Thayer and Charles returned from Scituate this afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Hilliard came to pass the night here. Mr. H appears much more to advantage in private conversation than he does in the pulpit. He appears to be a very sensible man.
“25th.,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/03-02-02-0001-0009-0025. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary of John Quincy Adams, vol. 2, March 1786 – December 1788, ed. Robert Taylor J and Marc Friedlaender. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981, p. 118.]