Samuel Adams: the fire of American freedom

A central driving force exists in every movement. The force for independence in colonial America was centered in Samuel Adams of Boston, known as the Fire of the American Revolution.

The break with Great Britain that created the United States of America first began 250 years ago this week. Samuel Adams manned the rostrum of Boston’s Faneuil Hall on May 24, 1764. He gave instructions to Massachusetts delegates who would attend its provincial legislature, the Court of Massachusetts Bay. His instructions brought into focus America’s resistance to the British, who were ignoring their own colonial charters with the American colonies.

English rule of America in the 1700s was largely a hands-off matter. There was little supervision from the British. The colonies, with their individual adaptations, mostly ruled themselves through governing councils. The British sporadically collected tariffs and import duties, but because they were lax in doing so few took them seriously. Smuggling by American merchants was a respectable enterprise.
The situation changed in 1764. The British Parliament broke its own charter rules with the colonies. It implemented new taxes, and, what was worse, began to enforce them. The French and Indian War, fought on American soil, had been expensive. The British reasoned that the war had helped the colonies so they could help pay for it, and the Stamp Tax was born. Samuel Adams said no; this violated constitutional charters between England and the colonies. His message was, “We have a charter. Follow it!” If the colonies did not stop this infringement of their charter rights, he reasoned, where would British taxation stop?
Adams was firm. He was the patriot conscience -- unyielding and steady in a political crisis. He was a benign, gentle man until it was time to thunder for the rights of his countrymen. He was immersed in colonial politics; he instinctively understood the process, and could brush off personal insults that brought down lesser men.
It would be another decade, however, before Samuel and his younger cousin, John Adams, pushed for a permanent break from Britain. Meanwhile, he challenged the British bully. Over time, that vision drove him toward liberty.
Samuel (never Sam!) was a deeply religious man with unquestioned integrity. There is no indication that he ever acted from personal ambition or self-interest. He was Harvard educated and upper middle class and knew most of Boston’s fifteen thousand citizens by name, trade and politics. He treated them all the same.
For twelve years, Adams challenged every infringement to the Massachusetts charter. He never let the issue rest. Like a bulldog unwilling to let go, he wearied three successive governors and railed at every injustice. When the colonists grew tired of the harangue and would have given up, he fanned the flame of resistance. He recruited those who could aid in the cause and helped unite all the colonies in coordinated action.
Speech wasn’t enough, so Adams wrote extensively, as well. As was common at the time, he wrote his stern, well-reasoned essays under assumed names. His articles frequently graced the weekly four-page colonial newspapers, especially the patriotic Boston Gazette. These papers were carried to England, where they encouraged American sympathizers in influential British circles.
Samuel was part of the two congresses that preceded the Declaration of Independence. He encouraged fellow delegates to consider a permanent break with England. He kept no journal and destroyed personal papers to protect anyone mentioned from British charges of treason if they were captured. He chose to not participate in the Constitutional Convention in 1787, fearing its outcome, and at first opposed the new Constitution. Midway in the ratification process, he changed his opinion and swung his influence toward ratification for Massachusetts.
Adams was the vortex of rebellion against tyranny. Two hundred and fifty years later, we could use his passion, persistence and political savvy as we again face a government gone rogue. He would surely defend the law of the land and of God -- the Constitution drafted by his patriot friends. His courage, and that of other unyielding patriots, is sorely needed.

Samuel Adams and the Flames of Freedom

The following is an excerpt from the book, Promises of the Constitution: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, by author Pamela Romney Openshaw, #3.1, page 40.

A central force exists in every movement, without which it would not survive. That force in revolutionary America was Samuel Adams. Without him, there might have been no American independence. He lit the flame and fanned it until it burst into the powerful fires of freedom.

Samuel Adams of Massachusetts was a kind, deeply religious man whose life was governed by unfailing integrity. His heart was in politics. With his instinctive understanding of the process, he was the political conscience of the patriot cause. He was unyielding and fully confident in the cause of liberty. He was quick to understand and calm in the clashes of the political world. Though he was of the upper middle class and Harvard-educated, he knew most of the fifteen thousand citizens of Boston by name, trade, and political preference. He accepted them as equals. His political positions were not tainted by personal ambition or self-interest.

English rule in the 1700s left the colonists largely in control of their own governments under Crown-appointed officials. In Massachusetts, there were two governing councils, the equivalent of our modern-day House of Representatives and Senate. They made and passed laws for the colony. Tariffs and import duties were paid to England, but only if the colonists could not evade them and the authorities enforced them (smuggling by American merchants was a respectable form of colonial enterprise).

In 1764, the British Parliament disregarded the provisions of the Massachusetts Bay Charter and imposed the Stamp Tax. Samuel Adams demanded that Parliament abide by the charter laws, which required colonial consent for taxation. Once Parliament started taxing, he reasoned, where would it stop? His message: “We have a charter. You will abide by it.”

The American revolution thus began in May 1764 in Boston’s Faneuil Hall, with Samuel Adams standing at the rostrum as its director. Through the next twelve years, he challenged every infringement of the Massachusetts charter, never letting the issue rest. He wearied each of the three successive governors with his unyielding tenacity. He railed at every injustice. He urged the colonists on when they grew tired and would haveslid into apathy. Constantly recruiting those who could aid in the cause,he was the genius uniting the colonies into concerted action.

Initially, neither he nor his contemporaries had independence in mind. By 1774, he, along with his cousin John Adams, realized that there was no other option.

His powerful writing became the voice of the revolution, as well as its flame. He wrote voluminous essays, often under assumed names, as was common at the time. His articles appeared frequently in the weekly four-page periodicals of the day, especially the patriotic Boston Gazette. These colonial newspapers made the five-week voyage to England and informed the American sympathizers in influential British circles of progressive American resistance.

Samuel Adams did not keep a journal. He destroyed most of his correspondence to protect those mentioned within from the proofs of treason, in case their cause failed. Hence, there is little written about him compared to his contemporaries.

He was the vortex of rebellion against tyranny. From him came the passion for freedom, igniting others who joined the cause.

Get it Right: Ode to the Bulldogs of Freedom

“The people who do not revere the deeds of their ancestors will never do anything to be remembered by their descendants.” 

So said British historian Lord Macauly. It is notable, then, that history so well favors Samuel Adams, Boston's unyielding bulldog of American independence. Two and a half centuries ago Adams turned colonial anger at unfair taxation into full-blown American independence. Three recent patriots, Utah County's homegrown Senator Mike Lee, along with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin recently invested themselves in a modern crusade against repressive taxation,as well.

On May 24, 1764, Samuel Adams took to the rostrum in Boston's Faneuil Hall to instruct new representatives to the Massachusetts provincial legislature. That day, Adams, the consummate politician so at ease in Boston's political arena, lit the bonfire that ultimately chased the British from colonial America. A fundamental transformation had been foisted on the colonists, as British Parliament declared its intention to violate colonial charters and tax American prosperity to enrich British coffers. Adams said, "If our trade may be taxed, why not our lands and everything we possess or make use of? This ... annihilates our charter(ed) right to govern and tax ourselves." The rest is history. Samuel Adams drove his principles to national independence as those who could hear the infant chant of freedom responded to his clarion call.
Over the last few weeks a similar refrain echoed through the United States Congress as three legislators put themselves on the political grill to plead freedom from unethical taxation. While Cruz took to the Senate rostrum in a marathon filibuster, Lee and Ryan worked the partisan crowd. They also fought fundamental transformation that will enslave one-sixth of the American economy to total government control. Like Adams, their past experience with myopic, runaway government fueled their fears.

Samuel Adams fought the Sugar Act, a seemingly benevolent law the British claimed would increase colonial prosperity by reducing taxes to half the amount of previous policies. The problem, however, was that this tax would be strictly enforced rather than universally ignored, as was its predecessor. Our recent legislative triad fought the ill-named Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), a supposedly benevolent policy to bring health insurance to the uninsured. Its problem is 2500 extra pages of pork barrel, government-imposed fee structures, reduced availability of medical care, an open format that allows endless additions to the law and a legion of add-ons that have nothing to do with health care.
Both Adams and our current legislators feared the precedent set by federal appetites -- what will come next if we permit this power grab? Both responded to the bullying of federal authorities -- Adams to Parliament's scorn of the colonists; our modern legislators to the resentment of Americans who watched the ramrod passage of an oppressive law by extortion, bribery and outright lies.
Political forces moved against Samuel Adams in the aftermath of his stand against tyranny. British Governor Bernard and British-loving Tories clamored for his removal, and those who later embraced his activism initially viewed him with skepticism. So, also, forces within their own party turned against the modern trio of legislators. For Lee, within his own state under the Count Your Vote initiative, powers are at work to unseat him for his stand against bureaucratic health care.
The more things change the more they remain the same -- in history, in politics, in leadership. Repressive governments seek control; patriots seek liberty. Party leaders can shamefully turn on their own who take the moral high ground. Unfair taxation leaves welts on the backs of those who suffer under the political lash. The ledgers of history record that Samuel Adams, the bulldog of American freedom, never gave up. Is there more our modern bulldogs can do to derail Obamacare, this fast track from partial to full socialism? Pray that there is. If not, another major segment of liberty has become history.