264 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



on a special mission to the British court, as 

 the representative of the United States, having 

 accomplished the object for which he was sent, 

 returned to America, accompanied by his son, 

 in the year 1817, when he resumed his studies in 

 the Latin college at Boston, and subsequently at 

 Harvard University, where he graduated in 1825. 

 His father was soon afterward elevated to the 

 presidential chair, and Charles Francis removed 

 to Washington, "where he received his first les- 

 sons in diplomacy through the medium of an 

 appointment on the executive staff. Eventually 

 deciding upon the legal profession as his future 

 scene of action, he entered the office of Daniel 

 "Webster, in New Hampshire, where he prac- 

 tised until he was admitted to the Boston bar 

 in 1828, but he has never since been actively 

 engaged as a member of the legal fraternity. 

 In 1829 he became connected by marriage 

 with one of the most influential families of 

 the State, espousing the youngest daughter 

 of Peter C. Brooks, an eminent merchant of 

 Boston, thereby becoming a brother-in-law of 

 Edward Everett. Shortly afterward he entered 

 the Massachusetts Legislature as the represent- 

 ative of Boston, which position he held for 

 upward of two years, and was subsequently 

 transferred to the Senate. His rigid legal 

 training and his practical knowledge of State 

 affairs rapidly paved the way to still more 

 honorable and responsible positions. Having 

 conscientious objections to the policy of the 

 Whig party (with whom he had hitherto been 

 associated), he separated from them, and as- 

 sumed an independent position in the political 

 arena. His sincerity, active usefulness, and 

 keen intelligence had, however, so forcibly 

 commended him to the good opinion of his 

 fellow-citizens, that in the year 1848 he was 

 selected by the Free-soil party as their candi- 

 date for the vice-presidency on the Van Buren 

 ticket. In December, 1859, he was sent to Con- 

 gress, representing the third Massachusetts dis- 

 trict ; was appointed member on the most im- 

 portant committees, and was looked up to with 

 respect and confidence by all with whom he was 

 associated. The perilous condition of the coun- 

 try, the virulence of party politics, and the im- 

 minence of civil war at this time, brought Mr. 

 Adams at once to the front as the champion of 

 the Republican party; and the memorable ha- 

 rangue which he addressed to the House on May 

 31, 1860, in vindication of their policy, placed 

 him in the foremost rank of American states- 

 men, and marked put for him a career which 

 may probably find its climax in the presidential 

 chair. In the interval between the first and 

 second session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, he, 

 in company with Mr. Seward, made a tour of the 

 Northwestern States, strenuously supporting 

 Lincoln's candidature both by his speeches and 

 personal influence, and, when, on the opening 

 of the session, a special committee of dele- 

 gates from each State was appointed to take 

 into consideration the state of the country, 

 Mr. Adams was unanimously chosen as the 



representative for Massachusetts. The result 

 of that convention of delegates was the adop- 

 tion of a series of resolutions denying the right 

 or power of the free States, individually, or 

 of the United States Government, to interfere 

 with the internal economy of the slave States, 

 or to adopt any coercive or prohibitory meas- 

 ures toward them ; which resolutions were 

 accompanied by the draft of a bill for the ad- 

 mission of New Mexico into the Federal Union, 

 leaving the question of the admission or exclu- 

 sion of slavery to be decided by the Mexican 

 citizens alone; and also amendments to the 

 Constitution embodying the principles con- 

 tained in the resolutions, so framed that, when 

 passed, they could at once be acted upon, and 

 relieve the country from those dilemmas into 

 which it had been drawn by this vexata qucestio. 

 The amendments were unanimously adopted, 

 but the bill for the admission of New Mexico 

 was rejected. In all these documents, the 

 statesmanship and legal acumen of Mr. Adams 

 were distinctly traceable, whose persistent 

 and courageous advocacy of the non-inter- 

 vention policy, forbidding the interference of 

 Congress with the local government of indivi- 

 dual States (especially in reference to the sla- 

 very question),and his reasons for pursuing that 

 course (as given in a speech delivered January 

 81, 1861), are now a matter of history. Shortly 

 afterward (May, 1861) he succeeded Mr. Dallas 

 as minister to England, and for seven years 

 maintained with unswerving fidelity the honor 

 of his country, and administered the arduous 

 and delicate duties of his high office with such 

 equity and moderation as to secure the cordial 

 approval and hearty encomiums of both British 

 and American citizens. His familiarity with all 

 the intricacies of international law, his concili- 

 atory and yet firm method of treatment of 

 every matter brought under discussion, his 

 high character as a statesman, his genial 

 social qualities, and his inflexible honesty of 

 purpose, won for him the esteem and personal 

 regard of every man who had been brought into 

 official relations with him, or had had an op- 

 portunity of watching his conduct. From the 

 year 1868 to 1871 he lived in comparative re- 

 tirement, declining all active participation in 

 administrative affairs ; but, on the ratificatic 

 by England and America of the Treaty 

 Washington, he was appointed by the President 

 as arbitrator for America for the settlement 

 of the claims under that treaty; and departed 

 for Geneva, to fulfil the duties devolving upon 

 him, in November, 1871. His principal con- 

 tributions to literature are: "A Discourse on 

 American Neutrality," delivered before the 

 New York Historical Society, and a number of 

 contributions to the North American Review 

 and the Christian Examiner. He also edited 

 the collected writings and life of his grand- 

 father, published in ten volumes; and for four 

 years edited a daily paper in Boston. It is his 

 intention, we believe, to collect and publish his 

 father's biography and literary productions. 



