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1776
1797
1826
1848
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1735
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19 October (30 October by the Gregorian calendar). John Adams born in North Precinct of Braintree, Mass. (later Quincy).
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1744
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11 November (22 November by the Gregorian calendar). Abigail Smith born in Weymouth, Mass.
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1751
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John
Adams attends Harvard College. Graduates in July 1755.
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1755
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August.
John Adams begins teaching grammar school in Worcester,
Mass.
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1756
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August.
John Adams begins his study of the law in James Putnam's
office in Worcester.
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1758
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November.
John Adams admitted to Suffolk County Bar.
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1762
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John
Adams admitted as a barrister before the Superior Court
of Judicature.
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1763
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June–July.
John Adams publishes his first known newspaper pieces,
signed "Humphrey Ploughjogger" and "U," in the
Boston Evening Post and Boston Gazette.
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1764
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25
October. John Adams and Abigail Smith marry in Weymouth.
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1765
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14
July. John and Abigail Adams's first child, Abigail 2d,
is born.
August–October. John Adams publishes "Dissertation
on the Canon and the Feudal Law" in the Boston Gazette.
September. John Adams prepares Braintree Instructions
denouncing the Stamp Act.
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1767
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11
July. John Quincy Adams born.
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1768
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28
December. Susanna Adams born. She lived only until 4 February
1770.
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1770
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January.
John Adams begins serving as clerk of Suffolk County
Bar Association.
29 May. Charles Adams born.
June. John Adams elected Boston representative to the
General Court.
October–November. John Adams represents the British
soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials.
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1772
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15
September. Thomas Boylston Adams born.
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1774
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September–October.
John Adams is a Massachusetts delegate to the first Continental
Congress in Philadelphia.
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1775
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January–April.
John Adams publishes "Novanglus" essays in the Boston
Gazette.
12 February. Louisa Catherine Johnson born in London.
May–July, September–December. John Adams attends
the second Continental Congress. On 15 June, he proposes
George Washington as commander in chief.
17 June. Abigail and John Quincy Adams watch the Battle
of Bunker Hill from Penn's Hill in Braintree.
July. John Adams elected to the Massachusetts Council;
serves until April 1776.
28 October. John Adams appointed chief justice of Massachusetts.
He never served and resigned on 10 February 1777.
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1776
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February–October.
John Adams attends the Continental Congress.
March–April. John Adams writes Thoughts on Government.
31 March. Abigail Adams writes John, asking him to "Remember
the Ladies" in planning the new government.
13 June. John Adams appointed president of the Board of
War.
June–July. John Adams serves on the committee to
draft a declaration of independence and gives the principal
speech in favor of the resolution for independence. The
resolution was adopted 2 July. Read Adams's comments about
2 July 1776.
June–September. John Adams drafts the "Plan of Treaties,"
America's first blueprint for its foreign relations.
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1777
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January–November.
John Adams attends the Continental Congress.
11 July. Abigail Adams gives birth to a stillborn daughter,
Elizabeth.
27 November. John Adams elected by Congress a joint commissioner to France with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee.
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1778
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14
February–1 April. John and John Quincy Adams sail
on board the frigate Boston for France. On 8 April,
they arrive at Paris and soon take up residence with Benjamin
Franklin at Passy.
8 May. John Adams's first audience with Louis XVI.
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1779
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11
February. John Adams learns that the joint commission
is superseded by Benjamin Franklin's appointment as minister
to France.
17 June–3 August. John and John Quincy Adams sail
from Lorient to Boston on board the French frigate La
Sensible.
August. John Adams proposes founding the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences; it is incorporated in 1780.
September–October. John Adams drafts the Massachusetts
Constitution of 1780, adopted on 25 October 1780.
27 September. John Adams appointed to negotiate treaties
of peace and commerce with Great Britain.
15 November. John, John Quincy, and Charles Adams sail
for France on La Sensible.
8 December. A leak forces La Sensible to put into
El Ferrol, Spain. The Adamses travel across northern Spain
to France, arriving in Paris on 9 February 1780.
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1780
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19
April–14 July. John Adams composes A Translation
of the Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe . . . into
Common Sense and Intelligible English. It is published
in Amsterdam in November and in London in January 1781.
20 June. Congress commissions John Adams to raise a loan
in the Netherlands.
July. John Adams writes what becomes known as "Letters
from a Distinguished American"; they are published in
London in 1782.
27 July–10 August. John, John Quincy, and Charles
Adams travel from Paris to Amsterdam.
4–27 October. John Adams writes 26 letters to Hendrik
Calkoen in an effort to explain the origins, progress,
and nature of the American Revolution to the Dutch people.
29 December. John Adams commissioned by Congress to conclude
a commercial treaty with the Netherlands.
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1781
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11
January. John Quincy and Charles Adams enrolled at the
University of Leyden.
2 May. John Adams presents a memorial to the States General
of the United Provinces calling on it to recognize and
conclude a commercial treaty with the United States and
then publishes the memorial as a pamphlet in English,
French, and Dutch.
15 June. Congress revokes John Adams's commissions to negotiate
Anglo-American peace and commercial treaties and creates
a joint commission consisting of Adams, Benjamin Franklin,
John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Thomas Jefferson to negotiate
a peace treaty.
July. John Adams briefly returns to Paris to discuss the
proposed Austro-Russian mediation of the war and rejects
American participation unless there is prior recognition
of American independence.
7 July–27 August. John Quincy Adams accompanies Francis
Dana to St. Petersburg, where he serves as Dana's secretary
and interpreter.
12 August. Charles Adams leaves the Netherlands for America
on board the South Carolina.
August–October. John Adams is seriously ill in Amsterdam
with a fever.
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19
April. The States General of the Netherlands recognizes
American independence.
22 April. John Adams presents his letter of credence as
minister plenipotentiary from the United States to William
V, stadholder of the Netherlands.
12 May. John Adams takes up residence in the H?tel des
Etats-Unis at The Hague, the first American legation building
in Europe.
11 June. John Adams signs a contract with a syndicate
of Amsterdam bankers for a loan of five million guilders.
8 October. John Adams signs a treaty of amity and commerce
with the Netherlands.
30 October. John Quincy Adams leaves St. Petersburg for
Holland. He travels through Finland to Stockholm, Copenhagen,
and Hamburg, and arrives at The Hague on 21 April 1783.
30 November. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay
sign the preliminary peace treaty between the United States
and Great Britain in Paris.
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1783
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July–August.
John Adams visits The Hague and returns to Paris with
John Quincy Adams.
3 September. John Adams signs the definitive peace treaty
between the United States and Great Britain.
September–October. John Adams has a second serious
fever.
October–December. John and John Quincy Adams travel
to England where they visit London, Oxford, and Bath.
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9
March. John Adams concludes a second Dutch loan in Amsterdam
to save American credit.
May–June. Congress elects John Adams, Benjamin Franklin,
and Thomas Jefferson commissioners to negotiate treaties
of amity and commerce with European and North African
nations.
20 June. Abigail Adams and her daughter, Abigail 2d, sail
from Boston for England, arriving in London on 21 July.
30 July. John Quincy Adams joins his mother and sister
in London. John Adams arrives a week later.
August 1784–May 1785. The Adamses reside at Auteuil near
Paris.
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1785
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24
February. John Adams named the first US minister
to Great Britain.
12 May. John Quincy Adams leaves Paris, returning to Boston
on 25 August after spending a month in New York City.
26 May. John, Abigail, and Abigail Adams 2d arrive at
London.
1 June. John Adams is presented to George III.
23 June. Abigail and Abigail Adams 2d are presented to
King George and Queen Charlotte.
2 July. John, Abigail, and Abigail Adams 2d move into
the first American legation in London, a house on Grosvenor
Square.
5 August. John Adams signs a treaty of amity and commerce
with Prussia.
17 August. Charles Adams admitted to Harvard College;
graduates in 1789.
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1786
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25
January. John Adams signs treaty of peace and friendship
with Morocco.
15 March. John Quincy Adams enters Harvard College as
a junior; graduates in 1787.
March–April. Thomas Jefferson visits John Adams in
London to negotiate commercial treaties with Tripoli,
Portugal, and Great Britain; tours English gardens with
Adams.
12 June. Abigail Adams 2d marries William Stephens Smith
in London.
30 August. Thomas Boylston Adams admitted to Harvard College;
graduates in 1790.
August–September. John Adams visits the Netherlands
with Abigail to exchange ratifications of the treaty with
Prussia; sees early triumph of Patriot party.
September–October. John Adams begins A Defence
of the Constitutions of the United States, which he
finishes, in three volumes, in 1787.
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1787
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2
April. William Steuben Smith, Abigail Adams Smith's first
child, born in London.
May–June. John Adams visits Holland to secure a
third Dutch loan.
June–July. In London, the Adamses care for Thomas
Jefferson's daughter Mary and her companion Sally Hemings,
who are en route to live with Jefferson in Paris.
July–September. John and Abigail Adams arrange for
the purchase of the Vassall-Borland house in Braintree.
October. At John Adams's request, Congress recalls him
from his diplomatic missions.
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1788
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20
February. John Adams has farewell audience with George
III.
February–March. John Adams makes his last visit to
Holland, contracts a fourth loan.
April–May. Abigail Adams Smith and William Stephens
Smith return to America; settle in New York.
April–June. John and Abigail Adams return to Massachusetts
and move into their new home, now the Adams National Historical
Park.
9 or 10 November. John Adams Smith, second child of Abigail
Adams Smith, born in New York.
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1789
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March.
John Adams elected the first vice president of the United
States; introduced to the Senate on 21 April in New York.
July. Charles Adams begins studying law in New York City
in the office of Alexander Hamilton; later transfers to
the office of John Laurance.
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1790
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April.
John Adams begins serial publication of "Discourses on
Davila" in the Gazette of the United States; the
series continued until April 1791.
7 August. Thomas Hollis Smith, third child of Abigail
Adams Smith, born.
November. John and Abigail Adams move to the new US
capital, Philadelphia.
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1791
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May.
John Adams elected president of the Academy of Arts and
Sciences; serves until 1813.
8 June–27 July. John Quincy Adams publishes the "Publicola"
essays in the Columbian Centinel, attacking Thomas
Paine's Rights of Man and criticizing Jefferson's
support of Paine.
8 July. Thomas Hollis Smith dies in New York City.
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1792
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22
February. Braintree's North Parish incorporated as the
town of Quincy.
August. Charles Adams obtains his certificate to practice
law.
December. John Quincy Adams protests Boston's anti-theater
ordinances in articles signed "Menander" published in
the Columbian Centinel.
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1793
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February.
John Adams reelected vice president.
April–May. John Quincy Adams publishes "Marcellus"
essays in the Columbian Centinel, defending American
neutrality.
July. John Quincy Adams delivers his first 4th of July
oration in Boston.
November–December. John Quincy Adams publishes "Columbus"
essays in the Columbian Centinel, denouncing France's
G?net mission.
December. Thomas Boylston Adams admitted to the bar in
Philadelphia, after studying for three years in the office
of Jared Ingersoll.
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1794
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30
May. President Washington appoints John Quincy Adams resident
minister to the Netherlands.
September–October. John Quincy Adams sails to England
with Thomas Boylston Adams, whom he names his secretary.
6 November. John Quincy Adams presents his credentials
at The Hague.
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1795
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27
or 28 January. Caroline Amelia Smith, daughter of Abigail
Adams Smith, born in New York.
29 August. Charles Adams marries Sarah Smith, sister of
William Stephens Smith, in New York.
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1796
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30
May. President Washington appoints John Quincy Adams minister
plenipotentiary to Portugal, but Adams never serves under
this appointment.
8 August. Susanna Boylston Adams, daughter of Charles
Adams, born in New York.
December. John Adams narrowly defeats Thomas Jefferson
for the presidency.
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1797
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4
March. John Adams inaugurated second president of the
United States.
1 June. President John Adams appoints John Quincy Adams
minister plenipotentiary to Prussia.
May–July. President John Adams appoints first peace
mission to France to resolve the issue of America's
rights as a neutral maritime power during the Anglo-French
war.
July.
John Quincy Adams presents his letter of recall to the
Dutch government.
26 July. John Quincy Adams marries Louisa Catherine
Johnson in London.
October–November. John Quincy, Louisa Catherine,
and Thomas Boylston Adams travel from London to Berlin.
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1798
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March–April.
President John Adams declares a state of quasi-war with
France and publishes the XYZ papers showing French attempts
to bribe American diplomats.
May–June. President John Adams proposes and Congress
approves the creation of the Department of the Navy.
July. President John Adams signs the Alien and Sedition
Acts.
8 September. Abigail Louisa Smith Adams, daughter of Charles
Adams, born.
30 September. Thomas Boylston Adams departs Berlin to
return to the United States; arrives in Quincy on 12 February
1799; practices law in Philadelphia 1799–1803.
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1799
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February.
President John Adams appoints a second peace mission to
France.
11 July. John Quincy Adams signs a treaty of amity and
commerce with Prussia.
Fall. John Quincy Adams begins translating Christopher
Martin Wieland's epic poem Oberon; completed in
1801.
October. President John Adams dispatches second peace
mission to France.
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1800
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May.
President John Adams dismisses Secretary of War James
McHenry and Secretary of State Timothy Pickering for opposing
his peace policy.
23 July–24 September. John Quincy and Louisa Catherine
Adams travel through Silesia, which he describes in letters
to Thomas Boylston Adams, soon published in Philadelphia's
Port Folio.
September. Alexander Hamilton attacks the Adams administration
in his Letter . . . concerning the Public Conduct and
Character of John Adams, Esq.
October. American diplomats conclude Convention of Mortefontaine
with France, ending the quasi-war and the Franco-American
alliance of 1778.
1 November. John Adams is the first president to live
in the President's House in Washington. Abigail joins
him mid-month. Read John Adams's letter of 2
November 1800.
30 November. Charles Adams dies in New York City.
December. President John Adams defeated for reelection.
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1801
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January–February.
President John Adams appoints Federalists to judicial
posts, including John Marshall as Supreme Court chief
justice.
February. President John Adams has John Quincy Adams
recalled from Prussia.
4 March. Thomas Jefferson becomes third president of
the United States; John Adams retires to his farm in
Quincy.
12 April. George Washington Adams, the first child of
John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams, born in Berlin.
July–September. John Quincy and Louisa Catherine
Adams return to America; live in Boston.
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1802
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April.
John Quincy Adams elected to Massachusetts State Senate.
5 October. John Adams begins his autobiography; continues
to 1807.
November. John Quincy Adams defeated in run for US House
of Representatives.
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1803
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February.
John Quincy Adams elected by the Massachusetts legislature
to the US Senate.
4 July. John Adams 2d, son of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine
Adams, born in Boston.
November. John Quincy Adams breaks with Massachusetts
Federalists to support the Louisiana Purchase.
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1805
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16
May. Thomas Boylston Adams marries Ann Harrod of Haverhill,
Mass.
August. John Quincy Adams appointed first Boylston Professor
of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard.
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1806
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29
July. Abigail Smith Adams, daughter of Thomas Boylston
Adams, born in Quincy.
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1807
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July–August.
John Adams writes 10 letters to Mercy Otis Warren, protesting
her treatment of him in her History of the Rise, Progress
and Termination of the American Revolution.
18 August. Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy and
Louisa Catherine Adams, born in Boston.
December. John Quincy Adams is the only Federalist senator
to support President Jefferson's embargo bill.
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1808
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January.
John Quincy Adams attends Republican caucus to select
presidential nominee.
May.
Massachusetts legislature elects John Quincy Adams's
successor in the US Senate six months before the normal
election; Adams resigns his seat 8 June.
9 June. Elizabeth Coombs Adams, daughter of Thomas Boylston
Adams, born.
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1809
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April.
John Adams begins a series of letters of reminiscence
to the Boston Patriot; continues to May 1812.
25 April. Abigail Brown Brooks born in Medford, Mass.
April–June. John Quincy Adams's critical review of
the Works of Fisher Ames appears in the Boston
Patriot; review constitutes his final break with Massachusetts
Federalism
27 June. President Madison appoints John Quincy Adams
minister plenipotentiary to Russia.
4 August. Thomas Boylston Adams Jr., born.
August–October. John Quincy Adams sails with Louisa
Catherine, Charles Francis, and Catherine Johnson, Louisa's
younger sister, to St. Petersburg; presents his credentials
in November. Nephew William Steuben Smith accompanies
Adams as his private secretary.
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1810
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Lectures
delivered from 1806 to 1809 at Harvard by John Quincy
Adams published as Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory.
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1811
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22
February. At Abigail Adams's request, President Madison
appoints John Quincy Adams an associate justice of the
US Supreme Court. He declines the position.
June. Thomas Boylston Adams appointed chief justice of
the Massachusetts Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the
Southern Circuit.
22 June. Frances Foster Adams, daughter of Thomas Boylston
Adams, born; dies 4 March 1812.
12 August. Louisa Catherine Adams, daughter of John Quincy
and Louisa Catherine Adams, born in St. Petersburg, Russia;
dies 15 September 1812.
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1812
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January.
John Adams resumes his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson;
it continues until their deaths.
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1813
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26
May. Isaac Hull Adams, son of Thomas Boylston Adams,
born.
14 August. Abigail Adams Smith dies of cancer in Quincy.
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1814
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January.
John Quincy Adams appointed to head commission to negotiate
an Anglo-American peace treaty.
28 April–24 June. John Quincy Adams travels alone
from St. Petersburg to Ghent to negotiate treaty; meetings
with British commissioners begin on 8 August.
24 December. John Quincy Adams signs the Treaty of Ghent
with Great Britain, ending the War of 1812.
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1815
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12
February–23 March. Louisa Catherine and Charles Francis
Adams travel overland from St. Petersburg to join John
Quincy Adams in Paris; her recollections of this trip
published in Scribner's Magazine in 1903.
28 February. John Quincy Adams commissioned envoy extraordinary
and minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain.
25 May. John Quincy Adams's entire family reunited in London.
3 July. John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Albert Gallatin
sign Commercial Convention that first establishes American
diplomatic equality with Great Britain.
16 December. John Quincy Adams, son of Thomas Boylston
Adams, born.
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1817
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5
March. President Monroe appoints John Quincy Adams secretary
of state.
14 May. John Quincy Adams presents recall as minister
to Great Britain; travels with family from London to
Quincy, arriving in August.
September. John Quincy Adams assumes post of secretary
of state.
16 December. Joseph Harrod Adams, son of Thomas Boylston
Adams, born.
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1818
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July.
John Quincy Adams opposes censure of Andrew Jackson for
invading the Spanish province of Florida without authorization.
20 October. American commissioners in London, under the
direction of John Quincy Adams, sign the Convention of
1818 with Britain, clarifying America's northern boundary,
fishing rights, and commerce.
28 October. Abigail Adams dies in Quincy.
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1819
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22
February. John Quincy Adams signs Transcontinental Treaty
with Spain (the Adams-On?s Treaty), by which the United
States extends its boundaries (in Oregon) to the Pacific
Ocean and acquires the territory of Florida.
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1821
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22
February. John Quincy Adams submits to the Senate his
Report on Weights and Measures, recommending uniform
standards of measurement.
4 July. John Quincy Adams addresses the House of Representatives,
declaring the United States' anticolonial principles in
relation to Latin America.
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1822
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John
Quincy Adams publishes a defense of his diplomacy at Ghent,
The Duplicate Letters, the Fisheries and the Mississippi,
in response to the criticism of fellow negotiator Jonathan
Russell.
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1823
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2
December. President Monroe announces his famous doctrine,
largely the work of John Quincy Adams.
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1824
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8
January. John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams host their
famous ball for Andrew Jackson on the ninth anniversary
of the Battle of New Orleans.
5–17 April. John Quincy Adams concludes Convention
with Russia, establishing 54? 40' as northern limit of
the American sphere of influence and insuring the later
incorporation of Oregon territory into the US
November. John Quincy Adams runs second to Andrew Jackson
in the national election for president; no candidate receives
a majority vote.
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1825
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9
February. John Quincy Adams chosen president by the House
of Representatives; inaugurated 4 March as the sixth president
of the United States.
August. Charles Francis Adams graduates from Harvard College.
5 December. President John Quincy Adams's ambitious "Lighthouses
of the Skies" message to Congress recommends a Department
of the Interior, a naval academy, a national university,
a national astronomical observatory, nation wide internal
improvements for transportation, and uniform laws on bankruptcy,
weights and measures, militia, and patents for invention.
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1826
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4
July. John Adams dies in Quincy on the 50th anniversary
of the Declaration of Independence, the same day Thomas
Jefferson dies at Monticello.
Congress opposes President John Quincy Adams's and Secretary
of State Henry Clay's energetic Latin American policy.
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1827
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5
February. President John Quincy Adams asserts federal
authority over the state of Georgia to protect land claims
of Creek Indians.
August. Charles Francis Adams begins to read law in Daniel
Webster's office in Boston; admitted to the Suffolk County
Bar, January 1829.
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1828
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25
February. John Adams 2d marries Mary Catherine Hellen
in the White House.
May–June. President John Quincy Adams wins congressional
approval for a program of internal improvements (including
construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal) and a protective
tariff.
November. John Quincy Adams defeated by Andrew Jackson
for the presidency.
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1829
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February.
John Quincy Adams composes "A Reply to the Appeal of the
Massachusetts Federalists," in support of the principle
of federal union.
30 April. George Washington Adams dies in a jump or fall
from a steamer in Long Island Sound.
3 September. Charles Francis Adams marries Abigail Brown
Brooks at Medford, Mass.
October–November. John Quincy Adams dedicates a memorial
to John and Abigail Adams in the Stone Temple (First Parish
Church) in Quincy, Mass.
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1830
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1
November. John Quincy Adams elected to the US House
of Representatives from Massachusetts' Plymouth district;
reelected until his death.
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1831
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February–April.
John Quincy Adams composes the epic poem Dermot MacMorrough,
or The Conquest of Ireland.
13 August. Louisa Catherine Adams 2d, daughter of Charles
Francis Adams, born in Boston.
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1832
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12
March. Thomas Boylston Adams dies in Braintree.
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1833
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22
September. John Quincy Adams 2d, son of Charles Francis
Adams, born in Boston.
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1834
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23
October. John Adams 2d, son of John Quincy Adams, dies
in Washington.
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1835
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27
May. Charles Francis Adams 2d, son of Charles Francis
Adams, born in Boston.
December. John Quincy Adams appointed chairman of a House
special advisory committee regarding the $500,000 bequest
of James Smithson to establish the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington.
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1836
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26
May. The US House of Representatives passes a gag rule
against antislavery petitions without allowing John Quincy
Adams to speak in opposition to it. Adams begins a nine-year
fight to have the rule removed.
4 July. Abigail Louisa Smith Adams Johnson, daughter of
Charles Adams, dies.
July. John Quincy Adams votes against US recognition
of Texas; President Jackson recognizes Texan independence
March 1837.
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1837
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14
December. Lt. Thomas Boylston Adams Jr., dies of a fever
at Fort Dade, Florida, during the Second Seminole War.
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1838
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16
February. Henry Brooks Adams, son of Charles Francis Adams,
born in Boston.
16 June–7 July. John Quincy Adams delivers a speech
in the House on the freedom of petition and debate, forcing
a delay in the efforts to annex Texas as a slave holding
state.
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1839
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December.
John Quincy Adams saves the House from anarchy by assuming
the chair during a deadlock over its organization.
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1840
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Charles
Francis Adams publishes the Letters of Mrs. Adams,
a volume of Abigail Adams's correspondence.
May–June. John Quincy Adams composes the poem "The
Wants of Man"; first appears in print 3 September 1841,
in the Albany Evening Journal.
November. Charles Francis Adams elected to the Massachusetts
House of Representatives; he serves in the state legislature
until 1845, leading a small antislavery faction.
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1841
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February–March.
John Quincy Adams successfully defends the Amistad
African captives before the US Supreme Court. Read Adams's
Diary entry of 29 March 1841
against the slave trade.
23 July. Arthur Adams, son of Charles Francis Adams, born
in Boston; dies 9 February 1846.
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1842
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25
January. The House of Representatives considers a motion
to censure John Quincy Adams for presenting extreme antislavery
petitions.
2–7 February. John Quincy Adams presents his defense
and the motion for his censure is tabled.
13 September. Marian Hooper, future wife of Henry Adams, born in Boston.
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1843
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October–November.
John Quincy Adams journeys to Cincinnati to dedicate a
new astronomical observatory.
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1844
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3
December. In John Quincy Adams's last great triumph, the
US House of Representatives drops its gag rule, thus
restoring the freedom of petition and debate in Congress.
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1845
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February.
John Quincy Adams's efforts to prevent the annexation of
Texas defeated.
4 February. Abigail Smith Adams Angier, daughter of Thomas
Boylston Adams, dies in Medford, Mass.
19 February. Mary Adams, daughter of Charles Francis Adams,
born in Boston.
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1846
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Charles
Francis Adams edits the Boston Whig and becomes
a leader of Massachusetts' "Conscience Whigs."
May. John Quincy Adams votes against declaration of war
with Mexico.
20 November. John Quincy Adams suffers a cerebral hemorrhage
in Boston.
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1848
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21
February. John Quincy Adams collapses in his seat in the
House of Representatives and is carried to the Speaker's
Room, where he dies on 23 February.
24 June. Brooks Adams, son of Charles Francis Adams, born
in Quincy.
November. Charles Francis Adams runs as vice presidential
candidate of the Free Soil Party, an alliance of antislavery
Whigs and Democrats.
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1850
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Charles
Francis Adams begins publishing The Works of John Adams,
a 10-volume edition of letters and papers, with a biography
of his grandfather, completing it in 1856.
12 May. William Steuben Smith, son of Abigail Adams Smith,
dies.
|
1852
|
15
May. Louisa Catherine Adams dies in Washington.
28 July. Caroline Amelia Smith de Windt, daughter of Abigail
Adams Smith, dies.
16 December. John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams
reinterred in crypt of the Stone Temple in Quincy, beside
John and Abigail Adams.
|
1853
|
4
October. Lt. Joseph Harrod Adams, son of Thomas Boylston
Adams, dies of a fever while on Commodore Perry's expedition
to Japan; buried at Macao, China.
|
1854
|
John
Adams Smith, son of Abigail Adams Smith, dies.
October. Lt. John Quincy Adams, son of Thomas Boylston
Adams, lost at sea with US frigate Albany.
|
1858
|
November.
Charles Francis Adams elected to Congress as a Republican;
reelected in 1860.
|
|
1861
|
20
March. At the urging of Secretary of State William Seward,
President Lincoln appoints Charles Francis Adams minister
plenipotentiary to Great Britain.
1–13 May. Charles Francis Adams sails to England
with Abigail Brooks Adams and their children, Mary, Brooks,
and Henry (who serves as his father's private secretary).
16 May. Charles Francis Adams presents credentials as
minister to Great Britain, just as Britain recognizes
Confederate belligerency and declares its neutrality.
December. Charles Francis Adams 2d receives commission
as first lieutenant, First Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry
Volunteers; sees action at Antietam (1862) and Gettysburg
(1863).
|
1863
|
5
September. Regarding the imminent sailing of the new British-built
ironclad rams for the Confederacy, Charles Francis Adams
writes to Britain's foreign minister Lord Russell that
"It would be superfluous in me to point out to your lordship
that this is war." Britain agrees to seize the ships and
strictly observe its neutrality.
|
1864
|
July.
Charles Francis Adams 2d commissioned lieutenant colonel,
Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, a regiment of free black
soldiers.
|
1865
|
July.
Charles Francis Adams 2d discharged from the Union Army
with brevet rank of brigadier general.
November. John Quincy Adams 2d elected to the Massachusetts
House of Representatives as a Republican; elected as a
Democrat in 1867, 1870, and 1873.
8 November. Charles Francis Adams 2d marries Mary Hone
Ogden in Newport, Rhode Island.
|
1867
|
John
Quincy Adams 2d receives the nomination as Democratic
candidate for governor; nominated every year through 1871.
|
1868
|
April–May.
Charles Francis Adams resigns his post and presents his
recall as minister to Great Britain.
|
1869
|
July.
Charles Francis Adams 2d appointed to the newly created
Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners; serves
as chairman of the board 1872–1879.
|
1870
|
13
July. Louisa Catherine Adams Kuhn, daughter of Charles
Francis Adams, dies in Italy.
September. Henry Adams accepts positions as assistant
professor of history at Harvard and editor of the North
American Review; resigns 1877.
|
1871
|
August.
President Grant appoints Charles Francis Adams to the
Anglo-American commission to settle the Alabama
claims.
|
|
1871–1872
Enlarge/Details
| Charles
Francis Adams successfully negotiates the Alabama
claims in Washington, London, and Geneva.
|
1872
|
Charles
Francis Adams's supporters in the Liberal Republican movement
back his candidacy for president, a nomination won by
Horace Greeley.
27 June. Henry Adams marries Marian Hooper in Beverly
Farms, Mass.
|
1874
|
Charles
Francis Adams begins publishing the Memoirs of John
Quincy Adams, completing it in 12 volumes in 1877.
|
1876
|
Charles
Francis Adams makes an unsuccessful run for governor of
Massachusetts as a Democrat.
|
1880
|
March.
Henry Adams's novel Democracy published anonymously.
|
1884
|
21
January. Susanna Boylston Adams Clark Treadway, daughter
of Charles Adams, dies.
March. Henry Adams's second novel, Esther, published
under the pseudonym Frances Snow Compton.
June. Charles Francis Adams 2d elected president of the
Union Pacific Railroad; serves until November 1890.
|
1885
|
6
December. Marian Hooper Adams dies in Washington after
swallowing cyanide.
|
1886
|
June–October.
Henry Adams and artist John La Farge visit Japan.
21 November. Charles Francis Adams dies in Boston.
|
1889
|
6
June. Abigail Brooks Adams dies; buried next to her husband
in Quincy.
|
Timeline
