Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/54

ADAMS.ADAMS. the agitation. Great Britain felt the force of the man who was opposing her, and stood ready to forgive all in rebellion but Samuel Adams and John Hancock. She realized that the American colonies could not be brought under subjection so long as such fearless advocates of liberty were throwing down the gauntlet. He was a leading spirit in the first Continental Congress, and the first man to publicly advocate independence. His eloquence hastened the Declaration of Independence in Congress, and induced Massachusetts to adopt the constitution of the United States.

All the energies of the man were poured out in the cause he loved; he gave little thought to the accumulation of money, and his was the pure, incorruptible patriotism that scorns to acquire it in public office. Most of his life he was poor. His more frugal wife soon attended to all money matters, and it was not until after the death of his only son, who left him a small property, that he was in comfortable circumstances. On the same day of the occurrence of the "Boston massacre," at the town meeting held in the Old South meeting-house, March 5, 1770, Mr. Adams as chairman of the committee communicated to Governor Hutchinson the demand of the inhabitants that the troops should be removed from the city. Hutchinson offered to remove one regiment, and Adams returned through the crowded streets to the meeting-house, quickly passing the watchword, "both regiments or none," and when the vote was demanded the 5000 voices shouted, "both regiments or none." Adams returned with the ultimatum of the people, and warned Hutchinson that if the two regiments were not removed before nightfall they remained at his peril, and before the sun set they were removed to the castle in the harbor. The people of Massachusetts next demanded that judges holding office at the pleasure of the king should be paid by the crown and not by the colonies, and at the same time the judges were threatened with impeachment if they accepted a penny from the crown. Adams, when Hutchinson refused to convene the legislature to decide the question of the judges' salaries, proposed "committees of correspondence" in each town to consult as to the common welfare. This legally a proper act, was virtually an act of revolution, as the governor had no power over such an organization. Within a month eighty towns had chosen committees, and the system, that afterwards extended to all the colonies, was in operation. It was by such stages that the revolutionary government was formed, with Samuel Adams as the leading spirit.

When the legislature convened at Salem, June 17, 1774, he locked the doors, put the key in his pocket and carried through his plan for convening a congress of the colonies at Philadelphia on the first of September. A tory member, feigning sickness, was let out, and informed Governor Hutchinson; who, however, could not gain admission to serve a writ to dissolve the assembly, and when the business at hand was finished the last Massachusetts legislature under sovereign authority had adjourned sine die. James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine were elected to meet the delegates from other colonial assemblies in Philadelphia, and £500 was appropriated to pay their expenses, each town being assessed according to the tax list. Cushing, the two Adams and Paine departed from Boston Aug. 10, 1774, in a stage coach, Bowdoin being detained by the illness of his wife. In the first meeting of the first Continental Congress it was proposed to open the session with prayer, but this was opposed by John Jay, an Episcopalian, on the ground that the members belonging, as they did, to various sects and denominations, could not be expected to unite in formal worship. Samuel Adams replied that "he was no bigot, and could hear a prayer from a gentleman of piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend of his country;" that "he was a stranger in Philadelphia, but he had heard that Mr. Duché deserved that character, and there- from he moved that Mr. Duché, an Episcopal clergyman, might be desired to read prayers to Congress."

New York, Virginia and South Carolina had been distrustful of the extreme policy heretofore pursued by Massachusetts, but this evidence of friendship from her most prominent representative disarmed opposition; and the delegates from these states, mostly Episcopalians, were greatly pleased, as were those from Pennsylvania, Mr. Duché being the most popular preacher in Philadelphia. On Nov. 9, 1774, Adams was back in Boston, organizing and promoting rebellion. On the fifth anniversary of the Boston massacre, March 5, 1775, Samuel Adams presided at a gathering in the Old South meeting-house, and Joseph Warren delivered the oration. The city was occupied by eleven regiments of British troops and many of the officers were in the meeting. Adams's tact as presiding officer prevented an outbreak. Then in April followed the expeditions of the British troops to Concord and Lexington, and the attempted seizure of the stores gathered there, which aroused the people, who successfully drove them back. Adams and Hancock had departed from Boston for Philadelphia secretly, as General Gage had published his instructions from the British government to arrest Samuel Adams and "his willing and ready tool" John Hancock, and send them over to London to be tried for high