Charles Francis Adams, Jr.

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Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (May 27, 1835 – May 20, 1915) was a member of the prominent Adams political family and son of Charles Francis Adams, Sr.. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and was a railroad executive following the war.

[edit] Early life and career

Captain Adams (second from right) with officers of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, August 1864

After graduating from Harvard in 1856, Adams served on the Union side in the American Civil War, serving initially as a captain in a Massachusetts cavalry regiment. He fought with distinction during the Gettysburg Campaign, where his company was heavily engaged at the Battle of Aldie. He received the brevet rank of brigadier-general in the Regular Army in 1865.

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" since the purpose of the commission was to expose the corrupt business practices in hopes 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 unscruplous stock jobbers.^[1]

[edit] Union Pacific Railroad

Adams was president of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1884 to 1890, having previously become widely known as an authority on the management of railways. Among his writings are Railroads, Their Origin and Problems (1878).

His son, Charles Francis Adams, became Secretary of the Navy and a renowned yachtsman.

[edit] Works

• Chapters of Erie (????)
• Railroads, Their Origin and Problems (1878).

[edit] References

• Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1636-38 (1894).
• "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers" (1898).
• Kirkland, Edward C. Charles Francis Adams Jr., 1835-1915: Patrician at Bay. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.
• 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.
• Railroads: Their Origin and Problems (1878).
• Soylent Communications (2005), Charles Francis Adams, Jr.. Retrieved February 21, 2005.
• Three Episodes of Massachusetts History (1892).
• "'Tis Sixty Years Since." (1913)

[edit] External links

• Texas and the Massachusetts Resolutions, by Charles Francis Adams, published 1844, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• Works by Charles Francis Adams, Jr. at Project Gutenberg
• Essays by Charles F. Adams, Jr.
• Charles Adams' Photo & Gravesite

[edit] Notes

1. ↑  Clay McShane discusses Adams's regulatory philosophy in Technology and Reform: Street Railways and the Growth of Milwaukee, 1887-1900 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin for the Department of History, University of Wisconsin, 1974), 26-28.