LECTURES IN NANTUCKET. 367 



Hon. R. S. Baldwin, in New Haven, at which the gentle- 

 men of the College were invited to meet him. It was a few 

 years before the death of Colonel Trumbull, November 22, 

 1843, who then resided in my family ; and I invited Mr. 

 Adams to ride home with me and call on his old friend, 

 the venerable Artist. To this he readily assented, and he 

 passed about two hours with us in very cheerful and anima- 

 ted conversation. He sat at the tea-table with us, Colonel 

 Trumbull, Mrs. Silliman, myself, and, I believe, several 

 of our children. I had never seen him before so easy and 

 communicative. There was nothing of the stateliness of 

 the public man, but perfect affability and a mellow renewal, 

 with Colonel Trumbull, of the scenes of earlier years in 

 Europe. He declined to eat or drink, saying that this was 

 his habit when about to speak in public, as he was engaged 

 to pronounce a lecture that evening before our citizens. 

 We sat long at the table, and I took the liberty to remark 

 to him that I honored him much, as the fearless advocate 

 of freedom in the right of petition which he had fully vin- 

 dicated ; and no other man could have done it against the 

 powerful assaults of the united South. He had stood firm 

 like a rock in the sea, over which the billows broke and 

 moved it not. I thought he was not displeased with my 

 frankness. This led to conversation regarding his Presiden- 

 tial career, when he said without reserve that the presidency 

 of the second term, which he was by precedent entitled to 

 expect, was lost to him by the strenuous, bitter, and perse- 

 vering opposition of John C. Calhoun, who of-course carried 

 the entire South with him, and such others as he could 

 influence. His own eye was doubtless fixed upon the 

 Presidency. There was still an hour or two before the 

 time for the lecture, and as Mr. Adams expressed a wish 

 to call on the family of Yice-President Gerry, I drove with 

 him to their house, then, I believe, as now, in Temple Street, 

 and the call appeared highly gratifying to Mrs. Gerry and 

 her estimable daughters. I believe I left Mr. Adams at the 



