Charles Francis Adams Quotes

Charles Francis Adams Sr. was an American historical editor, writer, politician, and diplomat. He was a son of President John Quincy Adams and grandson of President John Adams, of whom he wrote a major biography.

Adams served two terms in the Massachusetts State Senate before running unsuccessfully as vice-presidential candidate for the Free Soil Party in the election of 1848 on a ticket with former President Martin Van Buren. During the Civil War Adams served as the United States Minister to the United Kingdom under Abraham Lincoln, where he played a key role in keeping Britain neutral while southern agents were trying to achieve official recognition of the Confederacy. That meant conducting dialogue with both sides and monitoring the British connection in the supply of commerce raiders.

He became an overseer of Harvard University, and built Adams National Historical Park, a library in honor of his father in Quincy, Massachusetts.

✵ 18. August 1807 – 21. November 1886   •   Other names Charles Francis Adams, Sr.
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Famous Charles Francis Adams Quotes

“More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself.”

As quoted in Washington's Birthday : Its History, Observance, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse (1918) by Robert Haven Schauffler http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/5/1/4/15140/15140.htm, p. 143.
Context: More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself. If there be one quality more than another in his character which may exercise a useful control over the men of the present hour, it is the total disregard of self when in the most elevated positions for influence and example.

“In this country … men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire.”

Diary entry (15 April 1836), as quoted in The Travellers' Dictionary of Quotation : Who Said What, About Where? (1983) by Peter Yapp, p. 862.

“It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war.”

Dispatch to John Russell at a period of diplomatic tensions between the US and Britain during the US Civil War (5 September 1863); more information on the significance of this statement is available at "The American Question Abroad in the Civil War" http://www.civilwarhome.com/americanquestion4.htm

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