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Diary of Charles Francis Adams, 1865

Sunday 23d.

23 April 1865

Tuesday 25th

25 April 1865
24 April 1865
260
Monday 24th
London
CFA AM

The American post came in after breakfast, but it brought only one letter of interest, that of my son’s Wife to Mrs Adams, in which she alludes to Charles as having led his regiment into Richmond. She refers to his letter as having been sent to me by her husband, as inclosed with his own. But it did not appears, so that my satisfaction with the intelligence was not without a grain of alloy in the absence of that which had been promised. It was not until evening that it came having been apparently mailed by a passenger in the Steamer, at Queenstown. Much of the morning was absorbed in reading the multifarious details of these great events in the newspapers. Marvellous indeed is the history— Nothing in the records of the past exceeds it for the magnitude of the interests at Stake, and the heroism that has been developed. The President as usual shows at the same instant his utter incapacity to understand his own position, and his faithful endeavor to261 acquit himself of the responsibilities that devolve upon him. He goes out and makes a speech to a chance crowd at his door, and reasons out his various difficulties and those of others as if they were the tribunal and he was the Attorney employed to finish the business. How constantly my misgivings about him recur, evening the face of all his past success! It cheered me to learn that Mr Seward was getting better, though he would not be able to attend to business for some time. His life is all important. Received a letter from Mrs Adams giving an account of Easter at Rome, and wrote an answer. My last letter to Mr Seward had not arrived at the latest dates. I fear it will come most inopportunely. Walk, round Piccadilly and the edge of Hyde Park. Dined again with Mr and Mrs Lampson. Nobody there but Mr Kinnaird, Mr Peabody and Mr Reed. They had been disappointed in their internal party. Mr Peabody much warmed up by the late events, talks as if he had been always true. He has greatly increased his fortune in the struggle, but I cannot recall any such staunch loyalty as characterized poor Mr Bates to his last hour. Home at eleven.

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=DCA65d114