Day
adams-john10 Neal Millikan Federalist Party
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Day. The whole of this month I have been so much engaged upon Committees and their business that I have been obliged entirely to forego the continuation of my lectures— I rise generally with the Sun, or a little before— Read or write untill 9. Breakfast and walk to the Capitol, where I am very much occupied untill four— Walk home—dine, and pass the Evening in my chamber reading public papers or writing untill 9. at Night. Supper below—bed, about eleven— Occasionally spending an Evening abroad.

I have more than abundant reason to be thankful for the blessings of Providence during the past year; which has been perhaps the most prosperous year of my life; and the least checkered with unpropitious Events— After passing its two earliest months here, in March I returned home, and resumed my residence in Boston— There I pass’d the Summer, and was bless’d in the birth of a third son, who has hitherto had health beyond the common portion of an infant— My other children though of more slender Constitutions, have also been preserved to us, as have my parents and other near relations— On the return of the Congressional Meeting, with my wife and infant boy, I came safely here where we have since remained.— My private affairs have been improving, though I have contracted a large debt, which it must be my constant, and unwearied care to discharge— My own health with some slight interruptions has been greater than I had known for many years— My general consideration among my fellow-citizens, though not marked by any new public testimonial in the course of the year, has been to my observation apparently rising. During the present Session of the Senate my standing in that body has been singular— Apparently so distinguished, as to have excited jealousies, with little more real influence than heretofore— The usual principal leading characters of the Senate have been absent altogether or principally this Session— Tracy and Baldwin are no more— Giles and Bayard have not yet appeared— Smith of Maryland has been absent nearly half the time— The leading members have been Bradley, Anderson and Mitchill, with whom in respect of the business of Committees I have been much associated— On most of the great national questions now under discussion, my sense of duty leads me to support the administration, and I find myself of course in opposition to the federalists in general— But I have no Communication with the President other than that in the regular order of business in Senate— In this state of things my situation calls in a peculiar manner for prudence; my political prospects are declining, and as my term of Service draws near its close, I am constantly approaching to the certainty of being restored to the situation of a private citizen— For this Event however, I hope to have my mind sufficiently prepared— In the mean time I implore that Spirit from whom every good and perfect gift descends to enable me to render essential Service to my Country, and that I may never be governed in my public conduct by any consideration other than that of my duty.

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