A beginner's history

by William H. Mace

SAMUEL ADAMS, THE FIREBRAND OF THE REVOLUTION

Samuel Adams the pen of the Revolution

85. Samuel Adams. While Patrick Henry was stirring the feelings of the people by his fiery eloquence, Samuel Adams was stirring them by strong arguments in his writings, to oppose the acts of king and of Parliament.

SAMUEL ADAMS

From the original painting by John Singleton Copley, representing Adams in 1771, now hanging in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

A student

Samuel Adams was born in Massachusetts (1722). While he loved school and books he cared very little for spending his time in outdoor amusements. At eighteen Samuel was graduated from Harvard College. His parents hoped that he would be a minister, but he began to study law. His mother was so opposed to his becoming a lawyer that he gave up the study and turned to business. He set up in business for himself, but, like Patrick Henry, soon lost all. He next went into business with his father, but in that, too, he failed. Finally Samuel Adams turned to politics.

Early love for politics

While a student in Harvard he had debated the question whether it was right to resist the king to save the country from ruin. He took an active part in debating clubs and very soon began to write for the newspapers, encouraging resistance. He never hesitated to take what he thought the right side of any question.

Why Adams opposed the Stamp Act

Speaking before a meeting of Boston people, Samuel Adams boldly declared that if England could tax the business of the colonies, then, "why not tax our lands and everything we possess or make use of?" Such taxes, he said, would make the colonists slaves.

In a short time the people of Boston were reading in the papers the fiery resolutions and the still more fiery speech of Patrick Henry. Samuel Adams seized his pen and also began to pour hot shot into the Stamp Act.

How he opposed the Stamp Act

The Boston people elected him to be their representative in the Massachusetts Assembly. More and more he took the lead in the movement against the Stamp Act. He went about the shops, into the stores, wherever he found people to listen to him.

He helped them form a society, called the Sons of Liberty, which destroyed the hated stamps as soon as they arrived. He talked with the merchants, and they signed a pledge not to buy any more goods from England until the Stamp Act was repealed. At this the British merchants felt the loss of trade and joined in the cry against the Stamp Act.

86. The Tea Tax. We have seen that Parliament, after the Stamp Act was repealed, passed the famous Tea Act. The Americans were angry again, and the Sons of Liberty declared that no tea should be landed. The merchants took the pledge again to buy no more English goods, and patriotic women began to make tea out of the leaves of other plants.

SAMUEL ADAMS WRITING THE FAMOUS CIRCULAR LETTER

Samuel Adams writes the "Circular Letter"

Samuel Adams again sharpened his pen, and wrote the famous old "Circular Letter," which urged all the colonies to unite and stand firm in opposing the tax on tea. This letter made King George very angry, but Samuel Adams only wrote the more.

Night after night as the people passed his window they saw by his lamp that he was busy with his pen, and said to one another: "Samuel Adams is hard at work writing against the Tories." People in England and America who took the king's side in these disputes were called Tories.

Conflicts between people and soldiers

The king now sent two regiments of soldiers to Boston to force the people to pay the Tea Tax. There were frequent quarrels between the soldiers and the people. One evening in a street quarrel the soldiers killed three men and wounded eight others (1770). Immediately the fire bells rang and great crowds of angry people filled the streets. The next day they filled to overflowing Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of Liberty." A still larger meeting in the Old South Church cried out that both regiments of soldiers must leave town.

Samuel Adams and the people drive the soldiers out of Boston

Adams and other leaders were sent to the king's officers to tell them what the people had said. Before the governor and the general, backed by the king's authority and by two regiments, stood plain Samuel Adams, with only the voice of the people to help him.

The governor, unwilling to obey the demand of the people, said he would send one regiment away. But Samuel Adams stood firm, and said: "Both regiments or none!" The governor finally gave up, and Samuel Adams, the man of the people, was a greater leader than ever before.

The king now tried to trick the Americans into paying the tax by making tea cheaper in America than in England, but leaving on the tax. But the people everywhere declared that they did not object to the price, but to the tax.

The tea ships guarded while town meetings are held

87. The Boston Tea Party. When the ships carrying this cheaper tea arrived in Boston, Samuel Adams set a guard of armed men to keep the tea from being landed.

THE BOSTON MASSACRE

Town meeting followed town meeting. On December 16, 1773, the greatest one of all was held. Early that morning hundreds of country people started for Boston. They found the shops and stores closed and people standing on the street corners talking earnestly.

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY ABOARD THE TEA SHIP IN THE HARBOR

At ten o'clock the people met in the Old South Church, and voted that the tea should never be landed. They also sent the owner of the ships to the governor for permission to take the tea ships out of the harbor.

Permission to return tea denied

In the afternoon still greater crowds pushed and jammed into the seats, aisles, and galleries of that famous church. Samuel Adams was chairman. He made a speech. Other leaders spoke. One stirred the audience by asking "how tea would mix with salt water." Evening came, and candles were lighted. The owner of the tea vessels returned and said the governor would not give him the permission.

The Boston Tea Party

Immediately Samuel Adams arose and said: "This meeting can do nothing to save the country!" In a moment the war whoop of the "Mohawks" sounded outside. The crowd rushed out and found the people following a band of men disguised as Indians down where the tea ships lay at anchor. The "Mohawks" went on board, brought up the boxes of tea, broke them open, and threw the tea into the sea.

Paul Revere's first ride

That very night Samuel Adams sent fast riders to carry the news to the country towns. The next day, with letters to the leaders in other colonies in his saddlebags, Paul Revere, the great courier of the Revolution, started on his long ride to New York and Philadelphia. As he went from town to town and told the story of the Tea Party the people cheered him, spread dinners for him, built bonfires, and fired cannon. He saw thousands of people gather in New York and Philadelphia, and heard them declare that they would stand by Boston.

Boston Port Bill

Boston soon needed help, for the king and Parliament passed a law that no ship could enter or leave Boston Harbor, and another which forbade town meetings. Other hard laws were also passed, and an army was sent to Boston to force the people to obey them.

88. The First Continental Congress. We have seen a call go forth for a Congress at Philadelphia (1774). The Massachusetts legislature chose Samuel Adams and his cousin, John Adams, with two others to go to the Congress.

ASSEMBLY ROOM IN CARPENTER'S HALL

Here met the first Continental Congress of the colonies

Strange visitors

But Samuel Adams was very poor and could not afford to dress in a style suited to meet the rich merchants of New York and Philadelphia and the great planters of the southern colonies. One evening while the family was at tea, in came the most fashionable tailor of the town to take his measure. Next came a hatter, and then a shoemaker. In a few days a new trunk at his door told the story, for in it were a suit of clothes, two pairs of shoes, silver shoe buckles, gold knee buckles, a cocked hat, a gold-headed cane, and a fashionable red cloak. What proof of the people's love for their neighbor!

CARPENTER'S HALL, PHILADELPHIA

Poor but loyal

Although Samuel Adams was a very poor man, George III did not have offices enough to bribe him or gold enough to buy his pen. Several times the king's officers had tried to do both, but they did not succeed.

What Samuel and John Adams saw on the way to Philadelphia

In a carriage drawn by four horses, the delegates to Congress were escorted by their friends right by the king's soldiers. The people of the large towns met them, escorted them, rang bells, fired cannon, feasted them at banquets, and talked of the Congress.

New and noble friends

At New York Samuel Adams and his friends were kept nearly a week. Many persons in carriages and on horseback came out to welcome them to Philadelphia, the city of William Penn. People were anxious to see the man who had written the "Circular Letter," who had driven the king's regiments out of Boston, who had planned the Tea Party, and whom the king could not bribe. Here, in Carpenter's Hall, for the first time, he met George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, Christopher Gadsden, who was called the "Samuel Adams of South Carolina," and many other noble men who became his life-long friends.

PAUL REVERE ALARMING THE MINUTEMEN

The old Hancock House, where, guarded by the minutemen, Samuel Adams and John Hancock lay sleeping when Paul Revere rode by, still stands in Lexington

Other colonies to help Boston

Soon Paul Revere came riding into Philadelphia with the news that the patriots of Boston were in danger of being attacked by the British. The Congress immediately declared that if the British made war on Boston, it was the duty of every colony to help her people fight. It now looked as if war might come at any moment.

Minutemen

When Congress was over, Samuel Adams hastened home to help form, in all the Massachusetts towns, companies of minutemen ready to fight at a moment's warning. The next spring the news got out that British soldiers were going to Concord to destroy the powder and provisions collected there by the minutemen, and also to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock and send them to England to be tried for treason. Paul Revere agreed to alarm the minutemen the moment the soldiers left Boston.

Alarming the minutemen

89. Paul Revere's Midnight Ride. Standing by his horse across the river from Boston, one April evening, waiting for signals, Paul Revere saw two lanterns flash their light from the tower of the Old North Church. He mounted and rode in hot haste toward Lexington, arousing the sleeping villages as he cried out: "Up and arm, the regulars are coming!" Soon he heard the alarm gun of the minutemen and the excited ringing of the church bells. He knew the country was rising.

At Lexington minutemen who guarded the house where Samuel Adams and John Hancock were sleeping ordered Revere not to make so much noise. "You will soon have noise enough," he shouted. "The regulars are coming!" And he rode on toward Concord.

The first conflict of the minutemen

90. The Battle at Lexington and at Concord Bridge. As the British soldiers reached Lexington at sunrise, April 19, 1775, the captain of the minutemen gave the command: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have war, let it begin here!" A bold speech for a captain of only about sixty men when facing as brave soldiers as Europe had ever seen! The minutemen stood their ground till seven were killed and nine wounded—nearly one third of their number. Then they retreated.

The retreat of the British

The British pushed on to Concord. But the minutemen, now coming from every direction, made a stand at Concord Bridge. Their musket fire was so deadly that the British started back, running at times to escape with their lives. At Lexington they fell upon the ground, tired out with the chase the minutemen gave them, and were met by fresh troops from Boston.

Many redcoats fall

Soon the British soldiers were forced to run again, for minutemen by hundreds were gathering, and they seldom missed their aim. From behind rocks, trees, fences, and houses they cut down the tired redcoats. Nearly three hundred British soldiers were killed or wounded before Boston was reached that night.

Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775

91. The Battle of Bunker Hill. Day and night for weeks minutemen from other New England colonies, and even from as far south as Virginia, marched in hot haste to Boston. The British general soon found his army in Boston entirely cut off from the mainland. He resolved to fortify Bunker Hill, but what was his surprise to wake one morning (June 17) and find the Americans under Colonel Prescott already building breastworks on the hill.

THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL

Three fierce charges

That afternoon three thousand picked troops, in solid columns and with bayonets gleaming, marched up the hill to storm that breastwork. "Don't fire till you can see the whites of their eyes!" said the commander of the minutemen. On came the lines of red, with banners flying and drums beating. From the breastworks there ran a flame of fire which mowed the redcoats down like grass. They reeled, broke, and ran. They rested. Again they charged; again they broke and ran. They were brave men, and, although hundreds of their companions had fallen, a third time the British charged, and won, for the Americans had used up their powder, and they had no bayonets. More than one thousand British soldiers fell that day. The Americans did not lose half that number. But among the killed was brave General Joseph Warren.

Adams and Hancock on the way to the second Congress

92. The Second Continental Congress. Just as the British were marching into Lexington on that famous April morning, Samuel Adams, with John Hancock, was leaving for Philadelphia, where Congress was to meet again. As he heard the guns of the minutemen answer the guns of the regulars, Adams said to Hancock: "What a glorious morning is this!"

The members from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York were escorted across the Hudson to Newark, New Jersey, and entertained at a great dinner, with speeches. Near Philadelphia a large procession of armed men and carriages met and escorted them into the city, where bells told of their coming.

When this Congress met, Samuel Adams seconded the motion of his cousin, John Adams, that George Washington, of Virginia, be made the general of all the American troops. He saw his own neighbor, John Hancock, made president of the Congress.

Samuel Adams among the first to favor independence

93. The Declaration of Independence. For more than a year Samuel Adams worked hard to get the Congress to make a Declaration of Independence. Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, introduced a motion into the Congress for independence. The Declaration was made, July 4, 1776, and Samuel Adams, as a great leader of the Revolution, had done his work.

AN OLD QUILL PEN

But, with other noble men, he still labored with all his powers, in Congress and at home, to help America win her independence.

Governor of Massachusetts

After independence had been won, Samuel Adams still served his state, and was elected governor of Massachusetts only a few years before his death, which occurred in 1803, at the age of eighty-one.