, Dr Phelps, Mr Tuck, Mr Rice, Mr James Lawrence, and of my Quincy friends, Mr Johnson, Mr Cargdon, Mr Marsh and Mr Souther. Hull and Elizabeth C Adams were there too, with both of my sons, and Mr and Mrs Kuhn. All this was purely voluntary, and it moved me much, for my shortcomings are too great towards my friends to merit such returns. At half past twelve the Steamer started from her moorings, amidst the firing of cannon. As we passed the State Ship for the discipline of boys, the yards were manned, and at for Independence we had a salute of thirteen guns, and both there and at Fort Warren the battalions were drawn up on the parapet and saluted us with cheers. So that131 my departure from my native land carries with it all the consolation which an honest man may desire. Parting from these external objects of interest we now began to look at our companions for the voyage. The only acquaintance was Mr Cassius M Clay who is going out with his Wife and five children, his nephew and his private Secretary to take his part at St Petersburg. The water was smooth. Mrs Adams went downstairs pretty soon, but the rest of us remained some time on the upper deck, and after diner which we took rather sparingly, we soon retired. This was rather precipitated by the increasing motion of the vessel.