United States Naval Officer. He entered the United States Navy as a Midshipman on March 14, 1814, just prior to his fourteenth birthday, and would go on to serve the next 48 years in the naval service. He was promoted to Lieutenant on January 13, 1825, Commander on September 8, 1814, and Captain on September 14, 1855. In 1852, while in command of the USS Mississippi in the East India Squadron, he was assigned as Chief of Staff and second-in-command to Captain Matthew C. Perry, serving in that duty during Captain Perry's famous 1852-1853 expedition to open Japan to the Western world, and carrying the title of "Captain of the Fleet." After the expedition reached Japan, he served as chief negotiator with the Imperial government officials, due to Captain Perry refusal to treat with anyone less imperial rank. When Captain Perry successfully negotiated the Treaty of Kanagawa, and it was signed in March 1854, Captain Adams was detailed to take the signed treaty home on the USS Saratoga to the United States and present it for ratification. In August 1858 he was assigned to command the sailing frigate USS Sabine, and led it in its first cruise as it was part of the American show of force against Paraguay in October 1858, after that nation fired on United States ships. He was still in command of the Sabine in April 1861 when the Civil War began. Stationed off Pensacola, Florida and in command of the naval elements there, he received orders to land the forces of Army Captain Israel Vogdes to reinforce Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island. The fort, one of the largest in the United States, was built to defend the entrance of the Pensacola Harbor and Navy Yard, and was crucial to keep the naval base there out of Confederate hands. Captain Adams, however, did not recognize the order, since it came from an Army general, not the Navy department, and contradicted his last standing orders from former Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey, who had issued them in January 1861 during the last days of the Buchanan Administration. After sending a message to the present Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles for instructions, he received a response personally delivered in secret by Lieutenant John L. Worden (future commander of the famous ironclad USS Monitor) to comply with the army directive. He then assisted the move to Fort Pickens, which would remain in Union hands throughout the war. The ship was then part of the initial blockade of the Southern ports, and in November 1861 Captain Adams directed the rescue of some 500 marines and sailors off the coast of South Carolina after their ship foundered in a violent storm. Promoted to Commodore on July 16, 1862, he was placed on the Retired List, and spent the rest of his days officially "waiting orders." He died in 1869 at his residence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.