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Diary of Charles Francis Adams, 1861

Monday 28th

28 January 1861

Wednesday 30th

30 January 1861
29 January 1861
60
Tuesday 29th
Washington
CFA AM

A fine day. Being now ready, my uneasiness to get clear of the responsibility begins. At the House, where I notified the speaker, Mr Pennington that I was ready to speak either on Wednesday or Thursday, as might suit him to assign me the floor. He preferred to have it on Thursday, and so it was arranged. There were speeches today, from Mr Stevens which was only half accomplished, from Mr Harris of Maryland and from Mr Winslow of North Carolina. The latter was rather ugly in spirit, though subdued in tone. Just then Mr Sumner came into the House and resumed the conversation of yesterday. He expressed himself much pained at what I had said. His motives were perfectly pure and he did not know how he had exposed himself to any such strictures as hand been made on his action. He then told me of his conversation with Mr Stanton, the Attorney General, who had expressed to him the confident belief that the capitol and departments would be in the possession of the secession party in ten days. I told him that in that case there would probably be little occasion for us to trouble ourselves materially. Things would take a new turn, I expressed my great regret that I had said or done any thing in any way offensive to him, and my earnest desire to make all suitable apology. We then talked a little further and separated. I returned home. We had Miss Pennington to dinner, and Messr Bache and Henry and the speaker in the evening.

Cite web page as:

Charles Francis Adams, Sr., [date of entry], diary, in Charles Francis Adams, Sr.: The Civil War Diaries (Unverified Transcriptions). Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2015. http://www.masshist.org/publications/cfa-civil-war/view?id=DCA61d029