207
Quincy. Saturday 26. July 1845
26. IV. Saturday.
- M
rs Martha Burrill
- Loring Thomas.
Sun rose 4:46. Set 7:26.
Anniversary of my marriage 48 years have since passed away. A small
remnant only can be before us. A Merciful Providence has hitherto conducted us along
the path of life— We have enjoyed much— We have suffered not a little—
Good and Evil have followed us alternately— The thread has been of
checkered yarn. Altogether my lot has been a happy one upon Earth, and
every feeling of my heart ought to be a sentiment of Gratitude to him
who is the disposer of events— I have met with bitter disappointments—
Heavy calamities have befallen me— All my children with one exception
have been taken from me— One in
infancy—two in the
prime of life, and this bereavement has once been extended to the second
generation— The successive decease of my brother Charles, of my Sister, of my mother of my father and of my brother Thomas, have for the last thirteen years left me the only
member of the family of the past and the present generation, surviving
on this earth— The common them of reason is death of fathers, and it is
one of the fatalities of old age, to follow to the tomb all the joys of
cotemporary kindred and friendship.
As those we love decay, we die in part;
String after string, is sever’d from the heart.
With regard to what is called, the wheel of Fortune, my career in life
has been with severe vicissitudes, on the whole highly auspicious. With
advantages of education perhaps unparalleled, with principles of
integrity, of benevolence, of industry and frugality, and the lofty
Spirit of patriotism and Independence taught me from the cradle, with
the love of Letters and the arts useful and ornamental, and with
aspirations of Science, limited only by the scanty spark of ethereal
fire in the soul, my intercourse with my cotemporaries, has in all its
fluctuations been more successful than I deserved— My life has been
spent in the public service— Washington, Madison, Monroe
were my friends and benefactors— Jefferson a hollow and treacherous friend.— Jackson, Charles J. Ingersoll, George W. Erving, Jonathan Russell, base, malignant
and lying enemies, a list to which I might, but will not add other
names.— I have enjoyed a portion of the favour of my country at least
equal to my desert, but have suffered and yet suffer
much from that Slander which outvenoms all the worms of Nile— But I am wandering from my
wedding day.— Mr
Peter C. Brooks went with Charles to Boston; upon his return home to Medford—and
Charles brought his son John
Quincy home from School— Mr Loring brought me from
Hingham a basket of harvest apples. Miss
Smith a daughter of Mr Richard Smith of
Philadelphia was with him. Mrs. Martha Burrill a claimant
of a widows pension came and left her papers with me— I found her name
upon the list of pensioners in the Session Message of 1840.— Mr
Longworth of Cincinnati sent me from Boston an engraved
portrait of Hiram Powers the
Sculptor in profile. I received also a Letter from Mr
Serruys the Chargé d’Affaires from Belgium
