A Future Politician
One of twelve children, Samuel Adams was born September 27, 1722 in Boston, Massachusetts to Samuel and Mary Fifield Adams. His father, a prosperous brewer, was also an upper class politician. His son graduated from Harvard in 1740. Samuel the younger, tried several professional careers in law, a business of his own and was also employed in the counting house of Thomas Cushing. When success in these fields eluded him, he joined his father in the brewery.
Adams - His Early Life
Samuel Adams was married twice. His first wife, Elizabeth Checkley, died in 1757, leaving Samuel with two children from that marriage. He remarried in 1764 to Elizabeth Wells. He began an ambitious anti-British campaign which placed him on the threshold of politics. His anti-British position evolved as a result of Britain's suppression of the Massachusetts Land Bank in 1740. Observing his father's political scheme to issue paper money based on land security,
Adams wrote his Master's Degree thesis at Harvard three years later on the right of revolution, thus planting the seeds of his place in history as the Father of the American Revolution. John Adams, second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801, would later claim that his cousin, Samuel, began his revolutionary activism at this time.
Samuel Adams Composer of the Sugar Act
Adams formally joined political clubs and led efforts to thwart creditors of the Land Bank to place a lien on his property. He became active in Boston town meetings which led to his later becoming a Boston tax collector from 1756 to 1764. It was Britain's imperial policies that most conflicted with Samuel Adams' deep belief in freedom.
Adams wrote the Sugar Act in 1764 and became a representative in the Massachusetts legislature. He also composed the strong words of resolve against the British Stamp Act of 1765. From this point, Samuel Adams became firmly entrenched in colonial controversy. He formed committees that linked American colonies. With each imperial act by the British, Samuel Adams moved forward to squash their hold over the colonials.
The Boston Resolves
Adams drafted a set of resolves to curtail attempts by the British to control colonial assemblies and committees which Adams viewed as tyranny. Thomas Hutchinson, the newly appointed British governor of Massachusetts, claimed Adams Boston Resolves was a virtual declaration of independence. Adams was discontented with merely denouncing British tyranny and set forth a plan to build an organization to resist it by proposing that every Massachusetts town form committees of correspondence so that colonials would be informed of British activities. Adams encouraged these groups to take steps in opposition to these activities.
His ideas led to committees springing up in all 13 colonies. Thus, the nuclei of the American Revolution had begun when states and provinces formed their own governments.
The Struggle For Colonial Independence
With the launch of anti-British imperialism, Samuel Adams' struggle for independence was further advanced when, as a delegate to the Continental Congress and the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, he helped write the state's constitution, which was ratified on June 7, 1780. This constitution is still in effect and is the only state with an original consitution.
Adams became a state Senator and was in opposition to the uprising of debtors of the Shays Rebellion. Adams inherent belief was that he didn't oppose rebellion. Rather, he believed the people should not revolt against a constitutional government. Later, he supported, with reservation, the adoption of the Constitution, which established a democratic government of the United States. His maintained the opinion that it was a national rather than a federal constitution that was finally ratified on February 6, 1788.
The Signing of the Declaration of Independence
By the time Samuel Adams was sixty-six years old, he served as John Hancock's lieutenant governor to Massachusetts. Hancock became the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. Adams' shining accomplishment before his death at age eighty-one on October 2, 1803 was to see a new nation born out of the revolution his actions encouraged.
References:
Robert E. Brown, writing for Colliers Encyclopedia; The Rise of the American Nation published by Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich; Irving L. Gordon writing for Amsco School Publications
Eleanore Whitaker - Staff writer for RITRO.com, former newsletter contributor to League of Women Voters, Editor of "Timepiece Magazine for Thomas Warne Museum ...
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