It’s the birthday (February 16th) of historian and philosopher Henry Adams, (books by this author) born in Boston, Massachusetts (1838). His grandfather was John Quincy Adams, and his great-grandfather was John Adams. He hated public speaking, he had no interest in becoming a politician himself, but he did like writing about politics – mostly about how pathetic he thought American politics had become. He said, “The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant was alone evidence to upset Darwin.”
From Garrison’s Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac”