# The Education of Henry Adams — Character guide

> Key figures in The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams.

- [Henry Adams](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/henry_adams.md): Henry Adams moves through the diplomatic legation in London and the salons of Washington as a private secretary, son, and young man about town, never quite the diplomatist he is supposed to be. He watches idols fall—Carl
- [John Hay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/john_hay.md): Hay belongs to the small circle of young men Adams trusts in Washington and abroad, a companion in the social and political apprenticeship neither can quite convert into a career. Where Adams broods over his uselessness,
- [Charles Francis Adams](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/charles_francis_adams.md): Minister Adams holds the legation together through the Trent affair and the rams crisis, earning a social rank in England that his father and grandfather would have envied. His diplomatic triumph frees Henry from any rea
- [John Quincy Adams](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/john_quincy_adams.md): The old man's recollections reach back to 1820, and he describes the society around President Monroe much as Henry feels the society around President Johnson, betraying the same sentimental weakness for Washington. He fe
- [Clarence King](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/clarence_king.md): King belongs to Adams's intimate Washington circle, a companion whose scientific wit and melancholy humor give the narrative some of its sharpest asides. His joke that the earth would have succeeded but for two errors be
- [Charles Sumner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/charles_sumner.md): Sumner had passed beyond the reach of his boy friend since 1851, his nervous system never quite recovering from the Brooks injuries, and ten years of solitary senatorial life had fixed a stiffness of attitude in him. He 
- [Lord John Russell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/john_russell.md): As Foreign Secretary during the Civil War, Lord Russell fielded Minister Adams's escalating protests over Confederate cruisers built in English yards, denying collusion while the evidence mounted. Henry Adams, watching f
- [Lord Palmerston](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/henry_palmerston.md): Palmerston presided over the British government through the Civil War years, one of the 'most costly tutors in the world' whose methods and motives Henry Adams studied from the Legation. His death in October 1865, follow
- [William Ewart Gladstone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/william_ewart_gladstone.md): Gladstone belonged to the formidable cohort of British ministers—alongside Palmerston, Russell, and Granville—whom Henry Adams called the most costly tutors in the world, paid by the British Government to educate a singl
- [Ulysses S. Grant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/ulysses_s_grant.md): Adams returned from England to a Washington still charmed by Grant's ascent, only to watch the President's political character betray what Adams called a 'fatal deception—or undeception.' The Gold Corner scandal of Septe
- [Monckton Milnes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/monckton_milnes.md): English poet and literary figure, host of salons.
- [William H. Seward](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/william_seward.md): Seward stood at the center of American diplomacy during the Civil War, one of the professors employed by the American Government in what Adams called his education at public expense. When Henry returned from Europe in 18
- [John Bright](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/john_bright.md): British radical statesman and orator, supporter of the Union.
- [Algernon Swinburne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/algernon_swinburne.md): English poet and critic, met in London.
- [James Russell Lowell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/james_russell_lowell.md): American poet, critic, and diplomat.
- [John La Farge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/john_la_farge.md): American artist and stained-glass maker, travel companion.
- [Augustus St. Gaudens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/augustus_st_gaudens.md): American sculptor, creator of the Adams Memorial.
- [Francis Turner Palgrave](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/francis_turner_palgrave.md): English poet and anthologist, friend in London.
- [Samuel Langley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/samuel_langley.md): American astronomer and physicist, Secretary of the Smithsonian.
- [Thurlow Weed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/thurlow_weed.md): New York political boss and journalist.
- [Charles Lyell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/charles_lyell.md): British geologist, influential on Darwinism.
- [Giuseppe Garibaldi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/giuseppe_garibaldi.md): Italian revolutionary and military leader.
- [Thomas Carlyle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/thomas_carlyle.md): Scottish essayist and historian, met in London.
- [Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/ebenezer_rocker_hoar.md): U.S. Attorney General and Massachusetts judge.
- [Abraham Lincoln](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/abraham_lincoln.md): Adams cast his vote for Lincoln in November 1860 and immediately found himself plunged into the secession winter, packing his trunk for Washington as private secretary to his father. Lincoln remained a distant but defini
- [Whitelaw Reid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/whitelaw_reid.md): Newspaper editor and diplomat.
- [Simon Cameron](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/simon_cameron.md): Pennsylvania senator and Lincoln's first War Secretary.
- [Edward Everett](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/edward_everett.md): Unitarian minister, orator, and Harvard president.
- [Theodore Roosevelt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/theodore_roosevelt.md): 26th U.S. President, met later in Adams's life.
- [Robert E. Lee](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/robert_e_lee.md): Confederate general, known from Washington youth.
- [Karl Pearson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/karl_pearson.md): English mathematician and biometrician.
- [Isaac Newton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/isaac_newton.md): English physicist, referenced in scientific discussions.
- [Henry Cabot Lodge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/henry_cabot_lodge.md): U.S. Senator and historian, friend of Adams.
- [Adam Badeau](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/adam_badeau.md): American author and military secretary to Grant.
- [Josiah Willard Gibbs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/josiah_willard_gibbs.md): American scientist, pioneer in physical chemistry.
- [Lady Palmerston](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/lady_palmerston.md): Wife of Lord Palmerston, a London hostess.
- [Daniel Webster](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/daniel_webster.md): U.S. Senator and statesman, known from youth.
- [George Washington](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/george_washington.md): First U.S. President, a historical reference.
- [Henry Hobson Richardson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/henry_hobson_richardson.md): American architect, designed Adams's house.
- [William McKinley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/william_mckinley.md): 25th U.S. President, met in later years.
- [Sergei Witte](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/sergei_witte.md): Russian finance minister and statesman.
- [Andrew Johnson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/andrew_johnson.md): 17th U.S. President, succeeded Lincoln.
- [Benjamin Franklin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/benjamin_franklin.md): American founding father, a historical reference.
- [Charles Eliot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/charles_eliot.md): President of Harvard University.
- [Grover Cleveland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters/grover_cleveland.md): 22nd and 24th U.S. President.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/characters