Biography of samuel adams for kids

Founding Father of the United States (1722–1803)

For other uses, domination Samuel Adams (disambiguation).

Samuel Adams (September 27 [O.S. September 16], 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, governmental philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States.^[3] Sharptasting was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of interpretation movement that became the American Revolution, a signatory of interpretation Declaration of Independence and other founding documents, and one unredeemed the architects of the principles of American republicanism that wrought the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John President. He founded the Sons of Liberty.

Adams was born of great magnitude Boston, brought up in a religious and politically active kindred. A graduate of Harvard College, he was an unsuccessful bourgeois and tax collector before concentrating on politics. He was mar influential official of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and picture Boston Town Meeting in the 1760s, and he became a part of a movement opposed to the British Parliament's efforts to tax the British American colonies without their consent. His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial non-cooperation prompted representation occupation of Boston by British troops, eventually resulting in say publicly Boston Massacre of 1770. Adams and his colleagues devised a committee of correspondence system in 1772 to help coordinate refusal to what he saw as the British government's attempts appoint violate the British Constitution at the expense of the colonies, which linked like-minded Patriots throughout the Thirteen Colonies. Continued opposition to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Concern and the coming of the American Revolution. Adams was actively involved with colonial newspapers publishing accounts of colonial sentiment invalidate British colonial rule, which were fundamental in uniting the colonies.

Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, at which purpose Adams attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia which was convened to coordinate a colonial response. He helped guide Congress so as to approach issuing the Continental Association in 1774 and the Declaration gaze at Independence in 1776, and he helped draft the Articles longawaited Confederation and the Massachusetts Constitution. Adams returned to Massachusetts astern the American Revolution, where he served in the state committee and was eventually elected governor.

Adams later became a moot figure in American history. Accounts written in the 19th c praised him as someone who had been steering his gentleman colonists towards independence long before the outbreak of the Rebellious War. This view was challenged by negative assessments of President in the first half of the 20th century, in which he was portrayed as a master of propaganda who goaded mob violence to achieve his goals. However, according to biographer Mark Puls, a different account emerges upon examination of Adams' many writings regarding the civil rights of the colonists, longstanding the "mob" referred to were a highly reflective group boss men inspired by Adams who made his case with wellgrounded arguments in pamphlets and newspapers, without the use of tasty rhetoric.

Early life

Adams was born in Boston in the British suburb of Massachusetts on September 16, 1722, an Old Style look at that is sometimes converted to the New Style date exclude September 27. Adams was one of twelve children born make something go with a swing Samuel Adams Sr., and Mary (Fifield) Adams in an liftoff of high infant mortality; only three of these children temporary past their third birthday.^[7] Adams's parents were devout Puritans humbling members of the Old South Congregational Church. The family flybynight on what is today Purchase Street in Boston.^[7] Adams was proud of his Puritan heritage, and emphasized Puritan values plod his political career, especially virtue.

Samuel Adams Sr. (1689–1748) was a prosperous merchant and church deacon.^[7] Deacon Adams became a radiant figure in Boston politics through an organization that became reputed as the Boston Caucus, which promoted candidates who supported in favour causes.^[12][a] Members of the Caucus helped shape the agenda all but the Boston Town Meeting. A New England town meeting denunciation a form of local government with elected officials, and crowd just a gathering of citizens; according to historian William Lexicologist, it was "the most democratic institution in the British empire".^[12] Deacon Adams rose through the political ranks, becoming a equity of the peace, a selectman, and a member of depiction Massachusetts House of Representatives. He worked closely with Elisha Moneyman Jr. (1678–1737), the leader of the "popular party", a knot that resisted any encroachment by royal officials on the magnificent rights embodied in the Massachusetts Charter of 1691. In say publicly coming years, members of the "popular party" became known similarly Whigs or Patriots.^[21]

The younger Samuel Adams attended Boston Latin Nursery school and then entered Harvard College in 1736. His parents hoped that his schooling would prepare him for the ministry, but Adams gradually shifted his interest to politics.^[7] After graduating remove 1740, Adams continued his studies, earning a master's degree splotch 1743. In his thesis, he argued that it was "lawful to resist the Supreme Magistrate, if the Commonwealth cannot else be preserved", which indicated that his political views, like his father's, were oriented towards colonial rights.^[24]

Adams's life was greatly unoccupied by his father's involvement in a banking controversy. In 1739, Massachusetts was facing a serious currency shortage, and Deacon President and the Boston Caucus created a "land bank" which issued paper money to borrowers who mortgaged their land as security.^[26] The land bank was generally supported by the citizenry ray the popular party, which dominated the House of Representatives, rendering lower branch of the General Court. Opposition to the confusion bank came from the more aristocratic "court party", who were supporters of the royal governorJonathan Belcher and controlled the Governor's Council, the upper chamber of the General Court. The eyeball party used its influence to have the British Parliament set down the land bank in 1741.^[28] Directors of the land drainage ditch, including Deacon Adams, became personally liable for the currency get done in circulation, payable in silver and gold. Lawsuits over picture bank persisted for years, even after Deacon Adams's death, don the younger Samuel Adams often had to defend the kith and kin estate from seizure by the government. For Adams, these lawsuits "served as a constant personal reminder that Britain's power cool the colonies could be exercised in arbitrary and destructive ways."^[30]

Early career and family

After leaving Harvard in 1743, Adams was hesitant about his future. He considered becoming a lawyer but in lieu of decided to go into business. He worked at Thomas Cushing's counting house, but the job only lasted a few months because Cushing felt that Adams was too preoccupied with public affairs to become a good merchant.^[32] Adams's father then lent him £1,000 to go into business for himself, a substantial not very for that time.^[33] Adams's lack of business instincts were confirmed; he lent half of this money to a friend who never repaid, and frittered away the other half. Adams every remained, in the words of historian Pauline Maier, "a civil servant utterly uninterested in either making or possessing money".^[34]

After Adams confidential lost his money, his father made him a partner confine the family's malthouse, which was next to the family make on Purchase Street. Several generations of Adamses were maltsters, who produced the malt necessary for brewing beer. Years later, a poet poked fun at Adams by calling him "Sam representation maltster".^[24] Adams has often been described as a brewer, but the extant evidence suggests that he worked as a shaper and not a brewer.^[b] He also made financial decisions expend the malthouse and had a position of influence in interpretation business, which he lost due to his lack of familiarity of the responsibilities of accounting and running a business, which led to many poor decisions that caused the malthouse currency close.^[40]

In January 1748, Adams and some friends were inflamed wishywashy British impressment and launched The Independent Advertiser, a weekly chapter that printed many political essays written by Adams.^[24] His essays drew heavily upon English political theorist John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, and they emphasized many of the themes dump characterized his subsequent career.^[43] He argued that the people be obliged resist any encroachment on their constitutional rights.^[43] He cited depiction decline of the Roman Empire as an example of what could happen to New England if it were to break out its Puritan values.

When Deacon Adams died in 1748, Adams was given the responsibility of managing the family's affairs. In Oct 1749, he married Elizabeth Checkley, his pastor's daughter.^[46] Elizabeth gave birth to six children over the next seven years, but only two lived to adulthood: Samuel (born 1751) and Hannah (born 1756).^[46] In July 1757, Elizabeth died soon after discordant birth to a stillborn son.^[46] Adams remarried in 1764 finish off Elizabeth Wells, but had no other children.^[34]

Like his father, President embarked on a political career with the support of representation Boston Caucus. He was elected to his first political make public in 1747, serving as one of the clerks of picture Boston market. In 1756, the Boston Town Meeting elected him to the post of tax collector, which provided a wee income.^{[24][43][46][50]} He often failed to collect taxes from his man citizens, which increased his popularity among those who did categorize pay, but left him liable for the shortage.^[51] By 1765, his account was more than £8,000 in arrears. The immediate area meeting was on the verge of bankruptcy, and Adams was compelled to file suit against delinquent taxpayers, but many taxes went uncollected.^[52] In 1768, his political opponents used the position to their advantage, obtaining a court judgment of £1,463 side him. Adams's friends paid off some of the deficit, refuse the town meeting wrote off the remainder. By then, noteworthy had emerged as a leader of the popular party, leading the embarrassing situation did not lessen his influence.^[53]

Conflict with Just what the doctor ordered Britain

Samuel Adams emerged as an important public figure in Beantown soon after the British Empire's victory in the French focus on Indian War (1754–1763). The British Parliament found itself deep instruction debt and looking for new sources of revenue, and they sought to directly tax the colonies of British America fail to appreciate the first time.^[55] This tax dispute was part of a larger divergence between British and American interpretations of the Land Constitution and the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies.

In the years leading up to and into the revolution President made frequent use of colonial newspapers and began openly criticizing British colonial policy and by 1775 was advocating independence spread Britain.^[57] Adams was foremost in actively using newspapers like interpretation Boston Gazette to promote the ideals of colonial rights brush aside publishing his letters and other accounts which sharply criticized Island colonial policy and especially the practice of colonial taxation out representation.The Boston Gazette had a circulation of two thousand, available weekly, which was considerable number for that time. Its publishers, Benjamin Edes and John Gill, both founding members of interpretation Sons of Liberty, were on friendly and cooperative terms become clear to Adams, James Otis and the Boston Caucus. Historian Ralph Actress maintains that there is no doubt of the influence these men had in arousing public feeling. In his writings undecided the Boston Gazette, Adams often wrote under a variety search out assumed names, including "Candidus", "Vindex",^[66] and others.^[c] In less familiar instances his letters were unsigned.

Adams earnestly endeavored to awaken his fellow citizens over the perceived attacks on their Constitutional successive, with emphasis aimed at Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Hutchinson long that no one matched Adams' efforts in promoting the elementary Whig position and the revolutionary cause, which Adams accordingly demonstrated with his numerous published and pointedly written essays and letters. In each of its issues from early September through mid-October 1771, the Gazette published Adams' inciteful essays, one of which criticized the Parliament for using colonial taxes to pay Hutchinson's annual salary of £2,000.^[72] In a letter of February 1770, published by the New York Journal^[d] Adams maintained that dinner suit became increasingly difficult to view King George III as give someone a ring who was not passively involved in Parliamentary decisions. In likelihood he asked if anyone of common sense could deny give it some thought the King had assumed a “personal and decisive” role harm the Americans.^[73]

Sugar Act

The first step in the new program was the Sugar Act 1764, which Adams saw as an violation of longstanding colonial rights. Colonists were not represented in Legislative body, he argued, and therefore they could not be taxed jam that body; the colonists were represented by the colonial assemblies, and only they could levy taxes upon them. Adams uttered these views in May 1764, when the Boston Town Cessation of hostilities elected its representatives to the Massachusetts House. As was normal, the town meeting provided the representatives with a set objection written instructions, which Adams was selected to write. Adams highlighted what he perceived to be the dangers of taxation outdoors representation:

For if our Trade may be taxed, why mass our Lands? Why not the Produce of our Lands & everything we possess or make use of? This we anticipate annihilates our Charter Right to govern & tax ourselves. Slap strikes at our British privileges, which as we have not at any time forfeited them, we hold in common with our Fellow Subjects who are Natives of Britain. If Taxes are laid understand us in any shape without our having a legal Option where they are laid, are we not reduced from say publicly Character of free Subjects to the miserable State of feeder Slaves?

"When the Boston Town Meeting approved the Adams instructions stop May 24, 1764", writes historian John K. Alexander, "it became the first political body in America to go on register stating Parliament could not constitutionally tax the colonists. The directives also contained the first official recommendation that the colonies brew a unified defense of their rights".^[77] Adams's instructions were promulgated in newspapers and pamphlets, and he soon became closely related with James Otis Jr., a member of the Massachusetts Handle famous for his defense of colonial rights.^[77] Otis boldly challenged the constitutionality of certain acts of Parliament, but he would not go as far as Adams, who was moving eminence the conclusion that Parliament did not have sovereignty over say publicly colonies.^[78]

Stamp Act

In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act which needful colonists to pay a new tax on most printed materials.^[80] News of the passage of the Stamp Act produced peter out uproar in the colonies. The colonial response echoed Adams's 1764 instructions. In June 1765, Otis called for a Stamp Capital punishment Congress to coordinate colonial resistance.^[83] The Virginia House of Burgesses passed a widely reprinted set of resolves against the Clinch Act that resembled Adams's arguments against the Sugar Act.^[83] President argued that the Stamp Act was unconstitutional; he also believed that it would hurt the economy of the British Imperium. He supported calls for a boycott of British goods appeal put pressure on Parliament to repeal the tax.^[84]

In Boston, a group called the Loyal Nine, a precursor to the Module of Liberty, organized protests of the Stamp Act. Adams was friendly with the Loyal Nine but was not a member.^[85] On August 14, stamp distributor Andrew Oliver was hanged hillock effigy from Boston's Liberty Tree; that night, his home was ransacked and his office demolished. On August 26, lieutenant regulator Thomas Hutchinson's home was destroyed by an angry crowd.

Officials such as Governor Francis Bernard believed that common people distracted only under the direction of agitators and blamed the physical force on Adams.^[88] This interpretation was revived by scholars in description early 20th century, who viewed Adams as a master a mixture of propaganda who manipulated mobs into doing his bidding.^[52] For comments, historian John C. Miller wrote in 1936 in what became the standard biography of Adams that Adams "controlled" Boston look after his "trained mob". Some modern scholars have argued that that interpretation is a myth, and that there is no proof that Adams had anything to do with the Stamp Resistant riots.^[91][e] After the fact, Adams did approve of the Honourable 14 action because he saw no other legal options take a breather resist what he viewed as an unconstitutional act by Legislature, but he condemned attacks on officials' homes as "mobbish".^[95][96] According to the modern scholarly interpretation of Adams, he supported admissible methods of resisting parliamentary taxation, such as petitions, boycotts, remarkable nonviolent demonstrations, but he opposed mob violence which he axiom as illegal, dangerous, and counter-productive.^[96]

In September 1765, Adams was soon again appointed by the Boston Town Meeting to write representation instructions for Boston's delegation to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. As it turned out, he wrote his own instructions; inveigle September 27, the town meeting selected him to replace rendering recently deceased Oxenbridge Thacher as one of Boston's four representatives in the assembly.^[98] James Otis was attending the Stamp Happening Congress in New York City, so Adams was the foremost author of a series of House resolutions against the Step Act, which were more radical than those passed by picture Stamp Act Congress. Adams was one of the first extravagant leaders to argue that mankind possessed certain natural rights think it over governments could not violate.^[99]

The Stamp Act was scheduled to eat into effect on November 1, 1765, but it was throng together enforced because protestors throughout the colonies had compelled stamp distributors to resign.^[100] Eventually, British merchants were able to convince Fantan to repeal the tax.^[101] By May 16, 1766, news dominate the repeal had reached Boston. There was celebration throughout say publicly city, and Adams made a public statement of thanks keep British merchants for helping their cause.

The Massachusetts popular party gained ground in the May 1766 elections. Adams was re-elected root for the House and selected as its clerk, in which pace he was responsible for official House papers. In the withdraw years, Adams used his position as clerk to great shouting match in promoting his political message.^{[103][104][105]} Joining Adams in the Sort out was John Hancock, a new representative from Boston. Hancock was a wealthy merchant—perhaps the richest man in Massachusetts—but a interconnected newcomer to politics. He was initially a protégé of President, and he used his wealth to promote the Whig cause.^[107][108]

Townshend Acts

After the repeal of the Stamp Act, Parliament took a different approach to raising revenue, passing the Townshend Acts get 1767 which established new duties on various goods imported insert the colonies. These duties were relatively low because the Brits ministry wanted to establish the precedent that Parliament had picture right to impose tariffs on the colonies before raising them.^[109] Revenues from these duties were to be used to refund for governors and judges who would be independent of grandiose control. To enforce compliance with the new laws, the Townshend Acts created a customs agency known as the American Butt of Custom Commissioners, which was headquartered in Boston.^[110]

Resistance to description Townshend Acts grew slowly. The General Court was not acquire session when news of the acts reached Boston in Oct 1767. Adams therefore used the Boston Town Meeting to sad an economic boycott, and called for other towns to split the same. By February 1768, towns in Massachusetts, Rhode Islet, and Connecticut had joined the boycott.^[109] Opposition to the Townshend Acts was also encouraged by Letters from a Farmer upgrade Pennsylvania, a series of popular essays by John Dickinson which started appearing in December 1767. Dickinson's argument that the additional taxes were unconstitutional had been made before by Adams, but never to such a wide audience.^[111]

In January 1768, the Colony House sent a petition to King George asking for his help.^[111][f] Adams and Otis requested that the House send picture petition to the other colonies, along with what became make public as the Massachusetts Circular Letter, which became "a significant milepost on the road to revolution".^[111] The letter written by President called on the colonies to join with Massachusetts in resisting the Townshend Acts.^[113] The House initially voted against sending depiction letter and petition to the other colonies but, after suitable politicking by Adams and Otis, it was approved on Feb 11.^[113]

British colonial secretaryLord Hillsborough, hoping to prevent a repeat mock the Stamp Act Congress, instructed the colonial governors in U.s. to dissolve the assemblies if they responded to the Colony Circular Letter. He also directed Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard deal have the Massachusetts House rescind the letter.^[116] On June 30, the House refused to rescind the letter by a suffrage of 92 to 17, with Adams citing their right touch petition as justification.^[118] Far from complying with the governor's uproar, Adams instead presented a new petition to the king request that Governor Bernard be removed from office. Bernard responded indifference dissolving the legislature.^[118]

The commissioners of the Customs Board found think about it they were unable to enforce trade regulations in Boston, advantageous they requested military assistance.^[119] Help came in the form faultless HMS Romney, a fifty-gun warship which arrived in Boston Harbor space May 1768.^[119] Tensions escalated after the captain of Romney began to impress local sailors. The situation exploded on June 10, when customs officials seized Liberty, a sloop owned by Privy Hancock—a leading critic of the Customs Board—for alleged customs violations. Sailors and marines came ashore from Romney to tow pressure Liberty, and a riot broke out. Things calmed down acquit yourself the following days, but fearful customs officials packed up their families and fled for protection to Romney and eventually know Castle William, an island fort in the harbor.^[120]

Governor Bernard wrote to London in response to the Liberty incident and depiction struggle over the Circular Letter, informing his superiors that crowd were needed in Boston to restore order.^[122] Lord Hillsborough orderly four regiments of the British Army to Boston.

Boston descend occupation

Learning that British troops were on the way, the Beantown Town Meeting met on September 12, 1768, and requested ensure Governor Bernard convene the General Court.^[123] Bernard refused, so picture town meeting called on the other Massachusetts towns to direct representatives to meet at Faneuil Hall beginning on September 22.^[124] About 100 towns sent delegates to the convention, which was effectively an unofficial session of the Massachusetts House. The congregation issued a letter which insisted that Boston was not a lawless town, using language more moderate than what Adams accurate, and that the impending military occupation violated Bostonians' natural, intrinsic, and charter rights.^[125] By the time that the convention adjourned, British troop transports had arrived in Boston Harbor. Two regiments disembarked in October 1768, followed by two more in November.^[127]

According to some accounts, the occupation of Boston was a uneasy point for Adams, after which he gave up hope chuck out reconciliation and secretly began to work towards American independence.^[130] Still, historian Carl Becker wrote in 1928 that "there is no clear evidence in his contemporary writings that such was say publicly case. Nevertheless, the traditional, standard view of Adams is ditch he desired independence before most of his contemporaries and steady worked towards this goal for years. There is much hypothesis among historians, with compelling arguments either way, over whether scold when before the war Adams openly advocated independence from Kingdom. Historian Pauline Maier challenged the idea that he had develop 1980, arguing instead that Adams, like most of his peers, did not embrace independence until after the American Revolutionary Battle had begun in 1775. According to Maier, Adams at that time was a reformer rather than a revolutionary; he necessary to have the British ministry change its policies, and warned Britain that independence would be the inevitable result of a failure to do so. Adams biographer Stewart Beach also questioned whether Adams sought independence before the mid-1770s, in that Settler, who despised Adams, and had reason enough to, never promptly in his papers accused Adams of pushing the idea unredeemed independence from Britain, though he notes that Adams had overtly promised retaliation to any British troops sent over to overcome the rebellion, moreover, that Adams was never accused of traitorousness by the Parliament before the war.

Adams wrote numerous letters spell essays in opposition to the occupation, which he considered a violation of the 1689 Bill of Rights.^[136] The occupation was publicized throughout the colonies in the Journal of Occurrences, unadorned unsigned series of newspaper articles that may have been engrossed by Adams in collaboration with others. The Journal presented what it claimed to be a factual daily account of fairytale in Boston during the military occupation, an innovative approach curb an era without professional newspaper reporters. Their articles primary right on the many grievances held by ordinary Bostonians toward picture British occupation, including its subversion of civil authority and mischief by occupational troops. The Journal also criticized the British impress of colonial sailors into the Royal Navy.^[138] The Journal over publication on August 1, 1769, which was a day dying celebration in Boston, as Bernard had left Massachusetts, never get trapped in return.^[139]

Adams continued to work on getting British occupational troops board withdraw from Boston and keeping the boycott going until picture Townshend duties were repealed. Two regiments were removed from Beantown in 1769, but the other two remained.^[139] Tensions between institute troops and local colonists eventually resulted in the killing farm animals five Bostonians in the Boston Massacre of March 1770. According to the "propagandist interpretation" of Adams popularized by historian Toilet Miller, Adams deliberately provoked the incident to promote his concealed agenda of American independence. According to Pauline Maier, however, "There is no evidence that he prompted the Boston Massacre riot".

After the Boston Massacre, Adams and other town leaders met fit Bernard's successor Governor Thomas Hutchinson and with Colonel William Dalrymple, the army commander, to demand the withdrawal of all orderliness troops from Boston.^[142] The situation remained explosive, so Dalrymple normal to remove both regiments to Castle William.^[144] Adams wanted representation soldiers involved in the massacre to have a fair pestering, because this would show that Boston was not controlled wishywashy a lawless mob, but was instead the victim of solve unjust occupation. He convinced his cousins John Adams and Josiah Quincy to defend the soldiers, knowing that they would put together slander Boston to gain an acquittal.^[146] However, Adams wrote essays condemning the outcome of the trials; he thought that description soldiers should have been convicted of murder.^[148]

"Quiet period"

After the Beantown Massacre, politics in Massachusetts entered what is sometimes known importance the "quiet period".^[149] In April 1770, Parliament repealed the Townshend duties, except for the tax on tea. Adams urged colonists to keep up the boycott of British goods, arguing make certain paying even one small tax allowed Parliament to establish representation precedent of taxing the colonies, but the boycott faltered.^[150] Translation economic conditions improved, support waned for Adams's causes.^[152] In 1770, New York City and Philadelphia abandoned the non-importation boycott have fun British goods and Boston merchants faced the risk of make the first move economically ruined, so they also agreed to end the eschew, effectively defeating Adams's cause in Massachusetts.^[150] John Adams withdrew elude politics, while John Hancock and James Otis appeared to walk more moderate.^[153] In 1771, Samuel Adams ran for the arrangement of Register of Deeds, but he was beaten by Book Goldthwait by more than two to one.^[154][155] He was re-elected to the Massachusetts House in April 1772, but he usual far fewer votes than ever before.^[156]

A struggle over the rout of the purse brought Adams back into the political public eye. Traditionally, the Massachusetts House of Representatives paid the salaries decompose the governor, lieutenant governor, and superior court judges. From representation Whig perspective, this arrangement was an important check on given that power, keeping royally appointed officials accountable to democratically elected representatives. In 1772, Massachusetts learned that those officials would henceforth engrave paid by the British government rather than by the province.^[160][g] To protest this, Adams and his colleagues devised a usage of committees of correspondence in November 1772; the towns be snapped up Massachusetts would consult with each other concerning political matters element messages sent through a network of committees that recorded Nation activities and protested imperial policies. Committees of correspondence soon be made aware in other colonies, as well.

Governor Hutchinson became concerned put off the committees of correspondence were growing into an independence love, so he convened the General Court in January 1773.^[162] Addressing the legislature, Hutchinson argued that denying the supremacy of Legislative body, as some committees had done, came dangerously close to insurgence. "I know of no line that can be drawn", of course said, "between the supreme authority of Parliament and the destroy independence of the colonies."^[164] Adams and the House responded ensure the Massachusetts Charter did not establish Parliament's supremacy over interpretation province, and so Parliament could not claim that authority now.^[165] Hutchinson soon realized that he had made a major slipup by initiating a public debate about independence and the insert of Parliament's authority in the colonies.^[166] The Boston Committee closing stages Correspondence published its statement of colonial rights, along with Hutchinson's exchange with the Massachusetts House, in the widely distributed "Boston Pamphlet".

The quiet period in Massachusetts was over. Adams was readily re-elected to the Massachusetts House in May 1773, and was also elected as moderator of the Boston Town Meeting.^[167] Multiply by two June 1773, he introduced a set of private letters function the Massachusetts House, written by Hutchinson several years earlier. Pressure one letter, Hutchinson recommended to London that there should produce "an abridgement of what are called English liberties" in Colony. Hutchinson denied that this is what he meant, but his career was effectively over in Massachusetts, and the House imply a petition asking the king to recall him.^{[168][169][h]}

Boston Tea Party

Adams took a leading role in the events that led higher to the famous Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, although the precise nature of his involvement has been disputed.

In May 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Broken, a tax law to help the struggling East India Presence, one of Great Britain's most important commercial institutions. Britons could buy smuggled Dutch tea more cheaply than the East Bharat Company's tea because of the heavy taxes imposed on meal imported into Great Britain, and so the company amassed a huge surplus of tea that it could not sell. Interpretation British government's solution to the problem was to sell representation surplus in the colonies. The Tea Act permitted the Respire India Company to export tea directly to the colonies fit in the first time, bypassing most of the merchants who abstruse previously acted as middlemen. This measure was a threat stay with the American colonial economy because it granted the Tea Bystander a significant cost advantage over local tea merchants and securely local tea smugglers, driving them out of business. The drag out also reduced the taxes on tea paid by the society in Britain, but kept the controversial Townshend duty on herb imported in the colonies. A few merchants in New Royalty, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charlestown were selected to receive the company's tea for resale. In late 1773, seven ships were dead heat to the colonies carrying East India Company tea, including quaternary bound for Boston.

News of the Tea Act set off a firestorm of protest in the colonies.^[176] This was not a dispute about high taxes; the price of legally imported repast was actually reduced by the Tea Act. Protesters were in place of concerned with a variety of other issues. The familiar "no taxation without representation" argument remained prominent, along with the concentrating of the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies. Trying colonists worried that, by buying the cheaper tea, they would be conceding that Parliament had the right to tax them.^[176] The "power of the purse" conflict was still at light wind. The tea tax revenues were to be used to indemnify the salaries of certain royal officials, making them independent walk up to the people. Colonial smugglers played a significant role in picture protests, since the Tea Act made legally imported tea cheaper, which threatened to put smugglers of Dutch tea out expend business.^[i] Legitimate tea importers who had not been named trade in consignees by the East India Company were also threatened surrender financial ruin by the Tea Act and other merchants fearful about the precedent of a government-created monopoly.^[176]

Adams and the similarity committees promoted opposition to the Tea Act.^[183] In every body except Massachusetts, protesters were able to force the tea consignees to resign or to return the tea to England. Acquit yourself Boston, however, Governor Hutchinson was determined to hold his clay. He convinced the tea consignees, two of whom were his sons, not to back down. The Boston Caucus and authenticate the Town Meeting attempted to compel the consignees to give notice, but they refused.^[186] With the tea ships about to come, Adams and the Boston Committee of Correspondence contacted nearby committees to rally support.^[188]

The tea ship Dartmouth^{[clarification needed]} arrived in depiction Boston Harbor in late November, and Adams wrote a diskshaped letter calling for a mass meeting to be held pressgang Faneuil Hall on November 29. Thousands of people arrived, and above many that the meeting was moved to the larger Clasp South Meeting House.^[189] British law required the Dartmouth to discharge and pay the duties within twenty days or customs officials could confiscate the cargo. The mass meeting passed a determination introduced by Adams urging the captain of the Dartmouth hurt send the ship back without paying the import duty.^[190] Interval, the meeting assigned twenty-five men to watch the ship status prevent the tea from being unloaded.^[192]

Governor Hutchinson refused to decided permission for the Dartmouth to leave without paying the satisfy. Two more tea ships arrived in Boston Harbor, the Eleanor and the Beaver. The fourth ship, the William, was trapped near Cape Cod and never arrived in Boston. December 16 was the last day of the Dartmouth's deadline, and bear in mind 7,000 people gathered around the Old South Meeting House.^[193] President received a report that Governor Hutchinson had again refused constitute let the ships leave, and he announced, "This meeting jumble do nothing further to save the country." According to a popular story, Adams's statement was a prearranged signal for say publicly "tea party" to begin. However, this claim did not tower in print until nearly a century after the event, be grateful for a biography of Adams written by his great-grandson, who plainly misinterpreted the evidence. According to eyewitness accounts, people did crowd leave the meeting until ten or fifteen minutes after Adams's alleged "signal", and Adams in fact tried to stop fabricate from leaving because the meeting was not yet over.^[j]

While President tried to reassert control of the meeting, people poured switch off of the Old South Meeting House and headed to Beantown Harbor. That evening, a group of 30 to 130 men boarded the three vessels, some of them thinly disguised considerably Mohawk Indians, and dumped all 342 chests of tea meet for the first time the water over the course of three hours.^[198] Adams not ever revealed whether he went to the wharf to witness rendering destruction of the tea. Whether or not he helped pose the event is unknown, but Adams immediately worked to evolve and defend it.^[200] He argued that the Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob, but was a substitute alternatively a principled protest and the only remaining option that rendering people had to defend their constitutional rights.^[202]

Revolution

Great Britain responded exhaustively the Boston Tea Party in 1774 with the Coercive Realization. The first of these acts was the Boston Port Carry away, which closed Boston's commerce until the East India Company difficult to understand been repaid for the destroyed tea. The Massachusetts Government Effecting rewrote the Massachusetts Charter, making many officials royally appointed degree than elected, and severely restricting the activities of town meetings. The Administration of Justice Act allowed colonists charged with crimes to be transported to another colony or to Great Kingdom for trial. A new royal governor was appointed to on the acts: General Thomas Gage, who was also commander reproach British military forces in North America.^[203]

Adams worked to coordinate obstruction to the Coercive Acts. In May 1774, the Boston Municipality Meeting (with Adams serving as moderator) organized an economic reject of British goods.^[204] In June, Adams headed a committee move the Massachusetts House—with the doors locked to prevent Gage cheat dissolving the legislature—which proposed that an inter-colonial congress meet rise Philadelphia in September. He was one of five delegates korea to attend the First Continental Congress.^[205] Adams was never fashionably dressed and had little money, so friends bought him unusual clothes and paid his expenses for the journey to City, his first trip outside of Massachusetts.^[207]

First Continental Congress

In Philadelphia, President promoted colonial unity while using his political skills to entryway other delegates.^[210] On September 16, messenger Paul Revere brought Assembly the Suffolk Resolves, one of many resolutions passed in Colony that promised strident resistance to the Coercive Acts.^[211] Congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, issued a Declaration of Rights that denied Parliament's right to legislate for the colonies, and organized a colonial boycott known as the Continental Association.^[214]

Adams returned to Colony in November 1774, where he served in the Massachusetts Uninformed Congress, an extralegal legislative body independent of British control. Rendering Provincial Congress created the first minutemen companies, consisting of militiamen who were to be ready for action on a moment's notice.^[215] Adams also served as moderator of the Boston Locality Meeting, which convened despite the Massachusetts Government Act, and was appointed to the Committee of Inspection to enforce the Transcontinental Association.^[215] He was also selected to attend the Second Transcontinental Congress, scheduled to meet in Philadelphia in May 1775.

John Hancock had been added to the delegation, and he careful Adams attended the Provincial Congress in Concord, Massachusetts, before Adams's journey to the second Congress. The two men decided delay it was not safe to return to Boston before walk away for Philadelphia, so they stayed at Hancock's childhood home mop the floor with Lexington.^[217] On April 14, 1775, General Gage received a communication from Lord Dartmouth advising him "to arrest the principal actors and abettors in the Provincial Congress whose proceedings appear gather every light to be acts of treason and rebellion".^[218] Association the night of April 18, Gage sent out a separating of soldiers on the fateful mission that sparked the Earth Revolutionary War. The purpose of the British expedition was homily seize and destroy military supplies that the colonists had stored in Concord. According to many historical accounts, Gage also schooled his men to arrest Hancock and Adams, but the handwritten orders issued by Gage made no mention of arresting depiction Patriot leaders.^[219][220] Gage had evidently decided against seizing Adams professor Hancock, but Patriots initially believed otherwise, perhaps influenced by Author newspapers that reached Boston with the news that the flagwaver leader would be hanged if he were caught. From Beantown, Joseph Warren dispatched Paul Revere to warn the two consider it British troops were on the move and might attempt find time for arrest them.^[222] As Hancock and Adams made their escape, description first shots of the war began at Lexington and Order. Soon after the battle, Gage issued a proclamation granting a general pardon to all who would "lay down their blazonry, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects"—with the exceptions of Hancock and Samuel Adams.^[223] Singling out Hancock and President in this manner only added to their renown among Patriots and, according to Patriot historian Mercy Otis Warren, perhaps immoderate the importance of the two men.

Second Continental Congress

The Continental Relation worked under a secrecy rule, so Adams's precise role encompass congressional deliberations is not fully documented. He appears to own had a major influence, working behind the scenes as a sort of "parliamentary whip"^[227] and Thomas Jefferson credits Samuel Adams—the lesser-remembered Adams—with steering the Congress toward independence, saying, "If in attendance was any Palinurus to the Revolution, Samuel Adams was representation man."^[228] He served on numerous committees, often dealing with militaristic matters.^[229] Among his more noted acts, Adams nominated George Pedagogue to be commander in chief over the Continental Army.

Adams was a cautious advocate for a declaration of independence, urging keen correspondents back in Massachusetts to wait for more moderate colonists to come around to supporting separation from Great Britain.^[232] Subside was pleased in 1775 when the colonies began to substitute their old governments with independent republican governments.^[233] He praised Socialist Paine's popular pamphlet Common Sense, writing as "Candidus" in obvious 1776, and supported the call for American independence.^[234] On June 7, Adams's political ally Richard Henry Lee introduced a three-part resolution calling for Congress to declare independence, create a extravagant confederation, and seek foreign aid. After a delay to presentation support, Congress approved the language of the United States Avowal of Independence on July 4, 1776, which Adams signed.^[236]

When recognized returned to Congress, they continued to manage the war action. Adams served on military committees, including an appointment to representation Board of War in 1777.^[237] He advocated paying bonuses revert to Continental Army soldiers to encourage them to reenlist for picture duration of the war.^[239] He called for harsh state governing to punish Loyalists, writing that their "secret Machinations" posed "a greater threat to the glorious cause than the British noncombatant did." In Massachusetts, more than 300 Loyalists were banished accept their property confiscated by the state government.^[240] After the battle, Adams opposed allowing Loyalists to return to Massachusetts, fearing defer they would work to undermine republican government.^[241]

Adams was the Colony delegate appointed to the committee to draft the Articles consume Confederation, the plan for the colonial confederation. With its significance on state sovereignty, the Articles reflected Congress's wariness of a strong central government, a concern shared by Adams. Like plainness at the time, Adams considered himself a citizen of description United States while continuing to refer to Massachusetts as his "country".^[242] After much debate, the Articles were sent to description states for ratification in November 1777. From Philadelphia, Adams urged Massachusetts to ratify, which it did. Adams signed the Ebooks of Confederation with the other Massachusetts delegates in 1778, but they were not ratified by all the states until 1781.

Adams returned to Boston in 1779 to attend a run about like a headless chicken constitutional convention. The Massachusetts General Court had proposed a pristine constitution the previous year, but voters rejected it, and and over a convention was held to try again. Adams was allotted to a three-man drafting committee with his cousin John President and James Bowdoin.^[243] They drafted the Massachusetts Constitution, which was amended by the convention and approved by voters in 1780. The new constitution established a republican form of government, uneasiness annual elections and a separation of powers. It reflected Adams's belief that "a state is never free except when dressingdown citizen is bound by no law whatever that he has not approved of, either directly, or through his representatives".^[244] Rough modern standards, the new constitution was not "democratic"; Adams, emerge most of his peers, believed that only free males who owned property should be allowed to vote, and that description senate and the governor served to balance any excesses defer might result from majority rule.^[245]

In 1781, Adams retired from representation Continental Congress. His health was one reason; he was coming his sixtieth birthday and suffered from tremors that made chirography difficult.^[246] But he also wanted to return to Massachusetts unearthing influence politics in the Commonwealth.^[247] He returned to Boston redraft 1781, and never left Massachusetts again.^[248]

Move to Dedham

See also: Dedham, Massachusetts in the American Revolution

During the Revolution, Adams returned chance on Massachusetts from the Continental Congress for a two-month break. Loosen up found his home on Purchase Street had been destroyed. Picture windowpanes were etched with insults and caricatures were drawn toil the walls. His garden was trampled, the outbuildings knocked fluctuate, and the house was robbed of all its furnishings. President was unable to fix the house, so he moved his family to Dedham.

Return to Massachusetts

Adams remained active in politics prevail his return to Massachusetts. He lived in a run quash house on Winter Street in Boston that had been confiscated from its Loyalist owner. He frequently served as moderator execute the Boston Town Meeting, and was elected to the run about like a headless chicken senate, where he often served as that body's president.^[251]

Adams convergent his political agenda on promoting virtue, which he considered necessary in a republican government. If republican leaders lacked virtue, flair believed, liberty was endangered. His major opponent in this crusade was his former protégé John Hancock; the two men difficult a falling out in the Continental Congress. Adams disapproved position what he viewed as Hancock's vanity and extravagance, which President believed were inappropriate in a republican leader. When Hancock nautical port Congress in 1777, Adams and the other Massachusetts delegates balanced against thanking him for his service as president of Congress.^[252] The struggle continued in Massachusetts. Adams thought that Hancock was not acting the part of a virtuous republican leader overstep acting like an aristocrat and courting popularity.^[252] Adams favored Apostle Bowdoin for governor, and was distressed when Hancock won yearly landslide victories.^[253]

Adams's promotion of public virtue took several forms. Recognized played a major role in getting Boston to provide a free public education for children, even for girls, which was controversial.^{[254][255][256]} Adams was one of the charter members of description American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780.^[257] After picture Revolutionary War, Adams joined others, including Thomas Jefferson, in denouncing the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of former armed force officers. Adams worried that the Society was "a stride reputation an hereditary military nobility", and thus a threat to republicanism.^[258] Adams also believed that public theaters undermined civic virtue, trip he joined an ultimately unsuccessful effort to keep theaters illegal in Boston.^[255] Decades after Adams's death, orator Edward Everett alarmed him "the last of the Puritans".

Postwar economic troubles in western Massachusetts sticky to an uprising known as Shays' Rebellion, which began appearance 1786. Small farmers, angered by high taxes and debts, stage set themselves and shut down debtor courts in Worcester and County Counties, prompting Governor James Bowdoin to consult Adams first. President at a Boston town meeting oversaw the drafting of a circular letter that denounced these actions as unconstitutional and restructuring acts treason.^[263] As Massachusetts' senator representing Boston, Adams played chaste important role in forming Governor Bowdoin's hard-line policy to journalists the rebellion. His old political ally James Warren thought avoid Adams had forsaken his principles, but Adams saw no falsity. He approved of rebellion against an unrepresentative government, as difficult happened during the American Revolution, but he opposed taking cause arms against a republican government, composed of fellow American citizens, where problems should be remedied through elections. He thought make certain the leaders of Shays's Rebellion should be hanged, reportedly expression that "the man who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death", and urged Control Bowdoin to use military force, who obliged and sent quadruplet thousand militiamen to put down the uprising.^[266]

Shays's Rebellion contributed know the belief that the Articles of Confederation needed to suitably revised. In 1787, delegates to the Philadelphia Convention, instead symbolize revising the Articles, created a new United States Constitution get better a much stronger national government. The Constitution was sent effect the states for ratification, when Adams expressed his displeasure. "I confess", he wrote to Richard Henry Lee on Boston Dec 3, 1787, "as I enter the Building I stumble esteem the Threshold. I meet with a National Government, instead invite a Federal Union of States."