The-Life-Of-Samuel-Adams

462 Pages·2013·21.88 MB·English

aimmcan ^tatc^mcn
SAMUEL ADAMS
JAMES K. HOSMER
PROFESSOR IN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITTT
ST.LOUIS,MO.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The oldTeutonicAss—embly rose again tofull life in theNew
Englandtown-meeting. Freeman.
SamuelAdams,the helmsman ofthe Revolution at its origin,
thetruest representative ofthe hom—e rule ofMassachusettsin its
town-meetings and General Court. Bancroft.
A man whom Plutarch, ifhehadonlylived late e—nough,would
have delightedto include in his galleryofworthies, aman who
in thehi—storyofthe Americ—an Revolution issecond onlyto Wash-
ington, SamuelAdams. John Fiske.
PEEFACE.
A LIFE of Samuel Adams from beyond tlie
Mississippi ! Of all the worthies of Boston is
there one more thoroughly Bostonian, and is it
not impertinence, bordering upon profanity, for
the wildWesttolayhold of his name andfame?
The writer of this book believes that his pages
will exhibit in Samuel Adams a significance by
no means circumscribed within narrow limits.
The story of his career can as appropriately
—
claim the attenti—on of the West yea, of the
North and South as of the East.
But if it should be thought that only New
England hands can touch, without sacrilege, so
sacredan ark,it may be urgedthatthe members
of that larger NewEngland, which has forsaken
the ungenerous granite of the old home for the
fatter prairies and uplands of the interior, re-
main, nevertheless,true Yankees, and have bar-
tered away no particle of their birthright for
the more abundant pottage ; they will by no
means consent to resign any portion of their
VIU PREFACE.
interest in the gods, altars, and heroes of their
race.
If a personal reference may be pardoned, the
writer can claim that it has come down in his
blood to have to do with Samuel Adams. His
great-great-grandfather, a colonel of the Old
French War, was sent, in the pre-revolutionary
days, by the town of Concord to the Massachu-
setts Assembly, and was one of Sam Adams's
faithful supporters in the long struggle when
at length Bernard and Hutchinson were foiled
and driven out. In the post-revolutionary days
the writer's great-grandfather, a former captain
of minute-men, sat for Concord for some years
in the Massachusetts Senate, under the sway of
Samuel Adams as presiding officer. When, on
the fateful April morning. Gage sent out the
regulars to seize Sam Adams and John Han-
cock, proscribed and in hiding at Lexington,
the ancient colonel and the captain of minute-
men, leaving at their homesteads the provincial
powder and cannon-balls concealed in the barns
and wells, had a main hand in organizing and
carrying through, at the north bridge in Con-
cord, the diversion which enabled Sam Adams
to escape, unmolested, to the Congress at Phila-
delphia. The writer's grandfather, in the next
generation again, justarrivedatmusket-bearing
age in the hard time of Shays's Rebellion, sus-
PREFACE. IX
tained Governor Bowdoin and the cause of law
and order, among the rank and file, as did the
aged Samuel Adams in a higher sphere.
Of all the "embattled farmers" who stood
in arms at Concord bridge on the daywhen the
arch-rebel eluded the clutch of King George,
the captain of the minute-men, it is said, is the
only one whose portrait has been transmitted
to our time. That portrait has hung upon the
wall of the writer's study while he has been
busy with this book ; and it has required no
great stretch of imagination sometimes, among
the uncertain shadows ofmidnight,tothinkthat
the face of the old *' Revolutioner" grew genial
and sympathetic, as his great-grandson tried
to tell the story of the " Chief of the Revolu-
tion."
Though writing, for the most part, in St.
Louis, the author has traveled far to study
authoriti—es. Whatever the Boston collections
possess, man—uscripts, old newspapers, pam-
phlets, books, has been freely opened to him,
and examined by him. His greatest oppor-
tunity, however, was offered to him at Wash-
ington, by the kindness of Honorable George
Bancroft. Mr. Bancroft holds in his possession
most of the manuscripts of Samuel Adams yet
extant, together with a large number of auto-
graph letters written to Mr. Adams throughout
X PREFACE.
his long life by conspicuous men of the Revolu-
tionary period. These original papers, a col-
lection of the greatest value and interest, the
writer has been permitted, by the politeness of
Mr. Bancroft, to use with entire freedom. This
politeness the writer desires most gratefully to
acknowledge.
Much help has been derived from the " Life
of Samuel Adams," by William V. Wells, his
great-grandson, whose three large octavos give
evidence of much painstaking, and are full of
interesting materials. The writer of the pres-
ent biography has had no thought of super-
seding the important work of Mr. Wells, which
must be consulted by all who desire a minute
knowledge of Mr. Adams's characterandcareer.
The volumes of Mr. Wells have an especial
value on account of the large number of ex-
tracts from the writings of Samuel Adams
which they contain. To some extent the cita-
tions in the present workhave been taken from
these in great part, however, they have been
;
selected from old legislative reports and news-
papers, and also from unprinted records, drafts,
and letters. The filial piety of Mr. Wells is
much too exemplary the career of his ancestor
;
throughout he regards with an admiration quite
too indiscriminate. Nor is his tone as regards
the unfortunate men, against whom Samuel
PREFACE. xi
Adams fought his battle, that which candid
historians of the Revolution will hereafter em-
ploy. Thepresentbook aimsto give,in smaller
compass, whatis most importantin Mr. Adams's
career, and to estimate more fairly his charac-
ter and that of his opponents.
JAMES K. HOSMER.
St. Louis,March 24. 1885.

OOE'TENTS.
CHAPTER
I.
...... PAGS
The Youth and his Sukrodndings 1
CHAPTER
II.
The Pre-Revolutionart Struggle 2i
CHAPTER
III.
The Writs of Assistance 33
CHAPTER IV.
In the Massachusetts Asse3Ibly 46
CHAPTER V.
Parliamen-Rry Representation and the Massa-
chusetts Resolves 62
CHAPTER VI.
The Stamp Act before England 78
CHAPTER VII.
The True Sentiments of America 90
CHAPTER VIII.
The Arrival of the Troops 109