Queer Places:
Harvard University (Ivy League), 2 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mount Wollaston Cemetery
Quincy, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA
Charles
Francis Adams Jr. (May 27, 1835 – March 20, 1915) was an American author and
historian. He 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.
As secretary of the Massachusetts commissions to the Vienna exposition in
1873, Francis Davis Millet formed a friendship with the American Charles
Francis Adams, and then traveled through Turkey, Romania, Greece, Hungary, and
Italy, finally settling in Venice to paint.
Adams was born in Boston,
May 27, 1835,[1] 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.[2] was
a lawyer, politician, diplomat, and writer. His siblings included: older
sister Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of Charles Kuhn, of Philadelphia; older
brother Hon. John
Quincy Adams II, father of Charles
Francis Adams III; historian Henry
Brooks Adams;[3] Arthur
Adams, who died young during their childhood; Mary Adams, who married Henry
Parker Quincy, of Dedham, Massachusetts; and historian Peter Chardon Brooks
Adams, of Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. who married Evelyn Davis.[4]
Adams graduated from Harvard
University in 1856,[5] and
then studied law in the office of Richard H. Dana, Jr., and was admitted to
the bar in 1858.[1] Later,
in 1895, he received the degree LL.D. from
Harvard.[1]
Charles Francis Adams jr by Frank Millet
Adams served in the Union Army during the American
Civil War. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the 1st
Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry on December 28, 1861. He was promoted to captain on
December 1, 1862. He fought with distinction during the Gettysburg
Campaign, where his company was heavily engaged at the Battle
of Aldie. When the regiment's 3-years enlistment ended it was reduced to a
battalion; and Adams was mustered out of service on September 1, 1864.[6][5]
On September 8, 1864, he was commissioned as the lieutenant colonel of the 5th
Massachusetts Cavalry (officially designated "5th Massachusetts Colored
Volunteer Cavalry"). He was promoted to colonel and assumed command of the
regiment on March 14, 1865, shortly before the end of the war.[7][8][5] When
he assumed command, the regiment was assigned guarding Confederate prisoners
of war at Point
Lookout, Maryland. Adams, who wished to lead his regiment in combat, was
able to get horses for his regiment and had it reassigned to front line duty
during the closing days of the campaign against Richmond. Adams wrote in his
autobiography that he regretted having his unit reassigned since he came to
the conclusion that the regiment's black soldiers were ill-suited for combat
duty. He led his regiment into Richmond shortly after it was captured in April
1865. Adams returned to Massachusetts in May due to illness (probably
dysentery) and resigned from the Army on August 1, 1865.[5]
On July 9, 1866, President Andrew
Johnson nominated Colonel Adams for the award of the rank of brevet (honorary) brigadier
general, United
States Volunteers, "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" to rank from March 13,
1865, and the U. S. Senate confirmed the award on July 23, 1866.[9][10]
Adams was a Veteran Companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military
Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS).
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 unscrupulous stock
jobbers.[11]
Congress distrusted the Union
Pacific Railroad (UP) and in 1884 forced it to hire Adams as the new
president.[12] Adams
had long promoted various reform ideas, as in his book Railroads, Their Origin
and Problems (1878), but he had little practical experience in management. As
railroad president, he was successful in getting a good press for the UP, and
set up libraries along the route to allow his employees to better themselves.
He had poor results dealing with the Knights
of Labor. When the union refused extra work in Wyoming in 1885, Adams
hired Chinese workers. The result was the Rock
Springs massacre, which killed scores of Chinese and drove all the rest
out of Wyoming.[13] He
tried to build a complex network of alliances with other businesses, but they
provided little help to the UP. He had great difficulty in making decisions
and in co-ordinating his subordinates. Adams was unable to stanch the
worsening financial condition of the UP, and in 1890 the railroad's owner Jay
Gould forced his resignation.[14][15]
Adams was elected a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1871[16] and
a member of the American
Antiquarian Society in 1891.[17]
After 1874, he devoted much of his time to the study of American history. In
recognition of his work, Adams became vice-president of the Massachusetts
Historical Society in 1890, he was chosen president of this society in
1895 and the American
Historical Association in 1901.[1] His
writings and addresses on problems of railway management and other historical
subjects frequently gave rise to widespread controversy.[8]
In 1875, he published an essay on "The Granger Movement" in the North American
Review which exposes the railroad rate rigging and monopoly practices which
prompted the movement.
Adams also wrote an autobiography, completed in 1912 and published
posthumously in 1916. At the beginning of the autobiography is a memorial
address about Adams written by Henry
Cabot Lodge.
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.[8] He
was influential in establishing the Blue
Hills Reservation and the Middlesex
Fells Reservation.
In 1900, he wrote a letter to the President of the Massachusetts Single Tax
League, declaring himself a supporter of the reform Henry
George had proposed, which would later be known as Georgism.
An excerpt of that letter appeared in The Outlook, December 15, 1900.
Adams represented the public on the board of arbitration in the industrial
department of the National Civic Confederation in New York city, December 17,
1901.[1]
On November 8, 1865, he married Mary Hone Ogden (1843–1934), daughter of
Edward and Caroline Callender Ogden. The couple had three daughters and twin
sons (both of whom graduated Harvard in 1898[18]):[19]
Mary Ogden ("Molly") Adams (b. 1867), who married Grafton St. Loe Abbott
(1856–1915), a son of U.S. Representative Josiah
Gardner Abbott. They were the parents of Mary
Ogden Abbott. Louisa Catherine Adams (1872–1958), who married Thomas
Nelson Perkins (1870–1937).[20]
Elizabeth Ogden ("Elise") Adams (1873–1945).[4]
John Francis Adams (1875–1964), who married Marian Morse Adams (1878–1959).
They were the parents of Thomas
Boylston Adams.[21]
Henry Quincy Adams (1875–1951).[3]
Adams died May 20, 1915.[5] He
is buried in Mount
Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy,
Massachusetts. His grave can be found in the Old Section, Lot 337.[22]
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