Adams, Charles Francis. Distinguished American diplomatist, born in Boston, Mass., Aug. 18, 1807; died in Boston, Nov. 21, 1886. Son of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States. He was a lawyer, and represented the town of Quincy in the Legislature five years. He edited the Boston Whig, from 1845 to 1848; was candidate for Vice-President in 1848; elected to Congress in 1859; appointed minister to England by President Lincoln in 1861, where he remained till 1868. He was American arbitrator at the Geneva Tribunal, and several times Democratic candidate for governor of his native State. He wrote the memoirs of his father and grandfather, and edited the works of the latter.

On the morning after the inauguration of the statue of Franklin in Boston, Mr. Adams, recalling the relations of his grandfather with the printer philosopher, said to a friend: "My grandfather never could keep his temper; Franklin always kept his. The two men never could get along together; my grandfather was all fire, said imprudent things, and lost his self-control. Franklin took advantage of this, answered calmly, argued warily, and for this reason usually got the better of the argument."

Mr. Adams was very refined, courteous, and gentle in his bearing towards everybody," said a lady who used to know him in her girlhood; "he put on no airs, and if he felt a family pride, did not display it." After the death of William H. Seward, in 1872, he was invited by the Legislature of New York to deliver a eulogy on the deceased statesman; and it is a singular fact, that a quarter of a century earlier, Seward had pronounced a public eulogy on Adams's father in the Capitol at Albany.

Adams, Charles Francis. Born in Massachusetts, 1807-1886. Son of President John Quincy Adams, infra. An eminent diplomatist, who was Minister to England during the period of the Civil War. He edited The Life and Works of John Adams; Letters of Mrs. Abigail Adams; Life and Works of John Q. Adams; Familiar Letters of John and Abigail Adams, with Memoir of Mrs. Adams. See Life by his son, Charles Francis Adams, Jr. infra. Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston.