“An Unpardonable Bit of Folly and Impertinence”: Charles Francis Adams Jr., American Anti-Imperialists, and the Philippines

A Boston Brahmin and “otherwise-minded” contrarian, Charles Francis Adams Jr., great-grandson of President John Adams, was one of many so-called “mugwumps” who protested the Spanish-American War. Clashing with the likes of Henry Cabot Lodge, Adams was alternately principled and practical, sensitive and racist, until his influence and the anti-imperialist movement waned at the turn of the twentieth century.