New Orleans under Gen. Jackson. From 1820 to 1824 he was governor of Kentucky, and in 1831-'33 a member of congress, serving on the committee on military affairs.
ADAIR, William Penn, second chief of the Cherokee nation, b. about 1828; d. in Washington, D. C., 23 Oct., 1880. During the civil war he commanded a brigade of Indians, which was organized by Gen. Albert Pike, in the service of the confederacy, and fought at the battle of Pea Ridge. At the time of his death he was at the capital representing the interests of his tribe.
ADAM, Græme Mercer, Canadian author, b. in
Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland, in 1839. He was
educated at Portobello and at Edinburgh, and when
quite young entered a publishing house in that city,
and in 1858 was given charge of one of its depart-
ments. A few months later he accepted a proposal
by the Blackwoods to take charge of a book store
in Toronto, Canada. In 1860 he succeeded to this
business as a member of the firm of Rollo &
Adam, who were the publishers of the first of the
more important Canadian periodicals, the "British
American Magazine." Mr. Rollo retired in 1866,
and it then became the firm of Adam, Stevenson,
& Co. The business not proving successful, in 1876
it was discontinued, and Mr. Adam went to New
York, where he helped to found the publishing
house that has since been developed into the
John W. Lovell Publishing Company. He returned to Toronto in 1878; in 1879 he established the " Canada Educational Monthly," which he edited for five years, and in 1880 assumed the editorship of the "Canada Monthly," which he and Prof. Goldvvin Smith were instrumental in founding in 1872. He also published "The Northwest, its History and its Troubles" (1885) ; "Outline History of Canadian Literature "; and, with Etlielwvn Wetherald, "An Algonquin Maiden" (Toronto, 1887).
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ADAMS, Abigail (Smith), wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, b. in Weymouth, Mass., 23 Nov., 1744; d. in Quincy, Mass., 28 Oct., 1818. Her father, the Rev. William Smith, was for more than forty years minister of the Congregational church in Weymouth. Her mother, Elizabeth Quincy, was great-great-grand-daughter of the eminent Puritan divine, Thomas Shepard, of Cambridge, and great-grandniece of the Rev. John Norton, of Boston. She was among the most remarkable women of the revolutionary period. Her education, so far as books were concerned, was but scanty. Of delicate and nervous organization, she was so frequently ill during childhood and youth that she was never sent to any school; but her loss in this respect was not so great as might appear; for, while the New England clergymen at that time were usually men of great learning, the education of their daughters seldom went further than writing or arithmetic, with now and then a smattering of what passed current as music. In the course of her long life she became extensively acquainted with the best English literature, and she wrote in a terse, vigorous, and often elegant style. Her case may well be cited by those who protest against the exaggerated value commonly ascribed to the routine of a school education. Her early years were spent in seclusion, but among people of learning and political sagacity. On 25 Oct., 1764, she was married to John Adams, then a young lawyer practising in Boston, and for the next ten years her life was quiet and happy, though she shared the intense interest of her husband in the fierce disputes that were so soon to culminate in war. During this period she became the mother of a daughter and three sons. Ten years of doubt and anxiety followed during which Mrs. Adams was left at home in Braintree, while her husband was absent, first as a delegate to the continental congress, afterward on diplomatic business in Europe. In the zeal and determination with which John Adams urged on the declaration of independence he was staunchly supported by his brave wife, a circumstance that used sometimes to be jocosely alleged in explanation of his superiority in boldness to John Dickinson, the women of whose household were perpetually conjuring up visions of the headsman's block. In 1784 Mrs. Adams joined her husband in France, and early in the following year she accompanied him to London. With the recent loss of the American colonies rankling in the minds of George III. and his queen, it was hardly to be expected that much courtesy would be shown to the first minister from the United States or to his wife. Mrs. Adams was treated with rudeness, which she seems to have remembered vindictively. “Humiliation for Charlotte,” she wrote some years later, “is no sorrow for me.” From 1789 to 1801 her residence was at the seat of our federal government. The remainder of her life was passed in Braintree (in the part called Quincy), and her lively interest in public affairs was kept up till the day of her death. Mrs. Adams was a woman of sunny disposition, and great keenness and sagacity. Her letters are extremely valuable for the light they throw upon the life of the times. See “Familiar Letters of John Adams and his Wife, Abigail Adams, during the Revolution.” with a memoir by C. F. Adams (New York, 1870).
ADAMS, Alvin, expressman, b. in Andover, Vt., 16 June, 1804; d. in Watertown, Mass., 2 Sept., 1877. In 1840 he established an express route between New York and Boston, making his first trip on 4 May. A few months later, under the firm-name of Adams & Co., he associated with himself Ephraim Farnsworth, who took charge of the New York office. On the death of the latter, soon afterward, William B. Dinsmore succeeded to his place, and for several years subsequently the business was limited to New York, New London, Norwich, Worcester, and Boston. In 1854 the corporation of Adams Express Co. was formed by the union of Adams & Co., Harnden & Co., Thompson & Co., and Kinsley & Co., with Mr. Adams his president. Its business then rapidly extended throughout the south and west, and m 1870 to tile far west. Mr. Adams was associated with the organization of the pioneer express throughout the mining camps of California in 1850 ; but on the consolidation of the companies in 1854, Adams & Co. disposed of their interest to the California Express Co. During the civil war the facilities that were afforded by Adams Express Co. were of the greatest value to the national government. Mr. Adams accumulated a large fortune. See " History of the Express Business," by A. L. Stimson (New York, 1881).
