Samuel Adams

A New England town meeting is a form of local government with elected officials, and not just a gathering of citizens; according to historian William Fowler, it was "the most democratic institution in the British empire".

[16][17][18] He worked closely with Elisha Cooke Jr. (1678–1737), the leader of the "popular party", a faction that resisted any encroachment by royal officials on the colonial rights embodied in the Massachusetts Charter of 1691.

Its publishers, Benjamin Edes and John Gill, both founding members of the Sons of Liberty,[62] were on friendly and cooperative terms with Adams, James Otis and the Boston Caucus.

[71] Adams earnestly endeavored to awaken his fellow citizens over the perceived attacks on their Constitutional rights, with emphasis aimed at Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson.

In each of its issues from early September through mid-October 1771, the Gazette published Adams' inciteful essays, one of which criticized the Parliament for using colonial taxes to pay Hutchinson's annual salary of £2,000.

[72] In a letter of February 1770, published by the New York Journal[d] Adams maintained that it became increasingly difficult to view King George III as one who was not passively involved in Parliamentary decisions.

[75][76]"When the Boston Town Meeting approved the Adams instructions on May 24, 1764", writes historian John K. Alexander, "it became the first political body in America to go on record stating Parliament could not constitutionally tax the colonists.

[91][92][93][e] After the fact, Adams did approve of the August 14 action because he saw no other legal options to resist what he viewed as an unconstitutional act by Parliament, but he condemned attacks on officials' homes as "mobbish".

[94][95][96] According to the modern scholarly interpretation of Adams, he supported legal methods of resisting parliamentary taxation, such as petitions, boycotts, and nonviolent demonstrations, but he opposed mob violence which he saw as illegal, dangerous, and counter-productive.

As it turned out, he wrote his own instructions; on September 27, the town meeting selected him to replace the recently deceased Oxenbridge Thacher as one of Boston's four representatives in the assembly.

Things calmed down in the following days, but fearful customs officials packed up their families and fled for protection to Romney and eventually to Castle William, an island fort in the harbor.

[120][121] Governor Bernard wrote to London in response to the Liberty incident and the struggle over the Circular Letter, informing his superiors that troops were needed in Boston to restore order.

The convention issued a letter which insisted that Boston was not a lawless town, using language more moderate than what Adams desired, and that the impending military occupation violated Bostonians' natural, constitutional, and charter rights.

[133] According to Maier, Adams at this time was a reformer rather than a revolutionary; he sought to have the British ministry change its policies, and warned Britain that independence would be the inevitable result of a failure to do so.

[137] The Journal presented what it claimed to be a factual daily account of events in Boston during the military occupation, an innovative approach in an era without professional newspaper reporters.

In May 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, a tax law to help the struggling East India Company, one of Great Britain's most important commercial institutions.

[215][216] Adams also served as moderator of the Boston Town Meeting, which convened despite the Massachusetts Government Act, and was appointed to the Committee of Inspection to enforce the Continental Association.

[217] On April 14, 1775, General Gage received a letter from Lord Dartmouth advising him "to arrest the principal actors and abettors in the Provincial Congress whose proceedings appear in every light to be acts of treason and rebellion".

Soon after the battle, Gage issued a proclamation granting a general pardon to all who would "lay down their arms, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects"—with the exceptions of Hancock and Samuel Adams.

[230] Adams was a cautious advocate for a declaration of independence, urging eager correspondents back in Massachusetts to wait for more moderate colonists to come around to supporting separation from Great Britain.

[234] On June 7, Adams's political ally Richard Henry Lee introduced a three-part resolution calling for Congress to declare independence, create a colonial confederation, and seek foreign aid.

[239] He called for harsh state legislation to punish Loyalists, writing that their "secret Machinations" posed "a greater threat to the glorious cause than the British military did."

[244] By modern standards, the new constitution was not "democratic"; Adams, like most of his peers, believed that only free males who owned property should be allowed to vote, and that the senate and the governor served to balance any excesses that might result from majority rule.

Small farmers, angered by high taxes and debts, armed themselves and shut down debtor courts in Worcester and Hampshire Counties, prompting Governor James Bowdoin to consult Adams first.

He thought that the leaders of Shays's Rebellion should be hanged, reportedly saying that "the man who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death", and urged Governor Bowdoin to use military force, who obliged and sent four thousand militiamen to put down the uprising.

[276] Ames, however, belonged to the group of constructive statesmen who built up out of the wreck of revolution and strived to bring the young nation into a rapidly changing world by establishing a strong federal constitution.

[289] Thomas Hutchinson, Adams's political foe, took his revenge in his History of Massachusetts Bay, in which he denounced him as a dishonest character assassin, emphasizing his failures as a businessman and tax collector.

In the preface of this work, Cushing asserts that, "The writings of no one of the leaders of the American Revolution form a more complete expression of the causes and justification of that movement than do those of Samuel Adams.

[34][305] Miller's influential book became, in the words of historian Charles Akers, the "scholarly enshrinement" of "the myth of Sam Adams as the Boston dictator who almost single-handedly led his colony into rebellion".

[308][309] Historian Pauline Maier argued that Adams, far from being a radical mob leader, took a moderate position based on the English revolutionary tradition that imposed strict constraints on resistance to authority.

A four-story brick building with many windows.
While at Harvard University , Adams boarded at Massachusetts Hall . [ 5 ]
On a city street, an old brick church with a tall steeple is surrounded by modern buildings.
The Old South Meeting House ( 1968 photo shown ) was Adams's church. During the crisis with Great Britain, mass meetings were held here that were too large for Faneuil Hall . [ 35 ]
A statue on a pedestal of a man standing with his arms crossed. An inscription on the pedestal reads, "Samuel Adams, 1722–1803. A Patriot. He organized the Revolution and signed the Declaration of Independence." Behind the statue is a three-story brick building with many windows.
Anne Whitney , Samuel Adams , bronze and granite statue, 1880, located in front of Faneuil Hall , which was the home of the Boston Town Meeting [ 87 ]
A wide view of a port town with several wharves. In the foreground there are eight large sailing ships and an assortment of smaller vessels. Soldiers are disembarking from small boats onto a long wharf. The skyline of the town, with nine tall spires and many smaller buildings, is in the distance. A key at the bottom of the drawing indicates some prominent landmarks and the names of the warships.
Paul Revere's 1768 engraving of British troops arriving in Boston was reprinted throughout the colonies.
An older man, seated, with a hint of a smile. He has white hair and is wearing a dark suit. He is pointing to a document on a table.
Samuel Adams as he looked in 1795 when he was Governor of Massachusetts. The original portrait was destroyed by fire; this is a mezzotint copy. [ 157 ]
Two ships in a harbor, one in the distance. On board, men stripped to the waist and wearing feathers in their hair are throwing crates into the water. A large crowd, mostly men, is standing on the dock, waving hats and cheering. A few people wave their hats from windows in a nearby building.
This iconic 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier was entitled "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor"; the phrase "Boston Tea Party" had not yet become standard. [ 182 ]
Adams as portrayed by Paul Revere , 1774. Yale University Art Gallery .
About 50 men, most of them seated, are in a large meeting room. Most are focused on the five men standing in the center of the room. The tallest of the five is laying a document on a table.
In John Trumbull 's Declaration of Independence , Adams is seated to the viewer's right of Richard Henry Lee , whose legs are crossed in the front row. [ 226 ]
A rectangular, rough-hewn block of stone on the ground. There is a walkway in the foreground, grass and trees in the background. A weathered plaque on the stone reads: "Samuel Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of this Commonwealth, A Leader of Men and an ardent Patriot."
Samuel Adams grave marker in the Granary Burying Ground