John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

25. IV. Tuesday.

Boston. Page— Plymouth Stage— Quincy.

Went into Boston with my Son, and gave a sitting of 3 hours to Mr Page, whose manner of painting is different from that of any other painter who has taken my Portrait— The first sitting, he took the outlines of the face in Charcoal; and this day he fitted up the space between the lines with a thick daubing of oil colours— It has no pleasant aspect, but his finished Portraits of Harding the Painter, of Mrs Ellis G. Loring and two other Ladies which he has at his room, give proof of no ordinary talent— While he was at work, Dr George Parkman came in, and sat about an hour— He spoke of the treatment that he had received in England from Daniel O’Connell which he thought very rude— Upon his introduction to the Irish Orator, he enquired from what part of the United States he came and being answered from Boston, reproached him with the burning of the Convent; and the refusal of indemnity to the sufferers— Dr Parkman told him that the facts of that event had been misrepresented to him, and that the truth was very different— There is however no satisfactory apology for that transaction, as it bears upon the character of the People and of the time— Pudet haec opprobria non potuisse refelli— It was near one when I left Mr Page’s room— Call at the Post-Office, and found that the 1000 copies of my fragment Speech had been received and delivered to the order of my Son— At his Office, he was not quite ready to go on the return home.— I went to the Anti-Slavery Office and Book-store of Isaac Knapp, who informed me that he had received the copies, and had authorised Gales and Seaton to draw upon him at three months sight for payment— He enquired if the pamphlet was stereotyped— I said no, but I believed the Press was kept standing— He said he thought he should soon dispose of these copies and want more— I said there was no copy-right, and I had given a conditional permission to the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society at New-York, to publish an edition of it, if they should 610should wish; on condition that they should not countermand the orders they had given to Gales and Seaton for 1000 copies— After calling at two or three shops to enquire for long cotton stockings which one of the shopmen told me, had gone so much into disuse that they would not pay for the expense of keeping them for sale, I returned to Charles’s Office, and waited for him a half an hour, till near two O’Clock— The tenant of the Southernmost of my two houses corner of Boylston Street, came to call upon Charles for repairs.— After waiting sometime longer I went to the Stable— Charles after waiting for me sometime, had just gone— I went back again, found he was not at the Office— Just then the Plymouth stage went by, in which I took a seat, and at 20 minutes past 3 was landed in front of Mr Daniel Greenleaf’s yard at the Cross-roads— Charles had got home about a quarter of an hour sooner.— My family had just sitten down to dinner. After dinner I called at the Quincy Patriot Office, but Mr Green was gone to Boston— Stop’d at Mr Gill the bookbinder’s shop, and was going to Charles’s when I met him coming over. Mrs Smith, Mary and Abby spent the Evening at Mr Miller’s— A drowsy head-ache drove me to bed at 8 O’Clock.