It
was April 19th, 1775 in Lexington Massachusetts when the “shot heard
around the world”[1]
was fired. The sun was just dawning,
both literally and figuratively as the American Revolutionary War began. Samuel Adams stood next to John Hancock on
Granny Hill and expressed an enthusiasm not often displayed by one so sober and
self-contained, “What a glorious morning is this for America.” The patriot and lover of liberty openly and
jubilantly welcomed what most Americans at the time feared most, open conflict
with Great Britain. Regrettably, today
most Americans know the name of Samuel Adams only after the beer marketed in
his name. Who was this great American
patriot, and why is he known as the Father of the American Revolution?
Samuel
Adams was born in Boston in 1722 to Samuel Adams Senior, a devout Puritan and prosperous
merchant and Mary Fifield Adams. He was
one of twelve children, although only three lived past their third
birthday. The family regularly attended
the Old South Church in Boston. Samuel
attended Harvard College and graduated at the age of 18. He continued his studies at Harvard, and
brilliantly argued in both his commencement speech and his master’s thesis that
it was not only lawful, but imperative to resist King George.
After
failing as a businessman, brewer, newspaper publisher, and garbage collector,
he found himself collecting taxes for the British government, but too often
sympathized with the citizens, leaving him personally liable for their
taxes. He settled on the occupation of
politics and political writing; independence for the colonies and resistance to
the Crown. He married, had six children,
was widowed and married again.
In
1748, he inflamed the British throne when he and his friends launched the Independent Advertiser, a weekly
newspaper that printed arguments against encroachment on American’s
constitutional rights. He opposed the
Sugar Act (1764) and the Stamp Act (1765).
He actively reasoned against The Townshend Acts (1767) with letters to
Parliament and frequent visits to appointed governors of Boston. He insisted that the soldiers responsible for
the Boston Massacre (1770) receive a fair trial even though he personally felt
they should be convicted of murder. Writing
under 17 different alias names, Samuel continued to advocate and organize
rebellion. After his role in the Boston
Tea Party (1773) he became so sharp a thorn in the side of the British
Government that British governors and generals tried first to bribe, then to
kill him. He urged the farmers of
Middlesex to stand their ground at Lexington and Concord. He had such an ability to speak to the masses
that a people’s volunteer army of 20,000 workingmen[2]
was raised to defend Boston.
After
the war began, Boston’s Governor Hutchingson, assured King George that Samuel
Adams was the arch-rebel of the colonies, because “he was the first that
publicly asserted the independency of the colonies upon the kingdom.” In European circles, the uprising in America
was often referred to as “Adams’s War”.
Respected, yet hated by British Parliament, he became the first of our
Founding Fathers to have a price put on his head.
John
Adams, his second cousin and associate in Congress, declared that “Sam Adams
was born and tempered a wedge of steel to split the knot that tied America to
England.” Josiah Quincy, an ardent
patriot, wrote: “I find many here who consider Samuel Adams the first
politician in the world. I have found
more reason every day to convince me that he has been right when others
supposed him wrong;” and Thomas Jefferson said, “If there was any [pilot] to
the Revolution, Samuel Adams was the man.”[3] Of his influence in the Continental Congress
Jefferson added, “Samuel Adams was so rigorously logical, so clear in his
views, abundant in good sense and master always of his subject, that he
commanded the most profound attention whenever he rose in an assembly by which
the froth of declamation was heard with the most sovereign contempt.”[4]
In
the beginning, Samuel Adams stood almost alone as the champion of complete independence. He was one of the first colonial leaders to
argue that mankind possessed certain God-given, “natural” rights that
governments could not violate.
Eventually, other men came to his opinion; one after another they joined
him in his firm and uncompromising stand, and at last, on the fourth of July,
1776, Samuel Adams saw the fulfillment of his hopes in the passage and signing
of the Declaration of Independence. “For
Samuel Adams,” one writer declared, “that was the most triumphant moment of his
life.” A few short weeks later, Samuel Adams spoke to a group of delegates
gathered in Philadelphia and put into spiritual perspective what had been
accomplished. “We have this day restored
the Sovereign, to Whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven . . . may his Kingdom
come.”[5]
With
the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adam’s great life-work
practically came to an end. “Had he died
then,” one of his biographers admits, “his fame would have been as great as it
is now. What further he accomplished, though often of value, an ordinary man might
have performed.” Samuel Adams, “The
architect of ruin” seems to have been raised up to show the people the only
clear path to independence; after that, the leadership was taken by others. For the times comes the man. Revolution was inevitable, and God rose up
Samuel Adams to be its earliest leader and organizer.
Today in Boston’s Faneuil
Hall stands a bronze statue as a reminder this resolute patriot. Beneath the statue, a plague simply reads, “Samuel
Adams 1722-1803; A statesman incorruptible and fearless” and that is strictly
true. As rugged and immovable as the
great boulder that has been placed above his resting place, Samuel Adams was one
of the great and noble ones; a revolutionist without peer, a courageous and
incorruptible patriot; a true American.
Learn more at www.GloriousCause.org
[1] Ralph Waldo
Emerson; Concord Hymn
[2] Harry Frankel;
Sam Adams and the American Revolution; The
Militant, Nov 12,1951 to March 3, 1952
[3] Josiah Quincy as
quoted by William Vincent Wells; The Life
and Public Services of Samuel Adams; V2, p 304
[5] Charles E. Kistler, This Nation Under God; Boston: Richard G. Badger, The Gorman Press,
1924, 71
