SAMUEL ADAMS-born, bred, living, and dying in Boston was one of the potent forces, not only in the American Revolution itself, but in promoting and bringing it about. From the first, he refused to believe that any good could come out of further British control of America, repudiated parliamentary taxation without representation, rejected all compromising measures, busied himself in correspondence urging coöperation between the Colonies, aimed at independence, and did his best to ferment the war feeling. ADAMS early entered political life, being in the Massachusetts legislature in 1776. He was an influential member of the First and of the Second Continental Congresses, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, an earnest member of the Massachusetts Ratification Convention, and tireless in speaking, writing, publishing, the fieriest appeals to his countrymen. His speech on American Independence, here given, was delivered in Philadelphia, August 1, 1776, and had great weight. After the war and the new Constitution, he was Lieutenantgovernor of Massachusetts in 1789 and Governor in 1794. His death at the age of eighty-two removed one of the most notable figures of that great time. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE Delivered at the State House, in Philadelphia, August 1, 1776 COUNTRYMEN AND BRETHREN: I would gladly have declined an honor to which I find myself unequal. I have not the calmness and impartiality which the infinite importance of this occasion demands. I will not deny the charge of my enemies, that resentment for the accumulated injuries of our country, and an ardor for her glory, rising to enthusiasm, may deprive me of that accuracy of judgment and expression which men of cooler passions may possess. Let me beseech you, then, to hear me with caution, to examine without prejudice, and to correct the mistakes into which I may be hurried by my zeal. Truth loves an appeal to the common sense of mankind. Your unperverted understandings can best determine on subjects of a practical nature. The positions and plans which are said to be above the comprehension of the multitude may be always suspected to be visionary and fruitless. He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all. Our forefathers threw off the yoke of popery in religion; for you is reserved the honor of leveling ... the popery of politics. . . . What an affront to the King of the universe, to maintain that the happiness of a monster, sunk in debauchery and spreading desolation and murder among men, of a Caligula, a Nero, or a Charles, is more precious in his sight than that of millions of his suppliant creatures, who do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God! No! in the judgment of Heaven there is no other superiority among men, than a superiority in wisdom and virtue. And can we have a safer model in forming ours? The Deity then has not given any order or family of men authority over others, and if any men have given it, they only could give it for themselves. Our forefathers, 'tis said, consented to be subject to the laws of Great Britain. I will not, at present, dispute it, nor mark out the limits and conditions of their submission; but will it be denied that they contracted to pay obedience, and to be under the control of Great Britain, because it appeared to them most beneficial in their then present circumstances and situations? We, my countrymen, have the same right to consult and provide for our happiness, which they had to promote theirs. If they had a view to posterity in their contracts, it must have been to advance the felicity of their descendants. If they erred in their expectations and prospects, we can never be condemned for a conduct which they would have recommended had they foreseen our present condition. Ye darkeners of counsel, who would make the property, lives, and religion of millions depend on the evasive interpretations of musty parchments; who would send us to antiquated charters, of uncertain and contradictory meaning, to prove that the present generation are not bound to be victims to cruel and unforgiving despotism, tell us whether our pious and generous ancestors bequeathed to us the miserable privilege of having the rewards of our honest industry, the fruits of those fields which they purchased and bled for, wrested from us at the will of men over whom we have no check? Did they contract for us that, with folded arms, we should expect that justice and mercy from brutal and inflamed invaders which have been denied to our supplications at the foot of the throne? Were we to hear our character as a people ridiculed with indifference ? Did they promise for us that our meekness and patience should be insulted; our coasts harassed; our towns demolished and plundered, and our wives and offspring exposed to nakedness, hunger, and death, without feeling the resentment of men, and exerting those powers of self-preservation which God has given us? No man had once a greater veneration for Englishmen than I entertained. They were dear to me as branches of the same paternal trunk, and partakers of the same religion and laws; I still |