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 EDWIN ADAMS JOHN ADAMS Boston, Sept. 22, 1833. He was fitted for col- lege at the Latin school, and graduated at Har- vard college in 1853. In 1855 he was admitted to the bar, and has ever since had a moderate professional practice, principally in Quincy, his place of residence. He was an earnest repub- lican during the civil war, and served on Gov. Andrews's staff. In 1866 he was chosen repre- sentative to the legislature from the town of Quincy. In 1867, having avowed his adhesion to the policy of President Johnson, he was nominated for reelection by the democrats and defeated. The same year he was also the demo- cratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts, with the same result. In 1869 he was again chosen to the legislature, and for the third tune in 1870. In the autumn of 1871 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the offices of governor and representative. In the course of his public career Mr. Adams has had occa- sion to make many speeches, which were re- markable for manly independence and vigorous statement. In the Massachusetts house of representatives, as leader of a hopeless minor- ity, he secured in a high degree the respect of his political opponents. Charles Francis, Jr., brother of the preceding, born in Boston, May 27, 1835, graduated at Harvard college in 1856, studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1858. At the breaking out of the war of secession he obtained a commission in the first regiment of Massachusetts cavalry, and served throughout the war. He was suc- cessively promoted to the rank of captain, lieu- tenant colonel, and colonel, and led his regi- ment, the fifth Massachusetts cavalry (colored), into Richmond, April 3, 1865, when that city was occupied by the United States troops. In July, 1865, he was mustered out of service with the brevet rank of brigadier general. Upon his return to civil life he became an ac- tive contributor to the " North American Re- view," writing chiefly on topics connected with the development of the railroad system. In 1869 he was appointed a member of the board of railroad commissioners of Massachusetts. In 1871, in connection with his brother, Prof. Henry Brooks Adams, he published a collected volume of writings under the title of " Chap- ters of Erie, and other Essays." Henry Brooks, brother of the preceding, and third son of Charles Francis Adams, born in Boston, Feb. 16, 1838, graduated at Harvard college in 1858. He resided in London as his father's private secretary during the latter's term of service as- minister to England. In 1870 he was appointed assistant professor of history in Harvard college and became editor of the "North American Review." ADAMS, Edwin, an American actor, born in Medford, Mass., Feb. 3, 1834. Since 1853, when he made his first appearance upon the stage in Boston, he has acted in many parts of the United States, acquiring a consid- erable reputation both as a light comedian and a personator of serious characters. Dur- ing the season of 1869-'70 he acted in con- junction with Edwin Booth in New York in several of Shakespeare's plays. ADAMS, Hannah, one of the earliest female writers in America, born at Medfield, near Boston, in 1755, died at Brookline, Mass., Nov. 15, 1832. She showed at an early age a fondness for study, and acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin from some divinity stu- dents boarding with her father. During the revolutionary war she supported herself by making lace, and afterward by teaching. Her "View of Religious Opinions " (1784) and her " History of New England" (1799) were both successful. Her next work was "Evidences of Christianity " (1801). Her writings brought her little pecuniary profit; yet they secured her many friends, among them the Abb6 Gre- goire, with whom she carried on a correspon- dence, through which he aided her in prepar- ing her "History of the Jews" (1812). Dur- ing the closing years of her life she enjoyed an annuity provided by some friends in Boston. She was the first person whose remains were interred in Mt. Auburn cemetery. ADAMS, John, second president of the United States, born Oct. 19, 1735 (O. S.), in that part of the town of Brain tree, Mass., on the S. shore of Boston harbor, and some ten miles distant from Boston, which has since been erected into the town of Quincy, where he died, July 4, 1826. He was great-grandson of Henry Adams, who emigrated from England about 1640, with a family of eight sons, becoming one of the early settlers in Braintree, where he had a grant of 40 acres of land. The father of John Adams, a deacon of the church and se- lectman, was a farmer of limited means, to which he added the business of shoemaking. He was enabled, however, to give a classical education to his eldest son John, who gradu- ated at Harvard college in 1755, and at once took charge of the grammar school in Worces- ter, Mass. The war with France for the pos- session of the western country was then at its height ; and in a remarkable letter to a young friend, which contains some curious prognos- tications as to what would be in a hundred years the relative population and commerce of England and her colonies, young Adams describes himself as having turned politician. His school he found but "a school of afflic- tion," from which he endeavored to gain lief by devoting himself, in addition, to the study of the law. For this purpose he plac himself under the tuition of the only lawyer of whom Worcester, though the shire town of the county, could then boast. He had thought seriously of the clerical profession, but, according to his own expressions in a contem- porary letter, " the frightful engines of eccle- siastical councils, of diabolical malice, and Calvinistic- good nature," of the operation of which he had been a witness in some church controversies in his native town of Braintree, had "terrified him out of it." Already he