Adams, Samuel

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Adams, Samuel

ADAMS, SAMUEL. (1722–1803). Radical patriot, political agitator, master propagandist, Signer. Massachusetts. Born in Boston on 27 September 1722 to a wealthy real estate speculator and brewery owner, Adams rose from relative obscurity in 1765 with the Stamp Act crisis, and fell from eminence as one of the chief figures of the Revolution when Congress got down to the business of constructive statesmanship after the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But during the decade that intervened, Samuel Adams was "truly the Man of the Revolution," as Thomas Jefferson called him.

Adams graduated from Harvard in 1740, and almost immediately went bankrupt on his first business venture. He then joined his father in the family brewery, which he inherited on his father's death in 1748. A short time later Samuel's mother died, and he found himself in possession of a considerable estate. Within ten years, however, he had dissipated this inheritance. Fortunately, his political activism earned him an appointment as Boston's tax collector, which position he held from 1756 to 1764. Adams proved as inept at tax collecting as at business, ending his tenure in office with £8,000 in arrears. With this record of failure in managing his own affairs, the 42-year-old Samuel Adams stepped onto the stage of history to manage the American Revolution.

Adams's failures did not hinder his political career, and he became the leading opponent of the elite running the Massachusetts government. In 1764 and 1765 Adams was selected to draft instructions to Boston's representatives, who were protesting British tax policies. In September 1765 he was elected to the State House and almost immediately wrote the legislature's response to a speech by Governor Francis Bernard. In this response, Adams formulated one of the key Patriot doctrines by insisting that only the people's representatives have a right to pass taxes.

Between 1766 and 1774 Adams became the leader of the State House in its ever increasing opposition to British rule. Adams led the successful effort to recall Governor Francis Bernard, and then aimed his political artillery at Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Adams organized the opposition against the Townshend Acts, helped form the Non-Importation Association of 1768, and drafted two famous "Circular Letters," one sent to the assemblies of other provinces and one which the "Convention" of the Patriot party held in Boston in 1768. Previously he had sparked the formation of the Sons of Liberty. As Thomas Hutchinson, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, wrote: "I doubt whether there is a greater incendiary in the King's dominion."

Adams worked during the early 1770s to set up a Revolutionary organization. On 2 November 1772, the Boston Town Meeting, on his motion, appointed "a committee of correspondence … to state the rights of the Colonists and of this Province in particular, as men, as Christians, and as Subjects; and to communicate the same to the several towns and to the world." Adams had already written to the towns about this project; now he urged them to follow Boston's lead. In this matter he may be credited with initiating revolutionary government in Massachusetts and sowing the seed in the other colonies. His next triumph was the Boston Tea Party, 16 December 1773. Though Adams opposed the use of violence, he encouraged and may have helped organize the crowd that expressed their political frustration in an inventive act of violence against property. He took the lead in opposing the Intolerable Acts (1774). Learning that other colonies were unwilling to adopt nonintercourse measures independently, Adams concluded that an intercolonial congress was an "absolute necessity." On 17 June 1774 he moved that the Massachusetts House of Representatives appoint delegates to such a congress. This resolution was adopted, and he was chosen one of the five representatives. Unlike most members of the Continental Congress, Adams favored immediate independence. He proposed a confederation of colonies, supported the resolution that independent state governments be formed, and supported adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Though Adams fell from a leadership position once independence was declared, he continued his active involvement in the revolutionary cause. Most notably, he served on the overworked Board of War, chaired by his second cousin John Adams, from 1775 until he left Congress in 1781. Along the way, Adams became involved in a number of intrigues, often disrupting the work of Congress.

Adams left Congress concerned that the United States was on a path toward founding its own empire. His lifelong fear of centralized power led him to oppose the Constitution and kept him active in Massachusetts politics until 1797. After losing an election to serve in the new Congress in 1788, Adams became lieutenant governor in 1789, and governor upon John Hancock's death in 1793, serving until his retirement in 1797. Adams did not extend his support of radicalism to those who opposed the state government, calling for the execution of those who took part in Shays's Rebellion. Adams died in 1803.