Adams, Cornelius B.

Flourished: Washington, D.C.

Cornelius B. Adams was a newspaper correspondent, editor and publisher, federal government clerk, attorney, and librarian. At the age of fifteen, Adams established the New Haven Daily Palladium, serving in the dual role as editor and publisher. He also served as New Haven correspondent for the New York Tribune. Severing his connections to these newspapers, Adams moved to Washington DC, where he practiced law and served as a correspondent for the Philadelphia Daily News during the presidential election of 1848. From 1849 to 1853, he worked as a clerk in the Office of the Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department. In 1855, he married Martha B. Loonis. Adams was librarian of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1856 to 1858.

Cornelius B. Adams to Abraham Lincoln; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1849 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1849), 22; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1851 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1851), 24; Alfred Hunter, comp., The Washington and Georgetown Directory, Strangers' Guide-Book for Washington, and Congressional and Clerks' Register (Washington, DC: Kirkwood & McGill, 1853), 1; Boyd's Washington and Georgetown Directory (Washington, DC: Henry Polkinhorn, 1858), 18; William Dawson Johnston, History of the Library of Congress (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904), 1:387; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1857 (Washington, DC: A. O. P. Nicholson, 1857), 192; The Bench and Bar of Chicago: Biographical Sketches (Chicago: American Biographical, [1883]), 388.