Charles Francis Adams Jr.
President ofUnion Pacific Railroad
In office 1884–1890
Preceded by	Sidney Dillon
Succeeded by	Sidney Dillon
Personal details
Born	Charles Francis Adams Jr. (1835-05-27)May 27, 1835 Boston,Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	March 20, 1915(1915-03-20) (aged 79) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting place	Mount Wollaston Cemetery,Quincy, Massachusetts
Spouse	Mary Hone Ogden ​ ​ (m. 1865)​
Relations	Adams political family
Children	5
Parents	Abigail Brown Brooks Charles Francis Adams Sr.
Occupation	Soldier, railroad commissioner, park commissioner, author, historian
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Branch/service	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	BrevetBrigadier General
Unit	1st Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry
Commands	5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry
Battles/wars	American Civil War Battle of Secessionville Maryland campaign Battle of South Mountain Battle of Antietam Gettysburg campaign Battle of Aldie

Charles Francis Adams Jr. (May 27, 1835 – March 20, 1915) was an American author, historian, and railroad and park commissioner who served as the president of theUnion Pacific Railroad from 1884 to 1890. He served as a colonel in theUnion Army during theAmerican 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.

Adams was born inBoston, May 27, 1835,^[1] into a family with a long legacy in American public life. He was a great-grandson ofUnited States PresidentJohn Adams and a grandson of PresidentJohn Quincy Adams. His fatherCharles Francis Adams Sr.^[2][3] was a lawyer, politician, diplomat, and writer. His siblings were older sister Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of Charles Kuhn, of Philadelphia; older brotherJohn Quincy Adams II, father ofCharles Francis Adams III; historianHenry Brooks Adams;^[4] Arthur Adams, who died in childhood; Mary Adams, who married Henry Parker Quincy, of Dedham, Massachusetts; and historian Peter ChardonBrooks Adams, of Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, who married Evelyn Davis.^[5]

Adams graduated fromHarvard University in 1856^[6] and then studied law in the office ofRichard Henry Dana Jr. and was admitted to the bar in 1858.^[1] In 1895, he received anLL.D. degree from Harvard University.^[1]

Adams served in the Union Army during theAmerican Civil War. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the1st Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry on December 28, 1861. He was promoted tocaptain on December 1, 1862. He fought with distinction during theGettysburg campaign, where his company was heavily engaged at theBattle of Aldie. When the regiment's 3-year enlistment ended it was reduced to a battalion, and Adams was mustered out of service on September 1, 1864.^[7][6]

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.^[8][9][6] When he assumed command, the regiment was assigned guarding Confederate prisoners of war atPoint 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.^[6]

On July 9, 1866, PresidentAndrew Johnson nominated Colonel Adams for the award of the rank ofbrevet (honorary)brigadier general,United States Volunteers, "for distinguished gallantry and efficiency at the battles ofSecessionville, South Carolina andSouth Mountain andAntietam, 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.^[10][11]

Adams was a Veteran Companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of theMilitary 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," because the purpose of the commission was to expose the corrupt business practices in the hope that, once out in the open, the businessmen would be shamed into mending their ways. It was in this vein that he wroteChapters 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 unscrupulousstock jobbers.^[12]

Congress distrusted theUnion Pacific Railroad (UP) and in 1884 forced it to hire Adams as the new president.^[13] Adams had long promoted various reform ideas, as in his bookRailroads, 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 he set up libraries along the route to allow his employees to better themselves. He had poor results dealing with theKnights of Labor. When the union refused extra work in Wyoming in 1885, Adams hired Chinese workers. The result was theRock Springs massacre, which killed scores of Chinese and drove all the rest out of Wyoming.^[14] 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 coordinating his subordinates. Adams was unable to stanch the worsening financial condition of the UP, and in 1890 the railroad's ownerJay Gould forced him to resign.^[15][16]

Adams was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1871^[17] and a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Society in 1891.^[18]

After 1874, he devoted much of his time to the study of American history. In recognition of his work, Adams became vice-president of theMassachusetts Historical Society in 1890, he was chosen president of this society in 1895 and theAmerican Historical Association in 1901.^[1] His writings and addresses on problems of railway management and other historical subjects frequently gave rise to widespread controversy.^[9]

In 1875, he published an essay on "The Granger Movement" in the North American Review. It exposed the railroad rate rigging and monopoly practices that prompted themovement.

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 byHenry Cabot Lodge.

From 1893 to 1895, he was chairman of theMassachusetts Park Commission, and as such took a prominent part in planning the present park system of the state.^[9] He was influential in establishing theBlue Hills Reservation and theMiddlesex Fells Reservation.

In 1900, he wrote an open letter to the President of the Massachusetts Single Tax League, declaring himself a supporter of the reformHenry George had proposed, which would later be known asGeorgism. An excerpt of that letter appeared inThe 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 from Harvard in 1898.^[19][20] The five children were:

• Mary Ogden ("Molly") Adams (b. 1867), who married Grafton St. Loe Abbott (1856–1915), a son of U.S. RepresentativeJosiah Gardner Abbott. They were the parents ofMary Ogden Abbott.
• Louisa Catherine Adams (1872–1958), who marriedThomas Nelson Perkins (1870–1937).^[21]
• Elizabeth Ogden ("Elise") Adams (1873–1945).^[5]
• John Francis Adams (1875–1964), who married Marian Morse Adams (1878–1959). They were the parents ofThomas Boylston Adams.^[22]
• Henry Quincy Adams (1875–1951).^[4]

Adams died May 20, 1915.^[6] He is buried inMount Wollaston Cemetery inQuincy, Massachusetts.^[23]

• Chapters of Erie, and Other Essays (New York, 1871), with brotherHenry Adams
• Railroads, Their Origin and Problems (New York, 1878)
• Notes on Railroad Accidents (New York, 1879)
• Richard Henry Dana: A Biography (Boston, 1890)
• Three Episodes of Massachusetts History (Boston, 1892), a work that gives an account of the settlement of Boston Bay, of the Antinomian controversy, and of church and town government in early Massachusetts
• Massachusetts: Its Historians and Its History (Boston, 1893)
• Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1636–1638 (1894)
• "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers" atProject Gutenberg (1898).
• Charles Francis Adams (Boston and New York, 1900), in the American Statesmen series (biography of Charles Francis Adams Sr.)
• Lee at Appomattox, and Other Papers (1902)
• "Reflex Light From Africa,"The Century Magazine, vol. 72, pp. 101–111 (1906)
• "Lee's Centennial: An Address by Charles Francis Adams Delivered at Lexington Virginia Saturday January 19 1907"
• Whence the Founders Travel (1907)
• "'The Solid South' and the Afro-American Race Problem," "Speech of Charles Francis Adams at the Academy of Music, Richmond, Va., Saturday Evening, 24 October, 1908"
• "The Trent Affair: An Historical Retrospect".The American Historical Review.17 (3):540–562. April 1912.doi:10.2307/1834388.JSTOR 1834388.Published as a book, with "A few changes in language ... and a paragraph added." Boston, 1912
• Tis Sixty Years Since. Address of Charles Francis Adams, Founders' Day, January 16, 1913, University of South Carolina (New York, 1913)
• Charles Francis Adams, 1835–1915: An Autobiography (1916)
• Before and After the Treaty of Washington: The American Civil War and the War in the Transvaal. An address delivered before the New York Historical Society on its ninety-seventh anniversary, Tuesday, November 19, 1901 (New York, 1902)

• List of Massachusetts generals in the American Civil War
• List of railroad executives
• Massachusetts in the American Civil War

• De Gruccio, Michael, "Manhood, Race, Failure, and Reconciliation: Charles Francis Adams Jr. and the American Civil War,"The New England Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 4 (Dec., 2008), pp. 636-675.
• Egerton, Douglas, "The Fall of the House of Adams: Charles Francis Adams Jr. on Race and Public Service,"We're History, November 25, 2019.
• Egerton, Douglas R.Heirs of an Honored Name: The Decline of the Adams Family and the Rise of Modern America. Basic Books, 2019.
• Eicher, John H. and Eicher, David J.,Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 2001.ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
• Garrett, Mrs. Wendell, "The Published Writings of Charles Francis Adams, II (1835-1915): An Annotated Checklist,"Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 72 (Oct., 1957 - Dec., 1960), pp. 238-293.
• Hunt, Roger D. and Brown, Jack R.,Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue. Olde Soldier Books, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD, 1990.ISBN 1-56013-002-4.
• Kirkland, Edward Chase,Charles Francis Adams, Jr., 1835–1915: The Patrician at Bay. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965.
• McCraw, Thomas K.Prophets of Regulation: Charles Francis Adams, Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Landis, Alfred E. Kahn. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1984.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCharles Francis Adams, Jr..

• Works by Charles Francis Adams atProject Gutenberg

• "'Tis Sixty Years Since" by Charles Francis Adams atProject Gutenberg (1913)
• Works by or about Charles Francis Adams at theInternet Archive
• Notes on Railroad Accidents, 1879
• Shall Cromwell Have a Statue?, 1902

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