ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, born in Boston 1807 ; died 1886 ; was a lawyer and diplomatist, and during the civil war minister to England. In the period 1835-40 he gave considerable attention to the subject of currency, and differed from the Whig party's position. Adams wrote, in 1837, Reflections upon the present state of the currency in the United States, Boston, pp. 34, also Further reflections upon the state of the Currency in the United States, Boston, pp. 41. He asserted that the financial disturbance of 1837 was due to overbanking, and not to over-trading with foreign countries, and that it would be impossible to secure a uniform currency until it was taken in hand by the national government. Adams was opposed to the sub-treasury system, and favoured a national bank. He must not be confounded with his son, Charles Francis Adams the younger, the well-known writer on the railway question. D. R. D.