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"Samuel Adams (September 27, 1722 - October 2, 1803) was the chief
Massachusetts leader of the Patriot cause leading to the American
Revolution. Organizer of protests including the
Boston Tea Party, he was most
influential as a writer and theorist who articulated the principles of
republicanism that shaped the American political culture.
...
Early life Born to Boston parents, Mary Fifield and Samuel Adams, on
September 27, 1722 and died 1803, he was their tenth child. President John
Adams was one of his cousins. Adams was a baptized member of
Old South Church in Boston, and
from the tower of the congregation's Meeting House made the loud war whoops
signaling the beginning of the Boston Tea Party.
Adams attended school at
Boston Latin School. At Harvard College he received a bachelor's degree
in 1740 and a master's degree in 1743. Prophetically, the subject of his
master's thesis was "Whether it be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate
if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved."
After he completed his college education, Adams and his father, Old
Samuel Adams began a partnership in a brewery. He lost most of his
inheritance by poor business management.
Turning his attention to politics Adams wrote political essays to the
Independent Advertiser newspaper and joined a political club, the "Whipping
Post Club," as well as Boston's South End Caucus, which was a powerful force
in the selection of candidates for elective office. He served as tax
collector of Boston 1756 through 1764, and used non-collection of taxes as a
political bargaining chip. By 1764-65 he was a leader in Boston's town
meetings, drafting protests against the Stamp Act that protested British
efforts to tax the colonists and called for a spirited defense of Americans'
"invaluable Rights & Liberties." Over the next decade he became an
increasingly dominant leader of the town meeting. He repeatedly insisted on
the "inherent and unalienable rights" of the people (Writings, vol. 1, pp.
25-26), a theme that became a core element of republicanism.
While a member of the legislature, Adams served as clerk of the house, in
which capacity he was responsible for drafting written protests of various
British governmental acts during his tenure, which continued to 1774.
Notable among these was a circular letter he drafted as a response to the
1767 Townshend Acts, distributed among the other twelve colonies in a bid to
achieve a united front of resistance to these acts. The failure of the
legislature to rescind the contents of this letter at the express demand of
King George III was one of the main factors resulting in the stationing of
troops in Boston beginning in 1768.
This British troop presence in Boston, aggravated by protest activities
such as Adams' formation of the Non-Importation Association, led to the
Boston Massacre (a term coined
by Adams) two years later. After the incident Adams chaired a town meeting
which formed a petition, presented to acting governor Thomas Hutchinson,
demanding the removal of two British regiments from Boston proper.
Hutchinson at first claimed no responsibility for the matter, owing to his
temporary status as governor, but stated he would be willing to move one
regiment; the meeting was re-convened and Adams successfully urged the crowd
of over 5,000 present to stand firm on the terms: "Both regiments or none!"
Fearing open warfare, Hutchinson had both regiments removed to
Castle William, an old fort on
an island in Boston Harbor. These regiments would thereafter be known in the
British Parliament as "The Sam Adams Regiments."
In 1772, after a British declaration that judges should be paid by the
Crown rather than by the colonial legislatures, a demand from the people of
Boston for a special session of the legislature to reconsider this matter
was refused by Hutchinson. It was at this point Adams devised a system of
Committees of Correspondence which was a committee that recorded the British
activities, where the towns of Massachusetts would consult with each other
concerning political matters via messages. Such a scheme was still
technically legal under British law, but led to a de facto colonial
legislative body. This system was adopted by each of the Thirteen Colonies,
creating the Continental Congress.
Tea Party 1773
Samuel Adams is best remembered for helping organize the Boston Tea Party
of December 16, 1773, in response to the Tea Act - a tax law passed in
London that was simply an increase in the taxes on tea paid by American
colonists. As British tea-ships sat in Boston Harbor waiting for payment of
the import tax, Samuel Adams energized a large crowd that was gathered at
the port and sent several men to dump all of the tea from the three ships
into the Boston Harbor to the delight of the assembled spectators on shore.
In response to this escapade, Parliament passed the "Intolerable Acts,"
which called for the revocation of the colonial charter of Massachusetts and
the closing of the ports of Boston. The angry reaction from all the colonies
was to expedite the opening of a Continental Congress, and when the
Massachusetts legislature met in Salem on June 17, 1774, Adams locked the
doors and made a motion for the formation of a colonial delegation to attend
the Congress. A loyalist member, faking illness, was excused from the
assembly and immediately went to the governor, who issued a writ for the
legislature's dissolution; however, when the legislator returned to find a
locked door, he could do nothing.
Adams was one of the major proponents of the Suffolk Resolves, drafted in
response to the Intolerable Acts, and adopted in September 1774. Whose
"spirited" resolves called for disobedience to the Coercive Acts, endorsed
military preparations for defense, and called for the meeting of an
extralegal provincial congress. Adams opposed a compromise offered by Joseph
Galloway and advocated boycotts of British imports through the continental
associations.
Continental Congress
In September 1774 Adams retired from the legislature and was a delegate
to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He was one of the first and
loudest voices for independence. (Notably, only he and John Hancock were
exempted from the general amnesty offered by Thomas Gage to Massachusetts
rebels in 1775.) He was a workhorse member of the Second Continental
Congress, serving on numerous committees, notably the Board of War, from May
1775 until 1781.
The climax of his career came when he signed the Declaration of
Independence in 1776. After that Adams, wary of a strong central government,
was instrumental in the development and adoption of the loose government
embodied in the Articles of Confederation, to which he was also a signatory
in 1777. He continued serving in the Congress until 1781, when he was
elected to the state senate of Massachusetts. He served in that body until
1788, becoming its president.
State Politics
At the time of the drafting of the United States Constitution, Adams was
considered an anti-federalist, but more moderate than others of that
political stripe. His contemporaries nicknamed him "the last Puritan" for
his views; in 1788 he would write in his diary regarding the federalist and
anti-federalist factions, "Neither Interest, I fear, display that Sobriety
of Manners, Temperance, or Frugality?among other manly Virtues?which once
were the Glory and Strength of our Christian Sparta on the Bay...". He
finally came in on the side of ratification, with the stipulation that a
bill of rights be added. Additionally, Adams was a member of the conventions
that drafted the first Massachusetts state constitution in 1779, and the
second one in 1788.
He stood unsuccessfully for election to the House of Representatives for
the first Congress, but was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts,
serving from 1789?94. He was elected as governor in 1793 to succeed John
Hancock, and served to 1797, afterwards retiring to his home in Boston.
Later Life
In old age, Samuel suffered from symptoms akin to those of Cerebral palsy
or Parkinson's disease, so Samuel's daughter Hannah had to sign his name for
him.
In addition to his daughter Hannah, Adams had a son named Samuel Adams,
Jr., by his first wife, Elizabeth Checkley (1725-1757), whom he married in
1749. She died three days after the birth of their last stillborn child
He and his second wife, Elizabeth Wells, whom he married in 1764, did not
have any children.
His son, Samuel Adams, Jr., studied medicine under Doctor
Joseph
Warren, fellow patriot and friend to both Adams and his second cousin
John Adams. Samuel Adams, Jr. held an appointment as surgeon in Washington's
army. He died in 1788. His government claims provided enough for Adams and
his wife to live on in their old age.
Well before his death, he freed his wife's slave, Surry; however, she
chose to remain in her service. It was rumored that they were involved in a
love affair, which Adams insisted was not true. Yet some of his letters were
burned by Surry and Surry liked to recount tales of her master's friendly
laugh and wholesome heart. She also spread rumors of rages, which may be
founded on fact.
Adams died at the age of 81 and was interred at the Granary Burying
Ground in Boston. Owing to his occupation as a brewer, today a popular brand
of Boston beer bears his name: Samuel Adams."
...
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Wikipedia with
relevant CelebrateBoston internal links added. Distributed under the
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