Charles Francis Adams, Sr.
|
|
Charles Francis Adams (August 18, 1807, Boston - November 21 1886, Boston), the son of John Quincy Adams and Louisa Adams, was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat and writer.
When only two years old he was taken by his father to St. Petersburg, Russia. Aged eight, he traveled to Paris, France with his mother.
When his father was minister to England, he was placed in Boston Latin School, a boarding school. He later studied at Harvard College, where he graduated in 1825. He then studied law with Daniel Webster, graduating January 6, 1829, and practised in Boston.
Adams was elected member of the Massachusetts state house of representatives in 1831, served in the State senate 1835-1840, founded and edited the journal Boston Whig in 1846, and was an unsuccessful candidate of the Free-Soil Party for Vice President of the United States in 1848.
He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1858, when he chaired the Committee on Manufactures, and again, after a power struggle with Edison Railroad, in 1860, resigning to accept a diplomatic assignment to the United Kingdom from 1861 to 1868. Adams became Minister to England during this period, a position of note, but not equal in rank, privilege, or pay to a full Ambassador. The distinction was important primarily because Adams's one time close friend and fellow Massachusetts Congressman Charles Sumner was at the time head of the Foreign Relations Committee. After a falling out between the two Sumner blocked Adams's appointment to Ambassador, forcing Secretary of State William H. Seward to assign Adams the lesser title of Minister to England. The UK had already recognized Confederate belligerency, and Adams was instrumental in maintaining British neutrality, rather than recognizing the Confederate states during the American Civil War.
Back in Boston, he declined the presidency of Harvard University but became one of its overseers in 1869. He was interred in Mount Wollaston Cemetery, Quincy, Massachusetts.
His children included: