Samuel Adams, who had done so much to inspire resistance to oppression, did not serve the patriot’s cause on the battle-field. His work was in Congress, and his position as a leader was so well recognized that the English excluded from the offer of pardon to the rebels two men—Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, and “one Samuel Adams.”
After the war was over, Adams served as governor of Massachusetts. He aided to draft the state constitution, the only one of the old constitutions adopted immediately after the Revolution which is still in force. He died, October 2, 1803, and was buried in Boston. In the busy business heart of the city, there is a metal disc bearing the inscription, “This marks the grave of Samuel Adams.”
George Washington
The Leader of the Revolution
The story of Washington, the personal history of the man who was identified with the independence of our country, has been told over and over and yet it never fails to find interested listeners and one can well believe that it never will. He was born, February 22, 1732, on a plantation, or large farm, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His father, Augustine Washington, was master of many broad acres but lacked what seem to us the very comforts of life. There was a houseful of children, too—four by the first wife, and six (of whom George was the eldest), by the second wife Mary Ball.
Mary Washington was kept busy with household cares. She superintended not only the cooking and washing and housework, but the spinning of thread, the weaving of cloth, the making of clothes, and other tasks which were then a part of home routine.
When George was three years old, the family moved to Washington, the place afterwards named Mount Vernon, and there they lived about four years.
When George was about seven, the family moved to a farm on the Rappahannock, across the river from what was then the little village of Fredericksburg. George was sent to an old field school where he was taught “to read and write and cipher.” He was fond of writing and he wrote a clear, careful hand. His early copy books have been kept and we can read on the yellowed pages the moral precepts which he copied down with great care when he was twelve years old.
George early learned to ride and swim and excelled at outdoor sports and games, thanks to a strong body and determined, energetic spirit. An early biographer, Weems, tells many stories of his childhood which are widely known. Of their truth or falsehood we cannot be sure. One is the famous story that George cut down a valuable cherry tree belonging to his father, and promptly confessed his misdeed, choosing punishment rather than falsehood. Another is that he undertook in boyish bravado to subdue his mother’s favorite colt and continued the struggle until the animal burst a blood-vessel and died. This, also, he immediately confessed, and his mother while grieved over the death of her colt “rejoiced that her son was brave and truthful.”
Mr. Washington died when George was only ten years old, and on the mother devolved the early training of the children. After his early childhood, George was with her but little. He was sent, soon after his father’s death, to live with one of his older brothers to attend school. When he was fourteen, it was planned that he should go as a sailor, but the plan was given up and he returned to school and took up the study of surveying.
His half-brother Lawrence, fourteen years older than he, was a soldier; perhaps as a boy George, who admired and loved this brother, wished and planned to be a soldier, too. If so, he no doubt thought that he would wear a British uniform and fight for the king as did his brother, for the colonists then were contented and loyal subjects of England.