Charles Francis Adams Sr. (August 18, 1807 – November 21, 1886) was an American historical editor, writer, politician, and diplomat.

In 1828, John married Mary in a White House ceremony, and both Charles and George declined to attend.

He developed his expertise in part because of the example of his father, who in 1829 had turned from politics (after his defeated bid for a second presidential term in 1828) to history and biography.

He was re-elected in 1860 but resigned to become U.S. minister (ambassador) to the Court of St James's (Britain), a post previously held by his father and grandfather, from 1861 to 1868.

[7] Adams and his son, Henry Adams, who served as his private secretary, also were kept busy monitoring Confederate diplomatic intrigues and the construction of rebel commerce raiders (like hull N°290, launched as Enrica from Liverpool[8] but was soon transformed near the Azores Islands into sloop-of-war CSS Alabama) and blockade runners by British shipyards.

He helped resolve the Trent Affair in 1861, in which an American naval officer had violated British rights.

A strong element in Britain, including Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy.

The British government pulled back from talk of war when the Confederate invasion of the North was defeated at Antietam, and Lincoln announced that he would issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Adams and his staff collected details on the shipbuilding issue, showing how warships and blockade runners built for the Confederacy caused widespread damage to American interests, the former being against the U.S.

Adams was not impressed by Smith, and wrote in his diary entry that day, "Such a man is a study not for himself, but as serving to show what turns the human mind will sometimes take.

The library is at Peacefield (also known as the "Old House") which is now part of Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Massachusetts.

[12] During the 1876 Electoral College controversy, Adams sided with Democrat Samuel J. Tilden over Republican Rutherford B. Hayes for the White House.

[14] Together, they were the parents of: Adams died in Boston on November 21, 1886, at the age of 79, and was interred in Mount Wollaston Cemetery, Quincy.

His wife Abigail's "health and spirits" worsened after her husband's death, and she died at Peacefield on June 6, 1889.