Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886)

Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886) American diplomat and editor, grandson of John Adams and son of John Quincy Adams, born in Boston, and educated at Harvard University. He was admitted to the bar in 1829. Adams served for five years in the Massachusetts legislature as a member of the Whig Party. In 1858 and again in 1860, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts as a member of the Republican Party. In 1861 he was appointed minister to Britain by Abraham Lincoln. His skillful handling of this position during the American Civil War (1861-65), when the British government rendered aid to the Confederacy, is an outstanding chapter in the history of American diplomacy. In the so-called Trent affair, the first major crisis in Anglo-American relations during the war, his calm and tact were instrumental in averting hostilities between the two nations. Although he failed to prevent the sailing of the Alabama, a raider built in Britain for the Confederacy, his efforts with the British government later resulted in the detention of other Confederate vessels. He resigned as minister to Britain in 1868. In 1871 he became a member of the Alabama claims tribunal. He edited the Life and Works of John Adams (10 volumes, 1850-56), the Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (12 volumes, 1874-77), and the Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife, Abigail (2 volumes, 1876).