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198 Later Historians giving himself to a phase of our history in which the town had a deep interest ; but finally, having reached a stage of disillusion- ment, as he considered it, he broke local ties, turned toward the unanchored spaces of the remote past, and became a master in the realm of detached thinking. After serving in the army until 1865 Charles Francis Adams, Jr., gave himself to the study of the railroad situation, writing and publishing articles that led to his appointment on the Massachusetts railroad commission in 1869. In the same year he published a remarkable essay, A Chapter in Erie, exposing the methods by which some of the leading railroad directors manipulated the stocks of their roads for their own benefit. He became a government director of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1882 and served as its president from 1884 to 1890. Retiring from this position he gave the remainder of his life to history. The results of his labours appeared in many books and pam- phlets, the most important of which were Chapters of Erie and Other Essays — in collaboration with Henry Adams — (1871), Railroads, their Origin and Problems (1878), Notes on Railroad Accidents (1879), The New English Canaan of Thomas Morton (new edition with introduction, 1883), Richard Henry Dana, a Biography (2 vols., 1890), History of Quincy (1891), History of Braintree (1891), Three Episodes of Massachusetts History (2 vols., 1892), Massachusetts, its Historians and History (1893), Charles Francis Adams, the First (1900), Three Phi Beta Kappa Addresses (1907), Studies, Military and Diplomatic (191 1), Trans-Atlantic Historical Solidarity {igi^) , and Charles Francis Adams, an Autobiography (191 6). He was not content to be merely an historian but did many things to promote historical interests. He was in constant demand for historical addresses. Several of his discourses were made in the South, where his appreciation of Southern character was warmly received, and his words did much to promote good feeling between the two sections. As vice-president and presi- dent of the Massachusetts Historical Society he was the leader of an important group of historians. It was in these extra- literary activities that he served history best. The historical career of Henry Adams falls into two periods. One of them began with his return from London in 1868, where he had been private secretary to his father, then minister to