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 the Union Pacific Railroad from 1884 to 1890. He served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American 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.

Early life

Adams was born in Boston, May 27, 1835, was a lawyer, politician, diplomat, and writer. His siblings were older sister Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of Charles Kuhn, of Philadelphia; older brother John Quincy Adams II, father of Charles Francis Adams III; historian Henry Brooks Adams; and then studied law in the office of Richard Henry Dana Jr. and was admitted to the bar in 1858.

Adams was a Veteran Companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS).

Railroad reformer

Massachusetts Railroad Commission

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 wrote Chapters 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 unscrupulous stock jobbers.

Union Pacific Railroad

Congress distrusted the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and in 1884 forced it to hire Adams as the new president. Adams had long promoted various reform ideas, as in his book Railroads, 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 the Knights of Labor. When the union refused extra work in Wyoming in 1885, Adams hired Chinese workers. The result was the Rock Springs massacre, which killed scores of Chinese and drove all the rest out of Wyoming. 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 owner Jay Gould forced him to resign.

Historian

180px|thumb|right|The signature of Charles Francis Adams II

Adams was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1871 and a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1891.

After 1874, he devoted much of his time to the study of American history. In recognition of his work, Adams became vice-president of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1890, he was chosen president of this society in 1895 and the American Historical Association in 1901. The five children were:

  • Mary Ogden ("Molly") Adams (b. 1867), who married Grafton St. Loe Abbott (1856–1915), a son of U.S. Representative Josiah Gardner Abbott. They were the parents of Mary Ogden Abbott.
  • Louisa Catherine Adams (1872–1958), who married Thomas Nelson Perkins (1870–1937).
  • Elizabeth Ogden ("Elise") Adams (1873–1945).
  • John Francis Adams (1875–1964), who married Marian Morse Adams (1878–1959). They were the parents of Thomas Boylston Adams.
  • Henry Quincy Adams (1875–1951).

Death and burial

Adams died May 20, 1915.

Works

  • Chapters of Erie, and Other Essays (New York, 1871), with brother Henry 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)
  • (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"
  • 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)

Family tree

See also

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

References

Citations

  • 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. .
  • 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. .
  • 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.

(1913)

  • Notes on Railroad Accidents, 1879
  • Shall Cromwell Have a Statue?, 1902