John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

25. V:30. Monday.

Mr Biddle went out this morning to his Country Seat— I strolled out and returned sundry visits, but found only Coll. Drayton at home— There was something controversial between him and me, when we were members of the Congress before the last, and his attentions to me since I have been now here, have been marked with great civility and kindness. I found at his house as a visitor, General Atkinson of the Army— I concluded to go on to New-York on Thursday, if my wife should not arrive here on Wednesday, and to wait for her there. I wrote to her, to give her the information: finished reading Scribes Comedy of Bertrand et Raton, and made progress in reading the German Translation of the Oration upon La Fayette— I called at the Bank of the United States, and took a draft on the Branch Bank at Boston, for the check of my dividends of the Schuylkill Bridge Stock. Dined at Mr Thomas Biddle’s—my kind host sent by me an excuse—his brother William S. Biddle lying at the point of death with a paralytic disorder. Judge Hopkinson whose 566daughter Elizabeth is the wife of William S. Biddle, also sent an excuse— The company at Thomas Biddle’s were E. Chauncey, D. W. Coxe, Coll. Drayton, John Sergeant, J. J. Wallace, Robert Walsh, two Sons of Thomas Biddle, and three or four Strangers with whom I was unacquainted— Coll. Watmough came in after dinner— We sat at table till near nine— Conversation about the times of the Revolution— Much of Charles Thomson, and of John Dickinson— After dinner, I called and passed an hour at Mr Walsh’s with him, and his family—examined a volume of Rezch’s etchings of Shakespear’s Hamlet and Macbeth—Caricatures— Mr Williams came in for News, for to-morrow’s paper—Whig Ministry in England—Berryer’s Speech against the appropriation indemnity Bill in France. I came home at ten, and sat in conversation with Mr and Mrs Biddle, and their eldest Son Edward till near Midnight— The names of their daughters are Meta Adele, and Jane— The younger Son who went on Saturday to Princeton is named Charles. Mr. Thomas Biddle’s wife was a daughter of Jonathan Williams—a portrait of whom; a strong likeness was suspended in his dining-room.