A heavy snow blocking up all the great avenues of travel so that I had a comparatively quiet day. This was a great advantage to me as I was enabled to apply myself at once to my accounts and to bring them up to the present moment. This process is one of the troublesome incidents of congressional life. What is to become of my affairs inn a longer absence is one of the mysteries I dare not attempt to consider.101 In the mean time I see that the government has given me a Secretary of legation without the courtesy of a question.I do not on the whole regret it, as it saves me the necessity of determining two questions that might have embarrassed me. Thus far I have received no communication of any sort from the administration. And I wait for one before deciding upon my course. Perhaps the storm has impeded the progress of the mails. I this evening cleared away all my papers and petitions, so that tomorrow I can begin afresh.