James Hopkins Adams was an American politician. He served as the 66th governor of South Carolina.
Background
James Hopkins Adams was born on March 15, 1812 in Minervaville (now Horrell Hill), South Carolina, United States. He was the only child of Henry Walker Adams and Mary (Goodwyn) Adams. He was the grandson of one of the hardy Welsh pioneers who migrated from Virginia to the Carolinas during the latter half of the eighteenth century. While he was still an infant both of his parents died, and he came under the care of his maternal grandparents.
Education
Adams first attended school at Minervaville Academy in Richland County near the place of his birth. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Capt. Partridge's Academy, Norwich, Connecticut, where he was prepared for Yale College, from which he graduated in 1831.
Career
In 1831 Adams engaged in cotton planting, by means of which he was able to augment considerably a substantial competence which had come to him through inheritance. He entered almost at once upon a long and somewhat turbulent career in politics. In 1832 he attached himself to the State-Rights party by warmly supporting the doctrine of nullification which was then under test. Thenceforth the chief tenet of his political creed was fixed; namely, a firm belief in the principles of state sovereignty. He came accordingly to act with that party in South Carolina which turned from nullification to secession, demanded disunion without success in 1851, and at length effected its purpose in 1860. He was a member of the local House of Representative 1834-1837, 1840-1841, 1848-1849, and of the Senate 1850-1853.
His affiliation with the Whig party after 1838 greatly increased the difficulty of securing election in his constituency, which was ordinarily Democratic, and competition between his own and the opposing faction became so keen that both were reduced to a frequent and open use of illegal methods. Adams himself confessed that he had spent $10, 000 in the campaign of 1854 and had lost only because his opponent had spent $50, 000.
Like the majority of those who followed a political career in antebellum South Carolina, he sought preferment in the state militia service, in which he rose to the rank of brigadier-general of cavalry when still in his twenties.
In 1854 after his defeat for the state Senate, Adams was elected governor by a handsome majority. His administration, otherwise eminently conservative, was given a radical character at its very close by his proposal to reopen the African slave trade. In spite of the presence in the South of a considerable sentiment in favor of the proposition, this official pronouncement shocked public sensibility, and the South Carolina legislature refused to endorse it. In consequence of this and his advanced stand on the question of secession, Adams was defeated in his candidacy for the United States Senate in 1858.
After the passage of the Ordinance of Secession he was elected one of three "Commissioners to the Federal Government at Washington" to negotiate for the transfer of United States property in South Carolina to the state government. His death occurred shortly after his return from this mission and while he was still a member of the convention.
Achievements
Politics
Adams served as a Democrat and was an opponent of nullification, supporter of the foreign slave trade as a way of eliminating illicit trade. In the secession convention of 1860 he spoke eloquently in favor of immediate disunion.
Personality
B. F. Perry, who personally admired Adams in spite of their political differences, describes him as "the finest-looking horseman in saddle, when in full uniform, that I ever saw, and the best rider. "
Connections
In April 1832 Adams married Jane Margaret Scott. They had 11 children.