A man's twenty-seventh year is "critical," according to Charles
Francis Adams. And so his proved. Twenty-five at the start of these
volumes, Adams had yet to embark on the public career that would
mark him a statesman, but by their conclusion he had been drawn
into the maelstrom of politics. It was an unwilling plunge,
dictated by what both he and his father, John Quincy Adams,
regarded as betrayal of the elder Adams by Daniel Webster and his
Whigs. Once in, however, he showed himself politically adept.
This diary, kept from January 1833 to June 1836 and hitherto
unpublished, has elements of hidden personal drama. Through private
meetings and caucuses and newspaper articles signed with
pseudonyms, the younger Adams found effective means to carry on
political activities in the face of dilemmas posed by his father's
public prominence, his father-in-law's contrary persuasions, and
his own preferences. He emerged with growing self-respect and solid
accomplishment as political journalist - his initial vocation.
The diary has fresh disclosures also about the personality of
John Quincy Adams, shrewdly assessed by an observer uniquely placed
to interpret domestic scenes as well as the greatly waged struggles
in Washington against the Southern "slaveocracy" and 'gag
rules."
Colorful figures in Boston's political and social life are
finely etched in outspoken appraisals characteristic of the
Adamses. The diarist shows acuteness too in comments on books,
sermons, paintings, the theater, and opera.
General
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