Background

Charles Francis Adams Jr. was born on May 27, 1835 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States; the grandson of president John Quincy Adams, son of Charles Francis Adams, a prominent lawyer, politician, diplomat, and writer, and brother of Henry and Brooks Adams.

Education

From private schools, Adams went through the Boston Latin School. He then graduated from Harvard in 1856, studied law in the offices of Richard Henry Dana, and Charles Francis Parker, and within two years was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, but soon discovered that he had no great liking for it.

Career

Charles Francis Adams Jr. was practicing law when the Civil War started. He volunteered for the Union Army, and was commissioned as 1st Lieutenant in the 1st Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry in 1861. A year later he was promoted to captain, and in 1864 he was commissioned as the lieutenant colonel of the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry. He was promoted to colonel and assumed command of the regiment in March 1865. He resigned from the Army in August 1865.

During the Civil War service Adams fought in South Carolina and in the September 1862 Antietam Campaign, directed the unit during its participation in the June-July 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, fought in the heavy cavalry clash at Aldie, Virginia on June 17, 1863 and in the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia.

After the war Adams entered the railroad industry, and in 1869 he was appointed Massachusetts railroad commissioner. Two years later, in collaboration with his brother, Henry Adams, he published Chapters of Erie, an expose of the evils then prevalent in American railroad finance. He also left records of his railroad experience in Railroads: Their Origin and Problems and Notes on Railroad Accidents.

Quitting Massachusetts Railroad Commission in 1879, he accepted a position on the Eastern Trunk Line Association board of arbitration. In 1882 Adams joined the UP corporate board and made a long inspection tour of the Union Pacific Railway corporate board and made a long inspection tour of the Union Pacific Railway.

In March 1883 he was asked to chair a committee exploring the road's management problems. Later that year, after Jay Gould left the board and Sidney Dillion resigned as president, Congress urged Union Pacific directors to appoint Adams as Dillion's replacement. Adams accepted and resigned from the Eastern Trunk Line Association board the following year. The position forced upon him, only to be ousted from it after six years by Jay Gould and his following, who were none too friendly to Adams because of his exposure of the Erie. Adams foresaw the future importance of the road and from the verge of bankruptcy he raised it to a solvent and efficient system. The later financial situation and legislative measures hindered the completion of his administrative reforms. Through no fault of his own he was unable to meet the maneuvers of the speculative railroad wrecker.

Even during his time at the UP Adams' chief interest laid in historical research and writing. His two-volume Richard Henry Dana: A Biography, was published in 1891. This was quickly followed by his innovative local history, Three Episodes in Massachusetts History (1892), and the historiography, Massachusetts: Its Historians and Its History (1893).

Living in Quincy, Massachusetts, Charles and his brother John Quincy Adams served as moderators in town meetings for twenty years and directed the proceedings of the town government.

Adams was also a member of the school committee, a trustee of the public library, a park commissioner, and a commissioner of the sinking fund. He found the school system antiquated and the methods of teaching so imperfect as to be of little value. The average graduate of the grammar school in 1870 could not read with ease, nor could he write an ordinary letter in good English in a legible hand.

Uncertain what reforms were necessary, Adams proposed the employment of a trained superintendent and in 1875 gained his end, as the "Quincy System". It substituted new methods for the old mechanical ones. In place of memorizing rules, children were to learn to read, write, and cipher as they learned to walk and talk, naturally and by practice. In reading and writing, geography or history took the place of speller, grammar, and copybook. By 1880 the success of the system seemed assured and Adams's account of the reform - The New Departure in the Common Schools of Quincy - passed through six editions.

As the town possessed no public library, provision for one was made in 1871, the cost to be met by town and private subscription. Opened in that year, it proved a great success, and nine years later, through Adams's agency, the town gained the Thomas Crane library building, dedicated in 1882, Adams making the address.

In 1893, Adams drafted the report of a General Court open space commission. The principle adviser was Charles Eliot, the Harvard President’s son, who had joined Olmsted’s landscape architecture firm. The successful report was widely read. It culminated in the Massachusetts Park Commission that put Adams at its head until 1895. The work of this commission has surrounded the city with beautiful connecting roadways, saved Blue Hill from the quarrymen, and preserved the Middlesex Fells as public parks.

He also served as chairman of a state commission to report upon the relations of street railways and municipalities, which caused him to study the subject in European cities and produced useful general legislation based upon his recommendations, which again was copied in other cities.

For twenty-four years from 1882 he was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University. The nomination of visiting committees fell to him and he himself gave special attention to the English department. His elaborate reports on conditions produced some changes, but he was never satisfied that he had fully understood the situation and the remedy. To him the Harvard system was "radically wrong," and he expressed his views in two addresses which called out much controversy.

His ideas on the education to be given by college and university were developed in A College Fetich (1883), a protest against the compulsory study of dead languages; and, in 1906, near the term of his long service as overseer, in Some Modern College Tendencies, in which he pointed out the complete separation of teacher and individual student and the absence of direction in studies and of the personal influence of instructors. A remedy he found in a group of colleges, each independent and each having its specialty, where the master should know every student. The university should supplement college training. Both papers were constructive in their suggestion and served their purpose of causing reexamination of accepted methods.

Wishing to write a full biography of his father, Adams for a number of years gave close study to the political history of Massachusetts and the War of Secession and its results. Beginning with 1899 and for fifteen years thereafter he prepared a number of papers on the diplomatic history of the War of Secession, the larger part of which appeared in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Drawing largely from the family papers, he was able to give valuable material hitherto unknown, and he enriched it by an interpretation which, always original and individual, often ran counter to accepted conclusions.

Becoming convinced that the story could not be fully told without having the contemporary English and French diplomatic papers, he went twice to England in 1913, the first visit being due to his appointment to deliver three lectures on American history at Oxford University. These lectures were printed in 1913 as Trans-Atlantic Historical Solidarity. He gained access to important collections in England, obtained much material, and returned to complete the life of his father.

Throughout his whole career he was keenly alive to the course of political events, took an active share in reform and independent movements, and was an eager participant in the discussions of public policy, both state and national. In 1883 Adams was offered a nomination for the governorship, but declined it on the ground that a third candidate would divide the party and make the defeat of Gen. Butler less certain.

Achievements

• Charles Francis Adams Jr. had a successful career as a military, railroad executive and author. He was brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers on March 13, 1865 for "distinguished gallantry and efficiency at the battles of Secessionville, South Carolina, South Mountian and Antietam, Maryland, and for meritorious services during the war". Adams was a Veteran Companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS).
  
  During his time at the Board of Railroad Commissioners, Adams produced a series of reports on railway accidents and policy that drew attention to the methods and utility of the board and led to the creation in other states of boards closely modeled after that of Massachusetts. The success of his administration rested upon a full and impartial public examination of facts and a frank presentation to the public of conditions and conclusions.
  
  As railroad president, Adams was successful in getting a good press for the Union Pacific Railway, and set up libraries along the route to allow his employees to better themselves.
  
  As chairman of the Massachusetts Park Commission, Adams took a prominent part in planning the present park system of the state. He was influential in establishing the Blue Hills Reservation and the Middlesex Fells Reservation.
  
  Chapters of Erie with other writings of his, largely influenced subsequent Federal regulation of transportation. His American Statesmen series, a biography of his father, Charles Francis Adams, minister to England during the Civil War, is a valuable study of the diplomatic history of the period.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Railroads: Their Origins and Problems

    (Who better to discuss the origins and problems of late 19...)

    1878
  • Three Episodes of Massachusetts History

    (The Settlement of Boston Bay; The Antinomian Controversy;...)

    1892
  • Three Episodes of Massachusetts History

    (The Settlement of Boston Bay. The Antinomian Controversy....)

    1892
  • Richard Henry Dana: a Biography 1891
  • Charles Francis Adams, 1835-1915: An Autobiography 1916
  • Chapters of Erie: And Other Essays 1871
  • Notes on Railroad Accidents 1879
  • Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1636-1638: Including the Short Story and Other Documents 1894
  • Massachusetts: Its Historians And Its History 1893
  • Lee at Appomattox and Other Papers 1902

Religion

Reared a Unitarian, his beliefs changed as he took stock of his life after the Civil War. Like many Unitarians he was influenced by new social and political theories and European philosophy. As an adult, he continued to participate in Unitarian church activities but not as much as his father.

Politics

Adams and his brothers were deeply involved in the local politics of Quincy, Massachusetts. He was a committeeman for fifteen years while his brother John was moderator for twenty. He was a Republican and John a democrat but together they reformed the town meeting and improved and enlarged town services.

Later Adams became independent of party and remained so to the end. In dealing with public questions, he acted and wrote not as a partisan but in a large way - as had his ancestors before him. He spoke and published on ballot and electoral reform, proportional representation, free trade (he was in favor of a tariff for revenue), civil service reform, currency and finance, taxation, the abuses of the pension system, Panama tolls, the Philippines, and imperialism.

Views

Quotations: "History thus becomes largely a study of character. Insight into temperament is hardly less important than the probing of "original materials.""

Membership

Charles Francis Adams Jr. was elected president of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1895 and of the American Historical Association in 1901. He was chosen president of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1895, and of the American Historical Association in 1901.

Personality

Adams, possessing an inquiring and historical mind, with pronounced ability to investigate and present social and historical problems, progressive in matters of political or administrative improvement, yet conservative in action, showed that he was near to John Quincy Adams in qualities of mind but wanting in the aggressiveness that distinguished the elder statesman. Passing a life largely in controversy, his absolute honesty of purpose and conviction was never questioned.

Connections

On November 8, 1865, Adams married Mary Hone Ogden, the daughter of Edward and Caroline Callender Ogden. The couple had three daughters and twin sons.

Father:

Charles Adams Sr.

Charles Francis Adams Sr. was an American writer, politician and diplomat. Adams was a member of the Massachusetts State Senate and served as the United States Minister to the United Kingdom under Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. He is also known for his biography of President John Adams, his grandfather.

Mother:

Abigail Brooks Adams

Abigail Brooks Adams (April 25, 1808 - June 6, 1889) was the youngest of three daughters of Peter Chardon Brooks and Ann Gorham Brooks. Peter Brooks was one of the wealthiest men in Boston, and he and his wife were highly regarded in Boston society. She passed away at the Peacefield in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Spouse:

Mary Hone Ogden

Grandfather:

John Adams

John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829.

Brother:

John Adams II

John Quincy Adams II was an American lawyer and politician. Adams was a Democratic member for several terms of the Massachusetts general court and was an unsuccessful candidate for governor on the Democratic ticket in 1867 and 1871.

Brother:

Henry Adams

Henry Brooks Adams was an American historian and author, best known for his History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He also authored two works of fiction Democracy: An American Novel and Esther and, most famously, the autobiographical The Education of Henry Adams. Throughout his career he was a frequent contributor to American newspapers.

Brother:

Brooks Adams

Brooks Adams was an American historian, lawyer, philosopher and politician. In his work America's Economic Supremacy (1900), he predicted that New York would become the world trade center.

Daughter:

Mary Ogden ("Molly") Adams

Daughter:

Louisa Catherine Adams

Daughter:

Elizabeth Ogden ("Elise") Adams

Son:

John Francis Adams

Son:

Henry Quincy Adams

granddaughter :

Mary Ogden Abbott

Mary Ogden Abbott (October 12, 1894 – May 11, 1981) was an American wood carving and line drawing artist, world traveler, equestrian and an early Grand Canyon River runner. She was the daughter of Grafton St. Loe Abbott and Mary Ogden (née Adams) Abbott.

Grandson:

Thomas Boylston Adams

Thomas Boylston Adams (July 25, 1910 – June 4, 1997) was a 20th-century American business executive, writer, academician, and political candidate.

References

• Charles Francis Adams, Jr., 1835-1915: The Patrician at Bay
  1965