CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, THE GRAND SON OF JOHN ADAMS AND THE SON OF JOHN QUINCY DETAILS HIS EUROPEAN TRAVELS AND COMMENTS ON THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCENE
“THE IMPEACHMENT APPEARS TO HAVE FAILED BY A NARROW SCRATCH. THE NUMBER OF SENATORS WAS 54. MR. WADE DID NOT VOTE, MAKING 53. HAD HE DONE SO, IT WOULD HAVE MADE 54 BUT NINETEEN IS MORE THAN A THIRD OF EITHER NUMBER, SO HE WAS WISE TO ABSTAIN. IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN WHO ARE THE … RECALCITRANTS.”
“I LIKE VENICE AS A SPECTACLE, AND AS A MEMORIAL OF AN ERA THAT HAS PASSED AWAY….”
ADAMS, CHARLES F. (1807-1886). American diplomat and editor, grandson of John Adams and son of John Quincy Adams; during the American Civil War, served as United States Minister to the United Kingdom, and was crucial to Union efforts to prevent British recognition of the Confederate States and to maintain European neutrality; featured and had major roles in national and state politics before and after the Civil War. Good Autograph Letter Signed, “C.F.A.”, on blind-embossed Bath stationery. Four very full pages, octavo. Venice [Italy], May 23 and 24, 1868. Folds, else very fine condition. To his son, Henry Brooks Adams. Adams writes:
“My dear Henry, Your letter of the 18th found us at Venice yesterday. Our trip has been successful in all its parts thus far. Your mother bore her long twelve-hour railway days with extraordinary fortitude, and seems in no way the worse for her journey. This is the more remarkable that the first was excessively dusty, and the second very hot. We stopped at Munich three days to recruit. The hotel happened to be excellent; and we had it almost to ourselves for just the time we wanted it. Then to Verona, a most interesting and delightful day through the Brenner pass, and instantly varying picturesque scenery. From Verona we had a short trip through a perfectly continuous garden until we came within a few miles from here. Of the place itself you know so much that it is needless to discuss upon its specialties. … full into the midst of a two days’ fete of which the … and his hide are the chief objects, though it purports to be a prize rifle tournament. It is always something, excepting at Munich which was peaceable enough. For my part I should rather have seen Venice as I fancied it, a city of silence and quiet. It is a whole kind of a unique specimen, but does not surprise me so much as I expected. What with Canalette’s [?] pictures and the photographs to be found everywhere, it seems to me as if I had been here before. The most palpable difference is in the dingy, dirty, dilapidation, and in the smells… But I dare not whisper such things to the females, who expect me to be ecstatic with everything. I have a little regret that Venice should not look as ancient as it ought to be, in the midst of …these modern [times]… and American and English travelers, ‘in quest of the picturesque’. The old palaces are hotels, like this one; and Mr. George’s old mosaics are undergoing repairs. As soon as Rome becomes the capital of the new republic, there will be no rest for the sole of an antiquary’s foot, short of the case of Ellora [?]. But I have not time for such speculations. I must go and dress for dinner at the Table d’Hote
24th May. Thus far did I get yesterday, when first, dinner, and then a gondola trip, after which, a visit to the Piazza to hear the band, absorbed the rest of the day. This morning the … [the others] have gone off with the Prince… to the place where they are to shout for the prizes. The square was full of all sorts of people. I had gone out to get a bath, and found myself blocked in so that I had to await the exodus prior to getting my breakfast. I like Venice as a spectacle, and as a memorial of an era that has passed away. All these great edifices that once symbolized a reality, are now as little significant as the temple of Dunderah. [?] The Romantic is obsolete in the presence of a dardinian heir apparent and … with muskets. I cannot work my imagination back to the days of the old Doge Dundole [?] and of the council of ten, and the lion’s mouth. You want me to read Ruskin, a writer I cannot endure. I want to dispute every sentence he makes merely because he is so dogmatic and self-sufficient and extravagant in his way of putting it. If I were to go to his book I know I should vote Venice a pure relic of a barbarous age and him a high priest of a … creed. We are so far shut out from the world of American politics, that the sound comes to us faintly enough, a fact I do not deplore. The impeachment appears to have failed by a narrow scratch. The number of senators was 54. Mr. Wade did not vote, making 53. Had he done so, it would have made 54 but nineteen is more than a third of either number, so he was wise to abstain. It remains to be seen who are the … recalcitrants. From a casual article in a member of the New York Herald which I met with, I infer that Mr. Fessenden is the… of the offenders. Be it who it may I hope it may prove a lesson to the factions for some time to come. The effect upon the radical division of the party in the coming election time only can … I am not anxious to learn it. My vacation has yet a few weeks to run. Our program is as follows. On Wednesday I propose to go to Florence, whilst your mother goes to Milan. I mean to stay there until Monday, 1st June. Then to Rome for four or five days and so to Milan by the 8th or 9th to join your mother at …–from whence by the pass of Dr. Gothard to Lucern and Bali [?] and Cologne, so as to be back in London by the 21st. Your affectionate father, C.F.A.”
$595.00