Charles Francis Adams Sr. (18 August 1807 – 21 November 1886) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-MA 3) from 4 March 1859 to 1 May 1861, succeeding William S. Damrell and preceding Benjamin Thomas.
Biography[]
Charles Francis Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1807, the third son of John Quincy Adams. He studied law with Daniel Webster and practiced in Boston, and he served in the state legislature during the 1840s. He was originally an anti-extension Whig, and he ran as the Free Soil Party's unsuccessful vice-presidential nominee in 1848 alongside presidential nominee Martin Van Buren. In 1858, he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Republican, and he served as envoy to the United Kingdom from 1861 to 1868. He played a key role in keeping Britain out of the American Civil War, and he went on to serve as an overseer of Harvard University, to build a library in honor of his father in Quincy, and to launch a failed 1876 Democratic gubernatorial bid. He died in 1886.