Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/19

Charles Francis Adams (August 18, 1807 – November 21, 1886), the son of President John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Johnson-Adams, was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat and writer. Born in Boston, and attended Boston Latin School and Harvard College, where he graduated in 1825, Adams then studied law with Daniel Webster, practiced in Boston, and became known as a writer of works about American and British history for the North American Review. Elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1831, Adams served in the state senate, was the unsuccessful nominee of the Free Soil Party for Vice President of the United States in 1848, and as a Republican Adams was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1858, resigning to become Lincoln's minister (ambassador) to the Court of St. James (Britain) from 1861 to 1868.