Charles Francis Adams, Jr.

For other people named Charles Francis Adams, see Charles Francis Adams.

Charles Francis Adams II
Born	May 27, 1835(1835-05-27)
Died	May 20, 1915(1915-05-20) (aged 79)
Place of burial	Mount Wollaston Cemetery, Quincy, Massachusetts
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	Union Army
Rank	Colonel
Battles/wars	American Civil War
Awards	Brevet Brigadier General

Charles Francis Adams II (May 27, 1835 – May 20, 1915) was a member of the prominent Adams family, and son of Charles Francis Adams, Sr. He served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he was a railroad regulator and executive, an author of historical works, and a member of the Massachusetts Park Commission.

Education and Civil War service

Captain Adams (second from right) with officers of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, August 1864

Adams was born into a family with a long legacy in American public life. He was the great-grandson of United States President John Adams, and the grandson of president John Quincy Adams. His father Charles Francis Adams, Sr.^[1] was a lawyer, politician, diplomat, and writer.

After graduating from Harvard University in 1856, Adams served on the Union side in the American Civil War, serving initially as a captain in a Massachusetts cavalry regiment. He fought with distinction during the Gettysburg Campaign, where his company was heavily engaged at the Battle of Aldie. On July 9, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Colonel Adams for the award of the grade of brevet brigadier general, United States Volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865 and the U. S. Senate confirmed the award on July 23, 1866.^[2][3] Colonel Adams was awarded the grade of brevet brigadier general for distinguished gallantry and efficiency at the battles of Secessionville, South Carolina and South Mountain and Antietam, Maryland and for meritorious services during the war.^[4] At the close of the war, he was in command of a regiment of colored cavalry.^[5]

Post Civil War activity

On 8 May 1865, he married Mary Elizabeth [Ogden]; daughter of Abram Ogden of New York City, NY. The couple had three daughters and two twin sons: Mary Ogden ("Molly") Adams, Louisa Catherine Adams, Elizabeth Ogden ("Elise") Adams, John Adams (b. 1875 - 1964), and Henry Adams (b. 1875 - 1951), both of whom graduated Harvard in 1898.^[6][7][8]

Following the Civil War, he was appointed to the Massachusetts Railroad Commission. There he attempted to persuade (rather than coerce) railroads into compliance with accepted business norms. Thomas McCraw called Adams's approach to regulation "the Sunshine Commission" since the purpose of the commission was to expose the corrupt business practices in hopes that, once out in the open, the businessmen would be shamed into mending their ways. It was in this vein that he wrote Chapters of Erie. However, true to his regulatory philosophy, he favored the protection of businessmen over that of the consumers. He saw regulation as necessary to protect investors and other businessmen from the capriciousness of a hostile public or the machinations of other unscruplous stock jobbers.^[9] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1871.^[10]

Union Pacific Railroad

Adams was president of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1884 to 1890, having previously become widely known as an authority on the management of railways. However, he left his office due to financial problems. ^[11] Among his writings are Railroads, Their Origin and Problems (1878).

Massachusetts Park Commission

From 1893 to 1895 he was chairman of the Massachusetts Park Commission, and as such took a prominent part in planning the present park system of the state.^[5]

Historical writings

After 1874, he devoted much of his time to the study of American history, and in recognition of his work in this field was chosen president of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1895, and of the American Historical Association in 1901. His writings and addresses both on problems of railway management and on historical subjects frequently gave rise to widespread controversy.^[5]

Relations

His siblings include: older sister Louisa Catherine [Adams], wife of Charles Kuhn, of Philadelphia, older brother [Hon.] John Quincy Adams II; the uncle of Charles Adams, III, the brother of the historian Henry Brooks Adams,^[6] Arthur Adams, who died young during their childhood, Mary Adams, who married Henry Parker Quincy, of Dedham, MA, and historian Peter Chardon Brooks Adams, of Beverly Farms, MA. who married Evelyn [Davis].

Death and burial

Charles F. Adams, Jr. died May 20, 1915, a week shy of his 80th birthday. He is buried in Mount Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy, Massachusetts. His grave can be found in the Old Section, Lot 337.^[12]

Works

• Chapters of Erie, and Other Essays (New York, 1871), with brother Henry Adams
• Railroads, Their Origin and Problems (New York, 1878)
• Notes on Railroad Accidents (New York, 1879)
• Richard Henry Dana: A Biography (Boston, 1891)
• Three Episodes of Massachusetts History (Boston, 1892), a work which gives an account of the settlement of Boston Bay, of the Antinomian controversy, and of church and town government in early Massachusetts
• Massachusetts: Its Historians and Its History (Boston, 1893)
• Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1636-38 (1894).
• “Imperialism” and “The Tracks of Our Forefathers” at Project Gutenberg (1898).
• Life of Charles Francis Adams (Boston, 1900), in the American Statesmen Series
• Lee at Appomattox, and Other Papers (1902)
• Charles Francis Adams, 1835-1915: An Autobiography (1916)

Family tree

The following is a selective family tree of notable members of the Adams family relative to Charles Francis Adams, Jr.:

President John Quincy Adams

Louisa Catherine Johnson

Peter Chardon Brooks

Abigail [Brown]

Charles Francis Adams, Sr.

Abigail Brown [Brooks]

George Caspar Crowninshield

Harriet [Sears]

Charles Francis Adams, Jr.

John Quincy Adams II

Frances Cadwalader [Crowninshield]

John Quincy Adams III

George Caspar Adams

Charles Francis Adams III

Frances [Lovering]

Frances C. Adams

Arthur Adams

Margery Lee [Sargeant]

Abigail ("Hitty") Adams

Robert Homans

Catherine Lovering Adams

Henry Sturgis Morgan

Charles Francis Adams IV

Margaret [Stockton]

Children 3 Sons; 1 Daughter

Five Sons

Abigail Adams

James C.Manny

Allison Adams

Paul G. Hagan

{{{ CFA }}}

Timothy Adams

See also

	Biography portal
	United States Army portal
	American Civil War portal

• List of Massachusetts generals in the American Civil War
• Massachusetts in the American Civil War

References

1. ^ Browning, Charles Henry. Americans of Royal Descent: A Collection of Genealogies of American Families Whose Lineage is traced to the Legitimate Issue of Kings. Philadelphia: Porter & Costes, 1891, ed. 2, pp. 68 – 69.
2. ^ Eicher, John H. and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, p. 739. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3
3. ^ Hunt, Roger D. and Brown, Jack R., Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue, p. 4. Olde Soldier Books, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD, 1990. ISBN 1-56013-002-4
4. ^ Hunt and Brown, 1990, p. 4
5. ^ ^{a b c}  "Adams, Charles Francis, Jr.". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Adams, Henry, Levenson, J. C., Massachusetts Historical Society, et al. The Letters of Henry Adams, Volumes 4 – 6, 1892–1918. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. xxxvi – xxxvii.
7. ^ Harvard College. Memorial of the Harvard Class of 1856: Prepared for the Fifteenth Anniversary of Graduation. Cambridge: Geo. H. Ellis, 1906, pp. 1 – 7.
8. ^ Rand, John Clark. One of a Thousand: A Series of Biographical Sketches of One Thousand Representative Men Resident in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, A. D. 1889 – ’89. Boston: First National Pub. Co., 1890, p. 4.
9. ^ Clay McShane discusses Adams's regulatory philosophy in Technology and Reform: Street Railways and the Growth of Milwaukee, 1887-1900 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin for the Department of History, University of Wisconsin, 1974), 26-28.
10. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf. Retrieved 1 April 2011. 
11. ^ Kazin, Michael (July 15, 2011). "Book Review - Railroaded - By Richard White". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/books/review/book-review-railroaded-by-richard-white.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3. 
12. ^ "Charles Francis Adams, Jr.". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7338000. Retrieved 2010-02-08. 

• Eicher, John H. and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Hunt, Roger D. and Brown, Jack R., Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue. Olde Soldier Books, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD, 1990. ISBN 1-56013-002-4.
• Kirkland, Edward C. Charles Francis Adams Jr., 1835-1915: Patrician at Bay. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.
• McCraw, Thomas K. Prophets of Regulation: Charles Francis Adams, Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Landis, Alfred E. Kahn. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1984.
• Soylent Communications (2005), Charles Francis Adams, Jr.. Retrieved February 21, 2005.
• "'Tis Sixty Years Since" by Charles Francis Adams at Project Gutenberg (1913)

External links

• Works by Charles Francis Adams, Jr. at Project Gutenberg
• Notes on Railroad Accidents, 1879
• Shall Cromwell Have a Statue?, 1902

Preceded by Sidney Dillon

President of Union Pacific Railroad 1884 – 1890

Succeeded by Sidney Dillon

Persondata
Name	Adams, Charles Francis, Jr.
Alternative names
Short description	Union Army General
Date of birth	May 27, 1835
Place of birth
Date of death	May 20, 1915
Place of death