Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-02
NEW NAVAL CHIEF
OF NOTED FAMILY
Charles F. Adams Descend.
ant of Sixth President of
United States.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

In selecting Charles Francis Adams
to be Secretary of the Navy, Mr.. Hoover
shares a unique distinction with Mr..
Adams himself. Mr. Hoover confers the
opportunity for, and Mr.. Adams is able
to deliver, the performance of another
In the longest line Of services that tiny
American FAMILY has contributed to the
country'S pubic life. As respects public
service, and almost, It may be said, that
Judged by any test whatever. the
Adams have been the greatest Amer
lean family. If there are dissents from
this generalization, 1t would be interest
ing to make comparisons. BY the phrase
greatest American family" is meant a
family which has shown outstanding
ability and has sustained 1t In genera
ton after generation.
To survey the Adams family in brief
detail, the new Naval Secretary'S great
great-grandfather, John Adams, was the
second President of the United States,
was the first Vice President, was
signer of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, was the first United States Min
lister to Great Britain. and was a Signer
of the treaty of peace that ended our
Revolutionary War.
Great Grandfather Sixth President.
The new naval Secretary's great
grandfather, John Quincy Adams, was
also President, the sixth; was member
of Congress. United States Senator and
Secretary of State; was at different
times Minister to Great Britain, Russia,
Holland, Portugal and Prussia, and was
a signer of the treaty that ended the
War of 1912 with Great Britain.
The new naval SecretaryS grand
father, Charles Francis Adams, 1st.
was, a member of Congress, was cam
didate of the Free Soil party for Vice
President, was our Minister to Great
Britain during an extremely difficult
period of our international relations.
when the Civil War was under way. and
was our representative in the Geneva
Court of Arbitration, 1871-72.
The father of the new naval Secretary.
John Quincy Adams, I'd, was three
times member. of the Massachusetts,
Legislature, was twice candidate for
governor on the Democratic ticket, dur
| ing the 1905: was candidate for Vice
President in 1872, on the boiling Demo-
| cratic anti-Greeley ticket, and was
solicited by Grover Cleveland to be his
Secretary of State.
Hailed as wise Adviser.
The living descendant of this line
| who will now be Secretary of the Navy,
the third Charles Francis Adams, when
youth in his twenties, served his local
community, Quincy, Mass, as member
OF the City Council and mayor. Since
1898 he has been treasurer of Harvard.
He Is a lawyer and director of savings
banks, trust companies, railroads and
other corporations having both local
and national scope, such as American
Telegraph & Telephone. Fellow di-
rectOrs say that as an adviser he is the
least vocal and most wise they have.
In private life he Is spartan person
who cuts his own firewood, and is a
personal dry. His avocation, amateur
skipper of yachts, has caused him to
have for many years sympathetic and
useful interest in the Navy.
Accepting American life as it is, there
is an additional and corollary require
ment for family distinction IN the sense
described In this dispatch AS Amer
lean standards 60, it Is not enough to
have an ancestry distinguished for pub
lie service. Sustained vitality in an
American family implies that each gen.
Grafton must be able to at least retain.
or preferably elevate, the family S
economic status as expressed in its
fortune. The family must be able to
hold its own against the current i'm
piled In the familiar saying about three
generations from shirt-sleeves to shirt
sleeves" The Adamses meet this test
as well as the test Of public service.