Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1886 — CHAS. FRANCIS ADAMS. [ARTICLE]

CHAS. FRANCIS ADAMS.

He Passes Peacefully Away, After Steering for Years from Brain Trouble. His Public Services in Politics, Diplomacy and Literature—-A Useful Life. The Hon. Charles Francis Adams, Sr., died at his residence in Boston on Sunday, Nov. 21. Mr. Adams' mental and physical powers had been declining for nearly ifc decade. Until the very last, however, he was a quiet, dignified gentleman, who simply took no interest in what was going on about him. His intellectual collapse was so complete that for fully two years he had been unable to identify any of his family, except, perhaps, his wife. , Nothing roused him except an occasion il outburst of merriment in his presence, when he would join sympathetically in the general laughter. There were no offensive features of his infirmity whatever, the outward effect being simply complete reticence. No apprehension of his immediate death was felt until the day preceding his demise, whin Mr. Adams showed slight symptoms of fever. A physician, who "was called at once, said his wasted stj'ength would not be able to resist the attack, mild as it was. Mr. Adams lingered some sixteen hours, when his life left him as qniet’y as a breath of air extinguishes a candle flame. The end, when it i-nme, ■was simply the flickering out of the last spark of vital lire, which had been failing away so gradually that the change from day to-day was not perceptible.

Sketch of His LifeCbnrles Francis Adams, grandson of John Adams, second President, and son of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, was born at Boston, August 18, 1807. His father holding diplomatic positions in Europe, he spent most of his first ten years abroad, returning to America in 1817, when he entered Harvard College, graduating in 1825. He was ailm tied to the bar in 1838, but never engaged in practice, having previously married the daughter of Peter C. Brooks, a wealthy Boston merchant. Previous to 1848 he had served as a member of tho Massachusetts Legislature for five years, "in 1848 he was nominated by the newly organized “tree-soil” party for the Vice Presidency of the United States. This party, composed mainly of Democrats who were opposed to the extension of slavery, cast but few votes, but its members, finally coalescing with most of the Northern members of the Whig party, formed the Republican party, which came into power in 1860. Meanwhile, in 1858, Mr. Adams was elected a member of Congress. In 1861 Mr. Adams was appointed by President Lincoln Minister to Great Britain, a post which he retained until 11868, when he was recalled at his own request,. In 1871-2 he acted as arbitrator for the United States in the commission to settle the respective claims of Great Britain and the United States growing out of the civil war. He was one of the originators.of the “Liberal Republican” movement in 1872, but was defeated by Mr. Greeley in securing the Presidential nomination. He subsequently joined tho Democratic party, by which he was nominated for Governor of Massachusetts in 1876. Mr. Adams has furnished many contributions to tho North American Re view and to the Christian Examiner, and iu 1870 delivered before the Nexv York Historical Society an able discourse on “American Neutrality.” He has published “The Life and Works of John Adams,” ten volumes, and “The Life and Works of John Quincy Adams,” thirteen volumes. John Quincy Adams, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1871, and Charles Francis Adams, Jr., who has long been identified with railroad development, are sons of Mr. Adams.