Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Adams, Charles Francis
ADAMS, Charles Francis, LL.D., grandson of John Adams, second President, and son of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, was born at Boston, August 18, 1807. His father holding diplomatic positions in Europe, he spent most of his first ten years abroad, returning to America in 1817, when he entered Harvard College, graduating in 1825. He was admitted to the bar in 1838, but never engaged in practice, having previously married the daughter of Peter C. Brooks, a wealthy merchant of Boston. Previous to 1848 he had served as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature for five years. In 1848 he was nominated by the newly organized "Free Soil" party for the Vice-Presidency of the United States. This party, composed mainly of Democrats who were opposed to the extension of slavery, cast but few votes; but its members finally coalescing with most of the Northern members of the Whig party formed the Republican party, which came into power in 1860. Meanwhile, in 1858, Mr. Adams was elected a member of Congress. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln Minister to Great Britain, a post which he retained until 1868, when he was recalled at his own request. In 1871–72 he acted as arbitrator for the United States in the Commission to settle the respective claims of Great Britain and the United States growing out of the civil war. He was one of the originators of the "Liberal Republican" movement in 1872, but was defeated by Mr. Greeley in securing the presidential nomination. He subsequently joined the Democratic party, by whom he was nominated for Governor of Massachusetts in 1876. He has furnished many contributions to the North American Review and to the Christian Examiner, and in 1870 delivered before the New York Historical Society an able discourse on "American Neutrality," which has been printed. He has published "The Life and Works of John Adams" (10 vols., 1850–56), and " The Life and Works of John Quincy Adams" (13 vols., 1874–76). His son, John Quincy Adams, born in Boston, Sept. 22, 1833, graduated at Harvard College in 1853, and was admitted to the bar in 1855. In 1866 he was elected to the State Legislature as a Republican, but having favoured the "reconstruction" policy of President Andrew Johnson, failed of re-election in the following year. He has since been a prominent leader in the Democratic party, by which he was sent to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869–70, and nominated for Governor in 1867, and 1871, but he was not elected. Another son, Charles Francis Adams, jun., born at Boston, May 27, 1835, graduated at Harvard College in 1856, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. During the Civil War he was in command of a regiment of coloured troops, and was brevetted Brigadier-General. He has since been identified with railroad development, has served as Railroad Commissioner of Massachusetts, and ranks high as an authority upon all matters pertaining to railroad management. He has been a contributor to the North American Review, and is the author of "The Railroad Problem," 1875, and, with his brother Henry, of "Chapters of Erie," 1871. The residence of the family is Quincy, Massachusetts.