Samuel Adams

A Massachusetts Patriot

Samuel Adams is often called "the father of the Revolution." He was the great-grandson of one of the Puritan settlers who came to Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, and was born at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1722.

Adams was not a typical thrifty New Englander. His private life was a series of business failures and hardships that remind us of the early career of Patrick Henry. Adams, however, unlike Henry, was college bred, having been educated at Harvard. He tried law as a profession, but did not like it well enough to continue its practice. Then he became, first a 'clerk and then a merchant, and as both he was a failure. Next he became a brewer, and in this trade, also, he was unsuccessful. The truth is, he kept too busy attending to public business to pay proper attention to his private affairs. Perhaps his attention was first called to public matters by a private grievance. A law passed by Parliament against certain stock-companies made it necessary to close a banking company with which his father was connected and swept away his fortune.

Unsuccessful as Samuel Adams was as business man, it was known that he was a good citizen, with wise and patriotic views about public matters. He ably voiced colonists' objections to the arbitrary taxation

us,

of the British government. "If taxes are laid upon ," he said, in a paper in 1764, " in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of Free Subjects to the miserable state of tributary Slaves? We claim British rights not by charter only. We are born to them!”

Adams was a member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1765 and the famous "Massachusetts Resolves " were his work. They expressed loyalty to the king, but refused to aid to execute the Stamp Act. It was not against England as yet but against the unjust laws of the despotic king and ministry that there was hostility.

Hutchinson, who was the royal governor, informed the home government that its course was unwise. 66 " It cannot be good policy," he said, " to tax the Americans; it will prove prejudicial to the national interests. You will lose more than you will gain. Britain reaps the profit of all their trade and of the increase of their substance." But his warning was unheeded, and it devolved upon him to execute the unpopular acts. He suffered as the instrument of British oppression. His house was attacked and destroyed, and he and his family were driven away.

the day on which the Boston church bells The stamps lay

The first of November came Stamp Act was to go into effect. tolled and minute guns were fired.

untouched; business stopped, because people would not buy and use them as required by law. The Stamp Act was repealed, but Parliament at the same time took occasion to assert "that it was competent to legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever." Other unjust taxes were laid and protest followed protest from the colonies.

In order to uphold the king's authority, British soldiers were sent to Boston. On a March day in 1770 occurred one of the many quarrels between the soldiers and the citizens. A company of soldiers was sent out to disperse the mob; it refused to disperse, and the soldiers fired, killing three people and wounding several others. This was the famous "Boston massacre."

The infuriated people would have attacked the soldiers but Samuel Adams persuaded them to refrain from disorder and bloodshed; he advised them to demand from the governor the withdrawal of the two regiments stationed in Boston. This was agreed to and the next day a committee, of which Samuel Adams was the spokesman, went to Governor Hutchinson to make this demand. The governor said at first that he had no authority to remove the troops; after talking with the commander, however, he promised to send one regiment away.

"Sir," said Samuel Adams, "if you have authority to remove one regiment you have authority to remove and nothing short of the departure of the troops

two;

will satisfy the public mind or restore the peace of the province."

The governor finally had to yield to the demand of the people that he withdraw "both regiments or none and the soldiers were sent to the castle.

As time passed, Adams ceased to hope for reconciliation between the colonies and England. He realized that it was important for the colonies to make common cause in defence of their rights. On his motion in the Massachusetts legislature in 1772 citizens were appointed as Committees of Correspondence to "state, communicate, and publish the rights of the colonies." From this beginning grew the union of the colonies.

Matters came to a crisis in Boston when the tea on which a tax was laid was sent to the port. It had been sent to New York and Philadelphia, and there the people refused to allow it to be landed and it was returned to England. In South Carolina it was landed and left to mold in cellars because the people would not purchase it. In December, 1773, Samuel Adams, so often the spokesman of the people, went to ask the governor to send the tea back to England, instead of having it landed in Boston. In old South Church were assembled seven thousand people, to hear the result of his embassy. The governor refused.

"This meeting can do nothing more to save the country," said Samuel Adams when he announced the fact. But another scheme was on foot which was probably

known to Adams if not inspired by him. Some men disguised as Indians went to the harbor and threw overboard the three hundred and forty chests of tea. The next morning the patriots drank a decoction of native herbs while the Chinese tea floated on the salt waters of the bay. The Boston Tea Party, as it was called, by its disregard of the rights of property and its defiance of his authority, made the king very angry. Then was passed the Boston Port Bill, which forbade vessels to enter or leave that port.

General Gage was sent to Boston with soldiers to enforce the king's laws. General Gage realized that Samuel Adams, "the Cromwell of New England," was the ring-leader of the rebellion. An attempt was made to bribe Adams, who was very poor, with money or with position. But Adams was proof against the British offers. "I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of kings," he said. "No personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause of my country."

In June Gage dissolved the general court, and the patriots organized a government of their own. Largely through the influence of Samuel Adams, it was resolved that representatives of the colonies should meet in Philadelphia to discuss affairs. He went as the representative of Massachusetts, which was suffering most from British oppression, having her port closed and an army stationed on her soil. We are told that Adams rode