Statesman; born in
Boston, Mass., Aug. 18, 1807;
son of
John Quincy Adams; was graduated at Harvard College in 1825.
He accompanied his father to
St. Petersburg and
England, where he passed much of his childhood until the return of his family to
America in 1817.
Mr. Adams studied law in the office of Daniel
Webster, and was admitted to the bar in 1828, but never practised it as a vocation.
In 1829 he married a daughter of
Peter C. Brooks, of
Boston.
For five years he was a member of the legislature of Massachusetts.
Having left the Whig Party, he was a candidate of the
free-soil party (q. v.) in 1848 for the Vice-Presidency of the
United States.
Mr. Van Buren being the candidate for the Presidency.
They were defeated.
In 1850-56
Mr. Adams published the
Life and works of John Adams (his grandfather), in 10 volumes.
In 1859 he was elected to Congress from the district which his father long represented.
He was then a Republican in politics.
In March, 1861, he was appointed minister to
Great Britain, where he managed his diplomatic
[
21]
duties with much skill during one of the most trying times in our history — that of the
Civil War. He remained as American minister in
London until 1868, when, in un>February, he resigned.
In 1872
Mr. Adams was first a Liberal Republican, and then a Democrat, in politics.
His labors in the field of literature were various.
From 1845 to 1848 he edited a daily newspaper in
Boston, and was long either a regular or an occasional contributor to the
North American review.
His principal task was the preparation of the
Life and works of John Adams, and a
Life of John Adams, in 2 volumes.
He also issued the
Life and works of John Quincy Adams, in 12 volumes.
He died in
Boston, Nov. 21, 1886.
When the spirit of secession was rampant in Congress late in December, 1860, he tried to soothe the passions of the
Southern politicians by offering in the House Committee of Thirty-three a resolution, “That it is expedient to propose an amendment to the
Constitution, to the effect that no future amendments of it in regard to slavery shall be made unless proposed by a slave State and ratified by all the States.”
It was passed by only three dissenting voices in the committee.